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Chapter 60: Beastification Potion!
🕑 Added 2025-06-16 15:02:13 +0000 UTCHis arms bent, Marcus gauged the timing, his muscles coiled like powerful springs. The moment Ethan, as the descending meteor of fire, got close, he suddenly, explosively, leaped up. A force so powerful it seemed to reach the absolute extreme instantly erupted from his legs, so much so that the reinforced ground beneath his feet couldn't bear it and directly cracked open into a spiderweb of fissures. Two fists, one a descending comet of fire, the other an ascending battering ram of steel and stone, collided unceremoniously in mid-air.
Due to the extremely close distance and the nature of their attacks, Marcus didn't actually jump far, but he skillfully used the upward force to counter the downward one. One from above, one from below, neither giving an inch, neither taking a single step back. In terms of sheer spectacle, perhaps it wasn't as visually stunning as Ethan's earlier song of ice and fire against Iris Thorne, but in terms of raw, hot-blooded power, there wasn't a single person in the audience who wasn't fired up, on the edge of their seat! This was the purest collision, the most direct and brutal contest of strength!
Ethan's flame jets were a source of continuous, sustained force, while Marcus's leap just now was a singular burst of explosive power. Although the initial force of his jump was fierce, its duration was very limited. At this moment, suspended in the air, he had already exhausted the momentum of his jump. Gradually, Ethan began to gain the upper hand, his downward thrust pressing Marcus lower and lower towards the ground.
Finally, Marcus, his upward force spent, half-knelt on the ground, unable to resist the powerful, continuous force from above any longer. When Marcus's power had waned completely, Ethan relaxed his hands, angled his flame jets to the side, and landed gracefully. They had agreed to settle it with one final move, and now, the winner and loser were clear.
"Ethan Atherton is victorious!"
With the referee's announcement, Ethan had once again obtained a stunning victory. The audience erupted in deafening cheers and applause, celebrating Ethan's hard-fought win once again.
"Sorry, broski," Ethan said with a grin, reverting to his human form. "I won."
Marcus, deactivating his own abilities and looking utterly exhausted, groaned. "Holy moly, I can't even beat you now, even going all out."
"That's because my development of this Heatblast form is more extensive now," Ethan explained. "I know how to play tricks and use its properties in different ways. If it were a real, head-on, brute-force fight, I might not necessarily be able to beat you."
Marcus just shook his head with a tired smile. "A win is a win. What's the point of saying all that? You've really shown off this time, taking first place in our bracket."
"But of course!" Ethan said, puffing out his chest playfully.
Now, after Ethan and Marcus had finished their match, the winners of the other two rank groups had also been decided. Ethan, having beaten his final opponents just like he was beating his own sons (as he liked to think), obtained first place in the entire competition and, without any suspense, received the grand prize reward of one F-rank Aura Core.
After the awards ceremony ended, the sky had already grown dark. The trio and their families gathered together for a grand celebratory dinner. And in a dark, forgotten corner of New Veridia, a group of people dressed in concealing black robes were gathered, discussing something in hushed, sinister tones.
The one in the lead said, "Have all the students with beastification-type abilities who participated in this competition been thoroughly investigated?"
A man who appeared to be a squad leader, with a much lower status than him, respectfully replied, "Reporting to the Deacon, it's already prepared." With that, he handed over a datapad, on which was recorded all the information they knew.
This information was, on the surface, very rough. It was basically public information that had already been exposed during the tournament. Anyone who had patiently watched all the matches could have written down most of it. "Our spies have already investigated all the students with beastification abilities. This here is all of them."
This large list contained roughly three thousand entries. The black-robed man in the lead, the Deacon, looked at all this data and felt a bit of a headache. He had the distinct feeling of having to do tedious homework twenty years after he had already graduated.
"You… you consider this," he grumbled. "You see, among these thousands of names, which ones are the most suitable candidates?" The black-robed squad leader, thinking this was a test, was delighted. Could it be... the Deacon is going to promote me!
Excited, he quickly presented his findings. "Reporting to the Deacon, these few here are all the most suitable candidates I have currently listed. The vast majority of them are wolf-type beastifications, but their innate talents are generally quite low. The highest among them is only an Excellent-rank."
"Only Excellent-rank," the Deacon's tone was a little dissatisfied. This was too far from what he had imagined. At the very least, it should be a Superior-rank talent to be worth the risk. However, at this moment, his eyes caught some information that didn't fit with the rest of the group. The person on this particular file was precisely Ethan Atherton.
He picked up this file and, pointing at the information on it, said, "This person's ability is officially displayed as a 'manifestation' type. His ability is not a standard beastification, and I won't say anything about that. The key is that his primary 'beastification' form is still humanoid. His innate talent is indeed very high, but it has no direct relation to a wolf. This is completely irrelevant to our primary research parameters."
The Deacon's tone was a little gentle, but it carried a deadly edge. He felt that he had been played for a fool by his subordinate. The squad leader hurriedly explained, "Deacon, please calm down. There is naturally a very good reason for listing him."
"Then you tell me, what is the reason?"
"Deacon, please look at the supplementary information here. This brat's innate talent is Earth-rank. This is the only Earth-rank beastification-type ability among all the candidates."
"So what? A high talent is good, but his beastification type has no relation to a wolf at all. What if our Beastification Potion can't exert its maximum effect on him?"
"Deacon, please continue reading." The Deacon then took the datapad and looked at it again. He found that there was still a line of appended text below.
"Suspected to possess multiple, distinct alien forms. What does this mean?"
"It's just as it literally means, sir," the squad leader explained. "After our thorough investigation, this brat has more than just the 'Heatblast' form on the surface. Look at the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. According to our investigation, some time ago, a fighter codenamed 'Kid Hacker' appeared in The Gauntlet. He is also a beastification-type, and his chest also has the exact same unique symbol."
"Could it be that they are from the same unknown organization?" the Deacon mused.
"If that's really the case, sir, how could they dare to expose this unifying symbol so openly? And we've never heard of such an organization with that kind of transformative technology."
The squad leader continued, "There's more. According to our investigation, this person has two very close friends, one is 'Muscle Man', the other is a rock-armor user. Back then, in The Gauntlet, these three were seen together frequently and were very close. So, we have very strong reason to suspect that 'Kid Hacker' and Ethan Atherton are absolutely the same person."
The Deacon nodded slowly, a predatory light in his eyes. "If that's really the case, then his value is indeed much higher than that of a low-talent, common wolf-type beastification psionicist." The essence of a normal beastification psionicist is still human, but they will eventually transform their bodies in the direction of another species and possess the abilities of that creature. In this process, their core genes will not basically change, but their blood cells and psionic makeup will become that of the creature. And their research on the Beastification Potion is designed to completely transform a person from the genetic level into a true monster. Therefore, psionicists with beast-type abilities are the most suitable subjects for the experiment.
This was the latest, most promising research result of their Evolution Cult. It's just that their headquarters was being watched too closely by the official governments of various countries, so they couldn't conduct the final human experiment, which is why it was delegated to them, a remote branch. The people they were selecting now were all those who possessed beastification abilities, the most suitable for being injected with the Beastification Potion. And now, Ethan Atherton was squarely on their radar.
"This brat is only at Rank One, Level Ten," the Deacon mused. "We had three members who were already at Rank Two when we were still in middle school. Capturing him should be easy. However, to be on the safe side, wait until he's completely alone before you make a move."
Comments
Raphael Espinoza Angulo
Jsjsjsjsjsj it is seen that they noticed the symbol
firerock laser
Ignorance is blissful
