A vortex of scalding wind careened toward Ryu. What was left of the air's moisture was eradicated in an instant. Even without the ability to breathe fire, this attack was almost more dangerous. However, it was also the kind of attack Ryu had the easiest time dodging.
In that moment, Ryu's body became as light as a feather. Feeling the fluctuations in the air, he instinctively dodged, appearing to the side of the cyclone of pressurized wind.
Ryu completed a series of [advances], closing the distance between him and the Two-Winged Fire Tiger. He brandished his halberd, using its tip to attack the beast's neck. But all he received in return were a pair of ringing eardrums due to what sounded like plates of metal crashing against one another.
The halberd's polearm bent into a crescent moon. It was almost guaranteed that had its wooden body not undergone such drastic changes by being tempered by beast blood, it would have definitely snapped.
"His movement technique is astounding and perfect against an immature Fire Tiger like this one who's yet to grasp its fire breathing ability. But it's clear his attacking power is severely lacking. Plus, although his weapon has been tempered through many battles, it's still a Lower Common Grade one at the end of the day, it's impossible to expect too much from it." An elder beside Amell commented.
In truth, the elders looked on in confusion. After the shock of Ryu's actions wore off, they began analyzing the situation. From what they could tell, Ryu was purposely remaining as close to the body of the Fire Tiger as he could. This was likely in order to take advantage of his small size and to disallow the beast from taking advantage of its speed. However, why was he only using one arm to attack?
Some thought that maybe it was because Ryu had never had anyone to teach him. After all, he was ostracized by his family, when had he ever had a proper teacher? If any halberd master saw him using their precious weapon with only a single hand, they would lose their minds.
However, this explanation was difficult to accept as well. Reason being that Ryu was too powerful to have advanced to such a height alone in less than two years. It simply didn't add up.
Despite their confusion, the elders were right about Ryu's plot, but their reasoning was slightly off. Ryu wanted to stay close to the Fire Tiger so that it couldn't make use of its speed. This was true. But the reason he didn't want the beast to exploit its full speed was so that his opponents wouldn't learn just how fast he, himself was!
The enraged roar of the Two-Winged Fire Tiger shook the desert plain. It didn't feel anything more than a tickle from Ryu's piercing attacks, but it still felt anger. With Ryu continuously clinging so closely to its underbelly, it found it too awkward to properly attack. It thought it would be easy to form some distance between them, but Ryu stuck to it like glue, using the shifting wind to predict its actions and appear in the locations it wanted to retreat to before it got there.
"If things continue like this, he'll undoubtedly lose." The other elder commented. "But of all the young geniuses to ever exist on our Plane, he must be among the top. No, without a doubt he's among the best. Lasting this long against a Fourth Order beast with Peak Pulse Opening Realm cultivation? This is unheard of!"
Even though these elders would only need a few exchanges to defeat the beast Ryu was currently fighting, they had long since entered the Spiritual Severing Realm!
Suddenly, Ryu retreated. His body dancing backward with a hard to come by elegance as he created some distance between himself and the beast.
'I've analyzed enough.'
If someone was reading Ryu's mind, they would assume he meant that he had been analyzing the battle strength and attack patterns of the Fire Tiger. However, this wasn't the case at all. Ryu wouldn't be foolish enough to believe that he had seen through the Fire Tiger, especially not with his eyes closed. No, Ryu was referring to the Jade that hung from his neck.
When Ryu fought the Ice Eyed Bear, he distinctly felt that during his final attack, the image projecting abilities of the Visual Jade distorted. This might have been missed by many who were in his position, but Ryu had a high sensitivity to Spiritual Qi fluctuations not only due to the fact he had a half-step into the Spiritual Entrance Realm, but also because he had the Origin Flame.
The moment Ryu confirmed his suspicions, he formulated a plan to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, due to the fact there were three Spiritual Severing Realm experts in the battle arena, namely his grandfather, Amell, who was a Half-Step Divine Vessel Realm expert, Ryu couldn't conduct any tests there without risk of being found out. That left him with only one choice: to do so when he entered a Small Realm to battle.
Of course, Ryu was familiar with Visual Jades. The issue was that the jades he was used to interacting with on the Shrine Plane never distorted their images so easily. Due to this, he had never discovered this flaw in their mechanism until now.
From Ryu's analysis, the Visual Jade worked on a Parent-Child system, where, obviously, the Jade in Ryu's possession, along with the jades of the other Princes, were considered the Child. These parent and child jades communicated to each other via a link of Spiritual Qi. Ryu wasn't very familiar with this process, but he could faintly remember reading about a special constitution between twin siblings where their Spiritual Qi wavelength allowed them to communicate over long distances without using a Qi Line technique.
Ryu had been fine-tuning this discovery and testing just how to best distort this communication via wavelength. After almost half an hour of fighting, Ryu believed he had finally found a method.
The reason the image distorted back when Ryu used [Sweep] to kill the Ice Eyed Bear was because, although he only used a single hand, Ryu still had a faint connection with his Inheritor status. As everyone knows, an Heir or Inheritor uses their Mental Realm as a base of connection with the Heavens in order to call down upon Essence to supplement their strength. This communication has the same basic theory behind it as the Parent-Child relationship of the Jade and also the abilities of some twin siblings.
Now, Ryu not only understood this concept, but he had homed in on the exact frequency of Spiritual Qi needed. And now, as long as he focused…
The crowd within the battle arena who had been watching with rapt attention suddenly became very confused. Wasn't Ryu trying to keep their distance close so that he didn't have to deal with the speed of the Fire Tiger? Why had he suddenly backed away?
However, before they could receive their answer, the images blurred, blinking into and out of existence inexplicably.