NOVPUBKael found himself in a strange situation.
Currently, he was inside a spherical magic barrier that was constantly cracking and from the looks of it, would soon shatter.
Not just that, but this spherical barrier of magic that he was currently inside was being pushed across the wild plains at such incredible speed and force that it formed a long and deep furrow in the ground as it moved.
And the person who was pushing against his magic barrier was none other than Zed whose shoulder was pressed against the surface of the cracking blue magic barrier.
Zed's legs moved fast, almost blurring out of existence as they were coated with arcs of golden electricity. Those legs were what gave him the speed and leverage to push Kael and his magic barrier in such a manner.
The scene around Kael was changing fast as they both moved rapidly through the plains. Trees flashed by before he could register their existence and the pale green grass below looked like a green treadmill.
*CRACK!*
The blue barrier cracked some more, Kael could tell that it would shatter into intangible magic fragments any moment from now, so he prepared.
Just when the cracks had spread all over the spherical magic barrier, Kael churned his spatial powers and teleported.
In that same millisecond, the barrier shattered and Zed bashed through with a streak of golden lightning following behind him.
Perhaps, if Kael had still been inside the barrier, Zed would have bashed into him and turned him into a blood cloud. Unfortunately, Zed felt nothing as his shoulder slammed into nothing but empty air.
"Huh?" He slammed his left foot into the ground and slid to a halt, bringing up dust clouds with him.
Kael appeared again, more than a hundred meters behind Zed. He stood in the furrow they had both created.
His eyes scanned the damage to the land, he noticed they had traveled far, he could barely see the end of the furrow, even with his good eyesight.
"How did you do that?" Zed walked out of the dust cloud with a genuinely curious expression, he looked like he just wanted to learn. Yet the brimming lightning surging around him told Kael otherwise.
Kael did not answer, he just stared, studying the speedster. Zed did not take this kindly.
Zed moved again, instantly covering more than a hundred meters in an instant but once again, he hit nothing but empty air.
Space twisted as Kael appeared hundreds of meters away to his left.
Zed reacted as soon as he could sense Kael's aura, he burst out with more speed, intending to crush Kael completely.
But once again, Kael teleported out of the way.
"I understand it now," Kael said to himself as he teleported out of the way again just as a streak of lightning flashed by.
Kael's brain was at its maximum operation capability at the moment, calculating and analyzing with the intellect of a Magus.
His spirit energy was faint but it spread out, sensing everything that happened within the two hundred meter radius around him.
Zed couldn't feel it but his surface thoughts were also being perceived by Kael in miniscule amounts, enough for Kael to tell when Zed was about to run, but not enough for Zed to notice.
Kael continued teleporting, effectively dodging all of Zed's very fatal and bone-crushing attacks.
Alas, Kael knew that this couldn't last forever. Zed might be wild and playful but he wasn't dumb.
He already knew that Kael was able to sense his movements somehow and it bothered him.
The earth beneath Zed's feet burst open as he launched himself with the speed he hadn't shown before. He moved in a random zig-zag manner, never stopping to think, just running until he got close.
At the end of the day, Kael was still not yet officially a tier 4 lion, Zed was getting increasingly close to hitting him as time passed.
Zed finally caught up to something and acted immediately on his guess. He spread out his electric field, connecting himself to his surroundings so that he could sense everything.
Kael teleported out of the way and at the very position he was going to appear, space twisted, interfering with the electric field and alerting Zed.
Zed moved the very instant Kael teleported. Kael appeared again at the pre-planned position only for him to be hit with a devastating punch to his abdomen.
*BAM!*
Kael's body curved like a dead shrimp as he flew back faster than he had ever moved before. His body slammed into a tree, destroying it in the process as his body continued in its trajectory.
Zed was like a mad child who had just found the right button to his favorite channel. He turned into a fierce streak of golden lightning, chasing after the flying Kael.
He didn't allow Kael to land before he rushed him with another set of devastating punches.
Kael was punched from one place to the other, and before he landed, Zed was already there, ready to deliver another punch.
Kael's mind worked fast, amidst the growing pains. A hundred punches had already met their marks on his body but he wasn't going down, not yet.
Zed was getting ready to deliver the next punch when a vine grew out of the ground to trip him. He didn't fall but the sudden obstacle was enough for Kael to come back to his senses and react appropriately.
"Argh!" Kael twisted his body in mid-air, missing Zed's punch by a few centimeters and rolling to the ground.
Not having time to think, Kael stretched his hand out, pushing all the power in his body outward and toward the approaching speedster.
Kael threw everything he could. Vines shot up from the ground, massive fireballs flew out, spatial distortion spread forward, black gusts of wind blew, magic projectiles, even a somewhat useless magnet field…
"HAHAHAHA! YESSS!" Zed welcomed all the attacks with open arms and a peal of crazed laughter. It seemed the more Kael fought back, the more crazy he got.
He dodged all the fireballs, danced through the forest of vines, and weaved his way past the spatial distortions using his electric field as guidance. All the magic projectiles were successful, only the black wind hit him as that could not be dodged.
However,
all the wind did was push him back a little bit, slowing him down but not stopping him from forcing his way through.
During his time dodging all those attacks and tanking the fierce-bladed winds, Zed's vision had been obstructed and he had lost sight of Kael.
When he made it through the torrent of black wind, he was shocked to see Kael as a three-meter tall hulking being with bulging muscles, long metal claws, and purple lightning flowing around his body.
The change was too sudden, wasn't this similar to what those War creatures did?
Zed was too close to stop and Kael was too close to not be prepared.
Kael's massive fist which was already raised into the sky slammed down, his knuckles connected heavily with Zed's head, resulting in a shockwave that cleared all the debris and dust around them.
Zed felt like a mountain had been dropped on his head, everything turned black, then white. If pain had a color, that's what he would be seeing at the moment. His body was involuntarily bashed into the ground, creating a crater that was more than twenty meters wide.
*BAM!*
Kael's feet dropped down on Zed's back, pushing the cheetah man deeper into the ground and expanding the crater more.
Zed tried to hold it in but he ended up coughing a bit of blood, he had been injured.
They were both injured.
Kael had two broken ribs, despite being metallic, Zed's punches were no joke. He had bruises all over his body and his muscles were aching him.
The only part of his body that remained in peak condition was his eyes. Those golden eyes stared down at the fallen cheetah man with unbridled killing intent.
"Fine, you want…" Zed started but a heavy punch landed on his head lightning fast. Kael knew he couldn't use his power of electricity to fight Zed, it wouldn't work. But he could still use it to enhance his speed.
Zed's head broke deeper into the ground, a mold that looked exactly like his face had already formed. Even if no one was present to see, it was still extremely humiliating.
"AARGH!" Zed screamed madly. Unfortunately, there were no real clouds in this dimension so he couldn't spur the creation and summoning of lightning from the sky.
So, he used his body to summon it.
Kael noticed Zed's body glowing brightly like a bulb that was about to burst.
Then he was washed with a mind-boggling amount of lightning that burst out of Zed's body.
"AAARGH!" Kael roared back, pressing his feet firmly on the foe's back and struggling to resist the lightning blast.
His body burned and his skin began to peel off. The power of this lightning attack was too much.
Anything could have happened at this time, Zed could have run out of energy first, and Kael could have run out of energy first.
Energy conservation, it was the main reason why Kael and Zed were still fighting in their humanoid form.
Cheetahs spent a lot of energy to maintain their speed, anything could have happened.
The battle could have ended without any of them having to transform.
Anything could have happened…
But Zod arrived just in time.
