Boom! The world exploded around him.Leander ripped what remained of his shirt apart as twelve blazing torrents tore through the air, rushing straight for his chest.He drove his foot into the ground.The desert split open beneath him, sending sand and stone erupting in a violent burst as he was propelled upward. A blue streak cut through the firestorm before the flames could reach him.The shockwave boomed as he smashed past the sound barrier and ripped into the clouds.No Primordial Energy carried him this time.This was pure Devourer Form surged. His legs detonated with raw power, hurlinghim higher in a single bound. Hundreds of feet vanished beneath him in an instant.The streams of fire clawed upward, far too slow to catch him.Inside the six AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters, alarms shrieked.Pilots stared in disbelief as a human figure rocketed up toward their altitude.Fear flooded the cockpits.Comms erupted."Gain height! Now! Don't let him reach us!"Voices overlapped, sharp with panic.This time, their goal was simple-to pin Leander down with overwhelming firepower and destroy him. That was why they had gathered extensive intelligence on martial artists.They already had solid data on the Transcendent Realm and even on King Phase masters. Both could ride the wind and stand in midair, yet that ability came with a strict limit.Martial artists achieved this by using the innate vitality or Primordial Energy within their bodies to bend gravity around them. It looked like defying nature, but nature always pushed back. Even the strongest Transcendent, even the King Phase legend from a hundred years ago, could only rise to about five hundred feet. Within that space, they could move freely. Beyond it, climbing higher was impossible.Combat machines like the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter did not share that restriction.Those gunships could reach nearly 3,000 feet. As long as they kept their distance, Leander would never be able to touch them. From there, every weapon on board became a killing tool, ready to rain death down from the sky.Thup-thup-thup!Rotors screamed as every pilot pulled hard, forcing their gunships upward. Yet, Leander moved first.Mist curled around his hand as he reached forward. Heat sparked. Fire stitched itself together, forming a blazing spear that roared in his grip like a living beast.noveldramaThe nearest pilot glimpsed Leander's crooked grin through the glass. Dread hit him like a punch.Leander twisted his body backward, hips snapping into position, with every joint aligned and power held tightly."Haah!"The beastlike roar tore from his chest as the coiled tension in his body was released. He then hurled the flaming spear, which screamed through the air toward the nearest AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter.Sizzle...A lance of fire tore across the sky at more than twice the speed of sound. The pilot glimpsed a flare of flame-then it was already on him.Thunk!The fire spear punched through the cockpit.Though the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter's aluminum alloy armor was not as thick as tank or rocket-vehicle plating, it was durable enough to withstand sniper fire and typical rifle fire. Its front barrier was built with multiple layers of tempered glass and reinforced, bulletproof materials.Leander's fiery spear did not even slow.It shattered the cockpit windshield, pierced the pilot's chest, and continued forward, bursting out the rear and creating a direct path from nose to tail through the aircraft.Kra-boom!The sky cracked open with a violent roar as the once-feared war machine from the '60s burst apart, torn to pieces by Leander's blow.Fire and wreckage spiraled away, leaving the remaining five pilots frozen in disbelief. Their minds went blank. A man just did that?Leander never even looked their way.His body blurred forward, closing the distance in a breath. Flames surged again, forging another inferno spear in his palm."Keep climbing! Push higher!"Panicked voices flooded the comms as the pilots wrenched back on their sticks, fighting to drag their gunships higher and farther from Leander."Hmph." A chill smile crept across Leander's lips. His gaze snapped to the next target, and another spear of fire ripped free from his hand.Fizz-Crack!Fire blossomed in the sky.A second AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter vanished.Deep underground, a group of officers in military uniforms gathered before the large screen, their eyes wide with disbelief and bodies tense."What the hell is that flaming spear in Jeff's hand?" one blurted. "How can it hit like that?""I believed he wiped out three thousand troops," another muttered. "This makes no sense. An AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter can't even slow him down?"One man sprang to his feet, face pale. "Our combat estimate is wrong. Completely wrong. Jeff Leander is far beyond projection. We misread him from the start."Off to the side, one man's gaze turned cold as he released a helpless sigh.On the screen, Leander appeared as a deity of destruction. His blazing spear soared and plunged, each throw piercing a gunship, with every impact erupting in a violent explosion of fire.The AH-1 Cobra attack helicoptersnever reached the height where their standoff firepower mattered. They never even brought that advantage into play. Before they could climb to safety Leander had already torn them apart in the sky skewering each one from front to back. "Is he even human?" someone whispered. "Not even the King Phase master from a hundred years ago fought like this.""That fiery spear hits ten times harder than armor-piercing rounds. Plus, the blast rivals an anti-air missile. That's not a man. That's a myth," a young officer burst out, fear shining in his eyes.For the first time, he understood what a martial artist truly meant.His mind raced back a hundred years, to the age when a King Phase master carvedup the land and ruled the world. How horrifying must that era have been? Didmodern weapons really drive beings like this into hiding?Were those King Phase masters truly forced into hiding for a century, kept in the shadows by the military deterrence of the world's great powers?No one had time to draw another breath before the screen erupted again. A final flash of fire swallowed the last AH-1 Cobra attackbelicopter, and the wreck plume). netoward the ground in a burning spiral. From the first strike to the last, Leander never gave those gunships room to breathe. He pressed the attack without hesitation, cutting them down before they could ever bring their strengths to bear.When the smoke cleared, only Leander hung in the open sky. Six AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters were gone. His posture stayed steady, his face unreadable, yet a harder edge had settled into his eyes.Then new shapes rushed in from the distance.Fifteen armed helicopters soared through the clouds at their maximum altitude, well beyond his reach.The clash was not finished.The hunt for Leander had only just crossed into its fiercest stage.