Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

”Hurry, kill it!”

Someone used a Wind Element Sound Transmission Skill to bellow the words, the sound waves riding the wind across half the town.

”Come on, everyone, give it all you’ve got!”

The voice belonged to Zhang Ling, captain of the Broken Spine Squad. A crazed look contorted his boyish features as he hurled a custom-made High-Explosive Detonator, which blasted a massive chunk of flesh from the giant worm’s body.

It was clearly healing much slower than before.

Reeling in agony from over a dozen attacks, the giant worm burrowed into the ground in an obvious attempt to flee.

”Don’t let it get away.”

Beside him, a strapping man with a short-barreled shotgun grew even more agitated. His eyes were bloodshot as he frantically jammed Enchanted Bullets into the chamber, then unloaded them at close range into the giant worm’s mangled tail.

But in the next second, a figure flashed past like a phantom.

BANG!

His body exploded into a cloud of blood mist.

A tyrannical flash of wind and lightning revealed the assailant: a Bear-man. Using Acceleration Skill combined with lightning-based Attached Damage, he had simply relied on his explosive physical power to ram the man, crushing the Broken Spine Squad’s second-in-command into a pile of mangled limbs.

Zhang Ling stared, dumbfounded. He was splattered from head to toe in his teammate’s blood. The oppressive, point-blank threat made his mind go completely blank for an instant.

At the same moment, a Shadow Night Crow with a sixteen-meter wingspan phased into reality out of thin air. Its talons, like a reaper’s scythe, lashed out. A single Soul-Devouring Claw strike tore a Storm Priest to shreds.

Before it could furiously spread its wings to pounce, a figure silently cut into the battlefield. There was no sound of displaced air, not even the faintest ripple of movement. He simply appeared, moving through the area concealed by the creature’s wings.

HUM!

The Holy Sword in his hand blazed with incandescent Sun Flame, its light extending into a blade several meters long. Like a solar wheel, it slashed upward.

SWISH!

The Shadow Night Crow didn’t even have time to cry out before it was instantly cleaved in two. It dissolved into a flurry of black feathers that turned to ash and scattered.

”The Holy Sword!”

On the ground, a staff member from a nearby gear shop muttered to himself. Though he couldn’t make out the figure wreathed in a lightning shield, that searing, corona-like blade of light was unmistakably the Radiant Holy Sword.

The instant its summoned creature died, a Dark Element-modified man farther back clutched his head, reeling from the psychic backlash. But the fungal consciousness controlling him erupted in fury.

’He’s here...’

The message spread frantically through the distributed consciousness network, carried by spores drifting on the air. Every Parasite Body, every fungal monstrosity, and every human-beast chimera received the signal.

A cacophony of roars rose up, shaking the ruins.

No one understood why the creations of the Bloodthirsty Fungus had suddenly entered a state of collective frenzy.

The Bear-man ignored Zhang Ling completely. It activated a lightning-fast teleport, its body becoming a streak of purple electricity that shot straight for Su Chen. At the same time, over a dozen grotesque, fleshy birds took to the air, swooping in with self-detonating fungal cores.

Su Chen paid them no mind.

With a downward blink-step, he teleported directly above the giant worm’s back.

He pressed his right hand down. Waves of Telekinesis, channeled through his Amplification Bracelet, surged forth. Combined with a Weightlessness Skill, the force yanked the thirty-meter remnant of the giant worm from the ground, sending it tumbling into the open.

His Dual Vector Force Field ability activated instantly.

Two opposing Gravity Fields, each with doubled intensity, erupted simultaneously from above and below the creature.

The worm’s remains were instantly torn in two by the extreme, clashing gravitational forces. The top half splattered against the ground like sludge, while the bottom half was violently flung skyward.

But before the pieces could even land, the dual gravity fields reversed polarity. The remains, along with the spray of crimson blood, were pulled together, compressed, and crushed into a fine dust.

”This...”

Zhang Ling, who had been retreating, felt his expression change. The situation was evolving with completely unexpected speed.

In a matter of moments, the frenzied attack of the Bear-man chimera, his teammate’s death, and the arrival of this nameless expert had left him reeling.

Especially that exquisitely deadly Gravity Skill... it reminded him of an old acquaintance.

’It can’t be...’

”It’s him!”

In the next second, his pupils contracted violently. His gaze pierced the whitish, high-density lightning, and he recognized the figure—it was the very same young man he’d made a deal with.

’This isn’t Gravity Skill Lv. 6. No matter how you look at it, his power is far beyond that.’

”Watch out!”

He roared a warning. Perhaps Su Chen’s spectacular feat had drawn too much aggro, because the Bear-man that had missed its earlier pounce, a nearby wolf-man, and all the surrounding Parasite Bodies were now swarming in for the kill.

Seeing this, Zhang Ling flicked his finger. A leaf-like blade imbued with Holy Radiance shot out, intercepting the pouncing wolf-man.

At the sight of this, Su Chen remained unhurried in the face of the converging attack. As an oppressive force bore down on him, the lightning shield wreathing his body instantly switched from defense to offense, erupting outward.

KRAKOOM!

A ring-shaped thunderous shockwave, now empowered by Sun Flame, exploded outward. Lightning and fire merged perfectly, transforming into a searing plasma flame.

The air ionized into a blue-white incandescent current. The Bear-man, caught at point-blank range, didn’t even have time to swing a claw. It took the full brunt of the attack and was instantly engulfed by the torrent of Blazing Annihilation.

”Ugh!”

A pained cry was cut short.

The lightning-fire bored through its flesh. Its charred husk flaked away under the plasma’s corrosive touch. Both its arms disintegrated, and its savage bear-like head was reduced to half a skull.

The fact that it could even partially withstand this killing blow at such close range was, in itself, remarkable. The group of Parasite Bodies approaching from further out had been instantly vaporized.

’Good stuff,’ Su Chen noted to himself.

Deep within the Bear-man’s exposed chest cavity, a Jade Lingzhi, wrapped in layers of fungal filaments, was clearly visible.