Chapter 53 - Battle(8)

Layton who was still immersed with his own body when an illusory giant golden palm emerged and quickly hit the distracted Layton 'boom' the monk who was holding his palms in a peculiar posture frowned, he noticed the attack he made with his dharma image was not having the effect he imagined, the dust from the previous move settled to reveal two long deep ridges that had been ploughed by Layton's feet, the monk was surprised that Layton was practically unscathed only his top had been torn to shreds to reveal his perfectly toned body that had a tinge of red and was emitting a lot of steam.

His whole body seemed to be breathing in and out taking in and releasing air, Layton looked at the arms in which he had used to stop the giant palm earlier, the bones in it had shattered earlier but now they were as good as new, his cells had quickly split and rearranged themselves reforming the bones healing his injury in a matter of seconds and optimizing their structure while at it, removing his feet from the deep ridges Layton stared at the monk opposite and smiled revealing his white teeth, the next moment Layton had disappeared heading towards the monk floating in the air, the monk revealed the same handprint and the golden statue behind him moved again sending a palm towards Layton who was in the air.

'boom' the attack hit only an after image, the boom was the sound of Layton breaking the sound barrier, his cells in order to take in more oxygen and regulate its self-more efficiently had evolved more pores in his body and he was able to use his control over his body to control the air through the breathing of his pores, using that control he had propelled the air to propel him faster, Layton had sped up in the air again disregarding the strain of his body and had effectively broken the sound barrier.

The monk although unable to effectively follow Layton's movement using his combat experience quickly judged where Layton would most likely attack from, the illusory golden palm appeared in front of Layton's attack path, it was too late to dodge especially at the speeds he was going, perceiving this Layton forcefully stopped himself in midair going from supersonic to static in a matter of seconds, stopping just right before he was going to hit the palm, the consequence of becoming static in such a manner caused almost all his ligaments and muscles who originally were strenuous moving at the high speeds to tear clumps of blood burst out of his pores dyeing him red, the skin of his body just hanging stubbornly over his body without vitality.

The monk who saw this tragic scene that happened in a split second was unmoved manipulate the palm to continue advancing on its path.

Watching the incoming giant appendage, disregarding his otherwise dead skin with a shout he moved his skeleton and the muscles beneath to move forward, the palm only hit some stripped parts of Layton's skin and muscles, before the monk could think about it more, Layton was already punching forwards with such force that it disintegrated his remaining skin leaving only bright red muscles mass and bones to hit the monk squarely on his back breaking his spine, after all it was his intent that had an indestructible mood mot his body.

The monk who had his spine broken did not say a word or utter a moan of pain, with his immense will he just manipulated his broken body to turn in midair to face Layton, with his arms already clasped together as if praying his final prayer and then whispered "Guanyin" immediately the vague and almost dispersing dharma image become clearer and with the movement of the images palm countless afterimages and phantoms emerged hitting Layton head on crushing half of his body into a bloody paste and sending him crashing into a faraway wall.

Crashing to the ground the monk couldn't help but spit out some blood and some crushed internal organs onto the dusty and destroyed street, he watched as Layton who was stuck in a wall in the distance moved himself out behaving as if the battered and almost destroyed body was not his, he watched in horror as the pustules of flesh turned into tentacles and squirmed together to reform the missing half of Layton's crushed body, the monk feeling this was going to be a very tough fight tried calling the monster he had made out of the vampire wizard but all to no avail, the call was sent but it was not effective, it seemed the teammate Layton had recruited was enough to stall the monster he created.

With a sigh of resignation and annoyance, the monk started displaying different handprints, the illusory dharma image he had condensed earlier was just for this moment, apart from using it in short bursts to attack its main purpose was to make it adapt to the environment so it could combine with his body, that was the only way at present to achieve superior combat power.

Looking at Layton, the Monk guessed he had already done something similar, even though he couldn't watch his intent with his extraordinary perception, judging from the inhuman posture the wizard possessed he could guess the evil intent had already been combined with Layton.

But what bothered him was that apart from the crazy rate of healing and adaptation the intent had achieved no other effect he could perceive, this made him very uneasy judging from the feeling of horror and pollution he had when he had witnessed the birth of the intent he didn't think the effect would be that casual.

In a matter of seconds, the complicated handprints were completed and the golden Buddha statue from behind merged into his body, healing him and turning him golden, if ignorant citizens were here they would praise him as a god.

Layton who was fully healed watched the monk turned golden and laugh hysterically letting out waves of pollution and negative emotions, the amount of pain he had experienced in these few moments were extraordinary, and his makeshift intent did nothing to reduce his sense of pain if anything else it increased his sense of pain with his other perceptions, his will was already faltering and only by releasing some pent up emotions could he keep himself from going mad.

Laughing like a lunatic he flew towards the Monk, the monk who heard the disgusting polluting laughter did not change his face, only the indestructible meaning that glowed on his body turned brighter and he too flew towards the enemy aiming at ending it all.