Chapter 997

"...."

The battlefield fell into an eerie, suffocating silence as every eye watched Devan’s Ki swords rush into Han’s gourd.

They vanished into the vessel as if they were eager to be consumed, and soon enough, the final blade passed through the narrow opening.

Han shifted his stance slightly, glancing down at the gourd in his grip with a dark, knowing glint in his eyes.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he lifted the container to his lips and began to drink.

Devan paused, visibly unsettled by this bizarre display.

This was his first time witnessing the brothers fight in earnest, and the spectacle was as strange as it was unnerving.

Of everyone in the Grimvale family, Han was the one who drew his deepest caution.

The others, including Borfan, were predictable—forces of nature that relied on brute strength and fists.

They rarely relied on complex strategy.

But Han was different.

And now, it appeared he was literally consuming the very energy of the attacks he had captured.

"...!!!"

Seconds stretched in tense silence as Han drank greedily, like a man parched for days in a wasteland.

No one knew what was actually inside that gourd, but the effect was immediate.

When he finally pulled the vessel away, he let out a long, satisfied exhale.

"Ah..."

He wiped a faint stain from his mouth and released his grip on the gourd.

Instead of crashing to the earth, the object remained frozen in mid-air, suspended by an invisible force.

Han began to stagger, his movements erratic.

He swayed left, then right, stumbling forward and back like a man who was utterly wasted on cheap spirits.

"Ah... I’m... burp... drunk on power."

BOOOM—!

Without a single word of warning, Han lunged forward.

His speed was terrifying, far surpassing the velocity Grey could achieve even with his lightning affinity.

In a literal heartbeat, he appeared before Devan as if he had occupied that space since the beginning of time.

He launched a twin kick that smashed into the giant’s face with a resounding crack, sending the Behemoth sliding backward in a state of slight disorientation.

Han landed on the ground with a small, drunken sway before locking eyes with his brother.

In perfect unison, they launched a coordinated assault.

Devan growled, a low, guttural sound that belonged more to a beast than a man.

"ENOUGH!"

He raised his war hammer high and smashed it into the ground with every ounce of his colossal strength.

A localized earthquake followed, sending a violent shockwave surging toward the approaching duo.

Yet, they did not falter.

They simply vaulted into the sky with thunderous force, the wind whipping around them as if the atmosphere itself were responding to their command.

’Huh?’ Dan looked momentarily confused by the sudden boost in his own momentum.

Before they could even process the shift, they were launched toward Devan like arrows loosed from a celestial bow.

Dan’s conjoined rings flashed with deadly, gleaming intent.

Spinning like a fierce, metallic wheel, he swung the rings toward the giant.

Once bitten, twice shy.

The Behemoth managed to dodge each strike with smooth, calculated movements.

Dan continued to glide through the air, aggressively giving chase with rapid, whistling swings, yet none could find their mark.

A fluid straight thrust aimed at the giant’s face was intercepted by a massive forearm.

Devan wasn’t moved at all by the impact.

However, before that arm could drop, Han’s double kick smashed into the giant’s ribs with crushing force, sending him skidding backward once more.

Before the Behemoth could gain any distance, the earth surged beneath his feet, trapping his ankles for the briefest of seconds.

It was just enough.

Dan performed another aerial spin, his rings now locked together into a single, massive weapon.

He hurled the conjoined ring forward with all his strength.

BANG—!

The ring flew forth with devastating speed, bashing into Devan’s face with the force of a high-speed freight train.

The giant’s head was thrown violently to the side as trickles of blood burst from his mouth.

A Ki sword manifested in Han’s hand as he launched forward with blistering speed.

A slash. A hack.

He whipped his blade in a frantic blur, trying to find a gap in the armor, but the Ki sword was unable to tear through the man’s insane, supernatural durability.

Snapping his head forward, Devan’s hand blurred as he reached out to seize Han right out of the air.

But before the fingers could close, an ashen portal yawned open behind Han, swallowing him whole.

Devan’s fist passed through the empty air where Han had been, but the momentum carried it forward.

The ashen gateway flickered for a few seconds.

Suddenly, another portal opened directly in front of Devan’s own face.

His massive fist surged out of the new gateway, crashing into his own jaw with the exact same pulverizing force he had intended for Han.

The self-inflicted blow was so powerful that the giant went staggering away, spinning in a state of complete dizziness.

BANG—!

Grey exploded forward with lightning speed.

The ground burst open from the sheer force of his dash as he closed the distance in the blink of an eye.

Snapping his hand to the side, a massive lightning hammer materialized in his grasp, crackling with volatile energy.

With clenched teeth, he spun the hammer around as if he were holding a mere club.

Vaulting into the air, he rotated his body once and slammed the lightning weapon onto Devan’s head before the giant could regain his composure.

BOOOM—!

A thirty-meter hollow yawned open beneath the Behemoth’s feet as mounds of dust and debris vaulted into the air.

Devan’s eyes almost rolled to the back of his head, blood and saliva bursting from his mouth from the staggering impact.

Squeezing his jaws shut, he fought to anchor himself, his fist surging toward the warrior mage’s abdomen with blurring speed.

Grey’s gaze drifted downward toward the approaching strike, but he didn’t have to move.

Dan had already blurred forward, placing himself directly in the path of the punch with his ring held firm.

The impact blasted Dan away with thunderous velocity, sending him skidding violently across the jagged terrain.

The sacrifice gave Grey the time he needed to vault upward. With a mid-air flip, he landed directly behind Devan.

Energy began flowing into his hand, his lightning gauntlet shining with an incredible, blinding radiance.

Ki and mana coalesced around his fist in a swirling vortex.

Flames erupted around his elbows like thrusters, while wind howled and whipped around his entire arm.

The earth began to tremble in response to the buildup.

A tear in space manifested as Grey’s eyes began to glow with a matching intensity.

Devan could feel the phenomena occurring behind him, and for the first time, pure dread filled his heart.

Without looking back, the giant blurred away from the warrior mage, believing he had reached safety.

"In your next life," Grey began, his voice cold as the ground started to tear open beneath him.

His whole arm was now glowing with a bright, lethal cadence.

"... You will never mess with me."

"Spatial Folding!"

Grey roared as he thrust his hand forward in a devastating punch.

The onlookers were confused; Devan was now ten meters away, so why was the Supreme Magus punching thin air?

The question was answered in the next heartbeat.

The space between Grey and Devan was immediately deleted.

The Behemoth appeared directly in front of the warrior mage as if pulled by an invisible, irresistible force.

"KIAN mega blast!"

BAM—! BANG—! BOOOM—!

Grey’s fist crashed into Devan’s chest with crushing, absolute force.

The man’s eyes widened as he felt a massive surge of energy rip through his torso and blast outward from his back.

The ground beneath his feet, extending sixty meters ahead, was ripped open, leaving a deep, enormous trench in the earth.

Grey’s fist sank deep into Devan’s chest as if the giant’s legendary durability were mere parchment.

The whole battlefield trembled loudly, the sound echoing like an approaching storm.

Yanking his hand back, Grey withdrew his fist, the impact having utterly decimated the giant’s core.

Blood filled the Behemoth’s mouth as he swayed left and right in total shock before crashing backward into the earth.

BOOOM—!

A thick blanket of dust rose up as Devan’s massive body smashed into the ground, stilling the mountain that had once seemed invincible.