Chapter 976 976. Suppression
Noah felt an immense force weighing on his shoulders and pushing him at high speed toward the ground. There was nothing that he could do to stop himself. Even his hybrid strength enhanced by the Demonic Form spell couldn't stop his fall.
The large area of the sky condensed by Elder Marco slammed on the ground, crushing the already broken mountain and leveling the terrain. The dense air didn't stop there. It continued to descend, creating a rectangular hole that kept on becoming deeper.
The region occupied by the True Mountain sect had become unrecognizable after the battle had gone on for a few exchanges. Noah's sudden arrival and consecutive attacks had already ruined the scenery significantly. Still, Elder Marco's last spell was causing cracks to appear in the entirety of the region.
The condensed air began to disperse after it had dug a hole a few hundred meters deep. Its disappearance left a space where the debris accumulated at the sides of the rectangle could fall.
Noah was at the bottom of the hole when the debris began to fall over him. His body felt sore, but it was in one piece. He had a few broken bones, but the Demonic Form and Snore had managed to absorb most of the spell's power.
Elder Marco coughed a mouthful of black blood as he admired the result of his spell from high in the sky. That attack had required a great deal of focus from him, so his suppression on Noah's poison had wavered for a few seconds.
That massive display of power wasn't efficient to use. It consumed a lot of energy, and it didn't focus its damage on one point. It could be perfect against large magical beasts, but it was a bit wasteful against cultivators.
The spell was by no means weak. Its large size made it unsuitable for targeting cultivators due to their small bodies, especially in a one versus one battle. The actual area that would hit them was only a minute part of the attack, which meant that most of the condensed air would end on the ground.
Nevertheless, that was the safest and most challenging to avoid attack in Elder Marco's arsenal. He could cast it from a safe position, and it worked as natural protection while he prepared it.
Even the joint attack of Noah's second form and Snore elements wasn't enough to pierce it.
'Can he do it again?' Noah thought as he rose in the sky. Yet, the same dangerous sensation as before filled his mind before a massive weight fell on his shoulders again and pushed him back on the ground.
Noah felt his bones crackling during the impact. Elder Marco had launched another one of those large spells and had flung him on the ground again.
The hole became more profound as the area of condensed air continued its descent. It leveled the previous debris that had fallen inside the rectangular chasm and dug for a few more hundred meters.
Elder Marco spewed another mouthful of black blood. Noah's poison managed to cause some damage every time he focused on casting that spell. Still, he inflicted more wounds on Noah in that way, so he felt satisfied with that outcome.
The expert had found a way to avoid facing a hybrid body's troublesome features and suppress Noah. Suffering some minor wound to end the battle safely was worth it.
On the other hand, Noah was in a pickle. He could feel that his Black Mark spell was continuing to damage the Elder's body, but he knew that he was suffering far more.
Also, he didn't know if Elder Marco was nearing his limits. He wasn't aware of a solid stage cultivator's full potential, so he guessed that the expert could continue with that tactic for a while.
Noah was still okay, at least when it came to the world of the hybrids. Many of his bones were either cracked or broken, and his internal organs felt heavy after enduring that pressure.
Quick math in his mind revealed that Elder Marco could kill him if he had the power to cast that spell nine more times. Noah would even become slower as time passed, meaning that most of his strategies would become useless.
He felt that he had only two choices. He could dig a way out of that situation and call it a day, or try to defeat Elder Marco in the next attacks. The only problem with the second option was that he didn't have a promising offensive strategy.
He had already thought about digging a tunnel only to sneak on him once he resurfaced somewhere else. Yet, Elder Marco was high in the air, and Noah didn't have anything to cover his presence.
The Elder would notice the sudden attack and cast another of those large spells. After all, he only needed to sense the threat's origin to decide which area to flatten.
The only approach that could make an attack successful saw him piercing the condensed air formed while the Elder cast the spell and reach for him with the movement technique. The issue was whether Noah owned an offensive capable of doing it.
'Any solid stage cultivator can make me go all out then,' Noah thought as a black sphere formed on his palm on began to float next to him. 'I guess thinking about killing them while being in the liquid stage is already a great achievement.'
The Black Hole spell had an innate gravitational pull that made the primary energy in the air gather around its form. Its power increased quickly, and it soon reached the standards of the solid stage.
Elder Marco sensed that Noah was up to something. However, there was virtually no drawback in waiting for his opponent there in the sky. Also, there were various formations in the nearby regions so that Noah couldn't escape underground.
Of course, the Elder didn't know about the separate dimension. He guessed that Noah was trapped there with him now. The territories nearby had sects under the Ravaging Demon sect too. There was no chance to escape with standard methods.
However, Noah had no intention to escape. He had come there to destroy the True Mountain sect, and he would do it as long as he had a chance to succeed.
Four fuming arms wielded copies of the Demonic Swords. Yet, they didn't fuse into one slash. Noah was waiting for everything to be ready before unleashing another new technique.
The dark sphere in front of him started to morph at that point. It became an irregular shape that floated toward the various Demonic Swords and covered their form with its energy.
The Demonic Form enlarged when that happened, but Noah didn't feel surprised since he had already tested the technique in private. The quantity of corrosive smoke released during that process was immense too due to that power-up.
Another layer of a dark substance covered his weapons. That was Noah's Black Mark spell, which increased the overall power of the attack.
Then, Noah rose in the sky and slashed with his weapons at the first sign of danger.