Chapter 2609: Harness The reason I felt hollow was that I felt the moves were lacking in power. They are plenty powerful, if they were not powerful, they wouldn't have been the part of the powerful art, but their power is still lacking when compared to the ultimate moves that Rai and the powerhouses of his possess. I wanted something comparable to those ultimate moves and searched for a way to create the ultimate moves, and I did not think my mortal enemies would give me the inspiration to create. It might seem like I am taking a beating, and I am, but I also learn. I am getting better at using the mountain cleaving set; its usage is becoming more refined and also, and I am making changes in the power structure so that I can harness the maximum power through the mountain cleaving set. It is a great thing that I had never stopped increasing the power of my fire and used many precious resources to increase only an ounce of its power, but all the pains I had taken are now bearing the fruit. Now, my fire is powerful enough that it could go toe to toe against the destructive lightning of its, and with my fusion Inheritanece energy, it is producing enough power I could counter against its destructive assault. "You are really something, Zaar; I had not thought you would last this long when I had first seen you," it said as it had launched another attack. I could see the questions hidden deep in its eyes, and if I had been in its place, I would have too had these questions. We could gauge the power of others by their aura; though we are not accurate, we are not too wrong either, and usually, the power lies in the parameters we predict. It had predicted my strength, and I had done it, and I am not too wrong in my prediction, but it is extremly wrong. My strength is increasing. Even now, the strengthening energy has filled my body and merged with it every second strengthening it, which is what gives me the strength to counter its powerful move. If not for strengthening energy, I would have been holed up inside my shields and defending with the power of my burning essence. CLANNNG CLANNNG CLANNNG I once again defended another of its attack, and my sword moved to defend another while taking a step back; even after the constant increase in my strength, its attacks were too powerful for me, and I needed to take a step back to manage this terrifying power. I defended another attack, but this time, there was a tiny smile on my face. Inside my core, all seven stainless blood soul lotuses have reached the Tyrant stage, and the those of new seeds have reached the Prince class; looking at the growth energy that has remained in me, it is clear without doubt that all seven stainless lotuses would reach Elite class at the least and those of new seeds definitely reach the king class. There is also that metal essence fruit tree; it is crazily absorbing the energies from the dead copper tree floating above it while the fruits mature on it. I could see the few fruits I had taken reaching a few days ago for the project, growing a new and reaching the Tyrant stage. I will only need to harness the Bloodlines of a few High Grandmasters, and all the fruits on the tree again will reach the High Grandmaster class. It would have been great if the bastard in front of me had the Bloodline core instead of the Inheritance core. I have never harnessed the Grimm with the Bloodline core, but I am confident that runes could harvest it and purify it like they did with the bloodline. I still can't tell how many benefits I will get from harvesting the Bloodline core, but I am very sure they would be far above the simple bloodline. A few more seconds passed, and the Apeman was still attacking me with relative calm. It is different from the other Grimms I had fought; I have exchanged thousands of blows with it. If it had any Grimm I had fought before, they would have become extremly angry and impatient, wanting to kill me before my strings took them. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚 Compared to them, this one was relatively calm despite being angry; one might consider it is due to the amulet, which protects it from my strings, and thus it did not need to be impatient, but that is not the case. There had been few who had the ability to defend against my strings, but they were never able to remain this calm after exchanging this many moves, and that made me even more cautious against it, which is why I did not dare to take any hasty steps against it. CLANNNG! Another of its attack clashed against me, but unlike before, this time, there was a surprise in its eyes. It is so surprising that it did not attack me with another of its move right after, as it has been doing that for the past few minutes. "If I had been fighting any other human, I would have gotten more advantage as time passed in battle, but as I continue to fight you, I felt like my advantage against you shrinking fast," It said, with deep confusion in its eyes. "You are right; your advantage is shrinking," I said with a smile. I answered genuinely, but instead of thinking over my answer of mine, it got angry. The lightning in my eyes raged. Seeing that, I really wanted to laugh; I knew the truth would elicit a reaction from it, which is why I said it, but the reaction I got was a little more intense than I had anticipated. The next moment, all the rage disappeared, as if the dense lightning-covered irises of its were just something I had imagined, but I know it was no imagination. "You are really something, Micheal Zaar, and killing you would be a great accomplishment of mine," It said with a grin, and the next second, the invisible weight exploded as it disappeared from its place, while the sword in my hand moved forward. CLANNNG! My sword clashed against the hammer, which was invisible till the next moment, and for the first time, since it had activated this mode, I did not even shake whole defending the earlier; which had surprised it even more than before when I just shook. Though, this time, it did stop thinking and attacked without wasting even a moment. CLANNNG CLANNNG CLANNNG The next attack came from above, and the attack after that came from below, and the attack from that came from the front. It begins to blink around me; its speed is so fast that I am barely seeing it or its hammer; I am just moving my sword on instinct, and thankfully, my instincts seemed to be very sharp as I was able to defend against its attack every time. Still, I do not like to be dependent on a single thing, even if that thing is my instinct, which is why I bore the severe headache as I increase the power of the crown above my head as much as I can, and it is worth it, as the figure of Apeman started to become clearer and clearer.