Chapter416 – Hard and fast…

Boom! The impact shook the valley. And then—

Whoosh! A streak of light shot out from beneath the ape’s palm and continued forward.

“He just tanked that?!” Lilith stared in disbelief. “How is he that damn hard?”

She smirked sideways at Axel. “A man that hard and that fast… kid, you can’t learn that.”

“Sis, is now really the time for dirty jokes?” Axel groaned. Then he froze. “Wait… hard and fast…”

Lilith blinked. “You’re not seriously getting horny in the middle of a chase, are you?”

Axel ignored her, muttering under his breath. “Hard… and fast… That doesn’t add up…”

Then his eyes lit up. “I’ve got it! Next time he gets stalled by a beast, hit him remotely with Space Killing Blade!”

“What’s the point?” Lilith frowned.

“Just do it!”

She stared at him, stunned. Axel was the first man who’d ever dared bark orders at her like that after she’d proven her worth. Normally, she would’ve made him suffer for the attitude. But—

For some reason…She didn’t.

Up ahead, Isos felt a sudden chill crawl up his spine. Axel locked onto him, waiting.

Wait…

Wait… There—

“Now!”

At that exact instant, a massive tail thick as a tree trunk whipped across Isos’s flank. It belonged to a Level 6 mutated beast—the Swordscale Steel Lizard. Half its body length was tail, and that tail was its most lethal weapon.

With no room to dodge, Isos braced again.

Bang! The impact sent him staggering. He wasn’t flung away—but he wasn’t untouched either. For a split second after the strike, Isos slowed to stabilize himself. That moment—

Was enough. He felt danger. His body reacted instinctively, halting mid-step—

Too late. Blood sprayed into the air.

Lilith’s Space Killing Blade had sliced through him. She stared in shock.

The distance between them had significantly weakened her attack. Normally, at that range, her strike shouldn’t have broken through his defense at all. And yet—

It had cut him. Cleanly.

Isos drew a sharp breath, about to kick off again— And suddenly froze.

Boom! A beam of light tore across the battlefield and detonated in a violent explosion ahead of him, forcing him to halt.

“Don’t run if you don’t want to die!” Axel’s voice rang out through the smoke as he charged in, sword blazing. “I’ve already figured out your talent!”

If Isos were truly both that fast and that durable, why would he be running?

With his absurd speed, monstrous defense, rapid regeneration, and that terrifying self-destruct awakening skill, he could’ve dragged this out and ground them to death slowly. Unless—

“Your speed and your defense can’t coexist!” Axel slashed downward, his words cutting just as sharply as his blade.

Isos felt like coughing up blood. How the hell had this brat seen through him so quickly?

Even so, his body reacted on instinct. He shifted his stance, reinforcing his defensive state while suppressing his speed enhancement.

The Soul Devouring Blade flashed again and again, carving bloody gashes into Isos’s forearms. Sparks burst with every impact.

Individually, the wounds were manageable. Given a gap, he could regenerate them.

But Axel didn’t give him a gap. The attacks clung to him like leeches. With his speed suppressed and mutated beasts constantly interfering, Isos couldn’t break away.

This is bad. The stacking physical damage wasn’t what worried him most. It was his mind.

A splitting headache throbbed behind his eyes. His mental strength wasn’t weak. Against a typical Spirit Awakener, he could even counterattack.

But Axel’s mental erosion wasn’t explosive—it was corrosive. Like poison.

Slow. Persistent. Inescapable.

It seeped into his consciousness, eating away at his clarity. Over time, it would weaken his awakening skills themselves.

On top of that, mutated beasts kept swarming in, slashing, biting, interfering. If this continued, he wouldn’t be killed by Axel. He’d be buried alive under a tide of monsters.

And the worst part? Axel’s life-concealment effect was still active. From the moment he began the chase, it hadn’t flickered once.

Is this guy a fucking monster? Even if he’s burning Blood Refining Stones nonstop, that shouldn’t be sustainable!

“Hiss—!”

A massive tail lashed in from an impossibly tricky angle. The Swordscale Steel Lizard.

Unlike the other beasts, it hadn’t mindlessly joined the pursuit. It had been waiting—calculating—striking only when their focus slipped.

Axel twisted mid-air, Burning Fighting Spirit flaring as he narrowly evaded.

Isos pivoted, shoulder rolling forward. He threw a horizontal punch.

Bang!

Isos’s fist detonated like a compressed bomb, blasting straight through the Swordscale Steel Lizard’s enormous tail.

Flesh and bone exploded. Blood rained down with the beast’s agonized roar. A directional, compressed version of Vajra Wrath. Not as catastrophic as the self-destruct variant—but more than enough.

Using the shockwave and chaos as cover, Isos surged forward again, trying to rip open distance.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

A shrill tearing sound split the air. Isos’s body burst open in a dozen places, blood spraying outward like a ruptured hydrant.

Lilith’s Space Killing Blade had finally landed clean.

Deep. Lethal. But Isos didn’t slow. He pushed through the damage, gambling everything on speed.

And the worst part? Axel’s life-concealment effect was still active. From the moment he began the chase, it hadn’t flickered once.

Is this guy a fucking monster? Even if he’s burning Blood Refining Stones nonstop, that shouldn’t be sustainable!

“Hiss—!”

A massive tail lashed in from an impossibly tricky angle. The Swordscale Steel Lizard.

Unlike the other beasts, it hadn’t mindlessly joined the pursuit. It had been waiting—calculating—striking only when their focus slipped.

Axel twisted mid-air, Burning Fighting Spirit flaring as he narrowly evaded.

Isos pivoted, shoulder rolling forward. He threw a horizontal punch.

Bang!

Isos’s fist detonated like a compressed bomb, blasting straight through the Swordscale Steel Lizard’s enormous tail.

Flesh and bone exploded. Blood rained down with the beast’s agonized roar. A directional, compressed version of Vajra Wrath. Not as catastrophic as the self-destruct variant—but more than enough.

Using the shockwave and chaos as cover, Isos surged forward again, trying to rip open distance.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

A shrill tearing sound split the air. Isos’s body burst open in a dozen places, blood spraying outward like a ruptured hydrant.

Lilith’s Space Killing Blade had finally landed clean.

Deep. Lethal. But Isos didn’t slow. He pushed through the damage, gambling everything on speed.

“What a shame,” Lilith said, face pale as paper from exhaustion, yet smiling dangerously. “You’ve got too many wounds.”

She snapped her fingers. Isos staggered. “Pfft—!”

He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood, nearly collapsing. “Poison?!”

Horror and fury surged through him. The blood spraying from his body wasn’t just his—it was laced with concentrated toxin. With so many open wounds, the poison was working at more than full efficiency.

“Vajra Wrath!” A contained explosion burst from his body, blasting apart the surrounding low-level beasts. But that wasn’t the goal.

The blast purged the toxins from his system. He reacted instantly—decisive, ruthless.

But Lilith had already bought enough time. Through the smoke and fire, a blade of light descended. Too fast.

“No choice—block!” Isos crossed his arms.

Clang!

“AAARGH!” The scream tore from his throat as metal rang against metal.

Before him stood Axel, eyes cold. On his forehead, a teardrop-shaped blue mark glowed like a third eye—staring directly into Isos’s soul.

“True damage…” Axel murmured, watching Isos’s nearly severed arm hang by shredded muscle.

The Eye of Truth. Its ability to convert mental damage into direct, unavoidable harm had finally found its perfect target.

At first, Axel had been disappointed. He didn’t have a reliable way to inflict mental damage. At best, he could release a burst of mental force to cause minor impact.

Insignificant. Until he realized—

The Soul Devouring Blade. It inflicted soul damage. And soul damage was mental injury.

Even if Isos’s spirit was strong enough to resist the brunt of it, once the Eye of Truth converted that injury into true damage—

It bypassed everything. Defense. Fortification. Physical reinforcement. All meaningless.