The First Store System

Chapter 1388: Breakthrough and New Beginnings(19)

As the puppet disintegrated, Laney focused on Sheis, who was looking surprised inside the barrier.

The destruction of the puppet surprised Sheis. He was dissatisfied with the outcome, and Laney's lack of murders played a big part in it.

Every death of a peak Divine Lord resulted in one additional life for the puppet. If Laney had killed some more peak Divine Lords, then the result might have turned out differently.

But since things had turned out that way, Sheis could do nothing much. The puppet wasn't his only option to battle Laney.

Sheis was confident in his strength since who could know his power better than himself? It was just because of his cautious personality that he was taking so much caution.

While Laney was battling the puppet, he was preparing for the next attack.

The next moment, the barrier around Sheis began to fade, and she kept at it until it had entirely disappeared. At the same time, a surge of energy appeared around him.

The energy particles began to gather and soon formed the silhouette of a gigantic sword above his head. It was alternating between real and virtual, but slowly by slowly, it was turning real.

When the blade materialized into reality, Sheis's body suddenly trembled. The sword descended and pierced Sheis's heart instead of attacking Laney.

Its tip was gigantic enough that Sheis seemed like an ant in comparison to it. The next moment, the sword began to melt into liquid and soon formed an armor around Sheis.

Sheis's eyes turned pupilless while an intense surge of energy appeared in the area.

An eerie aura began to emerge from Sheis, and a chilly feeling spread across the area.

Laney couldn't just let Sheis develop into his full power since she was here to win, not have an intense and engaging battle with Sheis.

She struck, stopping Sheis's strange transformation midway.

Pupils returned to his eyes, and the aura dimmed, but the intense, eerie atmosphere immediately returned and grew to a new height. Laney suddenly felt an intense danger to her life, so she immediately pulled back.

Before Laney could move to a safe distance, pitch-black hands appeared out of nowhere and tried to grab her.

Laney immediately activated one of her skills, and the sudden change in gravity slowed down the hand. Taking that moment of reprieve, Laney pulled back to a safe distance.

Adapting to the sudden change in gravity, the hands moved ahead. Laney was ready to attack, but the hands suddenly returned and disappeared.

At that moment, Sheis's transformation was complete. Pitch black small, straight horns appeared on his forehead, while his skin had turned as dark as the night.

A grin spread across Sheis's face at the moment, and he disappeared from the spot. It was a transformation that boosted his agility, strength, and intelligence. The only cost of using the ability was blood, but Sheis wanted to end the battle with Laney as soon as possible. Losing just a bit of blood was worth the price of that.

As Sheis disappeared from the spot, he appeared right behind Laney.

Clang!

The next moment, a metallic clash rang in the area. The moment the hand disappeared, Laney's intuition intensely warned her, so she immediately activated [Armored Gravity].

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Repeated metallic clashes rang as Sheis repeatedly struck Laney. Laney seemed to feel someone hammering her back with every strike, but the armor remained active without any crack.

A dumbfounded expression appeared on Laney's face since the attack power released by Sheis was something out of her expectations. It wasn't an increase but a lack of strength.

"I have underestimated my own strength," Laney suddenly commented and turned around with a smile.

Laney extended her hand and grabbed Sheis's strike. Her eyes were as calm as the sea before the storm, and she crushed it.

The increased gravity, in addition to Laney's increased strength, propelled her power to a new height, crushing Sheis's hand instantly.

Argh!

Sheis screamed in agony, but Laney seized him by the throat before the sound of his sobs subsided.

Laney tried to snap Sheis's head but found herself unable to as he wasn't just going to let himself be beheaded.

Sheis tried to move away and force Laney to release his grip but found his struggle to be futile. If Laney was unable to snap his head, he was also unable to force her to let go of him.

The struggle between the two continued for a while. Sheis's strength wasn't as high as Laney had expected, but his endurance and defenses were better.

Seeing no end to the charade, Laney let go of her grip and immediately punched.

Before Sheis could celebrate his freedom, he was left with no choice but to defend against the attack. He tried to dodge, but Laney was exceptionally rapid. The change in gravity also helped his movement, which was slower than usual while Laney's strike was quicker.

Boom!

A booming sound rang as Sheis was knocked back from the punch, destroying much of the structure in the range of a few hundred meters. The clash between the two kept on going, and the structures around them faced the brunt of the assault.

Laney had prepared many things for the battle with the King, but as the battle went on, she began enjoying it. Unlike Panagea, her life was truly on the line in the battle against Sheis, which made her blood boil.

Since there was nothing troubling from the opponent, Laney decided to keep fighting without taking the help of the items she had brought.

Sheis became more and more shocked as the battle went on between the two. Sheis was originally an intermediate True God level cultivator, while in his transformation state, he was almost close to the late True God level.

He initiated the transformation to put an end to the conflict as quickly as possible, but Laney's strength far outstripped his expectations.

Sheis had also bought a beast from the store, so he summoned it during the battle. In response to it, Laney also summoned the Hanswan. She also had the Yellow King, but since it was only a peak Divine Lord level beast, there was no point in it being there.

As the two beasts emerged from their respective cards, a battle ensued between the two of them.

The Gray Panther, one of the middle-tier feline races in the Sacred Dimension, was the beast that Sheis owned. Since the beast was a True God, the Hanswan had no advantage in flying over it.

Since Laney and Sheis were busy in their own battles, neither of the two had any time to order their respective beasts. Unlike the fight between Laney and Sheis, the battle between the Gray Panther and the Hanswan wasn't between opponents with equal strength.

The Hanswan was an ultimate quality beast, while the Gray Panther was only of higher quality. Being in control of so many skills and having greater talent showed its advantage in the battle. It was one-sided, overwhelmingly in favor of the Hanswan.

Sheis couldn't help but grow angry when he saw the condition of the Gray Panther. The Hanswan hadn't controlled its hands in the battle, so its brutality was visible.

Growl!

A beast like growl rang from Sheis's mouth as he forgot the expense of his blood. The next moment, the two black horns on his forehead grew in height while a terrible pressure emanated from his body.

Sheis was cautious, but the accumulated frustration of losing his son, not being able to win against someone of lower cultivation level, and seeing the terrible death of his beast finally made him mad enough to say goodbye to his caution.

Laney experienced a grave threat to her life from her adversary for the first time. She immediately took out a talisman from her inner world. It was an item brought out by her from Panage after paying a large cost of several hundred supreme Sacred stones.

It was a defensive talisman since her intuition clearly warned her of the life-threatening danger. As she activated the item, a visible, thin white barrier appeared around her, covering the entirety of her, leaving no part of her body defenseless.

Growl!

Sheis growled and punched; his crushed hand had fully recovered at that time. A pitch-black glow covered his hands as they clashed with the thin barrier.

The thin barrier stood unaffected by the attack, like a metal wall. The pitch-black glow covering Sheis's hand tried to seep into the barrier but was unable to since the talisman not only defended against physical but energy and spiritual attacks as well. If it were simply for physical defense, it wouldn't have cost Laney so much.

Sheis kept attacking the barrier, but all his attacks were futile. In just one minute, Sheis had lost ten percent of his blood, which was way higher than the total blood lost by him during his several minute long battle with Laney.

Even though Sheis failed to cause any damage to Laney or that barrier in that one minute of time, the barrier around Laney began to fade away. It only had an active duration of one minute.

Laney wasn't left defenseless since while she was safe inside the barrier, she was preparing her next strike.

***