Chapter 205: The Power of the Third Rank!
CRASH!
A massive force traveled up the blade.
Pandora was thrown backward.
Like a kite with its string cut, she flew through the air, smashing into a half-suspended “artistic piece” for a bedding display.
The metal frame couldn’t take the impact. The fabric tore.
The massive amount of white goose down packed inside exploded out, a sudden burst.
In the dim light from the skylight, countless white feathers drifted down, a blizzard in the ruined mall.
Their view was instantly blurred by the swirling curtain of snow.
Wilbur’s eyes narrowed.
His gaze pierced the dancing feathers, locking onto the scarlet figure. She was half-crouched, just now finding her footing.
Her combat instincts were sharp.
That heavy blow hadn’t done any real damage.
An attack like that was never going to be enough to kill her.
To kill the Scarred Woman…
even he had to…
go all out!
The thought rose.
Inside him, the Third-Rank power of the Corpse-Plague Acolyte fully awakened. It began to surge.
Power flowed from its source in his core, spreading to every muscle, bone, and nerve ending. Then, under his fine control, it converged, gathering back into his intact left hand.
His right arm, with its shattered bone and torn muscle, couldn’t move with precision. The power flowed through it sluggishly…
but the power itself was still there.
He could still use it.
The three fresh cuts on his left elbow, left by her sword, sealed shut. The active pus flowed under his skin, closing the wounds.
For a Third-Rank Transcendent, a “normal” cut like this, without any special corrosive magic attached, wasn’t going to bleed him out or slow him down like it would a mortal.
It wouldn’t heal instantly, but it wouldn’t be a problem.
In other words…
those three sharp, precise strikes hadn’t actually caused him any real “injury.”
A Third-Rank had long since ceased to be “normal.”
To Wilbur, killing a Second-Rank, even an exceptional one, held no real risk.
There was no way she could actually kill him.
The worst-case scenario? The Scarred Woman escaped through some trick or sheer luck.
That was it.
Wilbur’s left arm began to change.
A massive amount of viscous, activated pus flooded from the glands beneath his skin. The entire limb swelled and bulged, growing at a visible rate!
His veins bulged like twisted earthworms. His muscles knotted, defined, packed with explosive power.
The pus coating his arm thickened, but it didn’t hinder his flexibility.
The inner layer of pus solidified into a tough, gelatinous buffer. The outer layer hardened completely, like a grotesque, terrifying biological carapace fitted over his left hand!
His entire presence gained an extra layer of inhuman ferocity. A palpable pressure.
Wilbur released the oppressive aura of the Third Rank without reservation.
If he were facing a weaker Corpse-Plague Acolyte, the aura he was releasing would have been enough to shatter their will, to make them turn and run.
The only outcome of an action like that would be to die faster.
But the woman before him was different.
Wilbur’s gaze stayed locked on the half-crouched scarlet figure.
She stared him down. Calm.
So calm it was… incredible.
But he still didn’t believe there was any outcome for her but defeat.
Wilbur slowly raised his completely mutated, carapace-covered left hand.
The Transcendent glands in his arm opened wide. A thick, foul-smelling stream of toxic pus gushed forth, at immense cost, without a thought for the consequences!
The streams traced bizarre arcs in the air, then connected with pinpoint accuracy to the pus carpet covering the area.
That carpet, while they were trading blows, had silently crept over from the escalator entrance.
Now, this area was his domain.
Whoosh!
All the pus tentacles connected to the carpet suddenly contracted!
At the same time,
Wilbur kicked off the ground, his body launching like a cannonball!
He leaped with all his might toward the Scarred Woman, throwing a punch!
The wind from his fist howled!
It tore through the blizzard of goose down!
A grotesque fist, carrying a terrifying power that seemed like it could smash anything, smashed down!
What Wilbur didn’t expect was
that meeting his full-power punch was
not a dodge,
not a block,
but a line of scarlet sword light, rising to meet it!
At this moment, Pandora also used her full power!
On her scarlet greatsword, the dark luster flowing across the blade suddenly intensified. A tangible, blood-red mist, like vaporized blood, emanated from the steel.
All of that light gathered on the sharp edge of the sword, condensing into a single, dazzling line of scarlet!
Beneath the terrifying pressure of a Third-Rank’s full power,
she did not retreat. She advanced!
To meet a fist…
with a sword!
CLANG—!!!
The explosive boom of metal against biological carapace was piercing!
Sparks and shattered pus burst into the air!
In that instant of collision, as their powers smashed against each other, Wilbur’s gaze met the Scarred Woman’s one more time.
Her eyes were still perfectly calm.
No fear.
No retreat.
And deep in those crimson eyes, Wilbur thought he saw it. A flicker of something suppressed, a flame-burning…
Excitement!
What a terrifying opponent!
The thought flashed, uncontrollably, through Wilbur’s mind.