Ryu's expression turned dignified.
It almost felt as though someone was playing a practical joke on him. All the way here, there wasn't a single Elite Canis in sight. But now, there was a whole hoard of what must have been hundreds bearing down on him.
Just a single Elite Canis was already the equivalent of a Higher Immortal Ring expert. The best among them were likely the equivalent of the Path Extinction Realm.
Of course, this power scaling wasn't equivalent to true geniuses. Elite Canis could definitely not compare to talents like Ailsa's nephews or Sarriel. But, none of this changed the fact that Ryu himself was still in the Lower Connecting Heaven Realm with the Middle nowhere in sight.
"~NIE!"
Nemesis' muscles rippled beneath his lush crimson coat. Billowing steam shot from his nostrils, his spiraling horn seemingly shimmering to a brighter luster.
"Let's go."
The moment Ryu's voice descended, Nemesis shot forward like a streaking ruby light. The iced ground collapsed, shattering the land for hundreds of meters in every direction.
Ryu's grimoire hovered above, its pages flickering until all that remained were sheets covered in a sea of flames.
The heat in the surroundings skyrocketed, rising pillars of fire rising into the skies.
Ryu roared, a ball of hellish flames forming before his mouth. His neck rippled with red scales, fading into and out of existence as his gaze flashed.
A beam of red shot over Nemesis' head. From above, it looked as though a God had draw a blade through the skies. Perfectly straight, perfectly powerful, blindingly bright and agonizingly hot.
The instant it made contact with the Elite Canis, a shrill screech filled the air.
At that exact moment, the bone arrows were finally in range of Ryu, each intent on piercing through his body. Not a single one didn't carry the strength to tear him to shreds. However, Ryu didn't seem to notice them at all.
'[Ethereal Ripple].'
An invisible barrier seemed to form around Ryu. The bone arrows hovered in the air, apparently not moving a single inch for what felt like just a split moment. Yet, the moment they seemed to shoot by this barrier, they all missed Ryu by a large margin.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
The arrows pummeled the red sandy clay beneath, shattering the ice that covered it at the same moment.
The steed man duo dove into the army of Elite Canis, being swarmed from all sides. Yet, the same odd image that occurred to the bone arrows happened to them.
The Elite Canis seemed to freeze for just a moment. But, by the time they began to move once again, their trajectory was completely off. Rather than finding their target, they found Ryu's blade slicing their bodies apart.
What was supposed to be an army of Elite Canis attacking as one suddenly became a series on of one versus two or three battles. No… It was two versus two or three as the teamwork between Nemesis and Ryu became seamless.
Nemesis' hooves became like a heavy guillotine, his horn reaping lives like divine punishment.
The modification of Ryu's [Ethereal Ripple] became the perfect death trap. Rather than putting up a true barrier, he purposely made it as thin as possible, allowing it to be easily passed through. What he needed wasn't the defensive ability, but rather the lagging ability.
His [Ethereal Ripple] was designed to make a seemingly short distance incredibly long. By the time the arrows or the Elite Canis passed through the outer area, just like light passing through water, they'd find themselves completely off target from what their true aim was.
At the same time, the two who were able to perfectly estimate where they would land would be none other than Nemesis and Ryu. It wasn't until this very moment that Ryu realized how valuable his [Ethereal Ripple] was when facing so many enemies at once. What once began as a less stamina consuming defensive alternative for [Immortal Sakura], had suddenly morphed into something completely its own.
Ryu took deep breaths, the carnage around him able to make the stomachs of those with less fortitude turn. The Canis had a terrible smell all to their own that definitely didn't need their rotting blood and guts added to it. But, apparently, Ryu couldn't escape the fate of having to smell such a thing.
"Nemesis."
"~Nie!"
Nemesis stomped forward, appearing before one of the many corpses.
The lagging and stray Canis were all felled by Ryu, his Great Swordstaffs flickering with the movement of his wrists. With so few remaining, it seemed incomparably easy.
Ryu subconsciously felt that these Elite Canis weren't as powerful as they should be. But, from his knowledge, they were also in a state of starving, so this was likely a large part of the reason why. In addition, when it came to these sorts of battles, who could surpass Ryu when he made use of his Heavenly Pupils?
With another flick of his wrist, Ryu sliced another Elite Canis in half, watching as Nemesis swallowed a ball of light.
"How is it?"
"~Nie!"
Nemesis already two foot long horn doubled in size before shooting from his forehead and into the distance.
It drilled through the skull of an Elite Canis that was at least 20 meters away, not even giving it the chance to react.
"What do you think? Is there a difference if you absorb one versus two?"
Ryu had yet to truly test the limits of Nemesis' Talent steal ability. Luckily, Canis, despite having human forms, were still classified as beasts in that they had Spiritual Roots.
Since all Elite Canis had a high level bone control Talent and bone arrow Talent, it was perfect for Nemesis who already had a Steel Bone Talent.
However, it had been a long while since Ryu used Nemesis' ability, mostly because he hadn't been dealing with a lot of beasts recently. But… The Nether Realm was the perfect playground for Nemesis and had countless creatures that Nemesis could make use of.
The original reason Ryu wanted to become a Summoning Necromancer was for the sake of helping Nemesis leap over the hurdle of his Sin Talent. But, if they were already in the Nether Realm to begin with… They could skip the middle man, no?