Chapter 790: Entanglement
The Black Dragon Warlord, seeing the situation unfold, did not dodge in the slightest. The two demon claws bristling with scales that guarded him—one moved to shield his front, while the other, rippling with spatial energy, surged forward with terrifying force and speed, appearing before Duncan in an instant.
A dozen ice spikes crashed into the giant claw before the Black Dragon Warlord, instantly piercing through it. As the runes on the ice spikes lit up, a streak of black light flashed across the claw, freezing it into solid ice in a heartbeat.
Black smoke erupted from the Black Dragon Warlord, forcibly shifting the trajectory of the massive black ice spikes. He slipped past them, his body pressed close to the deadly projectiles.
Yet he was still grazed by one of the black ice spikes on his left hand. In an instant, a rune flared, and the Black Dragon Warlord's left hand was frozen into black ice. The ominous black light continued to spread up his arm toward his torso.
Endless black smoke converged on the Black Dragon Warlord's left shoulder, colliding violently with the black light. With a crisp crack, like shattering ice, the Black Dragon Warlord's left arm—transformed into black ice—exploded into fragments...
The enormous black ice spikes shot into the hillside on the other side. Silently, they pierced into the branches of the Tree of Wisdom, sinking in from base to tip—each spike left behind a terrifying black hole, and a streak of black light flashed across the ground.
That streak of light swept across a thousand meters in an instant. Everything it touched was frozen into black ice. When the wind blew, all those frozen things shattered into fragments, leaving nothing protruding over the thousand-meter stretch—only a smooth expanse of shattered ice remained...
Meanwhile, Duncan, finally able to go all out, was struck head-on by the demon's giant claw, which seemed to tear through space itself. A succession of bone-cracking sounds echoed, and Duncan's body was sent flying like a cannonball.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, Duncan slammed into the ground, carving out a massive crater dozens of meters wide. All around it, for hundreds of meters, the earth was webbed with cracks.
Black flames flickered in Duncan's eyes, and his bones were riddled with fine cracks. Yet without hesitation, he rose again, launching himself at the Black Dragon Warlord.
The Black Dragon Warlord, having lost an arm, was no less frenzied. He soared upward, continuing his fierce battle with Duncan.
Leon watched from afar, utterly stunned.
Terrifying. The Polar Freeze rune was condensed and inscribed onto the Rift Ice Spike, and with the spike's fearsome penetrating power, the Polar Freeze unleashed its full destructive potential.
This is the power of someone with one foot in the Sky Rank. Even a trace of that strength can bring earth-shattering change.
The Black Dragon Warlord's demon claw attack was so powerful it seemed to tear through space itself, appearing before Duncan as if by teleportation. That already hints at the supernatural. Wasn't this guy supposed to be suppressed? How is he still this strong?
Leon was deeply shaken. His original plan was just to lure the Black Dragon Warlord here—given that maniac's temperament, he'd surely lose control and fight Duncan to the death in Nightfall Gorge.
But what he hadn't expected was that the Black Dragon Warlord was far too strong, and far too fast. Just luring him here was already incredibly difficult. Now, leaving is out of the question.
Both the Black Dragon Warlord and Duncan were fighting like madmen, their battlefield stretching for thousands of meters. The teleportation array was deep within Nightfall Gorge, and there was no way to reach it. Worse yet, if he tried, he might get dragged into their chaos—then things would really get ugly.
Leon watched the battle from afar, frowning. These two were fighting for their lives...
Even with his arm blown apart, the Black Dragon Warlord's strength was barely affected. Endless black mist gathered beside his left hand, rapidly forming a pitch-black demon arm—thicker than his own thigh, and when it hung down, longer than his entire height!
Endless black smoke coalesced into orbs crackling with black lightning, trailing long smoky tails as they orbited the Black Dragon Warlord.
On the other side, Duncan was shrouded in swirling black smoke, which slowly condensed on his cracked skeletal form, shaping into a menacing suit of armor.
The armor's front was a gaping, roaring demon head. Endless black smoke poured in, and the armor rapidly extended, forming bracers, greaves, and a helmet on Duncan's body...
A wicked, overpowering aura erupted from Duncan, stirring up swirling black winds that whipped around him.
The eerie silence lasted less than a second before the Black Dragon Warlord and Duncan both roared at once.
Above the Black Dragon Warlord's head, the black mist shaped itself into a demonic apparition that howled forward. Instantly, hundreds of molten meteors, each seven or eight meters across, formed in midair.
Hundreds of molten meteors crowded into an area several hundred meters wide, nearly touching each other. When they collided in a frenzy, visible ripples spread through the air in every direction.
Opposite him, black flames suddenly shot from Duncan's eyes, forming a half-meter stream of fire. The skeleton's jaw opened and closed, chanting guttural, sinister abyssal incantations.
Black runes wreathed in smoke flew from Duncan's mouth, gathering before him into a rapidly spinning black ice sphere.
The black ice sphere, over ten meters across, spun wildly as it flew forward. After traveling a dozen meters, countless slender rhombus-shaped ice shards erupted from its surface.
In an instant, a rainstorm of black ice shards surged toward the Black Dragon Warlord.
Countless black ice shards collided with the hundreds of molten meteors, and the sky thundered as if thousands of cannons fired at once.
Fragments of magma and ice exploded everywhere, filling a thousand meters of space, with shards scattering in all directions.
The piercing sounds of shattering filled the air, forming a harsh, shrill cacophony. In an instant, the depths of Nightfall Gorge were riddled with gaping holes—the blasted debris was as deadly as Rift Ice Spikes, turning the solid earth into a honeycomb.
Leon broke out in a cold sweat at the sight. The full power of these two was something he couldn't possibly withstand. But this was the critical moment—any movement could draw their attention. Now, he hid behind a branch of the Tree of Wisdom high above, suppressing even the slightest magical fluctuation to minimize his presence.
If he made a move, he'd surely be dragged into the fray by those two maniacs—both of whom wanted him dead...
After a moment's thought, Leon decided to stay put for now and wait until their battle ended.
The Black Dragon Warlord and Duncan clashed with full force, neither gaining the upper hand. Before the shockwaves had even faded, they charged at each other again.
The Black Dragon Warlord stretched out his left hand—the demon hand formed of black smoke instantly swelled. What was once two meters long grew to over twenty meters, with the demon claw at the tip expanding to more than ten meters wide.
He swung the giant hand, blocking the barrage of fragments in midair, then plunged it into the haze, striking toward his opponent.
Meanwhile, Duncan spat out a torrent of black, smoky runes. These runes devoured the surrounding mist, transforming into a demon head over ten meters wide. Its gaping maw swallowed the incoming shards, then lunged into the haze to bite down on its foe.
Crunch...
A sharp sound rang out as an irresistible force swept through the thickest part of the haze, scattering all the smoke outward in a shockwave.
There, Duncan stood behind the giant demon head, both hands pressed against its back.
The demon head bit down hard on the Black Dragon Warlord's enormous demon hand.
Jagged, razor-sharp teeth snapped from the demon head's mouth, while even more sword-like fangs tore into the demon hand's tough defenses.
Sparks flew between the two as the demon head bit down on three fingers of the demon hand. The grinding sound was like steel being torn apart, and the demon head's sharp teeth slowly ripped through the hand's defenses.
For three full seconds, a loud crunch resounded—the demon hand was bitten off by sheer force, but the demon head's jaw was shattered by the hand's power.
Even so, neither the Black Dragon Warlord nor Duncan retreated. The demon hand and demon head exploded at once, dissolving into clouds of black smoke.
By now, the distance between the Black Dragon Warlord and Duncan had closed to just over ten meters—a perilous range for two demon warlocks, yet they still rushed at each other.
The Black Dragon Warlord extended his still-intact right hand, gathering all the black smoke behind him into a rolling black sphere.
At first, it was just a three- or four-meter ball mingled with smoke, but in less than half a second, it swelled to seven or eight meters. The smoke vanished, leaving a ball of thick, viscous black oil.
Across from him, Duncan raised both skeletal arms, conjuring an identical black sphere before him.
In an instant, the two viscous black oil spheres collided.