The Human Giant



After a brief silence that had engulfed the audience, the sound of clicking metal footsteps slowly walked up the platform's stairs. As the young man from the Immortal Shadow Sect made his appearance, Yoze couldn't help but feel slightly shocked.

The young man was covered from head to toe in a suit of black metal armor covered in spikes. The metal didn't seem to be made out of any metal Yoze had seen before, as it was completely pitch black.

If it wasn't for the curves and sharp spikes coming out of the armor, the young man would have looked more like there was a human-shaped hole in the world. The only piece of the young man's body that wasn't covered in armor was his cold green eyes.

"Me," The young man said one word before falling silent.

As if understanding that the young man intended to fight against Yoze, the announcer nodded and began trying to hype up the crowd.

"Fantastic! We got an even more exciting battle coming for everyone today!"

"Stepping forward for the Immortal Shadow Sect is a returning fighter! He is known for his suit of armor that can absorb anything! Combined with his deadly shadow weapons and Crystal Brain immortal cultivation, few can truly challenge this young man!"

"Let's not wait any longer and allow Kuci, The Black Knight, to show us his power!"

Hearing that the young man in front of him had quite a reputation inside the immortal sects, Yoze became even more focused as he readied himself to dodge any attacks at any moment. Before the announcer officially started the battle, Yoze commanded his blood to reshape into a long spear.

"Without further ado, the battle starts now!"

The moment the announcer finished saying the word now, Kuci felt a gust of wind closing on him rapidly. Without him even understanding what was going on, he felt as if he was being targeted by a dangerous predator.

Understanding that he needed to take action immediately, Kuci commanded his Shadow Armor to cover his eyes. Instantly closing off the only weak point in his armor and giving him some comfort.

Unfortunately, even with his reaction to close off his armor happening nearly instantly, he wasn't out of danger. He felt his Shadow Armor quickly burning up in less than a blink of an eye. He felt as if he was on fire.

Without Kuci even seeing how Yoze could have moved so quickly, he understood that he had been attacked. Not only had he been attacked, but he had also been struck by a large force.

That was the only reason he could come up with why his Shadow Armor would react this way since this was the side effect that came from being able to absorb anything. The larger and stronger the thing he had been attacked with, the more his armor would heat up.

Even if his Shadow Armor didn't shatter or break, he would be burned to ash if he met an extremely powerful enemy. Still, knowing that Yoze simply was too fast for him to keep up, Kuci clapped his hands together to cast one of his favorite spells Shadow Castle.

The moment Kuci cast the Shadow Castle spell, his shadow collapsed into a ball and began to expand rapidly. In less than a second, a ten feet tall three-layered wall was created by Kuci's shadow, giving him some protection and time to cast more spells.

At the same time, as he was creating his additional defensive abilities, the temperature of Kuci's Shadow Armor had jumped thrice, meaning he had endured three attacks. As Kuci was breathing a small sigh of relief, and had a feeling that if he had to take a few more attacks, his skin would begin to melt into his armor.

"Interesting. Does everyone in the Immortal Shadow Sect learn the same shadow spells? Or is it something I can learn as well?" 

Though he was in the middle of a battle, Yoze's curiosity about the spells he had witnessed had made him more excited to try out magic himself. He even considered stalling the battle for a while to get more information on the type of spells that the Immortal Shadow Sect students have learned.

But he rejected that idea as he felt that it was simply too risky. He only wanted to get as many points as he could without overexposing himself.

That is why even though Yoze could have quickly overwhelmed Kuci's armor to the point that it would have incinerated him with one attack, he didn't. Instead, he capped himself to using the same amount of power he had used to send his previous opponent off the platform.

Even then, he surmounted that winning a few battles was more than enough. It even had a plus side making the battle between him and Kuci slightly more balanced.

This is why even though Yoze had thrown four blood spears directly at Kuci's head, his Shadow Armor was able to endure and absorb them with difficulty. Noticing that Kuci was able to quickly set up a three-layered defense that blocked him from sending more blood spears at his head, Yoze changed his tactics.

"If I can't attack you directly due to your walls, I'll just hit you from above." 

Even though Kuci had set up a powerful defense that would make it difficult for most immortal cultivators to break through, he had sealed his fate of being a sitting duck. With his Shadow Castle spell activated, his body was locked in place and couldn't move as he was the center of it all.

Usually, this was enough for him to get some rest time to come up with a better plan of action to deal with the threats outside. But with a monster like Yoze, it was only delaying the inevitable, especially when he didn't form any defenses above his head.

"Right now, I can assume that my opponent is an extremely powerful martial artist, but he hasn't used a single spell once. He either knows no spells or his list of spells aren't very useful in battle."

"Which, unfortunately, means it's going to be difficult for me to stall this battle out long enough to drain him of all his crystal energy. So stalling this battle isn't an option for me."

"As long as I use my Shadow Walls as a barrier, I will be able to narrow the number of places he could launch attacks at me. Either he has to overcome the powerful defensive capabilities of my Shadow Castle."

"Or he can try attacking me from above, which will give me a chance to fight back!" With his mind racing with numerous plans to retake control of the situation, Kuci turned his focus to the sky.

Even though his armor was blocking his eyes, he could see the sky. The blinding sun had become slightly dimmer, which allowed him to see a large humanoid figure in the sky.

The large humanoid figure was covered in blood-red armor and held a large blood spear in both of his hands. As the figure continued to rise into the sky, he threw his two blood spears down toward Kuci like missiles.

The blood spears sliced through the air and turned into a bloody blur. If it wasn't for the fact that Kuci had focused so much on watching Yoze's movements, he would have lost track of the Blood Spears.

Knowing that even though he could see the Blood Spears heading straight for him, they were simply too fast for him to do any complicated spells, Kuci clapped his hands. The moment the sound of clashing metal came from his hands, the floor below Kuci spat out dozens of shadow spears to intercept those bloody spears.

"Clank clank clank"

Unexpectedly even though he had launched more than thirty shadow spears at them, the Blood Spears simply shrugged them off, only losing some size along the way. Before Kuci could think of another plan, the two blood spears simultaneously slammed into his head.

"Slurp!" 

An audible slurp sound came from Kuci's Shadow Armor as it absorbed the two blood spears in their entirety. Even the force behind them seemed to have fallen into a bottomless ocean as it disappeared without a trace.

The signs that showed that Kuci was suffering from these actions was the heat radiating from his Shadow Armor which was becoming unbearable. With the temperature from his Shadow Armor doubled, Kuci was well aware he wouldn't be able to endure another attack without paying a high price.

Noticing that Yoze had another two Blood Spears of the same size in his hands, ready to fire at any time, Kuci felt a cold chill go down his spine even though he was burning up. Knowing that if he didn't make a move now, he would begin the process of being turned into ash, Kuco gritted his teeth and shouted.

"I surrender!"