Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu danced and weaved, countering from time to time and quickly finding that his stances were becoming more refined. Because he was suppressing his strength as well, he had to use more skill to counter than not. Compared to the True Sky God ghoul, he was suppressing his power with far more ferocity.

The cheers of the crowd grew raucous as they had finally gotten a good bout.

To the side, Lu'card snorted. "What is he playing at?"

Selheira's gaze flickered. Lu'card was a Dragon so he was naturally disdainful of such things, but she, who had seen both sides of the coin now, felt a bit differently. Ryu was holding back now in order to make more later.

"A pleasure," a voice came from their side.

A familiar young miss greeted them, bowing politely.

Lu'card looked at her with indifference, but the young woman with pale skin and ruby red lips didn't seem to mind in the slightest. She didn't expect to be able to charm a Dragon with her looks.

In truth, the feminine form of humans was universally attractive to all Races. However, while Lu'card was a Dragon, she was just the manager of a small city and her father was barely an Omniscient Sky God. Her bloodline and lineage wasn't nearly strong enough to be a top class beauty and she paled in comparison to Selheira by several strokes of Heaven's brush.

Seeing that they didn't respond, Elise straightened herself out and maintained her smile. She looked toward the arena and the fight below, looking as though she had the intention to spectate along with them.

Lu'card and Selheira frowned, but before they could say anything, Elise spoke.

"I won't bother the two of you for too long, it was just that I've always wanted to see a majestic Dragon for too long and couldn't help myself though I know it's unprofessional. I'll apologize with another bow."

Elise bowed once more.

"If you two need anything else, feel free to tell me. It would also be an enormous honor if a Dragon would fight in our arena, but I know that I am overestimating myself so I won't ask for me," Elise chuckled.

She waved a hand and several dishes were served in the blink of an eye before they all vanished.

"I will take my leave now."

Lu'card watched her leave without saying a single word. Then, he looked up, finding that there were more and more people streaming into the battle arena, almost all of whom looked right at him in shock and awe.

He snorted again. He was a majestic divine beast, not some show attraction. He almost had the intention to burn the whole city down.

He had half a mind to just burn the whole city down. So what if there was a Dao Lord? Right now, he was actually itching to do battle with one. He wanted to see just how much his Heavenly Pupils had increased his combat prowess.

Obviously, if they defeated the City Lord, then all this wealth would be theirs and none of this would be necessary. But he hadn't brought this up to Ryu, it made them sound too much like they were a single team. He didn't want this guy to get any funny ideas.

...

Ryu smiled. Over time, he lowered his strength more and more and he found that his eyes suddenly began to do the heavy lifting.

He had forgotten that his greatest strength was his, indeed, his comprehension. By this point in the fight, he understood the ghoul's attack patterns like the back of his hand. Even if the handsome ghoul were to suddenly ramp up their strength, it wouldn't make even the slightest difference.

Ryu seemed to be able to predict his movements even without [Lines of Fate]. He moved fluidly, almost as though the ghoul wasn't there at all. It didn't even look like he was dodging anymore. Instead, it looked like he was always countering, his movements so perfectly timed that even while he was always moving forward, the ghoul's attack always just barely managed to miss him.

Ryu shot a punch out. His body shifting forward as the ghoul's sword missed his neck once again. Suddenly, he began to not only predict the ghoul's moves, and consistently counter, but he also began to alter his movements through his attacks, forcing him into certain patterns.

By some point, the strength Ryu was using was so weak that it could barely be considered at the Sky God level, and for a while, no one seemed to notice that he was using his qi as a mask while relying entirely on his body.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The ghoul was beginning to get frustrated as he suddenly threw his head at Ryu's face, his teeth baring and chomping down.

The mask of a False Sky God slipped just the tiniest bit, but not enough for anyone other than Ryu and Lu'card to notice.

The ghoul followed up with a piercing blade that seemed aimed right for the back of his own head, obscuring Ryu's vision.

At the same time, his corrosive qi erupted with such fervor that if Ryu used his Spiritual Sense at this time, the ghoul felt that it should erode away.

'Finally showing your true colors?'

The ghoul must have been very confident in his head if it put it in the line of fire like this. There was no doubt some secret related to this... Ryu just didn't care.

BANG!

Everything came to a stop as the ghoul's head suddenly exploded into countless pieces

His sword attack came to a stop midday, the life of the ghoul blinking into nonexistence in a breath of time.

The splash of blood rained down from the arena. It was hard to see, but those that were sharp realized that it wrote out the word death.

Just what level of skill and control did it take to explode someone's head in such a way?