CHAPTER 684: A CARDIAC PAUSE

The pangolin’s eyes burned with fury.

From its perspective, Ethan and Feylora should’ve been no match for it—this fight should’ve been over before it even started. But now? Now it was getting its ass handed to it, and that was a bitter pill to swallow.

It was humiliating.

But there was no denying it anymore.

The truth was right in front of its face, and it had no choice but to accept it.

Still, there was no way in hell it was letting Ethan and Feylora get away.

"Don’t you dare run!"

With a roar, a massive pair of wings burst from its back, blotting out the sky.

BOOM!

A thunderous rumble echoed across the heavens.

The wings weren’t just for show—etched into them were countless glowing runes, each one twisted and alien, radiating a terrifying, almost apocalyptic power.

Ethan, relying on his lightning-based teleportation skill—one that had evolved multiple times and was now arguably the fastest movement ability in this world—flashed through the sky with Feylora in tow, blinking from point to point like a bolt of living lightning.

But after a dozen rapid jumps, a crushing force suddenly surged up behind them.

"What the hell?!"

Ethan spun around just in time to see the pangolin monster right on their tail, its hands crackling with energy as it formed a massive orb of raw power—and hurled it straight at them.

Splat-splat-splat!

BOOOOOOM!

Feylora’s eyes went wide in shock. She hadn’t expected the creature to be this fast—or that it could fly. But what really rattled her was the power radiating from the runes on its wings. It was on par with Elira’s.

Ethan clenched his jaw.

They were out of options. It was do or die.

He turned mid-air, hovering as he began chanting rapidly, hands weaving through the air with practiced precision.

"Feylora! Channel everything you’ve got into me—now!"

Feylora didn’t hesitate for a second.

She gathered every ounce of her power and poured it into Ethan in one massive surge.

BOOM—!

The air itself seemed to tear apart.

A shockwave exploded outward like a warhammer smashing the sky, sending sand and stone flying—only to be instantly incinerated into glowing embers.

Ethan’s body swelled with power, his bones creaking and popping beneath his skin. Muscles bulged unnaturally, stretched taut by the sheer force coursing through him. He looked like a completely different person—bigger, stronger, more primal.

Streams of blue-gold energy pulsed through his veins, and his breathing turned into deep, guttural growls—like a beast on the edge of frenzy.

"This bastard—"

The pangolin’s pupils contracted. The scales on its back flared open, scraping against each other with a high-pitched screech.

It hadn’t expected Ethan to suddenly unleash a power that could rival its own.

The two forces collided again.

BOOM—!!

It was like the sky itself had been split in half by a divine thunderclap.

At the point of impact, a blinding white explosion erupted, and a shockwave rippled outward in a perfect ring, tearing across the ground and kicking up a wall of dust hundreds of feet high.

The air screamed with the force of it.

The pangolin’s massive wings were shredded in the blast, the metallic feathers snapping off and spinning through the air like deadly blades before falling in a glittering rain.

It let out a furious roar as it spiraled out of control, plummeting from the sky.

Ethan and Feylora were caught in the shockwave too, flung like rag dolls toward a distant hillside.

Just before they hit the ground, Ethan forced his battered arm up, gripping his staff with everything he had left.

"The Scepter of the Fey Sovereign—Shield, deploy!"

A translucent energy barrier flared to life beneath them.

WHAM!

They slammed into the ground, the shield cracking like glass under the impact—but it held. Barely.

The hillside crumbled around them, rocks and debris tumbling in every direction.

Without that shield, they’d have been nothing but a smear on the mountainside.

Ethan coughed up a mouthful of blood, his chest heaving with every breath.

Feylora was gasping too, pale as a ghost, her voice trembling. "Master... that thing’s way too strong!" She glanced nervously up at the sky. "Even with both of us, we can’t hold it down. Should we fall back and call for reinforcements?"

Ethan didn’t answer right away.

He lifted his head, eyes locked on the distant shape of the pangolin-like creature, its massive body slowly shifting in the rubble.

This wasn’t some ordinary beast.

"Calling for backup... won’t help," he said hoarsely, voice rough like gravel.

"Creatures at this level... normal fighters wouldn’t last ten seconds."

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"But just running away like this... I can’t accept that."

The wind stirred the battlefield’s wreckage, kicking up dust that swirled around them like ghosts of the fight.

Ethan took a deep breath, forcing himself to focus.

He raised his hand and summoned his virtual interface. A stream of glowing blue data flickered to life in front of his eyes.

"System, scan the target’s biological structure."

Ding—Analyzing...

[Target Level: Tier 18 (Mid-Stage)]

[Scanning for Weaknesses...]

Lines of data scrolled rapidly across the screen.

The energy fluctuation graph was nearly a perfect mirror image—flawless symmetry. No obvious weak points.

Ethan’s brow furrowed.

"No obvious weaknesses?"

He toggled through different analysis modes—bone density, energy flow, neural response speed—breaking it down piece by piece. Nothing.

Time ticked by.

Sweat beaded in his palm.

Just as he was about to give up, a flash of memory hit him—an image from the moment of impact earlier.

He remembered it clearly—when the creature unleashed its full power, its chest had trembled, and the energy surge had erupted from its heart...

But then—just for a split second—it froze. Like its heart had stopped.

Ethan’s pupils narrowed sharply.

"A cardiac pause...?"

He immediately pulled up the system’s combat replay, comparing the energy curves from before and after the creature’s power surges.

There it was—every time the beast entered its peak form, the energy flow around its heart would momentarily cut off, creating a "vacuum node" that lasted less than half a second.

"Heh..." Ethan let out a low chuckle, a glint of wild excitement flashing in his eyes.

"So you do have a weakness after all."

He dismissed the panel and stood up, blood still trickling from the gash on his shoulder—but his grin only widened.

...