The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 727: Strongest Punch

They cheered, not caring about being loud and attracting attention. The Nine Scions were three kilometers from them, and they couldn’t hear them. As for the elite monsters in the neighborhood, none of the Guild members cared too much about them. The assault they were launching would alert the monsters anyway.

“Elder Azure Dragon, you are making the first shot and the most important shot of the assault.” Yan Liang respectfully backed away, and the others followed suit.

Dressed in a fitted black jacket, Azure Dragon looked at the Starcatching Pavilion three kilometers from him, his sculpted face facing the night wind. The target was merely a small dot in his sight.

He could hit it with perfect precision provided that he was given the time to charge and take aim.

“I’ll ask one last time, Elder Yan Liang. Are you sure you want me to go all in?” Azure Dragon asked gravely. “Many will die.”

“Use the ring and go all in,” Yan Liang said with certainty. “Humanity will be in danger if the Nine Scions live.”

Azure Dragon let out a long sigh. “I understand. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Thank you.”

Azure Dragon tapped into the deep reserve of energy in him. Golden waves rippled from his body, making others back away involuntarily with the overwhelming pressure it exuded.

Azure Dragon took a step forward and arched his back, twisting his torso to the side with his right fist clenched and tucked to his waist.

Then he rotated the Black Gold ring on his left index finger with his left thumb.

The medicine made from Equivalent Exchange entered Azure Dragon’s body. For the next eight seconds, his power would be doubled at the price of going into a deep coma for a week.

While his Strongest Punch at full strength with a charging time of 8 seconds would be reduced to one-fourth of its power after traveling three kilometers, with the medicine, the attack power would only be halved.

Against a quickly-moving target, it would be akin to shooting at a mosquito with a cannon, a waste of precious power. Against a static target, though, the attack would be catastrophic even from three kilometers away.

When the enemies were unaware and unable to take any defensive measures, they would certainly die getting hit by the shockwave of the punch.

“Aghhhh—”

Every muscle in his body bulged unnaturally, and veins popped from his face, his sharp eyes radiating blinding golden light.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

The concrete floor under Azure Dragon’s feet quickly cracked further and further like the surface of a frozen lake.

“Freeze!”

Six Rime conjured a layer of hardy ice to freeze the cracks on the floor, stabilizing Azure Dragon’s footing. Then Forest Crane morphed his hands into countless vines and covered the ice, strengthening it.

Veggie followed suit, turning her long hair into sturdy black wires to reinforce the floor further.

“Aghhhhhh!!!”

Azure Dragon almost turned into a melted clump of golden amber, the chaotic and wild energy radiating in all directions, forcing everyone to back away again.

Six Rime, Forest Crane, and Veggie fought to stabilize the floor under the monstrous cannon that was Azure Dragon.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

“Strongest—”

The air seemed to freeze for a second.

Then everyone’s mind blanked and spun, as if melting into the ocean of golden energy.

Eight seconds.

Like a black hole, Azure Dragon quickly compressed the great waves of energy into his right fist.

“Punch.”

0.1 second later, he swung his right fist at the night sky.

Boom!

A golden afterimage of a fist the size of a large truck shot toward the Starcatching Pavilion three kilometers away at thrice the speed of sound, leaving a glittering trail in the sky.

It was greater than Waking Insects’ maximum speed.

From afar, it looked like God had drawn a golden line between the starting and ending points with a ruler, conjuring a golden path in the night sky out of nowhere.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The giant golden fist broke the sonic barrier three times and sliced off the rooftops of numerous buildings before hitting the basement of the Starcatching Pavilion precisely.

Inside the basement, when Gao Yang and Little Tian with Sensory activated detected the incoming death, they only had two seconds to react.

The others didn’t even see it coming before the Gold Line of God erased their existence.

Those on top of the Rongsheng Financial Building saw everything go dark. The light coming from Azure Dragon went out, his exhausted form bending down and panting heavily.

In three seconds, the Starcatching Pavilion exploded. To them, it looked like nothing but a small spark of fire in the distant sky.

Rumble.

Then the deep thunderous rumble reached them belatedly. Only then did they feel the reality of the attack.

With his back to everyone, Azure Dragon stood straight. The punch had severely exhausted his energy. Even though he would wake up in seven days, it would still take him quite some time to recover fully.

He toppled backward.

Correcting Sickle rushed up to catch him, injecting his chest with energy supplements. Then he laid the unconscious man on the ground, making an OK sign at everyone, meaning he would take care of Elder Azure Dragon and leave the rest to them.

Six Rime maintained an impassive face. She was worried about Azure Dragon, but she had a mission to complete. Azure Dragon had taught her since she was young that a fighter’s greatest honor was absolute loyalty and obedience.

“It’s time for us to set out.” Yan Liang made the orders. “The second team, circle the targets from the outside. Don’t leave anyone slip through you.”

“Yes, sir!”

Forest Crane turned his arms into vines, grabbing Black Fish, Veggie, and Old Lion and swinging down from the rooftop. Chaos Reflection turned into a white light and jumped between the windows of the buildings, vanishing in an instant.

“The first team, head to the Starcatching Pavilion,” Yan Liang said and looked up.

A short, skinny man was perching on a billboard with both his hands and feet in Black Gold shackles to seal his Talent.

He had black hair with a rainbow-colored fringe, covering one of his eyes and half of his face. His expression was a mix of boredom and laziness. There was a look of viciousness and malice in his purple eyes that he couldn’t hide.

He was the Protector on Yan Liang’s team, Zero Hatred, with Talent: Elemental.

He spat, “It’s finally my turn.”

His voice was young but hoarse, like his vocal cords had been grated by sandpaper.

Yan Liang snapped his fingers. The space around Zero Hatred distorted slightly, and the shackles on his hands and feet fell off with a clink.

Zero Hatred jumped off the billboard, lazily stretching his arms. “I’m allowed to kill now, right?”

“You are,” Yan Liang said before adding, “But not our own.”

“I get it.” Zero Hatred looked reluctant.

He widened his arms, conjuring a powerful elemental wind under his feet to lift Yan Liang, Six Rime, Flower Turtle, Succubus, Core East, Xiao Xin, Small Luo, and Nagging Mister.

“Let’s go!”

With a wave of his hands, Zero Hatred turned the wind into a tornado that sent everyone diving down from the building straight to the Starcatching Pavilion, the speed no lesser than Heavenly Dog’s Fly.

While Zero Hatred’s Elemental was only at level 3, he could manipulate five elements: blue wind, cyan fire, purple lightning, white ice, and red light, each corresponding to Gale, Fire, Electricity, Frost, and Light.

Even though none of the elements he manipulated rival the specific corresponding Talent, he could combine the five elements at his will, the possibilities endless, making Elemental much more formidable than the single-element Talents.

While everyone was diving through the air, Yan Liang put into motion the strategy he had long formulated without delay.

“Succubus, you first.”