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Chapter 136 - Titans collide
🕑 Added 2025-12-27 21:20:35 +0000 UTCThis was Shara’s report on Kraxxksken:
Very strong.
Very tough.
Very good with magic.
Can control turrets.
Now if Ryan saw a threat analysis like this on the realmnet he would have torn it apart and made sure that the poster felt bad enough that they’d delete their messages. Now if an adventurer had made an analysis like this, both worlds would have come together to shame them into oblivion.
But, he was better than that these days. Although, if he was being a little critical, very tough for a realm four monster meant that they were impervious to bullets and resistant to ordinary slashes from fourth realm [Warriors].
Not, you know, capable of fending off a blade of aura that was probably at the seventh realm in strength.
But that was fine. Ryan could forgive her for that. After all, Shara was a sheltered elven princess.
But the goddamn flesh titan was just a little too unacceptable.
It was made out of those big spherical flesh golems, which meant that it had limbs of varying sizes sticking out of everywhere. The turrets located around the city had given Rax ample time distracting both Shara and him while the golems had converged to make this monstrosity.
Rax stood atop the finished flesh titan baring his teeth down at Ryan. Wielding a spear that was capable of defending against Ryan’s aura blade.
The Unwanted leader roared at Ryan.
“Get out of the way, Artigan. This is my final warning, yes?”
The asshole was still hellbent on killing his own people more than him. Ryan was a little insulted.
“You really think that after eating those goddamn grubs that I’m going to let you genocide your own goddamn people?”
The long suffering sigh was all that Ryan needed to hear. The flesh titan stepped forward–and punched.
Ryan leapt out of the way–repositioned with [Instant Dodge]. Then sliced forward with his blade. The rush of wind and the entire sequence felt like it was him facing his first bullipede…
It was almost nostalgic.
The blade of aura sliced through the massive arm like it was butter, it cut all the way through the halfway point and then Ryan let the blade fly.
[Aura Slash]
It went straight through the giant golem and through the other side, blood and gore flying everywhere.
“Hmph.”
The other fist of the golem came flying at Ryan’s body–it was still moving despite its torso being bisected. Ryan used his [Aura Command] to grab one of the buildings, pulling himself towards safety. His eyes were locked onto the golem as the bisected halves started knitting itself back together. Flesh dropped into flesh as a huge amounts of runes trickled down to connect the broken halves.
What?
Rax looked smug. His creation having made mockery of Ryan’s second best attack.
Right, not enough tough materials so why not make it regenerative instead?
…Perhaps attacking the turrets first had been the wrong strategy. Ryan had thought that after failing to cut through Rax in his opening blow, the right strategy would be to get rid of all of the extras first. He was expecting a slog and that a bigger target to waste Rax’s mana would work well.
While he was slightly regretting his actions–Rax hadn’t been the only one stalling.
The explosions from all the turrets had been building up the ambient aura around him. Freaking out all the monsters and the Unwanted elves in the caves was enough to replenish his aura constantly and then some. As long as it continued to build and Ryan wasn’t wasting it with [Aura Slashes] he was happy to stall.
He just needed the right moment to hit Rax with all of it.
The golem picked up a building, crushed it in its hands then threw it at him. The
The enormous building shrapnel were coming at blistering speeds as Ryan tried to find a clear opening to dodge through.
The golem reached down and picked up another one.
As the pieces of the first building smashed into the ground behind him and left deep craters, Ryan realized something. The dirt buildings had been reinforced with mana. Rax was using it to his advantage and throwing what was highly reinforced shrapnel at him.
And Ryan wasn’t risking getting hit by any of that.
[Aura Slash]
The attack cut through a massive gap in the building shrapnel and sliced through.
Only to meet a reinforced titan’s fist that broke the red wave completely.
Ryan blinked.
During the time, the giant golem had picked up the two massive doors that sealed Rax’s workshop. And it was using them as brass knuckles.
Oh shit.
Rax just grinned atop his golem. “You are right, I need to be more creative, yes?”
“Knuckle dusters aren’t creative!”
Ryan started leaping off the top of the stone buildings, cracking the surface with every step. His aura carrying him forward at blistering speeds. He spun to dodge a fist, latched an aura tendril on one of the many exposed limbs on the surface, used that to move just out of the way of the other fist.
Then Ryan started spinning. His aura tendril reforming into a blade.
Between the golem’s arms, a spinning whirlwind of red death sliced at every angle. At first cutting shallow chunks, then the blade growing big enough to slice through the arms entirely.
[Aura Command: Roots]
Ryan canceled the blade form and switched to a mass of aura tendrils. The spinning mass of aura roots started slapping the chunks of the of the flesh golem all around the city. The huge fists dropping down below them.
Good luck picking up those pieces to regenerate from.
Ryan finished spinning, then directed his aura tendrils into one. It grabbed at one of the exposed limbs on the surface of the arms–and he pulled. Ryan hit the surface of the arm at max speed, sprinting up the arm, going straight for Rax that was on the shoulder.
The flesh golem wasn’t some singular form, like the little balls it was made out of, it had multiple hands waving around different weapons. All in the way and trying to take a swing at him.
They couldn’t stop him.
Ryan swung his sword with speed and form as he blitzed up the golem. Leaving a mass of detached limbs in his wake. A gun fired from behind and hit him on the arm, the bullet unable to pierce his robes.
A thought struck him then.
Realm seven robes by the Witch Tyrant, I’ve been dodging bullets this entire time for no goddamn reason.
Ryan put it out of his mind as he rapidly approached the shoulder of the golem. Rax standing atop it with his spear outstretched, teeth bared.
Still no fear.
The head of the golem was a mass of hands and feet too. Most of them were wielding a weapon of some sort. They all drew back–and threw.
Hundreds of weapons were flying towards him.
Ryan threw a tendril of aura around a stump of an exposed limb, using it as an anchoring point, he threw himself on the other side of the massive limb, letting the weapons stab into the golem’s own flesh as he ran across the side and then up.
He was parrying any and all attacks from the surprised limbs on the underside of the golem’s arm.
All automated swings, no finesse. Makes sense, no mindsplit skill.
Ryan figured out in his first encounter that these arms were like the turrets in the city. All automatically trying to hit him with no intelligence behind them. His hand blurred, parrying and slicing everything out of the way.
It turned out there hadn’t been a need for an anchoring tendril at all, Ryan could just jump off these very convenient limbs like they were solid ground.
Now, he was at the back of the shoulder of the flesh titan. Rax was within reach–and looked surprised.
Ryan sliced down, Rax reaching up with his spear to block.
At the last second, the blade of aura curved away, slicing a deep gouge at the back of the neck. It exposed metallic connections and proper magical enchantments on top.
Ryan threw one of his weaker knives.
[Volatile Antimagic Throw]
Rax desperately leapt towards the knife, trying to protect the exposed magical core.
But Ryan was prepared for that too.
[Aura Slash]
It was either protect the mana core of the flesh titan or protect himself… and Rax chose to use his spear to block the wave of aura coming after him.
It hadn’t been the best of plans.
The aura wave smashed Rax backwards into the golem. Right next to the exposed wound, right as the knife with volatile mana hit the exposed mana battery.
BOOM.
Oh fuck.
The explosion, while satisfying, didn’t quite work as he expected it to. Turns out the flesh was tougher than Ryan had first thought. It meant that instead of the golem exploding everywhere in a mass of gore, the fireball of mana exploded out of the very hole that Ryan had made.
And Ryan was right in front of it.
[Aura Condensation]
The aura barely covered him as the explosion blasted him backwards and into a building. Surprisingly his aura reserves still felt topped up.
Ryan flipped onto the ground then started dashing towards the falling flesh titan.
A dazed Rax was hanging onto a limb as his precious creation fell. Unable to believe what he had just seen.
Ryan laughed.
“What? Fighting giant monsters is normal for eighth realm adventurers. Fighting regenerating giant monsters is rarer but nothing special.”
Ryan’s blade was still going strong. The explosion hadn’t done half as much damage as expected. It was obvious now why that was the case as well. The titan was regenerating despite the broken mana core.
It had meant that it had more than one mana core powering it.
Not that it mattered. The explosion was still enough to make the titan fall. Shaking the entire city and causing hairline cracks to spiderweb all over the city’s dome.
Rax stood in front of his recovering titan, his spear in hand he bared his teeth.
Despite everything, the monster leader of the Unwanted was not afraid of him.
Even those prepared to die tended to show a little fear as their sacrifice turned to nothing. Either Rax still believed he would win, or…
It didn’t matter right now. If Rax thought Ryan was going to let his little pet recover then he had another thing coming. Ryan swung horizontally, the twenty feet long blade cutting through the air.
Rax jumped up high, stabbing his spear down.
Ryan flipped his wrist, and in one smooth motion, made the blade swing diagonally upwards. Rax barely blocked in time, the haft of the spear coming to his chest to block. On the ground with leverage, Ryan’s swing launched Rax to the side, slamming into the rubble of a building.
Ryan wasn’t going to let that go, he was sprinting at max speed. Making a proper threat analysis in his mind.
Strong, fast, vicious. But predictable. Goes for vitals each time, no spear school, no real finesse with spear arts. Used to just brute forcing fights with his superior body. Probably going for exchanges.
Simple enough.
It still left the question on how Rax was so strong, but that was a question he couldn’t focus on right now.
Not with the city starting to collapse around them. Ryan was going to finish this now.
He threw his knives of returning at the hazy figure in the dust cloud.
It moved forward, heedless of the daggers. The blades did cut through the skin but not much more than that.
Rax stabbed forward again, desperate to get a stab–any stab in. He met in the middle, his sword coming down, pinpointed on Rax’s hand. The spear twitched upwards, blocking the sword and clashing together in a bout of strength.
And Ryan was losing. His feet slid back as the spear started breaking into his aura blade.
It’s not concepts, I’m stronger than ever, he’s just that fucking strong. How?
It didn’t matter, Ryan had planned for this. He recalled the knives he’d just thrown. The daggers speeding up and slamming into Rax’s back. Barely piercing in. Killing Rax with those knives had never been the intention, it was to break the Unwanted monster’s form.
Rax stumbled forward, then his eyes went wide, as if there was a delay between the impact of the daggers and the actual pain of the hit.
Still it was all Ryan needed. He changed the blade of aura and gripped the bastard’s right hand.
Rax tried to immediately wrestle back with all his might but it was too late. Ryan was now stronger than Rax was. He had started to activate his trump card the moment the daggers had hit the back.
And Ryan was getting stronger.
[Resource Overdrive: Aura]
What happens when a city’s worth of people and the entirety of the Cataclysm Abyss shakes from your fight? When the flesh titan’s fall echoed out, causing what had to be the greatest impact of all? When two apexes fought and Ryan’s aura seemed to encompass the entire field?
They became afraid.
He had been building up to this moment. His aura grew and grew.
Rax hissed and tried to bite, his face making its way to Ryan’s neck. Ryan just pulled his arm back, jerking Rax’s arm to follow alongside with him. His grip now crushing the Unwanted leader’s hands completely.
He then threw a haymaker to end all haymakers, right at Rax’s face. His open mouth crunching against the fist of aura. The leader’s eyes growing wide as Ryan’s massive fist punched his entire face and body into the ground
BOOM!
The force cracked the entire ground of the city. Even still, the monster was squirming in Ryan’s grip. Magical pulses started firing from around his hand.
Ryan looked down to see a mess of flesh… exposed metal, and a beating magical core.
What?
“Artigan! We must go! Yes!?”
Shara popped her head up amongst the broken rubble, her hand keeping a room in the building sustained.
“In here!”
“He’s not dead! This was a golem!”
Shara’s eyes met the mess of flesh, metal and magic in his hand. Her eyes went wide.
“Snap out of it! He’s still alive, no wonder he wasn’t afraid. Shara do you have any idea where he was hiding?!”
A huge chunk of rock fell from the ceiling about to hit the building she was under. Ryan smashed it apart as he felt the overdrive skill start to fade.
Her eyes went wide at the ruins of the builder that had nearly struck her shelter. He was getting the feeling that even that might be a little too much for her. Ryan sprinted up to her and grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up. She shrieked as she clawed at his face.
Ryan took the deep scratch on the face and shouted at her.
“Focus! Do you know where he could be hiding?”
“Workshop! Sire always has escapes in his workshop!”
“Fuck!”
Ryan sprinted with an elven princess on his shoulder, a broken golem in hand, the city collapsing over him. He sprinted towards the workshop.
His aura was rapidly fading and not recovering half as quickly as it should have. Extending himself with [Resource Overdrive] seemed to have damaged his ability to recover aura.
All he could think was that Rax was on his way to kill everyone else.
Ryan had fucked up.
///
Sorry for the day's delay, I started editing this chapter yesterday and wasn't enjoying it... So I basically rewrote the scene from the ground up. Had to shelve it till today to do finish.
Removed like a thousand words that explained how they got there:
Tldr: Rax kicked Ryan backwards and ran into his lab while the turrets started firing down at him. Shara took control over one of the turrets and helped Ryan destroy them until he told her to retreat.
I deleted it cause recapping at the start of an action chapter felt off and had to take some words from the future chapters and add some scenes in. Might have been a mistake but I think this reads much better overall tbh
Comments
Marquess
His backstory suggests he’s always been specialized as a trap maker. It’d make sense if his creations are far more potent than himself.
Thejasvi Prahlad
Wonder if the actual body of rax is jsut as squishy as the rest, and the durable front he presented was always a golem
im Panda
Thanks~
Hotchmeister
Thanks for the chapter
Jaklelope
Tyftc
Cruz115 the unintentional (master) baiter
Thanks for the chapter.
Erebus
Quick someone banish the cliff! lol
Erebus
Thanks for the chapter 🙂
