Weight of Life

The messenger knight ran so fast his helmet was askew, and he leaned against the wall, panting and coughing, barely able to speak.

"Report! Report! His Excellency Riyao left the city with a civilian, heading... right towards the forest where the explosion was heard!"

Upon hearing this, Arcadios's eyebrows twitched slightly, his cold and hard face revealing not a trace of emotion, his knuckles already gripping the hilt of the sword at his waist.

Leo and Hisui, who were following beside him, immediately became anxious and their fur stood on end. Leo paced back and forth, wishing he could rush out on the spot, and his sword sheath rattled loudly.

Hisui clutched the hem of her clothes, her face pale. The two of them trembled as their voices overlapped.

"Arcadios, lead the team that way quickly! We absolutely cannot let anything happen to Riyao!"

"Bang bang...!"

Nibu's two large, black, millstone-like hands, covered in stiff black bristles, pounded into the pit like a pile driver, each strike causing the ground to tremble.

The remaining colorful hair of the punk, charred wood chips, and toxic soil debris were scattered everywhere, and the crater they created was deep enough to bury two and a half Nibu people.

He was still howling with red eyes, looking like he wanted to smash Riyao into underground fertilizer.

[Breaking News: The main character has died! This message is worth 50 cents and will be deleted immediately after posting; authenticity not guaranteed.]

Just as he was smashing things most frantically, a bright light of mixed gold and green suddenly burst out of the deep pit, followed by a muffled "thud".

Nibu was slammed into the face by a powerful force, a tuft of hair was ripped off the back of his neck, and his buttocks slid across the scorched ground, creating a ditch more than ten meters deep.

Halfway there, it ran over half a pile of tattered rags left from a punk explosion, and finally crashed with a "bang" into the last remaining half of a dead tree stump, making it see stars and unable to get up for a long time.

Riyao slowly stood up from the pit, brushing the dust off his clothes. His previously torn and waist-revealing clothes still had charred marks, but the dense wounds that had covered him were now completely gone, without a single red mark.

He even reached out and plucked a half-burnt leaf from his hair, grinning at Nibu who had just gotten up, his tone so smug it could drive anyone mad.

"What a pity, if it had been a few days earlier, I would have really been doomed."

Just moments before, as Nibu's fingernails grazed the top of his head, he didn't even have time to recite his boastful lines. He raised his hand and began to stack magic on himself. Three silver magic circles "whooshed" and enveloped his entire body, while three Enchantment Magic rained down on him.

"Enchantment Magic - Purification, Enchantment Magic - Dispel, Enchantment Magic - Power."

The mysterious toxin that had been suppressed for Hundred Battles Spell Formula a day was completely cleared away on the spot, and a few wisps of black smoke escaped from the pores. The healing ability that had been held back for half a day suddenly opened up in full force.

In just a few seconds, all his injuries were completely healed. The dozen or so blows Nibu had struck him with were like a free massage to loosen his muscles and bones.

He even stretched his shoulders and neck, cracking his bones, then looked up at Nibu, who was trembling with anger, and beckoned to him with a sly grin.

"Why don't you keep going? Those last few blows on your right shoulder felt pretty good. Could you please shift to the left a bit? Come on, put some more force into it. Are you getting timid?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Nibu's already strained mind snapped completely in his rage, and he went into a frenzy, his flesh and blood churning wildly through his veins.

The mutation began again, bones crackling and rearranging themselves, the barely remaining human form completely disintegrated, and in an instant it swelled to more than three meters tall, transforming into a giant beast even more ferocious and savage than an ordinary mountain gorilla.

Its dark brown bristles stood upright like steel needles, its arched shoulders resembled a small mound, its prominent jawbone was pierced by two-inch-long, gleaming white fangs, its scarlet eyes were set in deep-set sockets, and even its breath carried a pungent, fishy stench.

Nibu let out a roar that shook the eardrums, and with a stomp of his limbs on the scorched ground, the entire behemoth moved with earth-shaking force.

He charged straight at Riyao. Riyao dropped his smug smile, tensed his muscles, and charged forward to meet him.

Two figures, one large and one small, instantly became entangled in a fierce battle. There were no fancy magical exchanges; it was all hard-hitting, flesh-on-flesh combat.

The three-meter-tall behemoth's every strike carried the heavy force of splitting mountains and shattering rocks. The petite Riyao's advantage lay in her agility and speed, always managing to dodge the deadly attacks at the last second, and even daring to head-on into the fists.

Each time flesh and blood collided with a dull thud, a powerful gust of wind swept outwards from the point of impact, scattering scorched earth, debris, and tattered rags, making the already chaotic woodland even more unsightly.

Seeing this, Riyao not only did not back down, but instead grinned and showed a fierce smile, raised his hand to crack his knuckles, and cracked his knuckles as he clenched his fist.

Two magic circles emerged from his palm one after the other. The originally rotating array patterns slowly moved towards the center and merged little by little along the array veins.

Finally, it solidified into one spot, and a dazzling golden halo spread out along the array patterns, even coating the scorched earth at his feet with a layer of light gold.

"Enchantment Magic: The Weight of Life"

With a deep shout, he planted his feet firmly on the churning, cracked earth, no longer dodging or weaving as before, but directly facing Nibu's fierce punches head-on, each punch landing solidly on the giant beast's body.

After unleashing a rapid barrage of over ten punches, he appeared perfectly normal, just like in their previous head-on clashes.

At first glance, it appears to be a seemingly evenly matched head-on collision, but a closer look reveals something amiss.

Nibu's originally strong, dark brown mane, which stood upright like a tempered beast, began to turn gray and fade, starting from the tips of his nails and the ends of his hair, and gradually seeping into the roots.

In less than half a minute, it faded to a lifeless, pale white, and its life force was silently draining away through the wounds inflicted by the punches.

But this is neither the kind of trick that deprives people of their vitality, nor does it involve absorbing the lost vitality.

Really hurt~

Riyao always kept the taboo in mind, fearing that improper operation would trigger the curse of the god Ankhseram, so he simply chose the safest and most direct method.

He simply condensed and solidified his own life force, steadily adding it to the force of each punch, and through the force of the head-on collision, forcefully blasted Nibu's own life force out of his body.

Meanwhile, on the way to the forest where the explosion occurred, Arcadios led the way, his dark cloak billowing in the wind.

Although his cold, hard face revealed no extra emotion, his knuckles gripping the hilt of his sword at his waist remained taut and white, never relaxing for a moment since they set off.

Hisui and Leo, who were eager to set off earlier, were definitely not allowed to come along.