Chapter 337: High-Energy Overcharge

The tide of battle turned. Having invoked his potential, the Divine Scales, Wood's entire physique now matched his speed in every respect. In other words, he now fought entirely at the level of a high-ranking grand knight.

Seizing Wang Yu's ankle in an iron grip, Wood showed no sign of letting go. His fingers were clenched tightly like a vice, squeezing on the bones of Wang Yu's lower leg until they groaned in protest. Wang Yu's flesh tore as his shin visibly dented under the pressure.

Yet, to Wood's surprise, Wang Yu, who seemed like a mid-rank grand knight at best, possessed bones of uncanny hardness. No matter how Wood tried to crush his bones, he could not shatter them completely.

Without hesitation, he abandoned the idea of crippling Wang Yu's leg and instead swung his arm like a flail, smashing the knight's body again and again into the ground.

The earth cracked; dust and rubble leapt with each brutal impact. Under such overwhelming physical domination, Wang Yu seemed to have no means of escape.

A strange, splintering sound echoed as if from the collision itself. Wood's eyes narrowed, but he did not relent. The Divine Scales lasted only so long; the surest way to win was to crush Wang Yu outright before the power faded.

But then, he was forced to let go. Across Wang Yu's alchemical armor, a black-gray corrosion raced outward to engulf his entire frame.

Somewhere along the way, a murky ochre smoke had coiled around Wang Yu. Its acrid stench burned in Wood's lungs, making him cough blood—dark red, nearly black—laced with countless tiny spiked spheres. Without hesitation, the experienced Wood tossed Wang Yu aside and rushed off quickly.

Even a single breath had inflicted serious internal damage. Wood's gaze hardened on the prone figure he had just slammed into the ground.

Cursed Deathrot was a virulent toxin extracted from rare ores in the undead plane. While it was slow to erode inert matter, it reacted explosively on contact with blood or other bodily fluids, filling the victim's body with black thorns.

"This lunatic, releasing something like that right by his own side..."

Channeling fighting spirit to isolate the contaminated areas within his body, Wood forced the poisoned blood out—and all that from a mere whiff. For Wang Yu, immersed in it at point-blank range, it should have been suicide.

But Wood quickly realized his mistake. Wang Yu had already righted himself; the ground warped by the Chariot's power caught him without harm. He tore away the armor rotting from the toxin, letting hardened blood flow across his skin until it sheathed his whole body in bloodforged armor.

He glanced regretfully at the ochre smoke dissipating into the air. Once detached from its carrier, the toxin rapidly lost potency. He could have made further use of it if Wood hadn't reacted so promptly. As for being harmed himself, the Chariot's power would never have granted the poison the chance.

A deafening detonation tore Wood's attention aside. His peripheral vision caught the source. He frowned. That magician was far too troublesome. It was the first time he had seen Joey so battered against a mere spellcaster.

Avia had knelt down and pressed her palm to the ground. Scarlet threads of magic flared outward like veins that wove a complex web. Above each point in the pattern, blazing fireballs hovered, radiating fierce heat.

Joey, dagger in hand, moved like a wraith, seeking the young woman's throat—but the Perfect Fractal lens over her right eye locked onto him without fail. His vaunted stealth was meaningless against her sight.

He tried to force his way through the fiery sea at speed, but Avia's scarlet filaments had been prepared precisely to counter that.

As Joey stepped forward, his whole body seemed to distort and contract, allowing him to easily step past the gaps in the fireballs at a speed comparable to Wood's. Doing so, however, triggered the mana-sensitive filaments all around him.

The instant Joey's foot disturbed a single thread, the whole web trembled, sending a signal to Avia's Perfect Fractal lens. It could analyze the disturbance in an instant and relay the optimal counter to Avia. The fireballs shifted in seamless coordination.

At first, slipping past a lone fireball was trivial. But with each step forward, more started to target him—until he faced the entire web rather than isolated threats.

Joey moved with astonishing speed, but halfway to his target, he found himself surrounded from all directions with no room to dodge.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Avia's fingers clenched into a fist. As magic surged, every fireball around Joey detonated in unison. The deafening roar that had attracted Wood's attention earlier was from this very moment.

A figure burst from the blaze—Joey. The bandage-like wrappings around him were charred through in a dozen places, embers fading only once he stilled.

A wall of fire enclosed Avia, ensuring he could not attack her immediately after escaping the blast. Given his lacking defenses, Joey didn't dare hurl himself through that burning barrier—at least, not yet.

"Let's switch."

Joey and Wood's heads turned in perfect synchronicity. In each man's eyes, the other saw the same thought.

They would trade opponents—Wood to break through this aberrant magician's defenses, Joey to pin down the knight.

Both surged toward each other's targets, but Wang Yu and Avia clearly had no intention of giving them this chance.

Without warning, a half-transparent blade materialized in mid-air across Joey's path—so fast he nearly impaled himself on it.

This was Hypermagic: Phantom Blade. A rudimentary use of hypermagic, the spell wasn't particularly devastating in terms of raw power, but it could conjure solid blades of force with almost no delay. Their strength was determined solely by the amount of mana Avia poured in.

Avia's cold eyes fixed on Joey as she flicked her fingers. More phantom blades bloomed around him, hemming him in and barring his way. She had no intention of allowing him to come and go as he pleased.

Joey halted, reversed the grip on his dagger, and shattered the phantoms into motes of dissipating mana in a flurry of slashes. A lethal fire ignited in his gaze. The next instant, he drove the dagger straight into his own left shoulder.

As Avia and Joey clashed anew, Wang Yu and Wood closed in on each other once more.

Wood's dagger was gone, replaced by a heavy, broad-bladed shortsword, designed for raw strength under the power of the Divine Scales.

Wang Yu swallowed a vial whole, glass and all. Its power bled from his skin, sending him hurtling forward in a streak of crimson light, the Perfect Fractal lens triggering the buffs Avia had set on him earlier.

Fleetfoot nullified wind resistance and pushed him faster still. With the potion and spell together, his speed was nearly a match for Wood's.

With a final surge, Wang Yu closed the gap—his fist swinging for Wood's face even as fragments of his starsteel blade, summoned by the Chariot's power, whirled in from every angle.

Yet Wang Yu's speed was only enough to match Wood in terms of movement. Once they were in close quarters, he immediately fell into stark disadvantage.

The blade in Wood's hand sliced through the air in a series of rapid arcs that collided with all the fragments of Wang Yu's starsteel blade and sent them flying.

Then, without even bothering to parry the punch Wang Yu swung at his neck, Wood subtly shifted his torso, causing the blow to land heavily on his shoulder with a dull thud. At the same time, Wood's sword slashed fiercely at Wang Yu's ribs.

Terrifying strength drove the blade clean through Wang Yu's bloodforged armor and Avia's Stone Bastion. It tore deep into flesh and muscle, wreaking havoc all the way until Wang Yu's ribs stopped it from cleaving him in two.

Despite the gruesome wound, not a drop of blood flowed out of Wang Yu's body. Wood blinked, surprised to see the seemingly undeterred Wang Yu already preparing his next move.

But when Wood tried to withdraw his blade, it suddenly stuck—both the Chariot's power and Wang Yu's blood were gripping the shortsword from the inside.

After a violent struggle to wrench the blade free by brute force, Wood's motions faltered. In that instant, Wang Yu's elbow struck his chest hard.

The blow shattered the bloodforged armor guarding his elbow to pieces. It also sent Wood staggering backward, chest burning with pain, as he glanced baffled at the huge gash he had torn open in Wang Yu's body.

Blood crawled and writhed over the wound. The shattered armor quickly repaired itself, concealing the injury once more. But before the armor could fully seal the breach, Wood caught sight of the enormous wound knitting together, Wang Yu's broken internal organs shifting as something filled and patched the damage.

Wood had no time to ponder Wang Yu's unnatural regeneration. He dove back into close combat.

Ignoring Wang Yu's attacks, Wood relied on the immense defense granted by the Divine Scales, enduring blow after blow while slicing through Wang Yu's defenses with his shortsword. Once more, he tore flesh up, shattered organs, and snapped bones—one "fatal wound" after another.

But each time Wood succeeded in inflicting a horrific injury, he was driven back by Wang Yu's retaliatory strike and quickly found that Wang Yu had somehow stitched up the damage within moments. Over the course of a single minute, Wang Yu had performed this patchwork healing a dozen times.

Wood was certain the wounds weren't truly healed; they were just forcibly held closed so that Wang Yu could keep fighting. Still, if left alone, Wang Yu's overpowered regeneration might allow him to recover from those wounds within minutes.

After repeated exchanges in rapid succession, Wood emerged largely in good shape, though his body was bruised and aching from the constant strikes. Meanwhile, despite the fact that Wang Yu's body had been repeatedly ravaged, he showed no sign of weakening.

If Wood were a true high-rank grand knight, he might be able to grind Wang Yu down to a ruin beyond repair. Alas, he was not.

"He wants to outlast my potential's duration. I can't give him that chance," he concluded to himself.

After landing another slash, Wood retreated without engaging Wang Yu directly. Instead, he gathered his fighting spirit to rapidly enhance his power output. Against such a stubborn, tenacious foe, he had to switch tactics.

If the opponent relied on attrition, then Wood had to focus on landing a critical hit. Fully focused, Wood shifted his grip on the shortsword from one hand to two, aiming it at the charging Wang Yu.

With a sudden, explosive burst, fueled by physical prowess far beyond Wang Yu's, Wood thrust the sword straight into Wang Yu's abdomen. It was too fast and fierce to be parried. He meant to pierce through Wang Yu's body and sever his spine. There was no way Wang Yu could recover from such a blow.

Indeed, Wang Yu took more time to regenerate and reset bone. The moment the blade plunged into his body, Wang Yu erupted.

A shockwave of pure force exploded where blade met wound. The force emanated from within Wang Yu's body and traveled along the sword straight into Wood. The close-range discharge tore through Wood's skin and flesh.

Wood was violently thrown backward. The tremendous force ripped the shortsword from his grip. Wang Yu seized the moment to surge forward, hammering a fist into Wood's chest.

Another explosion rocked their bodies, ruthlessly ravaging Wood's flesh. Even the Divine Scales could not withstand the force unleashed at such close range.

If Wood could penetrate Wang Yu's bloodforged armor, he would witness glowing vascular patterns beneath Wang Yu's skin, veins coursing with high-energy blood capable of unleashing a dragonbreath.

Wang Yu had previously pondered how to boost his destructive power and concluded that he needed to release energy more efficiently: to unleash all the energy he possessed in the fastest, most violent manner possible.

What he came up with was channeling a dragonbreath not through his mouth, but rather through high-energy blood that had been prepared well in advance.

By storing sufficient charged blood in his bloodpool beforehand, and then swapping out the ordinary blood in his body as needed, wouldn't Wang Yu be able to unleash tremendous power in an instant?

He called this state "Overcharge."