Chapter 988

Nobody moved a muscle.

Who would want to waste their time on a petty clash when the real deal was finally about to start?

The tension in the air was so thick it could be carved with a blade.

"Ah damn... who has popcorn here?" Alba questioned with a sarcastic frown, her voice the only thing breaking the suffocating silence.

BANG—!

Grey was immediately gone, moving with a velocity far beyond anything the onlookers could fathom.

Within a blink, he was already before Devan, a wind sword slicing through the air toward the bulky man’s neck.

Clang—!

The wind sword was immediately deflected by Devan’s Ki spear.

Without delay, the man lunged forward, his weapon whistling through the air in a lethal thrust aimed at Grey’s abdomen.

Without even looking at the spear heading his way, Grey’s second hand hauled forward, a lightning sword materializing into his grasp at the final moment.

"Are you willing to get severely injured for just the slightest opening?" Devan grunted.

"Who said anything about me getting injured?"

The earth erupted as a solid wall rose in front of the warrior mage, intercepting the Ki spear.

The moment the tip of the weapon struck the stone, the wall exploded and crumbled to pieces.

Like a blur, Devan sidestepped Grey’s lightning blade, which cleaved through the air with a devastating crash that shook the earth.

Pressing his toes into the ground, Devan blasted forward with rapid velocity.

Closing the distance within a heartbeat, his fist rocketed through the air like a massive battering ram.

Spinning around almost immediately, a pair of earth gauntlets appeared around Grey’s hands.

BAM—! BOOOM—!

The punch landed with crushing weight, forcing Grey to slide a few inches backward.

Spider-web cracks lined the earth gauntlet, which immediately lost its durability under the strain.

Luckily, Grey’s hands remained intact.

A massive shockwave blew outward from the point of impact.

For a split second, the combatants turned to see Gunther and Ortiz in a high-speed exchange that saw them dancing across the entire battlefield.

Snapping their heads back forward in unison, Grey snapped his fingers, and a dozen lightning arrows rushed forward with destructive speed.

Devan didn’t waste a second.

He blurred into motion, dodging and weaving through the projectiles like they were nothing.

With each crash into the soil, the arrows tore deep, smoking trenches.

Devan avoided everything with stunning agility for someone of his massive stature.

Darting to the side, he lunged forward, closing the distance again in a second.

His fist swung from below with crushing momentum.

Grey inclined his head to the side, barely avoiding an uppercut that cut through the air with a loud boom, as if the atmosphere itself had suffered a massive blow.

The rush of air against his face made it clear how deadly close he had come to having his skull shattered.

Before he could retaliate, Devan twisted his hip.

The same hand he had used for the uppercut came down in a punishing blow that sent Grey crashing head-first into the dirt.

A five-meter-wide hollow immediately yawned open in the earth as trickles of blood fell from Grey’s nose into the pit.

"Yayyyy—!"

The Behemoth Clan cheered with intensity, as if they were watching a championship soccer match.

Devan’s foot then rushed toward the Supreme Magus’ head in a fluid kick intended to pulverize him.

With uncanny speed, Grey slammed his hands into the ground and shot into the air like a loose arrow.

Devan’s foot crashed into the hollow instead.

The ground shattered further than it should have; any deeper, and they might have discovered oil.

Spinning back around, Grey hurtled downward, Clara materializing in his hand.

Swinging the blade forward, the sword was about to strike when the giant spun around, crossing his hands in front of his face to block the blow.

Clara left a shallow mark on his skin that didn’t quite draw blood.

Vaulting backward while still mid-air, Grey summoned a hundred wind swords that fired forward with deadly precision.

Feeling the displacement of the air, Devan removed his hands from his view to see the gale blades speeding toward him.

Yet, he made no effort to block or even dodge.

All he did was turn his back to the incoming attacks. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Grey landed a few meters away just as the wind swords crashed into Devan’s back.

To everyone’s shock, the gale blades shattered like brittle glass upon impact.

Grey frowned, his analytical mind immediately dissecting the phenomenon.

’Ki coating. Since he is a Stage Nine warrior, his Ki is incredibly dense and potent, allowing him to coat his physique to deflect most conventional attacks.’

Whirling around almost immediately, Devan let himself fly forward like an arrow released from a taut string.

His predatory grin flashed in front of Grey’s face, followed by the lethal gleam of his Ki spear as it lunged toward the warrior mage’s head.

Crouching down with fluid grace, Grey retaliated; Clara flashed forward, striking toward the man’s abdomen and forcing him to take half a step back to evade the cold steel.

Shooting upright, a giant fireball suddenly manifested, hovering directly above Grey’s head like a miniature sun.

Devan’s eyes widened upon seeing the proximity of the blaze.

Quickly, he attempted to bound backward to create distance, but the earth surged upward to restrict his movement.

The soil transformed into a dozen hands that clamped onto his legs with crushing force.

Due to his monstrous strength, Devan was able to snap the bindings as if they were made of dry grass.

However, the earthen restraints managed to hold him stationary for a second or two—just enough time for the fireball to crash into his frame.

The flames instantly consumed him in their fiery wrath.

Leaping backward, Grey opened up the distance as he watched the conflagration swallow the man from head to toe.

"....!!!"

Devan immediately erupted from the heart of the flames like a sniper’s bullet—silent, deadly, and unstoppable.

His form was a flash of mountainous build, hurtling forward with singular focus.

There was only one target in his sights: Grey!

Within moments, his fist was already crashing through the air toward the Supreme Magus’ chest with a velocity far surpassing anything he had displayed previously.

’Ki augmentation...’

Grey stared at the approaching fist with a sharp gleam in his eyes.

A surge of blue lightning immediately crackled across the battlefield, snaking across Grey’s frame like a living storm.

It danced across his body, casting his figure in flashes of violent brilliance, raw power crackling with each breath he took.

Before everyone’s eyes, Grey was no longer there.

He had moved.