Chapter 1449 Adaptation as a Trap

Ethan didn't see it that way.

Ignoring him?

Then Lunethar had no one to blame but itself.

The black particles beneath Lunethar's jaw suddenly parted, and Ethan shot through the opening. Strange energy wrapped both fists while white lightning crawled along his arms. He lowered his body, channeled all his forward momentum into his right fist, and drove it upward into Lunethar's chin.

The rising uppercut landed cleanly.

The impact tore through Lunethar's entire head from below and launched its enormous body skyward. Its upper and lower teeth slammed together with a sharp crack that echoed throughout the domain. All eight large eyes shook violently before turning downward in unison.

Its automatic defenses activated.

All eight pupils lit up pink. Energy surged from deep inside the eyes and gathered at the front, locking on to Ethan before he could retract his fist.

Pink lasers poured down the next instant.

Not one beam.

Eight.

They closed in from different angles, crossing over one another and cutting off nearly every escape route.

For the first time, Ethan saw an advantage to having so many targets.

White light gathered in his palm, and he tossed an energy sphere overhead. It spread outward the moment it left his hand, forming a translucent shield that blocked all eight lasers at once.

Pink light hammered the barrier, triggering a chain of explosions across the points of impact. Cracks covered its surface within seconds, but Ethan had already dissolved into black particles and vanished along with the collapsing shield.

He reappeared above Lunethar's head.

Since Lunethar had no lower body and therefore no legs to attack, he would just hit it in the head.

Perfectly reasonable.

All eight eyes immediately found him. Two large eyes detached from their sockets and rose on either side, turning their pupils toward Ethan. The other six didn't follow. Instead, they watched the surrounding space, guarding the places where he might reappear next.

"Ethan!"

Lunethar's voice shook the falling rain away from its body.

"How did you get in here?"

Tissue swelled across its surface as sockets opened one after another. Swarms of small eyes poured out and formed several rings around Ethan.

He didn't answer.

The two large eyes nearest him lit up first. Fiery red lasers shot out simultaneously and met directly where he stood. The collision expanded outward, its scorching energy burning away the surrounding black particles.

But Ethan had already disappeared from the point of impact.

Lunethar turned its eyes to search for him, only to hear a light patting sound from above.

Ethan was crouched on top of its head. He ran a hand over the smooth surface, then rapped it twice with his knuckles.

Knock. Knock.

It had a surprisingly crisp sound.

"Sounds good. That's a quality head."

White light covered his fist as fine arcs of electricity coiled up from his wrist. The storm clouds overhead churned at the same moment, sending several bolts of white lightning into the surrounding swarm and blasting apart every small eye that tried to approach.

Ethan lowered his center of gravity and swung his right fist forward from his side.

The pressure from the blow struck Lunethar's head first. A moment later, Ethan's lightning-wreathed fist hit dead center. The tremendous impact drove straight through Lunethar's skull and sent its entire head plummeting along a vertical path.

It crashed into the floor of the domain. Black particles erupted into the air, forming a circular dust wave that spread outward.

Ethan followed close behind.

Another energy sphere formed in his palm, and he hurled it down. It chased Lunethar into the crater while several bolts of white lightning descended from the clouds, all aimed at the bottom of the pit.

Lunethar had barely recovered from the last blow when white light filled the sky above it.

There was no time to maintain its formation. It swung both arms upward. Its massive hands tore through the cloud of black dust and slammed toward the diving Ethan with crushing pressure. At the same time, another group of eyes grew from its body.

This time, pure white light shone inside them.

Ethan's energy sphere struck the left hand first. White lightning spread from its fingertips to its wrist, then exploded from the center of the palm, blasting the entire hand off the arm.

The other hand swept through the explosion and continued toward Ethan.

But he wasn't paying attention to that arm at all.

He had finally seen what he'd been waiting for—a swarm of pure white eyes.

White-eyes, for short.

Ethan didn't alter his dive, but his gaze remained fixed on them. The lightning bolts originally descending toward Lunethar curved under his control and changed course toward the swarm.

The lightning struck.

The first group of white-eyes took the full impact. Their outer shells cracked from the heat, and white electrical arcs passed through the fragments before leaping to targets farther away. Even eyes dozens of feet apart couldn't escape the chain lightning.

Large sections of the swarm vanished.

But Lunethar soon produced an equal number of new white-eyes. The shells of this new generation were tougher, and the white energy within them was denser. When the second round of lightning struck, they trembled violently but didn't shatter immediately.

Every time one group was destroyed, the next could withstand more punishment.

Lunethar's right hand finally struck Ethan.

Its palm slammed into his side and sent him flying horizontally. Ethan tumbled repeatedly through the air before spreading his energy wings. He thrust both wings forward and only managed to stabilize himself after sliding a long distance.

That successful hit gave Lunethar tremendous confidence.

It rose from the crater as energy flowed through its severed left arm and regenerated the missing hand. Dense ranks of white-eyes spread around it, every pupil locking on to Ethan at once.

"Die, Ethan!"

More and more eyes changed from their original colors to pure white. Lightning continued falling from the sky, but it could only leave a few scorch marks on their surfaces. It no longer inflicted any real damage.

Lightning had become useless against them.

But when Ethan saw this, the corner of his mouth lifted.

Everything was going exactly as calculated.

Lunethar's arms closed in from either side while the surrounding white-eyes fired their lasers. Unlike the earlier blue and pink beams, these were dazzling white, and familiar electrical arcs danced within them.

Hundreds of white beams wove themselves into a net that tightened from above, below, and every side.

The power contained within forced Ethan back. He spread his wings and formed a sphere of white lightning in his palm, drawing all the energy from the storm clouds toward himself.

A massive lightning bolt crashed down from the clouds.

Lunethar didn't dodge.

It sent the eye swarm straight into the lightning and entered the area covered by the blast itself. White electrical arcs traveled across its body without leaving any noticeable injuries. Its newly formed eyes opened wide, greedily absorbing the lightning's impact.

Lunethar burst into laughter within the blinding light.

More white-eyes poured from its body, quickly multiplying to several times their previous number.

"Didn't expect that, did you?"

It raised its fully restored arms and advanced on Ethan.

"Even you have days when there's nothing you can do!"

Nothing he could do?

That was the funniest joke Ethan had ever heard.

He had been waiting for the right moment.

What was Lunethar waiting for?

Death?

The wings behind Ethan spread to their full extent, their outer edges connecting with the storm clouds above. He pulled his hands apart, drawing the lightning into the space between them. Electrical light converged deep within the clouds, and a colossal pillar of white lightning descended, spanning the entire distance between sky and ground.