Chapter 65: Totem Construct

Boom!

The crash was deafening, as if two steam locomotives had collided with all their might. The thunderous roar left Daniel’s head spinning, the world reeling around him.

When he finally scrambled up from the ground in a sorry state and saw the source of the shadows, he couldn’t help blurting out, “Hell, these are crocodiles!”

There were three colossal black monsters, each over five meters long, with the largest nearing ten meters. Their bodies were wrapped in a layer of pitch-black armor, as if forged from iron, shimmering with a cold metallic sheen. Even lying prone, they were taller than a grown man.

In addition, there was a three-headed giant hound, its body four meters tall and nearly eight meters long. Flames danced in its eyes, and its three ferocious jaws bit relentlessly into the vine, paying no heed to the countless spines embedded in it.

Lastly, there was a two-headed giant ape. Both heads resembled those of serpents, covered in golden scales that made it look like a war god clad in gold. In its hand, it wielded an iron staff nearly ten meters long and as thick as a bowl, weighing a ton, which it swung with the force of a tempest, shattering a vine as thick as a barrel in a single strike!

“Brother, are these all your totems?” Daniel’s mouth hung open for a long moment before he finally managed to close it, asking in a trembling voice.

“Yeah, my family’s poor. I couldn’t afford those cultivated beasts, so I had to go find my own. Sorry to make a fool of myself.” The other man replied a bit sheepishly, stroking the little white fox in his arms.

Daniel shook all over, feeling as if a stampede of wild beasts was raging inside him.

Poor, my foot! Five evolved totems appearing at once, and all of them peak variants—who would believe you’re just a rookie at level one?

Charles turned away from him. Now that he had summoned all his trump cards, he wanted to properly gauge his own strength.

“Go! Tear him apart for me!”

Howls, roars, and barks rang out as the five evolved semi-totems surged forward, splitting into two teams under his mental direction to encircle each vine dragon.

Their jaws were sharp enough to easily rip through the vines, and in an instant, two vine dragons had already been shredded.

Of course, this was mainly because Rody and Leslie were bearing the brunt of the firepower—two-thirds of the vine dragons were attacking them, leaving Charles free to face just one or two.

Yolanda’s main totem had split into nearly a hundred vine dragons, each a hundred meters long. Unfortunately, they took up so much space when moving that they couldn’t all attack at once, giving the group a chance to fight back.

If these vine dragons were to combine, their attack power would increase a hundredfold, easily crushing everyone present.

“Get out of my way!”

Leslie, clad in strange armor, roared and slashed through another vine dragon, tearing through the barrage of attacks with grim determination, trying to strike at the core.

After evolving to the ultimate form, the vine totem had gained incredible regenerative ability. Even if a vine was cut, a new one would instantly grow in its place.

The battle had turned into a war of attrition. His stamina was ultimately limited; at best, he could last a few more minutes before being exhausted and slain, so he had to throw everything into one desperate attack!

No one knew what technique he used, but suddenly, a crimson blade of light appeared in front of him, slicing through ten vine dragons in a single breath!

“Die!”

He transformed himself into a blade, charging toward the core vine sphere like a bolt of lightning, severing every vine that tried to bar his way.

Boom!

Charles squinted, seeing a blinding red light explode from the core, vine after vine shattering instantly—a third of them gone in a heartbeat!

“Amazing, so this is the totem exosuit developed by Morent Academy? Using the structure of a totem to construct biological armor, it’s similar to the powered exoskeletons of my past life’s imagination—greatly boosting one’s attack power.”

The more he watched, the more impressed he became; the opponent’s strength exceeded his expectations. “To let a level two peak evolved warrior go head-to-head with an ultimate-form totem—looks like I really should pay Morent a visit. This is fascinating!”

In his memories of the future, the two great empires and various kingdoms possessed an overwhelming number of divine beasts, which ultimately enabled them to prevail.

The Empire Alliance and the City-State of Atlan had united to wipe out the True God Cult, and as soon as they destroyed the activated Tree of Life, the Empire Alliance immediately turned on their former allies. Divine beasts turned to attack those who had fought alongside them.

If the City-State of Atlan had been given a little more time, they could have developed totem exosuits capable of amplifying level three evolved warriors, producing them in such numbers as to slay even divine beasts.

But in this world, there are no “what ifs”...

Not far away, the dazzling blood-red light was fading, gradually revealing the scene within.

Charles saw a giant vine sphere, now swollen to almost ten meters in diameter, with a gaping hole more than two meters wide, billowing thick black smoke—the result of the previous crimson explosion.

However, Leslie had already passed out, his body entwined by vines, unmoving.

“It seems the totem exosuit drains the bloodline power of the evolved warrior themselves—more precisely, the totem bloodline fused within them. It looks impressive, but it’s still far inferior to mechs,” Charles muttered, turning to look at his own totems.

If the others managed to eliminate Leslie, he wasn’t sure whether Rody could unleash another explosive outburst. If he wanted to swoop in like a vulture, he’d need an ultimate-form beast of his own. Otherwise, he’d only be able to flee in disgrace.

Well then—let the evolution begin!

A short distance away, a giant marsh crocodile let out a roar, its body glowing with a faint light as it suddenly swelled in size.

The creature’s roar grew more urgent, pain evident in the sound—as if it were enduring some terrible torment.

With a snap, a vine dragon lashed out, and the now twelve-meter-long giant crocodile exploded, its flesh and blood scattering everywhere!

“Damn, that’s brutal!” Daniel swallowed hard, and without hesitation, he retreated another few dozen meters with his Flame Ape.

This battle was now completely beyond his ability to participate in. Facing an ultimate-form totem required intervention from the upper ranks.

“Hang in there, brother! I’ll go get help!” He scrambled onto the Flame Ape’s shoulder like a monkey and sped off toward Storm Harbor.

Charles watched his retreating figure with a touch of exasperation; the guy was indeed unreliable, though he hadn’t expected anything else.

He had to end this quickly—otherwise, more people would come. Since the first attempt at evolution had failed, it was time to try with the second!

Evolving to the ultimate form was a totem’s true metamorphosis, granting power far beyond ordinary life. But should the transformation fail, the creature’s flesh would collapse—utterly and irreversibly dead.

Ordinary spirit tamers could forcibly halt the process when failure was imminent, and with some rest, their totems would recover. But his were only semi-totems; failure meant absolute death!

Still, he didn’t mind. He hadn’t maximized the number of totems just so he’d have enough evolution points to push one to ultimate form.

The second marsh crocodile’s evolution began, its earth-shaking roar echoing once more!

Roar!