The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1015: The Malefic Viper vs Yip of Yore (3) The aura of the Malefic Viper grew to new heights as he assumed his full dragon form. Yip took a few steps back, assessing the situation as the Viper finished his transformation from a small regular-sized humanoid into a nearly hundred-meter-long dragon. The injuries he’d suffered during the fight prior were mostly healed upon transformation as Vilastromoz’s vibe changed entirely.

Spreading his wings, space shook, and Yip raised his blade, ready to defend. Just in time, too, as magic gathered, filling the sky with orbs of malefic energy, which were promptly sent flying toward Yip of Yore.

He dodged and blocked most, using his concept to nullify whatever damage he did take. With his seeming immunity to poisons, the Viper changed things up and focused solely on doing damage using more regular means... regular means in his book, that is.

The malefic affinity wasn’t solely one of poison. It was one of corruption. While Yip could certainly raise his resistance to poison, he couldn’t resist corruption, for corruption didn’t have one unifying concept.

To the Malefic Viper, corruption was merely another word for transmutation, albeit an a bit more extreme variant. To corrupt something was to change it somehow, often for the worse, at least from the perspective of the changed entity. It was change without care about stability, forced upon the entity it was used on.

The most common form of corruption the Viper used was in the form of poisons. Poisons were energy that systematically wanted to cause harm, as that was what it was programmed to do. In many ways, corruption and poison were one and the same in many instances, but corruption had a far wider scope.

Another form of common corruption was desolation. Perhaps, to some, this was the ultimate expression of something being corrupted. To be emptied entirely of energy, making it hollow and unable to house anything ever again if made desolate for too long.

The malefic affinity was a fusion of all these concepts and more. It was a pinnacle-tier affinity primarily due to its extreme level of complexity, but that complexity also gave it many use cases. It could be applied in more places and more situations... and Yip was far from fully comprehending its true scope.

Something that was brilliantly displayed when he dodged two blows and tried to nullify the impact of the third by relying on the precedence that he was able to dodge the attacks through his concept.

However, rather than nullify the third blow, he was struck head-on, his eyes opening wide in genuine surprise. Even more so when a massive fang of pure magic descended from above, slamming into him and pinning him to the Great Planet below as a crater on an astronomical scale formed.

Not letting up, the Viper attacked again, but Yip managed to dodge as he teleported away, still leaving him with a giant hole straight through his chest that was quickly healing. It didn’t heal as fast as the god probably expected, though.

He glanced at the Viper with confusion, but all he got as an answer was another barrage of attacks that didn’t act how Yip expected them to, putting him on the back foot. Not losing his momentum at all, the Viper upped the pressure, truly unleashing every shred of power available to him.

By now, they’d well and truly surpassed a level even the Boundless Hydra could keep up with. It was a battle where Godkings would find themselves instantly killed, and the damage to their surroundings reached a new high.

If they hadn’t been battling on a Great Planet, there wouldn’t be anything left anywhere around them in a vast radius. Galaxies would have crumbled, planets would be nothing but invisible cosmic dust, and all the stars would have been blown out like candles in a hurricane.

What’s more, due to the Viper being part of the fight, this damage would have left the entire area dead and barren for eras to come, if not permanently. If Yip of Yore hadn’t used a Void Sphere at the pinnacle tier, it wouldn’t have been able to hold up either, and the temporary dimension would have shattered, sending them both back to the real world.

Luckily, none of that happened, even as the Viper launched attack after attack toward the struggling Yip of Yore, who was trying to constantly adapt in vain. His confusion soon began to turn to realization after he’d taken significant damage.

“You’re... poisoning my energy? No... concept? More than that...?” he said, perplexed as his skill failed to activate once more, leading to his arm being sent flying. He tried to heal it, but the arm didn’t reappear instantly like it normally would.

“Laws... you’re corrupting laws?” Yip continued speaking out loud, doing so very purposefully. He wasn’t asking the Viper, but the world itself and his own abilities. He was searching for confirmation through speaking theories into the world, looking for signs of truth from the theories he spouted.

Vilastromoz saw no need to confirm or deny anything as he pushed Yip into a corner while working his magic to unleash even larger attacks. Throughout, he’d also been charging a special little something Yip was sure to appreciate.

long moved from where they originally fought, no longer caring about losing ground to the other party. They passed over deserts spanning the width of several galaxies, and a single claw swipe infused with energy tore up a jungle capable of housing

could, his sword blows creating now long fissures whenever they hit the ground below, redirecting rivers that moved more water every second than Earth even had several thousand times over,

end of the planet, Yip finally seemed to reach an adequate level of understanding of what the Malefic Viper was doing, once more proving he truly

couldn’t poison me directly, so you poisoned the world around me. Damaged the laws my concepts relied on, making my skills unstable. Even simple laws, such as how fast one can regenerate, were subtly affected... I didn’t even know that was possible without entering the realm

the head, and as he spoke this truth into reality, his entire presence seemed to solidify all around him. He smiled gleefully at his realization, his

the energy consumption must be immense. Far more than if

because he had to. He would run out of energy faster than Yip unless he could continually do substantial damage, and while he had certainly done

feat once, and passively, he would be able to do it far more easily

injured significantly, Yip attacked with newfound fervor, the Viper being pushed back once again. With both of them having seemingly reached their limits of power, neither held anything back as each unleashed dozens of skills upon

the Forest of Titans, leaving trees the size of solar systems piled like timber, down into the ground where entire sections of the Great Planet’s mantle collapsed as earthquakes began to rock the continents and even into space where

should you

up as he kept up the fight, leaving plenty of wounds on his opponent. At this point in the fight, Yip had several black spots all over his body where his newfound poison “immunity” proved to not quite make him immune anyway, and while he did avoid taking any soul injuries, his body remained a mess as the Viper continued to

and the Great Planet was left a mess worth recording in the history

one who had to make a large move if he wanted to try and grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. As they clashed several more times, the Viper was looking for this opening, with

Great Planet, the Viper had left a trap, and as they flew past, Yip was taken by surprise as half a dozen complex magic circles activated in the sky, creating a seal

been charging and preparing an attack that was known to surpass grades. One that used a concept Yip of Yore had not

The Dragon’s Breath of a god erupted from his maw, sending out a shockwave that sundered half a content on the Great Planet simply by

glimpse of genuine fear marring his face. His entire body erupted with power as he broke free of the seal by releasing whatever power he still kept hidden and swung his sword to meet the Breath that took the form of a massive dark

while fully enveloping Yip of Yore. As the beam slowly faded, all that was left where it had passed was pure nothingness. It

the cosmos, sucking in energy from all around as the natural laws tried – and failed – to fill the gap

had overextended himself significantly with an attack that would usually be able to kill a

moments passed, and there was no sign of Yip of Yore anywhere. Yet there was no notification either. Glancing about and sending out a wave of energy to feel for his opponent, the Viper searched for the other god for several seconds until, finally, he

space. His stride was slow but measured, and as the Viper saw

felt the aura he gave off, and

you reached your peak...”

gray and black, devoid of energy, and his limbs hung uselessly down as his face slumped. Half of his Soulshape had even been destroyed, and the damage would likely never heal unless he got some outside help... and even so, it would take thousands of years at a minimum using any semi-regular means.

the Viper spoke again. “That won’t heal quickly, that’s for

know about that,” Yip smiled as he raised his sword again and began flying toward the Viper despite only being able to move half of his body. “I

drawing on the very last fumes of energy he had left. It was far weaker than before, but Yip was still taken by surprise. Yet

maelstrom and the Breath met one another as the sky erupted, and for a moment, they looked evenly matched until Yip’s superior level of power won out. The Breath was split in half as Yip descended upon the Viper, and before

massive crater formed, the impact powerful enough to make the entire planet move slightly downward and for

Viper now back in his humanoid form, the sword stabbing him through the center of his chest, and Yip