Chapter 7175: Equipment Reliance Ves underestimated the capabilities of the Impact Hammers. He also underestimated the Unshakeable King’s mobility. Although he only teleported a short distance away, he happened to do so during a moment where the surrounding space was still destabilized by his own actions! The idea was genius now that Ves thought about it a little further. There were two ways to inhibit spatial phenomena. The first was to strengthen the fabric of space. The harder it was to change it to facilitate a certain ability or action, the less capable a phase lord was able to do anything useful. The effects of their manipulation would either be lessened or suppressed entirely. Another way to stop phase lords from casting their weird space magic was to destabilize the fabric of space. Making it looser should normally facilitate spatial manipulation, but causing it to go into chaos made it almost impossible to perform any structured techniques! Almost. In a situation where the Unshakeable King was able to generate a highly focused, uniform and consistent destabilizing effect, it was theoretically possible for him to perform a simple spatial ability. A short-ranged instant teleportation ability barely fell within this scope. The initial attempts would definitely fail. The Unshakeable King likely also needed the support of an entire staff whose job was to collect readings, analyze the data and advise the Ascending Giant on how to thread the needle through all of the destabilized space. Through persistent practice, the Unshakeable King may eventually succeed in his endeavor. Where other human phase lords found themselves stuck, disoriented and unable to activate most of their spatial abilities, the Unshakeable King was able to power through his own disorder and resist the discomfort of ending up in the middle of an unstable area. "You are unworthy to lead the Ascended Giants! Your overreliance on gear has made you soft!" The Unshakeable King began to wail at the Dark Apostle’s spatial barrier with his Impact Hammer. The bad news was that the challenger was completely out of position and unable to fend off the attacks right away. The good news was that the mechanisms responsible for producing powerful concussive forces endured excessive strain and couldn’t be activated for the time being. That being said, the Unshakeable King still possessed plenty of power on his own. Combined with his ability to anchor himself in space for greater leverage, he was able to strike at the spatial barrier with so much power that it was already on the verge of breaking! Though the Dark Apostle initially tried to put distance between himself and his teleported opponent, the spatial disruptions were much greater and hindered his forward progress just enough to enable the Unshakeable King to stick to him like a barnacle. After realizing that retreat was impossible for the moment, the Dark Apostle turned around and held his spear like a staff. He proceeded to use his acquired fighting skills to block or redirect the hammer blows. There was no opportunity for him to use the plasma tip to launch any counter attacks because the Unshakeable King had entered into his full offensive rhythm. His hammers struck like galloping legs. While their force was not the greatest, the repeated strikes took an awful toll on the spatial barrier. Soon it cracked and disintegrated as the Dark Apostle was no longer able to retain his first line of protection! "You are just as weak as your barrier! Now stay in place so that I can pulverize your entire body aside from your head!" The Dark Apostle was not about to let that happen. Though his spatial barrier was gone, it had lasted long enough for him and his other self to prepare a so-called power move. Blinky had been saturating the surrounding with as much fire energy as he could spill out of his Imaginary Universe. He had also been channeling as much fire energy into the Flame Lord Raiment in preparation for a fierce counterattack. After the preparation period had passed, Ves immediately issued a command. "Break plasma containment!" At the same time, the Dark Apostle had drawn his spear back and held it in a very close grip by holding it right behind its rapidly heating plasma tip. The beleaguered phase lord aimed the tip right at his adversary while doing his best to activate an improvised technique. "Dragon’s Breath!" The D-arm’s plasma edge suddenly lost definition. The plasma that was normally supposed to be tightly contained had now come loose! A stream of thin but extremely deadly plasma struck the Unshakeable King’s spatial barrier without any issue! The range was so short that it was impossible for the Dark Apostle to miss. The heat and brightness released by the stream of plasma was so bright that the enemy phase lord was unable to persist in his attack! The fire energy channeled into the Teragon Plasma Spear and floating in the environment significantly amplified the power of this dangerous torrent, causing it to inflict even more damage to the Unshakeable King’s defenses! Unfortunately, the Teragon Plasma Spear was not primarily designed to function as a ranged weapon. It endured great strain to maintain this output, but once it neared its limit, the Dark Apostle was forced to cut off the plasma stream lest it melt through the internals of his main weapon entirely. It had done enough. Not only had the emergency move interrupted the Unshakeable King’s offensive, his spatial barrier had depleted rapidly during this sequence! It should not take too many strikes with the plasma spear to collapse it entirely, though the Dark Apostle knew he had to give the weapon enough time to cool down. He therefore chose to back off and let his deactivated weapon rest for a short amount of time. Blinky nodded in approval. "Be careful of another sneak attack. I do not know how often the Unshakeable King can pull off his earlier combo, but the act of generating a field of destabilized space in front of him must definitely be hard on his Impact Hammers. In fact, I am not even sure whether they can recover their original concussive enhancement effect." Although the Unshakeable King looked a little affected by the earlier move, he quickly began to sneer as he held his hammers at the ready. "Again, you think you can save yourself with your technology. True strength comes from our bodies, not these toys of yours." "I can say the same for you." The Dark Apostle huffed. "Those Impact Hammers of yours caught us off-guard, but that will not happen a second time. Besides, your hammers have become a lot more boring now that they don’t produce extra force anymore. What is wrong? Have they failed to withstand the violence of your own moves?" "I DO NOT NEED ANY TECH TO FINISH YOU OFF! NOW THAT YOUR SPATIAL BARRIER IS GONE, THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN STOP MY HAMMERS FROM BLUDGEONING YOU INTO PIECES!" As the Unshakeable King soared forward, the Dark Apostle flew backwards. No matter what, the Dark Apostle still possessed superior mobility! The enemy phase lord quickly recalled the futility of going on the offensives and stopped in place. He shook his head as if he discovered that he let his emotions overrule his good sense yet another time. "I do not need to come to you. It is you that needs to come to me." The Unshakeable King smirked. "If you do not hurry, then the clock will run out sooner or later. I shall definitely be able to win on points, thereby denying you of a victory." He was right. There were multiple reasons why the Dark Apostle had to go on the offensive. The challenger did not charge forward straight away. He instead waited to give his weapon a little more time to recover. Blinky had already dove into the D-arm in order to inspect its internals and facilitate its recovery through means that the human phase lord did not understand. A lull had formed. The two phase lords continued to hover in orbit of Jotunheim. The Unshakeable King did not mind the pause because his spatial barrier slowly recovered with each passing second. The Dark Apostle needed to make intensive use of his Teragon Plasma Spear very soon, so it was important to inspect it and wait for it to recover as much as possible. The two once again fell into a tense discussion. "Despite your traitorous words, I think that you are not so different from myself." The Unshakeable King regained his cool to an extent. He was doing his best to maintain a tight grip on his emotions. "You claim you fight for red humanity, but the way you fight is like a mercenary. You fight for greed, not for ideals. You are only getting along with these red humans because they have pressured you with a combination of enticements and threats." The Dark Apostle frowned. "How did you know?" "I used to be one of them. I know how those who possess wealth and the illusion of power operate. To them, you are a threat that cannot easily be controlled, a being who has transcended the scope of their pitiful humanity. Instead of worshiping us as the superior beings we are, they reject our divinity and seek to enslave us, as they have done with others deemed different from their own race. Humans are one of the most xenophobic races in the Milky Way as well as the Red Ocean. You will never belong in their society. If they do not look at you with fear, they will look at you with loathing." This caused the Dark Apostle to frown deeper. Though he identified with the Unshakeable King’s description, that did not mean he was willing to embrace the other extreme. "Humans fear what they do not understand. We... are strange to them, but who knows whether that will remain the same in a couple of centuries. Besides, the opinions of these worms do not interest me that much. I like the identity of an Ascended Giant, but there is a difference between standing up for your own race and volunteering to become a slave to the Red Cabal. Instead of working towards independence, you are working towards surrendering yourself and your fellow brothers to a band of aliens who have many reasons to hate us for our human heritages. Switching from one slave master to another is a stupid idea." "You would not think so if you realize the true corruption that is festering in our society! Red humanity is too far gone. Only the native galactic community can lead us to a newer and better future. We are gods. We have embraced their enlightened ways. As long as we present ourselves to the alien phase lords and phase whales, they will recognize us as king and agree to add us to their governing council or whatever body that makes all of the decisions." "Hah!" The Dark Apostle sneered. "You are utterly delusional if you think the native aliens cannot see past your human facade! You may hate the mortals all you want, but you have far more in common with them than any alien." "Insolent brat! I know what you are doing, Larkinson. If you want to persuade me that my course is wrong, then convince me with your fists, not your words!" The Dark Apostle finally went into action again seeing that the Unshakeable King still don’t want to move on a whim. The plasma tip lit up and began to release a familiar heat again. The D-arm had survived the earlier emergency move and would stay operational until at least the end of this event! As the Dark Apostle almost came close enough to attack, he veered to the side at the last moment and managed to tag the Unshakeable King’s faltering spatial barrier by another fraction. Nothing special happened. The Dark Apostle repeated the hit-and-run attacks and found that the Unshakeable King had practically turned himself into a rock! 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞 This was not a guy who would respond to provocations anymore!