SON OF THE HERO KING

The clash between the two was immediate.

BOOM!

In just a blink of an eye, both of them vanished and appeared with a flash and punched at each other with all their might. The resulting shockwaves were enough to bring fear in the heart of anyone witnessing it.

The two of them were like two enraged bulls as they clashed again and again with no pause. Each successive hit became stronger, more vicious, and more precise than the last. This was a fight to the death. A dangerous dance where one mistake could mean the end.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

‘Incredible.’

Even as the fight prolonged, Dordonii couldn’t hide his astonishment. When evolving to the Lord level, all Chaos Spawns could remodel their bodies and bring them toward a certain direction of evolution. In order to assure his survival, Dordonii had focused on defense and endurance. This was why his entire body was one tall living armor.

Even so…

‘I can’t get the upper hand?’

It was something he could neither understand nor accept. Even though he had prepared a great ambush to deal with Sol, that didn’t mean he was willing to accept such a humiliation. He needed to at least suppress Sol a little to show his might.

Otherwise, the other Lords would think that he was weak and here, the weak were devoured without pity.

Thinking so, he suddenly howled to the sky and began to grow taller.

Three meters

Four meters.

Six meters.

In an instant, he went from a somewhat tall man to a gigantic being. Furthermore, his armor was covered in spikes and each of them was covered.

As if it wasn’t enough, in his hand was a massive double-headed ax with a long shaft. It was without a doubt a fearsome weapon.

[Assault Mode]

Since they reached the level of Lord by eating, Chaos spawn did not possess a zone. After all, they had realized no truth.

But this didn’t mean that they were weaker than any Duke. In fact, they were generally stronger because of their own version of a Zone.

Assault Mode.

A form that allowed the user to bring the full strength and talent of their bodies. In a way, the assault mode also formed around the deepest fear of the user.

For Dordonii who cherished his life more than anything, his assault mode not only reinforced his already high defense but also made other people unable to hurt him without hurting themselves.

When Dordonii's transformation was completed, he caused a strong sense of crisis to rise up in Sol's heart, as if his instincts had sensed danger.

From his body, a savage, violent air erupted abruptly. The power of his chaotic mana and blood surged, even fiercer than anything he had ever seen.

Sol witnessed that transformation speechlessly. There was no way he would have stood without trying to stop the transformation.

But everything happened so fast that he could only be left speechless.

‘Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised.’

Moving his hand to relax his stiffened muscles, Sol thought as he prepared himself for a new onslaught.

In a world where it was literally, eat or be eaten, having a long transformation time was basically a death sentence in itself. One could call it a stupid way to suicide.

Most likely, the first thing any Dukes, or rather Lords, learned was to bring down the time necessary for transformation as much as possible.

The fight suddenly entered a new crescendo after the transformation. Even though not as much as its defense, all the stats of Dordonii had been greatly increased in one instant.

Raising his hand Dordonii abruptly brought down the massive ax he was holding.

'Damn.'

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! RUMBLE!

Nimble like a fish in water, Sol avoided hit after hit of the great ax. From the viscous liquid glistening on the blade, he could deduce that the ax was also poisoned and it would be quite troublesome if he was wounded.

This wasn't all, though he didn't specialize in strength, the devastation brought by each of those attacks was incredible.

Whenever he swung his ax, razor-sharp wind blades would be stirred, destroying the ground below them despite how high they were.

“Hahaha! Come on! Come on! Weren’t you all gun oh earlier!? Come on and fight me head-on!”

“Tch! You don't seem to care about your subordinates."

"Why should I care about those worms? The stained territory will never lack Chaos Spawns. Just a few months are enough for new ones to grow. Dragons on the other hand are pretty rare, how sad one of them will die today!"

Sol tsked at the childish provocation. His eyes began to blaze with a fighting spirit while a golden-colored energy covered his body.

'I just need to not get wounded.'

Awakening.

Manipulation.

Reinforcement

Manifestation.

Intent.

Those were the first five steps one needed to thread through before reaching the level of the Zone.

But this didn’t mean that, just because one reached the Zone or was close to it, those steps were useless.

In fact, Sol understood that since they were the very basics of everything, having a great mastery of them was paramount.

By [manifesting] his mana to cover his body like an armor, [Reinforcing] his body with his powerful mana and filling his mana with killing [Intent], Sol managed to block the ax and stopped it from touching him.

“What!?”

Capitalizing on the surprise, he broke past his guard and sent a flurry of hits, each more powerful than the last.

The intensity was so high that his mana armor couldn’t take the strain and began to break down, but still, Sol did not stop.

After one last hit–

BOOM!

–Dordonii was blasted more than five hundred meters away, with parts of his armor breaking down.

*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*

Sol meanwhile was breathing quite roughly.

'What a troublesome opponent.'

In the first place, covering his entire body with killing intent was an extremely wasteful way of protecting himself.

It would have been easier if he could have fused the mana of his body with Defense Intent or whatever of the like, but if Intent was so easy to use, the number of powerful masters wouldn't be so little.

It didn't help that in this place, his application of Mana was so awful that Lilith would have had a stroke if she could see him.

'At least I wasn't wounded…but this isn’t looking good.'

Sighing, he looked at the Lord that was still flying far away and slowly, began to take away the mana that was covering his body.

Using killing intent to protect his body was undoubtedly a waste. This was why he needed to be smarter and faster.

“Ready! Set!”

BOOM!

Breaking the sound barrier as if it was inexistent, Sol rushed towards Dordonii and, focusing all the mana in his hand, he punched.

Bang!

"Argh!!"

It was like a gun went off. This time, rather than spreading the damage, Sol focused all the energy in this hit at one point, easily piercing through the armor of his opponent and punching him down to the ground.

The impact caused the earth to rumble and dust to rise.

Still floating in the air, Sol showed no delight in the prowess he demonstrated. While it was true that he wasn't doing his best now and had still even more powerful form, this fight was making him greatly dissatisfied.

Not being able to absorb mana and replenish his reserves as he wished was incredibly stifling.

It made the fighting style he had learned during his fight against Rio and White completely worthless.

After all, that style depended on a nearly limitless supply of mana and a very reckless use of it.

"*Sigh* I must admit, I am surprised. Nay, astonished."

As he analyzed his weaknesses, the voice of Dordonii sounded through the dust as he slowly floated back up.

The dust dispersed and Sol's expression stayed unchanged at the sight of Dordonii being completely unscathed.

He was sure that he had managed to wound him internally quite a bit. But here was the problem.

As long as his core wasn't destroyed, such wounds were nothing to Dordonii. Of course, Sol didn't believe that the core was the only weakness.

The core had a limit to the amount of energy it had in it. By depleting those reserves, it was possible to bring death to them.

Sadly, the core of Chaos Spawn seemed to work much the same as divine beasts, although to a lesser extent.

Sol was thankful that these monsters didn’t have a Zone. After all, their near immortality was already a cheat of the highest grade.

"You are back already. Do you want to go for a second round? I have to say, I always lacked a good punching ball."

Touching the droplet of blood that was flowing from his body as his wounds closed, Dordonii took a deep breath and finally looked at Sol seriously while ignoring his provocation.

“Young dragon, you are strong. Very strong. At this rate, I might really never be able to win in a fair match against you. But—”

“—Who said I was willing to play fair?”

Sol showed a surprised face as formation broke one after another and revealed the presence of more Lords, as well as their armies.

“Hahaha, die!!”

He had been somewhat prepared but still, looking at the sea of monsters facing him, he had to admit that if he had been a normal dragon, he would have either died or gotten saved by Kiyohime or Tiamat.

But...He wasn't a normal dragon, was he?

A savage grin split his face as he looked at them like prey on a chopping board.

'I guess I will have to awaken my inner Obito soon. But this isn't the time yet. For now? Let's see if I can recreate the feat of the 3rd Raikage[1]. Of course—without dying, that is.'

[1]: I don't need to explain the Obito one I think. As for 3rd Raikage. Nigga stopped an army of ten thousand alone and fought them for days before dying.

By the way, I like bringing references to manga. Some can be hidden, like the one with Kiruha. But others can be quite obvious as this one. If you think the obvious ones(Like the one with Obito and Raikage) breaks your immersion, you can tell me, so that I tone down a bit.

*Edited*: Already decided to tone it down. So no obvious reference like the one in this chapter.