The Almighty Ring

“So, you’ve faced death countless times. If you wish to ignore the stairway to heaven, I will grant you the highway to hell!” Bison bellowed before he spewed a large ball of fire toward Jiang Fei.

“Whoa!”

Jiang Fei dodged the incoming incendiary gas. However, when he noticed that the flaming ball was headed toward his palace, which was made of flammable materials, he charged his hands with a surge of energy and sent it out to extinguish the ball of flame.

“Your battle is with me. Come on, don’t go burning down a work of art!” Jiang Fei taunted, gesturing for Bison to come at him again.

“Your clowning stops now!” Bison snarled and charged toward Jiang Fei. Soldiers from both Bison’s side and Jiang Fei’s side started to rally together, not to fight, but to watch the furious battle of two titans. Some stronger ones who had the ability of flight flew into the sky to spectate the fight from a better view.

With a wider area of battle, Jiang Fei activated the gauntlet on his hand and unleashed a hot plasma blade. A slash of the lightsaber would be lethal even if the person had a combat level of over 9,500,000.

Bison let out a deafening roar, and with a sudden burst of red aura, he gained breakneck speeds, allowing him to instantly appear next to Jiang Fei.

That was when Jiang Fei activated his weapon. During that process, any other professional fighter would have taken the opportunity to strike. However, keep in mind that Jiang Fei had the art of the sword, which was derived from many other Chinese sword styles. His fighting style would be far more refined than an alien’s.

“Heh, he took the bait!” Jiang Fei hummed. While he was still preparing the blade in his right hand, Jiang Fei clenched his left fist, ready to deliver a devastating punch to Bison.

Wham!

Wham!

“Ugh!” Bison groaned as he took Jiang Fei’s left punch to the face. However, he was fast and agile enough to land a clean hit on Jiang Fei’s chest. Both Bison and Jiang Fei were blown away. Bison had benefited more from trading blows since Jiang Fei was in the midst of preparing a slash. Bison’s punch on his chest had prevented him from executing his next move. That being said, both of them learned a lot from the encounter. Bison was shocked to learn that Jiang Fei was not as weak as he seemed. His skill in the fighting arts was good. Jiang Fei, on the other hand, acknowledged Bison’s exploding strength. Trading blows was no longer an option.

“Bah, a two million gap in combat level really does make a difference. If not for the battlesuit, I would have broken a rib or two.” Jiang Fei grunted. He took a deep breath and prepared his lightsaber for another round.

“Boy, I’m giving you one last chance to surrender half of what you’ve got! I won’t be holding back anymore!” Bison snorted. Bison was sure that even though Jiang Fei was skilled in the fighting arts, he was still structurally weaker than him. As long as he could land a few punches, Jiang Fei would surely perish. Nevertheless, even with confidence to defeat Jiang Fei, Bison still did not want to prolong the battle. He knew very well that Jiang Fei would not go down without a fight, and if he took more damage than he could bear, the other three leaders would swoop in like vultures to nip on his carcass.

“The feeling’s mutual. Come at me with everything you’ve got!” Jiang Fei dismissed his offer with a condescending laugh. The stronger his opponent was, the happier Jiang Fei was. The closer he was at death’s door, the higher the chances for him to break his limiter!

“Fool! Recognize when it is time to surrender!” Bison barked. Alas, he would not give Jiang Fei a chance to live. Bison formulated a strategy against Jiang Fei on the fly. This time, he would use whatever skill he had, relying on his vast combat experience to force Jiang Fei to take hit after hit.

“Hah… Hah…”

The battle went on for only three rounds before Jiang Fei became the first to bleed. His battlesuit was solid, but Bison’s attacks were stronger. He had merely traded less than six blows with Bison and had already sustained heavy damage to his body.

“Look at you… How weak you are! Being human only makes you weak! Being human will not allow you to become stronger…!”

“Accept the power! Become one with energy! Forego your humanity and become a being of pure energy!

“Your arms are heavy now, and soon, your legs will give in. The muscles all over your body are screaming in pain! Give up! You will not become any stronger without first becoming a being of energy!

“Having a body of pure energy will render you insusceptible to damage. As long as your outer shell remains, you will live forever!”

While Jiang Fei was trying his best to keep his lungs from collapsing, a voice echoed in his mind, whispering words of temptation. The voice was persuading Jiang Fei to accept the Blackhole Core so that it could fully convert Jiang Fei into a being of pure energy.

“What the f*ck!? 0541! Is that you?” Jiang Fei shouted telepathically.

“Huh? I didn’t say anything!” 0541 replied.

Bison noticed that split second when Jiang Fei was distracted, and he took advantage of it.

“Pay attention to me, boy! You dare allow yourself to be distracted?!” Bison bellowed as he tackled Jiang Fei with a shoulder charge and landed a clean double-fist punch to his chest.

The blow was so powerful that Jiang Fei broke the sound barrier multiple times while he was blown away. He then crashed into the ground, and even though the battlesuit negated some damage, Jiang Fei still suffered from internal bleeding.

“Hack… Ptui!”

Jiang Fei spat out a mouthful of blood. It was not the time to worry about anything else. He needed to pay attention since fighting Bison would require everything he had.

“That’s it. Surrender all of your Ultralisk meat and I will let you live,” Bison demanded, increasing his demand for Ultralisk meat.

“You’ll have to beat it out of me first!” Jiang Fei scoffed. He dusted himself off and charged at Bison with his lightsaber, ready to cleave into him.

“You’ll regret this…” Bison hummed. He never thought that he could land such a clean hit on Jiang Fei, but then again, Jiang Fei being distracted mid-fight helped.

The battle between two titans continued and the apparent loser was only becoming easier to discern. Jiang Fei’s movement had gotten increasingly draggy ever since he took a blow to his chest. Blood was coming out not just from his mouth but also from his nose and ears.

“Oh no! Our leader is losing!”

“What are we going to do? What are we going to do?!”

Panic ensued as Jiang Fei was clearly losing. If he fell in battle, nothing good could happen to them.

“Fei… please, be alright…” Sarila prayed hard while she witnessed the fight from the sky above.

“What is going on with Jiang Fei? He was genuinely confident before, but now he is taking a beating!” Kaa’lna commented.

Kaa’lna was convinced that Jiang Fei was truly a strong individual. She refused to believe that he would allow himself to take such a beating willingly.

…

“Hah… Hah… Owwwie…” Jiang Fei groaned the moment he had some breathing room. The pain from sustaining so many blows was numbing his senses. All he could feel right then was his organs rupturing inside him. In a battle of energy-based assaults, Jiang Fei suffered greatly from using physical force instead.

“Dammit. I should have learned about my own weaknesses…” Jiang Fei said to himself. Only then did he realize that martial arts did not allow him to fight all kinds of enemies out there. To be more accurate, martial arts only allowed him to fight enemies of the same combat level easier.

“Such weakness… Such fragility… So shall a human ever be. You of all humans have proved how weak a human is! You are the epitome of humanity’s weakness! Surrender to the flow of power! Become one with energy! Only then will you become the strongest in the universe!”

The voice of temptation surged in his mind. It was clearer this time.

“F*ck off! Who the f*ck are you?!” Jiang Fei, who was furious beyond recognition, bellowed at the top of his collapsed lungs.

“What the… Did I knock your brains out?” Bison said, thinking that Jiang Fei had taken too much damage, causing him to hallucinate an enemy that did not exist.