Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2079: Obstruct

Sylas suddenly moved for the first time, his body executing a perfect uppercut. Everything down from the twist in his pivot foot to the sturdiness of his plant leg was perfect. The twist in his hip, the torque of his torso, the focus in his eyes, he almost looked like he had come right out of a boxing form handbook.

But he was slow. Impossibly slow. Moving at a crawl that made it look like he was just straining his muscles to the utmost degree rather than locking himself in battle.

At that sort of pace, there was simply no strength that could be left behind his blow at all.

And yet, when it landed, it was like the puppet had been blown to dust.

There was a crack and then its entire upper half was blown to smithereens. A crashing wave of power shot out from Sylas' fist as though it had erupted from a cannon, vaporizing the puppet to nothingness.

Sylas exhaled a breath, his face already slightly pale. And yet, this was just the fourth step. Ahead, it looked like the mountain was endlessly tall, just how many more steps were there? Its peak could hardly be seen.

The only small ray of hope was that the stairs were very tall, already taller than Sylas at the base, and they only seemed to be growing taller.

But it didn't even look like Sylas could do three more stairs right now, let alone the hundreds that were probably left.

But while pale, Sylas didn't look moved by the situation at all. He simply returned... and then it was the Glutton's turn.

From the very beginning, the Glutton had done little more than stare daggers at Sylas. He hadn't even communicated with Alpine when the latter tried to make an alliance with him. Though, to Alpine's credit, he didn't show any outward frustration from this. One would have thought he never spoke to the Glutton at all.

The Glutton was also the only one of them all still sitting in his cage, his face hidden behind a hood, a pair of crimson eyes looking out as brown Will formed an aura of skin all around him.

When he appeared on the stairs, there was a pause. For a moment it seemed like he wasn't going to make the same decision as the others and that he would actually fight.

Sylas' eyes narrowed. It was his first change in expression since he began.

'Not good.' Sylas contemplated to himself.

The plan he had worked out assumed that he would be the only one to fight the puppets until at least the last few rounds. But if there was an interruption, the puppets he had primed to fight exactly how he expected would divert.

Sylas' plan was actually quite simple.

The puppets worked through adaptation, but that adaptation was done through simple observation. They would then take that input and provide an output.

But the input wasn't limited to the person right in front of it, it was assessing everything in relation to the world around it.

The good news was that the environments were a perfect blank slate. Every stair was the same and there was nothing but a single white ground to battle on, one without the slightest bit of give.

As such, the only thing it had to react to was Sylas and whomever else it fought.

But Sylas could limit that scope even further. Using Fathomless Rune Creation, he could force the puppet into his own world. And in the world he created, he could limit the rules into such a narrow scope that the puppet would be equally as limited.

For example... the puppet could be made to think the only way to attack was a finger to the forehead done at extreme slow motion.

Sulsel plan had hoon simpla While the others thought that he was doing things the wrong way he had actually

Sylas' plan had been simple. While the others thought that he was doing things the wrong way, he had actually been plotting out exactly what they considered he should do in a far better way.

He, too, believed that the best way to do things was to make the puppet believe you were sparring until a "slip up" caused it to fall.

He had choreographed an entire battle, starting from a small scope to a far larger one. His uppercut was the second step, and he felt that he could kill another three puppets before he was forced to proceed to the next part of the choreography.

If not for how powerful the puppet was, he could have made it continue pressing a finger to his forehead where it would try its best to mimic his Fathomless Rune Creation, only to overload.

Unfortunately, whenever the puppet ran into a problem it felt it couldn't solve, its response was more power. During this last attempt, Sylas had felt it about to break through his defenses, so he responded with the next step in the choreography.

His plan would have been without hiccup. No matter how tired he was, he was confident in himself to make it to the end.

But now, the Glutton...

The Glutton looked back, finally showing a hint of movement. But his gaze only swept over Sylas before it landed on Alpine.

"Him." The Glutton said coldly.

Juxi and Deuvuo looked at one another with a flicker of surprise in their eyes. From the Glutton's perspective, teaming up with Alpine made the most sense? What was the point of this?

Their expressions paled as they realized something.

If Alpine said no, they would have to vote. If they said yes, then it would be majority rule as the Glutton would make it three. But if they said no, then the Glutton would have to fight.

Either way, it looked like Sylas wouldn't be the one fighting and this wasn't good for any of them. The more people the puppets had to adapt to, the worse it would be for them overall.

They were already lucky enough that the puppets were blank slate. This was just pissing away their chances.

"I believe I should go." Sylas said calmly.

Juxi and Deuvuo froze. What the hell was going on? Why was everyone doing unexpected nonsense now?

They hadn't even considered the fact Sylas would volunteer himself. They thought Sylas was only going because he knew everyone would vote against him and thus had no choice.

What was this?

Sylas never looked over at them, though. His gaze was completely focused on the Glutton whose eyes had narrowed.

The Glutton's thoughts were clear to Sylas. He didn't know what Sylas was doing, but he had seen enough of Sylas' feats to know that whatever it was, allowing Sylas to set up the table exactly how he wanted was a recipe for everybody but Sylas himself to lose.

All the Glutton needed to do was obstruct and he would have better odds of victory. It was that simple to him.

The fact Sylas volunteered only proved him right. Sylas didn't want him to obstruct, and that meant he had all the more reason to do exactly that.

But now, there were three people on the docket for a vote, and three votes left to be cast.

The Glutton's vote was already assigned to Alpine. Sylas' vote was already assigned to himself.