316 Don vs Balthazar

After Don conjured his flaming lance in preparation for battle, his sunshine and flower-patterned pajamas were illuminated in the night sky. His appearance looked very comical, contrary to his solemn expression.

Pfft!

"Hahaha… Hahahaha… Hahahaha!"

Facing such a joke of an opponent, Balthazar failed to keep a straight face and broke into hysteric laughter.

"What's so funny?" Don questioned in a low tone.

"Old thing, old thing… Aren't you pretty old yourself? Why are you pretending to be young? You look ridiculous! Hahahaha!" Balthazar cackled raucously.

Don's expression became black as charcoal. The laughter was very grating to his ears. Gnashing his teeth, Don spatted. 

"…You're dead!"

The flaming lance was tossed with great strength and velocity as it shot towards Balthazar with swirling motion. It seemed like a simple attack, but the destructiveness packed within cannot simply be ignored.

"Hmph!"

Balthazar was full of contempt towards such an attack and swung out with another of his sword wave packed with sharpened blood energy. 

Ka-boom!

In that instance, the flaming lance and crimson crescent moon slash collided, and an explosion of fiery blood energy erupted from their clash.

"Hm?" Balthazar frowned slightly, before saying, "Such a simple attack was able to offset my sword slash? Not bad."

"Ignorant fool who does not appreciate the beauty of explosions, try eating another one of my attacks." Don shook his head with a sigh and condensed another flaming lance in his hand.

Despite carrying a sword on him, he did not have any intention of entering close-quarter combat with the enemy.

The second flaming lance took longer to condense, but it was also packed with more fiery energy. After it was compressed to half the size of the previous flaming lance, the fiery energy inside became more volatile and active. 

Swoosh!

The flaming lance shot, but Balthazar wore the same contemptuous look and swept out with a stronger sword slash to match the attack.

Kaboom! 

A bigger explosion erupted from their slash, and sparks of fiery blood arrows scattered to the surroundings, quickly melting through buildings with its high corrosive temperature.

"Beauty of explosions? How ludicrous. Why would I care for something like that? Strength is the only thing that matters. How naïve of you to become complacent just because you succeeded in stopping my attacks. I've only used half my strength, you stupid fool."

"And I only used a quarter."

Ptui!

"How childish!" 

Balthazar became noticeably colder. 

This person was only trying to waste his time. There was no need to take him seriously. 

"You don't even make any sense, you crazy bastard!"

Balthazar tightly gripped on his sword and glared at Don. The sword emitted a bloody light that soon became a crimson brilliance packed with a dense amount of power poured into it. 

There was no doubt that this next sword strike will contain the force of Balthazar's full strength. After stomping the ground, Balthazar launched himself straight at the grandmaster alchemist with the murderous intent to hack the person apart in one swing.

"Haiz, why are you in such a rush to end things? It's a rare opportunity to have another Transcendent as my opponent." Don sighed.

A burst of flames propelled Don higher in the sky like thrusters as he retreated from Balthazar with a solemn look. In short instance, he already broke into the sky's suppression zone and widened the gap between them.

Seeing this, Balthazar knew that he would not be able to reach the Fire Transcendent.

Crimson Moon Slash!

Balthazar discharged his crimson brilliance with a mighty swing after his body began to fall from peak altitude.

Swoosh! 

The sword wave with crimson brilliance rushed towards Don, but its trajectory erred without Don needing to dodge after it entered the suppression zone. Its course was hindered by the irregular gravitational force within the suppression zone.

Balthazar's expression went from ugly to uglier when he saw this.

"Hahaha, that's too bad. I wouldn't mind showing you the true strength of my explosions if you can come up here." Don taunted Balthazar.

Evidently, Don had been restraining his strength due to concerns. An all-out battle between Transcendents would devastate the Capital.

"Hmph!"

Balthazar was disinterested in dancing to his opponent's rhythm despite being annoyed by the amount of time wasted. He could not fly, but it did not mean he could not force the Fire Transcendent down. 

"Stay up there all you want, but I don't believe that you would not come down very soon!" With that said, Balthazar sent out a sword wave and tore down a nearby building complex from Upper District. 

The people hiding inside their homes had awoken by the commotion for some time. When the building was struck, everyone was stricken with terror as they helplessly watch the building crumble down upon them.

Even with their slightly stronger body granted by small successes in cultivation, it was no match for their own home's crushing weight. A few hundred jins of strength was not much in the face of several tens of tons. 

Unsurprisingly, everyone on the bottom floors was killed in the collapse. The more unlucky ones were directly sliced apart by the passing sword wave. Only the top floor residents had hopes of surviving the crash. 

Climbing out from the top of the rubbles, the few survivors thought they had survived a disaster, but they were soon met with more incoming sword waves, cutting off all possible chances of survival.

Their fates were sealed by the inhumane grim reaper.

Balthazar was both ruthless and merciless. He felt nothing for their insignificant lives. After slaughtering everyone, he absorbed the blood from their ownerless corpses and replenished his own strength. 

No matter how shameless Don was, he was still a person who stood on the side of righteousness. After witnessing such acts of cruel and evil, he was full of gloom. 

The Bloodfiend Sect and their diabolic practices must be uprooted and eradicated from the face of the earth!

"Kekeke, that didn't feel good, did it?" Balthazar rhetorically spoke with glee. 

Don closed his eyes and steadied his emotions before they snapped open with a sharp glint.

"It seems this fight is unavoidable. I will take your life to appease all the victims felled by your fiendish claws!"

"That's more like it," Balthazar smirked coldly.

Don knew he was no match for Balthazar in a direct confrontation with his current abilities, but nothing was absolute. 

Victory and defeat are not predetermined. Advantages and disadvantages can be reversed under certain conditions, and life and death can be decided in a single exchange.

Glancing at Balthazar's crimson black blood armor, some ideas gathered in Don's mind before taking form.

"I was just starting to like this new set of pajamas too…" Don softly muttered before his entire body erupted into blazing flames.

Balthazar was pleased to sense Don's battle spirit, but he became grossly disgusted when the latter reduced all his clothes to ashes after erupting with more blazing flames.

[Flame Armament]

The fiery flames were compressed into a set of blazing armor tailored to optimize Don's battle power.

After drawing his sword and channeling his remaining power into it, the battle between the two Transcendents immediately commenced in full swing without a single word spoken from either side.

The full-powered clash of swords between the two sent ripples of shockwave across the battleground, blowing away all dirt and rubbles in the area while new cracks formed on nearby buildings amidst shatter glasses.

Don lost the exchange, but surprisingly not by much as he only shot back a few dozen yards. The overbearing and destructive nature of fire was not to be underestimated.

After that, the two continued to clashed swords in several instances under different sceneries. From the grounds to rooftops, rooftops to the skies, and the skies back on land, they fought, causing wanton destruction to the surroundings in their wake.

Such destruction was totally unavoidable. Don did not dare to avert his attention and only focused on finding a single opening to fell the evil fiend.

The entire Capital was woken up by their great battle. 

Under the king's order, every available palace guards, city guards, and soldiers within the Capital were sent out to assist the citizens' evacuation from the area of the battle between the Transcendents.

… 

In another area not far from the battle between Transcendents, another battle took place between Leon and the core disciples of the Bloodfiend Sect.

With Leon's transcendental battle power, he thought he could quickly wipe out the core disciples and return to assist Don. However, the core disciples proved themselves to be much more challenging than Leon had initially presumed after revealing the ace up their sleeves.

After activating their grand technique, the core disciples of the Bloodfiend Sect were able to transfer all their cultivation to one person. 

They did not hesitate to resort to this secret method of passing their cultivation to another after witnessing Leon's might. It was their last resort, but also their ultimate trump card.

Under this grand technique, an 8-star Ranked Awakener was directly elevated into the ranks of Transcendents. Although this cultivation was only temporary, it was the power of Transcendents, nevertheless!