Was it really a good idea to mock it after it praised me like that?
That fleeting thought crossed Kanzaki Reiâs mind.
But in the very next instant, what filled his vision was a sky packed with golden fist-images.
Forget it.
The opponent had no intention of wasting another wordâits attacks crashed down like a tidal wave!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Kanzaki Rei met the storm of fists head-on!
This time, his arms no longer shatteredâhis bones had grown even tougher!
Whoosh!
A streak of light shot skyward.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
This time, it was no longer Kanzaki Rei taking the hitsâhe had begun his counteroffensive!
Dragon fists collided with his own!
Every impact carried overwhelming force!
But brute strength alone wasnât enoughâthere had to be penetration, a power that pierced through!
This dragonâs combat style was the ultimate embodiment of overwhelming strength!
Insights surged through Kanzaki Reiâs mind!
The dragonâs techniques... and Akagiâs Invincible Style.
The two combat philosophies were astonishingly similar.
Each one validated the otherâallowing Kanzaki Rei to derive an even more powerful way of fighting.
Up until now, Iâve relied too much on magic.
I tried to fuse magic with combat techniques... but I ignored the essence of combat techniques themselves. I neglected how to maximize the raw power of the body.
My strength has long surpassed ordinary humans.
Iâve long been on a completely different level than normal warriors... yet Iâve still been thinking within the framework of ordinary warriors when it comes to combat techniques.
BOOM!
Countless phantom punches suddenly converged into a single strike!
ăFirmament Style â Third Form: Phantom Strike · Convergent Dragon-Slaying Blowă
BANG!
A single punch pierced through!
Cracks spread across the golden scales like shattered glass!
Previously, it had taken the sacrifice of 500 million souls to break those indestructible scalesâ
And now... with nothing but raw physical force, Kanzaki Rei had fractured them!
It works!
My previous combat techniques... really were full of flaws.
In this battle, Kanzaki Rei finally realized the shortcomings of his techniques.
He had created them because others did the sameâdrawing heavily from predecessors, modeling their processes, adapting their experience...
The techniques were his.
But the experience behind them... was almost entirely borrowed.
Now, he understood.
The gap between himself and others... was simply too vast.
There was no second existence in this world with so many God-Tier Talents.
His physical strength was far beyond what any ordinary warrior could ever possess.
Soâ
By borrowing othersâ experience, he had actually limited himself.
His techniques were indeed strongâbut only strong relative to warriors of the same level.
That was nowhere near his true limit!
If he was to design techniques of his own...
He needed to aim higherâfar higher!
He needed to create them from the perspective of a superior realm!
Clarity flooded his mind!
The golden dragon roared in fury!
Its wings thunderedâ
A violent shockwave exploded outward as its scales began to shine with even more dazzling brilliance!
BANG!
BANGâBANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
It wasnât just his body growing strongerâhis speed was increasing as well.
The dragonâs once-overwhelming speed... Kanzaki Rei was now rapidly adapting to it.
Faster.
Sharper.
No longer missing punches.
No longer struck by attacks he couldnât defend against.
Nowâ
Every move was perfectly received.
Every attack neutralized!
Golden shockwaves erupted across the heavens again and again!
Their battlefield flickered through the skyâif seen from afar, it would look like a golden dragon the size of a planet, repeatedly throwing punches into empty space!
And at every point of collisionâ
Ripples exploded outward in all directions!
To it, this humanâsmaller than a mosquito, as insignificant as bacteriaâ
Was repeatedly blocking its fists!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whooshâ
The two figures blinked in and out of existence across the turbid sea like teleporting shadows!
BOOM!
Dragon and man streaked across an islandâ
The wind from their movement alone carved a massive trench straight through it!
And in the next instantâ
The shockwave from their colliding fists erupted!
The entire island shattered into pieces!
This human... got stronger again?
6 minutes...
7 minutes...
At 6 minutes, Kanzaki Rei only took one-millionth of the damage.
The dragonâs attacks now did little more than slightly numb his fistsâfar from breaking bones.
At 7 minutes, the damage dropped to one-ten-millionth.
Now?
Not even numbness.
It felt like punching his own palmâno sensation whatsoever.
Meanwhile, the dragonâs fistsâ
Their scales were constantly cracking apart.
Kanzaki Reiâs body continued to evolve.
It wasnât just the 7,000Ă physical enhancement from ăGod-Tier · Ascension Beyond Limitsă.
Even his base physical body alone was now more than ten times stronger than before the battle!
Breakthrough after breakthroughâ
Growing stronger, again and againâ
His body evolving, ascending into ever-higher realms!
And his combat techniquesâ
Were reaching new peaks with every passing second.
In mere minutes, they had gone through multiple iterations.
Thanks to his near-infinite thinking timeâ
Though it seemed he was constantly fighting...
In truth, he still had ample time to comprehend, refine, and evolve!
The golden dragon could clearly feel itâ
Every strike Kanzaki Rei threw was stronger than the last.
This human...
Was growing stronger every second.
His body.
His techniques.
The rate of growthâ
Terrifying!
BANGâ
A scale shattered.
As their fists clashed, overwhelming force eruptedâ
Without realizing it, the dragon found itself being pushed back.
From initially overwhelming Kanzaki Reiâ
To a dead-even clashâ
And now...
Kanzaki Rei was taking the initiative!
"Fighting me for this long... youâre the first!" Kanzaki Rei roared as he punched downward!
BANG!
That tiny fist slammed into the dragonâs headâ
Golden scales exploded into the air!
The blow actually dented its skull!
ăFirmament Style â Sixth Form: Ultimate · Piercing Dragonă
A strike that gathered all strengthâ
Converting all magic into physical powerâ
And unleashing it at a single point!
Previously, "Ultimate" had been used to trigger magicâ
Achieving at least double magical burst power.
But that approach treated combat techniques as support for magic.
Why should they be subordinate?
Combat techniques were no weaker than magic!
"Ultimate"â
Was his peak.
His strongest strike.
And nowâ
It could embody everything!
8 minutes!
One punch shattered the dragonâs cranial scalesâ
And in the next instant, Kanzaki Reiâs fists became a torrential storm!
ăFirmament Style â Third Form: Phantom Strike · Dragon-Slaying Tempestă
In a flashâ
Punches rained down at maximum speed!
Shattered scales exposed flesh beneathâ
And the barrage descended like a storm!
BOOM!
Golden blood burst from the proud dragonâs head!
Its defensesâcompletely broken!
The golden shockwave pushed him backâ
But the storm of fists chased forward relentlessly!
Kanzaki Rei didnât dodge.
He met it head-on!
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANGâ
Golden scales scattered across the sky!
In the clash between man and dragonâ
The dragon was being driven back, step by step!
At this moment, Kanzaki Reiâs combat techniquesâ
Compared to the start of the battleâ
Had undergone a complete metamorphosis.
They were no longer on the same level at all.