Chapter 8: Final Act Of Despair

The Horned Eel was reluctant to answer Zax. It was not afraid of him, but as someone who killed an Overlord, it preferred to avoid battle, if possible.

Zax loftily gazed down at the Horned Eel. He gestured with his hand and a black beam of dark attribute energy shot. It struck the ground next to the Horned Eel, missing it by a meter. Another beam was shot, landing closer, while the third hit the target, and so were the fourth and fifth and sixth and so on...

A barrage of black beams hit the Horned Eel, doing close to none damage against its sturdy scales, resulting only in annoying and discomforting shockwaves.

Posing an unperturbed demeanor, the Horned Eel tolerated the negligible assault to the best of its patience, but when he caught a glimpse of Zax’s figure slowly deceasing past the third and second rings of the crater, toward its sacred first ring, it finally lashed out a response.

“ROAR!” It bellowed in retaliation. Its single horn sparkled in blue hues that spread across its long body, magically illuminating the darkness of its dark blue scales, like the reflection of a calm sea under starry sky.

Zax halted and ceased the barrage. His haughtiness transformed to seriousness as he felt a threat when he scrutinized the Overlord in its new glittering appearance.

The Horned Eel proved in the past to be faster in the oceans than the Four Wings Stork was in the sky, but that was something Zax witnessed during one of their trivial skirmishes, while he was more concentrated on escaping. If, in full strength, the Overlord of the sea still held the advantage, then this is going to be a fight he will have to exhaust his all in order to win.

As for dark element energy, it was Zax’s trump card and could not be counted in his strategy, since against an enemy of the same caliber it is extremely difficult to control the course of the battle and trump cards – when not treated as last resort – can only be exploited in opportunistic moments.

An azure streak charged out of the Earthly Crater and up. The Horned Eel took the initiative to lead the way out of the sea, to the firmament, the battlefield. It was certain of its survival whether by means of winning the fight or escaping, so naturally it consented to the unspoken agreement between all experts with the power to reshape the planet, to exchange blows in as high altitude as possible.

Zax followed and did not fall behind in sea or sky, until both arrived to the mesosphere.

BOOM!

With no proper declaration, the battle started!

The Horned Eel swept the horizon with its shining tail. It had not recovered its scales from the previous exchange, but layers of sparkling black ice formed around its body and burst to glitter after every attack.

Zax’s punches and kicks slammed the fleeting small mountains of ice and each time they made contact he failed to break through them, even when he tried to delivered soul attacks. Furthermore, the glittering fragments that touched his body infused cold air to his innards.

‘It’s almost unfair. If their growth was not limited, Deformed Beings would have been just too frightening! Like the Four Wings Stork, each of the Horned Eel’s attack possesses immense might. For humans and beasts to execute such attacks require the mastering of top grade techniques or, alternatively, contemplate for many, many, many years to invent one on our own. Yet, for Deformed Beings those abilities are all innate! No wonder they are labeled as Nature’s most beloveds’. Zax sighed inwardly.

To get rid from the frost efficiently, he stimulated his dark attribute energy to draw a formation on his internals that roused the Devouring nature of the dark attribute. Now, unless the Horned Eel’s icy glitter will exceed Zax’s internal defense, after seeping through the external, he has nothing to worry about.

The two were not exactly evenly matched, but the differences were too small to matter. Zax’s defense and attack surpassed the Overlord’s and they also were equal in speed, but the latter could better maneuver, despite its huge physique, and its attack were more intricate to bypass.

The pair had traded thousands of blows and the most notable damage was the dent and cracked scales on the Horned Eel.

‘Dammit!’ Zax cursed in frustration. ‘Whenever I afford too much attention on the fight, the Godly Retribution flares and the protective formation takes longer to reconstruct!’ He wanted to erect formations that will amplify the worldly dark attribute energy on the area and reduce all other worldly attribute energies, but to do so while confronting the Horned Eel was too taxing of a task.

BANG!

BANG!

Another clash of Zax’s base attack versus the Horned Eel’s inborn techniques, which were the equivalent of top grade Martial techniques executable by fifth level Martial Mortal.

A white light flashed before Zax eyes and before he could properly perceive the spectacle, the Horned Eel’s horn grew several sizes to a length of over hundred meters and it rammed its head forward.

His eyes were slow, but his mind was quick and his battle experience not shallow as he allowed it to be in the past. Zax foresaw the situation deteriorating, should he let the thin horn to impale him. Even if his healing factor was not partially suppressed by the oppression of the Godlily Retribution, he would not have dared to take the injury.

‘Move! Move!’ He urged his body to spin, but by the time he just began to commence the rotation the tip of the horn reached centimeters from the center of his chest. ‘Not good! I have to... ‘

BANG!

A small explosion occurred at the left side of his abdomen, propelling him half a step aside before the tip of the horn reached him. The Horned Eel missed its target and noticed the minuscule explosion, but was already in a state of intemperate motion that could not be diverted before completion.

Zax caught a glimpse of his reflection on the flat side of the horn, and then he sensed the piercing glare of the Horned Eel while its scaly head was on a collision course with him.

“AH!” The most Zax could achieve was lifting his right arm in defense. If it was a regular butt, he would have countered with a punch, but since the entire body of the Overlord was augmented, second to its horn, by this peculiar attack, he chose to drawback.