Chapter 131: Another One

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Edward wasn't in a very good shape, he had just taken a nuclear explosion in the face, at point blank, and with the explosion being concentrated around them.

However, he was in a better shape than he thought he would be. The Armor of the Ancients, which he thought was slowly becoming useless, had actually been quite the lifesaver as it absorbed a good part of the explosion.

Although a major part of it had been vaporized, there was still enough for it to recover. As for Edward himself, most of his skin had burned off, and the pain was bad, but his body was recovering every second.

However, a good chunk of Edward's Chi had been consumed in protecting himself from the explosion, and the radiation of the attack was sticking to him, making his Chi Regeneration worse than it should be.

By the time the smoke cleared up, most of Edward's skin had grown back, while the Armor of the Ancients had several holes that were slowly recovering, the biggest one being on his belly.

The wall around the area fell down, while Edward looked at Starro in apprehension. Edward himself had taken that bomb with effort and remained relatively fine, but he was nothing compared to Starro.

Instead of being vaporized, the alien starfish looked better than ever as it's limb had grown back, it had grown even bigger than earlier and felt even stronger. Somehow, it had used the blast to heal itself and make itself become stronger.

Releasing a quick breath to move his spear slightly, Edward frowned at the pain. Despite his defences, he was still injured, and he may look okay on the surface, he could still feel his muscles scream at his movements as they were still in the process of regenerating.

His regeneration seemed to take longer than expected though because Edward felt a foreign, dirty energy had entered his body with the explosion, and was slowing down both his Chi and Vitality Regeneration.

That was radiation. That was annoying.

Meanwhile, Starro looked at it's body a little disbelievingly, before laughing out loud, "If I knew you prepared such tasty snacks for me, I would have taken more!"

He fired a laser beam at Edward, this one much thicker than the past ones, but Edward had been preparing himself for the past few seconds, so the moment it was fired, Edward teleported right next to Starro's giant eye, and forcing himself through his muscles tearing apart, he stabbed his spear at the giant eye, right toward the place the beam was coming from.

Aeglos easily cut into the membrane protecting Starro's eye, but to Edward's shock he struggled to pierce his spear deep into her eye. His Spear Aura was also weakened inside the eye, barely dealing any damage.

Edward hurriedly jumped back as the beam of light turned to where he was, the injury he left behind healing itself quickly as the beam shone upon it.

Starro stopped his attack, and laughed, "You are mighty alright, but you will eventually fall, like so many before you, in front of the mighty Starro the Conqueror!"

The starfish oozed pride as it smashed one of it's limbs into the earth, dragging it toward Edward. He dodged, but the destroyed ground was destroyed, and the rubble was sent flying with great force at Edward.

Each piece of rock was smashed into pebbles as they hit Edward's body, but the impact felt much stronger than any kind of firearm.

While the rocks crashed against him, Edward covered his spear in Chi as he stabbed it with all his strength toward Starro, and a giant spear was shot out toward the alien, but as it collided with it's skin it barely went a couple meters deep before disappearing.

Edward gritted his teeth at the less than satisfactory results, and jumped closer to the Starfish, who fired a laser beam in retaliation. But unlike before, Starro didn't keep the laser for several seconds, but instantly took it down and smashed his limb toward Edward.

Starro was already bigger than Edward's Chi Sense, so he couldn't really predict his movements anymore, and so he wasn't fast enough to dodge this one.

Gripping his spear firmly, Edward persevered on his course as his spear clashed with the limb. Edward was sent flying backwards, crashing into the ground as he made a long trail on the ground.

Still, under the eyes of the onlookers, and of several of the recording phones, Edward got up, and jumped toward Starro, only to be sent flying, again.

But as he got up, Edward did not use any of his magic, and jumped back toward Starro, and was once again sent flying.

The fight turned into a beating as Edward tried to stab Starro, and the later swatted him away with its limb.

As the minutes passed though, Edward was getting sent flying lesser and lesser away, allowing him to close the distance. Facing him, Starro was shocked to find Edward's spear was getting stronger with every clash.

Edward, who was getting beaten again and again, felt his understanding of the spear strengthen with every clash as he persevered. The spear wasn't like the sword or any other weapon. Perseverance was the core concept of the spear, all Edward had to do was to keep his grip firm, advance, and his spear shall pierce the world.

Gradually, the Spear Aura around Aeglos took a more opaque color as the whitish aura also grew bigger, making a bigger injury everytime.

But Edward wasn't escaping unscathed from all those collisions, as injuries stacked on his body, so much that moving was difficult. The radiation had also been accumulating on his body, and his healing factor was actively fighting against it, thus making his regeneration almost null.

The majority of his body was covered in blood, and the inside wasn't much better either. His Chi was also severely depleted, he had been keeping a magical barrier around the battlefield since the beginning of the fight to retain the radiation from spreading to the neighbouring houses and people.

Despite all that, Edward kept getting up, and his attacks kept getting stronger. At some point, Edward stopped getting sent flying backwards, and managed to keep his ground as he stabbed his spear successively, with Starro parrying each of the stabs with a smash.

Although Edward was injuring the alien with every stab, Starro was also using the surrounding radiation to heal itself, and also grow stronger, which was why it kept fighting despite Edward getting stronger. Greed was not exclusive to humanity.

After a while, Edward fell back several meters, and Starro laughed, "Already getting tired?"

His breathing haggard, Edward had his eyes closed as he replied, "You've already lost."

Starro was about to retort something, when a couple of lasers hit one of it's limbs, drilling a hole in it. At the same time, a red blur pummelled the limb it was standing on, destroying the flesh at an astonishing speed before retreating.

Starro's eye turned to the two new attackers, and saw two men. One was dressed in red, he had a lightning symbol in the middle of his chest and had lightning around him. As for the other one, he was levitating in the air, had a muscular build and was the one who shot the laser.

His suit, blue, red and yellow, was accompanied by a red cape, floating behind him. On his chest was a symbol, a strangely drawn 'S'.

Edward had felt them arrive, and was surprised to recognize the flying one as the strong presence he felt back at the UN General Assembly.

He also recognized the two based on their looks, they were two upstart Super Heroes, Superman and the Flash. Edward remembered hearing about them, Superman was from Metropolis, and Flash from Central City, the city where Edward grew up and where his parents lived.

Starro, despite having suffered those rather devastating attacks, did not look afraid, not in the slightest. Instead, it laughed, "You think adding numbers will change anything? You are nothing before me…"

"Shut up, and die."

Edward interrupted the starfish, and aimed his spear toward the starfish as the Spear Aura around Aeglos started building up.

Edward jumped toward Aeglos, and rays of light formed in front of his spear, borrowing it's momentum to form… a dragon's head!

Back when he fought against Shuma-Gorath, Edward had used a similar move, adding a body made of earth to the dragon head to form a complete dragon, which he fired at Shuma-Gorath.

Back then, Edward had used his Spear, Time and Space Concepts to form the dragon head. The rays of light were made of spear aura, and he congealed them in time and space with the other two concepts, thus forming the formidable attack.

This time however, after a rather lengthy fight with Starro, Edward's Spear Concept had, much like his Space Concept, reached the limit of the Concept realm. With his stronger Spear Aura, he had more control over it, and finally managed to make it using only his Spear Concept.

As he flew in the air, the dragon head forming in front of his spear, Edward muttered, "Spear Technique, First Form: Dragon Head!"

As Edward approached Starro, the dragon head completely formed, and Starro tried to fire a laser beam, but it was instantly destroyed as it came in contact with the dragon head in front of Edward's spear.

Before Starro's could even feel fear, Edward picked up his speed, and unleashed his attack.

The dragon head collided with Starro, and unlike before, it faced no difficulty as Edward pierced through the alien. A giant hole was formed in the middle of Starro's eye, and Edward's attack did not stop there as from the sheer momentum he flew for another hundred meters, forming a deep ravine in the ground before finally stopping.

The onlookers, be it the two heroes or the civilians, couldn't help but be stunned at the sight.

Edward sent a look at Starro, who despite the giant hole in the middle of his body, turned around to look at Edward, and with a wrathful voice said, "I will kill you hum…"

Before Starro could finish what he had to say, everyone's expression turned sour, except for Starro, as they saw something appear in the sky. Everyone looked up to see… a missile. Another one.

In an instant Edward calculated this missile would hit them in less than a second, and that if nothing was done, then everyone in the surrounding area would be cremated.

A part of his attention went to Superman and Flash, but saw that they were both frozen. Gritting his teeth for what felt like the millionth time this day, Edward used whatever remained of his Chi to erect defences.

Then, under the eyes of everyone watching, as well as those watching the lives of those filming, the bomb hit the ground.

Again, a flash of light, an earth quake, but barely any shockwave, as a red wall stood erect.

Meanwhile, 50 kilometers from there, in the White House, the President of the United States, feeling the shockwave, asked to the person with him on the phone, "Sir, there were still civilians in the area…"

"Sacrifices always have to be made, Elias. This was the right call. With this one, we will have gotten rid of both the alien, and that Serenity."

The President gulped in apprehension, and finally nodded, "Hail Hydra."

"Hail Hydra, Elias."