Chapter 7174: Impact Hammers The Unshakeable King dominated the initial engagement. In his fury and his loss of control, he exposed much of his strength and showed off how fearsome of a phase lord he had truly become. His strength was indeed formidable. His physical strength surpassed that of normal phase lords due to relying on several phasewater organs. His ability to boost his movement speed was also quite respectable. His Impact Hammers did a great job of channeling his strength and amplifying his blows. On top of that, he was also able to anchor himself in space and turn the surroundings into a spatial quagmire, making it a lot more difficult for attackers to maneuver around and create useful openings. Now that the Unshakeable King had come to his senses, he truly became a tough nut to crack. His Impact Hammers may have a relatively short reach, but they could lash out at Ves at any time when the Ascending Giant abruptly abandoned his space anchoring and unexpectedly lunged forward. The threat of getting whacked at any time prevented the Dark Apostle from treating his adversary as a punching bag. The Unshakeable King was not a harmless wall. It was a hedgehog. It was a fortress with teeth. Yet the Dark Apostle did not fight as feebly as before. Ves and the Dark Apostle had completed their initial observations of their foe. They had taken the measure of the Unshakeable King, and concluded that it was well within their capability to defeat the strategos. Of course, this was just an initial evaluation. There was no way the leader of the Ur-Titan Phalanx possessed so little depth. He most definitely kept a few trump cards in reserve, but fewer than ideal due to his earlier impulses. Then again, Ves and the Dark Apostle did the same. They still kept a few secret weapons in reserve as the right time had not yet come. All that mattered now was that the pair needed to regain the lead by making short work of their adversary’s vaunted defenses. "The difference in strength between you and him is smaller than expected." Ves privately communicated to his phase lord side. "The lesser Marigal organ developed by the RC is not anything special, but it has given us a crucial jump in physical prowess. While the Unshakeable King can still overpower us with the help of other strength-boosting phasewater organs, they are more exhausting and temperamental in use." "That sounds nice, but I am still going to suffer if I get hit." "Then make good use of the reach of your plasma spear. It is admittedly not as long as we wish, but it still gives you a pronounced advantage. Call upon the power of your D-arms. Draw upon the power of the fire element. The Teragon Plasma Spear and the Flame Lord Raiment were originally designed to work with each other. You have yet to unlock their full potential. You can’t just use the hardware. You also need to draw upon the power of the Minor Demons themselves." The Dark Apostle frowned. "I have learned the same theory and techniques as you, so you should know that I can only do that with one D-arm at a time. Besides, they are so hungry that they will compete much harder to absorb the surrounding fire energy." "Use your brain a little more. You are not alone. I have designed the Flame Lord Raiment for situations just like this where I want to control its more advanced technological functions. The Demoncasting process should have preserved most of them. I will be taking root in your armor. Do not be surprised if it does stuff without your explicit command. While I am there, make sure you execute your new Demonic Possession Spearmanship techniques that I have reshaped to draw upon the fire element. Blinky is fully prepared to let you draw as much fire-attributed E energy from the Blinkyverse as possible. Don’t worry about consumption. The duels won’t last long enough for any critical imbalances to occur." Both of them had to work together in order to get the most out of their gear. As Blinky began to inhabit the Flame Lord Raiment, it soon began to light up even more. The equipment lit up even further. A fire hyper energy shield came online that closely followed the contours of the active spatial barrier. Aside from that, the space suppressor became more powerful while specialized sensor systems paid a lot more attention to specific phenomena. Fire energy also began to radiate from the raiment. Blinky tried to supply as much fire energy to his gear as he could manage. This caused the armor to show faint illusions of flames, making it seem as if the entire phase lord had become a living inferno! The Dark Apostle worked hard to draw out even more fire energy in order to power up the Teragon Plasma Spear. The strong infusion of fire energy caused the D-arm’s plasma tip to grow longer, thicker, and more hotter than ever. The massive energy boost clearly made the Unshakeable King more concerned. The enemy phase lord braced himself even harder in space with the expectation that he would have to fend off a very powerful attack. "Ready?" "Ready." The two sounded like harmonious teammates. In the face of a common enemy, their own animosity towards each other had been reduced to a minimum. Both personalities understood the importance of winning this duel with as little consumption as possible. "Go. Be patient and sap his spatial barrier. Target his Impact Hammers whenever possible. Attack the shaft of the sides of their hammerheads. Do not attack their flat faces." The Dark Apostle kept this advice in mind as he went on the attack. The closer he came, the more his form blazed with the power of fire and determination. Like a phoenix swooping in for the kill, the flaming Ascended Giant attempted to inflict a heavy blow with his first charge. When he almost reached his target, the Dark Apostle only became somewhat disoriented due to the change in environment. One of the Unshakeable King’s phasewater organs made it a lot harder to navigate in his vicinity. However, the Dark Apostle was able to push through regardless. As soon as he came close enough, he activated one of the new modified techniques. More fire energy than ever surged from the Blinkyverse and surged right into the Teragon Plasma Spear. The plasma edge abruptly heated up a lot more, causing its damage potential to soar, if only momentarily! With fire energy being expended at such a prodigious rate that the red-clad phase lord looked like a blazing comet, the fire-charged plasma spear struck the Unshakeable King’s spatial barrier and erupted in flaming fury! The damage of this basic power move was astonishing! The D-arm combined with all of the other factors had drastically increased the Dark Apostle’s ability to inflict damage! Admirably, the Unshakeable King flinched but did not lose his concentration. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚 Even as the Dark Apostle attempted to fly away, the Unshakeable King unexpectedly altered the expression of his Tarsei organ. This momentarily generated a fairly strong spatial ripple that caused the Dark Apostle’s forward progress to become momentarily interrupted! Though this problem disappeared shortly after it appeared, it still caused the challenger’s departure to be delayed just long enough for the Unshakeable King to lunge forward and launch a devastating counterattack with his twin Impact Hammers! Yet before the powerful hammers could connect and almost blow away the Dark Apostle’s spatial barrier, the flight system as well as a handful of boosters were hurriedly activated on Ves’ command. The rapid response pushed the Dark Apostle out of the way just enough to evade the devastating blows! "Missed!" The Dark Apostle spun around again. The fire energy wafting from his increasingly hotter form made him look alive and full of passion! He looked far more valiantly than his current foe due to moving around. As the flaming phase lord turned around to commit to another charge, the leader of the Ur-Titan Phalanx responded not with his twin hammers, but with his armored foot. As the Unshakeable King stomped the fabric of space, the latter shook as invisible space quakes spread from the epicenter! The Dark Apostle got swept by these powerful spatial ripples. These ripples were serious business, as his alter ego struggled to maintain his balance and positioning in space when the entire fabric of space started to curl up for whatever reason! It took significantly more effort for the red phase lord to recover his stance and wit. This came not a moment too soon, because the Unshakeable King had made another short-range dash that would put him right on top of the Dark Apostle. However, just before the Unshakeable King could unleash his twin revenge strike, the Flame Lord Armor released a seemingly uncontrolled blast of fire energy as well as reactor byproducts in every direction! The entire surroundings momentarily heated up! The Unshakeable King lacked the means to look past the particle cloud, so when she headed straight into the mist field, the Dark Apostle had already made a getway! "Where?!" Behind! The Unspeakable King rapidly tried to turn around to meet the incoming attack, but his own bulk and lack of grace hindered his movements. By the time he was more than halfway through completing his rotation, the Teragon Plasma Spear did not strike the Unspeakable King spatial barrier as expected, but changed course last-second in order to land a serious strike on the hammer’s side! Alloys melted while other parts started to exhibit signs of fracturing. The plasma spear ultimately inflicted moderate damage to the Impact Hammer, though the progress was not yet obvious. "This is good! The Impact Hammer is still working, but if you wack it on this same side for a few more times, something eventually has to break. The design of the Impact Hammers makes it clear that it is designed to resist physical damage absurdly well, but it does not possess the same durability when it comes to blocking energy attacks." The Unshakeable King discovered the concerning condition of his own weapon. None of his adversaries had ever targeted his weapon specifically with the intent of disabling it first. Then again, the Unshakeable King was sure that his Impact Hammers were resistant against plasma damage. He specifically made this request when he commissioned their development! "This is impossible!" "Anything is possible! My tech happens to be better than yours! This isn’t your grandma’s plasma weapon!" "You craven mech designer! Fight me, not my weapon!" "Hah, why would I when you are dangling them so confidently before my eyes?" From the moment the Unshakeable King realized that the mechanisms of his Impact Hammer was vulnerable to the plasma spear, he showed a lot more restraint than before. He absolutely did not want his weapons to get ruined too soon, so he stopped his attacks when he judged that there was a risk that they would get smacked by a fire-charged plasma weapon on the side. This caused him to become less threatening, enabling the Dark Apostle to drain his spatial barrier with less risk than before. After a number of attack passes, the Unshakeable King’s first layer of defense was on the verge of failing. It took a fair bit of time, because that was because the enemy phase lord activated his raiment’s azure energy shield on an intermittent basis to delay this breakpoint. Though the Unshakeable King’s effort failed to save his spatial barrier from deteriorating so much, he at least managed to buy a bit more time. To a defensive expert like him, trying to run out the clock and win the duel on points was a familiar strategy to him. He was not in a hurry. "What a hard energy shell. How many phasewater organs are reinforcing your spatial barrier." The Unshakeable King did not respond with words, but made an unexpected move by lifting his foot and crashing it down, causing space to ripple just as violently as before! While the Dark Apostle anticipated this move and already started to back off and go on the defensive, the ripples were stronger than last time, causing him to remain off-balance for a moment longer! If that was not enough, the Unshakeable King made another surprising move! He spread his arms and swung them into each other, causing the two Impact Hammers to collide against each other in their faces! A powerful spatial shockwave burst forth and destabilized the space around the Dark Apostle! Though the event only lasted for a short amount of time, this was enough for the Unshakeable King to take advantage of certain spatial characteristics and blink right next to the Dark Apostle! "What?!" "MEET YOUR PUNISHMENT, YOU PROFANE WORM!"