Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1274: Rhino

Tiere was a woman of few words, and seemingly not much a fan of conversation, because as soon as she spoke, she had already taken a step forward.

The slicing winds and howling cyclones formed from the unsheathing of her scythes cut across the air, whipping about in almost loose strands of chaos that lashed against their clothing and hair.

The shocking part?

It was all physical strength.

Sylas couldn’t sense any sort of Wind Aether coming from her at all. But this wasn’t what truly baffled him. The question still remained the same.

Why was she so confident?

And then came the flicker.

A silvery grey armor took shape. It was just a helm, one that formed over her delicate features and protruded out with the powerful horn of a rhino.

At that moment, something that had been kept suppressed spilled out in waves, and Sylas finally grasped it.

’Rhino Warlord Armor? I see...’

Surprisingly, it seemed that he wasn’t the only one here on a trek toward becoming an official disciple. There was another.

That meant that, in all likelihood, she wasn’t just far superior in strength to Speride, but the same soft power protections that Sylas had—she too had.

It might be worth it for her C-tier to kill Sylas because of his unprotected Royal Line. But the same wouldn’t be the case for Old Brama, especially since many had likely started connecting the dots by now.

Old Brama didn’t use many of the tactics usual Unitaurs did. He didn’t use a bow and arrow, he wasn’t in his true form, and he wasn’t radiating the same usual golden aura.

But everyone here was especially sensitive to beast auras, especially the Cervidon. That meant that they knew of his connection to the Golden Grove, and were likely piecing together just who Sylas’ handler was.

Old Brama wasn’t exactly a covert figure. His personality would never allow for that.

This seemed to flip the tables, but rather than being put off, Sylas instead felt a little more focused. The state of completeness of Tiere’s Rhino Warlord Armor was disappointing. But... her foundation as a member of a C-Grade Race just might make this interesting.

He pulled both of his hands out of his pockets.

”Come.”

Tiere didn’t seem to need to hear the words twice.

The ground shattered beneath her. Speed wasn’t her forte, but at a certain level... there was little difference between Strength and the pace with which you moved.

In a blink, she was already before Sylas, her scythes coming down like the wind. Their mere unsheathing had caused such a storm, but what really filled one with fear right now was that even as they descended, there wasn’t the slightest bit of reaction from the world at all.

If her strength could cause such violent winds, it was shocking enough. But what if she could control that strength to the point there was hardly a disturbance at all?

Now that... that was a warrior worth paying attention to.

Sylas knew instantly that he couldn’t take such an attack head-on. The problem wasn’t that it was over seven figures in strength, it was how concentrated it was.

The effectiveness of the strike was off the charts, and worse than that, Sylas could already see the second strike coming. It would be a continual avalanche if he just stood there to take it head-on.

\[Glassvolt Shift].

Runes of Lightning sparked into existence, hiding in space and then flickering to reality. Using Spatial Casting, Sylas stamped them in multiples, multiplying them several times over in a single brief instant of time.

Then his body flickered.

Bolts of green filled the skies and he vanished in an instant, but it felt impossible to tell where he was going.

Tiere’s scythe sliced through the ground, cutting through it so cleanly it didn’t even make a single sound.

But then her blade stopped.

BOOM!

The ground at the end of the curve exploded to her back. The long arc had cut forward and then back in a gorgeous semi-circle, but the sudden and abrupt stop caused all the gathering power to explode along it, shattering the earth as though a meteor had just descended.

And yet, rather than this being a loss of power, it was more like a transfer.

Using the momentum to her back, Tiere took a step forward and suddenly heaved her second scythe forward.

Sylas had only just appeared when his eyes sharpened. He was taken off guard again. The last thing he expected was for a scythe to be used as a throwing weapon, but it seemed that Tiere had expert control over it. When thrown like that, it would certainly curve back like a boomerang. And even if it wasn’t, she likely had telekinesis to rely on, or a special Rune to bring it back.

He had only just appeared and there was no easy method he could use to stop it. The timing was perfect, and according to Tiere’s calculations, Sylas’ powerful spatial shields needed time to be cast. After all, when he fought Speride, he had to create many spatial blades before fusing them together.

What Tiere didn’t know was that this was simply Sylas testing out the usefulness of his eyes in a battle of Rune Masters. The conclusion was...

Very useful.

But that didn’t mean that he needed them. Or, rather, this didn’t mean that he had to rely on them on such a small scale.

Even more importantly than that, though... who said that he needed to rely on Rune Mastery at all to deal with this?

Chi.

Sylas pointed out a finger and then struck it up to the skies.

Stopping an attack like this head-on with his telekinesis was impossible. The heft of the blade and the power behind it was beyond the kilograms of strength he could apply. But...

All of that power was applied forward, not up and down.

While its forward momentum would remain the same, nothing would stop Sylas from sending it soaring above him except for Tiere’s Will itself.

Chi.

A Will he shattered to pieces.

BANG!

The scythe shot above Sylas, but a rippling dark violet took shape around him, shingles snapping into place one after another.

His arm snapped out and caught the handle of the scythe, nearly causing his shoulder to be ripped out of its socket.