Terra's Will swept forth, meeting the Foreman's hammer. Sam was locked into place, struggling against his foe. This time, though, he had a bit of an edge.

The other ten E Rankers surrounded him, and called upon their Daos, beginning a barrage of so many varied projectiles that Sam felt as if he were within a psychedelic rainstorm. His Dao armor froze, burned, and melted away, exposing the metal beneath, which in turn was eaten away. Only, with Resilience of the third threshold, Sam's skin was as durable as his armor, if not more so. A chuckle burst out of his mouth as he felt attacks that would have scorched mountain ranges to ash result in nothing more than superficial burns. Sure, a proper technique from any one of these cultivators would have seriously injured him, but the hasty barrage he faced was nothing more than an inconvenience.

"How is the mighty hunter of rodents faring now?" Sam taunted the Foreman. "Is your trap working or is the rat once more overcoming you?"

The Foreman sighed, even as his arms bulged with volcanic strength. "I wish I didn't have to use this, but you've driven me far enough. My Dao burgeons with the accumulation of wealth. What do you think happens when that wealth disappears?"

Sam felt a sudden surge of potency rise in the metaphysical plane like a quasar, centered on the Foreman's body. His eyes widened, and he pushed away, but it was too late.

"Severance Pay!" the Foreman roared at the top of his lungs, screaming the name of his technique for all to hear. Eight streams of molten gold exploded out of thin air, before driving themselves into the Foreman's limbs and torso. Burning veins of metal criss-crossed his body, and the man bulged outwards, growing in height until he was a twenty foot tall titan of metal, lava and E Rank flesh.

Eyes blazing with the fire of a world's molten heart, the Foreman thrust his hammer into the sky. A subsonic thrum rippled across the world as an orb of molten metal the size of a small mountain forced its way out of the head of the Foreman's weapon, spreading out in the air. Made entirely out of gold, it radiated such heat that Sam saw some of the stones on the ground far below begin to melt.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The rippling sphere of molten gold began to compress, forged into a spear by the Foreman's will. It turned towards Sam, and with a sonic boom, shot down from the heavens. At the same time, its maker sped forwards, his titanic body like a meteor. Sam cursed and forced another teleport, ignoring the pain of a thousand tiny swords slicing at his body. It was better than death.

A titanic pressure bore down like the gravity of a thousand Earths upon the land, deforming the rock below. All of the other elementalists quaked before it, looking up at their compatriot in fear.

"This wasn't the deal!" one of them, the poison cultivator, bellowed. "You know that technique is deadly to everyone around it!"

"Shut up, Exander!" the Foreman roared. "I will not be disrespected by this… this bastard! He's a threat to all of us!"

Sam couldn't help but laugh at this, although the laugh was quite abrupt and cut off by a venomous glare from the Foreman that seemed to carry an almost physical weight. Even Sam's monstrous stats lagged behind the might of the lava cultivator's ultimate technique, but he could tell that it was on somewhat of a timer, as were most abilities of that caliber. His own Dao Juggernaut skill felt almost unreasonably lengthy in comparison. More importantly, it didn't require him to sacrifice a lifetime of stored power.

The Foreman's lip curled, the motion incredibly visible on his enlarged face. Then he kicked off the air itself, a shockwave rippling out behind him. His fiery wings beat like a hurricane, sending gale force winds of scorching air out at high speed. Sam braced himself, concentrating his Dao armor, and the armor of his new skill, in front of himself. A thick shield formed there, wrought from his various energy types, greater than the sum of its parts. Even then, he didn't trust it enough to stay still, and kept moving.

In the meantime, many of the other cultivators fully cut loose, using their own ultimate techniques. In many cases, it looked like they were doing it more to survive the collateral damage of the Foreman's attacks than anything else.

A moment later, the spear hit the ground. The stone beneath was vaporized, and a tidal wave of churned earth rolled out in every direction. A flash of heat scorched Sam's eyes, and then a shockwave slammed into him like a runaway freight train. He tumbled end over end through the air, righting himself just in time to take a devastating hammerblow to the sternum from the Foreman. The powerful cultivator had crossed the gap in the blink of an eye, and rather than let the momentum carry Sam away, he instead whipped his other hand out and grabbed Sam's neck. With a dark chuckle, the Foreman started to brutally pummel Sam's upper body with his burning weapon.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.