THE GOD EATER

So their power output was costing them 2.26% of their lifespan and 2.22% per second. With this kind of consumption, they wouldn’t be able to last 45 seconds at their peak. But they were not at their peak. They were halfway dead, so they would barely last 22.5 seconds.

And this price had to be paid even though they were producing the same amount of power couldn’t do anything to each other. After all, if they don’t take on this cost to maintain their power, they would pay a greater cost when the enemy hurts them.

When Loki saw this situation, he was sure that they were at an impasse. But the dragon proved him wrong when it rushed at him to attack him.

By this time, the dragon couldn’t maintain its army of copies. In fact, it couldn’t create its army of copies because it had used all of its power and Divine Metacs to raise its defensive power to its limit.

It didn’t have any more resources to create copies and overwhelm Loki with them, so it attacked Loki with its hands. To defend himself, Loki also engaged in physical confrontation with the dragon.

The two of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat using every part of their bodies to hurt each other since they didn’t have any Divine Metacs left to use. Even though they had the same stats, the dragon was still able to beat him.

As it turned out, their stats weren’t actually the same. The dragon showed that their reaction, balance, dexterity, control, prediction, and skill were worlds apart.

In a single exchange, Loki was floored, and the dragon gained the upper hand. By their fifth exchange, Loki had been tied up into a knot on the ground. His body had been forcefully contorted and wound into a ball, making him helpless to resist.

The dragon stood over him, saying,”You were trying to circumvent the requirement for skill, weren’t you? What a joke! Everything comes down to skill. Or else, what do you think it means to be a god?”

Without waiting for Loki to reply, it said, ”To be a god is not about raw power. It is about control. It is about ultimate control.”

”To be a god is to be able to control oneself, others, and the world. It is to be able to control everything in existence.”

”If you have great power and can’t control it, you will only have that power for someone else to steal and control. When two people have the same amount of power, the one with the better skill wins just like this.”

Now that Loki couldn’t move and didn’t need to move to continue to attack his enemy, he finally had enough mental resources to afford talking. As it happened, he also had something to say.

He sneered as he said, ”Be that as it may. It still doesn’t change the fact that you can’t hurt me. We have the same physical prowess. No amount of skill will allow you to damage me.”

With a smirk, the dragon said, ”Watch me.”

Then it closed its eyes.

When Loki saw this, he became alert. It shouldn’t be possible for the dragon to hurt him, but he had come to learn for a fact that because he couldn’t do something didn’t mean the dragon couldn’t.

So when he saw the dragon become so serious, he had to take the dragon seriously. As he watched, he discovered that he was right to be wary.

For some reason, the dragon’s body was producing a heart-wrenching aura. He felt as if the dragon was changing right in front of him. It was as if the dragon was undergoing a breakthrough in its state of existence.

When he briefly activated the Power Identification Ability to see what was going on, he saw that the Body, Soul, Mind, Will, and Insight stats of the dragon were combining. This is something that a Supreme Metac can do, but the dragon is now combining the power of all of its attributes without the help of a Supreme Metac.

Normally, both of them have a Body Stat of 9 units. Because of this, they can’t inflict significant damage to each other. But if the dragon can combine the power of his five stats to hit Loki, it will be able to hurt Loki.

Not only that, the dragon might be able to combine this newfound power with the power of the Supreme Metac to effectively double the limit of its power. If that were to happen, then he would be screwed.

No one needed to tell him this to realize it. He might be stupid compared to the dragon, but he was still smart enough to consider this possibility.

Knowing that danger was approaching, Loki began trying to unfold his contorted body. He wanted to be able to stand and fight back. At the very least, he didn’t want to be a meat on a chopping block, free to hit anyhow.

While he was struggling to escape his incapacitated state, the changes going on in the dragon had reached their peak. Then, for some inexplicable reason, the aura of the dragon fell through the roof to the lowest possible point.

The dragon immediately stumbled backwards, unsteady on its feet. For some reason, it had become clumsy.

This was something Loki didn’t expect to see. It was something he expected to see himself do, not the dragon.

In his confusion, he heard the dragon say, ”Damn it. This existence of yours is really crippled. You’re missing more than 99% of a proper state of existence. How can anyone live like this?”

As usual, it didn’t wait for Loki to reply. As soon as it asked its question, it moved on to another thing.

”No matter. I still have another option.”

As it spoke, it seemed to ignite. A golden flame appeared around its body, and its power soared.

With one look, Loki was able to tell what was going on. Apparently, the dragon was burning its lifespan for greater power.