NOVPUBKael's feet were pressed firmly on Zed's back as he tried to resist the surge of lightning that shot into the sky.
The pillar of golden lightning struck a glass-like surface in the sky, seemingly the barrier of this pocket dimension. The glass-like surface rippled out like the surface of a lake.
Since it was dark, the pillar of golden lightning was pretty visible from every angle and thousands of creatures who looked in this direction could see it.
Some of them, thinking this was the result of a treasure being found, started heading in this direction. Others, like the squids and octopuses who already knew where they were meant to go, simply ignored it.
The ground cracked as Zed's palms and knees sank into the earth, he rose ever so slowly, only to be ruthlessly pressed on the ground again.
Zed was a being that focused entirely on speed, that he could even resist Kael in his War State was impressive.
One had to know that Zed was using his natural-born strength to fight Kael all this while, he had no strength enhancement or metal bones, just a really strong tier 4 body.
Kael raised his hand as space twisted around his elongated claws, he intended to sever Zed's spine, that was the best way to cripple him and get some breathing space.
Unfortunately, Zod arrived just in time.
With his hand still raised into the sky, Kael felt something slam into his chest, followed by a strong gust of wind that blew him away.
This hit wasn't as strong as the others and Kael was able to react relatively fast. His legs stiffened as he skidded across the ground for tens of meters.
"Why are you playing around?" Zod's telepathic voice entered Zed's mind at this time.
Zed looked up to see his brother standing beside his fallen body. With a flash of lightning, he was already up. The bruise on his chest was already healing, disappearing from sight as electricity coursed through his cells.
"I had it under control," Zed said with a frown, he had truly been humiliated.
"It didn't look like it," Zod shook his head. The small wings in his legs flapped gently, getting ready to propel him forward.
Kael growled as he looked at the two tier 4 brothers standing side by side. He needed to escape, there was no way he could win unless he used that thing…
'Fine then,' Kael decided in his mind. He really didn't like losing control over himself but it was his last trump card.
"Listen," Zod said to Kael as he walked to him, "All this isn't necessary, tell us what we want to know and we can let you go.
What did you get from the octopus? How are you able to use so many powers? What do the lions have with this place?"
Instead of answering, Kael directly activated The Conqueror Mode.
He didn't even wait to chill and relax, there was no hesitation, just desire. Fight or flight, that was it for now.
Activating the Conqueror Mode was not like turning on a switch, it was more like releasing his body and soul to be taken over by a singular concept, a singular desire, a singular Law.
Zod stopped walking, his eyes widened as he sensed something, he sensed his death. He leaned to the side just in time to dodge a spatial blade that cut through the ground.
He had dodged it by a few inches, if he had been slower, he would have definitely been cut in half. The attack was fast…too fast.
He turned back to see 'Kael' giving off a bright golden glow. His golden eyes had turned into pure gold energy, overflowing from the edges of his eyelids.
His body was changing, his humanoid form couldn't maintain the overwhelming power of the Conqueror Mode so it was automatically changing to something more suitable.
The lion form.
But Kael wasn't transforming into his regular lion form, there was something different about this transformation.
Kael's body swelled, and when he dropped on all fours, he was still standing at a height of three meters.
Zod's eyes widened and Zed's mouth hung open.
"What the…"
*BOOM!*
Zod didn't have time to react when Kael's large head bashed into his chest. Multiple ribs shattered at once, his liver bled, his heart stopped for a moment, and his spine rattled.
The shockwave resulting from Kael's lion head colliding with Zod's chest hit Zed like a slap to his face.
His brother flew back faster than he came, he blurred past him and he couldn't do anything to help because he was still stocked.
*FLAP!*
Zed headed something and focused his eyes on Kael's new large body.
"When did he grow wings again…" Zed questioned but his feet had already moved instinctively.
The brothers couldn't believe what they were sensing from Kael's body.
Kael had previously only emitted the aura of a lion in between tier 3 and tier 4. Now, the same Kael had the aura of someone in between tier 4 and tier 5.
Kael shot into the sky, two massive wings beside him flapped with unmatched strength, allowing him the aerial advantage.
With every flap of his wings, the world shook, the winds picked up and it looked like a hurricane was about to start. Kael was truly about to start a 'natural' disaster.
But that's none of his business, not now.
Beneath his fluttering dark gold mane, his throat glowed bright orange as power began to build up in his mouth, causing steam to exit from his nostrils.
His glowed orbs he had for eyes stared straight at Zed's rapidly retreating figure.
Kael opened his mouth wide, exposing his sharp set of golden teeth to the world. At the base of his throat, fiery powers churned and burned as it was concentrated to a stupidly high degree.
Then Kael released that power.
The air twisted and the surrounding temperature instantly rose as a thick condensed beam of fire blasted out of Kael's open mouth and straight at Zed's running figure.
Could something ever move so fast? Something that wasn't lightning moving as fast as lightning?
The world moved in slow motion for Zed as he ran, feeling the burning heat behind him. His electric field was being rapidly deconstructed and destabilized, every step he took left small cracks in the earth.
He ran fast, but he couldn't be faster than a heatwave which could more or less move at the speed of light.
Before the beam of fire hit him, his back was already burnt by the searing heat, yet he continued running. His mind worked fast, augmented by excess electric charge, he calculated where the fire beam was going to land.
He just needed to ignore the heat, and he was right.
The fire beam struck the ground a few meters away from his feet behind him, he successfully outran it. 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
But the force of such a powerful fire beam hitting the ground was not small. The earth exploded, blasting rocks everywhere and Zed was flying away from the shock wave.
Zed wasn't the only one thinking of moving fast though. 'Kael' saw that the explosion had momentarily lifted Zed into the air where his feet were useless, and acted accordingly.
His wings shook, followed by a loud boom as he directly broke the sound barrier and appeared in front of Zed's momentarily airborne body.
Zed's eyes widened, still seeing everything in slow motion. Kael's large mouth was closing in and from the looks of it, Kael intended to bite him in half.
There was another sonic boom as another person broke the sound barrier.
*BOOM!*
A concentrated air ball with Zod inside it slammed into Kael's side with immense force.
'Since when did this become a fight for my survival?' Zed thought with dread as Kael's mouth was moved away with brute force.
Kael's claws gripped the ground as he came to a halt, but Zod and Zed seemed to come to an understanding, they had no intention of stopping.
Another strike hit Kael from his other side, pushing him away. Zed rushed over from the side to hit Kael before running away.
Another Air slam but Kael slapped it away, and a lightning-charged punch struck his side. The brothers rushed Kael from all sides, taking advantage of their super speed to overwhelm him with attack.
Hundreds of attacks hit Kael and he parried or blocked more than half of them. He might not be as fast but his reaction speed was far superior.
Every fist was met with a more powerful paw slap, headbutt, and tail sweep.
The three of them moved fast, zig-zagging their way across kilometers of land, overturning it in the process.
Perhaps, if it was just one of them against Kael, they would have died. Zed and Zed knew this the more they fought Kael.
This lion was adapting on the spot, it was no longer just defensive, Kael was now actively attacking before they could. The Cheetah brothers were now on the defensive.
Zod came again, as fast as before, yet he missed. Kael teleported out of the way.
Zod was still confused when a golden paw appeared out of nowhere and came crashing down on his head.
Zod's body bounced over the hard ground, literally. He rag-dolled for more than a hundred meters, unable to stop himself from rolling.
Kael was about to follow up with a few more attacks when he sensed something from the distant Zed, something he had been paying attention to.
Meanwhile, Zed had already initiated his transformation and was in the process of changing into his true cheetah form. He had already wasted a lot of energy and his cheetah form would waste more.
But, he needed that burst of speed that only his cheetah form could give. Lions were not supposed to match Cheetahs in terms of speed, it wasn't fair.
For Cheetahs, their strength in beast form wasn't that significant compared to their humanoid forms. The true power of a cheetah's body lay in the burst of speed that no humanoid form could have.
That was their advantage, speed.
If only he knew…
While yellow fur with black spots began to grow out of his skin, Kael suddenly appeared behind him like a ghostly devil.
His shimmering eyes witnessed the transformation, something that would normally not take more than two seconds for someone like Zed.
Zed sensed the arrival of Kael behind him which sent a cold shiver down his spine.
Before he could turn around or run away, Kael's whole mouth clamped over Zed's head and those golden fangs sank into Zed's neck.
"ZED!" Zod shouted as he flew over.
