Chapter 177: Age of the Pinnacle 3
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Chi!!!!
Garen’s arm took a quick turn, and his elbow went straight for Palosa’s temples. His elbows were like sharp tips, stabbing Palosa’s temples from both left and right.
Boom!
Palosa’s upper body blocked the attacks, but his lower body was still kicked, and his body flew backwards from the impact. Before he could react, he saw a black shadow zoom past him and his lower abdomen was hit by invisible punches. These were the signs of high speed punching.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
The both of them continued to exchange blows in the woods, every time their arms met, Palosa’s body would shake, the explosive strength of his opponent continuously hit him on the body, and he could feel his arms going numb. Blow after blow of terrifying attacks and explosive shock was like a massive hammer, hammering down on him.
For a moment, Palosa’s attention faltered, and his waist was hit by a silent but deadly palm technique.
With a loud bang, his whole body flew towards the left side.
Garen caught up in a few quick steps, swung his hand downwards to hit Palosa, but was blocked by Palosa’s arms. At the same time, Palosa was hit by an unavoidable side whipping leg.
Pow!
The side whip leg slashed across Palosa’s right shoulder.
In the woods, the crowd could only see the duo fighting, like two shadows floating about, one black one white, crisscrossing.
Suddenly, the white shadow was hit and sent flying, taking down a few trees on its way, then the black shadow quickly caught up and continued to mess with it.
On the ground, and in the trees, there would occasionally be craters or holes leftover.
With a loud rumble, Palosa was again hit back over ten plus steps. He could no longer hold it in anymore, and started puking blood.
Garen was expressionless, he gestured his arms in a circular motion, and once more positioned himself into the stance for Explosion of Heavenly Spirit.
"Ten Thousand Mammoths Retrograde!!!"
Garen suddenly disappeared from where he stood, and appeared again right in front of Palosa, with both his palms aiming at his abdomen.
In this split second, all the muscles on his body started moving like little rats under his skin, forming a way towards his palms.
White Cloud Gate’s Four Major Forms’ combined explosive strengths were all focused in this one attack, paired with the second Dan’s powers, they all increased the effectiveness of the Explosion of Heavenly Spirit.
With this particular attack, Garen was reaching a whole new level in his abilities and strength.
This was the first time putting all of his strength into one single blow, before this he had never encountered an opponent worthy of such potency, today he finally had the chance to do so.
The force of his two palms were so great, that a strong wind formed as they got closer to Palosa’s abdomen. Before they even reached Palosa’s abdomen, Palosa’s skin was already slightly pressed down by the wind and force.
Palosa looked at Garen calmly, a stream of blood dripped off his chin along his face.
A black air seemed to slowly appear along with the stream of blood.
"You haven’t reached your limit yet," Palosa pushed both his arms forward.
Boom!!
A weird collision sound exploded from between their palms.
Palosa’s body first stumbled forward, then flew backwards into the direction of some green plants behind him, drawing a flat line of crushed greens as he fell onto them.
The forest was silent once more.
Palosa coughed furiously, the black air on his face disappeared completely, only his skin was showing some weird sickening purple red.
"Cough, cough, I never knew that you could beat me out of my demonic status," The air around him was no longer of a black humanoid, but white fog again.
"Back to normal now?" Garen’s arms returned to their normal shape, as he looked at the panting and obviously tired Palosa, he too took some deep breaths: this was the first time he had ever felt tired.
Ever since he started practicing secret martial arts, he had been continuously increasing his body’s strength and stamina, his recovery abilities have always been way beyond mortals. Yet this time, with the continuous use of all his energy blow after blow, he actually felt tired for once.
The both of them, one sat and the other stood facing each other, stopped fighting, giving each other and themselves time to regain their energies.
"What a pity," Palosa looked at Garen with sympathy,"a pity that you walked down this path, this is a path with no future."
Seeing how Garen didn’t seem to understand his statement, he smiled.
"Ever since I’ve started practicing White Bird Fist, I’ve fought thousands of battles, and not once have I lost. Yet since a year ago, I started noticing that the Fist was starting to act against me. Eventually, it sent me into a demonic state. Who knew that I would be struck awake by you."
"Acted against you?" Garen was dumbfounded.
"Many many years ago, I learned of the side effects of the Assassination Fist Techniques, so I chose to hide in the mountains in hopes of fighting and removing the side effect that gave me a constant intent to kill. However in the end the demons got better of me," Palosa’s face looked incredibly serious,"now I maybe injured, but thanks to you, I am fully awake."
He stood up from the ground and stretched his body, loud cracking sounds were made as he did so.
"Be careful now, this is my true form!" Palosa’s body shrank for a bit, then suddenly expanded. From a mere 160cm tall little old man, Palosa suddenly grew into a two meter tall buff fighter.
His muscles and bones made weird cracking noises, his wrinkled skin also tightened up, becoming smooth and young.
"Higher Form Hand!"
Palosa raised his right arm, and casually swung it along a nearby tree. His nails were like five sharp swords, easily etching deep marks into the tree bark.
"The pinnacle of Body Hardening Technique?" Garen squinted his eyes.
"No, this is a secret technique: 99 Acute Airholes," Palosa seemed to have completely recovered into his normal form, and smiled,"unlike Body Hardening Technique, this secret technique saves a copy of one’s pinnacle body form, and seals it away. When needed, it can project that form onto the user’s body, ensuring that the user would have access to his own pinnacle anytime he wants."
Palosa had suddenly became a long white haired young man, looking at Garen and talking smoothly without pause.
"I self made 178 different types of secret techniques, each one of them are individually unique and each took years of research and perfecting to complete. 99 Acute Airholes, ranks number 67 out of them all."
The air and aura around him turned completely white, but unlike other fighters, his white aura made people around him feel peaceful.
"I’m sorry to have disappointed you earlier," Palosa’s face turned serious,"your strength far exceeds the world of Fist Techniques, one could even regard you as the undisputed Ruler of All Fists! This path of pure strength and energy of yours is a first amongst the many fighters I’ve encountered in my life."
"Cut the crap, let’s do this," Garen placed himself into the stance of Explosion of Heavenly Spirit. This was a technique he had acquired from a trade with the Tenth Loop, its side effects were nothing to him, its powers however, were formidable.
Just that he had not expect to be forced to use it by Palosa’s demonic form.
"You’re right," Palosa smiled, and turned into a white shadow.
Garen turned into a black shadow at the same time.
The both of them dashed into each other with a loud blast.
This was unlike anything before!!
The both of them exchanged blows, neither was giving the other any openings, each hit was a solid and serious one. Muscle on muscle, fist on fist, sounded like metal hitting metal.
"Three Blows Arm Technique!" both of Palosa’s arms took a quick turn and suddenly became three times of their original size, their speeds increased rapidly too as they headed straight downwards for Garen’s shoulders.
A sharp shrill tore through the sky, a white air wave appeared behind Palosa’s arms, like two silk straps were flying towards Garen’s shoulders.
This is the effect of air being torn through by excessive amount of speed.
Palosa’s eyes glowed with anticipation, Three Blows Arm Technique was the last of his 178 Secret Techniques. With his current pinnacle status combined with this secret technique, he once sliced a master of Body Hardening Technique in half.
This was a multiplication of his current strength by the factor of 3, this level of terrifying speed far exceeded the limits of the human body, instead it reached an inhuman level. Yet amongst all of his secret techniques, this was considered one of the most mundane ones.
"Let me see, how will you defend against this?" Palosa glared at Garen.
The both of them were dangerously close to each other, the Three Blows Arms was about to hit Garen in a split second. The shrill in the air caused by the two white waves of air caused Garen’s ears to totally lose their hearing.
He squinted his eyes, to avoid the massive air pressure from causing a him to lose his sight too.
As a fellow human at the limit of human physique, Garen knew the threat of such an attack. In a split second, a dozen different techniques crossed his head, but his body instinctively positioned into a specific stance welcoming the attack.
Whoooosh
The powerful White Mammoth Aura gathered around his body, and bellowed with its trunk, then it charged towards Palosa’s Three Blows Arms.
"Ten Thousand Mammoth Trample!!" this was one of three major techniques that Garen invented out of mixing many others. Just like Ten Thousand Mammoth Retrograde, it was based off the Mammoth secret techniques combined with other techniques like the Golden Statue Technique, to become an incredibly powerful standalone still.
Clang!
Looking from far away, one would be able to see two white lines violently striking Garen’s shoulders.
The both of their faces glowed a slight red, the explosive energy brought with it a violent shock and vibration, these were vibrations that neither of them were able to control so both of them immediately sustained internal injuries at the same time.
Palosa’s joints made the weird cracking noise again, but this time it sounded like trouble.
Garen’s shoulders on the other hand were left with two visible wounds, except that there wasn’t any blood, and the wounds seemed to close up as soon as they opened up.
At the same time, the both of backed away from each other.
"Secret Technique, Sealing Sun Arm!" A small cube suddenly appeared under the skin of Palosa’s abdomen, like he had installed a wooden cube under his skin.
The cube moved from his abdomen upwards to his chest, then it disappeared.
What was weird, was that Palosa’s originally swollen shoulders and broken bones, they were instantaneously healed, and his skin returned to its original unscathed state.
Garen sucked up the pain from his shoulders, as he watched Palosa heal himself in front of him. At this moment he realized how truly terrifying Palosa’s self made 178 Secret Techniques were.
Palosa wasn’t even a pinnacle practitioner of the Body Hardening Technique, and yet he could achieve such frightening results with his own abilities.
"I haven’t felt this pumped in a long while! Come, let’s do it again!" Palosa laughed and dashed towards Garen again with another strike of Three Blows Arm Technique.
At this moment, the white shirt man and Cynthia arrived to witness this scene.
The effects of Palosa’s Secret Techniques left everyone speechless.
"Grandfather Palosa’s 99 Acute Airholes can save the body of his absolute pinnacle state, and the most terrifying ability isn’t even that," the white shirt man and the leader of the Southern Heavenly Fist Gate said softly.
"This is already insane!" King of Fist Leo felt his hair stand on their edges as he watched this inhuman fight. The two monsters kept clashing into each other like giant beasts wrestling.
What was different was that Garen had metal-like skin while Palosa had his 178 Secret Techniques!
Heavenly Fist Gate’s Gate Master said,"We never knew that this was Palosa Grandfather’s true state. Who knew that the legendary Assasination Fist Technique could affect the mentality of the user too. No wonder all these years our grandfather forbade us from seeing him."
"You haven’t said what the most terrifying ability he possesses?" Cynthia’s eyes were fixed on the battlefield, while she spoke.
This was also what Jack and King of Fist Leo wanted to know.