Yeger Sun wasn't a man of great stature. Maybe because of the pain he had spent most of the first leg of his life in, his growth was considerably stunted. It was hard to grow properly if your days were spent fighting back against what should ahve been your inevitable death.
Standing at just 5'7" or so—relatively below average for even a mortal human man, let alone a Fiend—he was slight of fra and small in presence. In fact… he looked no different from a lanky human boy.
Fiends would usually be very obviously Fiendish. They would have their elents weaved into their bodies, arms of fire and hair of flas. But Yeger didn't look like a Fiend at all.
It was uncanny how much he looked like the quiet kid at the back of the class, his sowhat pale complexion making people feel both pity and closeness to him.
However, while that was what most would see, Ryu saw sothing completely different.
Yeger's fra was slight, but his aura… that was a different matter entirely. Steady as a mountain, as looming as the moon.
This man's Dao Heart was on a completely different level, and in his life, this was probably the first ti Ryu had t soone with a Dao Heart no less potent than his own at the sa level.
And, unlike the others…
Yeger was only a Lower Lord as well.
"Aria… she is with you?" Yeger asked lightly.
Ryu smiled. "She is. Do you want to see her?"
"I do."
"Interesting."
After saying this, Ryu didn't seem to be making any sort of move to bring Aria out. He had no desire to do so, and Yeger's own desires had little to do with his own. Who cared if he wanted to see Aria?
Yeger seed to expect this and didn't react very much. It didn't seem like he was embarrassed in the slightest.
He was a man with a heart as placid as a lake, as unmoved as an ancient tree. There was little that could be done to shake him—certainly not a little teasing.
The wind blew silently between them, and their hair kicked up, one of flowing white and the other of black.
A leaf was plucked from a tree, fluttering down and crossing their sights just perfectly enough that their line to the other was obscured for the briefest instant.
The mont was less than a breath, but by the ti the leaf fluttered by, the two had already vanished.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The two were like mirrors of one another—a fist, a roundhouse, flowing freely into an elbow.
Their forearms clashed, sparks flying through the weaving lines of fate as they both took a step back.
The ground beneath them didn't so much as compress, their control having reached an unconscious level.
Or so it seed.
CRACK.
Yeger's gaze flickered as he turned back. His foot snapped a tree branch in two.
He stared at it for a long while, almost forgetting that he was in the middle of battle.
He wasn't injured, his fist was just fine, and his inner organs were all in the right places. But right now, he felt like he had just suffered the worst loss of his life.
He had actually…
Lost in Control?
Ryu didn't follow up, his gaze having beco empty and vacant at so unknown ti. His previous smiling expression was replaced, a deathly seriousness coming from the depths of his soul.
He suddenly took a step forward, and Yeger finally looked back.
However…
Yeger's body flickered with darkness. He vanished from where he stood and appeared in a tree high a distance away.
"It seems that… I won't be able to defeat you so easily. Now is not the ti."
With these words, Yeger flickered off into the distance.
Suddenly, he crossed his arms before his face.
BANG!
Ryu's fist crashed down from above like a falling teor.
Yeger's pupils constricted as a strong pulse ca from Ryu's arm. Claps of thunder echoed, and Yeger felt like his arms were just about to collapse.
Unfortunately, his body was still quite weak right now, having only just crossed the threshold he needed. At this point, he was rapidly improving every day—but it wasn't quite enough…
Not to deal with a monster like Ryu.
What shocked Yeger the most, though, was that Ryu had seemingly appeared from nowhere. He hadn't even sensed the fluctuations properly; otherwise, he wouldn't have been caught so off guard.
He shot back with such force it was a shock when he landed lightly on the ground. This ti, there was no shattering of a branch.
Yeger looked up, eting Ryu's arrogant gaze. Although the latter hadn't spoken, his aning was clear.
You don't get to decide when you co and go as you please.
Yeger's eyes narrowed. Truly a loose cannon.
As one might expect, Yeger wasn't the type to care if others thought he was a coward. He had only co to test whether Ryu could be taken down now. In the case he couldn't be, he would just return and wait for the appropriate mont.
But now, Ryu seed to have no intention of letting him leave.
They were just people with two different approaches and thought processes. Ryu didn't care where or when; in fact, he hardly cared about the Title Stele itself.
All he cared about was fighting to his heart's content, about fulfilling the dream he had had since he was a child—to stand at the top of the world of geniuses.
He didn't care to do it for the sight of others; all he cared about was his own personal fulfillnt.
And Yeger wasn't about to rob him of that.
Not today.
A fiendish grin spread across Ryu's placid features. But sohow, that wildness didn't reach his eyes this ti. They instead remained deathly still.
He was amped up.
BANG!
Ryu kicked at the skies, his body falling so quickly he left streaks in the air.
Yeger stood there calmly, and after so thought, a pair of scimitars appeared in his fair, pale palms.
Chi.
Ryu's great swordstaffs appeared at so unknown ti, their blades crossing in a brief spark before they retracted and erupted into a flurry.
Ryu imdiately found that the size of his weapons slowed his speed compared to Yeger considerably. By comparison, though, his reach advantage was suffocating.
Yeger knew what he had to do, slipping down beneath a swing with a parry and encroaching on Ryu's space.
But that was when Ryu's body suddenly beca as light as a feather. His Azure Cloud Vein Bone Structure rumbled to life, and his hair almost floated above his neck in a gentle sway before he accelerated.
Ryu's great swordstaffs more than doubled in speed, and Yeger leaned back swiftly, barely dodging an arcing blade that nearly severed his head from his shoulders.
Ta. Ta. Ta.
The young Fiend completed a rapid series of sorsaults backward, but when he had just regained his footing, he found Ryu's great swordstaff still piercing right for his neck.
There was a flash in the Fiend's eyes, and a bit of his coolness gave way. It wasn't to fear, but rather dissatisfaction and a hint of annoyance.
Did this Ryu Tatsuya really think that… he was afraid of him?
SHIIIIII!
The wind kicked up and then suddenly stilled to a quiet vacancy. Ti seed to still, and a foggy darkness coated the already black scimitars.
BANG!
The blades t once again. There were no sparks this ti, and both seed to feed into one another.
Darkness swallowed darkness as Ryu's own black great sword t Yeger's scimitar.
Sohow, the clash felt hollow, almost as though the sound was reverberating through a completely different dinsion.
Winds kicked up as well, but just as hollow, almost as though the flapping of their robes was triggering on its own, rather than from the harsh howling of air.
BANG!
The two suddenly separated as though the space had finally been overwheld, their Control unable to keep things steady for long enough to continue.
"Light. Dark. Space."
Ryu said these words casually, but they made the more focused Yeger almost collapse.
The three-elental Fiend Childe stared at Ryu for a good long while.
And then…
DUDUM.
Yeger's body suddenly expanded, his hair becoming a twisting nest of black, silver, and radiant gold. Like a stream of stars flowing into a river behind him, it continued to grow even as his body did, not stopping until the young Fiend was well over seven feet tall. Still short for a male Fiend, but several inches taller than Ryu.
He didn't say a word, not even asking how Ryu had figured out what his three elents were.
Since he wanted to fight, they could fight.
DUDUM.
White scales burst across Ryu's body, his wings flaring out as claws extended from his hands.
Their auras soared in unison.
Chi.
One of Yeger's scimitars suddenly beca a blinding gold as he swung out in a single, sweeping strike.
Reviews
All reviews (0)