Chapter 7192: The Second Explosion Both Ascended Giants only had one projectile left each. The sacrificial spears thrown by the Dark Apostle were undoubtedly more powerful, but he only brought 2 of them to this duel. The Divine Harpoon originally carried 3 harpoons into the field, of which two had already done a good job of stripping his adversary of his defenses. Both human phase lords knew that they had reached the critical junction. Given how much the earlier harpoon had messed up the Dark Shield, Ves had little confidence that it could provide adequate protection against the next throw. The Divine Harpoon’s throwing capabilities were too good. Ves had no doubt that the strategos of the Faceless Giants would be able to thread the needle and sink a harpoon straight through the fairly large gap in the damaged D-arm! That meant that the harpoon would only have to overcome the defenses of the Dark Bulwark before it could sink its anchor-like tip into the flesh of his true body. The damage would be extensive. The harpoon may even sink deep enough to pierce through one of his phasewater organs! Although Ves was secretly prepared to mobilize much of his remaining Worclaw energy to hinder the passage of the incoming harpoon, he needed to react in time to catch the attack. This was a serious challenge by itself! Another issue was that Ves had a strong feeling he needed to save all of the Worclaw energy that he had left for the fourth and final duel. The shadow of the Oscillating Fist loomed large over the entire leadership challenge. Ves and the Dark Apostle deliberately placed him last when they gained the power to choose the order of challenges. Even if they managed to win the current duel and formally win the leadership challenge, that was only the case if both sides abided by the terms of the contract. What if the Oscillating Fist refused to abide by this agreement? Words on virtual documents had no power to restrain the most powerful Ascended Giant alive. It was quite stressful to deal with such powerhouses. Just like Star Designers, human phase lords had no obligation to follow their oaths and stick to their promises. They could be as duplicitous as they wanted. If the Oscillating Fist had no intention of giving up the Phase Lord Department, then he could potentially tear everything apart during the 4th duel! Ves thought about avoiding this confrontation. The Dark Apostle had an excuse to do so if he won 3 duels in a row. Yet that would probably not sit well with the alternate personality. All of the Ascended Giants also looked forward to a meeting between their two leaders. They needed to know how the two measured up against each other! To avoid this confrontation was an obvious sign of cowardice. That would definitely cause the more stubborn and skeptical Ascended Giants to lose confidence in Ves’ leadership. This would make them much more prone to go rogue and defect to the Red Cabal! "We need to finish this with your next throw." Ves conveyed to his other personality. "We cannot go into the next duel with a heavy injury or a total depletion of all of our Worclaw energy. If we want to win the hearts and minds of the Ascended Giants, we don’t necessarily need to beat the Oscillating Fist, but we should at least make him hurt." The Dark Apostle nodded even as he retrieved the Dark Fang from his back. The spear happened to be longer than the last one, which meant that it should be able to produce a larger explosion. The good news was that the Divine Harpoon did not put a heavy emphasis on defense, which meant that the next sacrificial spear throw should be able to inflict serious damage. As long as the next sacrificial spear throw inflicted enough damage to cripple him enough to impair his ability to retaliate, then that would satisfy Ves and the Dark Apostle’s win condition. "I think we need to put extra power into our next attack. Do you have any last-minute tricks or ideas that can put the Divine Harpoon out of action?" Blinky shook his head. "Not really. Aside from tapping into our reserves of Worclaw energy, all of the other ideas entail borrowing strength from external sources. The rule that prohibits us from drawing upon the power of our design spirits and so on is a serious impediment. If you can give me more time, I can optimize the translation of the Sacrificial Spear Throwing Method in the use of darkness energy. The current implementation is incredibly crude at the moment." A spear made of fire hyper energy would have produced a bigger explosion, but Ves and the Dark Apostle did not possess a particularly strong affinity with this element. In the long run, it was better if they focused on exploiting the attributes that they were most familiar with, namely metal, life and darkness. As the two of them began to charge the spear with darkness energy, they put all of their hopes in their next weapon throw. The result of this move would determine whether he could take over the Ascended Giants smoothly or with difficulty. The Dark Apostle would very much like it if his new subordinates did not pine over their old leader. This was why he suddenly decided to burn a little phasewater. "What are you doing!?" "I am doing what is necessary to end this duel. We can make up for this loss if we swallow a container’s worth of diluted phasewater right afterwards." Burning all of that phasewater caused his phasewater concentration to decrease, but the power-up they received was substantial! When the Dark Apostle finally tossed the dark and ominous spear, he estimated that he was able to put at least 20 percent more force behind his throw! The Dark Fang instantly soared forward and created a black streak above the surface of Jotunheim that directly struck the Divine Harpoon! At the last second, the strategos instinctively became alarmed by the force of this attack and roared as he rapidly burned his own phasewater in order to amplify his defenses! The Dark Fang ultimately punched into his chest armor, penetrating through all of the layers before penetrating the surface of his chest. It then proceeded to explode, engulfing the Divine Harpoon in another massive black orb! The power of darkness radiated from the orb like a black sun. It persisted for a few long seconds before dispersing through strands of darkness. Everyone carefully studied the recipient’s condition. "Is... is he alive?" "He is, but... he is struggling to repel the darkness." The Divine Harpoon no longer looked as valiant and strong as before. The entire front side of his raiment had blown apart while the rear had become contaminated with dark miasma. What was worse was that the dark miasma also spread to the front of his exposed head and front torso. Phasewater-reinforced flesh became increasingly more contaminated. The affected flesh began to weaken and rebel against the rest of the true body. As serious as his current condition may appear, the Divine Harpoon had weathered the initial blast pretty well. He still remained conscious, and was working hard to repel the darkness energy that was clinging to him like a sick disease. His companion spirit was doing its best to get rid of the darkness energy, but its abilities and elemental affinities were not that suited for the task. The Divine Harpoon lacked control over a convenient element that could easily scour away the darkness like the Fiery Axe! Almost a minute passed by as he gradually managed to snuff out all of the dark miasma. That had taken way too long. If the Dark Apostle was not restricted by the rules, he could have easily exploited his opponent’s condition and landed a killing blow. The Divine Harpoon’s raiment was pretty much ruined, so he tore away the remaining chunks. The leader of the Faceless Giants looked truly bedraggled this time. His greyed and blackened flesh still bore the lingering corruption brought about by darkness energy contamination. Though much of the damage to his body was concentrated onto his upper torso, his head and his arms had also become affected to a lesser degree. Nobody could determine whether he was still in a good enough condition to throw his last harpoon. The Divine Harpoon remained still for over a minute before his body finally slumped. "I concede. I am no longer in a condition to throw my third harpoon. You have proven your strength... and your willingness to assume responsibility over the Ascended Giants. As far as I am concerned... you are better qualified to become our polemarchos than the Oscillating Fist." The Dark Apostle loosened the tension from his body. It was done. According to the agreement, he had ’won’ 3 out of 4 duels, which meant that his takeover was technically a done deal. Even if the Oscillating Fist denied that the Dark Apostle won the leadership challenge, he would definitely make a lot of Ascended Giants upset if he acted dishonorably. The reign of a tyrant was never stable. The Oscillating Fist would definitely experience a lot of problems in trying to keep the Phase Lord Department under his control if he invalidated the Dark Apostle’s successes. In other words, the chances were great that Ves and the Dark Apostle would be able to take over the Phase Lord Department before the end of the day! The Dark Apostle smiled even as his body and phasewater organs started to ache from burning phasewater. He threw a grateful look towards the Divine Harpoon. Nobody knew for certain whether the strategos spoke the truth about his condition or whether he deliberately stepped down when he still had a bit of fight left inside his battered true body. If the latter was the case, then the Divine Harpoon picked a good moment to back off. Nobody could truly fault him for conceding the duel when he looked so horrible at the moment. Even those who suspected foul play could not provide any proof that the strategos acted dishonorably. The two human phase lords nodded to each other once before leaving the dueling ground. As the Dark Apostle returned to his recovery base, he was greeted with applause and cheers from all of the collies! The victorious phase lord smiled but made his way over to the diluted phasewater tanks before grapping a hose and placing it in his mouth. Pressurized liquid began to spurt from the hose and enter straight into his stomach. The phasewater should soon bring the phasewater concentration in his bloodstream back to the previous level. It was only then that the Dark Apostle relaxed and basked in his success. Eliza Mo Ragadan floated up to the human phase lord’s gigantic head. She looked particularly excited. "Good work, sir. You have won 3 duels, which means that the Phase Lord Department is yours. This will change everything. If you are still willing to let me serve as your chief of staff, I can immediately begin to coordinate with the staff of your new department in order to make your transition into your new position as problem-free as possible. There are many issues that need to be addressed due to this secret crisis, but not all matters require your personal attention. I can work to cut down all of the minor issues so that you can concentrate on the big picture." Blinky looked down at the ambitious chief of staff and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Although Eliza Mo Ragadan had pledged her loyalty to Ves, she was still a collie, so she also had the best interests of the RC at heart. Keeping her as his administrative troubleshooter within the Phase Lord Department meant that she along with many other collies would be able to push through their own decisions. Not all of those decisions might align with his own interests. Perhaps it may be better to replace her with a Larkinson or at least bring in a few staffers from the clan to ensure the Phase Lord Department remembered who was in charge. "We can discuss the details on how to reform the Phase Lord Department at a later time. We still have one more duel to go. The Ascended Giants have been looking forward to witnessing the first meeting between us and the Oscillating Fist. Anything could happen, so do not put your guard down." Eliza faltered. "Are you expecting... problems?" "We don’t know." The Dark Apostle said. "And that scares us. Let us hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. We know far too little about how the Oscillating Fist will react. Is he truly ready to hand over leadership of the Ascended Giants as he is obligated to according to the terms of the leadership challenge? If I was in his place, I would not give up so easily..." "Then let us hope that he has more honor and integrity than you." Ves softly said.