Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 997: Rookie Mistake

The moment she did, Ender collapsed upon the clawed gauntlet with the force of a meteorite, the force mad, the impact wicked, the strength titanic. The next moment, the clawed gauntlet shattered into pieces, and following it was her body as she shot backwards with the speed of a shooting star.

But before she tore backwards, the one hand holding the solid air barrier couldn’t keep the attacks at bay as the spear thrusts slammed into her body too, the weight of the attacks tearing through her defenses and ripping into her flesh.

Her body tore through trees after trees, tearing through mountains as though they were made of paper, her back slammed into an ocean, then she skipped across it like a tossed pebble before she appeared before land once more.

After crossing over a five-hundred-thousand-kilometer radius, she finally gained control over her body as she twisted midair and landed on all four limbs as though she were a cat, her body skidding backwards as her feet and claws dug trenches into the earth that stretched for a kilometer before she finally came to a stop.

The moment she stopped, she immediately vomited a huge amount of blood as though her internal organs were collapsing under the weight of Azaron’s thrust attacks. Her entire abdominal region was now drenched in blood as her skin had been split open, but she didn’t care about her injuries; she cared more about her clawed gauntlet.

She gazed at it. It had cracked from the elbow down to the part that covered her wrist, but the moment she looked at it, it immediately repaired itself as the clawed gauntlet artifact possessed such a function, the cracks disappearing as though they had never existed.

The hand she had used to block Azaron’s last attack had almost been fractured. She simply held her own bone and snapped it back into place, her expression remaining completely indifferent despite the gruesome sound that accompanied the movement.

The moment she did that, Azaron was already in motion as his body appeared high in the sky as though blotting out the entire sun. Threshold I’s head snapped upwards. The moment she did, all she saw was a blood-red streak closing in for her forehead.

She didn’t dare delay as, with a burst of motion, she immediately shot backwards, dodging with every ounce of speed she could muster. The moment she did, Ender tore into the ground like a savage beast as the entire battlefield erupted upwards, stones, boulders, dust, sand, and countless fragments of earth being thrown into the sky. The shockwave from the attack hit Threshold I, her body shooting backwards, but she immediately caught herself, her feet barely touching the ground before she stabilized her body. But the moment she did, Azaron was already on the move.

He landed on the butt of his spear that was lodged into the ground. The moment he landed on it, he shot forward, using it as a foothold as he closed the distance between himself and Threshold I in a blip. The moment Threshold I caught herself from the shockwave, all that met her chest was Azaron’s fist.

She immediately crossed her forearms across her chest in an X shape. And as though two comets had slammed into each other, a warping force tore outwards as Threshold I’s body shot backwards like a cannon blast, blood leaking from her nose and mouth, her entire arm trembling as though it threatened to break, but she simply flexed her muscles even more to stop the trembling.

Azaron closed the distance once more as Ender appeared in his hand and he raced forward. But Threshold I would never allow herself to be caught on the back foot. She stepped into the air, halting her momentum, then, using the air as a springboard, she shot forward as though the air were now a trampoline.

The moment Azaron thrust forward, she didn’t delay. Her left hand tore forward as she caught the spear by the blade with her left hand, then pulled it forward as she slashed Azaron’s stomach with her right clawed gauntlet as though she wanted his internal organs to hang open.

Hearing the sound of the air and wind shredding apart and seeing the attack, Azaron immediately let go of his spear as his bulky body twisted out of the way as he moved as though he were performing parkour. The moment he did, Threshold I’s attack missed, his own body coming to a stop beside Threshold I’s body. But Azaron didn’t stop; he slammed his body sideways as he used his shoulder to knock her sideways as though he were a bull.

Threshold I’s eyes snapped towards the incoming attack. Although it was almost at point-blank range, she reacted as she immediately moved with the wind, trying to dodge it with perfect timing. But just as she was about to move, Ender moved in the opposite direction, effectively canceling out her own motion as she had held it in her left hand in order to halt Azaron’s attack earlier.

And with that, Azaron’s shoulder and side slammed into Threshold I’s body with the force of a moving truck against an egg. But Threshold I had already braced herself for the impact as she reduced the force of the attack in the middle of the slam, her body absorbing and redirecting a portion of the momentum.

She couldn’t help but click her tongue as she shot sideways. They had seemed to be equal, but Azaron’s combat talent and sense were simply too good, as she had fallen behind in rhythm after she had landed the first attack. She couldn’t help but curse, she should have let go of Azaron’s weapon; she had made a rookie mistake that shouldn’t be made against a Wargrave.

But at least she didn’t receive any critical or fatal injuries.

She landed on her feet once more as she wiped the blood from her lips and nose again, her internal organs simply too shaken by the force of the slam. Even with her monstrous physique and extraordinary resilience, the sheer physical force behind Azaron’s attacks was enough to leave her organs trembling within her body.

Her eyes landed on the gash on Azaron’s shoulder, only to see that it had already healed, his man’s natural regeneration even more absurd compared to other Crownstar Life Rankers. The wound that she had inflicted only moments ago had completely disappeared, leaving behind not even a scar to prove that her claws had ever torn through his flesh.

Both didn’t delay as they immediately launched towards one another like mortal enemies that could never see eye to eye on any matter. Another wave of devastation continued to echo outwards as neither of them slowed for any reason.

Threshold I’s clawed gauntlet moved again as she immediately tore through Azaron’s chest. She didn’t stop; she pressed her advantage, moving behind him like smoke as her claws moved to tear through his spine and render him crippled. But Azaron’s hands twisted as Ender appeared in a flicker of motion, blocking the attack behind him.

But Threshold I wasn’t done. She simply lifted off her feet and slammed them into Ender, the force shaking the weapon and slamming into Azaron’s back, the impact pushing the man forward while the force of her own attack pushed her in the opposite direction.

She shifted midair as, the moment she did, her clawed gauntlets gleamed as she immediately sliced through the air. With that came thousands of clawed crescent wind attacks that roared towards Azaron, each one carrying enough destructive force to rip through mountains.

Azaron’s body skidded to a stop as he brought Ender over his shoulder, turning to face the attacks. He took a step forward as he performed a single, wide swinging slash at the incoming attacks. An enormous blast of wind pressure, carrying a force greater than that of a nuclear blast, boomed outwards, echoing across the battlefield and covering everything in an apocalyptic crescendo.

But both of them didn’t stop. They dove headfirst into the churning dust and debris, their weapons continuing to echo as they traded blow after blow. Every time one gained the upper hand in the battle, the other changed the tempo and rhythm of the battle to break the advantage they held.

They traded injury after injury as though it were nothing to them, their stamina and vitality seemingly endless as they kept moving regardless of the blood that stained their bodies and clothes. Their eyes were filled with nothing but love for the game and hunger for the death of the other.

They seemed less than human at this moment and more like beings called down from a higher dimension, and everything around them had been reduced to absolute apocalypse. Thousands of kilometers had been ravaged, landmasses had been torn apart, mountains had been reduced to rubble, oceans had been displaced, and the terrain itself had been rewritten by their weapons and attacks.

Their battle had long since transcended anything that could be called a normal confrontation. Every movement carried enough power to devastate the world around them, every clash of weapon and body producing enough force to distort the environment, while every exchange pushed both combatants further beyond their previous limits. Neither cared about the destruction, neither cared about the injuries, and neither had any intention of retreating.

Such was the power of those who stood at the peak of the Crownstar Life Rank.