The forest grew eerily silent, save for the faint rustling of leaves and the occasional creak of branches under the wind’s weight. Alex stood motionless, his glowing form radiating an overwhelming pressure. The air around him seemed to warp, trembling under the strain of his power. His eyes, twin points of purple light, tracked the faintest shifts in the trees, waiting for the leader to strike again.

From the shadows, the leader’s voice emerged, laced with mockery. “You know, there’s this thing about star connection realm experts that star formation ones would never be able to cover for?”

‘Temporal acceleration,’ Alex muttered inwardly, ignoring those words as he increased his speed by moving his time faster. He was well aware of the difference; it was the reason for his seriousness.

“No matter how much you try, your weak skills won’t be able to touch me,” the leader’s voice echoed through the trees, condescending. “You’re burning through your energy, Alex. By the time this is over, you’ll be crawling on your knees.”

‘Breath control, healing breath.’ Alex activated two more abilities, as he could feel the pain in his lungs as it was hard to even breathe in eternal devourer form.

Alex needed to use the healing breath to keep the pain at bay; it was an ability that healed him as long as he kept breathing. The only required condition was for him to have a steady breathing pace.

Keeping his breaths steady wouldn’t be a big thing for him normally, but in this form, where the slightest move would cause him pain, he can’t do it.

That was where breath control—a wind-type ability—came into play, enabling Alex to keep up a steady breathing pace. That is until that pace is broken…

[… just don’t get punched.] Sophie reminded him of the severe drawback of this ability—one that could heal wounds to a certain extent as long as one keeps breathing steadily.

‘Why do you think I have all my speed increment abilities activated?’ Alex lamented. He knew very well that the moment his breathing was interrupted—disabling his healing breath—all of the healed wounds would return, and since he was healing the pain, it would get multiplied and return.

“Huh,” breaking him out of his thoughts, the leader’s voice was heard from right behind him, making Alex instinctively slash his sword, only to cut through the air. There was nothing but a tree with the same green portal left there.

“You seem to be using some kind of healing skill?” The leader’s confused voice was heard from another tree, and the moment it did, Alex waved his hands, shooting two balls of fire at it.

Sizzle!

The fireballs, however, got devoured in one of those green portals, making Alex grit his teeth.

“Trying to attack a poison user with fire? Clever,” the leader whispered, making Alex’s eyes sharply turn from one tree to another. “But didn’t I say?”

Alex could feel the leader’s presence appearing and disappearing everywhere. Those portals were everywhere, on every tree, by now.

‘Ghhh! This is why I hate assassins!’ Alex could do nothing more than growl. ‘I wanted to test out my raw battle powers, but like this, it’s impossible.’

This fight was getting frustrating. Annoyingly frustrating.

Alex had already figured out this guy’s ability. He had poison and space-related abilities. He could probably shift between trees using them, as there are clear traces of space and poison energy on every portal he leaves behind.

Alex could sense every element and the guy’s presence, courtesy of his overpowered but painful physique. But the problem was that it was all over the forest. It was as if that guy was doing it on purpose—moving from one tree to another using those annoying portals.

“No matter what attack you use,” the leader continued, oblivious to Alex’s growing frustration, “you can’t overcome something impossible for a star formation expert.”

But Alex just sighed. His motivation to keep this on for any longer vanished.

“You keep saying that I am running on fumes,” Alex began, spreading his arms as the mana in the surroundings rushed at him alarmingly.

The tree leaves rustled, and the wind blew as if nature itself were raging.

“But did you ever see me concerned about mana?” Alex continued, making the people in the surroundings, including Zahara, the immobile assassins, and the leader tense.

They couldn’t tell what was happening, but they could feel it was something that shouldn’t be possible.

“The last thing I’m concerned about would be…” Alex paused dramatically as hundreds of thunderbolts, fireballs, and water cannons materialized above Alex’s head before they all shot the trees in the surroundings with him at the center.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Several explosions rang out in the surroundings. One tree after another fell; some scorched, some broken, and some slashed by the wind blades Alex sent by the wave of Alex’s hands.

“… mana,” Alex announced grandly, the scenery lit up with colors of thunder, water, and fire.

He didn’t need to worry about mana ever—the only reason he never complained about the drawback of memory lapse or the fact that he had to bear this pain every time he used this physique.

With the ability of this physique to devour anything, the first thing Alex devoured was mana—pure natural mana in the air.

It wasn’t simple. Alex had to try it again and again since nature itself was resisting it. The reason was simple: if he succeeded, he would have infinite mana.

Alex’s physique, however, did the impossible and actually devoured natural mana, giving Alex access to the mana in the air as well as the curse of nature that made Alex forget things occasionally.

It was the greatest boon in his life but also the reason why Alex wanted to fight people stronger than him. He wanted a fight where he could use this trait to the maximum.

Now, for the first time, he was using this trait—he was destroying the trees, the source of the leader’s power.

With the trees gone, the guy won’t be able to hide anymore.

‘Yes,’ he sighed inwardly, hearing the sound of destruction, ‘this is the type of battle I like—’

“Alex!! Behind you!!” His musing was cut short by Zahara’s yell, which echoed through the surroundings, suppressed by the sizzling and crackling of the trees.

‘Space shift—’ Alex, feeling a strange chill run down his spine, tried to move using space shift like before, but this time he was a bit late.

A green portal just like the ones he had seen on the trees—the one that the leader used to teleport from one tree to another—appeared right below him.

“Nuh-uh.” The leader’s voice was heard from the portal before a hand covered in green liquid came out of it.

“Not this time.” The leader, now gripping his wrist, shook his head, catching Alex before he could shift space.

As soon as the leader’s hand, covered in that gooey liquid, came into contact with his hand, his eyes went wide.

“GAHHHH!!!” A tearing pain assaulted his wrist, making him scream. He could feel his wrist burning. Worse yet, his breath hitched because of the pain, breaking the effect of healing breath, and the backlash came, adding to his agony.

“FUCK!” Roaring, Alex flailed his hand with clawed extensions, trying to attack the guy, but the assassin leader just jumped to the other side, not once leaving Alex’s arms.

The pain made it hard for Alex to even think straight. The urgency only increased as his flesh hissed, getting burned.

‘Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’ His mind raced, but he couldn’t think of something. ‘The trees weren’t the only things he could shift through?!’

He had thought that it would end, but what was this now?! That guy wasn’t giving his all in the battle?

The fact that the assassin leader could do this right now meant that he could’ve done this before as well, but the guy didn’t.

‘I’m still not strong enough!’ Alex roared on the inside, trying to land a hit on the guy, but he would just tilt his body every time, avoiding his attack by inches.

All he could do now was try to stay sane while thinking of something to get out of the situation somehow.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep