Ripples of space formed around Ryu's fist and blasted the whip away.
Mae's expression changed slightly. Although she hadn't put her full strength into that blow, if one was considering her raw strength without the use of techniques, that was still at least 50%. A genius of the Third Heaven's standard shouldn't have been able to deal with it so easily.
Just as she was lost in her surprise, she found her expression changing once again as Ryu slashed down with his great swordstaff in one fluid motion.
A curtain of pulsing lightning wrapped in sword qi tore a path forward, flickering through the void and appearing before Mae in a split second.
Mae lightly tapped the ground, her body fluttering and vanishing in a string of afterimages as she sidestepped the blow, only to find that Ryu's second great swordstaff had made its way into his other palm and had slashed down as well.
She had hardly dodged the first blow when she found herself already dealing with the second.
'He uses both?'
Mae's expression changed for the third time in just as many seconds. She had noticed two great swordstaffs hovering behind Ryu all this time, but she had always assumed that one of them was a flying treasure and only one of them was a real weapon.
Although she had seen Ryu fight before back in the Second Heaven, back then Ryu had already chosen to retreat so that he wouldn't be surrounded. He hadn't had the strength to challenge so many Heaven Class World Sea Realm experts at once in that time, so Mae only saw him using his great swordstaff to run once again.
This was the very first time she was seeing him use both at once!
It made sense that she was caught off guard. For one, dual wielding polearms was unheard of, even in the True Martial World. It was easier to accept that Ryu had made a stylistic choice in making his weapon and flying treasure look the exact same than to jump to the conclusion that he could use both of them at the same time.
But this was only the tip of the iceberg of the main issue here, and that was if these weapons didn't double as flying treasures, that would mean only one thing…
Sword God.
A pulsing violet qi surged from Mae as she retracted her whip. She raised it above her head, twirling her wrist and forcing it to form a tornado of spiraling qi around her.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The spiraling whip shredded Ryu's sword and lightning qi to pieces, however he wasn't very flustered. He didn't use Tribulation Lightning and it only made sense that Mae could dispel a casual strike like this if she was truly as strong as he thought she was.
Ryu took a step forward and closed the distance between himself and Mae, his twin great swordstaffs slashing down once more.
'Dammit.'
Mae felt like she was being pressed, hurriedly retreating. Her toes lightly tapped along the ground and her body flickered again and again, but Ryu's movement was suffocating. He didn't even seem to need to try very hard to stick to her, his blades forcing her into a more and more passive situation.
The ideal distance for Mae was anywhere between five and even 50 meters from her opponent, her whip could work its lethal magic the best in the range. In fact, if she was willing to expend more qi, even several hundred meters wasn't a real problem.
However, this space wasn't very large to begin with, only about 200 meters in diameter. But even if it was any larger, with Ryu's odd movement technique, it felt like it wouldn't matter.
"Show me your real strength or I'll kill you right now."
Just as Mae was becoming a hint frustrated, a voice drifted to her ears like the whisper of a ghost.
Ryu's indifferent and blind gaze seemed to pierce through her soul. By now, his wild grin had already faded and there was nothing more than boredom etched across his features. He was suppressing this woman too easily, he felt almost like a child who had finally gotten the toy he wanted, only to find that it wasn't as fun as he thought it'd be.
If Mae couldn't withstand his casual attempts at battle, she most definitely couldn't withstand him being serious, and even more definitely wouldn't withstand his strength if he stopped hiding his real talent.
There was no one here but the two of them, so as long as he killed her, there was absolutely nothing stopping him from unleashing everything he had. Mae truly didn't understand just how easy it would be for him to kill her if this was really all the strength she had.
At that moment, Mae was stunned. That gaze was one that she had never before seen in her life. She was… being looked down upon?
A flare of rage took root in her eyes and in that moment, their deep black depths danced with a raging scarlet hue that shimmered like rubies burning beneath a golden flame.
Ryu's eyes narrowed, a strong and suffocating aura suddenly pressing down on him before it vanished in an instant along with the odd colors in her eyes.
Mae stomped on the ground hard and suddenly separated herself from Ryu by an entire hundred meters in a single blink. If Ryu wasn't so keen on the spatial element, he would have thought that she just slipped into the void. However, what he was sure of was that an illusion of black wings had just appeared for the briefest of instances… or were the crimson? He actually wasn't sure even with his Void Spiritual Sense. It had been too fast.
Mae flipped over her palm and her whip vanished. In its place, her slender fingers danced to life as a pair of thin and flexible sabers appeared. Both of them had blades just shy of a meter long that shimmering with a rose-gold color.
Ryu's brows raised. A dual wielder? He couldn't ever remember fighting such a person before. This should be…
Mae vanished.
By the time she appeared in Ryu's vision once again, her blade was at his throat, slashing down with a menacing glint.
CLANG!
Ryu reversed his grip on one of his great swordstaffs and pulled its polearm up above his head. His movements were as fluid as water and without the slightest awkwardness. However, even with the speed of his reaction…
SHIIING! SHIIING! SHIIING!
Saber qi roared with life, separating into several pieces that shot around Ryu's block and left thin lines of blood around his shoulders, neck and even his cheeks.
Ryu's gaze narrowed. Despite the stinging pain and close brush with death, he didn't seem to react much at all aside from this.
As he blocked, he swung his other great swordstaff down, but Mae had a second weapon of her own.
The moment their blades clashed, her wrist position shifted and her saber glided up he side of Ryu's own, using it like a speed ramp to attack his throat again.
Ryu's wrist flexed in his reverse grip, causing his great swordstaff's position to shift and hit the spine of of the blade Mae was skimming against.
Mae abruptly found her trajectory changing and her saber beginning to aim far higher than she had initially expected, but before she could react to this change, Ryu's foot struck forward, ready land squarely on her abdomen.
Despite the situation, Mae's expression was just as cold. Using the awkward imbalance of her sabers, she twisted into a half spin, retracting her blades and dodging Ryu's foot before slashing both blades down at his shin.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The two flitted across the room, each one of their exchanges just as brutal. They danced on the edge of life and death without the slightest ripple in their emotions, their cold gazes meeting across their clashing blades without much care or fear.
The two separated briefly and Mae instantly crossed her blades while Ryu raised his own.
"[Asura's Wings]."
"[Winding Paths]."
The very same illusory pair of wings appeared behind Mae once again as her rose-gold sabers glinted with a crimson light.
At the same time, a whistle of wind wrapped around Ryu as the illusion of him wielding a pair of battle axes became difficult for Mae to shake from her mind.
The two activated their Dao Charm techniques at the same path, but it was clear at a glance that Mae's was of far higher quality. It didn't seem to be a Heaven Grade Dao Charm technique. No, just given its aura, it was most definitely a Mystical Grade Dao Charm technique! This was the very first time Ryu had run into a person using such a high level Dao Charm technique!
The moment Ryu sensed this, he didn't dare to be careless and his aura shifted and changed.
A starry light descended from the skies and coated his body in a radiant silvery blue light as he vanished and attacked.
Trembling Star Qi fell from the skies and Ryu's attacks gained a lethal trembling might.
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