Chapter 168: Adam vs Alustus IV
Adam's bones cracked and shifted as the energy around him began to swirl, his form warping like clay being shaped under the careful and experience hands of a sculptor.
The air flare with corruption, an overwhelming pressure radiating from his body as it reacted to the colossal surge of energy coursing through his flesh, veins, blood, and bones.
He took his time casting multiple blessings, carving them into his bones.
The blessing of ice manipulation
The blessing of heat manipulation
The blessing of life burn
The twin blessing of soul burn and mind freeze.
The blessing of heat vision.
Those five blessing became officially part of his own body now, using all his Heat Astrum he currently been saving for months now to bring them into existence.
He created those five strong blessings with the use of his Lore Ability.
Next he began to work on the inner workings as well as the external ones, using various monster DNA he customize his battle form in the most efficient way possible.
The biological blueprint already in his head, and his body follows them to a T.
He was vividly aware of every cell in his compress body.
All 37,563,928,118,830 of them.
His once-human frame was starting to break down, the familiar contours of his body blurring as it reformed into something else entirely.
Little by little his human feature started to fade, and only the shape of it remain to an extent.
The Regulator Rings, a halo of Monster Energy became more brighter and more menacing looking, radiating a combined series of highly dense purple colored miasma, his own monster energy red and black, all flickered into existence around his head.
Crackling with volatile energy of many nature as though they could no longer contain the storm brewing inside him.
Every muscle in his body expanded and tightened, compressing with unnatural force as if being crushed and rebuilt by his own willpower.
His flesh bubbled and reshaped, veins pulsing with black and red energy as the transformations intensified.
Bone and sinew restructured under the overwhelming weight of his transformation, each part of his body adapting to the onslaught of monster DNA coursing through him.
His once-slime form gave way to dense, more solid muscle, but with a certain fluidity that allowed him to bend and twist in ways his previous self never could in a full solid body.
Adam's frame shrank back to that of a Sidhe, his body condensing into a smaller, more agile form that would give him the speed and dexterity he needed to face opponents like Alustus.
He was never going to face him with a normal size body, it would be too tedious.
Still six inches of pure menace now stood before the king.
Who was twice his size, easily twelve inches. The size of standard school ruler.
That aside though Adam was not finished.
His arms were the first to undergo drastic changes. The bone exoskeleton that had once been jagged and malformed, reshaped into something far more refined around his body starting with his forearms.
They were now covered in a smooth layer of bone that thickened around his elbows and wrists, almost like natural armor.
Claws began to extend from his fingertips, curling outward slightly with a feral sharpness, they looked a lot like the werewolf claws, well in actuality they were, the transformation in of itself however was just more complex in several ways.
The bones themselves felt more like skin than natrual armor, pulsing with energy that responded to his every thought.
This happen around his entire body, till he was fully covered from head to toe. The armor itself look way for refine as it covered his entire body perfectly leaving not even a creves to take advantage of as a weak point.
From there, the bones shifted again.
Longer this time.
Serrated bone blades sprouted from his forearms, sharp as saw, and his hands became tools of destruction, being natrual conductors they began to heat rapidly until they where glowing with immense head.
He could feel the muscles underneath flex and respond to his will, the strength in his fingers becoming overwhelming.
His legs, though still humanoid, twisted into something far more potent underneath this natrual armor.
Tendons and ligaments stretched, and the bones in his thighs lengthened and thickened to give him better leverage and support.
The skin on his calves beneath the bone armor shimmered with a slick, aquatic purplish blue sheen as his affinity for water began to show its effects because of it.
Or rather his entire skin was now purplish blue underneath.
But because of this skin, the same skin of those merman also known as krogs.
He could feel the moisture in the air, sense the water all around him, and more importantly, he could draw it into his body to fuel his regenerative powers.
Krogs were notorious for being some of the most difficult monsters to deal with, especially once the fight shifted into water.
As a mixed-species monster, their strongest blood ties came mostly from the Line of Immutability, with powerful traits inherited from the Line of the Body, and smaller ties to both the Line of Space and Illusion.
Making their natrual abilities although small in amount quite the power set.
Meanwhile at the center of his tiny being.
His heart, the core of his physical being and the source of his infinite energy, pulsed with a menacing purple glow, empowering the monster energy coursing through every cell of his body.
The light bled through his armor and flesh, like a reactor core barely contained beneath the surface.
Behind him, eight spider leg appendages extended outward, a useful body part taken from the Archane, specifically chosen for this battle.
They were jet-black, and between the crevices of the exoskeleton on his body and spider legs, that same ominous purple light glowed fiercely. It pulsed in sync with his heart, leaking through the cracks like pressure building inside a living engine.
And finally, to top it all off, an enormous pair of monstrous black wings spread wide behind him.
They were so heavily mutated that each black feather resembled a small dagger like but feather shape blade, absorbing the surrounding miasma directly from the atmosphere.
Adam extended his claws outward, the searing bone blades following behind.
As he clench his fist.
They protruded from the backs of his upper hands, sharp, dense, and deceptively light. He looked down at them, feeling his power surge through every fiber of his body like never before.
Beneath his helmet, a glowing sphere of gold burned where his eyes should be, scanning the battlefield.
Through the thick smoke caused by his transformation, the world remained unchanged, yet his vision was not the same.
Thanks to the blessing of heat vision, anything cold radiated in shades of blue, while anything alive and brimming with heat pulsed red.
From within the smoke, he clearly saw Alustus. His barrier appeared blue, lifeless, yet raw power still radiated from it in waves.
Then Adam flapped his wings.
Though they looked small, from they were vividly larger than his own body.
Seeing the smoke, he flapped them to rid his surrounding visible.
And the sheer physical force behind the motion was enough to blow away nearly all the smoke in an instant.
That was when Alustus finally laid eyes on Adam's battle form.
Compared to before… he now looked like a proper Monster.
"What the helllll?"
Alustus muttered, a bead of sweat trailing down his temple, though he remained calm outwardly.
Inwardly he was starting to worry.
'Hey Xindy, what the hell happened to him? Why am I sensing so many different monster energy signatures coming off him all of sudden it like I am standing before multiple different monsters all in one body.'
But the answer the System gave him was far more terrifying than he expected.
[Notice: Subject "Shinso Adam" appears to be a true Chimera. While the term chimera is often used colloquially to describe mixed-breed monsters, its original definition refers to a lost race, one with direct blood ties to the original Monster King, Typhon]
[According to the Akashic, his physiology would suggests a lineage that is impossibly rare. The only other known purebred origin-type monsters are the current Monster King and a few ancient bloodlines, under the direct rule of the king]
[Most monsters today are half-bloods or hybrids. Adam, however, may be something else entirely… either a trueborn Chimera, or something that replicate one via some kind of Lore Ability that allows him to integrate multiple monster lineages into a single vessel]
The system explain.
Alustus's jaw tightened.
"Tsk! Just how annoying can this fucker get!"
He shouted out, however to suprise, Adam teleported right in front of him.
"Why asked when you can find out for yourself?"
He spoke, catching Alustus by surprise.
But unlike before, Alustus was ready this time.
The spherical barrier surrounding his body pulsed outwards with great power, and then expanded rapidly with devastating force, a concussive shockwave so potent it could vaporize anything caught within its radius.
The impact sent Adam hurtling backward, his body slamming into the petrified wave. A crater formed instantly from the collision, cracks webbing across the stone.
"Ghkk!!"
Blood sprayed from Adam's mouth, leaking through the slits of his bone helmet.
Alustus stared at the monsterfied Adam with an arrogant, almost bored expression.
"Your tricks are getting old."
He said dryly.
"Did you really think I would fall for that again?"
But just as he walk forward to end Adam, something caught his sight.
The crater, along with the damaged stone wave and Adam's motionless form, suddenly vanished, as they all fade from existence.
It was as if the impact had never happened at all.
The wave stood untouched, and Adam was no longer there.
His eyes fool by a well a crafted illusion.
"WHAAA...
Alustus barely had time to shout when he heard it.
A familiar voice, low and mocking, whispered behind him.
"Is it though?"
CRACK!
A rumble of thunder echoed violently, followed by the sudden flash of green light and red lightning.
RUMBLE!!!
Adam appeared mid-strike, heated serrated bone blades coated in red lightning descending like a divine executioner.
The powerful swing carried an immutable force behind it, infused with Veracious Lightning and Truth Fire, two destructive abilities that not only vaporized matter, but together could disintegrated immutable facts about something, with his lightning deeper damage could be done, and with his fire it spread that damage faster.
In the moment, he target Alustus barrier.
Worse still, his attacks were fused with the Sidhe's natural Anti-Energy Manipulation. The moment his blade connected with Alustus's barrier, it cut through like butter.
In a flash of monstrous precision, Adam's lightning-cloaked bone blade tore through the shield, severing its structure down completely as the fire spread and wore down even more.
The truth-infused lightning shredded it, and the Anti-Energy field nullified Alustus's energy flow, if only for a second.
But a second was all Adam needed.
The blade sliced into Alustus's neck, biting deep. The weapon, crafted from werewolf bone claws, which naturally ignored physical durability, cut through with lethal ease.
But just as the blade dug in, it halted.
Something stopped it from going further.
'This fucking internal barrier again...shittt.'
Adam said out aloud with clear annoyance.
Still, the burning continued.
Flames laced with Truth Fire sizzled on Alustus's flesh, melting away skin and muscle where the blade had struck.
Alustus spun with a snarl, eyes wide in disbelief.
"...Fucking hell."
Alustus cursed under his breath, his voice tight with growing fear.
But he didn't waste time.
He extended his hand toward Adam, and in that instant, a deafening explosion erupted.
BOOM!!
Using his Water Affinity, Alustus targeted the moisture within Adam's own bloodstream.
The result was brutal.
Adam's blood detonated inside his body.
It burst from his armor and joints in rapid, violent spurts. Fountains of red liquid began splashing across the air.
"Gahhh!"
Adam gritted his teeth in pain, and teleported just in time, vanishing from Alustus's line of fire.
But his regeneration kicked in almost immediately.
The ocean answered his call.
Streams of seawater rose up, twisting into ribbons of raging water, and funneled straight into the cracks of his glowing bone helmet. The water coursed through him, saturating his body.
Then came the healing.
Tissues regrew.
Bones knit.
His insides realigned, and all internal damage was immediately fixed.
Through the power inherited from the Krog race, Adam's body healed at insane speeds as long as water was present, rendering him virtually unkillable in aquatic zones.
Fully heal, and now airborne.
Adam began his counter attack.
With a single flap of his monstrous black wings, he soared higher into the sky, his eyes locked on to Alustus.
From the wings, dozens of black, blade-like feathers fired off in rapid volleys, each one gleaming with deadly precision as they tore through the air like guided missiles.
Alustus's eyes widened in horror.
His instincts screamed.
Don't let them touch you.
He darted upward, weaving frantically through the sky as the barrage followed behind, cutting through clouds and whipping through the wind like death incarnate.
Each dodge was a near miss.
Each feather left scars in the air where energy had been sliced apart.
And yet, somehow, Alustus kept dodging, barely.
But even he could feel it.
Adam feather was bad news.
"Shit, shit, shit!"
He curse as he continue to fly, refusing to find out what will happen if they come in contact with him.