Fanaticism

Butcher Ivan charged forward. Plunging down from the opposite grassy slope, he entered the wide open clearing between the two battle formations and lunged straight toward Han Qingyu. His charge was rapid, yet visually it did not appear so. Visually, it conveyed a far heavier impression—like a massive, ponderous chunk of dead iron, one end rammed into the dirt, swiftly plowing forward. Blades of grass and clumps of soil sprayed outward to both sides. With both hands gripping his blade to the right, Butcher Ivan gradually raised the heavy sword horizontally as he charged. *Thrum!* Han Qingyu popped sixteen metal blocks down in one go. Seizing upon the resentment born of his heartache, he let that resentment fuel his strength and launched into a frontal countercharge. In the world of source energy, if you did not hold the advantage in power and had no intention of running, you had to countercharge. Taking a blade while standing rooted to the spot would severely diminish your kinetic energy. Darting forward while angling his body slightly, Han Qingyu held the column sword with both hands, similarly bringing it level across his right side. Between the two battle formations, the two figures closed in at a speed that defied perception, a collision imminent. "Be careful!" Several top combat powers in the front rank of the Huaxia Front cried out almost simultaneously in warning, though doing so was meaningless. For they had caught sight of a bizarre, terrifying spectacle: Ivan's long blade swept diagonally upward from right to left. Wherever that blade passed, across an arc of over ten meters, every green stalk and blade of grass turned withered yellow in an instant, then scorched black, and finally shattered into dust. Han Qingyu naturally saw it as well, but he did not falter in the least. The blue starlight column sword swung across in a slash from left to right just the same. *Boom!* The blue starlight column sword and the heavy blade crashed together. The moment the collision occurred, there seemed to be a brief stalemate. Then, the suit jacket on Han Qingyu turned to ash, followed by his trousers... Had he not been wearing a set of special-grade combat fatigues underneath, he would have been left stark naked in that instant. It was also fortunate that he was a super, possessing the defense of life source energy throughout his body; otherwise, his hair, eyebrows, and everything else might have vanished along with his clothes. "What a shameless trait," Wen Jifei remarked. Rusty Sister stared unblinkingly at the clearing. "Indeed." "What, don't tell me you actually wanted to see?" "Pah!" In a duel between fighters on the Dome Leaderboard, onlookers actually had time to exchange words during the very first clash. Then, *pffft!* The King spat out a mouthful of blood. That spray of blood acted like a fuse, igniting and setting off a sudden explosion right after the freeze-frame. The energy and air condensed between the two blades finally expanded and burst apart, violent source energy sweeping across all directions. The front few ranks of the ten-thousand-man formations on both sides recoiled involuntarily. By the time they regained their footing, a crater over twenty meters across had already appeared in the center of the field. Then, without warning, Major Qing went flying straight backward through the air. The three sides finally erupted: "Whoa!" Amid the uproar, before his body even stopped, Han Qingyu flung both hands backward, releasing the blue starlight column sword and hurling it toward Butcher Ivan. He was striking back. Yet this was no attack. As the column sword descended before Ivan, it merely plunged vertically toward the ground. Of course, at that moment, it had yet to hit the dirt. *Feng!* A resounding boom rang out, blasting a vertical mushroom cloud into the air, and Han Qingyu's airborne figure rebounded straight back. Tilting his body, he executed a clockwise turn midair while simultaneously drawing the twin blades from behind his shoulders. Blades in hand—one in his left, one in his right, yet both held on the left side of his body—the twin blades slashed parallel from left to right toward Ivan. "Whoa!" The clamor swelled again. For they saw that across a fan-shaped arc of over ten meters swept by The King's twin blades, every green stalk and blade of grass instantly turned withered yellow, then withered black, and finally shattered into dust. "Isn't that Ivan's trait?!" In that instant, even Ivan himself was taken aback. Then he brought his blade up to block! *Clang-shhk!* The twin blades struck and deflected past! Major Qing landed firmly, standing beside the column sword planted in the ground, and raised a hand to wipe the lingering blood from the corner of his mouth. Opposite him, Ivan staggered back more than a dozen paces in succession. A portion of the Huaxia formation burst into cheers, but every fighter at the top-tier and above wore a grim expression... From those two clashes just now, they could already tell that a significant gap still separated Major Qing and Ivan. In the first frontal clash, Major Qing had been knocked flying backward while vomiting blood. In the second, Ivan had taken the strike standing his ground, merely falling back a dozen-odd steps. "Commander!" Anxious that something might happen to Han Qingyu if the fight continued, an officer called out urgently. Yet Chen Buer waved a hand and made no move. In the clearing, Ivan steadied himself after stumbling back more than a dozen steps, slowly lifting his head to gaze at Han Qingyu with a perplexed look. He had just felt his own trait—which he called Fanaticism—but that was not all. Another destructive trait had entered his body and was now attacking his heart. That thing could perhaps be called death energy. ...In fact, before Han Qingyu took the field, he had first received a trait attack from Corpse Man Weize, then one from Theodore. He had taken a slash from anyone who might possess a trait. Unfortunately, when taking Wu Xu's strike, just like his previous experiments, he had felt nothing whatsoever, let alone witnessed the circulation of life source energy repairing the body. This fighting tactic could hardly be called underhanded, for this was genuinely how he intended to go and hack Alphonse. "Dual traits? And one of them is the same as mine?" Suppressing the death energy, Ivan asked in a gravelly voice. Only the two of them could hear this. Han Qingyu gave no answer... "You'll go mad if you possess Fanaticism as well." A trace of sorrow flickered through Ivan's eyes. It flickered for only a brief instant. Afterward, his gaze gradually turned savage, carrying a bone-chilling fanaticism. He smiled—from a faint curl of his lips to a soundless, wide grin. "Looks like you are worth it! I'll have to put in some real effort and finish you off quickly!" he declared as if passing judgment. The moment he finished speaking— Thirty thousand people across three sides held their breath. They should have erupted in commotion, but no sound escaped them, for the sight before their eyes had surpassed the bounds of mere astonishment. "What is that? Magma?!" someone said numbly. "It looks like it, but no actual magma is flowing out—there's nothing physical," another person answered just as numbly. At that moment, across Ivan's cheeks, arms, and chest, his skin seemed to turn translucent, and his clothes appeared transparent as well. Visually, it was as if scorching molten lava was slowly coursing through him. The grass at his feet instantly withered and shattered, this wave of destruction rippling outward in a circle. A death-defying burst of life source energy! After only two clashes. "Has this madman truly discarded his life like this?!" Things had gone too far. Chen Buer drew his blade, preparing to intervene. At the same time: "Kill him! Kill him quickly!" Mosorijin, who had been timid and subservient moments ago, shrieked savagely from afar. Yet—"Roar!" In the center of the field, facing the molten lava, Major The Qing shook his arms. In truth, no sound left his mouth, but bizarrely, people felt as though a colossal beast had let out a roar. The air around Major Qing also seemed to freeze and solidify into the phantom silhouette of a gigantic beast. The encroaching destruction of the grass ground to a halt ten meters before him. "It is not as if I have exerted my full strength either," he said.