Arggh
The rhino man groaned in pain and took a strong step back, blood trickling down his lips. Unfortunately, he barely moved when he felt something collide against his side, sending him skidding across the ground, only for him to be met with another attack coming right from the spot he had been sent to.
Under these continuous assaults coming from every direction, he couldn't even begin to fathom what the hell was going on or which devil he was fighting!
He had initially been the one wanting to make Arcanor despair, yet he was the one whose eyes were filled with dread right now.
By now, his tough skin, which looked like a shield, had several cracks on it, attesting to the savage blows he had been receiving for a while now.
He had attempted everything to stop the unceasing assault, from trying to cause a big explosion to chase away the smoke, to roaring at the top of his lungs, or even offering his body to Arcanor to catch him when the latter came close to attacking him.
Yet… he failed every single time.
Arcanor didn't give him the chance to use the first two methods, as the attacks never stopped long enough for him to gather his strength, and the smoke always reformed before he could take advantage of the opening. As for the last strategy, instead of allowing him to trap his opponent, it only exposed him further, causing him far more damage than he had ever anticipated.
Contrary to the first time when it had worked, now, when he offered a window of attack to Arcanor in hopes of catching him as he struck, the plan backfired quite thoroughly. Arcanor did indeed bite the bait and hit him with such force that he keeled over. Still, the rhino gritted his teeth, tanked the pain, and went on the offensive almost immediately after. However, by the time his arms closed in front of him, Arcanor had already disappeared.
This happened a few more times before he understood that it wouldn't work anymore. Arcanor was too fast, too sharp, and far too slippery. He was so fast that he sometimes seemed to be in two places at the same time.
The result was the rhino man taking the harshest beating of his life.
Fortunately for him, he wasn't unfamiliar with beatings. What he wasn't familiar with, though, was this suffocating cadence of attacks that didn't give him even a moment to breathe, let alone think of a solution.
Like that, his wounds kept piling up, with him being unable to do anything to defend himself against the relentless punches and kicks.
He couldn't even see his opponent damn it!
While an emotional turmoil was taking place within him, Alex could be seen moving around him with stunning gracefulness, his body weaving through the smoke as if guided by an invisible current.
Contrary to what his opponent may think, right now, Alex wasn't even giving him his full attention. Instead, most of his focus was placed on the smoke around him.
He suspected that it was because of his recent breakthrough, but these days, Alex felt as if he had become even closer to the smoke element. This seemed ridiculous, considering how close they had been from the very beginning, especially since he was the smoke sovereign, yet this was still how he felt.
When he had fought Froze in a duel the day before, he had been forced to use the smoke element inside his body, wrapping it around his muscles, tendons, and everything that allowed him to move, effectively controlling his body as if it were his own puppet. What he hadn't expected was that this move would grant him an insane level of control over his body, far beyond what he had thought possible. More importantly, this breakthrough had also greatly increased his mastery over the smoke element and his smoke sovereignty.
Moving inside this cloud of smoke was easier than it had ever been. Each time he had to evade his opponent's strikes, it wasn't only his body that moved away; he also controlled the smoke around him, using it to pull himself away faster from his opponent.
When he couldn't move fast enough to escape, he simply teleported away from the rhino's grasp.
Before this, considering the number of times he had already teleported, his mana reserves would have been completely depleted by now. That had always been his biggest limitation. Previously, his teleportation limit was only two uses, as each teleport consumed half of his total mana.
However, after his latest breakthrough, he realized that the amount of mana he expended while teleporting was not fixed. Instead, it depended entirely on his mastery over his element. The greater his control over the smoke element, the less mana he consumed—whether it was for teleportation or any of his other techniques.
And right now, as he fought the rhino inside the massive cloud of smoke he had created, Alex's mastery over smoke was soaring by leaps and bounds.
As more time passed, it gradually felt to Alex as if he were losing more and more weight. It suddenly felt as though he was being carried by the smoke instead of moving through it. If, before, he had needed to make a conscious effort to command the smoke around him to pull him away from his opponent's heavy punches, now it was as if the smoke acted on its own, Alex's body effortlessly gliding within the cloud.
It felt like the smoke wrapping his insides—his muscles, tendons, and every fiber of his body—had entered into resonance with the smoke outside, the two working in perfect tandem to make his movements smoother, faster, and increasingly intangible, as though his physical form were gradually blurring and he himself was becoming smoke.
Yet, despite this apparent lightness, the attacks he launched only seemed to grow heavier and more deadly.
"What's going on?!" the rhino thought in panic, the accumulation of wounds on his body suddenly skyrocketing.
Not only did Alex's punches start hurting like hell, but even the occasional smoke constructs he created—ones that had previously served only as distractions—now began to sting, then burn, and finally bite into his flesh with alarming force.
'No, no, no,' the rhino thought in urgency, 'I can't fall here, not like this and not to this masked mongrel. I refuse!'
"I AM THE STRONGES—"
"No, you are not," Alex interrupted, his tone cold.
The rhino's mad shout was brought to an abrupt end as he felt a sharp pain explode across his lower face. His vision turned blurry as he tasted the metallic bitterness of his own blood spreading over his tongue, his head snapping violently to the side from the impact.
His powerful and sturdy jaw had just been dislocated, sending a wave of agonizing pain through his skull and leaving his mouth hanging slightly open, useless and unresponsive.
Like it had been said previously, it wasn't the first nor the second time he had taken a beating in his life, but he had never been so suffocated and suppressed like this. He couldn't even do so much as punch, roar, or even speak!
Despair slowly settled in. If before he hadn't retaliated because he couldn't, now, even if he somehow had the opportunity, he wouldn't take it. Instead, he would turn and run, desperately hoping to escape this monster. Because he could tell—if he stayed, he would die.
The most despairing thing, though, was the fact that despite knowing this, he couldn't do anything. Arcanor was like a force of nature, something that couldn't be stopped… nor escaped.
As the thoughts and the acceptance that he was going to die here began to settle in, the rhino was suddenly knocked to his knees by a violent gust of wind.
The wind came with such overwhelming force and momentum that, in an instant, all the smoke was blown away!
Having sensed the danger long before it arrived, Alex simply let the smoke carry him away, retreating with it until it completely dissipated.
When his vision cleared, Alex saw two men. One of them were standing above the rhino, while the second one stood—or rather, floated—in the air. A constant gust of wind swirled beneath his feet, keeping him suspended exactly at the spot Alex himself had occupied moments ago.
Seeing this, there was no doubt in Alex's mind that this man was the one who had attacked.
Each of the two newcomers wore a dark cloak with a hood pulled low over their heads, hiding their facial features. And even if one somehow managed to look beneath those hoods, all they would find was a smooth, expressionless mask concealing their faces entirely.
Alex's brows furrowed into a frown, but for the time being, he did nothing, quietly observing the two newcomers and their actions.
The man standing above the rhino nudged him with his foot.
"Still alive?"
Alex raised an eyebrow as he heard the man's voice. He could immediately tell it wasn't his real one. It sounded exactly like a voice artificially altered through a voice changer back on Earth.
"Fuck off!" the rhino snapped, angrily swatting the man's foot away.
"Thought so," the masked man chuckled. "I have to say, for someone who was so confident about winning against him, you've been thoroughly trashed."
The rhino wanted to snap back, but he ultimately remained silent, knowing that his "ally" was right. Before launching the attack on the city, he had boasted endlessly about how he would defeat Arcanor. Instead, he had his ass handed to him.
"Enough, you two," the one who was floating said as he descended and regrouped with his companions. "Now is not the time for that."
He took several bottles filled with a thick, yellowish liquid and threw them at the rhino.
"Here, drink this."
The rhino caught the bottles, and his eyes immediately brightened. Healing potions—and potent ones at that. This was exactly what he needed right now!
Without bothering to remove the corks properly, he simply smashed the bottles against his mouth and swallowed the healing potions whole, glass and all.
Feeling the soothing liquid travel down his throat, the rhino man closed his eyes, finally allowing himself to relax.
Several seconds later, his eyes shot open in confusion.
"Are you certain these were healing potions?" he asked his companion, his voice strained as he winced in lingering pain.
The floating masked man frowned beneath his mask. 'The potions should have taken effect by now,' he thought inwardly.
Before they had time to figure out what was happening, Alex—who hadn't spoken all this time—snorted.
"Did you really think I would let you do as you wish right in front of me?"
The words had barely reached their ears when the rhino's body suddenly convulsed.