Chapter 460 - Let's See How You Block This Strike!

Boom!

A thunderous blast sent Thousand-Beast Shaman's three-meter-tall werewolf form hurtling through the air. He tore through a hundred meters of forest like a living cannonball, smashing through tree trunks one after another.

At the same time, the remaining two in the center of the battlefield suddenly clashed palms. A violently swirling gust enveloped Cassius, sweeping his golden hair around him like a lion's mane. A loud boom resounded from behind him, revealing a massive handprint over five meters long that sank into the earth.

Meanwhile, Gale Shaman was sent flying by Cassius's palm, tracing a long arc across the sky. He coughed up blood and struggled to steady himself in midair. Once he found his feet, Gale Shaman stared down at the figure still standing firmly in the clearing below.

Just as the Totem King had predicted, the target in Florence was not easy to kill. His strength was at the level of a Great Shaman from the Totem Temple. Moreover, there were varying degrees of power even among Great Shamans. For example, the three strongest Great Shamans of the current Totem Temple were Gale Shaman, Thousand-Beast Shaman, and Lava Shaman. They were ranked by increasing power, with Lava Shaman being the strongest. However, the gaps in strength among them were not huge, and each had their own distinct advantages.

If one looked back further over the past century, then without a doubt, the strongest would have been Gale Shaman's mentor, Air-Tremor Shaman. In his later years, he had been formidable enough to fight the three Great Shamans simultaneously without being at a disadvantage. If not for the constant worship of the Totem King within the Totem Temple, Air-Tremor Shaman might long ago have become the temple's true master.

It seemed the enemy before them now possessed that same level of strength. Though Air-Tremor Shaman still officially fell under the broad category of Great Shaman, he had already exceeded its limits. He could still display overwhelming dominance even when facing several opponents of the same rank. If one wanted to defeat or even kill him, there was no option but to unleash power beyond that level.

Floating in midair, Gale Shaman glanced down toward the trees. Thousand-Beast Shaman crawled out of the wreckage, panting heavily with bloodshot eyes. They locked eyes from a distance, as though they had made a firm decision.

They had clashed twice now, and both times they had been suppressed. They had no choice but to reveal their trump cards. But it was still an open question where they could kill him even after revealing those trump cards!

After all, that dark creature at the level of a top-tier Cataclysmic Spirit behind the man had not made a move yet. Once it joined the battle, the situation would surely become even more complicated.

"I'm sorry, Meya, but this is the Totem King's command..." Gale Shaman, his upper body bare and marked with totems, mumbled under his breath. His dim gaze appeared to hold a faint trace of reluctance.

The name Gale Shaman had just muttered belonged to his disciple. He was one of the ten Great Shamans of the Totem Temple.

Suddenly, a powerful Qi field descended on the battlefield, pressing down with fiery aggression. The surging Qi stirred the air currents, turning them into a raging gale.

A tall figure clad in a tight blue outfit leaped down the hillside like a meteor with a blue tail flame. He instantly charged into the battlefield, leaving sheets of frost wherever his feet passed. His formidable Qi poured out, outlining a massive giant bear carved with ice behind him. It appeared lifelike and immensely fierce. Suddenly, that giant bear reared up on its hind feet, baring its gaping maw and letting out a deafening roar. At the same time, the man threw a punch at Cassius.

"It's surprising that you neither dodged nor moved, and even let me gather momentum from the hillside to activate my Qi to its peak. I can't tell if you are confident or merely arrogant!" The Northern King roared as his figure merged with the icy bear.

Boom!

The entire ground quaked as if it had been struck by an earthquake. The air suddenly recoiled backward, nearly ripping some of the thinner trees apart.

Within a giant pit in the earth, two figures—one red and one blue—were shrouded in Qi that blazed upward as though they were engulfed in flames. It made the air boil and warp.

"

Heh heh heh

, it seems you’re the ace that the Gate Organization member counted on when he fled. You have the strength of a top-tier combat artist, not bad at all." Cassius was completely at ease, going as far as to comment on his opponent's strength even while both their fists were locked together. They were seemingly straining their entire bodies in that clash.

The wing-shaped crimson lines at the corners of his eyes grew darker, and his emotions gradually surged. "I was neither confident nor arrogant. I only endured that punch to gauge roughly where your limit lies."

Cassius suddenly looked up at the two figures now charging back into the battle from the sky and forest. A brutal, savage expression on his face finally broke free of any restraints. "I was worried I might lose control, misjudge my own strength, and kill you with a single punch!"

Rumble...rumble...rumble...

A terrifying Qi of red and purple intermingled and shot skyward, piercing the dense layer of clouds at once. The Northern King was blasted away, falling over on one knee upon landing.

He stared in shock at the burly figure standing with arms raised toward the heavens. Before he had rushed out of the cave, Luo had obviously told him that he would only be facing a top-tier combat artist!

"Kill!" Exclaimed the two Totem Temple shamans, one in the air and one on the ground. They had entered a state of frenzy.

They had planned to use the Totem King's bestowed trump card, but right at that critical moment, the Northern King from the Gate Organization joined the battle. With no reason to hesitate, they activated a golden totem in the deepest recesses of their bodies. It was the same gold that symbolized a king!

The moment the golden totem took effect, a surge of energy enveloped them. Dozens of totems, accumulated over decades by the two Great Shamans. all merged together into an even stronger power.

Not only were their own totems absorbed, even totems from their many disciples far away were absorbed. Their vitality and strength were completely siphoned away!

Several kilometers away, dozens of shamans collapsed to the ground, twitching weakly as they hovered on the brink of death. Each one was marked by a bizarre golden rune. The rune resembled both an open jaw and a whirlpool, ceaselessly devouring every totem on their body. Clearly, these shamans had been implanted with something by their teachers without their knowledge that served as a critical power reserve at a pivotal moment.

It made sense. The Totem King had tasked the Totem Temple with surrounding and killing a powerful figure in Florence. Setting aside the fact that Florence was the Dark Hunter Organization's headquarters where large numbers would draw attention and hinder their operation, merely mentioning that this individual had defeated the Evil Mother, a top-tier dark creature created by the Totem King, was proof of his strength.

Could the addition of a group of elite shamans sway the outcome against a master of such caliber? They would only be dead weight!

For instance, Gale Shaman and Thousand-Beast Shaman had never even let their shaman squads draw near their battle. Instead, they had told them to wait a few kilometers away, ready for orders at any moment.

If these shamans were useless in battle, how were they to help Gale Shaman and Thousand-Beast Shaman? Naturally, by sacrificing their own lives and all their power. From the very start, when Gale Shaman and Thousand-Beast Shaman had instructed their disciples in the Totem Temple to gather the elite shamans, they had planned for this scenario.

They felt that no matter how strong and prosperous their own people were, nothing could compare to the importance of one of them ascending into a higher level of power. The golden totem bestowed by the Totem King offered a chance to grow stronger at a severe cost. It could merge every scattered totem in the user's body into a flawless Power Totem that contained the combined strength of all the totems. However, this process consumed an enormous amount of vitality, enough to drain both of the shamans completely.

Hence, they had only planned to burn part of their vitality, settling for an incomplete version of the Power Totem so they could survive. Since it was incomplete, that golden totem would gradually break apart again over the next few years, reverting to the dozens of original totems. It could only serve as a means of burning significant vitality in exchange for a short-lived burst of combat prowess.

Gale Shaman and Thousand-Beast Shaman refused to accept that limitation, so they employed a better strategy: simply let their subordinates and disciples make the sacrifice.

Now, neither Gale Shaman nor Thousand-Beast Shaman had to deplete their own vitality, and they could still gather enough life force to create a perfect Power Totem. Moreover, this Power Totem was even stronger than usual since it included every totem from both themselves and their entire group of subordinates.

It was a triple-win scenario. Well, only for the two shamans...

***

"This strike contains the entire life force and totem power of fifteen totem shamans. Let's see how you block this!!!" Thousand-Beast Shaman roared as he ran across the earth, his body growing larger with every step.

Newly formed gnarled dark-red flesh coiled around him like vines, covering the gleaming white bones of the giant. Thousand-Beast Shaman's entire body grew to a dramatic height of ten meters.

Golden totem patterns spread all over his skin, flowing with a heat comparable to lava. He was not a purely humanoid giant but possessed traits of various fearsome beasts. He had scales, horns, sharp claws, savage fangs, black spines... He was a monstrosity formed from nearly a hundred beasts! Every footfall pounded deep craters into the ground.

Up in the air, Gale Shaman descended like a meteor. He, too, had completed the merging process of his golden totem, taking on a translucent form that seemed hollow and surreal. It was as though his body had merged with fierce winds, letting him freely command the forces of nature.

As Gale Shaman plunged downward, he thrust both hands straight at Cassius. Suddenly, the clouds high above began to spin violently, ultimately forming ten rings of cloud that tapered from top to bottom.

A column of wind slammed downward from atop the highest ring, accelerating like an artillery shell. With each ring the column passed through, it compressed further, turning an increasingly dense white. At the end, it became a white pillar resembling solid matter. As it fell from the sky, it looked like a divine blade wielded to judge sinners!

At that instant, Gale Shaman felt as if he had become Air-Tremor Shaman in his prime. He possessed the same confidence of being able to fight three Great Shamans at once!

"This is on par with my teacher's peak strength, the strongest shaman in the Totem Temple for a century! And now, with Thousand-Beast Shaman beside me, he's surely dead!" Gale Shaman disappeared as he merged with that pillar of wind.

Both Great Shamans, one descending from above and one charging from below, had gone beyond all their limits. Their terrifying aura completely locked onto Cassius standing in between.

Within the crater, Cassius spread his muscular arms wide as his golden hair and cape whipped in the wind. He watched the two shamans finally using the Totem King's trump card, and at that same moment, unleashed the forbidden power within himself.

Swoosh...

It felt like two raging rivers flowed downward in unison within his body.

One was the ultimate glacial waterfall, while the other a blazing current of magma. They met in his meridians, violently reacting in the quarter that overlapped. This was the combined power of Southern Dipper Sonic Snake Fist and Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist.

The miniature Rune of Life on the back of his hand glowed brilliantly, unleashing its power with maximum efficiency in an instant.

Boom!!!

The two forces erupted within Cassius's body and merged into one! A terrifying surge of ultimate force gushed forth as a purple-red waterfall tore through the air. Countless compressed air pockets clustered together, forming a raging torrent in the shape of a column of water. Purple bubbles swirled within, each containing a crimson whirlwind of fangs. It grew more violent with every layer that it formed!

All three figures, each wielding their most devastating trump card, collided in one spot.

Ding!!!

In that moment, an eerie silence fell over the forest, as if even the air itself had solidified. No leaves stirred and no pebbles rolled. The entire landscape blurred like a black-and-white oil painting.

Boom...

A terrifying explosion hurled tons of black earth skyward, with vast white air currents slicing like blades. The trunk of old trees flew in all directions like cannon shells, while shards of rock blasted away at speeds faster than bullets! Light and heat overwhelmed their sight, as an oval bubble enveloped a kilometer-wide area around the combatants. It was a shockwave of air expanding rapidly!

The best comparison would have been nuclear bombs, if they had existed in that era. It was a spectacle that rivaled the most advanced thermal weaponry, more terrifying than a formation of fighter jets unleashing their bombs.

Two kilometers away, Aaron, the Number Five Shadow Hunter, was thrown off the giant tree by the fierce gale. He fell more than thirty meters, landing face-up on the ground and staring blankly at the sky.

He seemed to be mumbling something under his breath, his mouth forming the words "Impossible!" again and again.

He had become a Shadow Hunter at age twenty-three and assumed he had joined the world's elite. His self-esteem, ambition, and confidence were all at their peak.

Yet in that very moment, Aaron had witnessed a battle that shattered his worldview. He felt like an ant in comparison. He could not imagine ever being smug over his minor achievements. He had never realized that the universe beyond his well was as vast as an endless sea!