1118 Temper
When Aantha saw what was happening, she smiled an adorable smile while sliding between three blades with a practiced grace. She didn't seem to be taking the three women around her seriously at all.
''Brother-in-law, watch out! He's very, very, very powerful. His name is Orthros and he's a member of the Sky Clan. His big brother has always had a crush on big sis so I think he's mad about that, make sure he doesn't find out how much big sis likes cuddling with you, or else he'll get really, really, really mad.''
Aantha's voice echoed with ''concern'', but if Ryu was a different type of person, he might have already been rolling his eyes at this point. However, not only was Ryu not a normal individual, when he learned of the reason Orthros was targeting him, his already cold gaze turned malevolent.
All of these young geniuses had tempers, but they were entirely unaware that the one with the most fearsome temper among them was actually Ryu himself.
At that moment, the skies crackled with thunder and Ryu's wrist flickered outward, causing a large stream of lightning to condense into a vicious dragon-like whip. At the tip of this whip, a half condensed rune rotated, causing the air to sizzle and pop.
This lightning inheritance was known as the Flood Dragon's Whip. It was separated into ten stages. The first was Runeless, and each subsequent stage gained one additional Rune. At this point, Ryu had formed about 10% of the First Rune. Upon forming the full Rune, the whip would be able to display the strength of a Lower Fragmented Sky God.
The inheritance was essentially just a method of lightning manipulation, something that Ryu didn't actually need considering he had the Lightning God Talent from his Lightning Qilin bloodline. If he wante dto form a whip, he could just manually do it himself. However what made this inheritance special were the runes themselves. They could amplify the explosive power of the lightning, thus concentrating more power into it.
When Ryu used normal lightning with a 10% formed Rune, it had about a fifth the power of his normal Tribulation Lightning. But if he used the 10% Rune with his Tribulation Lightning Instead... The effects would be astronomically better.
Ryu suddenly flickered and vanished. In his place, a twin pair of Small Realms formed almost instantly.
Those watching couldn't help but sneer. Aantha had only said a few words but this supposed husband of Mae was actually so afraid that he deployed his Small Realms so quickly? Usually people who had any sort of confidence in themselves would only bring out their power as needed, after all, wasn't the dream of everyone her to gain the Dao Lord's Inheritance? If you went all out in every battle, how could you even have the stamina to compete when the time came?
''Your ''brother-in-law'' isn't very impressive,'' one of the women battling Aantha sneered.
Even as she spoke, Aantha's tail suddenly lashed against her arm, leaving a deep gash.
''You talk too much, worry about yourself,'' Aantha sneered back. Though, inwardly, she was a bit unsatisfied as well. She had been with Ryu for these last several months, but she had never seen him fight seriously. None of the Ruins they went to pushed him very hard at all, so she had no idea if this was truly Ryu's quality or not.
What these people didn't know was that Ryu had gotten into the habit of deploying his Small Realms instantly so he could end battles with greater speed. He didn't care what others thought about his tactics. Two Small Realms might be the limit for others, but for ryu, this was nothing more than the tip of the iceberg.
When Ryu appeared in a wisp of dark wind, his whip had already lashed out, aiming for Orthros' head. He struck to kill and he didn't have the slightest hint of propriety in the face of these genuiuses with strong backgrounds. No matter who he was facing, he would always be Ryu Tatsuya.
While others were sneering at Ryu's battle style, Orthros, who had wanted to do the same, suddenly found himself frozen. He too was a lightning affinity cultivator, and almost the instant Ryu's Small Realm was deployed, he found himself entirely stifled. His qi became sluggish and his reponse became slow.
By the time he reacted, Ryu's whip was already near his head and he could only roar, letting out a mighty surging wave of qi.
BANG!
Orthros was sent flying back, his defensive wall of qi cracking and almost shattering entirely.
Ryu's other hand grasped at the air, forming a second whip with a 10% Rune. He lashed out with it almost immediately, shattering Orthros' defenses to pieces in the next instant.
Orthros flew backward even faster, but Ryu seemed to be even faster than that, appearing above him like a ghost, his aura entirely malevolent.
Ryu's back flexed, his arms flaring out wide before he whipped them downward with a vicious momentum.
The skies clapped with thunder, the roar of a might flood dragon drowning out everything else.
Ryu's two whips lashed out against Orthros' chest, causing it to cave in.
A projectile of blood flew from Orthros' lips, his robes erupting into ashes and his inner lining of armor only barely reflecting what remained of the damage.
Orthros barely managed to maintain his consciousness, finally managing to reach to his back and bring his glaive into his hands. Even as he crashed back first into the ground, he countered, striking upward with what strength he had left.
The glaive's polearm extended, appearing before Ryu's forehead in a flash of lightning and piercing right through.
But just when it seemed that Orthros had successfully countered, Ryu's afterimage vanished into the wind, appearing on the ground just 10 meters from Orthros as the latter struggled to his feet, only to be met by two whipping whips.
Orthros was sent flying again.
A sudden silence fell over the surroundings as Ryu savagely hounded Orthros. It was clear to everyone that due to just a few words from Aantha, Ryu wanted nothing more than to kill Orthros.
