# Chapter 17: Not a Fool
The crimson pupils rotated slightly at an angle absolutely impossible for ordinary creatures, and an invisible wave swept across the scene before him like a high-precision scanner.
At this moment, Joshua's perception had already delved into the microscopic realm, allowing him to observe the most fundamental composition of the world and every subtle fluctuation of energy. Through the fluctuations of surrounding magnetic fields and energy radiation, he could distinguish the power of every existence within several kilometers around him.
Now, in this southwestern wasteland, the individual with the greatest energy value was the general before him who called himself the Fourth Commander. It was as if a cold, icy ocean was stored within his body, vast enough to earn even a warrior's respect. But strangely enough, those elite undead soldiers showed no energy radiation whatsoever, and the colossal military god projection that towered above the clouds was the same.
Compared to their appearance of stirring heaven and earth, raising wind and clouds, in terms of energy vision, they seemed as if they didn't exist in this world at all—extremely contradictory.
There was no doubt—the military god projection and the undead soldiers were both real and tangible. Their blades carved across the earth, raising a shower of dazzling sparks. The enormous energy greatsword swung with the dragon-armored general's movements, causing even space to ripple. But aside from this, in energy vision, they simply 'did not exist.'
For a warrior whose combat process was calculated in ten-thousandths of a second, who spent most of his time dodging and parrying through refined martial techniques and intuition that could foresee the future, this was a massive hidden danger—relying solely on naked eye 'observation' and then having the brain 'react,' without energy perception, was far too slow. A powerhouse of the same rank could use this time difference to deliver a fatal blow to Joshua.
Therefore, logically speaking, he should continue to confront Arman until he saw through the true nature of the other's secret technique. This was the most correct choice.
But unfortunately, Joshua considered himself not a fool.
However, he had never bothered to be a smart person either.
So the man holding the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance took a step forward.
Like a forged steel furnace, like a blazing sun, high-concentration life energy radiated from the warrior's robust muscles that far surpassed adamantite steel. The floating dust and air, the dry earth, rocks, and metal beneath his feet—all spontaneously retreated with Joshua as the center, forming an absolute vacuum domain. Countless rocks seemed to lose gravity, beginning to orbit around this domain like satellites.
Steel Force hummed faintly. The foundations of the world were pried loose by violent power. Under the repulsion of powerful life energy, gravity disappeared from this land!
And in the next instant, Arman, whose internal alarms had been raised to maximum, could only see a spear tip of crimson radiance that robbed all light and color, thrusting from several kilometers away!
Fast! So fast that even thought transmission seemed too slow—having lost gravity and air resistance, the warrior's full-power thrust reached the astonishing speed of nearly fifty times the speed of sound. This meant that if Joshua were in the starry cosmos, he could now break free from the gravitational binding of the earth, or even the sun, with his own power alone, heading toward the distant, vast sea of stars!
This thrust was like a rocket accelerating at full power. Its reaction force created a raging sandstorm behind the warrior. But Arman, who had been on full alert from the start, had no mind to pay attention to the surrounding scene. Facing this sword lance that had already burst in before him in a fraction of a second—more dangerous than any terror he had ever encountered—he could only choose to parry!
"Clang!"
Wind and thunder raged wildly. The speed at which the dragon-armored general swung his longsword was enough to draw out plasma from the surrounding air. But even so, this somewhat hasty parry could not perfectly defend against the enemy's such terrifying great force—the ancient longsword struck the side of the sword lance that was already close at hand. Arman tried to deflect the thrust outward, and although the spear tip was indeed redirected, moving sideways, the armor on Arman's arm shattered at the same time, bone fragments spraying out from beneath, and his body bent sharply.
Although he had temporarily escaped being pierced through by the sword lance, the arm and lumbar spine he had used to deflect the force were completely shattered and broken, severely damaged by Joshua's violent power!
But the general's counterattack arrived swiftly—the massive military god projection, with lightning speed completely inconsistent with its appearance, swung its bone-shattering giant hammer, crashing down at a speed of ten thousand meters per second toward the warrior who had just withdrawn his lance and was preparing to strike again. This hammer covered a range of several hundred meters in radius, like a mountain collapsing, like a meteor falling from the sky. Layer upon layer of ring-shaped ripples rose from the atmosphere. Its characteristic of having no energy reaction whatsoever made it directly smash this powerful enemy deep into the earth's crust!
Boom! The earth and rock shattered like biscuits under the hammer. Waves of mud and rock dust burst forth from the cracks in the crust. At the same time, countless undead soldiers began charging like machines toward the place where the giant hammer had landed, in neat and orderly formation. The earth trembled under the footsteps of this undead army, and their speed even broke the sound barrier. This elite heavy infantry, numbering over ten thousand, all had strength approaching, or even reaching, the Gold Realm!
This was the most elite dragon-slaying army of the empire that had once unified the entire continent, incorporating heaven and earth into its territory!
And it was only at this moment that the sand and wind from the sandstorm created by the warrior's thrust began their first howl. This sound, together with the thunderous roar of the hammer's impact, traveled to the ends of the earth, causing the entire northwestern wilderness to tremble.
Within a thousandth of a second, Joshua and Arman had each exchanged a blow, each gaining something.
"...Truly strong, like a human-shaped dragon... No, even the Dragon King of that time didn't have such terrifying power and speed."
The voice came from the gap of the dragon-headed helmet. Arman, whose arm and spine had been shattered, almost completely paralyzed, slowly floated up against gravity. Countless shattered bone fragments and armor pieces gathered back onto his body as if time were flowing backward, restoring him to his original state. Silently, several soldiers among the undead army completely disappeared, dissipating into nothingness.
This was pure power and speed that surpassed limits, reaching the realm of the non-human and transcendent. To surpass the opponent in this aspect was almost impossible.
The two red points of light in the dragon-armored general's helmet flickered uncertainly, but a confident laugh emerged from within.
Fortunately, he had never relied on this aspect to defeat his opponents!
On the other side, the giant hammer that the military god projection had smashed down was knocked flying by a great force. The enormous force even caused this titan-like giant to take a step backward. And Joshua's figure rose from the huge crater, which was over two hundred meters deep.
It could be seen that the bones of the warrior's right hand, which was not holding the lance, were completely twisted. Countless splattered flesh and blood were fixed by battle qi, floating in mid-air, rising from the crater together with Joshua. He ignored the countless undead soldiers charging toward him, instead fixing his gaze on Arman in the distance, who was healing himself.
"Very impactful."
He said this, and with a series of teeth-grinding creaks, the bones of the warrior's right arm were corrected back to their original shape under layers of battle qi. Countless splattered flesh and blood, as if alive, wriggled back to their original positions. Crimson battle qi swept across the exposed muscles, and a layer of skin gleaming with metallic light covered them.
Joshua clenched his fist forcefully. The battle qi condensed on his arm instantly exploded, releasing a ring of translucent shockwaves. Relying on his powerful life energy, the warrior's self-healing speed was no less than that of the undead general.
And the next moment was the second round.
Countless undead soldiers had already reached the edge of the huge crater. These elite soldiers, close to the Gold Realm, had discarded all emotions when they became undead after death. They silently obeyed all their general's commands, showing no retreat even when facing a humanoid monster far more dangerous than dragons and demons.
With a uniform metallic friction sound, they simultaneously drew a javelin gleaming with cold light from their backs, then hurled it with full force toward Joshua. The sound of breaking air was shrill. Over ten thousand metal javelins covered every gap in the air like raindrops, leaving the warrior no room to dodge. The three layers of destruction inscriptions—demon-breaking, armor-breaking, and energy-breaking—engraved on them made these javelins unstoppable, capable of easily piercing even dragon scales.
And the military god projection, after stagnating for a moment, seemingly having accumulated some energy, moved again. This time, it swung not the bone-shattering heavy hammer, but the armor-splitting longsword. The energy longsword, hundreds of meters long, swung at lightning speed, its tip reaching an unimaginable velocity. It completely sealed off all paths of retreat, forcing Joshua to choose between facing the rain of javelins or the mountain-splitting giant sword!
And the warrior chose to face both!
Facing countless supersonic javelins flying toward him, Joshua took a deep breath, his momentum as if to devour heaven and earth. This 'Devour Heaven and Earth' inhalation instantly drained most of the free-floating energy within nearly a kilometer in radius, plunging the weather into the depths of a bitter winter in an instant. Then, he exhaled!
A hurricane of energy mixed with thunder stirred the atmospheric magnetic field before him. The chaotic, changing electromagnetic force caused all iron javelins to become magnetized, then rapidly merge together like magnets, falling to the earth. In just an instant, the rain of javelins, enough to slay dozens of dragons, all fell harmlessly.
Having dealt with that, Joshua turned to face the horizontally slashing giant sword. Having experienced a blow from the bone-shattering giant hammer, the warrior had roughly seen through part of the true nature of this secret technique. This sword was less a physical sword and more a curse condensed from killing intent and energy, named 'Severance.' The military god projection was originally not a physical entity; the reason it could affect reality was that its giant hammer carried the concept of 'Shatter Everything,' and its longsword carried the concept of 'Sever Everything!'
Against this strike, dodging and parrying were useless—one only needed to use stronger, more impactful power to completely crush it.
So the warrior raised his long lance. Black-red spiral light churned at the spear tip.
Just like long ago, in the Ilgena World, the light that had pierced through the world-destroying meteor.