Chapter 336: Ryun

Chapter 336: Ryun

Territory

They floated, or at least Tali did while he stood on a disk of Void Qi, above the territory, looking at the landscape. It was a small territory, nested high in the mountains. A valley with a river splitting it in half with a small forest glade surrounded by jutting stones on one side of it and an ascending series of small plateaus covered with vines and shrubbery on the other with large round openings on every cliff side leading into the caves that led deeper into the mountains. Some, they suspected, led into the Under. The main monsters of the territory were spider-types. A queen and a bunch of smaller male spiders, and they nested in the forest, killing and feeding on the birds that nested higher up in the mountains above the valley when they came down to drink from the river.

You sure we want to test things here, Tali asked.

Ryun didnt turn his head from the territory below. The report said that the highest monster the scouts saw was only a tier 18 masterwork hakza-queen.

He did know that there were dozens of nests of the monsters, he could even feel some of them far down below them in the burrows that covered the forest. Hidden in bushes and beneath tree roots, waiting to ambush their prey, but even if each nest had a masterwork monster he didnt think that they were that dangerous. The male hakza, according to the report, were mostly legendary, but lower tiers. Hakza were spider-like creatures, in the sense that they wove web-like constructs too. Theirs were a bit different though, as they hardened over time and became their nests. They were also a lot more territorial monsters than most. Each nest had a single queen, and hundreds of male spiders that protected the nest and scrounged for food. In a way they were more ant like than spiders, but by sensing them Ryun felt like they looked more like spiders, in a vague sense at least. They had eight legs with their bodies being covered in sensory hairs. The difference was that they were less insect and more mammalian like, with larger muscles and bones instead of the carapace. And their heads were a strange triangular shapes at the front of their squat bodies that had just a single long fang at the tip, which they stabbed into their prey and used to drain them. There was a lot of them, which was why Ryun thought that this territory was a good testing ground.

Tali shook her head. Not that, she said. I meant the other thing.

Ryun blinked, and then realized what she was talking about. He pulled out an object out of his storage and looked at it for a few seconds.

What are you thinking? Ryun asked at last.

This is a high tiered territory, Tali said. It wont be easy.

I dont need easy, Ryun added.

Sure, but you are not yet as comfortable with your body and fighting style as I would want you to be, Tali told him.The source of this content no/v(el)bi((n))

Im not going to that gathering without refining my power, and besides, battles have a way of teaching me more than anything else.

Tali crossed her arms, over her chest. We should have more people here, we dont know what type of scenario it is.

Still, he inhaled by pulling in Air Essence into his body through his mouth, more than what he was gathering all around him. He sent it down the hollow in his throat, down into his body where Void tried to consume and Stillness to halt. He expanded his chest in a memory of reaction. It wasnt important what was happening, the breathing, the form was more than that. It was a mantra in a way, to teach a Cultivator how to move Qi. Ryun just applied it to the Essence. It made things easier.

The first of the monsters came out of their hidden burrows, their strange bodies rushing him in an unnatural-looking gait.

Hakza Warrior (Tier 13)

A monster stabbed its hollow fang in his direction, and a line of web-like substance shot out straight at Ryuns back. He sidestepped it, still focusing on the Essence he was pulling in and gathering just at the surface of his body, struggling to keep it there without it entering his body, struggling to make it move in a pattern that he wanted it to move in.

A few more monsters attacked from a distance as dozens more rose from the ground, gathering. He moved, his sense telling him where the attacks were coming from. He was fast, strong, just the armor alone gave him insane stats.

Then, the monsters decided to make a real attack. A dozen of them leapt, their front limbs extended and claws ready. Some fired their web-like substance, while others just keened in eerie tones. This time Ryun didnt move, instead he finished preparing the technique.

As they nearly reached him, he unleashed a {Final End}.

Essence of the forest around him blasted out in a sphere. It hit the monsters and sent them flying back. It was mostly air, but there was a lot of other Essence there too. The effect was unimpressive. It wasnt even close to what he could do with the Void, it was just a blast of Essence in its natural state. It wasnt like Qi, which was cultivated by his own power, that could change form to be liquid, crystal, or mist. No, it was just a blast of Essence, Air and dirt, shadow and cold. He couldnt reach out to the unbound Essence and order it to do whatever he wanted it to, but he had learned how to do his own techniques, some at least. The monsters recovered and more joined the glade. Hundreds of them were now charging him, while thousands still crawled through the burrows heading for the surface.

His first task was done, he could use Essence quickly enough in combat, not as quickly as techniques, of course, but fast enough that he could make use of it. Now, he turned to his core and pulled on his Void. The monsters attacked again, spraying him with threads that were supposed to bind him. He triggered his {Mantle of Gathering Twilight} and increased his strength and dexterity along with his wisdom. He moved, walking through the air as he shaped steps of stilled Air. It cost him less Qi to use stillness in this way, but the Essence that his Stillness Qi touched didnt stay stilled for long unlike his Void which could remain in a solid state longer. Stillness didnt consume other Essence, it attached itself to it, it robbed it of the ability to move, to react. But it also held Essence stilled for as long as it had the energy to do so.

He ran across the glade, not going too high, but high enough that he could avoid the threads that the monsters shot at him. Then he shaped techniques. He sent three threads of his Void Qi outside of his body, just above his head, and then channeled the fourth into his Focus of Indomitable Might.

His perk allowed him to channel as many techniques as he wanted, at a price of increased cost after the third.

Quickly, three orbs of black and violet the size of pearls appeared above his head, a technique charged outside of his body. It was hard to focus on three of them outside of his body but he had practiced. He had other techniques that he could use to create things at a distance, it wasnt anything more complicated than shaping spikes away from his body. Still, he tied off the threads and the links to his conduits and then kept the techniques from activating with his will.

A hakza that was larger than the others leapt, high enough that he could touch him, and Ryun fired his techniques. Three beams of {Twilight Cutting Void Flicker} thin as one of his fingers blasted out, splitting the air for just a moment, bisecting the leaping monster. He saw that one of them missed and he cursed. Aiming just with his willpower was harder than he thought. I should use my |Target Mark| skill next time. The techniques were short, the amount of Qi that he had tied off tiny compared to what he was channeling inside his body.

He aimed with his hand at the mass of monsters below him and fired a beam through his focus. An older version of his technique, a beam of Void as wide as his spread hand. He cut through dozen of monsters as he swept it across the glade and moved his Qi out of his body to shape three more flicker orbs, as he had come to call them, above his head.

He grinned as he felt the battle finally draw him in. He had missed this feeling. With a smile behind his armored face, he leapt, moving from step to step and firing attacks at the monsters below.