Chapter 1278 1278. Violent exchanges
Noah's eyes sharpened when he saw the leader's expression. His attack had destroyed a large chunk of its lair and transformed it into an island made only of divine ice. His slash had also badly wounded the creature, but it didn't show any fear.
The leader's condition was pitiful. The slash had created large holes in its body and had severed entire pieces of its flesh. The Snake was more than seven hundred meters long, but it had turned into a maimed shape that barely had any living feature left.
Noah's attack had exposed the Snake's organs. It had destroyed a third of its face and severed its clawed arms. Its body was a mess of broken flesh and holes that pierced it from side to side, but the creature didn't appear worried.
Dark matter began to accumulate near Noah again, and a shadow flew out of his space-ring. Snore's hisses also echoed through the sky, but the Blood Companion didn't reveal itself while its Master gathered power again.
Noah's instincts told him that something was off, so he didn't hesitate to prepare another massive slash. However, the entire world began to tremble before he could finish gathering energy.
The cracks created by the slash enlarged as earthquakes filled the whole world. Noah's sharpness continued to open cuts in the environment, but that event didn't depend on his attacks.
The frozen landmasses rose toward the sky. Tall silver mountains formed in the world as the ice reacted to the Snakes' leader intentions.
Large chunks of ice separated from the mountains and shattered to take the form of thick ice-shards as they flew toward the leader. A storm soon covered the creature and hid it from Noah.
Noah knew what was happening, so he couldn't allow that process to continue. He pointed his blade toward the storm of ice-shards before performing multiple lunges that carried all the power accumulated until that moment.
A series of sharp black pillars fell toward the ground and pierced the storm of ice-shards. The island made of divine ice shook under the might carried by Noah's attack, but no cracks appeared on its surface.
The storm quickly dispersed as Noah's aura consumed it, but a figure shot out of it before the pillars could hit it. A dangerous sensation accompanied that vision, and Noah raised his sword to prepare for the imminent clash.
The figure disappeared from the island, and Noah slashed at his side as he followed its movements. In an instant, the leader's massive body appeared next to him and clashed with the Demonic Sword.
The Snake didn't deploy any special technique. It had reached that speed through its brute force, and cracks had opened in the sky after that jump. The world couldn't endure its physical strength.
Noah held the Demonic Sword with both his hands as he tried to endure the immense power that had landed on his arms. His blade had stopped the leader's charge when its momentum was at its peak. That was the strongest physical attack that the Snake was capable of!
The armors on his arms broke as Noah tried to fend the Snake off. Things would become dangerous if he let the creature gain the upper hand in the fight.
Noah didn't forget his first battle against that species. Eternal Snakes could chain leaps and attacks to generate a relentless offensive. He couldn't end up in that situation against the quasi-rank 7 creature.
His veins bulged, and the Demonic Sword roared as Noah mustered all the power inside him to endure the attack. A web of cracks opened from the spot where the blade and the Snake touched. The shockwaves released in their clash destroyed the sky's fabric.
That was the peak of a lower plane. Creatures below the divine ranks couldn't wield a greater physical strength. Noah and the leader were showing the world what it meant to be at its apex!
Noah began to slide in the air at some point. The Snake was still stronger than him when it came to its physical strength. The empowerment of his ambition and the innate superiority of his centers of power weren't enough to make him match that quasi-divine creature.
Yet, part of him had expected that outcome. Noah respected the divine ranks too much to let his new power blind him in front of the obvious.
Noah was the best heroic cultivator in history, but the Snakes' leader had taken a step into the divine ranks. Techniques and abilities were useless in front of a power that surpassed him in quality and quantity.
His ambition made him defy logic, but divine creatures could defy laws. They were existences that stood among the very rules of the world in terms of power.
Noah felt surprised when he saw the leader's condition. He had been too focused on the clash to notice that its body had almost healed completely. He could barely find any injury on the creature.
The ice-shards had recreated even the missing pieces of flesh. The Snakes' leader could do what its underlings couldn't. Its innate ability allowed it to regrow even the severed parts of its body.
Noah didn't think about anything when he noticed that feature. He noted down that piece of information and stored it in the back of his mind as he called for his hidden asset.
He couldn't let anything distract him in that situation. The slightest delay in his reactions could make him end up in a relentless series of attacks that he would have a hard time escaping.
A massive reptilian head suddenly came out of Noah's fiendish armor. Snore had formed inside the defensive layer made of dark matter and had remained hidden as it waited for a chance.
The outcome of Noah's first attack had shown him that he couldn't kill the quasi-rank 7 creature in one blow. He could have a chance if he slashed from a short distance after completing his preparations, but Noah knew that the Snake would never allow that to happen.
Noah needed another method to kill the Snake, and he could only think of his Blood Companion's innate ability when he considered the destructiveness of his attacks. The dark beam was virtually unstoppable, and it was the perfect weapon against creatures of that species.
Snore's head grew as it came out of Noah's armor. Its six horns began to gather elemental attacks and redirect their energy toward the Blood Companion's mouth.
The power that pushed Noah back suddenly disappeared as the leader leaped in the air before jumping again to assault its opponent. The Snake showed great agility and control of its massive body by performing two sprints in a row.
Snore tilted its head while Noah closed his eyes to spread his mental waves in the area. A dark beam came out of the Blood Companion's mouth as he laid the Demonic Sword on his forehead.
The Snakes' leader performed a sharp evasive maneuver when it sensed the dangerousness that accompanied the beam. The creature leaped again to dodge the attack, but a series of dark lines materialized in front of it when it changed direction.
The dark lines didn't wait for the Snake to crash upon them. They flew toward the creature and opened cuts in multiple spots. Its mouth even became a bloody mess after their passage.
Other black lines appeared in the area and pierced the leader in different spots. Noah launched all the attacks that he could muster, and Snore spat another dark beam aimed at the creature's head. Yet, a storm of ice suddenly surged from the ground and engulfed the Snake.
The power radiated by the ice even hid the leader's presence. An entire frozen region had separated from the landmass and had flown in the sky to help the Snake.