A barrage of frost lightning bolts rained down on John, like the Heavens had shown up to resume his tribulations. The sky shattered and ground shook as the bolts pierced through the sky, slamming directly onto John. The nearby mountains were ripped apart from the power of the lightning, while the ground beneath John's feet turned shattered and then was frozen solid, unable to resist the frigid cold of the frost lightning. John roared as he punched outwards, sending a powerful shockwave that slammed against the lightning strikes just before it hit him. The air exploded into a chaotic mess as some of the lightning bolts scattered outwards in all directions, while a few managed to pierce through John's hasty counterattack and continue down towards him. Boom!
Three massive bolts of frost lightning slammed into his body, throwing him into the air once more. The arena shook from the power of the bolts, while John felt his body come under assault from a simultaneous mix of lightning and frost powers. The lightning crashed into him and coursed over his skin, trying its best to pierce underneath and snake its way through his body.
His Lightning Origin Essence Runes flared to life, partially activating to amplify his resistance to lightning. While he was not yet in the Awakened stage, Creation stage runes were like instinctive defense mechanisms, only coming to life when under assault. After a brief struggle, the frost lightning depleted its power, unable to pierce into John's body as it had wished.
While he had resisted the destructive portion of the lightning attack, his body felt as though it had been plunged into an ocean of ice. A layer of frost coated his skin, making him look more like a creature of ice than a human. Internally, he felt his muscles and tendons harden from the cold, slowing his movements and making his reactions sluggish.
The feeling was quite uncomfortable for John, who was not used to his body being affected in such a manner. He roared as his aura surged to life. His powerful Qi surged through his body while his blood surged like powerful rivers through his veins, pushing aside and removing the lingering frost effects. "Not bad," he heard Araxus say from above, causing him to snap his head upwards to look at his opponent. Araxus hovered high in the sky, just beneath the clouds from his Thunderfrost Tempest. The clouds swirled above him with chaotic power, frost lightning swimming through the clouds ceaselessly. Araxus' made a hand gesture a moment later, while his Qi flared for a short moment.
In response, the storm above him changed suddenly, becoming much more powerful and chaotic. The clouds began to swirl like a whirlpool, with the center rotating at incredible speeds. Gusts of wind kicked up in the arena, each gust strong enough to shatter any mountain that it ran into. Then snowflakes began to burst from the center of the stormcloud, falling to the ground below. The snowflakes mixed with the tempestuous wind, creating a storm of pure chaos in the arena. Visibility fell to near zero, causing John to rely on his divine sense to navigate his way through the storm. His divine sense spread out in all directions, and he winced slightly as he felt a stinging pain assault his soul. A surprised look appeared on his face as he studied the snowflakes, which somehow interacted with his divine sense.
'Lightning. Each snowflake is infused with the power of frost lightning!' John instantly understood. He looked closer, another look of surprise appearing on his face as he realized what the snow truly was.
It was not snow, but was instead runic imprints of frost lightning. Each snowflake was a rune that scattered throughout the arena, unleashing a powerful jolt of frost lightning when interacted with. Against anyone else, a single one of these runes would be able to cause a decent amount of damage, quickly adding up as tens of thousands of them slammed against the opponent. With the entire battlefield filled with these runic snowflakes, Araxus' Thunderfrost Tempest was more like an expansive domain-type battle art than anything else. There was no safe space to move, making the only way to fight Araxus by fighting in the domain of runic snow, or using his own arts to push the runes away. John sneered as he realized this, his confidence unwavering.
"This battle art is impressive," he called out, unable to see Araxus in the thick storm, but knowing Araxus could hear him. "But unfortunately for you, its useless against me."
"Is that so," Araxus scoffed from within his storm, giving John a relative sense of his location.
He surged forward in that direction, blitzing through the storm without care. Each snowflake that smashed against him unleashed a bolt of frost lightning against him, but thanks to his lightning essence runes and durable body, he was able to resist them without taking much damage at all, and any damage that he did sustain, his body quickly healed.
Boom!
A barrage of lightning suddenly slammed against John as he sped through the storm of white, arriving so fast and unexpected that he had little time to prepare against. The only warning of impending danger was his instincts, which allowed him to raise his body defense to the maximum as the lightning slammed against him.
Boom!
John smashed against the arena floor with violent power, shattering several nearby mountains from the force of his impact. A large crater formed where he had fallen, while dirt and ice fell in that crater, covering him completely.
"What's your next move?" Araxus called out loudly from within the storm, his body unable to be seen through the chaos of the storm. "Surely this isn't everything you're capable of! Why don't you bring out that dragon form you used earlier?"
"I already told you," John's voice boomed out from beneath the ruined ground, the power of his voice alone shaking the earth around him. "I'm going to defeat you using only my lightning Qi."
"Is that so?" Araxus sneered. "Then show me how you plan on doing that. Because all you've done so far is defend yourself."
"Gladly," John replied, the end of his word growing loud like that of a dragon's roar. A moment later, the ground that had covered him exploded outwards like a volcano eruption, as a powerful draconic roar blasted out from beneath the ground, blasting everything aside. A moment later, another roar boomed outwards, even louder than before.
While the crowd couldn't see much, as the storm of white was covering most of the battlefield, it sounded to them as if a true dragon had been awoken from a slumber, roaring inside the arena to announce its arrival.
Boom!
The roar surged through the sky, blasting aside the howling winds and snow-like lightning runes moving in the sky. In a mere moment, the tempest of white was pushed aside, like a tidal wave had come and taken the storm with it. The parting storm revealed the battlefield once more to everyone, with John standing on the ground, Araxus hovering miles up in the sky.
John smirked as he finally spotted Araxus, who returned the smirk with equal confidence. After being pushed aside by John's Roar of the Jade Dragon, the tempest began to return to the arena, covering it in its ruinous power once more.
"Cool roar," Araxus said while nodding with praise, "but kind of useless at the same time."
With the storm almost returned to its original power, the effects of John's roar were almost completely gone. John's smirk deepend as he heard Araxus.
"Useless?" he repeated, then grinned. It was time to reveal his first self-created art, which he had been working on ceaselessly for weeks now, perfecting it as much as he could. 'Lightning Shatters the Void!'
His aura suddenly exploded outwards, lightning surging off him as if he had become a god of lightning and thunder. The flickering bolts of lightning splintered the sky and shattered the ground all around him, each bolt powerful enough to destroy an typical Early Dao Transformation cultivator.
The instant after becoming the incarnation of lightning, space shattered around John's body as if it was no longer able to withstand his ruinous power. Then John suddenly disappeared, completely vanishing in both person and aura. Before Araxus could react to the sudden events, space shattered apart behind him, as if a primordial creature was stepping out of the void of chaos.
Boom!
John exploded through the firmament, shattering space as he appeared like a ghost of lightning behind Araxus. Araxus turned instantly and thrust his lance out towards John, who sneered as Araxus was a moment too late. While lances were incredibly powerful when it came to thrusts, they were a slow weapon to use when an opponent was not directly in front of the lance wielder.
His right fist, coated with powerful lightning, surged forward, slamming against the side of the lance before Araxus could properly position it. As his right fist knocked the lance aside, his left hand, index and pointer finger already pointing directly at Araxus, exploded to life with catastrophic lightning power.
'Twentyfold Lightning Ruin!'
Boom!
