Chapter 377: Battle

Inside Anton Buchanan's private plane, today was unusually noisy.

Across the land, hurricane-like storms surged continuously, accompanied by chaotic energy currents drifting from afar; every creature in this plane knew these were the aftermath ripples of a biological battle.

The Level 5 Wizard Helios pushed his energy-form body to the extreme, now completely transformed into a humanoid, blazing white sun.

Hovering in midair, with every wave of his hand, he unleashed towering tidal waves of elemental chaos.

Meteor-like explosive fireballs, earth-rending chain lightning, soul-freezing extreme cold rays... all manner of powerful area-of-effect wizard spells poured down as if cost were no object, turning the once-lush grasslands into a hellish tapestry woven from lava, frost, and scorched earth.

His attacks were not entirely aimed at the Black Giant; much of it was intended to create chaos and suppress any potential movement paths Gao Jie Ming might take.

As for the other, a bio-modification wizard named Morpheus, he had completely lost his human form, morphing into a horrifying shape.

His lower body had become a cluster of thick tentacles covered in suckers and barbs, supporting his massive frame as it moved at high speed, while his upper body extended several pairs of bone scythe-arms shimmering with metallic luster, along with mouthparts that constantly opened and closed, spewing acid and neurotoxins.

His defensive and regenerative abilities were terrifying; wounds that had barely been blasted onto his body often healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Only areas continuously covered by the time field showed significantly slowed recovery.

Standing at the edge of the battlefield, beads of fine sweat formed on Gao Jie Ming's forehead.

The Great Da Guang Xiang hovered behind him, a ring composed of ten thousand talismanic wizard artifacts spinning at an unprecedented speed.

The barrage it poured forth was like a golden rainstorm, desperately intercepting and weakening Helios's large-scale bombardment while providing fire cover for the Black Giant Priests charging at the front.

Six Black Giant Priests, like six bolts of black lightning, circled the two Level 5 Wizards, attacking frantically under the dual effects of time acceleration and enemy deceleration.

The black liquid metal on their bodies constantly devoured energy attacks; their chronal disorder abilities made their movements so fast they left afterimages, while their heavy fists, carrying space-rending monstrous strength, slammed again and again against the enemies' shields and bodies.

Two of the Black Giant Priests had already suffered severe injuries; one arm each was severed at the shoulder, with black energy flowing like blood from the stumps.

That was the price paid earlier for blocking a cunning surprise attack from Morpheus aimed at Gao Jie Ming.

The space throughout the entire combat zone felt as if filled with invisible cement, heavy and viscous.

This was the 【Space Anchor Field】 that Helios and Morpheus had jointly deployed at all costs after discovering Gao Jie Ming's incredibly troublesome spatial abilities.

By locking down space, they completely eliminated any possibility of Gao Jie Ming using phase shifting or space slashes for surprise attacks or evasion.

Gao Jie Ming could only rely on the hyper-frequency reactions granted by his acceleration talismanic wizard artifacts, combined with the Black Giant Priests' time manipulation, to barely maneuver through the gaps in the Level 5 Wizards' attacks.

"Must take one out first!" Gao Jie Ming thought anxiously.

The energy reserves of the Great Da Guang Xiang were depleting rapidly; although the Black Giant Priests were fierce, under the joint counterattack of the two Level 5 Wizards, their injuries and energy consumption continued to accumulate.

He himself was like dancing on the tip of a blade; whenever Helios occasionally fired a condensed solar flare ray, or Morpheus suddenly thrust a spiked tentacle laden with paralytic toxin up from underground, Gao Jie Ming was forced to dodge with all his might.

Yet even mere attack ripples required him to rely on the Great Da Guang Xiang to instantly stack over a dozen layers of energy shields to withstand them head-on.

Were it not for the powerful physique and various adaptive resistances brought by the , he would have long been severely injured by the battle's aftermath ripples.

On the other side, the two Level 5 Wizards were also having a terrible time.

They had already suffered heavy injuries from fighting each other; it was only by luck that Gao Jie Ming hadn't successfully ambushed them with a space slash.

But such dense attacks constantly worsened their injuries, forcing them to retreat again and again.

Both knew clearly that once the duration of the space lockdown ended, it would be the moment of their defeat.

Therefore, they had to resolve the battle before the space lockdown was lifted!

Suddenly, due to the overly intense combat, Gao Jie Ming's Great Da Guang Xiang overheated from high-frequency release, causing a momentary lag.

"Now!" Helios let out a mental roar.

The blazing sun he had transformed into contracted sharply inward, then exploded with a thunderous boom!

A pulse of pure destructive energy spread outward in a ring, instantly blasting away the several Black Giant Priests surrounding him.

Even with their innate ability to absorb energy, bearing an excessive energy impact in an instant caused the black liquid metal on their bodies to boil violently, clearly indicating they had suffered significant damage.

Almost simultaneously, Morpheus tacitly seized this fleeting opportunity.

His massive body, covered in tentacles and bone blades, moved with agility incongruous with his size, suddenly breaking through the barrage which had become slightly sparse due to the explosion.

Several of his thickest tentacles, like siege hammers carrying ear-piercing sonic booms, struck directly at Gao Jie Ming, whose spiritual power was highly concentrated from controlling the Great Da Guang Xiang and the Black Giants!

The tips of the tentacles shimmered with a dim light capable of piercing energy defenses; clearly, this was his trump card!

"Exactly what I was waiting for, you dogs jumping over the wall in desperation!" A sharp glint flashed in Gao Jie Ming's eyes; he felt not a trace of panic.

At this critical moment, a massive figure over fifty meters tall, resembling a black mountain range, suddenly appeared before Gao Jie Ming—it was one of the two Level 5 Black Giant Commanders!

This Black Giant Commander appeared in the perfect position, blocking exactly between Gao Jie Ming and Morpheus's lethal attack!

"Roar!!!"

The Black Giant Commander, fully prepared, let out a sky-shaking roar.

It neither flinched nor dodged, allowing those tentacles capable of tearing apart mountain ranges to slam violently into its pitch-black chest!

Its formidable physique, capable of withstanding Level 6 attacks, was instantly pierced full of holes; high-temperature "blood" sprayed everywhere, yet its huge body stood immovable like the most loyal bastion!

And at the precise instant the tentacles hit, when old force was exhausted and new force had not yet arisen, Gao Jie Ming issued a cold and ruthless command through their soul contract—

Self-destruct!

Inside the massive body of the Black Giant Commander, it was as if a black sun had been ignited.

Destructive energy climbed to its limit within one-hundredth of a second, and then...

Boom!!!

A terrifying energy storm comparable to Helios's previous explosion erupted fiercely from the center of the Black Giant Commander!

Black destructive energy mixed with torn flesh formed a ring of destruction that swallowed everything, instantly engulfing Morpheus who was right beside it.

Afterwards, the shockwave rapidly expanded, sweeping in Helios as well, who had just released his ultimate move and was in a brief state of catching his breath.

The space, originally solidified by the 【Space Anchor Field】 into an iron-hard block, groaned under the strain of this cross-rank destructive energy impact, becoming twisted and unstable.

The instant the command was issued, Gao Jie Ming, like a startled rabbit, darted behind exactly that Black Giant Priest who had been blasted flying to his side.

This loyal priest immediately turned around, completely shielding Gao Jie Ming beneath his body.

The black liquid metal on his body flowed, forming a defensive posture, forcibly enduring the core shockwave of the self-explosion.

Even so, the terrifying force sent them both flying, crashing through a small hill in the distance.

The aftermath of the explosion had not yet fully subsided; sky-piercing smoke and dust, along with chaotic energy currents, still raged unchecked.

"Cough, cough..."

Gao Jie Ming, covered in ash and dirt, crawled out from beneath the Black Giant Priest, spitting out several mouthfuls of dusty saliva, yet his eyes remained sharp as an eagle's.

He did not bother to verify the results of the battle; through the soul contract, he could clearly sense the locations of those Black Giant Priests who had been blasted away.

Without hesitation, he immediately issued a final command via the contract to all surviving Black Giant Priests, including the one guarding him:

Charge! Close in on the survivors! Self-detonate!

In the next instant, several black figures, like moths rushing into a flame, threw themselves without regret into the lingering cloud of destructive energy and smoke.

Relying on their perception of the energy fluctuations emitted by the two Level 5 Wizards, they charged toward the locations where those two Level 5 Wizards might be.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Four consecutive explosions, louder and more horrifyingly destructive than before, erupted once again within the smoke and dust.

As for Gao Jie Ming himself, after issuing the commands, he did not even glance at the site of the explosions but immediately threw himself flat on the ground.

His hands glowed with the light of alchemy, and like a mole digging a burrow, he frantically excavated the earth beneath his feet, instantly carving out a tunnel thousands of meters deep.

He dove headfirst into it, shielding himself from the secondary shockwaves and energy backsurge that the chain self-detonations might trigger.

A moment later, everything finally settled.

Gao Jie Ming cautiously poked his head out from the scorched, smoking earth.

The scene before him resembled the end of the world: a colossal crater over several kilometers in diameter had replaced the original landscape, its edges lined with vitrified soil and twisted remnants of distorted space.

Following his spiritual sense, he quickly located the energy cores of those Black Giant Priests and Commanders who had survived the self-detonation and retrieved them.

Then, he saw two figures in the center of the crater, barely maintaining their forms.

Morpheus's prized biologically modified body was in tatters; most of his tentacles had been blasted off, and his bone blades shattered.

A huge void gaped in his core region, which was struggling to writhe and repair itself, yet the speed was extremely slow, and his aura had dwindled to its lowest ebb.

Helios's energy avatar had also become dim and lusterless, flickering uncertainly like a candle in the wind.

Clearly, they had suffered heavy injuries during the chain self-detonations, to the point that even maintaining a stable energy form seemed a struggle.

Seeing these two Level 5 Wizards who, despite such a terrifying chain self-detonation, were "only" heavily injured, Gao Jie Ming couldn't help but bare his teeth, feeling a pang in his jaw.

"Truly... thick-skinned and tough!" he cursed silently in his heart.

As their ranks increased, a wizard's vitality indeed became increasingly "inhuman."

At the bottom of the crater, Morpheus and Helios also saw Gao Jie Ming poking his head out; the two exchanged glances, reading helplessness and bitterness in each other's eyes.

Struggling, they almost simultaneously spoke, their voices weak yet clear: "We... surrender."

The moment the words left their lips, in the next instant, their figures abruptly vanished from the giant crater, as if they had never appeared at all.

Watching this scene, Gao Jie Ming's pupils contracted slightly.

"Is this the mighty power of a Level 8 Wizard...?" he murmured softly.

Clearly, the 【Spatial Anchor Force Field】 surrounding the area still existed, and space remained locked.

Yet the Noren Wizard could transport people away so casually, in a manner that could be described as silent and traceless.

He completely failed to understand how the other party had achieved this, but Gao Jie Ming knew very well that this meant ordinary spatial lockdowns were utterly useless before a Level 8 Wizard.

Gao Jie Ming soon stopped dwelling on these matters; he brushed the dust and charred ash from his wizard robes, looked up at the sky swept clear of clouds for ten thousand li by the shockwave, and sighed helplessly.

Although he had won, the losses were severe; the Black Giant army within his internal space had been nearly crippled.

He took a deep breath of the air, thick with the smell of burning, raised his head, and swept his gaze across the surrounding scorched earth that appeared empty, the twisted hills, and the energy chaos that had not yet fully subsided.

Suddenly, Gao Jie Ming spoke aloud, his voice echoing over the silent ruins:

"Come out. After watching the spectacle for so long, it is time for you to reveal yourselves."

(End of Chapter)