Wheel Battle

With his words falling, Zeus raised his hand and waved. A golden light flashed, and a strange deity over five meters tall appeared before him.

This deity was burly, with a stern face, clad in ancient jade battle armor. His hands were raised, palms facing the sky in a circular gesture, his back slightly hunched as if bearing an immense weight. A heavy gravity field enveloped him.

Shane was too fast; he had no time to brake and crashed directly into the deity.

But the immense force seemed to vanish into thin air the moment it touched the other's body. Though Shane appeared to have wrapped his arms around the deity's waist and sent him flying, the deity's body remained as undisturbed as a moving mountain.

Instead, Shane was left with numb limbs from his own impact.

The deity slowly lowered his gaze. His hands, which had been holding up the sky, slowly clenched into a massive stone fist, carrying a suffocating gravity field, and smashed down fiercely on Shane's back.

With every cell in his body still operating at extreme speed, Shane couldn't dodge nimbly. Furthermore, the deity had already suppressed his body with an inexplicable gravity field. He could only watch helplessly as the fist, imbued with terrifying gravity, landed on his back.

"BOOM--!"

A world-shattering explosion echoed throughout the Divine Realm. Shane, like a meteor struck by a meteorite, was sent crashing hundreds of meters deep into the ground of the Divine Realm. A massive hemispherical crater formed, with debris and soaring dust erupting from it.

Intense pain surged through his entire body. Shane's spine had countless cracks, more than half of his internal organs were shattered, and blood continuously gushed from his mouth, dyeing the ground before him red.

He struggled to lift his head, gazing at the towering figure outside the crater. A flicker of understanding flashed in his eyes.

The Titan god who held up the Earth, Atlas.

Atlas gazed silently at Shane in the deep crater. His voice was deep and resonant, and he began to admonish him.

"Little one, give up. I am not like Ares. My divine power is not affected by other factors. Since ancient times, it has been directly bound to the Earth."

His meaning was clear: without the divine power to shake the Earth, there was no point in trying to challenge this Titan god.

"Ptooey!"

Spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, Shane slowly got to his feet, raising a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He stood in silence for two seconds, then suddenly looked up and smiled at the other. His voice was somewhat muffled by the continuous flow of blood.

"It's fine, just a minor injury."

Atlas's expression darkened.

"Why force yourself? You have witnessed my divine power, are you not satisfied yet?"

Before Shane could reply, Wonder Woman's anxious voice came from afar.

"Give up, Shane, Atlas's power is not much weaker than Superman's!"

Shane did not answer immediately. Instead, he slowly flew out of the deep crater, stopping only when he was at eye level with Atlas.

Swallowing a surge of blood that welled up in his throat again, Shane turned his head slightly and shook it towards Wonder Woman.

"A teacher should not actively tell his student to give up. Besides, his strength is only comparable to Superman's."

Then Shane turned back, looking at the patiently waiting Atlas.

"What a gentleman."

He raised his hand and beckoned.

Atlas sighed. The giant unexpectedly uttered something no one anticipated.

"Brute..."

He swung a massive fist, no longer comparable to a mountain, towards Shane's side. Simultaneously, an inexplicable gravity field descended out of nowhere, intending to lock Shane firmly in place.

The terrifying fist came with a storm. But just before the gravity field could land, Shane instantly dodged backward a short distance.

Watching the massive fist graze his face, Shane revealed a look of understanding and casually dispersed the sideways hurricane.

"You are indeed slow."

Seeing his point exposed, Atlas was not angry. He slowly retracted his fist and said in a deep voice.

"But you cannot shake me. And once we make physical contact, my gravity lock will be several times faster than a spontaneously generated one. Can you withstand another punch from me?"

"I have to try. I haven't fought an opponent with such immense strength and such slow speed before..."

Before he finished speaking, Shane's body turned into an afterimage. He lunged forward, throwing a jab towards Atlas's large eyes.

Atlas's pupils contracted. He hastily raised his stone-armored arm to block, simultaneously activating his gravity field with all his might to try and slow Shane.

But Shane's attack was too fast. He dodged the gravity field with a flicker and a sway. His fist, with a sharp sound that tore through the air, landed heavily on Atlas's forearm armor.

"THUD!"

With a dull thud, the mixed jade and stone armor cracked like a spiderweb. Atlas's deep voice sounded from behind his forearm.

"Continue, and your injuries will worsen."

Shane ignored him, his body disappearing again. He moved close to the ground, teleporting around Atlas. His fists rained down alternately, each blow imbued with the ultimate power capable of sinking islands, precisely striking the joints and weak points of the armor.

"CRACK! CRACK!"

Cracking sounds followed one after another. Atlas's jade armor on his chest, shoulders, and legs flew off piece by piece, revealing his bronze, solid flesh beneath.

Although he swung his heavy fists in retaliation, he missed repeatedly due to his slow speed, leaving him at the mercy of Shane's punches.

Dozens of consecutive heavy blows left Atlas's armor in tatters. His exposed shoulders, back, waist, and thighs bore over a dozen bruises of alternating purple and blue, each deeply embedded in his muscles, revealing broken blood vessels beneath the skin.

Shane rose again and flew away. Just as he was about to gather strength for another punch, his expression suddenly changed.

A searing pain surged through his nerves like a tide, and he spat out another mouthful of blood, which splattered onto Atlas's tattered armor, blooming into dazzling crimson flowers.

In that momentary lapse, his speed plummeted.

He gritted his teeth, trying to accelerate again, but the instant his fist made contact with Atlas's chest, his fingertips touching the warm flesh, his entire body stiffened.

Atlas seized this sole opportunity for skin contact. His gravity field erupted instantly, like an invisible shackle, pinning Shane firmly in place!

"Got you."

Atlas's voice was devoid of emotion. Since the other party refused to heed his warning, he would show no more mercy.

He clenched his right hand into a massive fist. The surrounding air warped and collapsed under the immense force, carrying a terrifying power comparable to Earth's descent, and slammed viciously into Shane's abdomen.

Shane's vision instantly went black. Experiencing such terrifying power again, he didn't even have time to register the pain before his brain entered a brief state of unconsciousness.

The punch landed squarely. His abdomen caved in instantly, the crisp sound of multiple rib fractures echoing clearly. Blood gushed wildly from the corners of his mouth and nostrils. His blood-soaked body was sent flying through the air.

"Cough..."

Shane, having flown an unknown distance, finally stopped after smashing through several small mountains in the distance of the Divine Realm. Debris rained down as he collapsed onto the ground, the pain in his spine making even lifting his head a struggle.

Yet, his fingers remained dug into the ground, nails breaking and bleeding, refusing to let go. Upon regaining consciousness, the fighting spirit in his eyes had not extinguished; instead, it burned fiercer from the agony.

Atlas leaped forward, landing heavily like a falling celestial body, shaking the earth. Amidst the tremor, he watched Shane struggle to rise, remnants of his armor falling away.

"Still want to fight?"

Shane didn't reply. His gaze was slightly vacant as he exhaled sharply and vanished once more.

Atlas stood still, silently raising his fists, wary of his surroundings.

Shane had changed his tactics again. Feigning a slowdown in speed, he allowed Atlas to catch a fleeting afterimage. Using the opening from Atlas's punch, he forcefully accelerated again, closing the distance. He concentrated his remaining strength into his fist, striking precisely at the bruises left earlier.

With each blow, Atlas let out a muffled groan. After enduring dozens, even hundreds, of impacts due to his inability to block in time, the bruises gradually turned into dark bloodstains, and his gravity field began to fluctuate unstably.

Atlas himself remained calm, his gaze tracking Shane's afterimage as he continuously swung his heavy fists in wide arcs.

He didn't even need to land another direct hit; the mere gale force he stirred up made Shane's body tremble uncontrollably.

Several times, when his footing faltered, Shane couldn't evade in time and was struck by the close-range fist winds on his shoulders and back. His wounds tore open again, blood soaking through his entire body, and his vision began to blur from blood loss.

But he kept his eyes fixed on Atlas's openings. Finally, when Atlas missed a punch and lost his balance, Shane surged forward, pouring all his strength into his right fist, and smashed it hard into the bruised area on Atlas's neck.

Seemingly completely taken by surprise that Shane, in such a grievously wounded state, would dare to engage in a close-quarters frontal assault, Atlas had no time to counter or block.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of bone fracturing drowned out the roar of the earth-shattering tremor. Atlas's neck snapped sharply to one side. His massive body swayed, and the gravity field around him instantly became chaotic and dissipated.

He looked up at the staggering Shane, a surprisingly unexpected smile forming on his lips. Then, he crashed to the ground, kicking up a storm of gravel and dust, his breath finally ceasing.

Shane finally relaxed slightly, collapsing directly onto the scorching gravel, heated by the friction of the repeated gusts of wind. Blood poured from his entire body, his wounds still oozing, the cracks in his spine nearly bisecting his back. Even moving a finger sent a piercing pain through him.

A robust figure strode through the scattered blood in his blurry vision.

A clear, confident voice echoed in Shane's ears.

"I am Hercules—and the third god to challenge you."