"A deal? What deal?" she asked, and Ryuk replied,
"I tell you how my tattoo works, and trust me, it’s more mind-blowing than you think."
"And in return, you show me what makes a Zaffre Kraken different from other Krakens."
"Deal?" he asked, watching the Kraken furrow her brows in thought.
She tried to think of any loophole in his words that could place her on the lesser receiving end, but in the end, there was nothing much, except one.
"What do you mean by what makes me different from other Krakens?" she asked, and he replied,
"I mean, Zaffre Krakens are not ordinary Krakens, right?"
She nodded.
"Then what makes you unique? Your skills? Your abilities? Your form? I want to know what’s special about Zaffre Krakens. That’s all," he said, and she shrugged it off.
"Deal, but you start first," she said, walking out of the lab to sit closer on the sofa, her eyes locked on his tattoos.
"Firstly, these tattoos," Ryuk said, sliding his hands over his runic marks, "are a manifestation of an energy called Hurricane."
"And no, it’s not some energy like Flames or Water, which fall under Apex Energy. Neither is it a type of Abyssal Energy or Aetheris Energy."
"It is a fourth energy of its own," he explained, watching her mutter,
"Hurricane... I’ve never heard of that before."
"That’s possible. After all, even I myself only know there’s one other person like me in this entire universe who possibly controls Hurricane."
"Two in a universe?" She said in disbelief.
"Yes. It’s just that rare."
"What does it do? What makes it different from Abyss, Apex, or Aetheris?" she asked.
"Abyssal energy is dark, belonging to most evil races."
"Apex is elemental attributes or an amalgamation of them, and Aetheris deals with Mind and Soul."
"But Hurricane, Hurricane has just one attribute: Its ability is to copy all other energies and replicate them for its holder," he said.
"A copy energy?"
In reply, Ryuk reached out and grabbed her hand.
She flinched at his touch, the first time he had ever touched her, but then something began to happen that took her attention away from the contact.
Ryuk’s tattoos began changing from their shimmering purple into a dazzling new energy.
An energy of purple-blue color that gleamed in her eyes.
Soon enough, his entire body glittered with that mix of blue and purple, an energy she immediately recognized.
’Oregon Energy. That’s my energy,’ she thought, and Ryuk let go of her hand.
"You see how my tattoos copy your energy? I don’t know if it’s Apex or Aetheris, but it copied yours, you see?" he asked, and Zaffre hummed.
She already had an idea forming and said,
"Try doing something with it..."
Only to watch Ryuk stare blankly at her.
"Um, I can’t..."
"Huh? So you just copy but can’t use it? What’s the point then?" she asked, perplexed.
"It’s not that I can’t use it. I just don’t know what the energy I copied is, and I haven’t seen it used before."
"If I copied a flame, I could form a fireball since I’ve seen that before. If I got frost energy, I could create a frost sword.
"But if I haven’t seen what your energy can do, I can’t really use it. You get it?" he explained, and she scoffed.
"And I thought it was cool."
"Huh?"
"So if you fight me now and copy my energy, it’ll still be useless, and you’ll have no power to use?" she asked.
Ryuk shrugged.
"Not really. I can save energy, although that’s extremely difficult, and up until now, I have only saved two energies," he said.
Zaffre watched as two Grimoires appeared around him.
She watched him reach out and grab one, the white-paged one.
Just a second later, his tattoo colour changed to a frosty white.
When it did, the temperature dropped by hundreds of degrees, and a sword of frost quickly formed in his grasp.
He slashed it to the side, and frost washed across space, freezing everything into nothingness.
’It’s quite powerful,’ It occurred to Zaffre.
He grabbed the second grimoire, the darker one, and a dark vortex began conjuring all around.
He formed a ball of frost and threw it inside one vortex, only for it to exit another, again and again, before Ryuk eventually caught it back in his palm.
"So you have Frost and Void energy saved?" she asked, and Ryuk nodded, saying,
"So, if I face you in a fight, I won’t really be powerless since I can always just grab my Frost or Void energy."
"It’s quite the unique energy, isn’t it?" he asked, and she hummed.
As much as she wanted to deny it, she couldn’t.
Not all cultivators could control multiple attributes.
The most she had ever seen a cultivator control was three.
But with Ryuk, he could instantly copy any energy, and if he knew well of it beforehand, then he could use it to attack.
Besides, he could also save energy, and right now he had two elements stored that he could use at the same time.
’In a battle of energies, he would be very difficult to beat, but that makes him far from invincible’
’Even if he copied energy mid-battle, he would still be limited in knowledge to the knowledge and efficiency of the original wielder who had wielded the energy all his or her life.’
’That, in the end, restricted him to just the saved energies he had—and what’s more, energy skills weren’t something easy to master.’
’It takes years for elemental laws and attributes to be comprehended, and the more attributes one has, the less attention one can devote to studying each.’
’It has potential but is still far from truly being absolutely invincible.’
"I guess it’s a bit unique..." she admitted, and Ryuk returned the Grimoires to the Echo library before returning his stare to her.
"Now, it’s your turn," he said, but then watched her hmph instead.
"You just told me you can’t use my energy unless you know how it works, and now, you want me to show you how it works?"
"What? You really think I’m that dumb?" She said, snickering in mockery at him.
’What the!? Hey, we had a deal, remember?’
_____
A/N:
If you’re enjoying the novel, consider voting for the novel with Golden Tickets and Power Stones. It helps I, the author, with visibility on the NovelFire app.
In and Out_SnowySmoos