Unholy Player

Chapter 531: An Ape With a Golden Staff

Kaelor’s head wasn’t flesh at all. It was built from overlapping metal segments, layered like armor plates. Each piece was fitted together so tightly they looked seamless at a glance. Up close, the joins showed faint lines, giving it a manufactured, mask-like look.

His head snapped to the side from the impact. For a split second, the crushing gravity nearly dragged him down with it. He forced himself upright again, his boots grinding into the soil as his body resisted the pull.

He lifted a hand to his head, searching for the point of impact. His metal fingers pressed in, then slid across the plates until they found it. A shallow dent sat there, small but unmistakable.

His gaze dropped to the ground to see what had struck him. Near his foot lay a gold-colored casing, still hot. A thin curl of smoke rose from it while the metal glinted in the light.

"What is this?" The hit hadn’t done much damage to him. Still, the material was dense enough to make him feel pain, the sensation spreading through his head like dull pressure.

The shot hadn’t been meant to harm him anyway. It was only meant to announce itself.

That became clear a moment later. The same whistling sound returned, sharper this time, multiplying fast. One came from above, another cut in from the side.

Then the impacts followed, one after another, gold-colored bullets slamming into their bodies in rapid succession. It was like a rain that refused to end, each strike landing with brutal rhythm.

Under the heavy gravity pinning them down, none of them could dodge properly, so the bullets hit freely. Bang-bang sounds echoed across the area. Casings clinked, bounced, and then skittered across the ground until they started piling up around their feet.

"Kaelor, the situation is going out of control." Arvyn threw her arms up to shield her face, forearms crossed in front of her eyes as she flinched with every hit. Each bullet tore at her skin hard enough to leave fresh scrapes that quickly started to bleed.

"I know..." Kaelor was holding up better, since the bullets only left shallow dents on his metal body. Still, the constant impacts added up. If the attack kept going, it would become dangerous even for him, especially with the gravity keeping him from repositioning quickly.

The real problem was the one thing holding them back: their enemy was a Gemnarch. They couldn’t act on impulse, because confronting someone from another powerful force had consequences. As low-rank members, they didn’t have the authority to make that call on their own.

In comparison to the others, Sevrak was suffering the most. Every bullet that hit him tore at skin and flesh. His bat wings tried to fold around his body like a shield, yet they were already shredded. The edges shook from strain as gaps opened, letting shots slip through.

Even the bones showing beneath his ripped flesh began to crack, making the damage obvious. It wasn’t just pain anymore. It had crossed into humiliation.

"This is ridiculous." He muttered, his voice tight with anger and disbelief. His jaw clenched hard enough to tremble as another round hammered into him. It didn’t even let him lift his head to look around, forcing him to stay curled on the ground like a coward.

His [Vigor] stat was regenerating him fast. Torn tissue crawled back together between impacts, cracks sealed, and bleeding slowed. However, the fact remained that an attack he couldn’t even comprehend, let alone locate, was causing him damage. Each hit felt like an insult carved into his body.

How did they become this strong in such a short time? The thought churned in his mind, chewing at his nerves, refusing to settle.

Before coming here, he was sure no one could harm his newly strengthened body. He expected to dominate this place, with their lives resting on his mercy.

Instead, Silverlight Zephan matched him in power, and Soulforge Throgar’s skills locked his body in place. These gold-colored bullets were now threatening to turn him into minced meat. If the barrage continued long enough, it could truly kill him.

"I didn’t return to these lands to be humiliated like this." His composure finally snapped. He made his decision. He would use the trump card he had been holding back.

"Hey, don’t make a careless move." Arvyn warned him. She saw it in his posture. He had stopped thinking like a soldier under command, and he was about to ignore the hierarchy and act on his own.

But it was too late.

Sevrak raised his hand and summoned his Rank 4 Spark from his Sanctuary to the battlefield. The air shifted immediately, as something massive had shoved its way into the space.

The Sect Leader had taken his Blood Dragon to feed their God, but in return he received another Spark. It was meant to compensate him, yet it was no less powerful than the one he had lost.

A gigantic four-legged creature appeared in front of them, like a small mountain being dropped onto the battlefield. Its weight hit the ground with a heavy thud, making dust jump outward in a ring.

At first glance, it looked like a rhino, with a bulky body, two horns at the tips of its long head, and thick, wrinkled skin. But the similarities ended there. The proportions weren’t natural. It looked engineered, built for war.

Its skin was completely red, a sign of a transformed Blood Path Spark.

Its back was packed with many small thorns, sharp and solid like a porcupine’s spine. Bullets hit those thorns and bounced away instantly, each ricochet flashing bright. Not even a scratch remained.

When the creature opened its mouth, rows of small razor-sharp teeth filled it from end to end. They weren’t meant for chewing. They were meant for grinding flesh down.

ROAAARR!

The Rank 4 Spark roared the moment it fully landed on the ground. The sound carried Sevrak’s rage as a tight shockwave rolled across the land, smothering the bullet sounds for a brief moment and making loose debris tremble.

Its presence changed the battlefield immediately. The gravity field weakened, and the crushing pull eased. Sevrak straightened, finally able to breathe again, while his torn body healed faster and his posture recovered piece by piece.

He lifted his head, ignoring the remaining incoming bullets, and locked his eyes on the Gorathim standing on the Giant Eye’s top.

"Now let me see how you will react to this." He gave the command.

The spikes along the Spark’s back began to grow rapidly. Their color deepened from red to near-black as they lengthened, spreading outward like a bristling ridge.

With every passing second, the gravity field lost more strength. The pressure faded as if something was being peeled away from the air.

When the spikes reached their peak, the rhino’s back looked like a forest of massive black spears. At that instant, all the force Throgar had been applying vanished completely.

The spikes started to tremble as they prepared to launch, their tips angling toward the Giant Eye with the intention obvious. Sevrak meant to skewer the Spark and its owner in a single volley.

But Soulforge stayed where he was, showing no intention of dodging, as if everything was already under control. His two heads remained lowered in silence.

Moments later, a new voice entered the battlefield, making it clear that his calm wasn’t arrogance but trust in a comrade.

"I wanted to fight your dragon, Sevrak. Where is that?"

Sevrak turned, and the others turned with him to see who the newcomer was.

They saw a short woman walking toward them in a white outfit, a long dark-brown furry tail swaying behind her from left to right, and a long gold-colored staff held in 1 hand.

"Liora." Sevrak snorted, the name settling in his mouth as recognition hit.

It was another familiar face, one he had already planned to kill, yet something about her felt off. His eyes caught the uniform clinging to her body like latex, tight from neck to toe, and then the gold staff in her hand, and his expression turned sour.

The treasures she carried felt uncomfortably similar to Zephan’s, which sparked an unsettling thought in his mind: her power was likely on the same level as well.

"Wrong." Liora scoffed without slowing. With each step, her body began to gain mass as her small frame expanded rapidly, gorilla-like features emerging while muscle swelled under the white fabric in clear, visible waves. "You will call me Liora the Earthshaker."

Her growth extended beyond just her physical body. The white uniform expanded with her, staying perfectly fitted. The gold-colored staff thickened and lengthened at the same time until it matched her new size.

In moments, she was gigantic, staff included, matching the size of Sevrak’s Rank 4 Spark.

Then she moved.

Liora leaped forward, gripping the massive gold staff with two hands. She lifted it high overhead, drawing her whole body tight in the air like a bow being pulled to its limit. Then she brought it down in a single decisive drop.