"Rejuvenation!"

"Rejuvenation!"

"Rejuvenation!"

"This..."

Banxia stared at the mass in front of him, the thing that had, after the third cast, no, the fourth, suddenly collapsed into a pale-white puddle, and lapsed into a long silence.

The familiar scent drifting up from it left him genuinely speechless.

The cost of using Rejuvenation the first time: a stomachache.

The second time: total-body weakness, duration unknown.

The third time: complete regression to toddler form, intelligence dropping to near-zero.

The fourth was the most thorough of all. Direct evaporation. Reduced to a puddle of primordial human essence.

It seemed that desecrating the Life Spirits could not be done more than three times.

The safe limit for normal use was twice.

And how long that second-use side effect, total-body weakness, would last still wasn't clear.

In other words, if Banxia ever used it on himself, once was the absolute maximum.

"Still not enough test subjects." He let out a quiet sigh and slowly shifted his gaze toward the crowd.

"..."

The experiment had chilled everyone present to the bone. They stared at the young man in naked terror, as if looking at something far more horrifying than any labyrinth.

"Lord Adventurer... um, the truth is, we have absolutely zero interest in the labyrinth..."

"Since this whole thing was just a conspiracy, we'll... take our leave now..."

"R-Right, please don't mind us, my lord! The final chamber is just up ahead, and we don't want any of the treasure, not a single coin..."

Banxia was utterly speechless.

Just what kind of person did these people take him for?

He was about to say something when the tightly shut doors behind him slowly swung open on their own.

A cold draft poured through the gap, carrying an indescribable stench of decay.

The labyrinth's master, that monster from the mythological era, had extended an "invitation."

Everyone scrambled for their weapons at once, nerves stretched to the snapping point.

"Adventurer, something is wrong..." The elf hurried to his side, about to urge caution, then stopped. Flames were quietly blooming between his fingers.

The shape was the same as the fire magic he'd used to kindle the campfire last night. The power inside it was not.

You call this a campfire spell?!

"Wrath of Finality."

Banxia slowly drew back a fiery arrow. The bowstring hadn't even fully formed yet, and the scorching heatwave was already forcing everyone to stagger back several paces.

The other party had issued an invitation. He naturally had to respond in kind.

After all, he was a man who always rose to the occasion.

If stepping inside alone meant danger, he'd simply force the creature out.

BOOM,

The fully charged arrow, packed with two centuries' worth of magical power, shot straight into the pitch-black depths of the chamber.

In that instant, the very air seemed to catch fire.

That one shot had used less than twenty percent of his magic. Back in the south, an identical strike had casually wiped out an entire skeleton army.

This time, though, the arrow never reached the floor. Before it could detonate, an invisible force deflected it straight back along the path it came.

"Hm?" Banxia tilted his head slightly and stepped aside. His own spell sailed past him.

The adventurers behind him were not nearly so lucky.

The fiery arrow hit the wall, and the entire sixth floor shook. Stone fragments rained down like hail. If the elf hadn't produced a magical artifact at the last possible moment and thrown up a translucent barrier, the aftershock alone would have killed everyone in the room.

"Deflecting my magic straight back at me." Banxia turned his gaze toward the doors. "Interesting skill."

A figure had appeared there without anyone noticing, a human warrior, wreathed head to toe in an aura of rot and decay.

Apparently, the thing didn't want the labyrinth damaged any further. So it had sent this one out.

"Terrifying magic." The warrior glanced down at a charred palm, then looked up and met the young man's gaze. "I can sense it — it's not just your magic. Your mastery of the martial path is likely above mine as well."

"Have humans of this era grown so formidable?"

"Consider me an exception." Banxia studied the warrior with genuine curiosity. "You said 'this era', don't tell me you've been alive for thousands of years? And what was that move just now?"

"Two questions at once. How am I supposed to answer those?" The warrior's tone was flat, but an explanation came anyway, measured and unhurried.

"After undergoing Assimilation by that disgusting creature, my lifespan became bound to its own. As long as it lives, I won't die of natural age. That said, the cowardly thing is in very poor shape right now. Otherwise it would never have been forced up from underground, giving you humans the opening to come after it."

"As for that move, it's called Parry. By channeling Battle Aura, you can deflect anything 'recognizable.'"

"You're surprisingly forthcoming." Banxia was genuinely caught off guard.

He'd asked on a whim and hadn't expected a real answer, let alone a thorough one.

Assimilated by a monster, yet still clearly in possession of an independent will.

"That technique..." The elf beside him suddenly went pale.

"What?" Banxia glanced over.

"I read about it once in ancient texts. Oberon Holstein — hailed in the mythological era as the greatest warrior in human history — had one ultimate technique: the combat art Parry. Because Oberon alone ever mastered it, the skill was completely lost after his death. No one has used it since."

The elf watched the decaying figure in the doorway. Jade-green pupils contracted.

"The greatest in history, that's too generous." Oberon shook their head, then looked at Banxia. "After today, I suspect that title will belong to someone else."

"I have no interest in being the strongest." Banxia waved a hand. "I'm just an ordinary person. Besides, titles like that have never brought anyone anything good."

"Enough talk. Time is short." Oberon's head shake carried a note of genuine regret. "That cowardly creature has been pressing me to drive you away. Your presence alone has made it feel the threat of death."

"I see. Even someone with your level of willpower can't break free from Assimilation." Banxia gave a slow nod, a faintly troubled look crossing his face.

"I'd really rather not ruin these clothes. Could you go a little easy on me?"

"Hahaha..." Oberon laughed, and there wasn't a trace of mockery in it. "You're already certain you'll win?"

"If I could, I'd gladly hold back, let you charge right past me and tear that disgusting thing to pieces myself." A smile, and a slow shake of the head.

"Unfortunately, this body no longer obeys me."

"Then there's nothing left to say." Banxia's voice was perfectly calm as he tossed his pack to the elf. "I'll step over your corpse to get to it."

"If you can."

A burning light kindled in Oberon's eyes.

To a warrior who had given an entire life to the martial path, dying honorably in battle was the ending worth dreaming of, infinitely preferable to being enslaved by a monster until the body finally gave out.

Nothing was more exhilarating than falling at the hands of someone stronger.

Every muscle across Oberon's body was trembling, sounding the same relentless alarm.

The young man standing there was, in all likelihood, the most powerful living being in the world.

...

➤ Next: The Strongest in History vs The Strongest of Modern Times

Chapter 86 - The Strongest in History vs The Strongest of Modern Times

"Slash!"

"Parry!"

The slash Banxia sent out folded back at him even faster than it had left.

That turtle-shell skill made him frown. He immediately swung a second, stronger slash and drove it straight into the returning one.

BOOM!

Two slashes born from the same source smashed into each other mid-air, the impact deafening, both dissolving together into the spreading smoke and dust.

"Then let's find out — whether I slash faster, or you parry faster!"

Banxia hadn't pushed his full power in a long time. He smiled, warm and easy.

In the blink of an eye, countless slashes rained down on the greatest warrior in history like a storm.

Every single one was faster and heavier than anything the onlookers had ever seen.

"Parry!"

Faced with that relentless assault, Oberon dropped the easy composure. Both hands shot out like phantoms, deflecting the slashes surrounding them one by one in rapid succession.

The deflected strikes scattered in all directions. Several flew straight toward the crowd.

Even the aftershock of any random one was beyond what these adventurers could survive.

The elf barely managed to hold on using a magical artifact, just barely covering the few people nearby.

Banxia pulled back his offensive.

He wasn't just dealing with the rebounding slashes, he also had to spare a hand to shield the people behind him, people who had no business being caught in any of this.

He watched them huddled behind the barrier, shaking, and his brow creased.

"Three minutes. If you want to live, leave now. I won't use slashing attacks again in that time."

"Y-Yes! Lord Adventurer, we're going right now!"

The adventurers, legs already weak from watching what amounted to gods fighting, scrambled and crawled toward the ascending passage. Nobody wanted to be the one who moved too slow.

"Adventurer..." The elf hesitated.

She understood that staying would be useless.

This young man standing before her, the one who'd crushed a dragon-slaying hero through pure physicality, was already, in all likelihood, the strongest warrior alive today. And his opponent was a being hailed as the greatest existence since the mythological era.

This was a tier the Demonic Venom Dragon and its kind couldn't begin to touch.

"You go too." Banxia didn't look back.

The elf's chest tightened at those words.

Staying would only be a burden. And knowing that was exactly what made it hurt.

His slashes were wide-area techniques. Only alone on the field could he truly cut loose, only then would he become the strongest in any real sense.

She understood the logic perfectly.

And yet, inside, there was still,

"I..."

"I'll come find you after."

"...Mm." The elf's eyes lit up.

To everyone else, it had been one cold sentence. To her, he'd added an extra line.

Did that mean, somewhere in that young man's mind, she was, in the end, a little different from the rest?

She didn't notice at all that strapped to her back, right now, was his overstuffed travel pack.

Until the elf was gone, neither of them moved.

"You look like you're in pain." Banxia's gaze settled on Oberon's forehead, steadily beading with sweat. That barely-holding-together expression was easy to read.

None of that, of course, had anything to do with the slashes from a moment ago.

"Can't help it. That cowardly monster keeps pushing me — won't let me release these humans."

"So you can actually resist the Assimilation for a short while?" Banxia sounded mildly exasperated. "You really had to lie just to get a fight out of me?"

"Heh. Seen right through, huh." Even with pain written across the face, Oberon still managed a weak smile.

It was true. With the willpower of a peak-tier warrior, Oberon could have temporarily resisted the monster's mental control. All it would have taken was using that brief window to let a warrior of the same caliber land the killing blow, and it would've been over. Liberation, clean and complete.

But to waste the chance to cross hands with the strongest fighter of this era?

That was out of the question.

"Don't worry. If you're about to lose it later, I'll ease off enough to let you kill me."

"That's enough jokes." Banxia's expression settled as he shifted into a close-combat stance.

"Not using your strongest slash?" A flicker of disappointment crossed Oberon's face.

"I said, no slashes for three minutes."

"I can wait."

"Don't bother." Banxia shook his head, expression gone serious. "Besides — who told you slashing was my strongest technique?"

"Oh?"

"That's just something I use to clear out trash mobs when I can't be bothered. If you can't even handle a slash, you don't qualify as my opponent." Not a boast. Just a statement of fact.

Blade Body was only a Rainbow lv.1 skill. His physical side, on the other hand, had two Rainbow skills behind it: Return to Fundamentals and Hundred-Forged Body. The latter, dedicated entirely to tempering the flesh, had already reached lv.2.

His body's raw stats were the real foundation. The reason he'd always had room to spare.

"You don't look like you're lying." Oberon was shaken, but chose to believe it.

"Then I won't hold back."

The words weren't finished before Oberon vanished.

The speed was staggering, faster than Geist, the Great Demon Banxia had faced in the south.

BANG!

The fist came in straight and direct. Banxia simply raised one palm and caught it.

Under Oberon's disbelieving stare, the clothing on Banxia's upper body was nearly shredded by the shockwave of the collision, leaving nothing but hard muscle beneath.

Banxia himself hadn't moved an inch. He stood like a mountain that had endured a thousand years of wind and weather, as if the impact carried no weight at all.

But the ground beneath them caved in with a thunderous crack, and that told the real story.

"..."

Oberon had never encountered anyone who could match full-throttle Battle Aura through physical strength alone.

No. Not match.

Banxia hadn't even used Battle Aura.

The stalemate lasted only an instant. Oberon read the situation immediately: close-quarters was a losing game.

Starting to pull back, using the momentum to disengage, then the pupils contracted.

Banxia moved.

That lean frame erupted with suffocating speed. One large hand tore through the air and landed squarely on Oberon's head.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Force like a collapsing mountain poured straight down.

Oberon was driven into the floor, no resistance whatsoever.

The roar was worse than the fire arrow from before. The entire layer of ground fractured like a spiderweb and spread outward in every direction, fast and total.

Dust and smoke churned up like a cyclone, swallowing the view of the open floor.

The hit landed clean, but Banxia had no interest in underestimating the opponent. He drove a second fist straight down at the head.

"Parry!"

This was the first time Banxia had ever felt, firsthand, just how absurd his own raw strength was.

The force came back and launched him. He crashed through wall after wall before finally grinding to a halt somewhere in the rubble.

"What a ridiculous technique!" He coughed twice, pulled himself out of the crater, and knocked the stone dust off his clothes. "Deflecting pure, brute force."

Taking a full-power hit from himself turned out to be genuinely unpleasant.

"I think those are my lines." Oberon stepped out from the smoke on the other side, continuously working a faintly trembling wrist. Clearly, eating that strike hadn't been nearly as effortless as the walk suggested.

"When that punch hit, I was sure I was dead.

My Parry neutralizes nearly ninety percent of the force, and the remaining ten percent almost tore this body apart.

Are you actually human? Or are you some kind of dragon wearing a person's skin?"

...

➤ Next: I Probably Won't Forget You for the Rest of My Life