Chapter 297: Heroic Spirit Remnants, Aberrant Transformation of the Royal Armory

Chapter 297: Chapter 297: Heroic Spirit Remnants, Aberrant Transformation of the Royal Armory

Seeing its combo miss yet again, the Demon seemed utterly enraged.

It began haphazardly swinging its Warhammer in Lance’s direction, causing widespread destruction.

With such intense, violent movements,

the seams in the Armor on its body—a fusion of flesh and ore—suddenly burst open, unable to contain its swelling muscles.

Puffs of dense, dark red fog, accompanied by a pungent odor, spewed from the cracks and quickly filled the surrounding air.

[Rusted Blood Mist]!

Lance was still observing his opponent’s recovery when, in a moment of carelessness, he inhaled a mouthful of the poisonous mist.

His brow furrowed immediately.

He pushed off the ground, rapidly creating distance and exiting melee range.

’So it even has a passive AoE poison gas attack.’

He gazed at the area shrouded in red mist, thinking to himself.

’I wonder if the Iron Guards in the other nine rooms have similarly nasty passives.’

However, for Lance, who possessed the "Primordial Filter Gland," this little bit of poison was completely trivial.

The moment the poisonous mist entered his lungs, it was instantly broken down by enzymes secreted by the gland.

’This poison isn’t even as potent as the one from that poison mist assassin last time.’

Lance then patiently used his speed advantage, spending a few more minutes probing the Demon.

After a few exchanges, he had a crystal-clear picture of this Iron Guard’s capabilities.

Its raw power was roughly on par with an average Level 5 Adventurer.

Its strengths were its immense Power and thick Armor.

Its weaknesses were also glaring: it lacked high combat intelligence, relied solely on instinct, and had extremely rigid attack patterns.

While a few of its Skills had a wide range and seemed dangerous, their wind-up animations were obvious, and there were clear ways to counter them.

’A monster of this strength isn’t too ridiculous.’

Lance concluded.

As long as the support Professions outside applied a full suite of buffs before entering the room to fight, brought along some support Potions for detoxification and recovery, and were equipped with decent-level armor, and the top experts were chosen from the Grand Guilds, then clearing these 10 Iron Guards shouldn’t come with too great a risk of failure.

It seemed the descended Heroic Spirit Species didn’t intend to make things difficult for everyone in the selection for the individual leaderboards.

Perhaps because it had been a king who commanded entire armies in life,

this Heroic Spirit had likely focused more of its attention on the group battles in the three major zones that tested teamwork.

’That’s enough testing for now.’

He had used challenging the Iron Guard as an excuse to get out and temporarily escape the tedious administrative tasks back at camp.

He had to keep his promise to take Nieve grinding later, so there was no need to drag this out any longer.

Besides, this was a perfect opportunity to test the powerful Specialty he had just acquired, to get a feel for it in actual combat and familiarize himself with its specific power and effects.

Only by knowing it inside and out could he ensure there would be no screw-ups when it was time to truly fight for his life.

He was especially curious how the Suffocation state would function under the Combat Continuation status granted by the [Resist Death] achievement.

’But if I’m going to do this, I might as well make it exciting.’

Lance’s gaze instantly turned sharp and fierce.

[Crimson Dragon - Dragon Form], activate!

His dark gold, slitted pupils lit up in an instant.

Two translucent, red crystal Dragon Horns sprouted unimpeded from either side of his forehead.

The Energy of [Heart Intent Martial Structure] began to spread madly throughout his body, seeping from his pores.

Under his powerful control, the Dragon Remains Crystal transformed into a suit of form-fitting, dark-red Energy Armor.

Intricate Dragon Scale patterns were etched onto the plates of his Battle Skirt, draconic motifs were carved into the sides of his Arm Guards, and the knee guards extended into menacing dragon-claw designs.

Even his hands were completely encased in Hand Armor covered in Dragon Scales.

This was his most perfect Dragon Form, achieved after his Source Material transformation!

Due to the sharp spike of Energy within his body,

white, high-pressure steam mixed with sparks spewed uncontrollably from his mouth and nose.

Amplified by the pair of Dragon Horns on his forehead, the surrounding Ether Energy became active to a terrifying degree.

Even the Iron Guard Demon opposite him, relying solely on its biological instincts,

could clearly sense that the black-haired human standing before it had transformed into a terrifying monster.

"Here I come."

Lance looked at the wary Demon and gave a contemptuous smirk.

As his Source Material had evolved, his Spiritual Control Power over this high-stress Dragon Form had grown even stronger.

Even though his body was now imbued with combat instincts, he could guarantee that his will would not be dominated by them.

Next,

[Hunting King’s Extreme Will - Desperate Breathless Death Struggle], activate!

Demons are incapable of emotions like Fear.

But...

...as it looked at the human figure distorted by the intense heat and the frantically surging Ether in the surrounding air,

the Demon, which shouldn’t have known the meaning of Fear, instinctively took two steps back.

Immediately after,

the air seemed to ignite from high-pressure friction, giving birth to blinding flames visible to the naked eye.

BOOM!

A sonic boom!

The immense kinetic energy caused a violent explosion where he had stood, scattering dust and smoke.

The entire chamber within the mountain began to shake violently.

Along with it, dark-red Ether flames mixed with dust and smoke spread through the air, continuously exploding outward.

This terrifying storm of Energy completely filled the entire mountain chamber.

Loud RUMBLING echoed from inside the mountain—the sound of the surrounding solid rock cracking under the impact of this power.

「A full two minutes later.」

The raging storm of Energy gradually subsided, and silence returned to the mountain chamber.

The dust and smoke cleared,

slowly revealing the figure of the man standing in the very center of the chamber.

The once-flat rock floor beneath Lance’s feet was now a massive, deep crater.

The terrain around the crater showed signs of having been forcibly pushed outward by a terrifying power, creating a pattern of radiating cracks.

Lance had been in the Underground City for some time and hadn’t had a chance to deal with his hair.

His black hair had grown out quite a bit, even forming a short wolf’s tail in the back.

But in the instant he had unleashed his power in the Suffocation state, the leather cord tying his hair had snapped from the violent airflow.

His long hair now unbound, he looked down at the bottomless fissure on the ground, which stretched all the way to the opposite rock wall.

’This kind of amplification... It’s impossible to hold back.’

Lance shook his wrist and sighed to himself.

At this moment, his health bar had already been completely reduced to zero by the burning effect of the Suffocation state.

He was now in the Combat Continuation state triggered by the [Resist Death] achievement.

However, what he found interesting was that with [Suffocation Mode] active, the mechanics of Combat Continuation had become rather peculiar.

Lance smiled with satisfaction.

Then, he turned his gaze straight ahead.

A huge crater had appeared on the opposite stone wall of the chamber, which was now covered in cracks.

It was surrounded by molten rock and the charred, brownish remains of the Demon, with flames flowing out of the crater like a fluid.

’Looks like I picked the wrong opponent to test my power on.’

That last strike hadn’t involved any fancy techniques; it was merely the "Dragon Tail Cannon" from the Azure Dragon Extreme Intent Style.

But,

this single punch simultaneously stacked the effects of Dragon Form, Suffocation Mode, Heart Intent Martial Structure, Ash Dragon Breath, and Melting Gold Armor Shattering.

The massive amount of Ether Energy damage dealt in that instant, just from stacking these top-tier Traits, had far exceeded Lance’s original conservative estimate.

Recalling the terrifying firestorm that had seemed to tear the very mountain apart,

Lance couldn’t help but find it a bit amusing; he even felt like laughing out loud.

’Bro, I wasn’t even trying yet. How’d you go down so fast?’

He hadn’t even had a chance to feel out the limits of his full power while in Suffocation Mode.

His opponent was finished in that single punch, rendering the remaining time a waste.

Lance mentally reviewed the fight.

The Demon’s Constitution Attribute was likely only around 40 points, equivalent to a Level 5 Professional of the Physical Talent Type.

Even if it had some Ordinary, defense-oriented Demon Talents from the Underground City stacked on top of that,

it apparently still couldn’t withstand one of my punches with nothing held back.

’Looks like below the Excellence Tier, there’s probably no one who can take that punch head-on and survive.’

Lance looked at his own fist and silently came to a conclusion.

’Since this move is so useful,’ he decided he would officially name this move "Ordinary Punch" from now on.

’But this isn’t even the strongest state I can currently achieve.’

’If I stacked the [Overstepping Gods] achievement on top of this,’

then I would call that strike the "Serious Punch"!’

He had always firmly believed that the more ordinary the name, the more extraordinary its power.

That was something he learned from watching a certain famous bald-headed anime in his past life.

Just as he was about to get a feel for the peculiar state his body was in,

a few unexpected messages suddenly popped up on his panel.

[Prompt: Valid and extremely unique target remains detected in the current area. Biological Research module automatically activated!]

[Target confirmed: Iron Guard (Forced fusion of Heroic Spirit Resonance and Dungeon Chaos Flesh and Blood)]

[Biological Research Illustrated Guide now performing deep analysis...]

[Warning! The Star Realm Heroic Spirit Law and Material Realm Chaos Flesh and Blood within the target have been detected in a forcibly sutured state. Its core biological structure and Energy Circuits are severely incomplete!]

[Comprehensive Research Value Evaluation: Inferior]

[Special Restriction Notice: This hybrid is a one-off creation and does not possess any capacity for stable racial reproduction or further evolution. Henceforth, killing any amalgams of this type of the same or lower rank will not be recorded by the system and will possess no biological research value.]

[Congratulations, research complete.]

[Unique Research Result Obtained: Heroic Spirit Remnant: Mountain Breaker Holger]

[Faint historical concept of "Weapon Mastery" detected within the Heroic Spirit Remnant. It is now creating a rule-based resonance with your Protection "Royal Armory" and "Melted Gold Shattered Armor"!]

[Congratulations! After absorbing this concept, your Protection [Royal Armory] has successfully obtained a Tier One derivative mechanic: Soldier Resolution and Re-casting (Pseudo)]