Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

With Chaos magic at full power, I stuffed the pulsing sphere in the lizard’s face, and it exploded spectacularly! My entire arm got lacerated, revealing bone, but similarly, the beast got its face and eyes ravaged by the blades of Chaotic Qi.

The spell it was channeling broke harmlessly, and I only got slightly pushed back by a gust of air.

My hand glowed and healed up, and I leaped on the lizard and barely managed to wrap my legs around its thick neck. I then began pummeling its skull with all I had, each blow delivering devastating force onto its reinforced cranium.

Golden barrier flickered into existence, blocking my attacks, but I didn’t care! My hands began burning brighter and hotter but coated with Chaotic Qi, I did more damage to myself than my opponent.

The only difference was, I could go like that for an entire day, while it couldn’t. And as expected, It thrashed around and collided with trees and the ground, but I held tight like a blood-sucking leech while burning it with my body. After failing to throw me off, and as the damage accumulated, its energy reserves began to experience some shortages.

The golden barrier covering its head sputtered out helplessly and then went away, and I was back to punching naked flesh and bone.

My fists landed in a one-two rhythm, every cycle going stronger and faster than the last. My heart began beating faster as the punches rained down. My mind gave birth to both excitement and anger as I lost myself in the repetitive action of hammering my enemy into the ground.

The lizard whipped its head around in the hope of getting me off, but I didn’t let go. Instead, I punched even harder and soon I was covered in blood in my entirety.

And then I heard the first crack, the music to my ears. My bones were breaking. But so did the skull of the giant beast!

The only difference was that my bones were reforged into even stronger weapons of war while the lizard was breaking apart. Like a power hammer, my fists slammed into its thick skull without pause and with increasing vigor.

I felt my awareness narrow and my sight focus on the task at hand. Everything slowed down as my punches continued. The muffled sounds of the world became slower in my ears, deeper, and completely unrecognizable.

I felt every nerve and muscle working in tandem to produce as much force as my body could take, sometimes more. Much more.

Qi empowered my body and I could feel my pathetically weak flesh tear and snap as bones fractured and instantly mended, even stronger than before.

I kept punching.

The flames of rage and ecstasy burned in my heart as my entire being focused on this one task, ignoring everything else. My fists were hammers and I was forging my body on an anvil of death.

With each regeneration, each time my body broke and was rebuilt, instead of becoming weaker, I became better instead. Stronger, denser, tougher!

No mortal blade could pierce me. No natural disaster could move me. No wound too great for me to heal. No-

“GERALD!”

I felt something pierce through my defenses and strike my mind and it woke me up from the bloodlust trance. My body was shaking, my heart beating hundreds of times a minute, and my breathing was so quick you would think I was a steam engine.

“Gerald! Stop! It’s already dead!”

I looked down at my blood-covered hands and shivered. I sat on top of the massive lizard, but its head was gone, turned to mush under thousands of my strikes.

I felt… fantastic! Covered in blood, shivering in the cold, I was in ecstasy. That was a real battle! With destruction and death! With real victory! I began laughing uncontrollably.

“Gerald…” I heard Shao Lin’s distant voice fill with concern. I didn’t care. I felt great! Better than ever before! I felt alive! But then…

“Watch out!”

The warning came too late. I felt something strike me from behind, and an instant later, I already crashed through the ancient trees and went tumbling on the ground for hundreds of meters before my body came to a stop.

I slowly rose up, looking at the trail of destruction I left behind. There, beneath the Neverwinter tree, stood the large four-armed ape looking furious while beating its chest in a challenge.

[Oh, you little bitch…] I grinned like a devil. A new challenger. I could barely contain my joy.

[Thanks for the punch!] I shouted as gravity shifted and I fell horizontally towards the ape, fingers balled into a fist. [Here! Have one back! It’s on the house!]

My fist cracked the beast’s lower jaw as the kinetic energy was transferred perfectly through the contact of our bodies.

The Four-arms spun around, fangs and blood flying through the air. It then stomped on the ground and looked at me with blood-red eyes. A golden barrier formed around it, in the shape of an ape, and as it moved, so did the barrier.

It gave an unintelligible screech and punched. I avoided the slow strike and retaliated with one of my own, to little effect. Golden Qi was still superior. Which was exactly why I took a few Spirit Shards to amplify my attack and soon I had golden fists as well.

Exchanging blows, I soon discovered the damn ape was incredibly strong! Even being empowered with Qi as I was, I couldn’t overpower it. I was much more durable than it though.

Each of my punches left a mark on the barrier, while the few that landed on me only left momentary bruises on my skin. Seconds later, they were healed.

[Damn beast, stop monkeying around! Your struggle is apparent to all!]

But it didn’t listen even though I was convinced it at least partially understood me from its reaction. It became angrier and shouted something.

It then grabbed my hands, and with its superior strength, forced me to my knees. Then the one-sided pummeling started, just like I did it to the lizard before.

[Damn… you!]

I couldn’t utilize my magic outside my body due to it interfering with it, so I was forced to endure. I wasn’t expecting to get help from Shao Lin any time soon as his wounds didn’t heal as fast as mine, and he seemed pretty hurt back then.

But if magic wasn’t allowed outside my body, I still had the inside. I forced Qi into my eyes until they began to glow from the energy and I became blind. No worries though, as I could still detect magic with the help of Arcane Eyes.

Two beams of light shone from my eyes, the most powerful lasers yet. It blinded the ape and burned its eyes and it screamed in pain. It used two of its hands to cover my face and stop the damage, but I just pushed more energy into my head and my entire head began to glow from heat. More and more Qi I burned to produce the strongest heat beam I could. Even the Golden Qi barrier couldn’t protect it from all of it. It was made to block physical damage, after all, not light.

The ape screeched as its hands began to burn, yet it could do nothing to stop it. Even as it tried to squeeze my head to pop it like a grape, I just laughed.

I made my body heavier than lead as I became rooted on the spot due to immense gravity. It couldn’t even throw me away to get rid of me.

And so, I just stared, with blinding beams coming from my burning eyes. I just stared and grinned. Grinned and pushed the energy into my enemy that was slowly charring up despite all its attempts at defense.

Grinned, and when it nearly couldn’t move anymore, I stopped, my body quickly cooling down. I looked at my beaten opponent.

[Pathetic. Unable to even sustain the power of the sun for a few minutes.]

I jumped up and then flew higher. After nearly reaching the gray clouds, I stopped, and gravity shifted.

100 G. Straight down.

My body took the strain like a champ and I extended my fist a moment before touching the ground. Like a meteor, I smashed into Four-arms and went through. It died on the spot.

Meanwhile, my attack created a crater and threw copious amounts of earth and stones into the air.

I was once again victorious!

But then it hit me.

[Oh, shit! The tree!]

I frantically looked around and noticed it was nowhere to be seen!

Ah, but then I remembered that we moved quite a bit while fighting. So, maybe-

“Are you insane?!” I heard Shao Lin’s shout from the distance. I followed it and soon found him under the tree. It had a few scratches but was otherwise fine. He was standing beneath it, seemingly ready to protect it. Around lay a bunch of rocks and broken stones.

[Oh, hey… Are you alright?]

“Am I alright?!” He shouted. “Are you alright?! After what you’ve done to-! Sigh… Forget it. Yes, I’m fine. But you nearly destroyed the Neverwinter tree! Luckily I was here to protect it.”

[...Sorry. I got too excited.]

We didn’t speak for a few moments, both of us still trying to process what just happened.

[Anyway, should we collect the fruits?]

“Sure, go ahead. You can have all of them. You beat the beasts after all.”

[Ah, don’t be like that. Let’s share. After all, if you didn’t protect the tree, there would be none left.]

“…Alright.”

We collected the fruits, the Neverwinter Cherries, and stored them safely in storage pouches where they would never spoil or rot. Perfectly preserved for eternity. Or until the following week when we got back to the Sect.

While Shao Lin recovered from his wounds, I took the opportunity to gather and turn, what was left of the two creatures, into purified Essence Cores.

Afterward, I finished absorbing the two Souls and felt the familiar pressure. I was ready to advance. A breakthrough was at hand.

I sat on a tree root and entered meditation. With a thought, I was back in my mind space, my Sea of Consciousness.

It was hot and dark inside there, yet it felt like home. The black stone serving as the foundation was filled with cracks of molten magma, bubbling to the surface.

A pile of skulls was already there, with two just freshly added, to serve as my spoils of war, my trophies.

They were all intangible, of course, simply constructs of Soul Essence I refused to consume, like everything else. I was building my world, and I would be sincere. If my path of growth was paved with corpses, so would my home. I would not delude myself, like some people, creating a paradise in my mind.

My Soul, the black, winged warrior, cracked, and a molten mist swirled around it, forming a new shell. Everything went smoothly, my Soul expanded, cooled down, and hardened.

I felt power course through my veins. Manipulating Qi became even easier than before, if you could even believe that, and my efficiency with magic rose another step.

Nascent Soul VI.

Marvelous.