A Cultivation Tale: The Godly Punisher

Chapter 267: Frustrated, showing his power

Once Alex opened his eyes and gazed at Soulstorm whose eyes were open, he suddenly found himself in another world.

The great crowd of people watching them weren't in this world that Soulstorm created for him.

In this illusionary world that was created, Alex could see that the sky was normal. Just about everything was normal. However, a few moments later, the earth began to tremble. And from the way it shook, it was like some massive primordial beast wanted to rip out of it to come attack him.

But Alex wasn't frightened by it. Instead, he got ready to defend himself from what may come, as it was what caused the earth to tremble.

Therefore, with dilated eyes, he looked on to know what was causing the intense trembling of the earth.

Not long, dozens of copper-skinned giants with six horns on their heads and wielding large bone clubs suddenly appeared in the far distance. They were running furiously towards Alex.

Only Alex saw this as his vision had been totally affected by the illusion power that was released by Soulstorm in all directions.

Immediately Alex saw these giants, he tried to break out of the illusion before Soulstorm would arrive before him and impact him so hard that he would be knocked off the stage.

He knew that one of these giants would be Soulstorm. And if he got to him, he would simply be knocked off the stage. So he tried to use his illusion-power which he derived from cultivation of phantasmforce energy to break out of the illusion. And the idea that he got of doing this was to fight illusion using illusion.

So before the giants could get to him, Alex abruptly released an all-directional wave of illusion-power from his body. This wave which produced illusionary objects that Alex created in his mind, appeared in Soulstorm's vision.

Although he was affected by the illusory items that Alex created. However, they only lasted for sometime before they vanished from his vision.

Why this was so was because the stage at which Soulstorm had cultivated his soul to, was exactly comparable to that of an initial-phase, Sky Lord stage. It was also the reason why Alex couldn't break out of the illusion that he generated. 

Not long, the giants appeared before Alex and struck out hard with their enormous bone clubs at him.

Alex's widened in slight fear.

He knew that he couldn't be struck by any of the unreal giants, or he would be shoved away from the stage, as any of them could be Soulstorm who would deliver a powerful punch or kick that would hurl him off the battle platform. And he couldn't use his speedforce energy on the movement speed of the giants. They would simply be unaffected by it, as they not real. 

He however tried to dodge the smashing club-attacks of the giants. But he wasn't successful with his evasion of their alarming furious attacks as one eventually struck him hard and caused him to be launched many feet away from where he initially stood.

In the real life, it was Soulstorm's fist that connected to Alex's chest and caused him to be knocked away.

When Alex stood by doing a kip up to get back to his feet, the illusionary world that he was in quickly changed to another.

Now, the sky was crimson and cloudless, and a large horde of winged beasts that had substances that resembled lava flowing in their veins could be seen flying about in the sky.

Then suddenly, with deafening cries of wrath, they all unleashed solid, colored balls of seemingly frenzied fire at him.

Of course, these weren't real.

Seeing the fiery balls which were furiously shooting towards him, Alex tried to dodge them, and as well be on the lookout for Soulstorm who could be anywhere and then suddenly launch a powerful stealth attack at him.

Not long, many of the raging flying beasts that clouded the sky suddenly swooped down towards him. And with the heads straightened with the rest of their bodies, they shot towards him at high speeds to use their hard and solid horned heads to knock him off the stage.

However, with good aerial skills and powerful thigh muscles, he was able to evade many of them. But one suddenly appeared from nowhere and struck him heavily at the back.

Bang!

A powerful kick was delivered to his back by Soulstorm and Alex was sent flying for a few feet before crashing unto the platform.

Although he couldn't be injured by the punches or kicks that Soulstorm would release as he had a tough body that couldn't be damaged by his fists and legs, he was simply frustrated. He was being knocked here and there and wasn't able to do anything about it.

Not long, after he stood up, the flying hideous beasts came over at high speeds and tried to hit him again with their heads. He tried to evade the smashing head-attacks of the horned beasts in which any of them could be Soulstorm's fists or legs. But he couldn't evade successfully as one of the beasts' head struck him.

Bang!

He was knocked away again into the distance where he landed unto the battle platform with a loud bang. But he couldn't be injured.

People who were watching the battle became slightly disappointed. They thought that Alex was invincible in his cultivation stage, no matter the type of cultivation that they practiced. But now, the ongoing dueling match that they were watching had proved then all wrong.

Olivia saw how Alex was being knocked here and there by Soulstorm's fists and feet and became astonished. Then she became worried after she saw that Alex was just been beaten here and there, and him been unable to successfully deliver his own attack.

"I thought you said he was a genius?" A principal from an academy asked the principal of the Immovable Mountain Academy.

The principal of the Immovable Mountain Academy exhaled. Then he looked at the principal that asked that question.

"Well, yes. He's a genius. Didn't he handle the asses of all the geniuses from all the academies gathered here at once? Were they able to do a thing to him?" He asked in a harsh tone.

Hahaha!

The principal of the Scarlet Fire academy laughed.

"True. True. Haha" He said and grinned.

...

Soulstorm didn't want to push Alex off the stage just yet. He wanted to ridicule him first in front of everyone before knocking him off stage. Besides, he was doing this prove to everyone that he's the strongest, since he could easily beat the person that claimed to be extremely strong at the cultivation stage that he was in.

With a smile in his face, he continued to dish out strong punches and hard kicks at Alex.

"Would you surrender now?" He asked Alex who was in the distance on the floor of the battle platform.

Alex exhaled.

Of course he had no plan of surrendering just yet. Or it should put in this way, he would never ever surrender. Only if he was knocked off the stage would he give up the battle. But why would he want to give up the battle? Not for anything in the world as it concerns Olivia, her reputation and that of her family and the academy that she studies at.

But he knew that he would have lost the light of fame that shone upon him when he overwhelmed every other geniuses that he fought with.

Then he stood to his feet while Soulstorm waited for him to say his answer.

"Bro, I am waiting for your response" He said again.

Everyone's gazes were fixed on Alex.

Some had the feeling that he would definitely surrender as he couldn't even touch Soulstorm at all. While others believed that he would continue to fight the battle till he was knocked off the stage.

Even at this moment, he was still in that world that had a cloudless, crimson sky. But he could see Soulstorm in his vision. However, this was because Soulstorm made himself to appear before Alex so that they could communicate.

Alex looked at him and said "Truly, soul cultivators are powerful. But do you think you have experienced my full power?"

Huh?!

Everyone were taken aback by what Alex just said. Except Olivia who knew how strong Alex was, but only to an extent as she couldn't really fathom the limits and actual number of his powerful abilities.

"What power does he still have? Hasn't he unleashed everything?" Someone asked the people around him.

"Dunno. Since he says he hasn't, then he hasn't" One replied with uncertainty in his tone.

"Haha."

Soulstorm cackled.

"You have come again with your, 'do you think you have experienced my full power'. Haha. I would advise that you step off the stage or I would continue to humiliate you before I kick you off the stage. And that would make you finally lose the small amounts of fans that you have left" He said.

"Okay. Then let's see if you are up to the task" Alex said.

Before Soulstorm could rush towards Alex to continue to humiliate him, Alex let out his powers. However, only one of them. And this was the power of Fire.

A tremendous amount of dark scarlet fire suddenly erupted from Alex's body. Immediately the surprisingly violent and raging, scarlet-colored flame discharged from his body, the air around him was pushed outwards in all directions to create a vacuum zone around Alex. Then in the next second, the intense heat that came from it caused the entire platform that they were on to glow in red. It became red-hot and gave the feeling that it was going to melt in the next moment.

Dark scarlet flame continued to erupt from Alex's body. And when the flame had built up to a great amount that it caused great shock to the audience and the principals watching him, it then wrapped around his body into a column that seemingly towered to the sky. It was about sixty feet high. Yet, it continued to grow in size till it reached ninety feet and stopped.

With him within and the huge fiery column now beginning to revolve around his figure at high speed, he resembled a god of ancient divine flames.

"Please, come in to ridicule me. I would love some of that" Alex said with mockery in his tone.

Although there was no one around him again, everyone however knew who he was talking to. And that was Soulstorm who had ran off the platform and far away from it, or he would be turned into nothing by the immensely strong heat continuously emitting from the flame that had shaped into a gigantic column.