Chapter 843: Core Members Tournament 19
This gave Nightwalker an advantage in this battle of bloodlines basically. Nevertheless, Nightwalker had to be extra careful because his physical power was not as great as Armonia.
If one were to give his bloodline abilities a classification, the most accurate one would be as a Summoner type. Admittedly, his summon(s) were powerful and the main combat force, but his own battle ability was limited… at least on paper.
Given his Tier 4 Control and his skills as one of the best fixers in the world, he could even beat Bella up. It was only when he had to fight people with unreasonable power like Armonia that his weakness as a 'summoner' would be something to be worried about.
Right now, though, he took the initiative to dive towards Armonia in order to release more powerful Apocalypses and force his opponent to face them head on rather than dodge or find some other loophole to avoid them.
Armonia had just endured the Searing Light Apocalypse, but up next was the terrifying Engulfing Darkness Apocalypse.
The cloud of blackness was like a living being as it rushed at the golden monkey and swallowed him into its depths. Armonia grimaced when he felt the Yuan Qi in his shield begin to leak out slowly, but at least it kept the miasma back.
However, there was a bigger issue at hand. Namely, the fact that Armonia was traveling forward using the Somersault Cloud at speeds that would cause him to shame even the fastest fighter jet known to man.
He was flying upwards at an inclined angle towards where he had last seen Nightwalker, and he had been doing this for the past 5 minutes, yet there was no end in sight, only more darkness.
Slowly, Armonia's expression changed as he came to understand the true terror of this Engulfing Darkness Apocalypse. Unlike Searing Light, which was raw damage and would burn the meat off your bones, Engulfing Darkness basically placed you in an endless abyss with no escape.
You either died from the subtle absorption of energy or from losing your life force after spending an endless amount of time here. One could easily go mad trapped within such a cruel, advanced Apocalypse.
Armonia knew that he couldn't let this continue, so he roared and used Wukong's famous Lock Breaking Spell at full power.
This caused him to burn even more of his limited Bloodline Energy, nearly bottoming him out on the spot. Nevertheless, the spell did what it was supposed to, and the Engulfing Darkness twitched as it compressed into nothingness and dissipated.
Now freed, Armonia was shocked to find he was at the same spot he had been previously, and right in front of him was the giant tail of Jormungandr that was coming towards him with unparalleled force!
Armonia grimaced and expanded the Ruyi Jingu Bang into a large size. The fraction of a second was not enough time to properly set up a defense, much less to strike back in any capacity. Both sides collided, causing another huge shockwave that ripped the grass off the earth, leveling the topsoil of the area outside the arena.
Armonia held on in midair, his Divine Strength as Wukong more than enough to lift the gigantic Ruyi Jingu Bang with ease, how could he not tank such a hit? Perhaps if Jormungandr had been summoned with more than 50% of his true size, it would have posed a problem, but at a mere 10%? Even the improper defense was enough.
He pushed back and unbalanced Jormungandr slightly, sending its tail flying back through the air. Armonia roared and struck Jormungandr's manifestation right on the head, causing the Ragnarok Bringer to roar in pain as his head smashed towards the ground and left a crater.
Armonia though, was panting as he had very little energy left. He looked around to find Nightwalker who had cloaked himself using his skills and his own Control. Armonia eventually spotted the fellow higher up in the sky.
Nightwalker smirked and pointed down, opening a giant Calamity Portal. From within came a flaming meteor, which made the core members by the side roll their eyes.
Twice in one day they had seen a giant meteor like entity. The only problem was that Armonia was not like Elle. Faced with the giant obstacle, Armonia swung the giant Ruyi Jingu Bang at it.
He roared as he thwacked the meteor like it was a ball, sending it flying while cracks formed on its body. It then went off to crash in a far away place, causing an almost blinding explosion that coated the horizon.
Seeing this, Nightwalker frowned and then sighed.
"Basic Apocalypses like Tsunami, Lava, Hurricane and Earthquake don't work on you, Advanced Apocalypses like Searing Light and Engulfing Darkness don't work on you, and even Pinnacle Apocalypses like Meteor don't work on you."
Nightwalker couldn't help but shake his head with a strange smile. "What a powerful fellow you are. No matter how frustrating that outcome is, I have to admit that it is my honour to fight you. Unfortunately, I still plan to win, so I will now release an Absolute Apocalypse that I wouldn't dare release on Earth, for I cannot control its backlash and after effects."
Armonia heard this and his face became even more grim. He swung the giant staff to stop Nightwalker from executing his plan. The fellow was floating in the air using a calamity portal that release endless hurricane winds below his feet.
For some reason, Armonia's sixth sense was roaring that he should either kill Nightwalker now or perish in peace. As Sun Wukong was a pseudo deity and had access to actual cultivation ability, this sixth sense was almost the same as True Precognition.
Armonia burned all that remained of his Bloodline Energy to increase his strength and sped up his weapon. Nightwalker ignored the rapidly approaching staff that could turn him into meat paste and opened a Calamity Portal that was relatively small, at least when compared to all those that came before.
"You know this Apocalypse. It's one that was invented after I was born and is completely man made. It represents the greatest fear of the modern age and has caused human progress to lull in the face of its deterrent."
Nightwalker smiled almost in worship as endless warheads of different kinds dropped from the portal crazily.
"Meet the Nuclear Apocalypse!"
Armonia's face changed greatly as he saw this and tried to smash Nightwalker before the warheads could reach. Just as he was about to succeed, the manifested Jormungandr rose up and took the blow for Nightwalker, shattering into nothingness with a smirk on his face before he was reabsorbed by his God Serpent Inheritor.
This made Nightwalker grimace and cough out a thick amount of blood, losing almost 40% of his HP at once. Armonia though, could only watch with lament as he was surrounded by warheads.
Even using his freshly regenerated Bloodline Energy after his transformation had ended to summon Yuan Qi that reinforced his barrier did not change his outcome of being vaporized after the warheads all detonated at once.
Nightwalker too was blown upwards into the atmosphere, the fire and shockwave soon ending his own life after Armonia. All the core members below roared and hid behind Uno's hastily spawned All Out Defense Shield.
This barely saved them from the heat and shockwave, but the rest of the realm was not doing so good. Luckily, at Tier 6, it would reset itself after every battle, so the place instantly went back to normal once Armonia was judged to be dead.
Both he and Nightwalker spawned off the arena, their faces strange. Armonia could only accept that this Nightwalker fellow was quite crazy, but he couldn't help but ask.
"Where did you get all those warheads?"
Nightwalker rubbed his chin. "I was around for WW2 and used connections to get the blueprints for the first few models. I'm also rich, so I set up my own atomic reactor in a hidden area in Siberia with hired scientists and researchers who continually manufactured them for me."
Armonia's face changed. "You're the owner of Kaboom Labs?"
Nightwalker blinked in surprise. "Oh, you know of my lab?"
Armonia rubbed his forehead with a strange expression. "My mother used to work there. She interned there and springboarded to win a Nobel Prize before marrying my dad."
Nightwalker nodded then exclaimed. "Huh? Noble Prize? This resemblance... By any chance, is your mother Yulia Jones?"
"Now, Yulia Pendragon, but yes." Armonia nodded.
"Interesting, interesting! This really is a small world! She was my best researcher and scientist for many years. I literally begged her not to leave, but she was an ambitious woman and I couldn't bear to stand in her way. It's fortunate that she's happy and settled down." Nightwalker reminisced with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
"Come, let's catch up some more." Nightwalker requested of Armonia, to which the fellow shrugged and didn't see much of a problem since they were fellow core members.
3rd Battle: Nightwalker wins!
4th Battle: Misery vs AP_Berzerker, begin!
Misery popped a bottle of Legendary Rum. He had paid an arm and leg to acquire it, while AP-Berzerker simply jumped onto the stage. The two remained silent as they glared at each other with battle intent.
"Brat, you look like you've struggled enough to reach your current place in life. As such, I won't make things difficult for you. Break both your arms and legs and call me Daddy, and I'll beat you gently." Misery spoke calmly without even bothering to look at AP.
"Rubbish words from a drunk freak who always smothers himself with exotic piss he calls booze. How dare you talk to this Grandpa that way? Do you believe I won't bash your skull in?" AP_Berzerker cursed rather uncharacteristically.
"Heng? You actually dare to have an opinion and talk back? Good! Good! Good!" Misery laughed with anger, as his fist was closing on to his bottle, making small cracks appear on it. "It seems like apart from Alabama brat, there is another one I must beat back onto the path of righteousness!"
Misery summoned Gae Bolg and wielded Rho Aias on the other arm while entering a ready stance.
"I won't even bother to make a poem for a retard like you. Rather, swallow this truth and digest it: I'm gonna whoop your drunk ass back to sobriety!"
AP summoned his dual axes as he pointed one at Misery impudently.
The tension was high and it felt like extreme violence could erupt at any minute. Meanwhile, the core members by the side were puzzled.
Why did these two speak as if each one was a young master who had bumped into the protagonist?
Why did it seem like they were rivals from the wombs who were destined to never meet eye to eye?
Usually, they seemed to be getting along fine with their peers, and nobody could remember a time those two interacted in such a way.
"Could it be?" Uno squinted as he noticed something, his expression changing slightly.
Boyd beside him was alarmed and also analyzed the two, his face changing greatly when he saw it. "I can't believe it exists! Such a rare phenomenon was actually born and witnessed in our own Umbra guild!"
The other core members were at a loss. Why were these two speaking in tongues and riddles? Did they think they were above getting their asses beat if they didn't dare to speak properly?
Quickly explain yourselves before we start killing you back to level 1!
Sensing the intense killing intent from the others, Boyd and Uno shrunk their necks. In the end, it was Shadowheart who spoke with a sigh.
"I had a feeling something like this would eventually happen. It was destined from the moment I met those two, or to be precise, the moment they both met each other."
He then pointed to Misery and AP_Berzerker who were facing off on the stage with dark looks, each one observing the other to see who would make the first move, and gestured.
"This is a rare phenomenon of being rivals in the Dao. These two, Misery and AP, are no different from natural-born rivals, like Goku and Vegeta, or Naruto and Sasuke. They are two sides of the same coin, but their inverted beliefs and passions cause them to clash head-on."
The other core members were immediately enlightened as to the truth of the situation and their questioning glances died down.
However, Elle couldn't help but ask: "If they are rivals, what are they beefing about? What's the target of their rivalry?"
To this, Shadowheart closed his eyes and sighed deeply, before looking to the sky. "The source of their conflict… the reason why they must fight to the death… is due to the Dao of Alcohol."