Chapter 1098: All-Out Gamble

The appearance of Araxus' tribulation-style battle art caused millions in the crowd to instinctively gasp as their instincts flared with warning. While typical geniuses of the martial world passed their tribulations with relative ease, most battled the tribulations with their lives on the lines, many just barely getting through it without dying, while many also perished in their tribulation attempts.

For those who barely passed, tribulation clouds formed a mental scarring of sorts, causing them to react with fear and panic. While Araxus' tribulation battle art was not a true tribulation, it evoked a similar feeling to many.

Standing on the arena ground, looking up at the horrifying Yin-Yang clouds and twin bolts of lightning descending towards him, John merely grinned. To him, a tribulation was a familiar foe, one that he had bested many times. In fact, the appearance of the tribulation clouds sparked his battlelust immediately, reminding him of the times he fought all out to best the heavens.

The crowd watched with surprise as John's grin widened into something almost maniacal, while his arms spread outwards to the side as if waiting to embrace the twin-bolts of Yin-Yang aspected lightning.

"The Heaven's couldn't defeat me with its tribulations, and neither can you," John roared as the twin bolts of lightning slammed directly onto him at the same time, hitting him completely unguarded.

The moment before the twin bolts hit him, John saw them move and collide directly in front of him. Yin slammed into Yang, creating a calamitous mixture of opposing power.

The crowd gasped again as the arena seemed to freeze for an instant, then...

Boom!

Calamity erupted within the arena as an explosion greater than anything they had seen thus far erupted within the arena. The explosion even exceeded what Jaxus had been able to unleash in his battle against Ji'Han, shocking the crowd to their core. While Jaxus had been defeated before he could unleash his final attack, the attacks he had unleahsed had been absolutely devastating.

And yet, Araxus had exceeded what his Yang-Dao Sect counterpart had unleashed in the prior battle.

A blast of pure energy erupted from John's location outwards, slamming against every section of the defensive formation screen a moment later. The crowd watched with wide eyes as the entire arena was engulfed in fiery energy, which roiled and churned with ruinous power. The defensive formation screen strained against the power blasting against it, protecting the crowds at all costs.

Their vision blocked by the engulfing explosion, all eyes naturally went to the information formation screens, which displayed the vital information of the two youths within. They watched as John's health slowly began to lower, and wondered where exactly it would stop.

Would he be able to resist the power of this ruinous explosion with little damage like previous attacks, or would this profoundly powerful battle art finally be the one to damage John significantly.

The explosion continued to roil within for several seconds, while John's health continued to drop. After several seconds, the explosion began to fade away, while John's health also stopped going down. The crowd studied the number, eyes wide, then looked back at the arena as it was revealed to them once more.

"Eighty percent!"

The number shocked almost everyone, as they had been expecting the damage to be much greater. Although John had shown his body to be incredibly powerful and durable, that was when he was using his Dragon-God Shift. He was not using that form for this battle, and thus his body durability was far lower than it could have been. Despite that, he had still only taken twenty percent damage despite taking that attack head-on and unguarded, revealing that he could withstand five of those directly before succumbing to his wounds.

The last flicker of energy faded away, revealing both John and Araxus once more. Araxus still hovered high in the sky just below his tribulation clouds, while John stood in the same place, staring up at his opponent.

His body was slickened with blood, while several wounds covered his arms, face, and chest. Araxus looked down on John with an even expression, which became slightly grim as he watched John's wounds heal at a visible rate, while his health started to climb once more.

In mere seconds, it had returned to one hundred percent health, using almost none of his Qi reserves to heal his body. What the crowd didn't know was that most of the healing had been done by John's body Qi, which was hidden to the crowd, unable to be detected by the formation armband.

John raised his hands before his face, inspecting the damage on his arms as it healed over. He then looked at Araxus, a surprised look on his face.

"That was an incredible battle art," he said with honest praise. He had been expecting the lightning bolts to hit him directly, and while both bolts had aspects to them that he couldn't fully resist, he could still withstand the bulk of the lightning damage using his attribute body and natural durability. That had not been the case. Instead, the moment before the bolts had hit him, they slammed together in a violent collision of opposing energy. The yin of the frost lightning reacted with the opposing Yang-lightning, resulting in an explosion as the two opposing energies interacted.

The result had been the monstrous explosion of pure energy, which John had not been expecting. Unguarded against the explosion detonating directly in front of his face, the damage had been considerable, at least when compared to the damage he had sustained throughout the tournament.

"And yet, you stand there unmoving, completely healed in a few seconds," Araxus replied evenly, his lips drawn to a line. "You haven't even used your dragon form, and yet you can withstand my attacks directly so easily. Exactly what is your body made of?"

John replied with a silent smile, unable to answer that question at the moment. He had already revealed part of his body constitution, the power of the Jade Dragons, but had yet to reveal his Asura inheritance. Unless forced to do so, he wanted to avoid revealing his form in front of so many people.

Araxus sighed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment in frustration. He then opened them, a more determined look contained in his eyes.

"It's as I expected," he said. "Unless I defeat you in one fell swoop, I won't be able to win...."

John waited for Araxus to move again, wondering if he was going to unleash the same art, or something different.

"In that case," Araxus continued, "there is only one choice left. I have no choice but to gamble everything on one, all-out attack."

"Announcing your intentions again," John replied. "How kind of you."

Araxus ignored the veiled jest from John, then looked up at the surging clouds above him. He pointed up at the clouds with his right hand, at which point twin bolts of lightning, one from the Yin portion of the clouds, and one from the Yang, shot towards him.

The beams of lightning surged onto him ceaselessly, making Araxus' figure change into a two-colored being of lightning. One half of him was blue, and the other fiery red, while even his eyes were the same, with one flickering red with yang lightning, the other blue with frost lightning. He then looked down at John again, his emotions obscured by the lightning covering most of his face.

"You might want to guard this attack," he said, his voice booming like thunder. "For even you will not be able to withstand this attack directly like before."

John smiled lightly at the friendly warning, waiting for Araxus to unleash the attack. The attack did not come as John expected. Instead, the lightning from the clouds continued to surge into Araxus, as well as his lance, growing steadily with power.

Before long, the power emanating from Araxus was unlike anything from before, reaching a level that caused the crowd to gasp, and John to frown.

For his final attack, Araxus was channeling his Yin-Yang Lightning Tribulation battle art, explosively increasing its power with every second it was channeled. In mere seconds, the power emanating from Araxus grew over twice as strong as his first attack, with no signs of him slowing down.

"I didn't know you were a War Mage," John replied with surprise in his voice.

"I'm not," Araxus replied, his voice becoming more and more strained by the second. "But I'm willing to gamble everything on this one attack, including my life."