See Large Ape
Edrick’s clothes were ripped to shreds as he once again assumed the form of a sasquatch.
When it came to pure power, he found that simply combining the form of the sasquatch lord with the incredible physique of a Skunk Sasquatch was more than enough to achieve the peak of what he currently had available to him.
The strong points of the Mountain Sasquatch and Pygmy Sasquatch simply did not mesh well with the rest, so he merely focused on the two mightiest forms at his disposal.
His entire body grew in size as his limbs became incredibly thick. Black fur surged from all over, shrouding his silhouette in darkness. Still, the Red Guardian could have sworn that he caught sight of two glowing, dark purple eyes amidst it all for a split second.
Naturally caught off guard by such a development, he backed off several steps.
Having been the defender of this realm for a long time, he had seen plenty of humans come here to pillage the realm--But never had he encountered anything like this.
Edrick had already towered over him before, but now, he was casting his shadow all over him!
Uncertain what this transformation meant, or what sort of power increase it could have brought, the Red Guardian maintained distance, not daring to move recklessly. The muscles making up his crimson arms tensed up alongside the rest.
The great sasquatch stepped forward. His stomps were heavy, telling much about the weight Anoteros was currently in control of.
Edrick then made use of the ability he had earned back when he completed the quest to taunt the authorities of Oie alongside Prosecutor Yi… He released his killing intent and bloodlust in the greatest amount possible, focusing it all upon the Red Guardian.
Struck by the manifestation of the killing intent of another world’s greatest killer, the Red Guardian was shaken. The bloodlust was indescribably pure. Cold. It felt oddly... Surgical.
As strong as he may be, the Guardian had never experienced anything even remotely close to this before. Thus, for a moment, he was left vulnerable--Wide open.
Edrick did not miss this opportunity, lunging forward the instant he felt a gap in his enemy’s defence.
With his right hand curled up into a fist, he struck the Guardian in the chest and head simultaneously- Testament to the sheer size of his limb.
The Red Guardian was thrown backwards, sent rolling and bouncing across the ground. Chunks of earth were chipped away every single time until the creature delivered a punch into the soil. His fist and arm sinking into the ground, his momentum halted in an instant.
Growling, he rose tall.
His nose was bent the wrong way and leaking blood. His upper body was badly bruised, and his lower garments partly shredded.
Before even being able to collect his thoughts, a hail of projectiles was launched his way. Not arrows this time, but chunks of the very ground that Edrick was scooping up... Bits and pieces that he clenched in one hand and slung through the air in the way a baseball player would throw a ball.
The Red Guardian threw himself aside, but the human-turned-sasquatch was relentless with his attacks.
Shards of earth and stone struck him in the chest, cutting into his face as they whistled past his head.
Once more, he growled, but something else happened.
Anoteros narrowed his eyes as he felt it.
The Guardian was pulling the ambient energies floating all around them toward him. Not only that, but he was absorbing it as well.
Absorbing ambient energy without quickly refining it into your own inner energy through the usage of a cultivation technique was suicidal. One’s body was not built to handle such foreign forces.
You either took control of it and made it your own, or you never actually took it in to begin with. However, the Red Guardian was doing neither. He was merely pulling it all toward him without care, and for some reason, it seemed to be working perfectly well.
Edrick continued his assault, but within, his mind was churning to understand and try to predict what would happen next. He greatly doubted that the Red Guardian would do something so foolish, especially when the fight had barely begun... Although damaged, his injuries were still minor.
There simply was no need to go so far at the moment.
‘Is this an advantage of being this realm’s guardian?’ that was the conclusion the young noble came to. The Red Guardian most certainly ran no risk by doing so because of his special status here. The ambient energy was a resource he could use without fear.
That wasn’t good news for Anoteros. The secret realm was incredibly rich in ambient energy. Its concentration and quantity were far superior to what he knew outside… If it could be freely taken advantage of by his adversary...
Swiftly, Edrick pushed off the ground, narrowly evading a compressed blast of pure energy.
This was no proper spell. It was more akin to the trick Ku Xing had once shown him--Only cruder, more savage. There was no refinement in the attack. The Red Guardian was merely smashing everything he could gather into the same place and throwing it Edrick’s way, presumably without even knowing what precise form the blast would take.
Furthermore, due to being crafted from ambient energy, if Anoteros were to be caught in it, he would have to scramble to either expel or refine a whole bunch of it as it got in his body.
The attack was simple and barbaric on the surface, but it was perhaps deadlier than many true spells.
As Edrick managed to dodge, he reached out and took hold of a piece of debris from the temple. Using his momentum, he let himself spin around before launching the rubble straight at the Guardian.
Using that blast of energy did not seem to particularly tire or affect him in any way. But presumably, due to having rarely, if ever, had to resort to using it in the past, he was a sitting duck during the entire process. This prevented him from dodging the piece of debris as it was upon him within a moment.
The Guardian did not panic, however. Even as the piece of rubble, which was bigger than him--And which he knew was built of especially heavy stone--Neared him, he merely pulled into more ambient energy and swiftly released it with a powerful blast all around him, shattering the debris before it could make contact.
As the rubble was shattered, he saw that the giant ape had somehow vanished from where it had been standing a moment ago.
He was a second too late to realise where Edrick had gone to…