Ascenders Rift

Chapter 197: A Hard-Fought Battle, Lax's Demise

Moments before the events at the secret lair, within the City of Hope, the chaos within the city had ended. All workers and public security members were beginning to deal with social order.

The scene within the Cramerton residence was now one of ruin as though the flames had mostly been extinguished. In the main room, not even the walls and roof remained, revealing its entirety to the outside.

By now, the battle between Leo's party and Lax had entered its peak. Razel fired a series of yellow bullets from a distance as he ran around the corners of the room, while Leo struck out a series of flaming palms. 

Lax, on the other hand, easily avoided each of their offensive assaults by waving his hands and using his Wind Shift skill. Two green lights flashed on his palms as two gusts of winds blew across the area, pushing away the flames, and bullets at the corners of the building as a myriad of explosions erupted.

Leo and Razel had dark looks on their faces as they were beginning to run out of energy, the sweat running down their forehead due to fighting at a level beyond their current standing.

Lax smirked as he saw this, his eyes showed a cruel look as he thought, 'Heh, almost finished, just a bit more and I'll...'

Lax was about to say something, but suddenly, he noticed that Julie had vanished from his range of perception, causing him to feel uneasy. Instantly, he dodged to the side as a collision sounded from behind him. 

Looking at the direction, Lax saw that a semi-transparent cage had formed in his location, Julie was now standing a few meters away from it with her palms facing his direction.

'Darn, he avoided it!' Julie, Leo, and Razel cursed as they saw this, they had initially planned to distract him so that Julie could capture him, but it seemed that their attempt had failed.

Lax snorted as he stared Julie and spoke, "You are a troublesome human; I didn't think you were capable of shrouding your presence..."

While Lax said this, however, his mind emanated an astounding amount of killing intent as he decided, 'Her sealing powers are troublesome, I must kill this girl first!'

Leo and Razel had felt the hidden intent that leaked from Lax's body; their faces sunk as they looked at Julie and shouted, "Julie run!"

Julie naturally felt the hidden intent, she was about to try and retreat, but it was too late.

Swoosh! With a sway of his body, Lax moved like the wind, rapidly appearing within Julie's reach as his upraised palm glowed in sharp green lights.

'Not good! I can't face him head-on; I must get some distance!' Julie said inwardly as she kicked the ground, pushing herself backward.

Lax smirked as he waved his hand as if chopping a sword when he yelled, "Die! Wind Cutter!"

A menacing arc of green wind cut through the air as it swept towards Julie like a flash of light, Julie hurriedly pointed her palms at it and invoked, "Force Counter!"

Her psychic power clashed with the arc of wind, but sadly, due to the power difference, Julie was forced to cough out a few bits of blood as her power faded. The wind attack had disappeared due to her counter, but Lax didn't stop his charge towards her.

"Noooo!" Leo made a tragic cry as the world seemed to be in slow motion, and he could only watch as Lax prepare to sever her in two with his glowing green palm.

"Hahaha! Accept your death!" Lax said with a laugh as his face had a dark smile, his body blurred and appeared directly before Julie as his palm cut downwards as if doing a dividing chop.

At this moment, Julie felt regret; her eyes didn't stare at him, but Leo, she felt regret that she would never be able to experience true happiness.

Leo seemed to sense her thoughts, the two looking at each other in silence as there was nothing that could be done except to shed silent tears.

"Damn!" Razel cursed as he had already aimed at Lax, but he would only be endangering Julie due to his current position even if he fired.

The situation at this moment for both parties seemed to be one of joy and despair, but suddenly, everyone opened their eyes wide in shock as they saw a stunning change. In a flash, Joe appeared out of nowhere with his shield raised, his body now muscular as steam shrouded him.

Bang! Lax, having no way to react, had chopped his palm onto Joe's shield, which created a shockwave that pushed back the retreating Julie.

"Julie!" Leo shouted as he hurriedly moved, soon after arriving below her as he caught her before she fell onto the ground.

Now in Leo's arms, Julie's eyes ran with tears as she looked at him and spoke, "L-Leo... I... I'm... so..."

Leo know what she wanted to say, he placed a finger on her lip and spoke, "Julie, it's okay, you don't need to apologize. It was our fault for being negligent, from now on, stay a good distance behind us when we fight him up close..."

Julie's mood was complex, but she nodded her head, not saying anything else. The trio then looked at the scene up above and prepared to help, but soon noticed that both Joe and Lax were still clashing, if one paid more attention, they would realize that Lax even was losing out against Joe's absurd defenses.

"You darn bastard! Get lost!" Lax cursed as his body erupted with even more of his genetic blood energy.

Joe smirked at this as he spoke strangely, "A cornered rat trying to bite, but it's a pity, the trap is already laid... Arc Crusher!"

Following Joe's words, his energy skyrocketed as his shield expanded, increasing the force against Lax. Instantly, Joe pushed Lax down from the above as after expending a lot of power against Leo's party, he was unable to resist the might behind the Arc Crusher.

"Damn! I won't lose so easily!" Lax curse realizing that his situation wasn't right. 

With a loud bang, Lax had crashed onto the ground as both of his arms gripped the face of Joe's giant shield that tried to suppress him beneath the heavens. 

A ripple of energies scattered from their point of collision as Lax left a deep depression on the ground as the constant force and weight pushed him back with a deep trail.

"Uraaaah!" Lax roared as his body's muscles bulged even more, as he naturally had more physical power than Joe, even his Overburn state, Lax had begun to slightly push back Joe's shield despite it trying to crush him from above.

Yet, despite this change, Joe merely smirked and spoke, "Hehe, a side villain should know his place, do it now!"

Following Joe's words, both Oron and Irene had appeared from different areas. Oron descended like a muscular tank aiming to ram into the shield as Irene pointed her finger towards Lax while her body glowed with magical energy.

Lax feeling the energies behind him was stunned; he felt a tinge of death in his current setting, causing him to show panic when he shouted, "Noo!"

Not caring about his cry, Irene invoked her skill, "Magic Ray!"

A magical beam fired from her finger, which quickly crashed into Lax's back; it bore a hole into his chest, causing him to cough out blood as he felt greatly weakened.

He wanted to try and slip the shield away and escape, but sadly, Oron had already arrived, his body smashed into the arc shield from above, and with both Joe's and Oron's weight added together, the pressure increased by an absurd level.

Bang! The shield pressed Lax into the earth, crushing his body into nothing but meat paste as a deep crater formed bringing with it an end to his life.

Not long after, Joe's shield returned to the standard size, he shook it to the side removing most of the blood and meat and made a nasty look as he spoke out loud, "Yuck, I really can't get used to seeing this, disgusting..."

Oron looked at Joe and laughed as he spoke, "Haha! How can a tank not have the tolerance to such things? Pssh, you're a bit lacking..."

Joe clicked his teeth, saying nothing else, he looked and saw that Leo and the others were walking over. He sighed and wiped his forehead as he stared at the sky while thinking, "Well, I'm done over here. I wonder what the others are..."

Joe was about to say something, but right now, his eyes shifted towards the distance from the broken roof, noticing a shocking scene that occurred far away.