Chapter 79: Before The Chaos II
Combat Echo fed him data on the creature’s adaptation patterns, and Alex began to understand. The Ravager wasn’t infinitely adaptable it responded to what he showed it, building counters based on his demonstrated techniques. Which meant if he could create openings it hadn’t prepared for...
The beast pressed harder. A claw strike tore across his shoulder, pain exploding white-hot as blood mixed with the residual heat from his flames. The Ravager’s head snapped toward the wound, jaws opening wide, fangs dripping with corrosive energy.
**[HP: 98/120]**
**[Warning: Essence Predation Ability Activating]**
**[Combat Analysis: Enemy attempting to drain essence reserves through physical contact]**
For an instant, Alex saw the creature’s strategy clearly. It wasn’t just adapting to his attacks it was trying to feed on his essence, growing stronger from each successful strike while weakening him simultaneously.
’Then I’ll give it something it can’t digest.’
Alex stopped retreating. Instead, he charged directly into the Ravager’s next attack, his Phantom Step activating at the last possible moment. His body flickered from visible spectrum, leaving an afterimage that the creature’s claws tore through while Alex rematerialized behind it.
But instead of attacking immediately, he waited forcing his Combat Echo to process the millisecond gap between the creature’s realization and its adaptive response. There. A window of vulnerability that lasted less than a second, when its armor was transitioning between configurations.
Fire erupted from Alex’s hands, but not in his usual patterns. He wove the flames into the spiral constructs his duplicate had demonstrated, but added his own variation instead of creating barriers, he used them as guidance systems, channeling multiple streams of superheated air that converged on that vulnerable transition point.
The impact wasn’t about raw power. It was about timing and precision, striking the exact moment when the Ravager’s defenses were between states.
The creature shrieked not with pain, but with genuine surprise as thermal energy punched through its armor at the joint where foreleg met torso. The wound wasn’t fatal, but it was real damage, and more importantly, it proved the creature wasn’t invincible.
The Ravager’s adaptation protocols kicked into overdrive, its armor shifting frantically to cover the new weakness. But that meant abandoning some of its existing protections, creating new vulnerabilities elsewhere.
’There it is. The limitation. It can’t protect everything at once.’
Alex pressed his advantage, his mind working faster than conscious thought. Combat Echo mapped the creature’s current defensive configuration, Phantom Step kept him mobile and unpredictable, and his fire constructs probed constantly for the gaps that opened and closed as the Ravager’s armor redistributed itself.
The battle became a deadly dance Alex forcing the creature to choose which attacks to defend against, then exploiting whichever openings its choices created. When it armored against spiral constructs, he switched to concentrated lances. When it adapted to thermal attacks from above, he scorched its legs from below.
The Ravager was faster, stronger, and possessed regeneration that should have made victory impossible. But Alex had something it didn’t the capacity for genuine improvisation rather than just reactive adaptation.
A particularly vicious exchange left deep gouges across Alex’s ribs, blood flowing freely as the creature’s Essence Predation ability tried to drain his reserves. But he’d anticipated the attempt, channeling just enough essence into the wound to satisfy the creature’s feeding instinct while saving his true reserves for the finishing technique.
**[HP: 74/120]**
**[Essence: 19,800,000/20,000,000]**
The Ravager’s confidence grew as it tasted his essence, convinced it was winning through attrition. Its attacks became more aggressive, less calculated, as predatory instinct overrode tactical caution.
Alex waited for that precise moment when the creature committed to what should have been a killing strike, its armor configured entirely for offense rather than defense.
He didn’t dodge. Instead, he created the most complex fire construct he’d ever attempted a three-dimensional matrix of intersecting flame spirals that existed in the space between where the creature was and where it was moving. Not a barrier to block, but a maze to channel its momentum directly into a point of concentrated thermal energy.
The Ravager’s own speed became its doom. It struck the construct with enough force to break through individual components, but each spiral it destroyed redirected its momentum toward the center, where Alex had poured everything he had into a single point of superheated air.
The technique didn’t bypass the creature’s defenses through overwhelming power it used the Ravager’s own kinetic energy against it, amplified by thermal manipulation that turned its armor into a conductor rather than a shield.
When the creature finally broke through the construct, its own momentum carried it past Alex and directly into the arena wall with bone-shattering force. The impact cracked stone, and the Ravager collapsed with armor compromised, regeneration overtaxed, and adaptive protocols struggling to respond to damage from multiple vectors simultaneously.
Alex didn’t give it time to recover. He pressed his advantage with ruthless efficiency, each strike targeting the gaps Combat Echo identified in real-time, until finally the creature’s regeneration failed entirely.
The Ravager’s death wasn’t dramatic just the gradual cessation of movement as its biological systems shut down one by one.
**[Enemy Defeated: Apex Ravager (SS-Rank)]**
**[EXP GAINED: +468 EXP]**
**[CURRENT EXP: 2530/3500]**
Alex staggered backward, breathing hard, blood running from multiple wounds. His victory hadn’t come from overwhelming power or secret techniques it had come from tactical thinking, adaptive combat, and the willingness to take calculated risks.
**[HP: 74/120]**
The Shadeborn audience remained silent, but their collective attention had shifted. They weren’t just observing anymore they were analyzing, recalculating their assessments of what this human represented.
Above them, the Labyrinth Keeper’s satisfaction pressed against Alex’s consciousness:
**"Sufficient demonstration. The interdimensional channels manifest during combat stress observe how the copied ability draws from sources beyond this realm’s boundaries. The anomaly’s tactical adaptation is equally noteworthy. Analysis complete."**
The Keeper’s interest wasn’t in Alex’s raw power it was in how his Mimicry ability maintained connections to whatever dimensional source his copied fire manipulation originated from, creating pathways that shouldn’t exist in normal awakened individuals.
The barrier around Alex’s isolated circle dissolved, and suddenly all twelve prisoners stood in the same arena space. The Ravager’s corpse was already being removed by Ironhide attendants, and the adaptive floor began shifting into more complex configurations elevated platforms, concealed pitfalls, environmental hazards that would turn the arena into a three-dimensional battlefield.
Alex met the Shadeborn’s gaze across the distance, seeing acknowledgment in those solid black eyes. Whatever temporary alliance they’d shared as fellow prisoners was about to end.
The Arena Warden rose from its throne, its voice booming across the impossible space:
"Kresh-vel thurvani! Mekthari zhel-korth nakul-vorth! Vorthak keth mori!"
**[Translation: "Warriors fight! Only the strongest survives! Winner claims any reward!"]**
The Grand Arena erupted into violence as twelve deadly combatants launched themselves at each other, each one fighting for a prize that could reshape their existence entirely.
And Alex, standing in the center of controlled chaos with blood running from multiple wounds and essence reserves partially depleted, felt his newly optimized thinking processes engage with cold precision.
He was injured, tired, and facing eleven opponents who were all at full strength.
But he knew exactly what reward he would demand.
And that knowledge was worth any price he’d have to pay to claim it.