To Ryu, these Daos before him now were so weak they couldn't even be considered Daos. He could see through their intricacies with a single glance. It almost felt like he was being forced into witnessing a display of public indecency. The fact they could even bring out such a thing to a battle with him was laughable.
Leolar dodged once more, but to his horror, when he reappeared, Ryu was right before him as though his knife had never left the former's neck.
"Your Dao is pathetic. You would have had a better chance at winning if you didn't use it before me at all. The fact you did just signed your death warrant."
Ryu seemed to speak in Leolar's soul. In those final moments between life and death, time seemed to dilate and almost grind to a halt.
"You took a majestic Roc has the basis for your Dao, but then you perverted its form by turning yourself into this monstrosity? And you wondered why you were so weak? I don't know why it is you two decided to target me, but I'll be taking your head."
SHIIING!
Leolar found himself staring at his own headless corpse, his eyes opened wide in shock. He had never thought that in using his Dao, he would lose even faster. But, he only had himself to blame for not understanding the nature of Leonel's Dao.
He controlled Karma in one hand and Tribulation in the other. Together, he controlled the Heavens. If even the secrets of the Heavens could be seen through by him in a single glance, what more a pitiful Mortal Grade Dao? The gap was so enormous that it bordered on pathetic.
Ariad watched this scene from afar and almost immediately understood that he had to run. They didn't just smash their foot into a steel plate, it felt like it had been reinforced by the greatest artisans to ever exist.
His heart plummeted and his lungs almost ceased to function. He turned and ran away at his greatest pace, but he could already feel Ryu hot on his trail.
"You can't! You can't kill me! I—!"
"I haven't played this annoying game in a very long while. Are you going to tell me I can't kill you because of your Sect? Even if your Sect did care about fledgling disciples like you, I've already killed one, would they spare me if I left you be?"
"NO—!"
"Exactly."
Ryu's figure flickered, his blade swinging forward.
Ariad seemed to have learned from Leolar. Not relying on his Dao, he managed to put up much more of a fight, his fists pummeling forward.
Ryu tilted his head to the side, dodging a solid punch and slicing a blade upward through Ariad's chest.
Ariad tried to use his momentum to make a half spin to the side, but Ryu's blade was just a touch too quick, splitting his skin in two and almost severing bone and guts.
Ariad's gaze flashed with resolution and the enormous metallic arm that had gone by Ryu's head unloaded, a large plume of gas suddenly releasing.
Ariad's expression lit up with excitement, but he just as quickly flipped a palm to reveal a bottle of pills he swallowed down to the last.
In order to ensure Ryu couldn't dodge, he had unloaded his whole cartridge. Usually, the range would be small enough to not affect him, but Ryu was simply too powerful. He wanted to make certain that nothing unexpected would happen, so he had ended up infecting himself in the process. Though he had antidotes, he most definitely wouldn't be able to live normally for at least the next few months.
Still, it was worth it. Without being able to take the antidote directly, the poison was far too potent. Even if Ryu found an antidote within the next few minutes, it would already be too late.
"Poison? Not an unexpected tactic from a pathetic bunch like you."
SHIIING!
Ariad's expression froze, his body collapsing.
Ryu stretched out a hand. In that moment, the souls of both Ariad and Leolar fell into his palms. They struggled wildly, but it hardly mattered at all.
Poison? Ryu had a little griffin princess by his side. And, even if he hadn't, he had just eaten an enormous meal from a high Order griffin. It had to be remembered that the feathers of a griffin could cure any poison, curse or afflicted disease. Ariad had picked quite literally the worst time to even think of trying to poison Ryu.
Plus, beyond that, when facing someone with a Spirit Body, you had to pick out a very special kind of poison. By virtue of his body's composition, expelling poison was almost too easy, especially after the evolution of his Bone Structure. And, since he now had a Perfect Spirit Body extending to his Soul, even Soul poisons couldn't easily target him either.
Petty tricks in the face of absolute strength were all worthless. Ryu was almost disappointed that these two were actually so pathetic and inept.
"If you shatter our souls, you'll be marked by the Hidden Blade Sect! I can see how ambitious you are! It might not matter if you stay here, but a brand from the Hidden Blade Sect to anyone just entering the True Martial World is as good as a death sentence!"
Leolar finally displayed some qualities worthy of a senior brother as he quickly stated his points. It was as though he had already forgotten about Ryu's earlier insults, all he cared about was survival.
But, to Ryu, this only made sense. A Sect built upon hidden weapons, how could they have any backbone to speak of?
Luckily for Leolar, though, Ryu might very well need them for something. Rather than explaining, Ryu reached out and caused their corpses to fly over to him. With a thought, he extracted every single spatial device out of their bodies, even the ones Leolar and Ariad never thought he would be able to find without their help.
Their expressions sunk. They had been hoping to be able to negotiate some more with this, but they lost even that much…