Chapter 2020: Consequences
The fire and poison attacks were not only attacks that bypassed Flux Earther but were also wide in their area of effect, making it impossible to evade.
Yet, their wide area of effect was also their greatest weakness.
THWOOM THWOOM!
Potent Mighty Roar Flash Blasts blasted two holes in the parts of the fire and poison waves that were going to hit Rui, allowing him to evade the attack entirely.
So what if their combined power exceeded his?
All that power meant nothing if they could not control, focus, and direct it with precision and accuracy. Rui was basically a tiny dot compared to them, but that actually worked in his favor because these creatures could not focus all their power against a tiny dot.
However, the reverse was not true.
They could not make their power hit him, but he certainly could hit them with his power.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOOM THWOOM!!!!!
Rui fired his first tier-five Transverse Resonance as a Martial Master.
Its power was even greater than he had imagined.
Just as even the softest of whispers had become prominent speech, the power of his sound attacks had increased titanically, growing devastatingly more powerful.
BOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!
The devastating attack crashed into the basilisk, ravaging it.
While these creatures were more durable than him, that came from their size, not from the toughness of their hide. Against a honed, focused attack of Rui's caliber, it could not offer too much protection.
"ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!"
The creature screamed in pain as the powerful impact bored into its flesh. Yet, before he could deal it even more damage—
BOOM BOOM!!!
The twin dragons crashed into him with remarkable speed, knocking him away. The two creatures were far quicker than he was, able to rapidly catch up to him and—
"I can see your souls."
WHOOSH!
The two Master-level dragons widened their eyes with surprise as they crashed into an empty image, momentarily caught off-guard.
Rui exploited the moment of respite to target the basilisk rather than the two twin dragons, but alas, the phoenix refused to let off so easily.
"SCREEEEEEE!!!"
It spat an inferno of extraordinary magnitude at Rui, forcing him to launch attacks to dispel the attack. By then, however, the basilisk and the twin dragons were already prepared to continue the assault.
WHOOOSH!
Rui flashed away as he narrowly avoided a charge from the two twin dragons, yet the very next moment, an enormous wave of poison threatened to drown him.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!!!
By the time the Transverse Resonance attacks dispelled the poison, the two twin dragons had already arrived once more.
Unfortunately for them, Rui had been waiting precisely just for that.
"Hypertrophic Surge." A cold smile emerged on his face.
The two dragons shuddered moments before the collision, but it was too late.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
A devastating Flowing Canon ravaged the two dragons, knocking them from the sky.
Yet, the phoenix was already ready.
"Breathing Crucifix." He shifted the hypnosis from the crystal-furred ape to the phoenix, stopping its inferno attack before he could even begin.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!!!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!
A devastating collision ravaged the basilisk, leaving it unmoving as blood spurted out from its skull.
There was a strategic reason that Rui was most focused on the basilisk.
Of all the offensive options stacked against him, poison was the only one he didn't have any innate defenses and resistance against. Thus, the most strategic target to take out was the basilisk, the death of which drastically reduced his chances of defeat.
He glanced around at his handiwork.
A choking phoenix.
Knocked out twin dragons.
And eight beasts incapacitated with extreme heat.
It wasn't that Muspelheim was more powerful than all eight of them combined.
It was merely antithetical.
Rui's powerful mind sense could detect the very manifestations of pain and agony from those creatures. His powerful material senses allowed him to detect the profuse internal hemorrhaging that had already commenced due to the extreme heat.
Perhaps that made him more amenable to mercy.
WHOOSH!
With a single wave of his hand, he gathered the incapacitated beasts before rising up into the air and preparing himself.
His Martial Embodiment spread far and wide, killing increasingly ever more creatures as he rose up into the air and harming countless outside of the death range.
To him, it was nothing.
He was not doing anything.
But to the various creatures that beheld him without dying, it was horrifying.
A single instinct welled up within them.
To get away as far as possible from the Mellow.
Thousands, millions, nearly a billion creatures began migrating as the endless void eroded countless minds.
Countless Apprentice, Squire, Senior, and even Master-level beasts ran away with extreme terror, heading deeper into the Beast Domain, as was their instinct, determined to never return.
The scale of the exodus increased with each passing second as the mass exodus triggered more and more beasts and monsters deeper within the Beast Domain into a panic.
Had Rui stopped then and there, the damage to the ecosystems of the Mellow and surrounding regions would have been reversible.
But what he did only sealed it forever.
WHOOOOOOOSHHH!!!!!
He inhaled deeply, causing a horrific flood of air to enter his lungs, momentarily causing a vacuum within the Mellow. At that moment, his Martial Embodiment changed from a flowing void to an enormous siege weapon of mass destruction.
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!!!!!
Ten Mighty Roar Flash Blasts surged in rapid succession of each other, merging into a single attack, surging towards the twelve Master-level beasts.
The world beheld the very first tier ten Transverse Resonance attack.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
The most horrific collision, the likes of which even Rui had never seen, erupted from the center of the Mellow.
A devastating blast wave swallowed up everything.
Everyone.
A mass exodus that previously might have eventually reversed had all but become absolutely permanent and unstoppable. The horrifying energy that Rui had released, along with his horrifying Martial Embodiment, had forever marked the Mellow and the surrounding regions as taboo within the instincts of the creatures that migrated away from it, never to return.
Countless creatures surged deeper into the Beast Domain, forever changing its dynamics, increasing population density, and crossing critical thresholds of competition to unprecedented levels.
Every action had consequences.
Unbeknownst to Rui, this event would eventually change the future of the Panama Continent forever.