Owen stepped forward, radiating an aggressive aura.
He had already chosen his opponent.
That's right. Zoran.
Owen harbored his own subtle calculations.
Between a choice of two, he naturally had to pick the one who appeared to be the weaker adversary of the pair standing before him.
Now, look at Shendu and Zoran.
One possessed an overbearing, arrogant swagger, practically broadcasting an insatiable lust for battle, having just pointed straight at Bradley to declare he would take on the entire lot of them single-handedly.
The other, however, carried an aura of restrained composure. From the very beginning, he hadn't uttered a single word, hovering idly in the air like an absolute spectator.
In fact, the moment Shendu announced his intention to fight everyone alone, Zoran had even taken a deliberate step back.
This act of yielding the battlefield had evidently been interpreted by Owen in an entirely different light.
Owen crossed his arms, a confident smirk spreading across his face.
Who was strong and who was weak could be discerned at a single glance.
Owen was no ordinary cannon-fodder foot soldier. As the former leader of the Cloud Bat Legion, while he might not match Bradley in sheer strength, ten thousand years of biding his time and nursing his ambitions had allowed him to accumulate a formidable reservoir of power.
By comparison, at least the Ultra Beast Warriors currently lingering in the Third Parallel Universe would stand no chance against him.
Across the way, Zoran let out a helpless sigh.
Although he lacked Shendu's fervent passion for combat, the fellow had specifically pointed him out and demanded to face him.
What else could he do?
Shendu wore a faint smile, shedding his arrogant exterior as he stepped back with the amused demeanor of someone settling in to watch a good show.
How amusing.
Even though he knew full well that no matter how Owen chose, he was merely picking between two Nebula Body powerhouses...
To have accidentally locked onto Zoran on the very first try was still remarkably comical.
"It seems you harbor some rather deep misconceptions regarding both me and your own capabilities." Zoran drifted to the center of the battlefield, his gaze fixed quietly on Owen.
"Oh? Why must every single one of you look down on me?" Owen loosened his joints, stepping into a combat stance. "You completely understand nothing about me, nor my power."
He manifested his combat armor, facing Zoran directly as he struck a fighting pose.
Bradley, meanwhile, willingly ceded the battlefield entirely to Owen.
As a man who strictly abide to the principle of supreme strength, he adhered just as rigidly to the tenets of fairness; whether facing an adversary far stronger or significantly weaker than himself, that stance never wavered.
"Come on!"
Owen let out a low growl. As a seasoned Cloud Bat warrior tempered by relentless training, while his speed fell short of Bradley's, it was still blisteringly fast.
In a fraction of a second, he flashed directly in front of Zoran, his fist driving forward to cleave through the air.
Too slow! He probably can't even trace my speed. I've got him! Elation flashed across Owen's face.
Yet the very next second, a torrential surge of overwhelming force instantly crashed down upon him.
Zoran raised a palm with absolute indifference, murmuring softly: "Fall back."
The momentarily unleashed hetero-energy lashed outward like a heavy mace swung by an invisible giant, striking Owen squarely and sending him hurtling backward.
His airborne body plowed a deep trench across the ground before Owen let out a miserable shriek, crashing flat onto his back.
"Owen? That was too fast. I didn't even catch what happened," murmured several Cloud Bat soldiers in hushed whispers.
Bradley's brow furrowed abruptly.
No matter how weak Owen might be, he was still no run-of-the-mill combatant.
Even Bradley himself wouldn't necessarily have been able to dispatch an enemy in a single move with such effortless composure.
"It's not... over yet!" From the swirling dust and smoke not far away, Owen's resentful voice rang out.
The opponent was monstrously strong; he had undoubtedly picked the wrong opponent.
Yet at this point, he had already backed himself into a corner, completely exposed before the entire Cloud Bat Legion, and had no choice but to fight this out to the bitter end.
"Owen..." A flicker of fervent anticipation surfaced in the eyes of many Cloud Bat soldiers.
"Ultra Beast Armor!" Owen thrust his hand upward as a streak of light broke free, hurling the radiant energy high into the vault of heaven.
The light flickered and twisted, transforming into a circular summoning array across the sky.
The Bat Ultra Beast materialized upside down from within the summoning array, suspended menacingly overhead.
Owen let out a muffled grunt, his physical form plunging directly into the cockpit of the Bat Ultra Beast.
Without a moment's hesitation, he forcefully activated the Ultra Beast form.
In an instant, the glow of the summoning array faded. The Bat Ultra Beast piloted by Owen whipped around, swept through the sky in two tight circles, and planted its feet firmly on the ground.
Had it been someone else, say, the Whale Shark King or Bradley, they would have undoubtedly paused for a moment to allow their opponent sufficient time to also enter their Ultra Beast form.
Owen, however, was cut from a different cloth. He was a petty schemer, merely a hair's breadth away from being a true warlord, and he held zero regard for the supposed pride and restraint of powerhouses.
Controlling the Bat Ultra Beast, he didn't even bother trying to conceal his strength anymore, unleashing his absolute peak hetero-energy as he charged straight toward Zoran.
"Ghost Shadow Calamity!" Owen roared.
Pure white radiance converged within his massive palm, slamming downward toward Zoran, who appeared diminutive from his perspective.
Yet, entirely as expected.
Zoran remained motionless, completely devoid of any intention to dodge.
From beginning to end, he merely watched as Owen executed his self-directed assault and subsequent failure, fueling his own passion entirely on his own accord.
It was much like a spectator sitting in the audience, coldly appreciating the performance of an actor on stage.
The glowing projectile of the Ghost Shadow Calamity tore through the air. Exercising a measure of cunning, Owen kept his strike tightly masked behind the blinding glare of the attack; the outstretched, razor-sharp claws of the Bat Ultra Beast trailing right behind the energy blast constituted his true killing blow.
Owen's velocity was blistering, flashing past like a transient streak of light.
The projectile of the Ghost Shadow Calamity reached Zoran in an instant.
With a calm, unruffled expression, Zoran parted his lips and blew a single breath outward.
He forcefully blew away the energy sphere of the Ghost Shadow Calamity with nothing more than his breath!
At the same time, Owen suddenly encountered an immense, unyielding wall of resistance.
The razor-sharp claws slammed to a dead stop right in front of Zoran, unable to advance even a fraction of an inch.
As the blinding glare dissipated, Owen finally registered the bizarre reality of the situation, stark horror instantly contorting his features.
The right arm of the Bat Ultra Beast, the very limb guiding the lethal claws, was clamped tightly within a purplish-black hand formed entirely from Moon Demon Chi.
A searing wave of humiliation washed over Owen.
The opponent could have clearly met his claw head-on with a direct frontal defense, yet that purplish-black hand had instead closed around the rear portion of the Ultra Beast's forearm.
In other words, the speed he took so much pride in was utterly insignificant in the eyes of his opponent.
Otherwise, Zoran could never have acted with such leisurely ease.
His gaze swept across Zoran and Shendu.
The smiles lingering in the eyes of both demons were identical, as though they were mocking a foolish, ignorant buffoon.
He had been reduced to a mere plaything, a cricket thrown into a fighting ring for the amusement and entertainment of bored onlookers.
Owen desperately wanted to retreat, but Zoran had him locked firmly in place, leaving him trapped in a helpless state where he could neither advance nor withdraw.
The next moment, Zoran snapped his fingers lightly.
"You chose the wrong opponent. Of course, to be fair, you didn't really have a choice to begin with," he said with a smile.
As the sound of the snap faded, the massive hand composed of Moon Demon Chi abruptly tightened its grip. The mechanical frame of the Bat Ultra Beast instantly warped and twisted.
Beginning right at the point where the arm was being gripped, fractures spread outward, snapping and shattering inch by inch.
The fractures raced across the entire structure of the Bat Ultra Beast in a heartbeat. Light streamed wildly through the widening fissures before the Ultra Beast was forcibly dismantled, shattering into countless debris fragments that dissolved into glittering starlight.
Owen dropped heavily to his knees, staring blankly ahead at Zoran towering above him.
His Bat Ultra Beast... had been shattered the moment it was pinched?
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