Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu took a step and his speed suddenly accelerated forward.

Enrika had thought of many ways this interaction could go, but she never expected this. And quite frankly... that was because she was more than just a little bit of an airhead. Either that, or her head was too far in the clouds, riding on a wave of arrogance, to realize the truth before her.

She had no idea where Ryu had come from, but he had just casually killed two Martial Gods right in the middle of their territory without having the aura of a Martial God himself. On top of that, he exuded the aura of a Founding Dao.

Without knowing his background, any sane person would assume him to be a big shot who wouldn't give a damn about her status as a disciple of the Beast Mimicry Sect... This was only logical.

However, Enrika wasn't completely in the weeds.

If there was a ranking down for the power one least wanted to offend, the Beast Mimicry Sect would probably rank at the very top, and that was even beyond the sinister Arcane Mancer Sect.

The Beast Mimicry Sect held this status precisely because of their ability to control beasts. Their Sect Members were already numerous, but one then had to multiply by a factor of ten or more to account for all their beast companions. There were even many Elders and geniuses of the Sect that curated their own Beast Clans, creating new species that were only just shy of the well known legendary beasts.

The personal frailty of a Beast Tamer almost didn't matter at all. That was because what was most important wasn't their personal strength, but rather the strength of their souls and their intelligence.

Unfortunately for this woman, Ryu didn't believe she had any of this at all. That was because rather than pulling out what other beasts she might have had, she instead stood there talking like he was going to let her do as she pleased.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Enrika's body cratered in three places, her gaze going blank as she felt her life slipping away from her.

What just happened?

Suddenly, a roar came from her soul, snapping her awake.

Realizing the situation she was in, she reacted with speed that Ryu wouldn't have expected.

Strands of her Spiritual Quintessence took shape and a bead of gold came from her forehead, forming into the shaping of a roaring wyrm that assaulted Ryu's senses.

Fear, disgust, trepidation... it was a soul attack the likes of which Ryu had never experienced before.

He shrugged it off in an instant, his Dao Heart rippling and his soul snapping back like an elastic rubber band. However, in the split moment it took him to do so, a large wyrm appeared before him. This one had an aura infinitesimally close to the Perfect God Beast Realm and had a crown of crimson horn on its head.

Ryu dodged out of the way of a snap of its jaws, his gaze landing on Enrika who was wrapped in a layer of gold. All around her, the spirits of beasts were diving in and out of her body, seemingly mending her wounds.

Ryu's eyes narrowed. In just a short moment, he had seen many methods he had never come across before.

A tail whip almost caught Ryu off guard because of his thoughts, but his [Third Perspective] made the blindspot attack worthless. However, it was then he noticed something else.

'This beast is using soul manipulation methods to make my usual Spiritual Sense worthless. No... it should be another ability of its master. It seems that even though her body is out of commission, her soul strength is, indeed, on another level...'

Ryu took casual note of this as Spiritual Quintessence-formed spikes filled the air, forming a rain that descended toward him.

In that moment, Ryu raised his hands. Images of his father flashed through his mind one after another.

Titus was capable of using the Talents of Dragons with such fluidity and casualness that it baffled him. Even when he used his halberd, he could cast Dragon Breath or Dragon Claw with the same sort of ease he could with his hands...

Ryu wondered if he could do the same.

His palms formed jaws of their own, snapping down with Dragon Claw from two directions at once.

He clamped the up jaw of the wyrm with one hand and the lower with the other.

The roar of the beast echoed through his very soul, the attack even more potent now than it had been before. But this time, Ryu shrugged it off with even more ease, his shoulders and arms flexing as his claws sharpened.

A roar echoed from Ryu's own lips and the call of Dragon's Roar made the wyrm's blood run cold, its eyes glazing over for a moment.

A soul attack?

He was unmatched in this respect.

His claws ripped through the bone of the creature as he lifted it up, Rage Flames billowing forth from his body as he swung the creature down toward Enrika.

CLANG!

A shield of Spiritual Quintessence formed, but the backlash of the soul technique crushed the body of the wyrm, leaving it crying and whimpering in subservience.

Ryu lifted it up again and plowed it into the ground. He raised a fist and accelerated it forward, ripping through its eyes as layers of space and time tore through the creature's body.

He pulled out a bloody hand, flames burning the blood to ash as he flashed and appeared by Enrika's floating body.

Shields sprang up in his way one after another, each one sturdy and powerful. Ryu could see that she was quickly returning to her peak form.

'She sacrificed her beasts for the sake of saving her life. It's no wonder she only summoned one... in that case.'

Ryu's claw became a single finger. His image and that of his father overlapped as an extraordinary amount of piercing power descended.