AutumnXd
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Chapter 39: Battle
🕑 Added 2025-06-11 10:32:09 +0000 UTCHis huge, crystalline body retreated from the blow, and the Taydenite on his chest, where Lily had punched him, was cracked into a large, spiderwebbed pattern. Once again, he was embedded in the training hall wall in the distinct shape of a person.
Lily casually walked over to the diamond mountain Ethan had created earlier, broke off a piece with ease, and placed it in her eye like a jeweler's loupe to examine it closely. After examining it for a while, she said with some genuine regret, "It's not a real diamond, just a special kind of psionically-charged crystal."
For ordinary people in the pre-Resurgence world, due to the clever marketing of capitalists, diamonds had been artificially given the name and price of love, so they sold for a very high price. But for modern psionicists, that kind of mundane, non-magical carbon was a useless item that no one would want even if it were given away for free. This new world, now full of Aura, had countless mineral substances that were similarly shiny and sparkling. These new minerals not only came in various vibrant colors—red, yellow, green, and blue—but more importantly, they each had their own unique psionic effects and properties. Every single one of them was more beautiful, and infinitely more practical, than a simple diamond.
The reason she felt a sliver of regret was simply because, as a woman who grew up with stories from the old world, she still had a natural, nostalgic yearning and longing for the widely-known, romanticized diamond. However, this regret did not last long. She took the crystal shard in her hand and sized it up. This Taydenite crystal was like a pearl in her palm, emitting a captivating cyan light. Then, she carefully examined the sharp corners of the crystal. These corners were like the razor's edge of a dagger, as if they could easily pierce any hard object. Finally, without using much force, she crushed it between her fingers. This crystal, in her powerful hand, was as fragile as glass and was easily crushed into countless glittering fragments.
"This thingamajig is unusually sharp," she mused. "It's quite suitable for making weapons like swords or piercing tips. It's a pity it's too brittle on its own; using it for a large shield is really not suitable unless you can reinforce it. But if a large number of these crystals could be gathered and layered together, it would be possible to construct a powerful defense!"
Then, she turned her gaze back to Ethan, who was still embedded dramatically in the wall. "Hey, stop playing dead. Hurry up and show me what you've really got!"
Ethan, seeing that he had been called out, stopped playing dead. He obediently pulled himself down from the wall and then immediately transformed into Four Arms. "Four Arms!"
ROAR!!!
Ethan's huge, four-armed body flew towards Lily like a freight train.
Lily just smiled. "You still have more forms? A bit interesting!" Then, she casually snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the fierce wind elements in the air gathered rapidly around her, gradually transforming and changing shape. The swirling wind coalesced into a form that looked just like her, but it was a humanoid creature composed of pure, shimmering wind-elemental Aura. "Go on, Sylph," she said to the creature, "play with him."
That creature, Sylph, upon receiving the instruction, shot forward and attacked Ethan.
"What the heck is this thing?!" he yelled.
There was no time for him to ask questions; he could only brace himself and go for it. Ethan threw a powerful punch, but Sylph caught his massive fist with just one of its translucent, windy hands. Then, its other hand transformed into a sharp wind blade and slashed towards Ethan. Although he had tried his best to dodge, he was still struck in the chest by this blade, leaving a one-centimeter-long bloody mark on his tough, red hide.
"Such a powerful creature, what on earth is this thing?" Seeing the opponent charging towards him again, Ethan could only bite the bullet and use all four of his fists, combining their force into one all-out, powerful attack. This punch was powerful and heavy, as if it could split mountains and crack stones. The fist, with a whistling sound of displaced wind, broke through the air and ruthlessly smashed towards the elemental.
As a result, the opponent just raised a single arm and lightly, almost contemptuously, blocked his fist. Then, what was even more astonishing was that Sylph then raised her other hand, and with her movement, a powerful vortex of wind force gathered around her body. Soon, countless sharp wind blades condensed under her control and hovered menacingly in the air. She lightly waved her hand forward, and the countless wind blades, like a flock of fierce, invisible birds, whistled towards Ethan.
Faced with such a fierce, widespread attack, Ethan's heart sank. He hurriedly jumped with great force, trying to dodge these wind blades. But to his surprise, these wind blades seemed to have grown eyes. The moment he jumped, they directly turned in mid-air and continued to fly towards him.
Helpless, Ethan could only choose to jump to a nearby wall. He used his six limbs (four arms and two legs) to cling tightly to the wall, and like a nimble gecko, he climbed rapidly on the vertical wall face. He constantly changed his position, trying to dodge the relentlessly pursuing wind blades, but those wind blades seemed to be guided by some force, always able to find his position. Seeing the wind blades getting closer and closer, Ethan knew that if this continued, he would definitely be hit. Thus, he decided to switch forms again.
"Diamondhead!" he shouted, his body rapidly changing from red flesh to cyan crystal in mid-climb. Then, countless hard diamond bullets shot out from his body, colliding with those incoming wind blades. The two opposing forces canceled each other out in a series of sharp cracks and pops, finally dissipating all the wind blades.
However, Ethan didn't stop at this moment. He put his two crystalline hands together, morphing them into the shape of a large diamond cannon. He aimed and, without hesitation, fired a huge, solid diamond cannonball, which shot straight towards Sylph.
<=====> — Sylph
This time, she just stood there in the original spot, without defending or dodging. The diamond cannonball passed right through her translucent, windy body without causing the slightest bit of harm.
Lily, from the sidelines, explained with a grin, "Sylph is a Wind Elemental Spirit. She has no solid physical body. As long as she wishes it, physical attacks can't touch her at all."
Ethan, as Diamondhead, yelled back, "Holy crap! Isn't this too unfair?!"
Just as he finished speaking, Sylph raised her hand again and condensed a huge, X-shaped wind blade, which spun rapidly as it flew towards him. Sensing the immense psionic energy contained within this attack, he knew that there was no way his Diamondhead form could block it without taking serious damage.
"You can't be touched by physical attacks? Then I can do it too!" With a press of the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, Ethan switched his form again. "Upgrade!"
That fierce, X-shaped wind blade, upon touching him, strangely passed right through his new, gel-like body. Ethan's body was like water; it just rippled a bit where the attack passed through. Because of Upgrade's special, nanite-based body structure, it can become as soft and fluid as water when needed, as if it has no form or outline restriction; but when needed, it can instantly become as hard as steel, unbreakable. This strange ability allows Upgrade to easily adapt to various environments, avoid most physical attacks, and even resist a significant portion of energy attacks. Just like the wind blade just now, it passed right through his body without causing any harm.
Seeing that it was being mimicked, Sylph, the wind elemental, seemed to become a little angry. It directly transformed its own body into a giant, singular wind blade and slashed towards Ethan. But after passing through Ethan's body again, it found that its opponent was still completely unharmed. This made it even angrier. Sylph, like a small, frustrated child having a tantrum, continuously used its body, transformed into a wind blade, to attack Ethan, but each time it could only pass harmlessly through his amorphous body. What made it even angrier was that every time it passed through, Ethan, as Upgrade, would let out an exaggerated, synthesized laugh.
"Hahahahaha! So itchy! That tickles! So itchy! Hahahaha!"
Upgrade itself has no actual consciousness and naturally cannot feel ticklish. Ethan was just deliberately trying to anger the elemental spirit, to throw it off its game
