The armor covering Amino's face suddenly vanished, revealing his honest-looking, almost simple expression.
Yet that seemingly harmless face now wore an utterly incongruous, cruel smile.
"The Twelve Zodiacs… are nothing special!"
"Just like Scorpion said, this Shadow is completely useless!"
As he spoke, his intact hand shot forward and wrapped around Shadow's body.
Then he squeezed.
"BOOM!"
With a thunderous crack, the Shadow already covered in fine fractures was crushed apart in his arms.
The strange shadow shattered into countless fragments, which quickly dissolved beneath the sunlight.
Amino began walking toward Rock step by step, his single hand spread wide.
Like a one-armed giant bear, he radiated an overwhelming sense of oppression.
"The feeling of crushing one of the Twelve Zodiacs in my arms…"
"That should be enough to give me a good night's sleep."
Amino spoke with mocking amusement.
"Don't worry. I'll crush every one of your bones, one by one, and squeeze every last scream out of you."
"Humans…"
"What such weak creatures."
His immense physical presence matched the equally immense quantity of death energy within him.
The strength of a Sub-beast was determined by the degree to which its death energy had been condensed.
When a creature like Malene revealed her true form, she became a genuine giant.
And a true Apostle like Amino naturally possessed a quantity of death energy far beyond anything Malene could compare with.
Death energy itself was difficult to measure in terms of weight.
But Amino had apparently chosen to express its density in the most oppressive way possible.
Every step he took left a deep footprint in the solid ground.
At this moment, he resembled a massive tank slowly rolling toward its target.
Just his approach was enough to make anyone feel despair.
"Even now, you still refuse to let me die knowing the truth?"
Facing Amino's relentless advance, Rock raised an eyebrow.
He clearly hadn't given up on extracting as much information from the Apostle as possible.
Amino looked at him strangely.
"You humans really are interesting."
"You're about to die, yet you're still worrying about all this pointless nonsense?"
"A fool like you…"
"Your head probably wouldn't even be worthy of becoming part of my collection."
"What a headache…"
Clearly, Amino had no intention of granting Rock the privilege of dying enlightened.
As he spoke, his enormous palm continued descending toward Rock's head without hesitation.
"Yuiiiiiii!!!!"
Haunter, which had been clinging tightly to Rock's hair all this time, suddenly let out a piercing cry.
It was obvious that this huge bastard had come with hostile intentions.
To protect its master, Haunter bravely floated up from Rock's head and charged straight toward the sneering Amino!
"Wait! Haunter!"
A trace of hesitation flashed across Rock's face.
Then—
A shadow silently rose behind Amino.
In its hand was a simple, old-fashioned dagger.
It quietly raised the weapon and plunged it into Amino's back!
Shadow was clearly being extremely cautious.
It didn't want to attract Amino's attention, so even its movements were light and almost imperceptible.
Under normal circumstances, an attack of this level shouldn't have been capable of penetrating Amino's defenses at all.
Yet something bizarre happened the moment the dagger touched his armor of death energy.
The death energy seemed to fear the dagger.
It immediately parted on either side, exposing Amino's back.
Only then did Shadow's voice finally erupt, overflowing with hatred and murderous rage.
"Fuck! I finally got you!"
"Die! Die, die! Die, die, die!"
"You damned piece of shit! Let's see you keep acting tough!"
"You wanna play dirty? Then fucking die!"
As Shadow howled like a rabid dog, its movements suddenly accelerated.
"THUD!"
The dagger plunged all the way into Amino's back, disappearing completely except for the hilt.
"Fuck!"
The sluggish, deliberately leisurely Amino from moments ago was gone.
His entire face twisted with shock and disbelief.
Clearly, the attack had inflicted considerably more damage than expected.
When Shadow had previously stabbed countless holes into his entire body, Amino hadn't even shown such a pained expression.
But now—
He didn't even turn around.
Instead, he accelerated and lunged straight toward Rock!
"What did you… do?!"
Amino had been treating the battle like a cat playing with a mouse.
Although he still didn't know what had attacked his back, the moment the pain hit, he realized something very clearly—
He had failed to put on his little performance.
Even if Rock was a mouse…
He was a mouse with fangs.
The enormous psychological reversal was something Amino, who looked simple and honest but was actually sinister and cunning, found difficult to accept.
Yet beneath that seemingly harmless appearance was an extremely calculating mind.
Even under these circumstances, he still refused to turn around and look.
Instead, he accelerated toward Rock.
His enormous body blocked out the sunlight above Rock.
Rock was completely swallowed by shadow.
This time, Amino attacked in genuine fury.
He no longer had any intention of leisurely playing with his prey.
His movements were so fast that even Su Bai, watching from nearby, was slightly startled.
Yet the next moment, Rock did something completely unexpected.
"Haunter, I know you're brave."
"But this battle isn't suitable for you."
Rock pulled out a Poké Ball and gently pressed the button.
The anxious and bewildered Haunter was instantly recalled into the Poké Ball.
Amino's expression became even more vicious.
"At a time like this, you still have the presence of mind to recall your Pokémon?"
"You really don't know when to give up!"
Amino was clearly caught off guard by Rock's action.
Being naturally cautious, he had assumed Rock was about to pull out some kind of trump card capable of turning the battle around.
That hesitation had even slowed his movements by a fraction.
And the result?
That was all Rock had done?
A feeling of being toyed with suddenly welled up inside him.
Amino became even angrier.
Countless sharp spikes suddenly grew from the armor covering his enormous fist.
Rock had stabbed him once.
Now, Amino intended to punch countless holes through Rock in return.
He had originally planned to slowly crush this man to death.
But now…
He no longer had the patience.
"BOOM!"
His massive fist came crashing down toward Rock.
The earth collapsed violently beneath the impact.
With a sound like a landslide, an enormous circular crater appeared exactly where Rock had been standing.
There was no doubt about it.
Amino was now intent on killing him.
The fact that a single punch could create such devastation was enough to demonstrate just how terrifying an Apostle truly was.
And yet—
The expression on Amino's face after causing such destruction wasn't particularly pleasant.
He slowly turned around and looked toward the place where he had been attacked earlier.
The shadow that had stabbed him was gradually taking shape.
It condensed into a genuine humanoid figure.
Features slowly emerged from the darkness.
Rock stood with his hands behind his back as he stepped out from the shadow.
Amino raised his remaining arm and touched his back.
The tiny wound left by the dagger was filled with surging death energy, desperately attempting to repair it.
Yet some strange force was preventing the wound from healing.
"You…"
"You're different from the Twelve Zodiac I encountered before."
"You're also different from the one Scorpion told me about!"
"What exactly are you?"
"And what is that dagger?!"
For the first time, a trace of wariness appeared in Amino's eyes.
Questions poured from his mouth one after another.
Rock's face was noticeably paler than before.
But when he heard Amino's questions, he suddenly smiled.
A hint of amusement appeared behind his narrowed eyes.
"You want my secrets?"
"Why should I tell you?"