On the other side, Ethan teleported out of the grabbing handās reach. Then he dropped a longsword under his feet with telekinesis and used it like a flying board, shooting off into the distance.
The shockwaves from Dopeyās fight were way too nasty. Better to pull the duel somewhere cleaner.
Slate missed the grab and came bursting out of the ground, furious. He locked onto Ethan and lunged after him.
Ethanās telekinetic flight was fastābut Slateās ability to
fold the ground
, compressing distance like he was cutting corners through space, was even faster.
In no time, Slateās shadow was right behind him.
A crushing gravity field slammed onto Ethanās body.
His stomach dropped.
He fell like a stone.
At the same time, dozens of meteors screamed down from above, and spear-like stone spikes thrust up from below, turning the air and ground into a kill box.
"So youāre going straight for the throat," Ethan muttered, eyelid twitching.
He didnāt hesitate.
Teleportation.
He blinked away.
"Damn it," he cursed under his breath as he reappeared farther out. "I was trying to save mental energy."
Long-range Teleportation burned way more mental energy than just riding telekinetic flight. Ethan had been hoping to kite Slate a little, let him waste stamina.
Yeah. Not happening.
Thank god Teleportation was instantāotherwise heād have been in real trouble.
One chased, one fled.
They pulled farther and farther from the main battlefield.
Then, without warning, Ethan stopped midair.
Slate surged up behind him, eyes cold. "What, you finally realize you canāt get away? Done running?"
"Idiot," Ethan said flatly.
He triggered
Absolute Stasis
.
The world froze.
In the same breath, Ethan teleportedāappearing right beside Slateāand swung his
poleaxe
down with everything he had.
"
Annihilation Strike!
"
Black light erupted along the weapon like a crack in reality.
The poleaxe smashed into Slateās skull.
"BOOMā!"
The earth detonated.
A crater several meters deep blew open, and Slateās body was driven straight into the bottom like a nail.
"Aaaarghā!"
A shriek tore through the airāraw, hysterical.
In the crater, Slateās head was a mess of blood and pulp. He thrashed on the ground, roaring like a wounded beast.
Ethanās eyes widened.
"Heās still not dead?"
That strike had eaten almost
ninety percent
of his remaining mental energyāan Annihilation Strike pushing close to
eight times
his normal power.
And it still hadnāt one-shot him.
Ethan clicked his tongue, forcing himself to stay calm.
"Yeah... the gapās still too big."
At higher Tiers, the difference between each Tier wasnāt like early-game progression. Each step was a wall.
Ethan had killed Infernals while jumping two Tiers before.
Now heād powered up, his mental energy pool had jumped massively, and he still couldnāt instantly delete Slate.
But it made sense.
Ethan was only
Tier 22
.
Slate was
Tier 25 peak
.
A three-Tier gap.
And more importantlyāEthan was in
Stage B
, while Slate had stepped into
Stage A
. That wasnāt something you casually brute-forced.
Slate exploded out of the crater in a burst of dirt and rock. A stone spear formed in his hand and stabbed straight at Ethan, his eyes drowning in murderous frenzy.
Ethan teleported away again.
After that hit, he didnāt have the mental energy to trade up close. He had to reset.
"Iām going to kill you!" Slate screamed behind him, voice cracking.
Getting nearly killed by a human so many Tiers below him was humiliation. The kind that burned hotter than pain.
He
had
to wash it off in blood.
But even at full strength, Slate couldnāt catch Ethan.
Now he was injuredābadly injured.
And heād underestimated just how bad it was.
Ethanās blow hadnāt killed him, but it had landed on his head. His skull was fractured, and blood poured down his face in sheets.
As he chased, his vision started to swim. His balance wobbled.
His limbs stopped listening the way they should.
After a few more minutes of stumbling pursuit, Slateās momentum finally cut out.
His knees buckled.
And he collapsed face-first into the dirt, going still.
"Whew..."
Off in the distance, Ethan finally let out the breath heād been holding and dropped onto the ground, legs giving out under him.
Annihilation Strike
had eaten an absurd amount of his mental energy. Then heād burned what was left with nonstop
Teleportation
for way too long.
If he hadnāt been eating Mindfruit and jacking his mental energy reserves up, he wouldāve bottomed out ages ago.
And honestlyāif his mental energy
hadnāt
increased, he never wouldāve dared take a swing at a
Tier 25 peak
powerhouse in the first place.
Ethan looked at Slateās body sprawled on the ground and smiled.
Heād actually done it.
Heād killed a
Stage A
-level enemy.
Next time he ran into a Stage A opponent, he wouldnāt be walking in blind anymore.
Back at the main fight, the remaining Stoneborn were turning a sickly pale.
Their control skills were barely keeping Dopey slowed, but the drain on them was horrific. They couldnāt let anything drop for even a secondāif they paused, Dopey would tear free instantly.
They were miserable.
Desperate.
Praying Slate would hurry up and kill the human already.
Instead, it was like the universe decided to spit in their faces.
A figure came flying ināboth feet planted on telekinetically-guided daggers like makeshift boardsāand he was carrying someone in one hand.
As he got closer, the Stoneborn recognized him immediately.
The owner of the soulless thrall.
And the thing dangling from his gripā
Was
Slate
.
Even with Slateās head smashed and his face unrecognizable under blood, they knew. They knew from his build, his aura, his gearāeverything.
"How is that possible?!"
Eyes bulged. Voices cracked.
"Noāno way! Slate canāt be killed by a Tier 22 human!"
Their brains refused to accept what their eyes were seeing.
In their minds, Ethan was an insect. Sure, a slippery one. A runner.
But a killer?
Someone who could drop Slate?
Impossible.
Slate mightāve been the weakest among them, but he was still
Tier 25 peak
āand Stoneborn bodies were famously hard to break. Theyād even assumed Ethan might not be able to crack Slateās defenses at all.
Yet the corpse in Ethanās hand was dead.
Dead-dead.
No life left.
They could deny it, but they couldnāt change it.
And in the instant they lost focusā
Dopey tore free.
He flashed in front of one Stoneborn, fist already chambered.
That Stoneborn was still frozen in shock over Slateās death. He didnāt even raise his hands before Dopeyās punch caved his chest open, leaving a hole straight through him.
He dropped on the spot.
"Damn it!"
"Run!"
The leaderās face twisted. He spun and bolted.
But trying to run
now
was already too late.
Stoneborn could fold the ground to shorten distance, sureābut they still couldnāt outrun Dopey.
One powerhouse took a single step, trying to trigger his movementā
The scenery hadnāt even finished shifting when Dopeyās fist smashed into him.
He collapsed mid-stride and never got back up.
The rest were the same.
Some died while they were still turning to flee.
Some managed to get farther.
It didnāt matter.
Dopey hunted them down and punched them apart one by one.
Even Ethan felt his scalp tighten watching it.
Heād always known Dopey was fast. Ethan had been confident Teleportation made him untouchable no matter what.
Now he wasnāt so sure.
Unless it was a long-range jump, if Ethan tried to rely on short-distance Teleportation, Dopey could absolutely keep up and stick to him.
And those Void Realm creaturesāfast as they wereāstill werenāt fast enough.
Which only highlighted how terrifying Dopeyās speed really was.
In no time, only the Stoneborn leader was left... and he was already gone, vanished into the distance.
Ethan didnāt look worried.
With satellite surveillance, the guy wasnāt getting away.
And Ethan had
deliberately
had Dopey leave him for last.
It was time to find Dopey a companion.
Heād had that secret method for
creating soulless thralls
for a long time, but heād never used itābecause nothing heād killed felt like worthy material.
This one?
This one would do nicely.