Chapter 573: With Ease
Sylas' punch came fast and sudden, sharp and ruthless.
Moose had a violent change in expression as he hurriedly punched out as well, but his mind was whirling with the horror of it all.
This wasn't a normal battle, not by any means. Sylas was over 20 meters in the air. Moose simply didn't have any easy way to target him at all.
And yet, his fists were practically like they were right in front of his eyes.
BANG!
Moose was sent flying.
'He actually defended decently with his stats cut in half. Not bad.'
The Violet Rose Peacock shook beneath Sylas' feet and then vanished into a slithering vine that wrapped up his leg.
'Interesting...'
Sylas was only half paying attention to Moose. The other half of his attention had been on the peacock because he had realized something interesting.
His Symbiote Mount didn't count as a Combat Mount, at least not yet. That meant that he wasn't allowed to enter a state of battle with it.
When he attacked Ditya, there shouldn't have been some resistance, but there was none. In fact, he directly killed the man without much effort at all. Or, rather, he killed his projection.
Originally, he thought that it was because it happened so quickly that the system didn't consider it a fact. When Moose managed to resist, that only proved his point.
However, Sylas felt that there was a slight hint of something different.
The system was too smart to be tricked by something so simple.
The fact Mounts couldn't be used in combat sounded like a ridiculous video game mechanic arbitrarily decided by the system, but Sylas was smarter than to make such an assumption. If there was a rule here, there was an underlying mechanism to it.
And after observing, he realized that he was correct.
Mounts didn't have stats of their own. Instead, they had Limits. Otherwise, their stats were decided by their owners. This was why Mounts gave percentage boosts to Speed and Dexterity rather than having a flat rate.
The system took on the burden of controlling this connection, which obviously also included a complex Rune Manipulation that Sylas couldn't even fathom. Right now, he still couldn't even look at Gene Runes for extended periods of time without feeling like his mind was splitting in half, let alone coordinating and controlling what was certainly a much deeper connection.
Obviously, then, the system limited access to its brain power based on the ease.
If a person wanted to attack, they were co-opting their body's Genes for things other than just riding in silence. For the system to allow the connection between Mount and rider to continue in that situation would be several orders of magnitude more difficult, especially if said person also wanted to start using Skills, Gene Talents, or other abilities on top of that.
Combat Mounts likely had a set of special Genes that made it easier on the system. As such, the burden was lesser and the system could more easily coordinate both.
Just now, there were several factors that helped Sylas out.
For one, his Rune Flesh, and especially his Rune Soul Mastery, lessened the burden on the system as well, allowing him to even go as far as using Aetherflow and not having the connection snap.
Second, his Mount might not be a Combat Mount, but it wasn't a normal Mount by any stretch either.
When these two factors came together, although Sylas hadn't been able to break the rules entirely, he had been able to bend them considerably.
In fact, Sylas bet that if he just sat on the peacock's back and only controlled his telekinesis from a distance, he could probably get away with it for at least several seconds more, if not minutes.
And now, Sylas was falling through the skies precisely because of that.
However, it was only for a brief instant before his ice flared and a curved road of crystalline beauty formed in the skies.
Sylas' speed accelerated, and Braxwell, along with Shah, both instantly felt that they were out of their depth.
They were both barely over Level 20, and even without their stats halved, their best stats would barely be in the 600s, let alone the others.
Sylas could have killed them just as easily as he had Ditya, but they knew the reason he didn't. He preferred them to be alive.
He didn't even care whether they were going to run or not, nor did he spare them a second glance. He just fell from the skies like an icy meteor, careening a fist toward Moose's head.
Moose unleashed a roar and his bear demons reacted in kind, rushing for Sylas.
But it was useless.
If Sylas was charging from the ground, maybe they would have had a chance to stop him. But what use was it to try and stop him when he was falling from right above Moose's head?
<Focus Punch>.
BANG!
Moose felt a sickening crunch in his forearm as his arm bent the wrong direction. His knees collapsed beneath him, and he was driven into the ground.
Blood flew from his lips as his back gave way.
The overwhelming might of Sylas made all the boosts from his armors seem entirely worthless. And for some reason, the poisonous darkness within him felt almost...
Scared.
In the presence of Sylas, his Aether wasn't circulating properly at all, and he couldn't even use
it to attack.
This was the might of a Warlord.
Not just a Warlord either...
But a Warlord with a Will Spark.
Moose was a looming giant of a man. Even though he hid his stats, Sylas was certain that his Strength was over 1500, a shocking number for someone who was only Level 20.
Unfortunately for them, Moose's real body had to come here because he was the only one that could control the bear demons, and these demons were a key part of Ragnar's plans.
After all, how could Ragnar dare to face him without a great number of backers?