Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Jack charged into Elder Crownbeast, piercing through multiple layers of space. His speed was far superior to what he’d showed in the duel against Saturnstar. He reached Crownbeast in an instant and punched out sideways, smashing his fist against the Elder’s aura like a comet from the heavens.

The sky behind him distorted. Tendrils of purple energy spread out, flashing to the horizon, but the Elder’s crimson aura held.

“Fool!” Crownbeast laughed. “Us crownbeasts specialize in defense! Even if I stood here and let you hit me for an hour, you still wouldn’t be able to injure me!”

“I’m just warming up,” Jack replied. “How about you sit still and wait if you’re so sure?”

“As if!”

The beast’s jaws flashed with extreme speed. One moment he was upright, the next his fangs were around Jack, ready to eviscerate him. Space warped, and the jaws snapped on empty air.

“Too slow!” Jack shouted from above the Elder’s head. He smashed a fist down, trailing it with stars. “Meteor Punch!”

The meteor smashed into the top of the godzilla’s head and pushed it down. The entire monster shook as it dropped, righting itself in mid-air. A ten-mile-wide crater formed on the desert below. Sand rose to the heavens.

“You’re strong, I’ll give you that!” Crownbeast shouted. “The greatest talent I’ve ever seen. However, you’re just too arrogant! It’s impossible to jump a large realm to fight me! You just don’t have the power! And what’s more, I came prepared! I thought your master would arrive to fight me, so I practiced discipline and manners for the past six months. Your Great Spanking Arts gain no advantage against me!”

“What do you mean?”

“...Maybe I overdid it. In any case, shut your mouth and fight me like a monster!”

“As you wish!”

Elder Crownbeast closed his mouth, hiding his fangs as he launched himself head-first at Jack like a torpedo. This was the same move Saturnstar used as a finisher, but to the Elder, it was just another move. A three-thousand-feet monster barreled towards Jack at speeds far surpassing that of sound. At the same time, a mighty space lock came over him, along with a mighty feeling of bloodlust produced by savagery. Twin restraints prevented Jack from dodging. He broke both at the same time, narrowly disappearing into space as Crownbeast pulverized his previous position.

Jack reappeared nearby, charging immediately. He shouldn’t give the Elder any time to breathe. In melee, Crownbeast couldn’t charge up any big attacks, and the small ones would be easier to dodge.

Jack rushed into Crownbeast. His fists flared. Punch after punch smashed into hard scales, while Brutalizing Aura assaulted the Elder’s mind. Winds of savagery attempted to immobilize Jack, but he resisted them with pure willpower.

However, while Jack could protect himself, his strikes were ineffective. His fists broke against the crimson aura and hard scales. Progress was slow. It was like poking a giant to death.

“Hahahah!” Crownbeast laughed. “Dance around, fool! You’ll run out of energy eventually, and then I’ll catch you!”

“I told you to shut the fuck up!”

Jack stuck close. He pelted the godzilla with many small attacks, infusing them with the power of death. Scales cracked and rotted, but it was too little. They barely counted as scratches.

A thick tail rose for Jack, but he expertly curved space around him so it missed. He nailed a straight punch into the monster’s chest, then flashed behind it and smashed another at the back of the neck. He teleported unpredictably. Arms, legs, torso, head. The monster was assaulted by a flurry of blows which only scratched it.

As Elder Crownbeast reared up for another attack, Jack dodged it preemptively, securing a few instants for himself. The world was sucked into his fist. More and more Dao particles were absorbed, making his hand glow. Right as it reached critical mass, Jack let it rip.

“Supernova!”

A star exploded on the Elder’s back. Purple light filled the world, the shockwave rolling onto the earth below and demolishing it completely. The desert had transformed into a blackened crater.

Jack had flown back from the impact. His fractured hand bones quickly set into place. As he looked towards the monster, however, he frowned. The scales and red aura, which he’d broken through for the first time, were quickly regenerating. The wound below them remained, but it was nowhere near debilitating. He’d need to stack a dozen of them to actually harm the giant monster, and he’d run low on energy by then.

Elder Crownbeast was surprised for a different reason. “You actually managed to injure me?” he uttered in disbelief. “How can you be so strong?”

“Still not enough…” Jack muttered. “No choice then.”

Green light covered his skin. Suddenly, he grew a foot taller and sprouted two extra arms from his armpits. His only article of clothing—the magical pair of shorts which enhanced his defense—grew with him. Thankfully, the transformation didn’t affect his Double Devil disguise.

This was the second time Jack used his battle form since reaching the B-Grade. The Life Drop had been emptied out during his breakthrough, and recharging it was slow, even with the entire Green Dragon Realm fueling it. Six months after its last use against Archon Summer Noon, it had only recovered enough energy to maintain this transformation for a few minutes. A time which would be cut even shorter if forced to regenerate any injuries.

Jack had to make it count.

“You grew even stronger!?” Elder Crownbeast shouted, sensing Jack’s burst of energy. “What kind of monster are you!?”

“The last you’ll ever see,” Jack growled as he charged. His physical strength had skyrocketed. He needed it to actually injure the Elder. He teleported in, easily dodging an attack and smashing an empowered Supernova into the monster’s chest.

This explosion was even stronger than the last. A new sun appeared. Purple light illuminated the world, while the boom traveled for a thousand miles. Another layer of rock was pushed into the ground, deepening the crater, and all those happened with the vast majority of energy focused on breaking Crownbeast’s defense.

Another hole appeared on the monster’s chest. Broken scales flew into the sky, while cracked ones surrounded a crater of blood and bones. The corner of a lung was revealed before the Elder’s flesh regrew. He seemed stunned, but not grievously injured. It wasn’t just his defense that was great, but also his endurance.

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“How can you injure me so?” he muttered, fear seeping into his voice for the first time. “How is this possible!?”

By now, it was beginning to dawn on Crownbeast that he’d made a mistake. Jack’s speed was far superior to any other B-Grade’s, and also superior to Crownbeast’s. If Jack wanted to run, the Elder couldn’t stop him. The best outcome here was a draw.

But, if Crownbeast wanted to run, he couldn’t. He wasn’t fast enough. And now, for the first time, he was beginning to suspect he might lose—unless he took this seriously.

“Will I really be defeated by a middle Baron!?” he shouted, infuriated by his own words. “I will destroy you, Jack Monstrous! Assault form!”

His body shrunk. From three thousand feet tall, he became just thirty. His defense and power were greatly reduced, but his speed rose tremendously. He flashed out, instantly catching up to Jack. He turned and swung his own scaly fist forward. Jack caught it with his two right forearms, both of which shattered like matches. He was sent flying backward, blood trailing his path.

Crownbeast reappeared over him, smashing Jack with his tail mid-flight. Jack punched it but was overpowered. He crashed into the ground and dug himself a mile deep.

Crownbeast didn’t let up. He charged into the hole, and the ground erupted, showering the crater with pieces of rocks. Two bloodied forms flew out. Jack’s body was riddled with constantly regenerating wounds.

Unfortunately, his cultivation base was just too low. He was far outclassed in strength and defense. In this new form, he only slightly surpassed Crownbeast in speed, and that’s because the monster really suffered in that area. Jack’s only path to victory was his extreme understanding of the Dao.

How arrogant was it for a youth to challenge a millennia-old elder in world comprehension? How bold? Yet, it was true—the Dao grew with experience more than it did with time, and in this regard, Jack held the definitive advantage.

Crownbeast also sported some injuries, but they were superficial. The two traded blow for blow, but Jack’s attacks only inflicted scratches, while the Elder’s were devastating. Only the Life Drop’s regeneration kept Jack in the fight—when it ran out of energy, he’d have to escape. It’s also worth noting that all this occurred on Jack’s highly tempered body—any other B-Grade would have been smashed to smithereens.

“SUPERNOVA!” Jack shouted, meeting the Elder’s fist with his own. A new explosion shook the world. Jack flew back, his hand shattered and his shoulder cracked, while Crownbeast grunted and pursued. His scaly hand was also fractured.

I must do something! Jack thought. I’ll never win like this!

He did have his newest weapon, but it took time to charge, and Crownbeast would never give it to him. He needed to earn it.

The two clashed again. Strikes flew. Fists met scales. Scales met flesh. The sky shattered and was washed away, the clouds ripped apart to reveal more layers above. The earth had long given way to a field of devastation. Blood rained from the sky—mostly Jack’s.

Between their various exchanges, Jack saw his opening. He braced himself. A set of jaws flew at his shoulder, and he let them land. Bones shattered—flesh was rent. Crownbeast didn’t expect this attack to work. Before he could recover, Jack used the time earned by not defending to charge up his own strike.

“Supernova!” he shouted. His fist smashed into the opponent’s chest. The explosion burned Jack as well. Crownbeast flew down like a rocket, his still-closed jaws ripping out Jack’s shoulder and arm. He was nailed into the earth, but flew back out a moment later. His mangled chest was already regenerating.

“Fool!” he said, panting. “You can’t trade hits like this! I’ll just outsustain—”

He did not finish his words.

Jack hovered in the middle of the sky. One of his four arms was still missing, the open wound dripping blood. His chest was burned, yet his face didn’t betray the slightest hint of pain. His eyes were razor-focused. His mouth was hard.

A bubble of sealed space spread around Jack’s fist. It compressed in pulses, raising the pressure to terrifying degrees. The moment Crownbeast resurfaced, the bubble was reduced to encapsulate only Jack’s fist, which shattered. Bones and flesh warped together, collapsing into a singular point. The power of space raged.

As the bubble compressed even further, becoming a nail-sized singularity, black foam filled it. A terrible suction force erupted outward, sucking the air into a spiral, a whirlpool given life and giving death. The now-black sphere grew larger as it absorbed the world. From the size of a nail, it grew to the size of Jack’s hand.

He brandished his arm. In place of a fist, he now wielded a black hole of death which swallowed the world. Dark ribbons of energy spread outward. The horizon curved around Jack. The swirling energy warped his image.

Crownbeast was not in time to stop this. As soon as he surfaced, he watched Jack finish preparing his attack, then charge at him. He never thought he’d feel terror at a middle Baron, a person almost an entire large realm below him.

Yet, he did. He was frozen. His every instinct screamed to get away from that black sphere, yet he could not. It sucked everything, even spacetime. Coupled with Jack’s originally superior insights into Space, Crownbeast was locked in place, unable to dodge. All he could do was take the blow.

“Shell mode!” he shouted. His body regrew to its original size of three thousand feet, maximizing his defense. The crimson aura roared and thickened. He even crossed his arms before his chest and leaned forward, bracing himself as best as he could. Defense was his specialty. In this state, he could withstand even the all-out attack of a middle Autarch.

Jack and his black hole sailed forth. They seemed slow, yet were deceptively fast. They reached Crownbeast in an instant.

Jack’s strongest attacking skill up to this point, Supernova, was not that complex. It had come from a mere B-Grade faction, and he’d already learned it at the D-Grade. He’d polished it a little since then, but the sad truth was it was inadequate for his current level. His powers had been missing a proper vessel.

This black hole skill was far superior. It used concepts at the level of an Archon. Even now, Jack could barely comprehend and use it, but it allowed him to utilize his previously blocked insights to their full potential. It was, without exaggeration, an attack insanely stronger than anything he’d shown before.

The black hole remained at the stump of his wrist, and he shoved it in. It met Crownbeast’s crossed arms and kept going. The crimson aura, the scales, the bones, the hard flesh… All of those were completely incapable of stopping a black hole. It pierced right through, absorbing everything and turning it into its own power, growing constantly stronger.

Jack dislodged it from his wrist and shot it out while he retreated. It penetrated Crownbeast’s arms and sank into his chest, right under his disbelieving gaze. It flew deep. Organs and bones were warped and turned into mush, which collapsed into the fake singularity. A growing hole appeared on the monster’s chest. Its dense body only worked against it—the more matter the black hole absorbed, the faster it grew. A terrible ripping sound echoed as the monster’s body was torn apart.

However, at the end of the day, this wasn’t a real black hole. It was only supported by Jack’s Dao, and he was moving farther away by the minute. It also could only withstand a certain amount of mass. At some point, a black spark flew out—and the black hole, without any other warning, erupted.

It was like a supernova exploding inside Crownbeast’s chest. His already dislodged innards scattered into the sky. Blood flew everywhere. The explosion was almost entirely contained in his body, which made it more destructive. Crownbeast’s chest disappeared. Only the sides of his torso remained, with the rest burned into a massive, thousand-foot-wide, completely see-through hole. Black energy flew into the sky, carving holes in the ground and clouds.

Alongside the explosion, the space-death foam produced in the black hole was released. It stuck onto Crownbeast’s body and consumed it from the inside, killing it so thoroughly that not even the space it occupied remained. By the time the foam was exhausted, the monster’s body was so eaten up that only two halves remained—below his waist, and above his shoulders. Everything else was just gone.

The two halves of Crownbeast smashed into the ground below. The beast’s vitality was impressive—even now, it remained alive, but even it couldn’t recover from such a wound.

As life slowly left his body, Crownbeast turned a pair of terrified eyes on Jack. “Monster,” he whispered. “Monster…”

Jack was also badly injured. Some of the explosion had gotten him as well, and he’d almost been struck by a beam of deathly foam. An entire arm remained missing from when Crownbeast had bitten it off, one of his wrists was a stump, and the last of the Life Drop’s energies worked overdrive to repair his mangled body. He fell to the ground panting—but landed on his feet. He looked at his empty wrist in awe.

He’d just killed an A-Grade. And the black hole attack… was the most powerful skill he’d ever utilized. By far.

Jack cracked a smile. “Now we’re talking!”