Chapter 178: Age of the Pinnacle 4
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"The most terrifying part of 99 Acute Airholes is when it is used alongside his 10th Secret Technique, and that is the most famous Secret Technique of them all: 99 Regressions!" The Heavenly Fist Gate Master said with a deep voice,"that technique is the reason why Grandfather Palosa is undefeated and unmatched across the board."
"99 Regressions?" King of Fist Leo’s face fell,"Do you mean the legendary esoteric?!"
The Gate Master nodded proudly.
"That is the legendary esoteric! 99 Lives!!"
Rumble!!
It was at this moment, the both of them collided against each other again.
Their hands were continuously striking and slashing each other. Garen made a low ‘hmph’ and took a few steps back, the wounds on his shoulders wouldn’t close up anymore now, and were bleeding profusely.
Palosa’s shoulders were cracked beyond recognition as well, his arms hung without life on his body.
"Secret Technique, Sealing Sun Arm!" the small cube appeared under his skin again.
"Still trying to cure yourself?!"
Garen made low grunt and dashed towards him, his arm formed into a claw ready to gnash.
At this point, despite the fact that his shoulders were injured, which would in turn affect his speed, but he still had a solid 80% of his usual speed. His claw glowed a slight red and released some heat around it.
Palosa smiled at sight of this, the cube under his skin sped up magically until it disappeared under his chest. When it did, his chest recovered to a state like it had never been injured before, with two loud sounds he grabbed Garen’s claw in two moves.
The two of them moved backwards rapidly.
A weird dark energy moved from Palosa’s body into Garen’s, compared to the demonic Palosa earlier, this was much stronger and was headed straight for Garen’s heart.
"I have met many pinnacle practitioners of Body Hardening Technique, but you are definitely the strongest I have ever met. You are able to not just face my three techniques built based on the White Bird Fist, but still stay standing, ready to fight. I take back my words earlier," Palosa’s calm voice seemed to drill into Garen’s ears,"it is actually possible now that you defeated Duskdune Shura."
Palosa lifted his knee and kneed Garen in the abdomen, evading his attack. The both of them backed away from each other.
"It ends here!" Palosa’s face was suddenly covered in pale white jade colour.
"White Bird, Unrivaled Skyfall!"
The white aura around him suddenly concentrated into a form and created a massive white crane, it’s beak sharper than the sharpest swords and its claws, stacked on top of each other, were lifted up and slashed downwards.
The sharp beak pecked on Garen like an awl.
The same threatening aura appeared again, crushing Garen under its intimidating weight, causing his bones to vibrate slightly.
"You think I wouldn’t be able to fight back like this? Garen’s face suddenly turned sly, his arms expanded in a wide motion.
"Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement!!!!!"
He put both his palms together like he was about to clamp onto the beak of the crane. As his palms traveled rapidly through the air, the already filled with poison arms were now forming a lot of friction against the air and was suddenly on fire!
Garen’s palms drew a red line as they both met in a prayer-like gesture.
At this moment, both of their abilities met each other. The forest fell silent once more.
The two large auras collided with each other and blurred everything around them. No living organism could tell for sure what was going on in there.
After a few seconds, both auras retreated away from each other and stood facing each other with a few meters of distance in between.
Palosa’s palms were charred black like they had been burned and he was sweating profusely like he had just expended all of his energy in his last attack. Especially his chest, it seemed to sank in the middle, obviously his ribs were broken and he was heavily injured.
He stared at Garen who stood across him.
Garen didn’t move from his spot, just that there was now a small cut on the middle of his chest and a small stream of blood was pouring out of it. From where he stood, there was a half circle line burned into the ground, the frightening after effect of his Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement.
"It is over," Garen looked at Palosa,"you’ve taken a direct hit from my Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement, that paired with the hot poison….." This was nothing like the time Garen defeated Duskdune Shura, this particular strike was at least twice as powerful as that one. Even if Palosa was stronger than Duskdune Shura, he could not possibly survive a direct hit.
He squinted his eyes and looked at Palosa.
The small cube popped up underneath Palosa’s chest again!
"Secret Technique: 99 Regressions!"
Palosa’s face was calm, the cube dissolved into countless beams that shot across his nerves to every part of his body.
After a series of weird bone cracks and muscle cracks, Palosa recovered from all his injuries, like had never been hit at all!
"My 99 Regressions, paired with 99 Acute Airholes, is the ultimate ability invented from the White Bird Fist Technique. I can heal myself 99 times within a hundred days from any injury."
Palosa tore off whatever broken fabric was left on his top, leaving on only his bottom long pants.
"99 Regressions…." Garen’s face was expressionless, but his heart was stirring. This kind of insane secret technique can only be invented by someone as good as Palosa.
"I’ll see how many times you can recover then!" Garen’s heart was set on defeating Palosa, he pushed from his feet and dashed towards Palosa.
Boom, boom, boom!
The sounds of collision continued. White Bird Aura and the Giant Mammoth Aura twist and turned over each other. The White Bird flew up and crashed down on the Giant Mammoth over and over again, while the Giant Mammoth whipped the White Bird with its trunk.
The two frighteningly large auras continuously exchanged blows.
"Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement!!!" Garen bellowed, his palms once against on fire, colliding again with Palosa’s Unrivaled Skyfall.
Palosa jumped away and when he landed, he had recovered from his injuries.
"Again!!" Garen jumped towards Palosa aggressively.
The onlookers watched as the both of them repeatedly fought each other with all their might. As they continued to fight, Palosa was actually able to continuously recover from all his injuries, everywhere he was hit, he would heal within ten seconds.
With the combined use of Sealing Sun Arm and 99 Regressions, Palosa looked like he was never injured from beginning to end. His aura was as fresh as it gets, unaffected at all by the constant attacks.
Whereas for Garen, he was getting bloodied from the continuous pecking by the White Bird Fist. His eyes were bloodshot, but he didn’t seem to know anything about feeling tired, and just kept throwing blow after blow of his most powerful attack: Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement!
The Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement was delivered with Fiery Claws and each time it hit Palosa, it would leave him heavily injured. Yet every single time Palosa would recover completely from it, like the attack meant nothing.
One, twice, four times….ten times….twenty times! Garen’s body started wearing out, but he still stood straight like a pencil, aggressively attacking his opponent.
Finally, not sure after how long, the forest was silent once more.
King of First Leo, Cynthia and Jack clenched their jaws, their faces a mixed expression as they stared at Garen. Like them, the Gate Master too was looking at Garen with respect.
"There’s no point to continue fighting," Palosa stood silently by the side of a few collapsed trees.
All the trees in a ten meter radius around them were either torn in half or completely collapsed, some were even on fire due to Garen’s Fiery Claws.
The forest seemed to have become a plateau.
Streams of blood flowed down Garen’s chin, arms, legs.
He panted and gasped for air, his eyes were still glowing red, staring at Palosa with resentment. Garen’s shoulders, waist, back and chest were filled with wounds, lines of lines of bright red cuts filled his entire upper body.
"99 Regressions!" Garen panted,"there really...isn’t any point on fighting anymore."
Surely by now, they were both violently aware of each other’s limits and abilities.
99 Regressions paired with Sealing Sun Arm sure is a terrifying combo, but that’s an ability made for the Palosa at his peak. The Palosa now, if he continued using the same techniques, would put such a strong burden on his body that he would not die from his injuries but instead from a total lack of energy. After all, he wasn’t the same Palosa as he was when he was younger.
As for Garen, using Ten Thousand Mammoth Sky Encirclement was also a great burden on his body. After using it so many times, he had exhausted all of his energy, and could faint anytime soon.
But he knew he cannot be defeated like this!
Too much depended on him, as he was the main foundation holding up White Cloud Gate. If he falls, not only will White Cloud Gate fall, so will his family and friends, everyone will disappear like a house of cards.
White Cloud Gate and his family have been able to stay safe all these years because of the intimidation of his strength. If he falls, not only will his enemies seize the opportunity to strike, but so will the people who surrendered to him purely because of his strength betray him and his family.
At this point, both them knew very well that if they continued, they would both end up dead. Perhaps Garen would die first, but Palosa would follow after very soon too.
"I lost," Palosa laughed, his body shrinking back to his real age, turning back into the small old man he was earlier. His face now was so pale it was terrifying,"I used 99 Acute Airholes to retain my prime till now, but I never expected you to be able to force me to use 99 Regressions more than ten times."
Realistically, the both of them were almost equal in strength, just that Garen was at a disadvantage due to Palosa’s Secret Techniques.
"You didn’t lose," Garen said coldly, and stood up, his body shook for a second, and all his wounds instantly opened and shut with a large spout of blood.
He reached out his hand towards Leo.
Leo threw over a black cloak to Garen, which he used to instantly cover up himself.
"Let’s go, we’ve achieved our objective for this time," Garen turned around and took big steps away, as if he was never injured before,"next time, next time I will defeat you!"
King of Fist Leo was the first to catch up to Garen, followed by Cynthia and Jack.
"A year ago, a man named Sylphalan showed up here once. We ended our battle with heavy injuries on both sides. If you meet this man, be careful," Palosa’s yelled from behind him.
"Sylphalan…." Garen stopped in his steps for a moment, then he continued walking.