He returned Beelzebub to the pocket just in time for the ceiling to cave in.
“Hahaha! Such pure energy! Today must be my auspicious day!”
Neo slashed upwards. The dragon’s hard exterior blocked his attack with ease again.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.2%]
“You vermin, how dare you attack the Great I before—”
Neo bolted away from the dragon and went deeper into the tunnels before the dragon spoke.
“Where are you running, vermin!?”
The dragon followed behind him. Each of its steps caused a large area of the tunnel to cave in.
If not for being able to outrun the environmental destruction, he might have been crushed beneath the collapsing tunnels.
At exactly the one-minute mark, he recovered his 100% energy, and the ground beneath him broke as the second dragon attacked.
“Hahaha! Such pure energy! This must be my auspicious day!”
Learning from last time, Neo reacted quickly and dodged the ambush.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.02%]
He kept running away and regenerated his arm. It proved his hypothesis that body parts devoured by True Darkness could be recovered if the devoured part was his own.
A few seconds later, Neo had recovered to his peak condition—as peak as Time Erosion allowed him to be—and he had regained 100% of his energy.
“Stop running, vermin! Face I like a man!”
“Got it.”
Neo turned towards them. The three of them were inside a large cave where multiple tunnels converged.
The cave could accommodate the titanic dragons easily. In fact, over thirty such dragons could enter the place, and still only half of the cave would be filled.
“Hah! What changed your mind now, vermin?” the first black dragon spoke.
“Too tired to run now? Or did you finally realize there is no escape?” the second dragon sneered.
“I recovered energy, so no point in running,” Neo said. “Anyway, what’s up with you two? You look the same and have similar Intent.”
The two dragons spoke in unison, “I am—”
“Nevermind. I’ll get the answer from your corpses,” Neo interrupted them.
He used the Seventh Stance of his swordsmanship.
A giant white arc flew and crashed against the first black dragon. The second black dragon roared.
[Nyxtharion the Evernight Dragon Roar (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.2%]
The dragon ran towards Neo to ram him when it realized the roar had no effect.
Its gigantic steps brought earthquakes.
Neo let go of Obitus and dashed forward. He noticed the ‘close interaction’ needed to copy the defense Spell meant touching the dragon physically. For that, he decided to fight with fists instead of sword.
He coated his hand in Death elemental and punched. The dragon’s tough skin absorbed the impact.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.3%]
“Hahaha, what a weak punch! It isn’t even enough to tickle I!”
Neo ignored the dragon’s rapturous laughter and focused on the notification. 0.3%. It was the highest he had gotten until now. Sure enough, he needed to come in contact with the Spell physically, which was covering the dragon’s body, to copy it.
Before Neo could attack again, the first dragon flew down from the sky like a meteor and crushed him, forcing him to turn back time.
“Beelzebub, devour the chaotic Time elementals.”
The tiny caterpillar began to eat the time elementals around Neo while he checked the progress of Adamant Aegis.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) total: 5.2%]
One thing Neo realized while fighting with Tartarus was that defense mattered.
Zera was stronger than Neo, yet Tartarus defeated her easily and had difficulty fighting Neo .
Why?
Because Neo’s defense was high.
With Eternal, his natural defense, and his bloodline’s defense, Neo received only 20-30% of damage done by any attack by Tartarus.
If he could stack Adamant Aegis on top of everything, he could decrease the damage taken even more.
The ceiling caved in.
Neo launched a surprise attack like he did every time and bolted out of the area.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.1%]
He focused on escaping until he recovered the energy he lost due to regression.
“Stop, vermin!”
“Okay.”
Neo halted his escape when he reached the large empty area. The two dragons entered behind him.
“Hahaha, did you finally realize that escape is impossible?”
“Vermin, I praise your courage to face us, even if that courage came late—”
“You guys talk too much.”
Neo used Hydraulic Motion Technique along with Pseudo Gap to appear beneath the first black dragon. He was careful to lower the technique’s output to make sure his muscles did not burst.
He punched upwards. Energy churned within his arm as he used Hydraulic Motion Technique to increase the speed of his punch, thus increasing the force and momentum.
The dragon’s Spell was not able to absorb the force.
Its gigantic body was lifted off the ground slightly.
He launched a flurry of punches before the dragon’s body fell under gravity’s effect.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.2%] x 17
The second dragon’s giant clawed hand swiped the ground and hit Neo, flinging him away like a rag doll.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) +0.1%]
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Apprentice) total: 8.7%]
Neo noticed he had almost copied 10% of the Spell, and a grin broke on his face.
“Vermin! This is enough! It’s time for you to die!”
Both dragons opened their maws. Heat bubbled in their throats. Alarms rang in Neo’s mind.
He almost instinctively regressed to escape the attack.
However, he stopped himself.
His body and soul were telling him to run away, yet Neo wanted to see how powerful the attack was.
He fought against his instincts and took the dragons’ breath head-on.
Purple flames burst forth. They seemed to burn everything in their path, be it Space, light, or time.
If not for Neo using Intent Senses, he would not have been able to see the flames.
The flames burned his body. The pain of burning was unlike anything he had imagined. It was almost as bad as the madness brought by True Darkness, only it was physical.
[Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath (Rank: Stage 3, Mastery: Expert) +0.1%]
[Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath (Rank: Stage 3, Mastery: Expert) +0.3%]
[Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath (Rank: Stage 3, Mastery: Expert) +0.2%]
[Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath (Rank: Stage 3, Mastery: Expert) +0.4%]
[Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath (Rank: Stage 3, Mastery: Expert) +0.1%]
Notifications rained. Neo ignored them and tried to withstand the onslaught of pain.
His bones and skin melted. He was wondering if he should regress before it got too dangerous when suddenly he felt his soul burn.
An unimaginable amount of pain exploded in his mind.
The fire burned his soul. Neo tried to think of a way to protect his soul, only to realize he had no way to do that. He never learned a Spell or an Elemental Technique to protect his soul.
Neo could’ve let himself die, but regenerating soul and body from scratch would take a gargantuan amount of energy.
He would rather not waste energy if he could.
While he could barely think straight due to the pain from the flames, he turned back time, hoping the flames would disappear.
They came back with him.
Left with no choice, Neo used Death and cut away the burning areas of his soul. He lost almost one-fourth of his soul, and a sense of nausea attacked his mind.