Chapter 545 - Become The Ghosts Beneath My Fists!

Beside the spore forest, brutal clashes were erupting with every moment. The Ripple Practitioners had fielded no fewer than five Supreme bone ring users. Each attribute-based ripple they unleashed carried lethal properties capable of grievous devastation.

The ground was suffering for several hundred meters. Serpents of flame rampaged, sheets of ice swept over, howling gales carved ravines, and bolts of lightning slammed earthward.

Black Rain Manor, however, refused to be outdone. Ripple Master Monchi thrust his right hand skyward, the bone ring on his middle finger flashing blue-violet.

The clouds responded to him, forming a dark vortex above them. A towering lightning tree formed to link heaven and earth. Its roots spread like a net, driving black fissures through the soil. Its branches pierced each cloud layer overhead. Each peal of lightning in the sky made the lightning tree glow, as though it was siphoning every natural bolt.

Ripple power bent that energy to Monchi's will.

Crackle-snap... crackle-snap...

Monchi's right hand clenched in the empty air as though gripping something solid. Lightning veins raced down the lightning tree, spiraling into a twisting spear tens of meters long. Arcs of current were dancing along its shaft. A dreadful amount of electricity condensed within the weapon.

His pupils, now glowing blue, landed on the Ripple Practitioner whose newly born lightning bone ring came from the mother tree. A flicker of mockery gleamed in his eyes.

"Such feeble lightning dares call itself a Supreme bone ring?" Monchi despised that newborn lightning bone ring. To him, only the bone ring left by the former Thunder Spirit deserved the title Supreme among lightning. And that was the very ring he now wielded!

"Cheap trash, unworthy of this battlefield!" He slashed his right arm down.

The electric lance howled through the air.

Zzz-zzz-zzz...

The Ripple Practitioner wearing the new lightning bone ring sensed peril beyond anything before. He clenched his fist, sucking every spread ripple back into himself. He cycled the power once inside, then hurled it out through the ring again in a surging river of lightning.

However, at the instant of impact, the scene became sheer annihilation. The spiral spear cleaved the lightning river in two. It shot upstream and blasted toward the ripple's source.

"Wha—" Before he could finish, his head exploded outright. A headless corpse toppled backward, right hand still clawing helplessly at the sky.

The four remaining ring-bearers blanched. How could he not weather even a single strike? Even if the enemy had gone all out, you were still a Supreme bone ring Ripple Master, weren't you? To be felled in one blow—utterly absurd!

In truth, Monchi had wagered everything on that surprise strike. He had aimed to thin their ranks immediately. He had gone all out from the very beginning and targeted the fellow lightning bone ring bearer.

Monchi had never revealed that his own Supreme bone ring had evolved another tier after years of nurturing. It mercilessly suppressed rings of the same attribute. Had he faced a different attribute, he would have met an equal match. Against lightning, his foe automatically dropped a tier.

Now, the field was two against four. Ice Spirit reeled at the sudden loss of an ace. He recovered fast, flashed to the corpse, and retrieved the ring. A bearer could die, but a Supreme bone ring must not be lost. Ice Spirit stared at the blue ring in his palm, and he meant to pocket it.

Yet by some impulse he slipped it onto his forefinger instead. A heartbeat later, regret stabbed him. Different-attribute rings normally clashed and caused savage backlash. Plenty of Ripple Masters had learned that from mixed-attribute rings. However, two Supreme bone rings together were unheard-of; no one had tested it. Theory said the result would be the same.

"Why couldn't I stop my hand? Backlash seems inevitable..." Ice Spirit cursed privately.

He waited, yet no backlash came. The two rings on his middle and index fingers pulsed alternately, as though resonating. He spread his hand; and both frost and thunder ripples manifested together.

A tremor ran through him. Instinctively, he glanced at the three Ripple Masters still fighting. If those three rings could coexist as well, he could command all five Supreme bone rings at once.

"This... this is the mother tree's gift!" Ice Spirit murmured.

His gaze deepened, lingering on the trio's backs. Just as he contemplated further action, the sky boomed as though bombs were detonating. The uproar momentarily drowned out every clash below. All heads turned toward the distant din.

Near the volcano, surging Qi had sent mushroom clouds into the air, obscuring all vision. Five entwined figures plummeted together. They resembled five dazzling meteors of differing hues.

Bang-bang-bang...

More collisions rattled the volcano. The figure that was besieged was extremely domineering as he resumed his offensive. Time and again he swatted his foes away with a single arm before they righted themselves and sped back.

The next second, the four foes converged into a giant hand and slammed downward. It pressed against his chest, driving him thunderously to the ground!

"Holy—! It's headed this way." All six fighters from the Black Rain Manor and the Ripple Practitioners present cursed under their breath.

Too fast! No time to dodge!

They resorted to every measure. The four Ripple Masters huddled, bone rings spewing ripples in a frenzy as a translucent ripple shield spread wide.

Monchi, meanwhile, sprinted for his comrade Tyrant Black Dragon—the best shield available.

Black Dragon did not refuse. For the first time, caution flickered in his eyes. His broad shoulders hunched and seams split the armor on his back. Layered black muscle sprouted, scales bristling over it. Two enormous deformed arms appeared in the blink of an eye and clapped their palms overhead, leaving a cavity beneath big enough for several men.

Tyrant Black Dragon and Monchi stood inside, vision turning pitch-black. Monchi's ring shed a dim glow to light the hollow. Monchi was mildly surprised to hear Black Dragon's ragged breathing. The man was normally cold iron, devoid of human feeling. Yet now...

Boom!!!

While he pondered, the air detonated and the entire ground quaked. Space itself shivered under the dreadful force.

The muscle sphere formed by Tyrant Black Dragon rocketed away, scraping the earth and plowing a furrow hundreds of meters long. Finally, it slammed into the spore woods. Nearly a hundred trees snapped before it rolled to a halt.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The sphere's surface was pitted with craters. Some spots only had a thin hide of defense remaining. Inside, Tyrant Black Dragon bled lightly from the fingertips. Beside him, Monchi's mind was spinning. He braced against the flesh wall, horror on his face.

"That force! Even Black Dragon's defensive form could scarcely endure!" Regaining himself, Monchi muttered, "There are still masters... It looked like four figures besieging one!"

"Spirit stage—five of them!"

Realization flashed, yet he denied it the next instant.

"There's more than one stratum of Spirit stage—the newly crowned, the decades-seasoned, and the rare top-tier. The former Thunder Spirit, whose nature fit his ring so well they had resonated to perfection, would be in that last category."

Monchi himself was in the second level of Spirit stage, roughly equal to Ice Spirit. If he drove his ring to the limit, he could briefly touch that third level at the cost of the ring.

Tyrant Black Dragon likewise had defensive and berserk forms.

"Those warriors falling through the sky are at least third-level Spirit stage at least. No lesser rank could toss aftershocks like these..."

Meanwhile, the ripple shield of three Ripple Masters plus Ice Spirit lay shattered. Though the four had combined forces, ripple arts lacked true defense and could not rival Black Dragon's shield. Thus, the quartet were staring warily at the crater while nursing their wounds.

Black smoke poured from the hole.

"What in the—"

Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble...

The earth rocked and the sky trembled. Suddenly, a dreadful red-violet column erupted from the pit, shattering layer after layer of dark clouds.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Four vast impacts thundered from underground. The surrounding land cracked inch by inch, weaving a spider-web.

Whoosh!

A red meteor shot from the hole, soaring hundreds of meters up. Blood-stained phoenix wings flared mid-flight, barely breaking the figure’s fall. Its left wing seemed broken by some terrific force.

Swish-swish-swish!

Three more fierce figures blasted free. One wore pitch-black heavy armor and was five meters tall. It skidded across the ground like a bulldozer, plowing earth and shattering boulders alike. Mid-slide, the armored titan produced a massive sword and drove it hilt-deep into the soil. Even so, it tumbled another sixty-odd meters. Black fluid oozed from its visor like blood.

Elsewhere, a blue whale arced high then crashed, gouging a vast pit. The phantom vanished, revealing Arlington kneeling within and bleeding freely from his eye. To the north, a robed shaman skipped across the ground like a stone, leaving serpents of flame in his wake. He rose from the blaze, assuming a prayer-like stance. He held his right hand vertical before his chest, fingers tight together, and his left hand horizontal, as though upholding the sun over his heart.

Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump!

A dark patch lurked within the golden sun. Closer inspection revealed a deep, man-shaped fist mark.

Crack!

A loud report came from the crater as a vast stone-white gauntlet slammed down on the rim.

Thoom!

A towering Golem vaulted up, its feet landing onto the earth.

"Rooaar!!!" It bellowed skyward like a primeval beast.

Its great feet stamped the ground while a scarlet blood-moon hovered overhead. The Golem spread its arms like a guardian, as an utterly domineering aura crushed every heart present!

Submit! Submit! Submit!

A colossal voice roared through every mind.

Show your worship and reverence! This was the Golem—this was the Dominator Fist!

"Even four extreme combat artists and three allied powers cannot fell me!" The Golem's thunderous voice shook the air.

At that moment, Cassius's will soared higher than ever. The fiercer his foes and the tighter their siege, the more one fact rang true! They feared him, revered him, and trembled before him! They had no faith to face him one-on-one.

“I have yet to try creating Sonic Fang Force ever since both Southern Dipper forces broke into fifth stage. Today you four shall taste the true limits of Southern Dipper force!"

The Golem's left eye blazed crimson while the right glowed amber-violet. Ninety-two acupoints shimmered like stars across his body!

"Gentlemen, become the ghosts beneath my fists!"