Above the Elite

Jayce was sent sliding backward over a hundred meters. Then the giant's palm slammed into his chest, exploding with a thunderous sound and an invisible blast of air.

Seeing that his punch had done nothing, a grave expression appeared on Jayce's face.

What race was this giant? Its defense was astonishing, and its strength was no less formidable.

Sparta appeared at Jayce's side and tilted his head slightly as he suggested:

"This thing is strong. Let's take it together."

Jayce nodded lightly in agreement.

"Alright. I'll draw it head-on. You look for a chance to ambush it."

"Understood."

As soon as he spoke, the Rock Giant let out a deafening roar despite having no mouth.

"Roar—!!!"

The roar became tangible, creating rings of transparent ripples in the air.

It stepped forward, making the entire ground tremble. Then it leaped high into the air, its massive figure blocking out the sunlight as its stone fist came crashing down on the two of them with howling wind pressure.

Sparta and Jayce hurriedly dodged. The stone fist smashed heavily into the sand, kicking up a sandstorm dozens of meters high that spread for thousands of meters.

Jayce flew upward along the stone arm, rapidly closing in on the Rock Giant's head as he gathered power into his fist.

Another punch landed, yet the giant remained completely unharmed.

Sparta appeared at the giant's nape and struck down with a hand chop.

This attack had some effect. A few inconspicuous fragments of stone fell from the giant's neck.

It worked, but barely.

The giant retaliated swiftly, reaching back with its massive hand to grab its nape. Sparta instantly vanished into an afterimage, leaving it grasping at empty air.

Then it swung its enormous fist at Jayce.

"Let's see just how strong you are!"

Facing a fist several times larger than himself, Jayce showed no fear. Not only did he not dodge, he accelerated and charged straight toward it.

As the gigantic fist drew closer, every muscle in his body tensed, veins bulging along his right arm as he threw a punch to meet it head-on.

Jayce's fist collided with the giant's stone fist in midair. In that instant, a visible shockwave erupted from the point of impact.

Sparta crossed his arms in front of himself to block the hurricane-like shockwave, which blew his hair straight back into a slicked-back style.

The recruits battling other giants in the distance were sent flying by the sudden impact, struggling to stabilize themselves in midair.

The giant, which had seemed immovable all this time, actually leaned backward and took half a step back.

Jayce, on the other hand, was in far worse condition. He spun wildly through the air like an arrow loosed from a bow, unable to steady himself.

Only after rolling more than ten thousand meters did he finally stop.

He hovered in midair, his right arm numb and trembling slightly. The skin over his knuckles had split open, thin streams of blood dripping down.

Jayce lowered his head to look at his fist, then stared at the distant Rock Giant with disbelief in his eyes.

"This guy's strength..."

Who was he? He was an elite warrior of the Viltrumite Empire, one of the universe's top combatants.

And now he was actually being suppressed by some nameless giant?

Clearly, the giant's strength had exceeded expectations. It was above the elite level.

Sparta lowered his crossed arms, clenched his right fist above his head, held his left fist level with his shoulder, and charged at the giant.

Just one second before he reached the giant's body, the giant suddenly extended its palm to grab him.

Sparta hurriedly twisted aside. The fingers brushed past him, whipping up a fierce gust.

He narrowly escaped disaster, but did not stop moving in the slightest. Sparta closed in from the front and drove his fist into the glowing red crystal.

Fine cracks appeared across the crystal's surface. The giant let out an earth-shaking roar that scattered the white clouds in the sky.

"It worked!"

Sparta was overjoyed.

But that attack had thoroughly enraged the Rock Giant. Its movements became even more violent, and its speed increased by several degrees.

Its enormous stone palm swept sideways at Sparta.

He had thought he would evade it as before, only to discover that the giant's sweep was far too fast.

Caught off guard and unable to dodge in time, Sparta was struck hard, his afterimage slamming down toward the ground.

His body crashed into the ground and bounced back up, then smashed into the ground again, only to be flung back into the air over and over.

After slamming into the ground and rebounding more than ten times, Sparta's body rolled across the ground for another thousand meters before barely coming to a stop.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

The giant's heavy footsteps shook the earth. Each step covered a hundred meters as it sprinted toward where Sparta had fallen.

"Damn it."

Seeing that things were going badly, Jayce accelerated to intercept it.

But the giant merely swung a hand as though swatting a fly, sending Jayce's body drawing a miserable arc through the air before he crashed to the ground.

"Urgh."

Sparta struggled to push himself up from the dust, blood mixed with sand flowing from the corner of his mouth.

He looked up and saw a shadow that blotted out the sky already looming before him. His pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints.

Reflected in his eyes, the giant bent over, its fist dropping to the ground and plowing through the sand to carve a deep trench as it attacked.

"I'm done for!"

There was no time to dodge. Sparta could only raise both arms in front of his chest, hoping the block would work.

The next second, Sparta was sent flying backward. He used his flight ability to steady himself in midair.

Before he could even inspect the searing pain in his arms, he searched the ground for the Rock Giant, only to discover that it had vanished.

"Whoosh—"

A chilling howl came from behind him. Sparta abruptly turned around.

The Rock Giant had somehow leaped high into the air and appeared behind him. Its six scarlet crystal eyes radiated an eerie red glow.

It extended its left hand as a palm before itself and drew back its right hand as a fist, taking the posture of a charged strike.

"?"

This was Sparta's final thought.

The stone fist arrived with a sonic boom, crushing his facial features into a distorted grimace before finally descending.

"Boom!!!!"

Sparta's body became a meteor and slammed into the ground.

The sea of sand exploded. The shockwave flattened dunes within more than a dozen kilometers, forming a massive circular crater a thousand meters wide at the center of his impact.

Sand and dust rose hundreds of meters into the air, sweeping across half the sky.

"Sparta!"

Jayce, blood flowing from his forehead, stared at the dust in the sky with eyes widened larger than bells and filled with bloodshot veins.

He glared at the Rock Giant through gritted teeth and roared furiously:

"I'll kill you!!!"

With that, his figure accelerated a second time in the air, charging at the Rock Giant at an even faster speed.

Fueled by rage, his strength at this moment had far surpassed his normal state.

The Rock Giant landed from the air, its six scarlet eyes fixed on Jayce as it charged forward at full speed.

Jayce dodged its punch, then drove another fist into the giant's jaw.

Empowered by rage, this punch unleashed unimaginable force. The giant was blasted backward again and again, its head thrown back.

Jayce's second punch followed immediately, striking the giant's jaw once more.

The giant's body leaned backward, and a large chunk of rock fell from its jaw, leaving behind an obvious flaw.