Seed of Titan-Chapter 169: Thrashing the Guards

As they stepped onto the Strip, Max said, "The first one to appear should be the red dragon—yep, there he is."

Drai’s eyes widened upon seeing a pair of large claws crack open the ground ahead of them from within, revealing the menacing head of a red dragon that slowly emerged from the earth.

Noticing Drai’s expression, Max said, "Well, looks like the illusion is shared. What do you think? Pretty scary, huh?"

Drai merely nodded. Truthfully, instead of fear, he felt a sense of astonishment upon witnessing such an exotic creature. To him, the dragon was not ’pretty scary’ but ’pretty cool’.

"Next, the golem," Max remarked.

Then, Drai watched as countless rocks rose from the ground, gathering into a lump that rapidly formed a towering humanoid figure. Seconds later, a rock golem bigger than the one Drai faced in the underground jungle stood before them.

"These guys are just the openers—more will appear after these two have been battered a bit," Max explained. "And when you think you’re close to defeating the next ones, a new group will come at you. It’s a gruelling gauntlet, really."

At that moment, the red dragon had finally emerged completely. It stood beside the golem, menacingly staring at Max and Drai. However, to Max’s confusion, the large pair didn’t rush at him as they usually did but waited there instead.

Just then, Drai noticed something, so he pointed and asked, "You said these two are the openers, but what about that one?"

Looking at the direction Drai was pointing, Max’s brows furrowed, as he discovered a black spot hovering in the air that was rapidly spreading outward.

"What the hell? I’ve never seen something like that before," he remarked puzzledly.

After the black spot expanded a bit more, Drai’s expression suddenly changed to that of realization, and he quietly muttered, "I see. So that’s how the illusion works ..."

Hearing this, Max turned to him. "What do you mean, Drai? Have you figured out the illusion already?"

"Yes—at least partially. Despite Madeleine’s words, I was still quite doubtful before, but now I’m certain these are all fake." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Glancing into the distance, Max surmised, "It must have something to do with that strange black thing."

"Yeah."

"So what in the world is it?" Max asked, still curiously eyeing the black matter that kept expanding.

Drai shrugged. "I don’t know."

Max turned to him with a confused look. "Huh? But—"

"I only know one thing," Drai added, cutting him short. "That black matter is something that shouldn’t exist in Gaia."

Drai’s words sparked many questions in Max’s mind, but he summarized them into one simple question, "Why?"

"Because if that thing really dawned on us, it would almost certainly mark humanity’s downfall—or even dooming Gaia entirely."

The lad’s enigmatic answer baffled Max even more, but before he could inquire further, Drai continued, "Anyway, now that I’m sure we’re being tricked by these ’guards’, there’s not much reason to wait any further. I’m going."

Without waiting for Max’s reply, Drai activated Nova Flux and flew ahead, heading straight toward the third entity that had grown into a massive black cloud.

"Hey—wait for me!" Max shouted as he hurriedly followed Drai’s lead, sprinting forward while readying his spells.

Meanwhile, upon seeing Drai flying in, the dragon and golem finally moved, swiftly blocking Drai’s way. As Drai flew closer, the dragon launched a fireball from its maw at him, while the golem’s torso spun—its rocky palm glided ahead of Drai, ready to swat his comparatively tiny figure down.

In turn, Drai augmented himself to the limit and dispersed the fireball with ease. "Compared to Nero’s attack, yours is child’s play," he remarked before smashing through the golem’s swatting palm, leaving a large gaping crack in its center.

The two assailants were briefly stunned by Drai’s formidableness, but they soon recovered and turned around, attempting to catch up to him. However, Max’s timely arrival halted them, as the freshly-"shaven" man immediately conjured two extremely wide nets that sped toward them, followed by two salvos full of earth spikes and razor-sharp, overgrown brambles.

The nets latched onto both of them, preventing them from avoiding the salvos, which ended up riddling them with holes and shredding their outer parts to bits.

Max silently watched as his foes dropped to the ground. He was actually quite amazed by how easy this fight had become and how simply shifting his perception and mentality had resulted in a great increase in his spellpower, which had always been way less effective against the Strip’s inhabitants prior to today.

True to his words earlier, a new group soon emerged. This time it was a pack of elementals with varying shapes; some took the appearances of beasts, while others were vaguely shaped.

At this stage during his previous escape attempts, Max usually disengaged first and created a distance between him and the newcomers, opting to slowly cut down their numbers as he maneuvered across the battlefield and engaged them one by one. However, this time he fearlessly charged toward the elemental group.

Max’s first target was a wave-like humanoid water elemental. He raised his hand, conjuring a pair of half-spheres from the ground that clamped hard at the water elemental, instantly destroying it.

He then swung his hand, hurling the now damp sphere toward a foxlike fire elemental, smashing it to bits. Despite this, its flames persisted and twirled around as they headed toward Max, who snorted in contempt before unleashing a dozen cacti-like balls that exploded near the flames, dousing them with a pink, viscous liquid, causing the flames to sizzle loudly before they were finally quenched.

The swift culling of their kind caused the other elementals to halt their approach. They swayed on their spots, hesitant to proceed further.

As he looked at his discouraged opponents, Max clenched his fists and enveloped himself in a surge of mana. Following this, a myriad of features sprouted out from his flesh and skin.

Upon a closer look, it was apparent that these physical alterations consisted of various aspects that could be found all over Siyeun Mountains. His right hand turned into deep blue ice, while his left hand was gleaming black like obsidian. A few other prominent features aside from these two were the electric arcs that seemingly coursed through his veins, the venom dripping stings protruding from his arms and legs, the tiny exhausts all over his body, and the crown-like horns on his head that emanated dark smoke. As for the rest of his new features, their list would be even longer than Drai’s acquired skills.

And if the rest of his new features were to be mentioned too, it would end up being longer than Drai’s list of acquired skills.

A smirk appeared on Max’s face before he vanished and reappeared in the middle of the elemental bunch, wreaking havoc.

Meanwhile, Drai had arrived before the massive black cloud. He stood there motionless, staring at the featureless, fake enigmatic entity.

Just like what Drai saw in his vision, the cloud churned and extended parts of it toward Drai, who was immediately swallowed by the turbulent black tide.

Amidst the darkness, Drai couldn’t help but snicker, as the cloud’s attack could only graze him harmlessly.

’Whatever created this illusion overlooked one thing—I don’t actually know how this thing inflicts harm. I only saw its tendrils envelop the titans before they got mutilated and nothing more. But I don’t think this fake’s attack would be effective even if it copied that thing perfectly since I already knew it’s just an illusion. Well, I guess I should finish this quickly. We’re still in reach of Madeleine’s colleagues after all.’

With a burst of white light, the black torrent enveloping Drai was dispersed, and a white energy ball sped toward the massive black cloud.

Drai raised his hand as he closely watched the energy ball, and a split second after it entered the cloud, he clenched his fist. Instantly, his energy ball burst, causing a powerful white explosion that blasted the massive black cloud apart.

Drai flew forward and caught one of the cloud’s small pieces, examining it closely. Right in front of his eyes, the piece transformed into a small bat-like creature.

"So this is the true form of these tricksters. Hm, kind of a letdown," Drai muttered before sliding his finger into the creature, sapping its essence. Based on his expression, it was apparent that the creature’s essence was lacking.

After dropping his withered victim, Drai looked ahead and was immediately startled. Flying toward him were three humongous humanoid figures draped in white robes, emanating a similarly white aura.

"This time it’s the titans, huh? I’m pretty sure they function similarly to my previous class—only much stronger, so you guys should be able to mimic them well. That means I’ll soon find out to what extent breaking the illusion affects our power levels."

Drai zoomed ahead and extended his fist forward, ready to meet one of the titans’ oversized punch with his own.

Shortly after, a deafening boom echoed throughout this part of the Strip. Following that, shredded remains of a giant humanoid dropped from the sky, scattering across the barren ground.

Drai hovered in the air, looking at the freshly blown-up fake titan’s remains with a displeased expression as he grumbled, "Tsk. Without a complete illusion, you’re weak as hell..."