Coles stood there, utterly stunned.
The big guy standing in front of Coles suddenly reached out and crushed his shoulder in a hard grip. The sharp pain of bones creaking under that immense force jolted Coles back to his senses.
Coles did not blame the big guy. Cold sweat was pouring down his forehead, while the alchemist before him still held out that pill in his open palm.
The big guy kept shoving Coles, urging him to flee at once.
Yet just as Coles turned and took a step back, an identical alchemist appeared behind him as well, holding the same red pill in his hand.
The same voice came from the alchemist behind him, except Coles did not fall into that earlier daze this time.
Coles now knew he could not escape. This man intended to force him to swallow that unknown pill.
Seeing this, the big guy roared repeatedly. Wild Battle Aura surged from his body as he roared and swung his fist at the alchemist's face.
Coles's heart clenched at the sight. He had never told anyone that the big guy possessed Battle Aura.
Though he resented Chen Cheng, there was far more jealousy in his heart. That was why he had made the big guy cultivate Battle Aura as well.
He had planned for the two of them to replace Fini and Chen Cheng after Chen Cheng was eliminated, becoming the new talk of high society.
Could the big guy catch him off guard this time?
Coles thought anxiously.
However, Coles and the others had underestimated a high-level mage. The alchemist merely pointed at the charging big guy, and his momentum froze in place. No matter how he struggled, he could not move at all.
"Looks like your master lacks the fortune to enjoy my pill. Then you can take your master's place."
With that, the alchemist's figure flashed. Before either of them could react, he appeared before the big guy and lightly pinched his jaw.
The next instant, the big guy let out a wail. In all his years, it was the first time Coles had ever seen him wail.
Then Coles watched as the big guy's tightly shut jaw was forcibly dislocated. The alchemist stuffed the pill made from rage into his mouth.
The alchemist's figure flashed again, and he vanished from before Coles. After he disappeared, only his lingering voice remained:
"Little one, from this day onward, anyone you hate will be hunted to the death by this slave of yours. Of course, your slave may undergo a few small changes as well.
Hahaha."
Before Coles could understand what the alchemist meant, the frozen big guy regained his ability to move.
Yet he dropped to his knees, his eyes completely blood-red. With his entire body twisted at an extremely agonizing angle, he roared toward the sky.
Before Coles could call out to him, he saw the Slave Collar around the big guy's neck tightening bit by bit, producing cracking sounds.
At the same time, the big guy's body rapidly expanded. His clothes were shredded to pieces by the swelling flesh.
His short hair began growing wildly, its tips piercing into his flesh and winding around his body. His hair possessed the texture of steel, eventually seeming to form a layer of armor over him.
Finally, amid a furious roar, the Slave Collar around the big guy's neck was blasted into fragments by the force of his expanding body.
The big guy had become a terrifying giant nearly ten meters tall, his muscles knotted, his bones protruding, his fangs jutting outward, and his body hard as refined steel.
His eyes were blood-red, and the force of blood and vitality within him roiled with astonishing intensity. Even Coles, standing nearby, could hear the sound of blood surging through his body like raging ocean waves, vast and thunderous.
The abnormal force of blood and vitality here finally alerted Isabel, who had been tracking them.
In just a few leaps, she arrived on the street and saw the mountain-like big guy, along with the terrified Coles beside him.
Seeing Coles beside the giant, Isabel crossed the distance in several bounds, seized him by the collar, and carried him away.
The big guy did not care about Isabel and Coles leaving. His scarlet eyes fixed on the academy, piercing through layer upon layer of obstacles to see Chen Cheng—the person in his mind who filled him with fury and had to be killed.
Isabel had remained on guard, expecting the giant to attack her. When she saw him simply flattening houses as he headed toward the academy, she frowned.
Then she said to the still-terrified Coles beside her:
"Stay here and behave yourself. I need to deal with that big fellow."
Coles wanted to reach out and stop Isabel, asking her not to hurt the big guy, but the fear in his heart made him hesitate.
Isabel paid no attention to him. After placing him in a safe area, she drew the twin blades at her waist and leaped toward the big guy.
Silently arriving behind him, Isabel aimed at the big guy's heart and unleashed Explosive Flame Technique.
Her Explosive Flame Technique was far stronger than the one Chen Cheng had used before. A blazing fireball slammed into the big guy's back and exploded.
The heat of the flames scorched the big guy's back black. Taking advantage of the moment, Isabel channeled Battle Aura into her blades, stabbed them into his back, and slashed hard.
In only a few moments, Isabel carved away a layer of flesh from the big guy's back.
The big guy let out a roar of piercing pain.
Just as Isabel intended to continue, the big guy's arm twisted at an angle so grotesque she could scarcely imagine it, swinging from behind his back toward her.
Isabel nimbly leaped aside, but to her surprise, that palm strike contained an immense blood-and-vitality Battle Aura.
The Battle Aura struck Isabel directly in the abdomen. Had she not protected herself with Battle Aura, that blow would have shredded her internal organs.
Using the force of that strike to turn herself around, Isabel ignored her pain and infused her twin blades with magic. Two flaming battle blades appeared in her hands.
Drawing upon the Battle Aura within her, Isabel darted and shifted until she reached the big guy's head. Then, without any flourish, both blades slashed straight for his skull.
Isabel's strike was truly formidable. Had it landed solidly, the big guy would undoubtedly have died.
But because his body was so enormous, Isabel had momentarily forgotten that he possessed Battle Aura too.
With Battle Aura enhancing him, his gigantic size was no longer a disadvantage to his speed.
The big guy swiftly turned aside, avoiding the vital part of his brain. Isabel's strike only cut into his arm, but her battle blades were not long enough to sever it outright.
While Isabel was shifting through the air and unable to change her position, the big guy swung his uninjured arm. Gathering the surging blood-and-vitality Battle Aura within him, he drove a fist into Isabel's chest.
This blow landed squarely. The tremendous force and Battle Aura in his fist sent Isabel flying like a tattered sack.
Unable to endure it any longer, Isabel spat out a mouthful of blood in midair.
Her body smashed through several houses before finally stopping. When the dust from the collapsed buildings dispersed, Isabel was revealed to be covered in wounds.
Her face was deathly pale. The force of that punch had been far too great, utterly beyond her limits.
Supporting herself against a fallen wall, she slowly rose. By now, she had estimated the big guy's strength: he was absolutely no weaker than a Platinum Rank warrior.
If she had seen any sign of him possessing a domain, he would have already been at the Platinum Rank.
And if he truly reached the Platinum Rank, Hui Dun City would be in genuine danger this time.
A warrior's domain could not only suppress enemies, but also disrupt the domains of mages of the same rank, causing mages to lose their domains' connection to the magical energy beyond their bodies.
Furthermore, a warrior's domain ensured that the warrior could constantly draw Battle Aura from the outside world to replenish himself.
A warrior who comprehended a domain could be called a humanoid killing machine that was exceedingly difficult to kill.
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