Chapter 304: Overpowering Three People
The Centipede rushed towards Minerva, about to attack her.
The colossal arthropod tore through the cobblestone streets of the artificial city, its countless segmented legs gouging deep trenches into the earth.
Each step echoed like a rhythmic drumbeat of impending doom, its mandibles dripping with highly corrosive venom.
Whoosh!
Minerva swapped positions with a stone.
The spatial distortion rippled through the tense air, displacing her fragile body just in time to avoid a fatal blow.
Crack—!
The stone was easily crushed by the Centipede.
Dust and debris exploded outward as the monstrous jaws snapped shut, obliterating the solid rock into a cloud of fine, blinding powder.
"Damn it!"
Minerva's expression was extremely grim as she looked at Kagura and Jura.
Cold sweat trickled down her pale forehead, ruining her normally composed, aristocratic demeanor.
The sheer relentless aggression of these impossible beasts was pushing the Sabertooth's young miss to her absolute physical and mental limits.
"Form of the Unforgiving Blade: Slash!"
Kagura had already drawn her sword, and a blinding crescent slash cut through the Hellhound, severing one of its heads.
The devastatingly sharp arc of sheer force sent dark blood splattering across the ruined buildings.
But immediately after, the Hellhound, which originally had three heads, suddenly grew a fourth.
Flesh bubbled and twisted grotesquely at the severed stump.
In a matter of seconds, bone and sinew knit together, birthing a brand new, fully functional head that snapped its jaws aggressively at the Mermaid Heel Mage.
"What in the world is going on?!"
Kagura's face changed, her brows tightly furrowed.
She had never encountered such a tricky, logic-defying situation before.
It was as if this terrifying monster would simply grow another head every single time it was injured, rendering all her lethal sword techniques completely useless.
"Iron Rock Pillars!"
Jura raised a finger, and a thick pillar emerged from beneath the Rhino, striking it violently on the chin.
The earth itself answered the Wizard Saint's call, erupting upward with the devastating force of a localized earthquake.
Rumble!!
The Rhino was flipped over by Jura's pillar.
Its tremendous, armor-plated weight crashed onto its back, violently shaking the entire city block.
Before Jura could catch his breath or follow up with another spell, the Rhino righted itself with terrifying agility and charged at Jura again.
"So troublesome!"
Jura immediately felt that this Rhino was extremely difficult to deal with.
His elite Earth Magic attacks seemed to cause no substantial damage to its thick, unnaturally tough hide.
He knew perfectly well that if he were to be hit by this massive charging monster, even if he didn't die instantly, he would be critically injured.
"We can't keep getting entangled like this. We must attack the main body."
Jura thought this, and the other two immediately had the exact same idea.
They exchanged brief, desperate glances through the thick dust and chaos of the battlefield.
It was an unspoken, temporary truce forged in the crucible of overwhelming pressure.
The three of them rushed towards Ren together, coordinating their assault from three different blind spots.
As soon as the three reached Ren's vicinity, they saw Ren's lips curl into a slight smile.
It wasn't a smile of arrogance, but one of genuine, terrifying amusement, as if he were watching three entertaining insects dancing in his palm.
"Not good!"
The three elite Mages immediately felt a terrible premonition clutch at their hearts.
And then, their ominous, dreadful thoughts were immediately confirmed.
"Almighty Push! (Shinra Tensei!)"
Boom——————!!
A terrifying repulsive force erupted again.
The very air solidified into an absolute, impenetrable wall of kinetic energy, expanding outward in a perfect sphere.
With Ren at the epicenter, the three who had rushed forward were brutally sent flying back at an even faster speed than they had approached.
"Ugh ahhh!"
"Waaah!"
"Waaah!"
Their bodies crashed through the artificial city's ancient stone architecture, reducing thick walls and pillars to blinding dust in a fraction of a second.
[It appeared again, that terrifying blow! The three were sent flying once more. Can they still get back up?!]
The commentator's voice echoed through the Domus Flau, trembling heavily with a mix of awe and sheer panic.
"What kind of monster is this Ren?!"
"He's beyond what can be described as 'amazing'!"
"He's truly terrifying!"
The tens of thousands of audience members, witnessing Ren's immense, god-like power on the lacrima screens, were genuinely frightened.
[Toma-kun, is it really alright for the city to suffer such extensive damage?]
The guest commentator asked nervously, sweat beading on his forehead as he watched the absolute destruction unfold.
"It's fine, we have magic anyway!"
Pumpkin Head, the tournament organizer, said nonchalantly, waving his plush hands in the air.
Clatter clatter!
Minerva, Kagura, and Jura stood up again from the heavy rubble.
Dust coated their once-pristine guild uniforms, and blood trickled from the corners of their mouths.
Minerva and Kagura were already somewhat shaky, clearly having been badly injured by two consecutive Almighty Push attacks.
The sheer concussive trauma rattling their internal organs was becoming completely impossible to ignore.
Although Jura looked slightly better, his sturdy, earth-hardened physique mitigating the worst of the violent impact, he also sustained some internal injuries.
[They're up! The three haven't fallen completely!]
"Hey! You two, stop holding back! If we don't defeat this monster, we're all doomed!"
Minerva shouted at Kagura and Jura with a grim, desperate expression.
She then looked up at Ren, her eyes filled with venomous malice.
At this moment, Ren was sitting cross-legged on the massive Rhino's head, with the two other terrifying monsters beside him like loyal guardians.
He looked exactly like a dark monarch casually observing a pathetic, futile rebellion from his throne.
Ren looked utterly relaxed and carefree, and this effortless composure made her absolutely furious.
"Clap!"
Ren clapped his hands together, the crisp sound cutting through the heavy, dust-filled air like a gunshot.
Bang bang bang!
The three Summoned Beasts disappeared instantly in massive, billowing clouds of thick white smoke.
[What?! What happened?! The three monsters suddenly vanished. Did Ren send them back?]
"Great! This guy's magic power is running low!"
Seeing the three Summoned Beasts disappear, Minerva foolishly thought that Ren's magic power was insufficient to sustain the consumption of summoning such colossal monsters.
It was a desperate hope, born entirely from her stubborn refusal to accept the terrifying reality of the gap in their strengths.
"Lord Ren, why did you dismiss your summons?"
Jura asked Ren, his thick eyebrows furrowing in deep suspicion.
He didn't think Ren's magic power was insufficient for a single second.
He could clearly sense that while Ren's raw magic capacity felt comparable to his own, the density and ominous nature of it were entirely different.
Ren smiled gently, casually dusting off his clothes as he gracefully floated down to the ruined street level.
"It's nothing, I just felt that using Summoned Beasts was a bit like bullying."
He shrugged his shoulders, a playful glint in his striking, glowing eyes.
"Besides, it's rare to encounter such good opponents; it would be a shame not to have a proper, hands-on fight."
"Ren, don't say such high-sounding words," Minerva sneered, gritting her teeth. "Until the very end, no one knows who will win or lose."
"Hmm, you're wrong."
Ren replied softly, his gaze locking onto hers with an unsettling calmness.
"The outcome was already decided from the very start."
"Universal Pull! (Bansho Ten'in!)"
Ren casually raised his hand, his open palm aiming directly at the Sabertooth Mage.
The invisible, inescapable force of absolute attraction latched onto Minerva like an ethereal, heavy chain.
"What?! What kind of magic is this?!"
Minerva suddenly felt her body uncontrollably flying towards Ren.
Her feet left the ground entirely, and the wind roared loudly in her ears as she was dragged helplessly through the air.
"Territory!"
Minerva panicked and quickly used a piece of broken stone to swap places with herself.
Whoosh!
The space warped violently, and Ren's hand closed around a jagged piece of rubble instead of her fragile neck.
Kagura swiftly rushed towards Ren from his blind spot behind, her polished sword slashing horizontally at him with incredible, lethal speed.
"Asura Path!"
Ren's back suddenly began to change, the sound of whirring gears and shifting metal filling the air.
Flesh gave way to advanced mechanical constructs, and two more robotic arms violently sprouted from his shoulder blades.
One metallic arm instantly grabbed Kagura's sword-wielding wrist with a vice-like grip, halting the blade inches from his skin.
The other cybernetic hand effortlessly grabbed her scabbard-holding wrist, completely immobilizing the Mermaid Heel ace.
"Territory!"
Minerva immediately activated her Space Magic to teleport Kagura away from Ren's lethal, unbreakable grasp.
Minerva seized the brief opening, her hands weaving a highly complex, ancient magical formation in the air.
She chanted a forbidden, incredibly destructive incantation:
"Niel Wielg Mion Terōs Ekantya: Yagdo Rigora!"
[Akarin's Note: "Yagdo Rigora" is one of the Yakuma Eighteen Battle Gods Magic. It's an ancient, highly destructive spatial spell that Minerva learned from the Yakuma clan's records.]
"Eighteen Demon War Gods Magic: Spatial Explosion!!"
Boom—————!!
A powerful, world-ending impact erupted!
A massive, intricate Magic Circle had formed directly over Ren, detonating with a catastrophic force meant to erase him on a molecular level.
"Preta Path!"
Suddenly!
The apocalyptic magic Minerva had just activated instantly vanished without a single trace.
Ren had simply raised his hand, forming an invisible, absorbing barrier around his body.
The devastating blast of the Yakuma Battle Gods was sucked into his palm like water draining effortlessly into a whirlpool.
"What?! What happened?! My magic?!"
Minerva's eyes widened in absolute, horrifying disbelief; her strongest, unblockable magic had actually disappeared into thin air.
"Universal Pull!"
Ren aimed his palm at Minerva once more, and her body uncontrollably flew towards him.
This time, she was far too exhausted and mentally shocked to activate her spatial Territory in time.
Ren roughly grabbed Minerva by her slender neck, lifting her effortlessly off the ground.
"Magic Absorption!"
"Ugh ahhhhhh!!"
Minerva screamed in pure, unadulterated agony.
She felt her latent magic power continuously being drained away, siphoned directly into Ren's body like a parasite drinking her life force.
For a Mage, magic power was directly linked to their vitality; with her magic power being violently drawn out, her body experienced intense, agonizing pain.
"Gravity Change: Suppression!"
Kagura desperately activated her Gravity Magic from a distance, targeting Ren's immediate vicinity.
Although Gravity Magic wasn't particularly powerful in terms of raw destructive force, its targeted suppression effect was notoriously strong, capable of flattening heavily armored opponents into the dirt.
"Gravity?"
Ren couldn't help but shake his head with an amused, patronizing smile.
The crushing pressure settled heavily on his shoulders, but his posture didn't even shift a single millimeter.
Gravity was merely a sub-branch of the absolute concept of attraction; this pathetic amount of gravity was utterly meaningless to a master of the Rinnegan.
"Universal Pull!"
Ren raised his free hand and used Universal Pull on Kagura.
Kagura's body also flew uncontrollably towards Ren, completely overcoming the intense gravitational field she had just created.
Kagura had absolutely no intention of sitting idly by as a helpless victim.
She gripped the hilt of her long sword tightly, preparing to execute a lethal, desperate strike the moment she reached Ren's attack range.
One of Ren's mechanical shoulder arms rapidly transformed, folding outward with mechanical precision.
It shifted into the shape of a highly advanced laser cannon, a blinding blue light gathering ominously at the muzzle.
It aimed directly at the approaching Kagura.
Kagura's face changed drastically at the terrifying sight, feeling the lethal heat radiating from the weapon.
Whoosh————!!
A thick, devastating laser beam shot towards Kagura.
Kagura immediately raised her sheathed sword horizontally, using every ounce of her remaining physical strength to slash down at the incoming laser.
"Ugh ahhhhhh!"
Kagura screamed in pain and was sent flying backward by the sheer kinetic and thermal force of the blast.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom!!
She crashed brutally through a series of stone pillars, her body bouncing painfully against the ruins before coming to a complete halt.
As Kagura was sent flying, Minerva desperately seized the chaotic opportunity.
With the last dregs of her remaining magic power, she activated her Space Magic to forcefully teleport herself out of Ren's suffocating grip.
"Rumbling Mt. Fuji!!!"
Jura put his hands together, his face etched with grim determination as he activated his ultimate offensive magic.
This was Jura's super offensive magic, the very same spell which scored an unprecedented 8544 points in the MPF test during the third day's arena segment.
[Akarin's Note: In the canon story, Jura's spell scored exactly 8544 on the Magic Power Finder (MPF). The raw chapter mentions it being over 9000, but we are adhering to the official Wiki numbers for accuracy.]
It was a cataclysmic technique designed to cause the very ground to rumble, splinter, and explode by flawlessly manipulating the surrounding earth.
Whoosh————!
As soon as Jura's magic was activated, in the very next moment, the magic disappeared.
[Akarin Note:
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