Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2063: Excited

There was hardly the briefest instance of a pause. The moment the woman recognized Sylas, she moved, her claws raking across the skies almost like arcing black lightning. The jagged changes and myriad of shifts reflected the natural phenomena perfectly, and by the time it was upon Sylas, the weight of the world was already following it.

Sylas' eyes narrowed. He took a step back, his body instantly becoming coated in lines of emerald green and vibrant golds. His hair danced along with his trench coat, the world slowing down from his perspective as his own claws crackled with chaos to meet the woman's.

[Chaotic Menace].

Chi.

BANG.

The air crackled and shattered between their claws, one descending from above and the other drawing from below as though to execute an uppercut.

Space cracked, their claws hovering in empty space for a moment, unable to move forward a single inch.

BANG.

The two separated.

Sylas skidded back, his gaze flickering. He hadn't exactly gone all out, but he had put quite a bit into that attack. This woman was powerful. But if she knew what Sylas was thinking, her only reaction could have been absolute fury.

She was already at the pinnacle of the C-tier. Why did there even exist an E-tier that could react to her speed, let alone counter it with an attack that seemed just as casual on both their parts?

Sylas didn't even seem to be particularly shaken.

At that point, even the howling man with a stack of three eyes on his forehead was looking toward Sylas, every one of those eyes flickering with a dancing excitement.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"Deuvuo, read a room."

A man dressed in all black spoke slowly, almost too slowly. Sylas would have thought he was another Sloth if not for the fact he didn't have the feel for it.

But the man was something else Sylas recognized.

Another Thryskai. This one seemed more a distant relation, not neatly falling into any one of the Sona, Purvon, or Buri. Sylas thought that maybe he was from one of the other four Mortal Thryskai Clans, but something about him felt off.

He had the big belly of a Buri, but radiated the heat of a Sona. It seemed that he was the product of both.

"Don't talk to me about reading a room, half-breed."

The black-dressed man vanished, a sword longer than his body and thicker than his waist thrusting toward Deuvuo's gut.

Deuvuo let off an uproarious laughter before he punched at it, his knuckles meeting the blade. Or rather, it almost did.

The black-clothed man suddenly vanished and appeared behind Sylas, his thrust becoming a slash that came down from above, a roaring momentum soaring from its deepest depths.

His blade passed through empty air.

Sylas' body vanished, but rather than appearing in a far-off distance, he only appeared by the side of the blade, punching out.

BANG.

His fist landed on its spine, sending the black-dressed Thryskai hybrid twisting at the wrist. This time, the latter's strong grip on his own blade became a detriment instead, especially when Sylas unexpectedly erupted with a fist right toward his liver.

It was the same motion, the same uppercut, the same torque storming up through his legs, and violently bursting through his hip and down his arm.

BOOM.

The man felt as though a bomb had gone off in his body, his skin deforming, and then his bones, and then the very inner organs within them. An explosion of erupting air and shattering space rippled out behind him.

It felt like the contact of the punch took forever. And then in the next instant, the man was already flickering high above the horizon, having rocketed away in a line that cut through the skies better than even the blade in his hand.

Deuvuo blinked and then looked down at Sylas. "You go easy on women, huh?"

"Do you want your head on a platter?" The Thryskai Purvon woman asked coldly.

"I'm kidding, I'm just kidding. We all know Mendy boy's inferiority complex can't match up to the queen bee. How about it, Juxi? I think we would actually be quite compatible. Imagine how powerful our children would be."

Juxi entirely ignored Deuvuo, her eyes narrowing as she looked down at Sylas. Then she looked at her own claws. There was some blood leaking in the connection between them and her fingers. Her claws were strong enough to withstand the blow, but the flex actually was not.

Another blow like that and they might peel away on their own.

Sylas wasn't even looking at her directly anymore. He was paying attention to his surroundings like he was trying to understand what was happening, or like he was looking for someone.

'Both?' Juxi wondered.

BOOM.

Mendy shot out from a distant mountain, stumbling in the air as he gripped his side. He took shallow breaths, his great sword dangling from his other hand.

It felt like he had been hit by a truck, but that was more than just Sylas' strength. That was a combination of telekinesis and Rune Mastery he had not once seen.

He hadn't felt Sylas summon any Runes, but the world bent around him and increased his mass severalfold.

There was a flicker of fear in Mendy's eyes.

If Sylas was this powerful at E-tier, how much more powerful would he be at D?

Luckily for him and everyone else, Sylas still hadn't quite figured out how to move forward without the system.

But he felt like it wouldn't be long.

'I see.' Sylas finally said. 'This creature is likely to be a distant descendant of the World Serpent, but it's far enough away that it doesn't even register as a Serpentes to my Profession any longer.

'These Dungeons aren't manifesting, they're Dungeons it has swallowed whole, thus melding and mutating them. There aren't several Dungeons here, there's only one, and these people have seemingly been waiting for it...'

That was the only question Sylas didn't have an answer to as the ground continued to rumble beneath them.

What would make these people so excited?