Lerke’s body indeed exploded, and that too into bits, but a glistering molten bronze core floated in front of Admiral Rudra as he got up.
“This bastard…”
Without warning, Admiral Rudra pointed his finger and unleashed an attack, a spiraling blue beam with red and golden glassy hues. He wanted to destroy that core.
But as if it had its own mind, the core dodged and unleashed a beam at Admiral Rudra, forcing him to dodge.
“Impressive, human.”
The core churned with power, and in the blink of an eye, Lerke’s physical body formed with the core once again hidden.
“You made me use half of my emergency power with that unexpectedly fast and deadly last attack,” Lerke grinned. “If I didn’t self-destruct in time, my core would have been heavily damaged. This gives me chills, hahahaha! I like it!”
“But I guess you can’t perform such feats constantly, or you would have been able to destroy my core just now.”
Rudra cracked his neck, and his face broke into a grin for the first time, “I heard you all can mysteriously escape pretty fast. You better do that now because you won’t get a chance later.”
“For rats such as you lot, you must have your own dimensional sewers, I presume.”
Seeing the vein patterns over Lerke’s body changing and his vibe shifting, Rudra added, “It seems that I hit a nerve.”
Lerke’s tail burst before a fiery flickering afterimages formed as he moved.
A punch arrived from his left, but Rudra’s fist squarely struck it back. The shockwave and impact explosion blasted everything but themselves as the torrent of their fists and kicks manifested a symphony of destruction within the barrier.
Their figures moved around, unleashing lashes of their shockwaves as the whole barrier constantly trembled.
Several figures appeared around the barrier.
“That…he is using his Asura Combat Art,” Silvester’s pupils shrank with grave shock, and other old monsters’ expressions also turned somber.
They were watching Rudra going all out, but the monster against him was evenly matching.
If either one of them fought one vs one against Rudra, they wouldn’t last a full 10 seconds. Only a few could last that long, while many others would last even lower in the clashes of overall combat power.
Watching the fight in the barrier told them that the alien was no ordinary being as ten seconds soon passed by.
But even if this seemed evenly matched, Lerke’s heart was rippling with shock. ‘This man has mastered the art of mana weaving to molecule level in his body…such mastery of body with his level of mana weaving…’
*Crack…Crackkk*
The barrier started cracking due to the destructive energy lashes. However, most of it belonged to Lerke.
Admiral Rudra appeared like a lone shining blue bubble with distorted red and golden shattered glass hue around him in the small area compared to the thick molten bronze waves and storms that spread around and affected the barrier most.
‘I am losing more energy than him,’ Lerke’s expression was now a mix of thrill and somberness. ‘With such finesse of his combat art, he’ll last longer.’
Rudra’s expression was utterly still as his fists and kicks matched his, but the most pressing issue was his tail, which he looked out for most, and Lerke also knew that.
A single mistake could become fatal to either of them.
“Rudra is winning,” Shiro-sen calmly said, his eyes faintly glimmering. Explore more stories with empire
The one who sees the beyond.
Every single one present believed his words instantly as their focus shifted.
“Strengthen the barrier,” Arjun said as he waved his hand, conjuring a streaming fiery blaze with golden sparks laid like stars, which quickly layered over the Patel clan’s barrier.
“I’ll speed up the evacuation.”
As the old monsters strengthened the barrier, a loud explosion occurred two seconds later as the barrier’s cracks suddenly increased.
*BOOM!*
Lerke was blasted and struck the barrier, his body releasing intense steam and glistering bronze sparks while a hole at the right side of his stomach poured out molten blood before he spit some out from his mouth,
Admiral Rudra’s breathing was heavy, and he didn’t follow up as he cooled down and stabilized himself. The Legendary armor was long shattered because Lerke’s power seemed to affect items heavily as the durability rapidly reached 0.
‘I guess I am paying for that armor,’ Rudra thought as he pressed the right side of his nostril and snorted out black blood from the other.
“I’m not done yet,” Rudra cracked his fist and charged up as a syringe under his belt injected Mana potion’s content, recovering him.
Lerke got up as his wounds recovered swiftly, the vein patterns all over his body reducing drastically as his body’s glow dimmed.
But his grin was wider, and his eyes sinister, “You let your armor get destroyed, but your clothes are barely affected.”
“You…you are formidable human to have reached such a realm in a symphony of body and mana.”
Lerke started clapping.
Rudra narrowed his eyes, ‘What is he playing at?’
A bad feeling began to surge up in him.
“But do you know why I call you all insects,” Lerke’s giant body began to crack away as if shading his armor. The pieces flew out and melted into a golden-bronze liquid that condensed into strings.
“Insects is a very apt description of you, humans,” Lerke, now a slick six-foot-tall figure with coal black skin, pulsed with micro-sized molten orange patterns.
“Because your blood is low quality, your flesh is weak, and your soul asleep.”
The strings moved and plastered themselves on Lerke’s new figure, painting him a strange humanoid with two long curved horns and a lean, muscled physique with a long and sharp coat covering his figure.
“Allow me to introduce myself—I am Lerkeion Wir Denekan—Denekan clan’s 78th head of Gerrath Demon Empire. I am the last of my Vorrakan Demon Race, but in my soul flows the blood of my ancestors as my Bloodline—Vorrak Moltenforge Sovereign awakens for this opportunity.”
Lerkeion floated as a dangerous aura pulsed out from him in a visible wave of molten bronze with black and golden sparks, putting cracks in the entire barrier despite the enchantments done on it.
“For the power you have shown me, I will respect it by going all out, fighting with my race’s honor on the line,” Lerkeion’s left arm stretched at Rudra as it transformed formed into a long eldritch bow with an eye-splitting open at its center and his right hand melted into an arrow which he nocked it on the bowstring, pulling his arm.
“The rats here called you a demon,” Lerke grinned, his now smoother skin forming a wider smile, but more sinister. “Surprise, you all are going to see a true demon now.”
At that moment, every single old monster outside felt a clear threat of death. If they were feeling it despite being outside the barrier, they could only imagine the dread of power that Lerke oozed out right in front of Rudra.
“Fuck…”
“Rudra!”
“Get ready to attack,” Arjun said as he transformed into his combat form, his bow artifact in his hand and an arrow manifesting as he pulled the string as a blazing flame storm whirled around.
Ten meters around him instantly turned into lava and then glowing golden sparks as if vaporating the lava itself.
“Get rid of this barrier!” Viktor roared. He stood beside Arjun and had an exact opposite field of power as snowstorms wreathed around him with his giant axe, he raised it high and gathered its power.
Both of them directly went all out, reading their strongest single-target attack to lay waste to that demon.
The others also got ready swiftly while the barrier also dispersed as Aarav Patel deactivated it.
Lerke looked around at the change of situation, but his momentary lapse was taken advantage of by Rudra as he burst out with his full power again, flickering right behind Lerke’s head as his fist shot forward like a space-cracking drill.
However, Lerke, with even faster speed, reacted by kicking at an absurd speed as a fiery slash unleashed simply with his kick motion while the physical hit sent Rudra down into a cracker as he spit blood, his eyes trembled.
He sprung up reactively as if like a cornered beast and vanished several meters away before his healing and recovery began.
‘I can’t carelessly attack him.’
The feeling of death just now was infinitely close to him.
“Truly marvelous,” Lerke focused back to Rudra while the old monsters who faced the random slash that widened out of Lerke’s leg swing barely dodged it.
“However, it seems that things are coming to an end now,” Lerke grinned as he saw the seventeen figures around him, all eyeing him like hungry beasts ready to obliterate him with their all.
But the only reason they weren’t moving was because of his arrow that pointed at Rudra.
“You are not escaping here,” Rudra grunted before his shirt burst away and muscles strengthened a godly avatar with a similar physique as him but five meters big manifested out from him, matching his movements.
“So this is the pinnacle of your art,” Lerke nodded as he looked at the avatar. “A complete symphony of magic and the physical manifestation of your bodily energy.”
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” Rudra lashed out at the old monsters. “ATTACK HIM!”
‘Shut up, Rudra.’
‘Old coot, don’t make me laugh.’
‘We are saving your ass and you want to be a hero?’
All of them replied with magic whispers and didn’t dare to move a muscle as they were entirely focused on Lerke.
Lerke also knew that he was very close to death despite him using his Bloodline power.
“You all are good,” Lerke laughed out loud but didn’t move his arms, his arrow still pointed at Rudra. “You seriously believe you can survive my attack, while I sincerely believe this would destroy you.”
“And your friends here think the same.”
“And perhaps you think it’s fine for you to die or get a permanent injury…” Lerke narrowed his eyes, grin widening. “Well, that would be sincerely pitiful.”
“I am going to have fun destroying you a lot and so, we shall clash again the next time we meet. The 11th Floor is opened, and so is the gate to the Epic rank lifeform.”
Right as Lerke finished speaking, a black cloak wrapped around him with a starry stream of purple and violet before he vanished.
“You insects better reach Epic rank fast and try to enrich your blood so I can have some decent fun as well as meal, haha hahaha…’
His voice rang in the air along with his heartless laughter after he left, putting a heavy stone onto everyone’s heart.