"Of course, I’m weak! I’m barely able to use 20% of my full strength!" Antares said, mid-exasperation and danger, as Ryuk scoffed.
"You’re not missing an arm or leg. Sounds like an excuse to me," he replied, resulting in the giant clapping his head.
"You broke my gauntlets and my axe."
"Those are just extra weapons. They don’t count as a factor of power. At least not on the level of 80% of one’s true strength."
"Maybe to you, and that weak scythe of yours, duh! I’m an Aetheris Barbarian."
"My full power is capable of being unleashed by me conjoining Aetheris along with runic lines, which are on my gauntlets and my axe!"
"Only by them can I channel my Aetheris energy and use my power!"
"Without them, I’m merely releasing Aetheris energy as a raw force!"
"It’s like you throwing out a blast of mana. It doesn’t do shit if you don’t employ a technique or skill or ability!" Antares shot back, as Ryuk’s brows furrowed deeply.
His words made sense. It was just like Instructor Kiyana said.
Aetheris energy is weak when it comes to physical power. The only time it’s truly powerful is when Aetheris’ runes are used. The Silverunic are able to call up runes that they’ve memorized, inscribe them with Aetheris to use their power.
For Antares, the runes had already been inscribed onto his gauntlets and dual axe, and he only needed to send Aetheris into them to bring out the full power of his energy.
Without runes, an Aetheris cultivator was pretty much useless, just like how a Mana Cultivator would be useless if they didn’t have a battle technique or skill to use their mana.
Now it made sense why Antares was weaker than he remembered.
Because he didn’t have any runic lines to employ his power, since Ryuk had destroyed his axe and gauntlet.
He was merely releasing blasts of power.
And that was when Ryuk’s gaze widened in realization.
Even though Antares was merely using blasts of Aetheris, which are pretty much useless in a fight... he somehow was still able to defeat two Initial Stage Eternity Skeletons and even hold down four of the others!
At 20% of his power, he could still defeat Initial Stage Eternity experts and hold a small group of them down.
Then what would have happened if he had his axe and gauntlets? What would have happened if he had 100% of his full power?
He would most likely have skewered through them all with a single attack!
[Antares is like you, Ryuk.]
The system suddenly said as Ryuk’s expression tensed with focused confusion.
’Like me?’
[Yes, like you. You’re an anomaly amongst Endarthians. The greatest anomaly, probably.]
[MadWhite, too, is an anomaly among his human race, mainly because he is also a Geneticist Cultivator, having been fused with the Titan gene.]
[High Scholar Emris is an anomaly amongst his race due to his unique Dark Aetheris energy that allows him to weaponize imagination.]
[Just like all of you, Antares is also an anomaly in his own right.]
[I haven’t quite figured out what made him abnormal. But if there’s any hypothesis I have, it’s that... Aetheris is similar to you.]
[Growing stronger with every scar...]
"Seems like you finally realized, huh?" Antares asked with a grin as he looked at Ryuk’s shocked expression with amusement.
But then, Ryuk’s surprise faded away before he inhaled and exhaled slowly.
His gaze couldn’t help but trail to the scars that covered Antares’ body, and now, the thought of those scars not really being scars for the first time echoed out to him.
Perhaps that was Antares’ power.
To get stronger in battle. With every scar added, he gets stronger?
Or else, how would one explain him tripling his strength just after Ryuk’s fight? He should have been weak and barely alive from that, but he reappeared before Ryuk he had gotten his energy wave to be thrice as strong as the previous time.
And Ryuk could see, on Antares’ hands, they still bore the marks of the Annunaki’s Oblivion skill, and that scar wasn’t leaving completely, although it had healed.
Now, he was starting to understand—this loud giant before him might actually be a horror of his own.
"Tell me, Antares, what are you sore about? Me whooping your ass or you losing your weapon?"
"You whooping my ass? I’m even curious, Ryuk."
"How did you survive that technique of yours?"
"I am a hundred percent sure your feeble body at that time shouldn’t have been able to handle that blast."
"It succeeded in crumbling my axe and gauntlets—but you, of all people, should never have survived that."
"It should have destroyed your body."
"How the fuck are you still standing, but now in a seemingly different body?"
"Did you change your body?" Antares asked, suspicious and cautious.
But looking at Ryuk’s eyes, which held no emotion and definitely wouldn’t answer his question, he could only shrug it off as he refocused on the question he was asked.
"So you said—am I sore that you whooped my ass. First of all, you didn’t whoop my ass."
"To whoop someone’s ass is to beat them to their back and stand above them, looking at them with a condescending gaze that says, ’Wanna go for one more time?’"
"You defeated me, sure, but I was on a knee and you could barely stand. Seems to me like mutual destruction."
"As for being really whooped in the ass—I’ve been whooped in the ass by a certain bastard before. Quite badly too."
"That was how I got into that godforsaken ruin in the first place," Antares said, as Ryuk watched the seething, murderous aura suddenly burst out of Antares as his teeth clenched hard.
’Oh, seems like he’s got a feud with someone... and lost too.’
’I wonder who can beat Antares so damn bad and imprison him in a ruin. Whoever he was, he must have been pretty badass.’
"So, yeah, I’ve been whooped in the ass, and I’m sore about it. Everyone who’s been whooped is always sore about being whooped."
"If they aren’t, they just haven’t been whooped enough."
"But I am most angry that you destroyed my axe and gauntlets. Can’t blame it on you, though. I could have lost my life along with them, too. That I’m at least grateful for."
"But I need to get weapons crafted soon. Or else, I feel too weak. It’s like having two hands and only one finger working. Infuriarting no?"
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A/N:
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In and Out_SnowySmoos