Strange Battle (Part 1)

Alex, who had copied Sebastian Shaw’s ability, could absorb energy. Ordinary blows would only increase his energy and could not hurt him at all. But clearly, the giant hand of the suddenly living skyscraper was an exception. Alex was certain that if that hand got a solid grip on him, his body would be crushed into pulp before he could absorb all the energy from the blow.

After carefully dodging the giant hand, Alex flew before the skyscraper man’s head. A Red Impact Beam as thick as his arm burst from his chest. This time, Alex did not hold back, deliberately using the beam’s impact to amplify its destructive power.

Alex’s plan was excellent, and the result was equally good. A hole the size of a head appeared in the skyscraper man’s head. Yet to Alex’s disbelief, the skyscraper man merely swayed slightly before continuing his attack, as though he had not been hurt at all.

"Foolish!" The Black Queen’s voice followed, her tone utterly flat, as if she were stating the most ordinary thing in the world.

Alex flushed and immediately understood. This skyscraper man had to have been created by the Black Queen and was obviously under her control. Unless he smashed it to pieces completely, she could manipulate it however she wished.

Having figured that out, Alex dodged the skyscraper man’s giant hand again and turned toward the Black Queen. A cold glint flashed across his reddened face, and faint killing intent shone in his bright eyes.

"Sebastian Shaw fell to you, but I won’t!" Feeling the undisguised killing intent radiating from Alex, the Black Queen glanced sideways at him and smiled casually, seemingly unconcerned.

Alex snorted coldly. He was not intimidated by her words. With a raised hand, ten steel balls turned into swift bullets, tearing through the air and appearing before the Black Queen without warning, fast as lightning.

Even with the steel balls right before her, the Black Queen’s expression did not change. She did not even spare them a proper glance. Her eyes remained on Alex, carrying a faint trace of amusement, as if she were waiting for something.

Alex was surprised, and somewhat worried. The Black Queen’s behavior was far too strange, nothing like that of a normal person.

As he pondered this, an unexpected sight appeared before him. The ten steel balls seemed to pierce through a layer of black smoke and pass directly through the Black Queen’s body. Aside from stirring the smoke into turbulence, they did not harm her in the slightest.

Faintly, Alex sensed the mockery in the Black Queen’s gaze.

With a heavy snort, Alex fired the Red Impact Beam again. In his view, the steel balls were a physical attack. It did not matter if they could not hurt the Black Queen; an energy attack surely could.

The facts proved that the Black Queen not only ignored Physical Attacks, but did not care about energy attacks either. The Red Impact Beam pierced through her chest, but the hole it left existed for less than a second before the churning smoke swiftly erased it.

Alex stared blankly at the unruffled Black Queen opposite him. For a moment, he had no idea what to do. Physical Attacks and energy attacks were both useless. She was even more shameless than he was. How was he supposed to fight her?

As his thoughts churned, a fierce gust suddenly swept in from behind him. Without even thinking, Alex spun around and fired a Red Impact Beam, piercing straight through the skyscraper man’s reaching giant hand.

After the strike, just as Alex was preparing to press his advantage, inspiration flashed through his mind. Without blinking, he stared at the hole in the skyscraper man’s palm, and a smug smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

Everything had its limits. Take Sebastian Shaw’s Energy Absorption, for example. If the energy he absorbed exceeded the limit his body could withstand, the energy would make his body explode. Likewise, if energy poured in faster than his body could absorb it, the result would be the same.

As he thought, Alex pretended to dodge the skyscraper man’s other hand in disarray. Secretly, he controlled the ten steel balls to slowly approach the Black Queen, moving as gradually as possible to avoid drawing her attention.

Perhaps the Black Queen was too confident, or perhaps Alex’s acting was so convincing that it lowered her guard. Even when the ten steel balls came within less than a meter of her, the Black Queen remained completely unaware.

Alex smiled and used Teleportation to jump straight out of the skyscraper man’s attack range, appearing right before the Black Queen instead. Before she could react in surprise, the ten steel balls arranged above and below abruptly transformed into sheets of steel. They instantly joined together, sealing the Black Queen inside.

"Got you!" Seeing the tightly sealed metal box, a brilliant smile bloomed across Alex’s face. At the same time, he continued controlling the metal box, making it shrink bit by bit.

Sealing the Black Queen inside the metal box was only one part of the plan. The crucial step was this: shrinking it. Once the metal box shrank to a certain point, Alex believed that even if the Black Queen turned into a cloud of black smoke, she would not be able to endure it.

Alex’s idea was wonderful, but reality was different. When the metal box had only shrunk by half, Alex realized his plan was about to fail. The steel, barely thicker than paper, was being violently attacked and was on the verge of being torn apart.

In his urgency, Alex added another layer of energy barrier around the metal box.

Just as Alex finished the energy barrier, the Black Queen tore open the metal box and stepped out. Her face was dark, and her gaze toward Alex carried a few more traces of hatred.

"Alex, you have successfully enraged me!" the Black Queen said through gritted teeth as she stared at him, her alluring face full of fury.

Before Alex could reply, the Black Queen had already acted impatiently.

Without any warning, a massive Flame Beast appeared out of nowhere, as though it had crawled out of the void. It stood more than ten meters tall, its entire body made of orange flames, with even hotter sky-blue flames occasionally flaring from it.

At the sight of such a Flame Beast, most people’s first reaction would have been fear, followed by running away. Yet Alex smiled, and he smiled very happily.

The Black Queen frowned, staring at Alex in astonishment. From his expression, she could easily tell that he was genuinely smiling rather than merely pretending.

Before the Black Queen could figure it out, she suddenly discovered that the Flame Beast she controlled showed faint signs of collapsing. This was something that had never been possible before.

Without thinking further, the Black Queen instinctively strengthened her mental control. But at that moment, she discovered in shock that Alex was also fighting for the Flame Beast—no, more precisely, for control of the flames!

Watching the dumbfounded Black Queen, Alex grinned. He controlled nearly thirty percent of the flames to separate from the Flame Beast and said smugly, "Sorry, I stole your stuff!" With Alex’s control over energy, creating such a massive Flame Beast was impossible for him, but stealing the flames was easy.

The Black Queen’s face darkened even further. With a shrill cry, she commanded the reformed Flame Beast to charge at Alex.