1143 TSSSUUU!
Mae couldn't help but cover her mouth, her pupils trembling. She could only barely feel the oddity of the strike, but the result of it was more than enough for her heart to quake.
The other spectators felt the oddity as well and something in their hearts told them that there was simply no way of dodging. In fact, if they had been in Ryu's position, let alone an arm, they might have very well lost their heads.
Mae bit her lip, hard. As much as she was feeling suffocated by Starlight's pressure, she felt even more resistance to the idea that the man she had just given herself to would die just like this. She hadn't even gotten a chance to know him, to truly know him, would things really end like this?
Arcs of lightning surged around Ryu and his body became almost incorporeal. The stump of his shoulder connected to his spinning arm via a flash of radiant blue and when he came back to form, half of it had been reattached.
Ryu's control over his soul was beyond most individuals now. Another might have been forced to allow their soul to passively disconnect from their severed arm, but Ryu, after realizing there was no getting away from losing his arm, had purposely maintained this connection, allowing him to disperse his body into lightning and reform his whole figure, albeit somewhat imperfectly.
Even so, his healing factor was quickly making him perfect, so long as he had some time. Unfortunately, though, although he had reacted extraordinarily quickly, Starlight's second strike was already descending and Ryu felt his body forcefully frozen in time.
Countless scenarios played out until Starlight settled on the path of causality that cost Ryu his leg.
A swordlight flashed by and a sharp pain shot through Ryu's body as it was his left leg's turn to take a spin through the air.
It felt as though Starlight was purposely mutilating him. No matter how many times Ryu tried to reconnect his body part, not only would it be imperfect, but a third, fourth, and even fifth strike would follow up soon afterward, too enigmatic for him to dodge completely.
Ryu coughed up a mouthful of blood, the crimson droplets drizzling down his neck.
His current body looked absolutely ridiculous, by self admission. It looked as though some shoddy, black market doctor had sown his limbs onto the stump that remained of his body. Bits of flesh, muscle and tendons barely held him together, but his limbs were disconnected enough that they looked as though they might fall away from him any moment now.
Ryu could already feel that if he tried to close in the distance between himself and Starlight, the latter's control over causality would only increase. Rather than 1 out of 10, there might be 2 of10, 3 of 10, or maybe even 5 of 10 scenarios he could use to force Ryu into a dead end. If Ryu pushed his luck, one of those scenarios would likely take his head.
However, what was also clear was that Starlight was making no attempt to close the distance. It was as though he was poking and prodding at Ryu like a toy, seeing if he had anything more to give.
Ryu shook his head, his chest still open and his back still straight. He took heaving breaths as the next swordlight came.
Despite the state of his body, his gaze remained the same. He had already spoken what he needed to say once, he felt no pressing need to speak again.
Unbendable and unbreakable, that's what he would be.
A pillar of Rage Flames enveloped Ryu's body in a torrent. The surging black-red flames danced with his tribulation lightning and his aura completely changed.
His limbs shifted into place as though they had never been severed. His radiant blue scales turned a royal violet, the horns on his head growing yet another size.
ROAR!
The skies trembled as a cloak of crimson enveloped Ryu, his Dragon Soul manifesting with a menacing arc as the storm above his head grew more violent. The Heavens raged with even greater fury, almost as though Ryu's very existence was taboo.
The dark gold tattoos that covered Ryu's body seemed to have gained life. Almost like a dry well finally being filled with flowing fresh water, it soaked it all in, becoming brighter and brighter.
Facing the swordlight, Ryu turned into an arc of violet lightning flames, shifting to the side and dodging.
This time, Starlight's causality was entirely broken. But rather than closing the distance, Ryu's aura changed and his grandfather's bow appeared in his hands.
The storm in the skies surged as arcs of blazing blue, white and gold lightning descended. With just a thought, Ryu corralled them all, forming an arrow dancing with a 15% complete Rune.
Ryu released three arrows in quick succession, and then three more. Each and every one carried the fury of the storm, the wrath of the Heavens being concentrated into an arrow barely a finger width thick.
The sound they unleashed when they were released was akin to a thousand claps of thunder, layering upon one another and causing the fabric of space to crumble and quake as it attempted to quickly reform itself.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Starlight's brows jumped.
He had seen Ryu release the aura of a Bow God before, but it was only now, facing it personally, that he could feel the true pressure. The sharpness in Ryu's gaze was unlike how it had been before, his blindness seemingly having been entirely cured.
In the past, Ryu relied entirely on his Void Spiritual Sense. However, as his grandfather had always said... the most important thing to an archer were his eyes!
Starlight hurriedly blocked before him, his heart jumping. The power of these lightning flames was easily multiples of what the Tribulation Lightning had been before. In fact, this was more akin to the power a young noble Lightning Qilin would be able to display with their Tribulation Lightning alone.
Starlight felt quite speechless. Had that been the aura of the Fire Dragon he had sensed before? He had berated Ryu for daring to hold back when he was so weak, but seeing Ryu take out talent after talent that could get him executed by Races and existences even he didn't dare to provoke left Starlight not knowing what to say.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Starlight's body shuddered as he blocked with his shield.
The two subsequent attacks made his arm numb as he was forced to take two steps back.
With a thought, he shook his shield gently and the rest of the accumulated pressure vanished in the blink of an eye as though it had never been there.
Ryu had caught him off guard at first, but his sword had such an ability, only a fool would believe his shield was just a simple shield. In fact, it too could shift causality, but its ability was much more life saving.
His sword could pick a causality and outcome that suited him best while his shield could split the outcome of an attack between numerous casualties, decreasing the power by whatever number of casualties he had conjured up. Just now, with a simple shake, he had weakened Ryu's attack by a factor of ten!
Starlight wasn't worried about either his offense or defense, even in the face of the current Ryu, but inwardly he was still shocked.
Ryu's overall foundation as a cultivator was entirely too weak before him. Even if he had used Rage Flames and Tribulation Lightning separately, he would have been nothing more than an ant. It was only after he fused them that they barely reached a standard that could harm him if he was too casual in responding.
But even so, that was only if he was too casual.
That said, he could understand now what Ryu said about dying when he took a step out of here.
Was it worth it?
Starlight almost laughed at his own thoughts. What choice did Ryu have? He had a choice between dying here at his own hands and dying outside? How would anyone with the heart of a cultivator choose the first?
Even if there was just the slightest chance for survival, a real man would fight!
''Hm?''
For the first time, the Dao Sovereign's intent perked up. But this had nothing to do with Ryu's Bloodlines. He had already deduced that Ryu was from a lesser world. In those places, all sorts of wild things happened. So long as Ryu got a bit lucky when coming here, he would be able to unshackle those talents and display these abilities. It was just unknown how long he would live after doing so and offending those Ancestral Beast Clans.
No, what caught the Dao Sovereign's attention was something entirely different.
Starlight felt another attack coming so he raised his shield once more, prepared to block once again, allow himself to reset, and then counter.
But what actually happened left him frozen in space.
Ryu's attack seemed to shrug off his shield entirely, an odd, unnoticeable fluctuation breaking through the realms of causality, or at the very least, the realms Starlight's shield and sword could control.
TSSUUU!
Ryu's arrow tore a hole through Starlight's chest, leaving a bloody hole in its wake. In the end, Starlight just barely shifted to the side, escaping the Fate of having his heart torn to shreds.
Ryu stood in the distance, his gaze dancing with the irregular and unsymmetrical runes of the Unbalance Mantra as he pulled back his bowstring again, his aura of a Bow God flaring as the storming skies turned more violent.
