SHUUUU!
The sword was fast, faster than any attack that Ryker had ever faced.
An 8th Circle Talent. A Violet-Gold Innate Battle Genius.
Ryker suddenly grinned. It was a wild grin, a light of almost sheer, unbridled craze lighting his blue irises. His hair fluttered wildly, and he suddenly brought his chain-wrapped arm up.
BANG!
Sword and arm met, a reverberating clash echoing across the land. Earth was torn up like the waves of the ocean, the clouds above dispersing beneath the mighty impact.
Their gazes met across their blows, and Ryker’s free arm flared out, unfurling a cracking whip.
The whip curled into the skies and looked as though it was about to hit nothing but air before an explosive Spirit Energy surged within it.
[Whip Like Shield] activated, and the whip suddenly curled back under the influence of its own power, slapping toward the top of Cyrus’ head.
The 8th Circle genius seemed to have eyes everywhere, his neck tilting to the side as his own Spirit Energy flared.
The whip cracked in the air just beside his cheek, deforming his face for just a moment before his elastic skin snapped back into a cold rage.
Cyrus pulled his sword back at the same instant Ryker pulled his arm back, a successive rain of clashes booming between the two.
Ryker unfurled his chain, forming a sharp line of violet flames that cascaded into the air, ripping apart the rain of gold Spirit Energy in the air.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
One sword.
One whip and chain.
Their figures flickered, weaving in and out of one another in a dance.
Cyrus’ power was only natural, expected, even. Ryker’s, however…
Ryker took a step and shifted out of the way of a beam of swordlight.
PA! PA! PA!
His wrist flickered thrice, a needle-rain of [Whip Like Needle]’s rushing out and pincering Cyrus from all sides.
Cyrus parried one, gliding the sharp Spirit Energy along the length of his long sword, sidestepped the next, and erupted with a majestic aura that shattered the last. His body was suddenly coated with a divine armor formed of golden metal and embroidered with bright amethysts.
He slashed down, veins bulging across his handsome visage.
Ryker’s hurricane Domain flickered to life and shredded this power apart. His arms danced, moving like snakes through the air.
In that moment, the cadence of his movements changed, and he seemed to become one with his Domain. The rhythm of his chain and whip matched the volatile currents of water. His chain rushing out like towering tsunamis and his whip hiding within the depths with a subtlety that was hard to grasp.
The 33 Paths of the Dao of Water flashed through his mind, and his every movement seemed to embody another form.
Cyrus’ sword moved swiftly, countering as fast as he could. But the distance advantage of the Valorian Clan’s chain and whip was becoming more and more suffocating.
He could no longer barrel his way forward with the presence of the Water Domain. After the first chance he got in closing the distance, that gap had only widened.
And now, Ryker’s style had suddenly changed into a sophisticated and suffocating martial art that made even his Innate Battle Genius senses stand on end.
It was like Ryker was both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Whips that should have come from the front ended up to his left or right, changing direction inexplicably in the middle of flight without even a shift in Ryker’s wrist position. Chains that seemed to carry no strength at all suddenly exploded forth with a great deal of it, making him feel as though he was about to collapse.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Cyrus took a hard step back, and then another.
Ryker’s aura continued to flare, his attacks becoming faster, sharper.
“IS THIS ALL THAT YOU HAVE?!”
Ryker’s Silver Mirror suddenly glowed, and Cyrus found himself almost frozen in time. It was like his limbs had been encapsulated by space, forced into submission.
A furious rain of attacks landed on him, drilling into his armor and nearly shattering to pieces.
Luckily, his sword was his first contract, but his armor was his second, and he had supported both with eight full Circles. This just barely managed to save him. In fact, Ryker’s whip shattered on impact, the repelling force being far too strong.
However, Ryker didn’t seem to react to the loss of his whip at all. He already knew that it was too inferior.
He grabbed out at the air and a long light of water jetted from his fingers and palm. A snaking whip wreathed in the Dao of Water and Queen’s new Water Control Talent bloomed.
Prometheus lashed out, thunderous booms of shattering sound barriers resonating as it clashed into Cyrus’ chest.
Ryker’s wrist flickered and the whip of water lashed out even faster, falling from the skies with a gathering momentum that only became faster and faster until it was practically falling with the pace of a guillotine.
BANG!
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Cyrus was sent flying, his armor shuddering with such force that he spit out several mouthfuls of blood.
Ryker shouldn’t have been this strong. It didn’t make sense, it was too much. Cyrus might have been a newly ascended Mythic, but he was still a First Mythic, an existence that Ascendeds, let alone First Ascendeds, should only be able to look up to.
Yet, Ryker was crushing one.
Before Ryker’s excursion to the secret Realms hidden in the peak danger zones of this Iteration, he had already had the strength to fight against Third Elevated Spirit Beasts with no other support than the Silver Mirror and Prometheus.
However, after this, he had perfected his Dao of Water, Earth, Fire, and Wind, gained the Dao of Space, and fused the former four into what seemed to be the Dao of Chaos, taking up an entire 36 Circles.
Just based on this alone, his power had already leapt impossibly far beyond what it had been when he first crash landed.
An infuriated roar suddenly came from Cyrus as he burst out of the ground. This time, he wasn’t just wreathed in gold, but rather, a Violet-Gold.
A sneer curled Ryker’s already savage grin. This glow was the very capability of the Innate Battle Genius. It reflected the power of their Innate Battle instincts, and also amplified their Spirit Energy to a great degree. This was the same glow that Sofia got when she used hers, but by a completely different color.
Ryker couldn’t help but laugh into the skies, and everyone felt a cold chill crawl up their spines. It made sense for Cyrus to be so infuriated, but Ryker had had an edge to him since this entire battle started that didn’t make very much sense… at least it didn’t make sense to anyone that didn’t know him well.
Who was Cyrus to hold back while fighting him?
BANG!
Ryker suddenly vanished. His Dao of Space pierced through the air and with a single [Divined Step], he cut across the spatial nodes of the world, suddenly appearing right before Cyrus.
Prometheus had already snapped back onto his arm, forming a gauntlet that pressed down with a furious momentum.
BANG!
Cyrus was pummeled back into the ground the instant he had soared back up.
Ryker’s water whip flared and lashed out once, then twice, then thrice. Every time, beautiful sprays of water filled the air, only to drill down like bullets. It was as though Ryker could stand to waste even them, using it as fodder to terrorize Cyrus further.
“Who…”
BANG!
“… Do…”
BANG!
“… You…!”
BANG!
“… THINK YOU ARE?!”
Ryker descended from the skies in a sweep of the Dao of Wind, his feet stamping into Cyrus’ chest.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Every stomp of his foot caused the crater they were in to widen and deepen, cracks of the earth surging in all directions as a gravity talent descended from above, making Cyrus feel as though his organs themselves were overturning.
Cyrus unleashed a roar and a shield suddenly appeared on his free arm, blocking Ryker’s next stomp and sending him flying into the skies.
Stomping his own foot and deepening the crater even further, Cyrus leapt into the skies, parrying a chain strike from Ryker with his shield and then slashing out with a full powered slash.
A battle erupted again, blood leaking from the corner of Cyrus’ lip. But that only made his expression all the more savage. He slashed out again and again like a madman, forgetting everything as he sunk further into his madness.
Yet, rather than making him weaker, this made him countless times stronger. His Innate Battle instincts had completely taken over. He didn’t think before he moved, his body gliding from battle stance to battle stance in one fluid motion after another.
At that moment, his Violet-Gold energy even began to show tinges of black. But this blackness wasn’t Corruption. Rather, it was the next evolution. Black Innate Battle Genius.
Ryker might as well have not seen it at all. The light in his eyes only became bolder and more violent.
He didn’t care how high Cyrus’ Innate Battle Genius state became…
What was an Innate Battle Genius to a Pure Soul?
Ryker’s chain snaked through the air, suddenly turning into a spiral as it changed shape. It wrapped around Cyrus’ blade instead of clashing with it head on, locking around it and suddenly ripping it to the side.
Cyrus managed to maintain his grip, but his chest was open to attack. He reacted quickly, entirely out of instinct, blocking his chest with his shield.
However, Ryker’s whip, which had already lashed out in quick succession, suddenly changed midair as well, piercing downward right through Cyrus’ knee.
A scream of agony filled the air.
Ryker pulled on his chain harder, ripping Cyrus’ entire body to the side and pulling his water whip out of his leg at the same time.
BANG!
Cyrus' entire leg seemed to be overwhelmed, exploding into a cloud of mist.
Droplets of water accumulated in the air in the midst of crimson, making it clear what happened. Ryker had actually ripped him apart from the inside out.
Cyrus collapsed to the ground. If there was anything to praise him for, it was the fact that he had managed to continue holding onto his sword and shield. But what good was that when he couldn’t even walk anymore?
A waterfall of blood came from Cyrus’ mouth, an almost maddened laughter coming out at the same time. He laughed and laughed, his bloodshot eyes looking up to meet Ryker’s gaze.
“Is that what you want?! FINE!”
Powerful auras began to appear in the skies one after another, but the one that no one could take their eyes off of was the massive behemoth that appeared right behind Cyrus.
It was a tree, an absolutely gorgeous one. It had a body so thick that its diameter alone was at least 50 meters, and its canopy seemed to hold up the skies. If one didn’t know better, one would have thought that a Treasure City had been transported here.
But even Ryker’s pupils couldn’t help but constrict. That was because this was something worse than a Treasure City, it was the Spirit Beast the Treasure City was based on.
Yes. This tree was a Spirit Beast.
It was a rare Wood, Spirit, Variant Metal Variant Type… A Spirit Beast with an unknown Circle Talent because it was simply unlike any other Spirit Beast… As for why, that was obvious. It was a tree, not a beast.
Ryker only knew all of this because of an obscure text he had read in the past. It was said that the existence of this tree was what spurred on the creation of the Mystery Path. It held the secrets that allowed humans to bridge a connection between treasures and themselves.
However, it was so obscure and lacking in details that Ryker had simply never considered it. He didn’t even know where he might go to even find such a “Spirit Beast”.
It could be said that the reason he was so shocked was less because of this Spirit Beast’s power, but the fact it existed at all. There was too much stuff in his brain that he doubted had ever happened, even in the distant past. He had lumped this one in with the others, but it seemed that he was wrong.
Cyrus' laughter peeled across the skies like sharp arcs of lightning.
At that moment, his other beasts had fully formed. But… there were only two, and both of them were 6th Circle Beasts that had surprisingly already entered the Mythics Realm.
Ryker’s eyes narrowed.
Assuming Cyrus used 24 Circles on his treasures, eight for his shield, eight for his sword, and eight for his armor, that still left 48 Circles, enough for a full six 8th Circle Beasts.
Even if the tree was a 9th Circle beast, that still left far more room than just two 6th Circle Beasts.
Cyrus' laughter only increased as he could seem to feel Ryker’s confusion. His two 6th Circle Beasts, a pair of golden feathered falcons, perched high in the tree, their gazes looming with a menacing sharpness.
At that moment, a branch fell from the tree, piercing into Cyrus’ leg and causing him to seethe for a moment before a new limb entirely grew out from the golden wood.
It was not only functional, but it seemed far more powerful than even his usual defenses.
He slowly rose to his feet, the canopy of his lofty golden tree casting a shadow over his entire self.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you. I’ll pull out your tendons one by one, I’ll grind your bones to dust, I’ll pluck your eyes out and lay them on the nightstand while I fuck your fiancée and mother tonight. I won’t let you rest well even in death!”
A darkness suddenly began to pervade Ryker’s gaze.
“I think…” he said softly. “… That I’m done playing with you.”
Cyrus’ eyes widened, but it was already too late.
He looked down slowly, only to find a claw going through his body.
His body shuddered as he looked up, only to find a creature that stood thicker than even his tree standing boldly before him.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!
Ryker stood on the back of the three-headed creature, their four pairs of eyes looking down with an arrogant menace.
The skies shattered and beneath the might of the furious roars, several space vessels cracked apart and fell from the skies.