On the battlefield, the size difference between the towering giant—rising thousands of meters high—and Sam Li's human-sized figure was overwhelming.
Yet despite that disparity, Sam Li continued to dominate the Sun-Colored Starlight Giant, suppressing it blow after blow.
He kept unleashing Geo Spears, attacking the giant again and again.
As Sam Li thrust his spear once more, countless golden lights appeared in the sky alongside the spear's glow.
Each point of light was another Geo Spear.
In an instant, a rain of Geo Spears fell upon the giant, exploding across its immense frame.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—
The giant roared in fury.
It swung its fists wildly at Sam Li, but he slipped away each time, causing its blows to smash into the ground instead. The earth trembled over and over again.
Even on the far side of the hollow, Nicole, Billy, Zhu Yuan, and the others could feel the violent shaking...
And in the distant New Eridu Metropolitan Area, civilians felt the city tremble beneath their feet...
Such was the ferocity of this battle.
Even Azhdaha couldn't help but grumble:
"Unbelievable—imitating my techniques! Cloud Retainer, Moon Caver, those Ethereal matter are yours. I'm going to give Morax a hand—"
With that, Azhdaha leapt into the air and charged straight toward the giant, colliding head-on with its colossal body.
BOOM!
The enormous Azhdaha slammed into the even larger giant.
Enraged, the giant lifted its foot to stomp down on Azhdaha.
Despite the difference in their size, Azhdaha didn't hesitate for a second. Strength and Defense were his greatest assets—he braced himself and forcibly held up the giant's foot, attempting to topple it.
"Morax, now—!"
Sam Li didn't need the reminder. He understood this opening instantly.
In the next moment, he hurled the Vortex Vanquisher high into the sky with all his strength.
Then he commanded the Geo beneath the ground, gathering massive amounts of it toward the spear to fuse with it.
With Azhdaha restraining the giant, Sam Li was able to accumulate far more Geo energy this time.
Several seconds passed. Suddenly, Sam Li opened his eyes—now glowing entirely gold.
"Azhdaha, move—!"
"Morax, it's yours now—!"
Azhdaha knew exactly what technique Sam Li was preparing to use. Without hesitation, he merged his massive body into the earth, slipping out of the giant's reach.
At that same moment, far above, the spear Sam Li had thrown finally began to fall.
But it was no longer the same Vortex Vanquisher. Having absorbed tremendous amounts of Geo, it had transformed into a colossal spear over a thousand meters long.
Sam Li looked up at the massive weapon and murmured, "Geo Heaven Sword—"
The moment the words left his lips, the colossal spear accelerated sharply. It cut through the sky faster than the naked eye could track and pierced straight into the head of the giant.
There was no explosion...
No shockwave...
The massive Vortex Vanquisher was unbelievably sharp. It sliced through the giant's defenses with ease, driving down from its skull into its body. Only the huge spear shaft remained visible on the outside.
Had this been one of the old gods of the past, that strike alone would have nailed them to the earth.
But now, the giant was simply too enormous—far larger than any god before it. The thousand-meter-long spear had only barely pierced into its chest.
It hadn't even reached the two Starlight gemstones.
Even so, the strike inflicted devastating damage.
The giant seemed to lose consciousness for a moment and toppled toward Sam Li.
A being thousands of meters tall collapsing was no different from a mountain falling from the sky.
BOOM—
The entire hollow shook. All of New Eridu trembled. Even the Outer Ring felt the violent quake.
Cloud Retainer let out a sigh of relief.
"Is it dead?"
Mountain Shaper shook his head.
"Unlikely. Something like this doesn't die so easily."
Sam Li explained, "That strike didn't reach the Starlight Gem, but it did affect it. It caused the wielder to briefly lose control of the giant."
Just as he predicted, only moments passed before the giant rose again. Before Sam Li could react, a massive palm came crashing toward him—and all the damage from before had already been completely healed.
Seeing this, Mountain Shaper spoke with awe.
"I have never seen an enemy with vitality this persistent."
Sam Li said seriously, "It can draw energy from the hollow to replenish itself. Help me force it outside Hollow Zero..."
Just like Hollow Zero, the giant relied on the void's internal rules to restore its power.
Pushing it beyond those boundaries would definitely weaken it.
With that in mind, Sam Li acted immediately.
But forcing such a massive giant out of Hollow Zero was anything but easy.
To achieve this, Sam Li, Azhdaha, Mountain Shaper, Moon Carver, Cloud Retainer, and Xiao launched continuous attacks upon the giant.
For a time, countless strikes rained down upon it like a storm.
To maximize their effectiveness, Cloud Retainer manifested her enormous crane form, while Moon Carver manifested a giant deer hundreds of meters tall...
Sam Li also dismissed the Vortex Vanquisher.
Drawing in immense amounts of Geo energy, he manifested his dragon form before others for the first time.
In an instant, a colossal divine dragon—stretching several thousand meters in length—unfurled across the sky.
After circling above the giant's head, the divine dragon opened its massive jaws. A torrent of golden dragon breath burst forth, piercing through the Sun-Colored Starlight Giant's skull.
Cloud Retainer, Moon Carver, Mountain Shaper, Azhdaha, and Xiao followed immediately behind, each unleashing their immortal arts against the giant.
...
At the edge of the battlefield, Hoshimi Miyabi, Tsukishiro Yanagi, Soukaku, and Asaba Harumasa stood frozen in shock, unable to speak.
They had witnessed Sam Li and the Adepti fight many times,
but never had they seen so many Adepti—and Sam Li himself—manifest their true forms together, soaring through the skies and unleashing dazzling Adepti techniques...
It was breathtaking.
Meanwhile, Hoshimi Miyabi and Tsukishiro Yanagi were not idle.
Soukaku and Asaba Harumasa monitored the giant, while Hoshimi Miyabi and Tsukishiro Yanagi focused on clearing the remaining Ethereal nearby.