44 Cracked Open

'What the hell is it with this kid?'

Michael starred at the retreating figure of the knight while slowly standing up from the wet dirt he previously knelt on.

The rolled back eyes started to darken in color as he spoke.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Mind explaining..?"

However, as the knight once more tried to question the him, Michael's body started to morph and twist in different direction.

His skin turned into black fur, his mouth cracked appart, forming a broken smile, his eyes turned into two hollow voids, and four bone spikes dug their way out of his shoulder blades.

Now, with all the augmentations finished, his body started to rapidly expand itself. However, as the expanding muscle tissue threatened to rip open his last layer of clothing, it suddenly halted.

Michael was currently using his spirit to forcefully suppress the growth of his body. And very successfully so, as it shrank back into a normal human size.

Although he was slightly taller now, that would not be too noticeable, since he retained all the grotesque features from the tainted form, only now slightly minimized and balanced.

The dark green hide and small red plates were welded onto his body like several layers of cursed chains. The new, yet familiar row of red metallic shrapnel tightly lined themselves inside the uncovered mouth. Perfectly blending in with his forced smile.

The twelve fingers and toes on his body had all the same type of crooked black nails. Seeming to be able to corrode the surrounding air particles as they moved.

And lastly, the four shortened bone spikes which crawled out of his shoulder blades. Displaying their gory malformed growths consisting of feather roots and broken scales. Resembling four burnt down towers.

In this shrunken form, Michael looked more like an undead werebeast which had been burnt by some sort of fire. It would haunt the dreams of even the toughest warriors.

However, the knight still stood where he was. And although his facial features were hidden, there was no anguish or fear emitting from his body. Rather, he seemed to have gained some better understanding of the situation.

'So he is a champion of the Beast Goddess... That would explain his tremendous strenght and this new form.'

The two contenders eyed each other down. Waiting for who would make the first move.

"YoU sHoULd hAVe LeFT WhEN YOu STiLL hAd tHE cHaNCe..."

Initiating the confrontation, Michael threw himself at the silver tincan. Elegantly hovering away through the air.

Seeing the humanoid beast fly at him made the masked knight once more chanted the familiar words.

"Battle art: Balance breaker."

"Battle art: Towering stance."

Shielding himself with the flat side of his blade, he stood there. Waiting for the strike to come close enough.

Milliseconds before Michael's fist was once more going to be blocked the flat blade, he willed the system to follow his orders.

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[Mad dance of power LvL 2(charge): Increases damage by 200% every second until reaching 2000%.]

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[Rubber body: Allows user to freely move body in any direction.]

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[Extendable body: User can stretch out his limbs into any desired direction. While stretched, the limbs will be harder to control. Range is limited to users height. (User's height is lowered. Range is lowered accordingly)]

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In a single instant, Michael's red and green arm shot out like a ballistic missile. Directly slamming into the sword.

And as espected, it ricocheted off to the side. However, by doing so, the Knight was left unguarded for a couple of moments.

With nothing blocking him this time, Michael launched the other unoccupied arm in the same direction. Even though they now held two breaths of distance from each other, The rocketing, indestructible fist of deformity shattered the surrounding atmosphere. Forcing its way through the sound barrier. Threatening to vaporize the iron soldier before it.

"Battle art: single point dissolution"

The knight activated another technique when seeing the dark red and green knuckles come closer. And as the chant finished, he stetched out his armoured palm to meet the ball of scales.

'This battle art works best if the surface area of the incoming attack is blunt. Too bad you don't have any..."

However, before he could finish, Michael willed his spirit to enlarge the blurry image of his hand. Causing it to blow up like a ballon, cracking and ripping as it expanded.

The masked knight was shocked when seeing the previously small fist grow to the size of his head, but was unable to do anything as it was already too late.

When the two objects connected, the plated arm of the knight was smashed inwards, and the sound of breaking bones echoed into the wet environment.

As Michael's hand fully sunk the robust metal into the other guy's torso, his growing fist continued towards the body. Denting and cracking both the densely packed mail and the dark mask on top while continuously getting bigger.

After the brutal disfiguring caused by the landed attack, the knight was sendt flying into one of the many pine trees covering the area.

The impact broke both his sudden moment of flight, and the large tree trunk. Splinters of dark brown wood was sendt out like small drops of rain, while the main body of the tree rolled off to his side. Embedding itself into the muddy dirt with a bang.

Now unable to move, the knight sat there with his torn body. Unable to both stand up and feel anything from the crippled limb which had taken most of the brunt.

Forcefully trying to lift his head up made the mask crack a little more for each movement made. But he was eventually able to lock his gaze at the approaching monstrosity, steadily walking towards him with it's fangs beared.

'H...How did he so casually shatter my battle art..?'

Mild coughs started coming from behind the mask. The haggard gusts of air took small puddles of blood alongside, while them traveling through the available crackes covering the frontal part of his head. Silently dripping onto the dented heaving chest

'Don't tell me...This guy not only cultivates energy, but also his body?! In that case, he has to be at the king realm too!'

'No, wait. That would in his original form, as I was still able to injure him...'

He started feeling regret. Regret that he had tried to forcefully take the boy away.

'Has he reached...the body layer of an emperor?'

Michael now stood before the knight. Eyeing him down like pig for slaughter. The empowered sense of dread sped up his thoughts possess. Trying to make sense of what was happening.

'If he really is at the emperor body layer...no wait! How did he reach it without cultivating a battle art?! Was it through skill practise, or did the beast Goddess grant it to him?'

'Nevermind, that mad god would never give such a thing away. Dammit...'

After letting out some more coughs, the knight tried to reason with the beastly reaper.

"Y..Your Excellency! *cough. I....I have been sendt here by the Metal Shrine in hopes of bringing you back to meet our first miss..."

He tried to stand up, but as he did, several of his destroyed bones grinded against the dented metal which dug into his body. Forcing the knight down.

"O..Our head priest hoped for you to engage in a marrige alliance with us, and wished for your immediate summon.."

However, as he looked back at Michael, he noticed that the twisted smile covering his maw started to..grow? No, the entire head was being blown up like some sort of overstretched ballon. Enlarging his half open mouth to a inhuman degree.

"Sir Marss..! I was only sendt here to bring you back...And as I already am down, let us just..."

His vision slowly blurred itself. Mabye it was due to the blood loss or accumulated damage to his body, but the last thing he was able to see before fading away was the giant malformed head cover his body in darkness...