CH: 95: Clash in the Sea of Flowers

{Chapter: 95: Clash in the Sea of Flowers}

After launching his ambush, the Lizardman froze in mid-motion. He was sure of his strength—sure of the lethality of his attack. With claws forged sharper than any known blade and driven by pure, explosive power, he believed he could pierce even reinforced alloy walls as if they were parchment.

There had been no hesitation in his strike. No wasted movement. Just silence, speed, and savagery.

And indeed, the result was seemingly as expected: his claws struck home before his opponent could visibly react. The satisfying resistance of flesh and the wet heat of blood confirmed a hit.

Yet—something was wrong.

Instead of the satisfying collapse of a dying body, instead of the sound of bones shattering or organs rupturing, all he saw was a trickle of blood. A smear of crimson on the chest of the tall man—no, creature—standing calmly before him.

Just a smear. That was all.

The Lizardman's eyes narrowed behind his strange, goggle-like lenses. His four arms bristled, his lower left hand twitching as if poised to strike again. He didn't understand.

That attack should've shredded through the heart and spine. Instead… the enemy remained standing—calm, poised, even smiling.

Instincts honed through countless battles screamed danger. The creature—Dex—should've been writhing in pain or collapsing in fury.

Instead, Dex slowly raised a finger, dipped it into the small wound on his chest, and brought the blood to his lips. He tasted it, thoughtfully, like a connoisseur sampling a rare wine.

"Aaah…" Dex let out a low hum of approval, the smile growing wider as his crimson eyes fixed on his attacker. "So you're not a simple rat after all. A wolf, perhaps? A clever one, with teeth."

He flicked the blood from his fingers, letting it fall onto the wildflowers below—flowers that instantly withered at the touch of his tainted blood.

"You suppressed your energy signature well. Very well. I shouldn't have missed that. But no matter how hidden, the wolf eventually bares its fangs."

"I thought it was just a little mouse, but it turned out to be a wolf that can bite people. You should have the ability to suppress your own energy fluctuations, otherwise you shouldn't have been able to hide it from my eyes. But I was indeed careless, otherwise, even if it was an action method I had never seen before, it shouldn't have hurt me so easily..."

Despite his composed demeanor, Dex was already analyzing what had gone wrong. At the moment he was stabbed, he used the force-unloading technique to transfer the force applied by the opponent to the surrounding objects, so he himself only bore a very small part of the force.

It should have worked. It had worked… mostly.

And yet he'd still bled.

In this situation, he shouldn't have been injured again, but the opponent's nails seemed to be mixed with something. Not only were they incredibly sharp, but they also had the ability to inhibit regeneration, making it impossible for that inconspicuous wound to heal quickly.

His eyes narrowed as the faint ache from the wound lingered unnaturally. Something on the Lizardman's claws… a poison? No. Not poison—something worse.

"A regenerative inhibitor," Dex murmured, already feeling the struggle within his cells to heal the damage. "Crafty. And… very dangerous."

His tone dropped several octaves, like the growl of a volcano before eruption. The red glow in his eyes deepened into burning crimson, casting twin glows across the wild sea of flowers that surrounded them.

"You've managed to excite me," Dex said softly, as if it were a confession.

Then the air changed.

It was like a sudden shift in gravity, a pull on reality itself. A wave of heat and sulfur poured outward from Dex's body. Blood and brimstone mingled in the wind. Flowers shriveled. The earth moaned.

And then, he transformed.

The man vanished. In his place rose a towering creature of terrifying grandeur, more than four meters tall. Scales like molten armor clinked against each other. Horns curled like black iron over his crown. His mouth was lined with rows of serrated teeth glowing with inner fire.

Dex's true form had awakened.

Around them, the sea of flowers began to writhe, as if alive. Vines and petals surged upward and downward, coiling like serpents and weaving together to form a dome of floral flesh and root.

As he changed, the surrounding sea of flowers began to surge like waves. The roots and petals of the flowers began to spread upward and downward without limit, wrapping the entire nearby area into a separate space.

The world beyond them was sealed off, banished behind walls of blooming death. It became a pocket realm of his making—a closed world of color and carnage.

"You're not the only one with tricks," Dex muttered, his tail sweeping behind him lazily as he stared down his adversary.

The Lizardman crouched low, sensing what was coming.

"Still not going to run?" Dex asked, amusement dripping from every word. "Very well. I'll make the first move."

Then came the inferno.

With him at the center, flames burst outward—scarlet, toxic, unnatural. This wasn't just fire. It was the essence of decay, burning with a hatred that devoured flesh, bone, and even magic. Temperatures soared to tens of thousands of degrees in an instant. The air hissed. Reality warped. All around them, the world was ash—save for the Death Flowers, which drank the heat like sunlight.

And through that raging firestorm, Dex moved.

Faster than the eye could follow, At a speed of dozens of times the speed of sound, he became a blur—a shadow within the flame. Claws like blades of hellfire struck with pinpoint precision, carving through the very atmosphere, trailing shockwaves and red mist in their wake.

Yet—again—the Lizardman moved.

Even with space itself hardened into crystal by Dex's control, the Lizardman twitched, warped, and dodged.

The claw passed through.

Dex's brows furrowed.

Again, no blood. No satisfying crunch. It was as if he had attacked a ghost.

"Not a spatial ability," Dex said aloud, analyzing with supernatural speed. "No spatial displacement… No resonance with my domain… So how—?"

The Lizardman stumbled back, clearly affected, but still intact. His scales shimmered, refracting light strangely.

Dex tilted his head, observing now with true curiosity.

"You're not from this world, are you?" he asked slowly. "You don't smell like anything from the Wizarding Continent. You carry no mana trails. But you have coordinates clinging to your soul—a signature from a place beyond."

He took a step closer.

"Your armor… or is it your body? It's not enchanted in the way I understand. It's not magic—it's technology."

The words tasted strange to him.

Dex, born of magic and blood, rarely encountered foreign realms where steel and circuits replaced spells and rituals. But now, before him, stood a living enigma—a hybrid of cold science and monstrous evolution.

He took a deep breath, tasting the air.

"I see now," Dex said, voice echoing with a deeper power. "I cannot fight you with only what I know. You've come from a world where physics bend differently. You were built to counter sorcery, weren't you?"

The Lizardman didn't answer. Its body began to glow faintly—lines of pulsating blue light tracing its limbs and spine. A faint hum filled the air, like a starship charging its core.

Dex's smile returned.

"Interesting," he said. "It's been a long time since I've bled. Let's see who bleeds next."

The battle wasn't over. It had only just begun.

*****

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