A moment of crisis!
Marcus's eyes were bloodshot, exploding with the fierce, unyielding spirit unique to youth!
"Don't underestimate me—Sandstorm Great Burial · Rise!"
He unleashed all his magic power, disregarding everything!
The gold sand around him that hadn't been completely confined, and the gold sand furiously gushing from his body!
In an instant, it was like a desert storm disturbed!
It erupted with a roar!
A violent gold sand tornado fiercely burst forth with him at its center!
The range wasn't large, but the impact was extremely powerful!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The three rock walls on the flanks, which were hit first, suddenly paused under the impact of the violent gold sand storm!
The innermost rock surface was severely ground and peeled away by the high-speed rotating sand particles!
The solidification magic under Marcus's feet was also slightly pushed open by this forcefully unleashed power!
He seized this fleeting opportunity, his body shooting backward like a leaf in the wind!
Rumble—!!!
The four massive rock walls finally collided violently in the center, creating an earth-shattering roar!
The entire ground was smashed down several meters!
Smoke and rubble, mixed with golden sand, shot into the sky!
"Cough cough... cough..." Marcus, looking a bit disheveled, stabilized himself a dozen meters away, kneeling on one knee, coughing violently, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
The shockwave he had just endured made his internal organs churn!
His lower body had fully returned to human form; clearly, he had urgently interrupted his sandification to avoid having his core fixed by the solidification magic.
His clothes were torn in several places, covered in bloody scratches from rock debris.
Even more seriously, his left arm, which he had used to forcefully break out with the Sandstorm Great Burial, was bruised and swollen from shoulder to forearm, clearly not lightly injured by the rock wall's power!
Although the sandstorm temporarily prevented the fatal blow of the rock walls closing, from the scene, he had clearly escaped in a desperate scramble!
"Hmph! Stubborn rock! Only knows how to use brute force! If you have the guts, let's not use magic!" Marcus bared his teeth, forcing himself to stand, his right hand caressing his throbbing left arm, still boasting, but the depths of his eyes were filled with unprecedented solemnity.
Too strong!
The opponent's control over earth elements was simply effortless, as if he were the earth itself.
The rock walls he casually created were far more solid than natural rock, clearly highly condensed with magic power!
"Childish provocation." Hotei stood on a high rock, shaking his head slightly, and beneath his compassionate expression was absolute control over the disparity in power. "Considering your youth, hand over the magic array spectrum that controls the gold sand, and you may leave."
With that one sentence, Marcus's eyes instantly blazed with killing intent.
"Bullshit! Who are you to covet my magic?!" Marcus bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on!
The severe pain in his left arm also ignited his stubbornness.
His eyes sharpened, and ignoring his injuries, he suddenly clasped his hands forward in a void!
"Taste this—gold sand Earth Scroll · Lion's Head Strike!"
The gold sand magic array under his feet lit up!
A large amount of sand on the ground rolled up like a tide, rapidly condensing and compressing in front of him!
This was not the previously large but relatively loose Lion's Might!
This time, what condensed was a more solid, heavier, golden lion's head phantom, shrunk to only the size of a fist!
Its entire body looked like pure gold, with menacing fangs, and its eyes were formed by two sharp magic crystals!
With a roar from Marcus, this golden lion's head, condensed with terrifying penetrating power, transformed into a golden stream of light, tearing through the air, accompanied by a piercing shriek!
Its target was Hotei on the high platform!
This was the "point-breaking-surface" killing move of gold sand magic!
Hotei's gaze slightly narrowed: "Excellent condensation. Unfortunately..."
He neither dodged nor evaded, lightly tapping his right hand in front of him.
"Immovable Rock Realm · Layered Peaks!"
Hum! Hum! Hum!
Three dark yellow magic rock shields, also condensed to the extreme, only half a meter thick, and arranged spirally, instantly appeared in front of him!
Complex earth-element runes flowed on the surface of each shield!
Bang! Bang! Bang!!!
The golden lion's head continuously blasted through the three magic rock shields like a cannonball!
Its powerful penetrating force surprised Hotei slightly!
But upon piercing the third rock shield, the golden lion's head finally ran out of strength, exploding into a cloud of gold sand dust!
And in front of Hotei, a fourth, stronger rock shield had already condensed again.
"Decent power, but too many flaws!" Hotei commented coldly, while pressing his left hand down!
"Rock Spear Thrust!"
Seven or eight rock spears, thick as thighs and with sharp tips, suddenly shot out from the ground beside Marcus!
Ruthless and cunning!
Marcus's face changed drastically!
The pain in his left arm affected his dodging speed!
"Gold Sandification!"
He reacted extremely quickly, instinctively driving his magic power to instantly sandify the parts of his body being attacked!
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Several rock spears passed through his body!
Bringing with them several wisps of golden dust!
But one particularly cunning stone spear just managed to pierce a part of his left shoulder that hadn't fully sandified, which he couldn't dodge in time!
"Ugh ah!" Marcus grunted, the blood from his pierced left shoulder instantly soaking his clothes!
The intense pain again slowed his movements!
"Hmph, an unskillful elementalization is your biggest fatal flaw!" Hotei looked down from above, as if he had seen through everything.
He no longer held back! His hands waved continuously!
"Earthquake Core!"
The earth under Marcus's feet suddenly surged like a tsunami!
"Rock Skyfall!"
Countless millstone-sized boulders condensed out of thin air in the sky, crashing down like meteorites!
"Earth Dragon's Roar!"
Several ferocious stone dragons, made of hard rocks, also burst out from the ground, biting at him!
The attacks instantly covered all the space Marcus could dodge into!
Fatal earth-element magic swept over him like a storm!
He hastily dodged, or blocked with sand walls and sand shields, but every direct hit made his blood churn!
Hotei's magic power seemed endless, his attacks continuous, and each blow was powerful, heavy, and cunningly angled!
Sandstorms were blasted apart, and Sand Burial was instantly torn to shreds!
Marcus was running for his life, completely at a disadvantage!
He could only desperately hold on, relying on the flexible and versatile nature of gold sand magic!
His injuries steadily increased, his clothes were tattered, and his aura rapidly weakened.
His attempts at elementalization became more frequent, but each time they appeared rushed and unstable, even making mistakes several times when restoring his body, leading to aggravated injuries!
The flexibility that gold sand magic was most proud of was completely suppressed in the face of Hotei's absolute power and exquisite control, which was like a mountain range crushing down!
"Give up. Your efforts, before the earth, are just futile dust." Hotei, like a judge, declared the outcome.
He even had enough magic power to spare a trace to guide earth elements to reinforce the protection of the second massive leg, almost driving Marcus to despair.
Again!
Marcus tried to use gold sandification to avoid the bite of a fierce earth dragon, but his left calf sandified a little too late!
Rip!
The earth dragon's sharp stone claws tore through his trousers and flesh, leaving claw marks deep enough to see bone!
The intense pain made Marcus's vision go black, and his body lost balance!
Almost simultaneously, a cold glint flashed in Hotei's eyes, and he mercilessly condensed a thick rock pillar, like a battering ram, slamming it into Marcus's unbalanced back!
"End this! Rock Impact!"
This strike, condensed with Hotei's quasi-Ten Wizard Saints-level pure earth-element magic, was as fast as lightning and unstoppable!
The aura of death instantly enveloped Marcus!
In that instant, time seemed to stretch!
In his ears was the shriek of the rock pillar tearing through the air!
Before his eyes was Hotei's cold, merciless face!
The intense pain throughout his body burned like fire!
The continuous high-intensity defense and elementalization attempts had brought his magic power close to exhaustion, and his mental strength was also nearing its limit!
But under this extreme despair and the pressure of death, all of Marcus's insights into gold sand magic, especially the "perfect elementalization" that was difficult to fully master, flashed rapidly through his mind like a revolving lantern!
Those failures, those hasty attempts, those pains of being pierced... were forcefully squeezed and connected at this moment by his extremely strained mind and will to survive!
What is the essence of sandification?
It is to completely break down the body's structure and merge with the gold sand magic particles between heaven and earth!
Unrestrained, omnipresent, and nowhere!
Does it require precision?
No! What is needed is complete letting go!
Like sand scattered into the sea!
Every grain of sand is oneself! Every grain of sand can do as it pleases under the will of magic power!
"Ah————!!!!"
Just as the rock pillar was about to hit him, Marcus's eyes widened, and he let out a long howl that was not human, filled with pain and ecstasy!
All the remaining magic power in his body!
His heavily wounded, unyielding will!
All burned without reservation at this moment of life and death!
Bang!!!
The rock pillar slammed hard into its target!
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"