Chapter 79: Magma hammer
It started from the hammer head, which rapidly coalesced out of pure, compressed magma into a terrifying sphere of molten rock that had a massive diameter of two meters.
The molten stone churned and bubbled violently, radiating a blinding crimson-gold light that illuminated the ruined, smoke-filled hall.
Shortly after the massive head solidified in the air, the handle started forming right behind it, extending backward and rapidly reaching over two meters in length to complete the colossal hammer.
The hammer was so ridiculously long that it melted through the heavy ceilings above, effortlessly vaporizing concrete, steel girders, and internal wiring on contact.
The heat pouring off the weapon made the very air around it wobble and distort, creating a shimmering haze that made everything in the lobby look twisted and unstable.
Teon stared up at his terrifying creation, his eyes bloodshot as he finally accepted the brutal reality of his situation.
He knew he couldn’t keep holding back all in the name of trying to avoid destroying the building anymore.
Preserving the headquarters was meaningless if he was dead, and every single second he spent worrying about the structure only gave his opponent a massive tactical advantage.
Leon had true S-rank strength now, wielding power capable of tearing apart high-level defenses and incinerating anything in his path.
Teon knew that holding back against an opponent of this caliber would prove very fatal for him, leaving no room for holding back or holding on to foolish pride.
Two out of the eight Asura arms reached up and firmly held the handle of the massive molten weapon, their thick stone fingers gripping the scorching haft with absolute stability.
Teon remained standing firmly below the floating constructs, his right hand still raised high in the air as he channeled every drop of his mana to sustain the devastating strike.
He suddenly brought his hand down with a sharp, violent motion, cutting through the thick smoke to signal the attack.
The moment his palm dropped, the two giant arms swung down the massive magma hammer with full, terrifying force, aiming to crush Leon into absolute nothingness beneath the weight of a artificial meteor.
Leon’s eyes sharpened in an instant, his sharp black gaze tracking the massive shadow falling toward him.
Aegis immediately appeared above him in a flash of divine energy, its size expanding exponentially in a microsecond until it became a massive dome with a diameter of over three meters, completely covering his entire body and shielding him from above.
The massive magma hammer suddenly halted just a second before hitting the shield, its downward momentum frozen in mid-air by Teon’s razor-sharp reflexes.
Teon pulled back the swing at the absolute last possible fraction of a second to prevent the weapon from touching the barrier.
Similar to the last time, an even larger stream of magma erupted from below the floor as a result of the proxy kinetic burst.
The shield immediately vanished in a flash of light as Leon adjusted his stance to avoid being trapped beneath the rising tide.
The pressurized stream of magma burst out through the weakened ceiling with deafening force, surging up toward the higher floors for a few long, terrifying seconds before finally subsiding and raining liquid fire back down into the hollow structure.
Teon’s eyes widened as he stared through the blinding wave of heat and smoke where the young man had been standing just a moment prior.
A sudden surge of hope filled his racing mind as he took in the sheer, terrifying scale of the eruption he had unleashed, thinking to himself, ’Did I get him?’
He desperately prayed that the massive, pressurized torrent of molten stone had finally managed to swallow Leon whole before the boy could react or deploy another strange power.
"No, you didn’t." Leon’s voice suddenly came from behind him, carrying the confidence of a predator that had effortlessly outmaneuvered its prey.
Before Teon could turn his head around, a powerful, bone-shattering punch suddenly landed directly on his right flank.
It struck with the force of an accelerating battering ram, easily crushing through his heavy crystalline defenses and driving deep into his ribcage.
He was immediately sent flying to the side like a broken doll, his vision blurring as a heavy spray of blood spurted out of his mouth in mid-air.
The unbearable shock of the physical blow made his breath leave his lungs all at once, spinning his heavy body wildly across the ruined floor until he finally crashed hard onto the shattered marble floor.
His eight massive arms followed right behind him as he tumbled through the dust, their stone joints grinding together loudly as they clenched their hands into tight, heavy fists.
The giant arms hovered closely around their fallen master, their jagged red cracks pulsing with unstable, glowing magma as they tried to re-establish a defensive perimeter.
Normally, they would have protected Teon from any close-range physical attacks like that without fail, automatically intercepting any incoming threats before an opponent could even get close to the guildmaster’s body.
However, Leon had simply moved far too fast for them to detect, blurring through the smoke-filled room with speed that completely bypassed their reaction speed and instincts.
They quickly circled around Teon in a wide fighting stance, raising their massive forearms to form a multi-layered shield and preparing themselves to protect him from that sudden assault happening ever again.
Leon hissed loudly in annoyance, turning his head to the side where a huge part of the ground and the ceiling had been completely melted away by the earlier magma eruption.
He looked down at the bubbling, glowing lake of slag that was actively eating away at the foundational steel girders of the building, the intense radiant heat distorting the surrounding air into a shimmering, wavy mist.
If a normal human or even a low-level player tried standing anywhere on that red-hot, molten soil, their legs would probably melt straight off from the scorching heat in less than a second.
He pointed his golden blade at Teon, the edge of Excalibur crackling with divine flames as he stared down the S-rank, who was barely standing on his bare feet with his hand clutching his bleeding flank.