Earth's Alpha Prime

Rex launching himself towards them and Jay subduing Rex all happened so suddenly that Akor couldn’t react in time.

Akor stepped ahead only to find a golden glow in his Liege’s eyes as both Jay and Rex froze in their spots.

Seeing that his Liege had everything in control, Akor stood by and guarded Jay against any unforeseen attacks.

However, with the Thunder Miasma around them, none of the spectating Lycanthropes had any idea of what happened inside.

Before long, Jay opened his eyes, and so did Rex. But the calmness on the former’s face could not be seen on the latter.

During the duration Urzo had possessed him, Rex was aware of everything that had transpired in the past few minutes.

While flinching from the pain brought by his broken wrist, Rex took a few steps back as he gazed at Jay with palpable fear.

Rex really hoped not to fall on the wrong side of the one standing in front of him, who didn’t even shy away from making a blatant enemy out of Urzo, much less dealing with someone like himself.

Just as Rex was about to extend his apologies to Jay, who was absorbing back the ink-black fog, Akor dashed towards him.

“Filthy Mutt, you dare attack my Liege?! Burn!!” Akor shouted as he lashed out several whips of Volatile Aqua element that extended from both fists.

Sensing the incoming danger, Rex felt threatened to activate his 1st Innate Exclusive skill, <Slow-Mo>.

The two-fold improvement in his time perception made it feasible for Rex to dodge the barrage of lashes.

Akor brought his attack intensity up a notch in exasperation. To keep up with it, Rex activated his 2nd and 3rd Innate Exclusive skills, <Acceleration Buff> and <Decceleration Debuff> at once.

While the former skill was used on himself to double his movement speed, the latter skill did the opposite for Akor.

Those two skills brought the one-sided fight to a stalemate.

Rex breathed a mouthful before yelling at Akor for the third time, “Rotten Fish!! When will you realise this is a misunderstanding? It was someone else that took over my body.”

“Hmph!! As if I would believe your lame excuse. Now that you pushed me to this extent let me see if you can handle my new skills.”

Ignoring Rex, Akor pulled out a Trident and thumped on the floor as he uttered ‘Volatile Mist’ and <Aqua Shell>.

Then a thick translucent shell made of Volatile Aqua element manifested and enveloped them like a miniature dome.

Through that membrane, numerous fine droplets diffused into the cavity within.

Similar to the mist phenomenon, those Volatile Aqua droplets were suspended in the air and spread to every corner within the shell.

No matter where Rex moved, he wasn’t able to outmanoeuvre the ‘Volatile Mist’, and due to the acidic nature of the Volatile Aqua element, it started burning his fur.

Even the regeneration of his racial skill <Lycanthrope Vitality> was barely able to keep up with the damage.

Rex slid his gaze onto Jay, who stood idly by the side and spectated without saying a word.

Several possibilities spiralled in Rex’s mind, out of which two stood out the most to him; either Jay still blamed him for what happened and intended to finish him off, or it was some test.

If it was the latter, he had to put up a good fight and look promising enough for Jay.

He didn’t mind becoming a subordinate to someone as powerful as Jay. After all, it was the best he could hope for in that situation.

The rise in the Volatile Mist density made Rex push those thoughts to the back of his head.

Rex’s regeneration wasn’t able to keep up anymore, and he activated his best Wind elemental defence skill <Wind Clad> to envelop his body.

Although doing that blocked off the mist, it came at the cost of heavy Spirit Energy expenditure and combined with his three Innate Exclusive skills in usage; there were not many seconds left before his Spirit Energy reserve would dry out.

With that in mind, Rex decisively closed in as he coated his claws with sharp wind before slashing at the second shell that enclosed Akor.

But his attacks weren’t able to breach Akor’s aquatic defensive skill. That continued for a few more seconds, and despite Rex’s relentless attacks, that shell remained impenetrable.

“In here, speed advantage wouldn’t do you any good unless you possess a higher element or substantially higher Spirit Energy than me. If not, forget your futile attempts to break my ‘Aqua Shell’ and just be a good dog and wait until the ‘Volatile Mist’ succumbs you.” Akor sneered.

Although Akor’s words irked Rex, they helped him realise bringing out his best offensive move was the only way to go.

But using that would deprive him of Spirit Energy in one fell swoop and leave him vulnerable.

‘Ahh!! Screw it! What choice do I have?’

Rex cursed in his mind and stretched out his arm as wind began whirling over his right hand at a breathtaking speed.

With a hard swing, the conical tip of his strongest offence skill, <Wind Piercer>, collided with the surface of <Aqua Shell>.

The attack pierced one-third of the shell before coming to a standstill. However, Rex didn’t give up and squeezed out all his strength as he pressed on with a thunderous roar.

Despite the slow progression, his attack drilled past two-thirds of the shell, but that ended with Rex exhausting his Spirit Energy.

The dent left by Rex surprised Akor enough to acknowledge his opponent’s strength.

Within the entire Tournament, those who could accomplish that can be counted on two hands.

If Rex had enough Spirit Energy, he would have pierced through the ‘Aqua Shell’. But at the same time, it was also because Akor allowed that to happen.

He had ways to interrupt whilst Rex used <Wind Piercer> but chose not to do so out of curiosity.

Looking at Akor, who was huffing out ragged breaths and in no state to continue the fight, Akor deactivated both <Aqua Shell> and <Volatile Mist>.

He then put away his Trident before walking towards Rex while cracking his knuckles.

“I will give it to you, the last attack was pretty good, but that won’t stop me from beating you black and blue today.”

Akor’s smug grin sent shivers all over Rex. With the Tournament rules prohibiting Alpha Chosen from killing each other, he wasn’t afraid of whether Akor or Jay would kill him.

But there wasn’t any rule saying about crippling others. If his entire arms and legs were chopped off, then even with his over-the-top regeneration skill, it would take several hours to regrow them.

Meanwhile, he would miss Round-3; without him, the Ragath Trial Zone team couldn’t make it to the Top-10.

As a keen one, Rex didn’t miss the emphasis Felarial had placed on ranking in the Top 10. Without it, they wouldn’t have the qualifications to participate in the 2nd Tournament and miss out on golden opportunities in the future.

His worries were interrupted by Jay’s words, “Akor, that’s enough. Leave him alone.”

Rex turned his head to the side, only to find Jay pointing at him, “You, let’s have another chat. Shall we?”