Chaos Heir

Chapter 1580: Strikes

The kinetic energy accumulated while clashing with the shockwaves made Ilman too fast for the King to react. He instantly arrived in front of the giant face inside the massive trunk, his sprint basically mimicking a teleport that took the alien by surprise.

The King also noticed how Ilman had yet to use all the accumulated kinetic energy. A hot aura that instantly raised his surroundings’ temperature had accompanied him, waiting to be unleashed.

And, in that defenseless moment, the King only had the time to ponder how unreasonable Ilman’s feat had been. Actually, that whole assault featured so many impossible and conflicting details that they could only make sense if they belonged to different evolved warriors.

First, Ilman had acted like an unmovable boulder to resist the violent gales. Then, his existence had grown slightly sharp, allowing him to climb the trunk while also deflecting the enduring storms.

That changed once again when Ilman jumped toward the shockwaves. His existence turned into something extremely durable, almost metallic, which could absorb and accumulate impacts, transforming them into raw energy.

Ultimately, Ilman had abandoned his cumbersome, resilient state to leap without a foothold, ending up before the giant face and somehow completely halting his incredible momentum without using any real flight skills.

Needless to say, the King was quite lost. He couldn’t understand what Ilman could do. Actually, there seemed to be little he couldn’t do, and that uncertainty worsened with the following realization.

Those strange abilities were only a product of Ilman’s expertise in the manipulation field. His existence had yet to come into play, and the incoming attack didn’t change that trend.

Ilman had indeed stopped himself completely in mid-air, but only for a fraction of a second. The burning heat that surrounded him soon propelled him forward, adding power to the direct palm strike to the elderly King’s face.

At that time, the King was ready. The blow was violent, making his giant face cave in, and waves of trembling energy spread past it, invading his insides. However, he had learned from the previous experience, rearranging his True Chaos to make it endure that internal damage.

The waves of trembling energy still released their power, but their expansion was short-lived. The trunk’s insides had become dense enough to suppress most of their effects, limiting the damage they could cause and preventing any destabilization.

That last part was key in the King’s counterattack. He had already sent his countless branches after the shockwaves, and they now made a sharp turn to shoot after Ilman.

Yet, as soon as that turn happened, the King witnessed something confusing. Ilman was standing on the caved-in face, his right arm still stretched after the palm strike, but his left one suddenly blurred, and the King lost control once again.

New waves of energy seeped through the caved-in face, only to have different shapes and effects. That second attack featured denser but wilder power that unleashed its full might before the internal True Chaos’ density could suppress it.

Instead of the series of nukes, the King now experienced a single one of those explosions happening right beneath his giant face, which inevitably leaked outside.

The giant face and part of the surrounding trunk blew outward, releasing a mixture of gaseous and liquid True Chaos. The King quickly regained control, but Ilman had already moved even higher, and the number of palm strikes increased again.

Three strikes landed simultaneously on the trunk. One released concentric, expanding, and trembling waves of energy. Another featured their denser version, which unleashed their power right away.

Instead, the third strike released something more limited and straightforward, a blow that ran in a direct line through the trunk, somehow managing to hit its distant, opposite end.

Since the Ilman had shown something new again, the King decided to endure the full brunt of the assault to focus on retaining control of his huge form while also studying his opponent. Besides, he had already launched his attack.

Ilman had moved quickly, escaping the range of the incoming branches, only for the latter to crack in the air to release shockwaves. Those attacks hit the trunk first, shattering its surface, making it release waves of True Chaos, while rising toward their real target.

The King seemed to have no sense of self-preservation, but Ilman understood that he didn’t need to. That huge shape contained so much energy that it could ignore even some of the deeper damage.

Clearly, Ilman had to switch tactics, but he had already reached that conclusion. He had even found a solution, but the incoming shockwaves took priority.

The trunk below Ilman kept shattering and exploding into tides of True Chaos, the edge of that destruction quickly rising toward his position. The shockwaves were upon him, so he turned to address them.

As the air in front of Ilman twisted, starting to add an ethereal weight to his figure, he lifted his arms, performing a slow gesture that ended with his hands spread forward.

Mana accompanied that slow gesture, affecting the air it touched, creating a strange aura that forced the incoming shockwaves to slow down, both in speed and sheer violent momentum.

Then, those slowed-down shockwaves touched Ilman’s palms and changed direction. His soft gesture pushed them aside, making them crash on the trunk above and to his sides.

The King was surprised once again, but was also ready to use that opportunity to reclaim the battle’s initiative. The True Chaos leaked from the broken parts of its trunk was already condensing into branches, and Ilman’s defensive move left him vulnerable to a counterattack.

At least, that was what should have happened.

Right after deflecting the shockwaves, actually, seemingly simultaneously, Ilman’s figure blurred again, creating an afterimage that faced the broken trunk directly. That trick of the light also had his arms stretched, which dived into the leaking True Chaos to unleash something new.

The King had calculated his timing perfectly, but Ilman had surpassed his expectations. The King had also believed himself to be ready for whatever awaited him next, but Ilman proved him wrong.

That last attack didn’t release destructive waves of energy. Its effects were softer, but also more intrusive. They didn’t mess with the tree’s insides but touched upon a deeper level, something the King didn’t believe could be reached.

And, suddenly, the entire tree, be it trunk, vast barrage of roots, and immense crown of branches, lost its structural stability, melting into a mountain of True Chaos.