Earth's Greatest Magus-Chapter 2636: Crimson Dance

The battlefield had turned against Chumo.

His shadow technique—one of his most vital tools—relied on the presence of even the faintest silhouette. A shard of stone casting a line. A body blocking the light. Anything to give him an anchor to vanish and reappear. But now, with the arena illuminated by the spectral glow of Poseidon’s summoned jellyfish, there was nowhere to hide.

No shadows. No escape.

Worse yet, Poseidon’s watery domain weighed on him like a crushing tide, slowing every movement and disrupting his spiritual flow. The air was dense, as if he were submerged in an oceanic graveyard.

"No more running. Come and fight me!" Poseidon bellowed, voice echoing like thunder in the depths. With a swing of his trident, he sent multiple spiraling spirit-waves toward Chumo—waves sharpened by divine law.

Chumo dashed across the slick stone surface, dashing across the soaked arena. His movements were precise, desperate. He fired arrow after arrow, hoping to disrupt Poseidon’s control. Occasionally, a shot veered toward the sea god himself, but they barely scratched the surface of his jade armor. Chumo was clearly on the defensive, evading strike after strike, arrows trailing behind him like a fading tail.

He was being pushed hard. Each wave came closer. Each breath grew heavier.

Poseidon watched with the calm intensity of a predator, like a shark circling its prey. Then, the moment came. With a low chant, Poseidon spun his trident and summoned a colossal water vortex. A whirlpool formed in midair, drawing Chumo in with an irresistible pull.

Chumo struggled, planting his feet, firing desperate shots. But it was no use. The domain had him, forcing him into a close combat.

Poseidon’s trident pulsed with divine light, ready to deliver the killing strike.

"Now DIE!" he roared, lunging forward.

But just before the killing blow landed, a crimson pulse flared across Chumo’s forehead. The bloody sigil reappeared—burning like a brand of defiance. His body twisted unnaturally, faster than before, just barely evading the thrust.

In a flash, Chumo was no longer holding his black longbow.

Two crimson daggers appeared in his hands. Serrated, wickedly curved, and etched with black runes. They pulsed with Khaos energy, almost vibrating with restrained violence.

"What!!!" Poseidon’s eyes widened.

Chumo didn’t wait. In that instant, the air filled with whirling afterimages. Like a blood-colored storm, Chumo unleashed a flurry of strikes.

[Thousand Bloody Streams]

His daggers became arcs of crimson light, striking with terrifying speed, slashing at arms, legs, chest, and shoulders. Each strike landed precisely, over and over, like a storm of razors.

One hundred hits in a second.

Then two hundred.

Three hundred slashes per second tore into Poseidon’s armor, creating sparks, dents, and shallow gashes.

Poseidon grunted in pain. "BASTARD!!" He twisted his body, forced to react, and unleashed a desperate counter, a reverse vortex, an explosive spiral of water magic that blasted outward.

Chumo was thrown like a leaf in a hurricane, skidding across the arena.

Gasps rippled through the coliseum like thunder.

Chumo had been waiting, calculating. Despite his mastery in long-range combat, he was no stranger to close combat. In fact, he had baited Poseidon into this exact moment. He had let the whirlpool draw him in, feigning weakness, using the overwhelming water force to mask his sudden shift in weapons and stance.

And it worked.

Poseidon’s divine armor cracked under the barrage of advanced dagger technique, and it inflicted an inner wound.

Hovering just meters away, Chumo stood with both daggers out—serrated, wicked crimson blades still pulsing with residual energy. His chest heaved as he spoke through gritted teeth.

"You reacted fast enough... I barely managed to launch half of my strikes."

There was something else that stopped him from dealing a critical attack he had hoped for; A soft glow pulsed beneath Poseidon’s armor—a second defense.

Poseidon’s face was a storm of irritation. With a grunt, he tore off what remained of his damaged outer armor and revealed his true defense beneath—natural jade scales, fused directly into his flesh. They shimmered with divine radiance, thick and glistening, covering his torso and limbs like a serpent’s hide.

It was the scales of the Jade Abyss Serpent, augmented into his body. No longer hidden, he activated its powers; His aura erupted, twice as heavy as before. A body enhancement that empowers his physique and water domain. His muscles swelling, veins glowing blue like glowing rivers of ocean power.

And then he vanished.

BOOM!

In less than a breath, Poseidon appeared before Chumo and drove his trident downward like a lightning bolt. Chumo crossed his daggers in defense—CLANG!—but the force sent him flying back, skipping across the water dome like a stone.

Before he could draw breath, Poseidon was already upon him again.

Another blow!

Chumo barely managed to raise his blades in time. Forcing him to activate the crimson sigil on his forehead, granting him just enough acceleration to evade the worst of the blow. But even so, he was thrown like a leaf caught in a typhoon, flipping across the arena once more.

Poseidon wasn’t done.

He surged forward—an unstoppable tide of force. Trident raised. A third strike was coming.

Chumo summoned all his Khaos-enhanced speed, and the crimson mark flared again. He just barely ducked under the swing, his daggers spinning to parry the blow. Even so, the impact jolted through his entire body.

Blood dripped from his lips.

As Poseidon’s blow descended, Chumo twisted beneath it, one dagger raised in defense, the other slicing across the flank. A narrow window—one brief second—but he took it.

SHINK!

His blade scraped against the jade scales and cut through one.

"URRGGHH!!" Poseidon growled and burst another tornado of water around him, pushing Chumo away again.

The entire coliseum erupted into gasps and thunderous cheers at the unexpected clash. Spectators rose to their feet, mouths agape. Many among the crowd shook their heads in disbelief, stunned to see yet another Earth faction magus holding his own against one of Kronos’ Grand Magus warriors.

But not all was well.

Despite appearing to match Poseidon blow for blow, Chumo’s body told another story. His breaths came ragged and shallow, shoulders heaving with exhaustion.

Across the field, Poseidon narrowed his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. "I see it now... You Earthlings... You’re willing to give everything for this duel, aren’t you?"

From the Earth faction’s corner, Klea’s heart skipped a beat as she saw it. A strand of white dangled from Chumo’s midnight-black hair.

Her breath caught in her throat.

"No... Chumo... What have you done?"