Apocalypse Gachapon

Chapter 2259: Able to take a hit (2)

After the three strikes landed, the transformed Ye Zhongmingʼs massive staff in his hand vanished. He did not continue attacking but instead retreated backward. Because of his enormous size, two steps carried him far away.

On the other side, the Stone Dragonʼs draconic incantation was ready. From amidst the rubble of stone balls, a slender dragon phantom suddenly rose, like a python, and coiled around Kunzuo, who was still trapped in the stone pile. Caught within the twisting coils was the peak expert, drenched in blood.

Earlier, Kunzuo had one arm disabled and one eye blinded. Now, the ringsʼ bindings had disappeared, but his skull was somewhat sunken, one ear was gone, and the other hand was bent at least a hundred and twenty degrees while the arm hung down; a horrifying twist. Meanwhile, the wound on his left abdomen had been enlarged to the point that his pelvis was visible.

On his back were countless incomplete circular indentations, the marks left by the stone balls, now unrecognizable in their original form.

But no one believed Kunzuo was dead.

Because at this moment, those symbols were still in the sky, holding back the inverted stone spike mountain, while the rest of the symbols had spread to both sides of his body, clearly resisting the constricting force of the dragon phantom.

It was clear that there were fewer symbols than when Kunzuo had first summoned them; the others must have been consumed by various attacks.

After delivering one claw strike, the Stone Dragon had used three abilities in succession, and its energy was running low. Its originally substantial body began to fade. But seeing that its target, though battered, was still holding on, under Ye Zhongmingʼs control it summoned its remaining strength and began chanting another draconic incantation.

The blue-skinned man, no longer maintaining the rings, had long since raised his staff. In front of him, two water-element warriors, roughly his own height and wielding azure weapons, had already appeared. As he meditated, a third water-element warrior materialized.

The blue-skinned man did not stop; clearly, he would continue summoning more of these warriors.
Kunzuo now had no strength left to speak. His bodyʼs condition was so bad that it could collapse at any moment. He truly had not expected that a group of great experts could push him to this state.

But perhaps this was fate, and he could blame no one else. Kunzuo was well aware that the attacks of these great experts were not the main cause of his severe injuries. If his condition were expressed as a percentage, then Huozhiʼs mysterious grand formation had reduced him by at least seventy percent at once. After resting and recovering, he had at most sixty percent of his peak combat strength. Later, with the help of the Luosheng Bow, he had defeated his peer-level opponent Kirsailting—by that time, he had at most twenty percent of his power left.

But now, his combat strength was being continually drained; it would be good if even five percent remained.

The immense threat to his survival made Kunzuo realize it was time to go all out, to create an opportunity for himself and return to the Huoʼer Star ranks.

He somewhat regretted his earlier overconfidence.

That twisted, misshapen hand moved grotesquely, and an exquisite bell emerged from space. It sucked in an energy symbol with a puff, swayed once, and then suddenly shot toward the Stone Dragon. The symbol instantly passed through the dragon phantom and struck the Stone Dragonʼs body.

A section of that immense body exploded, and after the energy scattered, a massive hole was left.

But the Stone Dragonʼs incantation did not stop because of this.

At that moment, with two popping sounds, one of the symbols holding back the inverted stone spike mountain shattered, and one of the symbols beside Kunzuo resisting the dragon phantomʼs coils also shattered.

Clearly, Kunzuoʼs strength was no longer sufficient for him to both defend well and launch attacks.

The shattering of the symbols caused the inverted stone spike to sink a little lower, and the dragon phantom coiled even tighter.

Ye Zhongming began to move, taking one large step into Kunzuoʼs blind spot.

Kunzuoʼs blind spot at this moment was indeed too large.

The peak expert cursed Ye Zhongmingʼs cunning in his heart, and also felt frustrated at his own indecisiveness.

Originally, he could have attacked Ye Zhongming from the start, but in his panic, he had chosen to target the Stone Dragon—the largest target and the one that had dealt him the most damage.

That was undeniably a major mistake.

But there was no help for it now; this was the way it had to be.

The bell Kunzuo had produced swallowed another symbol and shot out, leaving another large hole in the Stone Dragonʼs body, and naturally, two more symbols shattered as well.

At this point, Kunzuo could no longer care about anything else. Even if the symbols did not shatter, he could not escape his predicament on his own. He could only try to kill the Stone Dragon, or at least cause it to exhaust its energy and vanish on its own, or at the very least, prevent it from unleashing another new ability.

So Kunzuo and the Stone Dragon entered a mutual-destruction pattern. The peak expert traded ”two for one,” continually inflicting wounds on the Stone Dragon, while the symbols protecting him diminished rapidly. The inverted stone spike and the dragon phantom were drawing ever closer to his body.

Finally, at a certain moment, the symbols were no longer sufficient. Kunzuo directly withdrew those above his head. The inverted stone spike mountain crashed down onto his skull with a boom, and at the same time, the dragonʼs body collapsed. Under the peak expertʼs assault, it had ultimately failed to hold out long enough to unleash a new ability.

With the Stone Dragonʼs collapse, the dragon phantom also vanished.

The stone spike mountain exploded the moment it struck. Amidst the dust and debris, a battered Kunzuo emerged. His head was almost pressed into his collarbone, his neck all but gone, yet he was alive, glaring with fierce light at the transformed Ye Zhongming.

The water-element warriors summoned by the blue-skinned man began their charge, quickly surrounding Kunzuo. By now, there were more than ten elemental warriors.

The blue-skinned man turned, bowed toward Ye Zhongming, then waved his staff. His entire form dissolved into many blue motes of light that flew over and evenly scattered onto the elemental warriors.

Those warriors immediately flared with brilliant light, almost indistinguishable from physical beings.

Kunzuo leaned back slightly, then used the few remaining symbols to shield his body and charged forward, immediately encountering the elemental warriors closest to him. The symbols exploded, and the elemental warriors were blasted apart.

In the process, two flashes of cold light passed by—the two Star-Eye leaders had left deep wounds on Kunzuo once more, but as they withdrew, they were injured by the exploding symbols and were shielded by their clansmen as they fell back.

The ten elemental warriors were blown apart in an instant, and beside Kunzuo, only three symbols remained.

At this moment, the peak expert stood before Ye Zhongming.

Neither side spoke a word; words were superfluous. Only victory or defeat, life or death, was what mattered to them.

The first symbol shattered. Half of the mist on Ye Zhongmingʼs transformed body was blasted away, and his massive foot stomped onto Kunzuoʼs head.

The second symbol shattered. Almost all the mist was blasted away, and the black mist giant rapidly shrank; the transformation could no longer be maintained.

Before that happened, Ye Zhongmingʼs fist had hammered into Kunzuoʼs head.

Kunzuo, with his half-blind eye now sunk into his chest cavity, looked at Ye Zhongming, who had reverted to his original form and fallen from the great-expert realm, and under his control, the last symbol shot forth.

He knew; he had won again.