"It's beyond incredible that he's been able to last this long," Daoist Eternal Weapon mused as he watched the battle between John and the FrostFire Tiger unfold.
"I had expected him to give up far before this point, and yet he still battles fiercely. While his attacks are not strong enough to change the outcome of this battle, just lasting this long is something that would push a Late Dao Transformation cultivator to their absolute limits, let alone a Heaven Tribulation kid. How monstrous."
Even though he had seen John's transformations before, he had not expected his combat prowess to be this high. Not only was his body cultivation at a transcendental level of talent, so was his essence cultivation. Each attack that John unleashed might have been countered by the FrostFire Tiger with ease, but such a thing was to be expected.
Daoist Eternal Weapon was shocked to see that John's essence power was at the same level as his body power, which was something he would have never believed possible, as it defied all rules of cultivation.
"Not only are his essence and body talents transcendent, but he also has no weaknesses at all. His reactions and instincts are at a monstrously prodigious level as well, and I can tell that his soul is also beyond incredible. How the heavens thought it fair to create someone like him, I'll never know," Daoist Eternal Weapon mused while shaking his head lightly, as if he could still not believe what his eyes were showing him at the moment.
"Hmm? Has he started to realize the futility of the battle?" Daoist Eternal Weapon speculated as he noticed John had changed his combat tactics. He had been fighting against the Tiger with the hope of winning before, unleashing counter attacks whenever possible.
Now however, there was no inkling of that, as all John did was dodge attack after attack with no attempt to land his own counterattacks whatsoever.
"Has he realized he's not strong enough to win, and is hoping that by lasting long enough I'll give him the scythe? While I'll admit I greatly underestimated him, he's still not at the level of doing my weapon justice. Giving him such a weapon will only put a target of envy on his head, and he's bound to lose it unless he has the strength to protect himself. He'd lose the weapon at best, and perish at worst, which I refuse to be the cause of," Daoist Eternal Weapon said, not knowing that John already had a much larger target on his head, as the world was starting to learn that he was ‘Asura'.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The cavern continued to tremble ceaselessly as attack after attack was unleashed by the Tiger, which John dodged with the narrowest of margins. He made no attempt to counterattack at all, and continued this process for over an hour. Daoist Eternal Weapon had no idea what John was trying to do, but sat by idly as he watched the battle unfold.
…
Flash!
John sped all around the chamber, narrowly dodging the attacks of the FrostFire Tiger without fail. He had given up on attacking the beast, and focused purely on speed at the moment. At the same time, his Divine Sense was spread out towards the beast, while his soul surged at the absolute maximum, pushing his comprehensions to his limit.
His eyes remained fixated on the beast, specifically the mysterious aura shrouding it. The aura was not something that should exist, and he had been unable to see through the mysteries of the aura when he had first seen it. As he studied the aura, he slowly but surely came to learn its true nature.
‘I was right! The mysterious aura surrounding the FrostFire Tiger is an aura made from the fusion of the Dao of Fire and the Dao of Ice!' John exclaimed internally as he finally saw through the mysteries of the strange aura. ‘No wonder it feels so dangerous. If I stepped into that aura, I would be attacked by both the Dao of Fire and Dao of Ice at the same time, which I would most likely not be able to resist at all!'
After realizing this, John's mind was flooded with new ideas regarding the fusion of Daos. With death being the outcome should he fail to succeed in this battle, his comprehension was pushed to an even higher level than normal. With his normal comprehension level being monstrous already, his understanding of the fusion process magnified severalfold.
‘This beast is combining Fire and Ice, two completely diametrically opposite Daos which should not be able to co-exist. I had thought my fusion of Power and Destruction failed because they weren't compatible with one another, but this fusion before my eyes proves that anything can be fused, no matter how polar opposite. So what am I missing? Why does my fusion between Power and Destruction fail?'
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The cavern continued to tremble as John put all thoughts of counterattacking aside, focusing only on dodging and understanding. Such a thing was incredibly dangerous, as it only took one mistake for him to be hit by an attack, which would at best gravely injure him and at worst outright kill him.
However, such distracting thoughts didn't cross his mind as the only thing racing through his mind was studying and understanding the fusion of Daos before his very eyes. After using both his Dragon-God Shift and Asura Transformation for an hour, John felt as if his body was on the verge of collapse.
Even with his increased durability thanks to the Jade Dragon inheritance, he still had limits, and both transformations put immense strain on his entire body. He knew he would only be able to last several more minutes at this rate, but yet again, John didn't care for such distracting thoughts, and only focused on the fused Dao's before him.
Thousands of ideas and possibilities to the riddle of the fused Dao's flooded through his mind. Some made sense to him and were tested on the spot, while others were discarded. Each and every idea brought him closer and closer to the truth, which seemed to be just before him, and all he needed to do was reach out and grasp it.
…
Sigh!
Daoist Eternal Weapon sighed as he watched John retreat without fighting back. He could tell John was trying to come up with something, but knew no matter what he did, it would not work.
"It seems he noticed the fusion, and is desperately trying to study it. Impressive, truly impressive. It took me months to see through the truth of the aura, and yet he has managed to figure out what to do in an hour. This boy sure knows how to make someone feel completely worthless," Daoist Eternal Weapon mumbled to himself in self-pity.
"However, learning and implementing are two completely different things, and it will take him years before he is ready to do such a thing. It took me years to make my first breakthrough. No matter how monstrous of a comprehension he has, there is a limit to everything, even for him. It's time to end this, as I can tell his body is on the verge of collapse…"
"Tiha, it's time to end the battle. Unleash your attack on him, and I will appear at the last second to block it as he concedes!"
The FrostFire Tiger suddenly stopped as it attacked John, and opened its mouth once more, revealing a terrible aura from within, aimed directly at John. Daoist Eternal Weapon rose from his seat, prepared to move at the last moment to save John, but instead widened his eyes in absolute shock instead.
"Impossible!"
…
Boom!
Just seconds before, John narrowly dodged another attack as he pushed his speed to the limits, and ignored his rapidly eroding condition. To him, this was a life and death battle, and he refused to concede, as that weapon was needed for his battles to come.
After dodging the attack, John felt his instincts flare with warning as the FrostFire Tiger opened its mouth once more to unleash an attack. Instead of ice or fire surging out from within, John felt the fused aura instead, indicating that the beast was about to unleash a fused attack.
A ball of Qi formed in the beast's mouth, starting off as separate balls of Ice and Fire, which merged together in seamless conformity. As he watched this process unfold before his eyes, John felt the last missing piece of the puzzle fall into place, and his eyes widened as the truth was finally revealed to him.
‘That's it! That's what I've been missing!'
John felt as though the truths of the universe had been revealed to him, and his gaze narrowed as he pointed towards the beast with his index finger stretched out. With his bodies condition, he only had one attack to unleash, and he needed to ensure it victory.
"I'm sorry, you've helped me immensely, but unfortunately you must die for me. I'll be sure to remember you," John said as his aura suddenly exploded as he unleashed his bloodline ability, pushing his essence powers to the absolute limit. The very space around him seemed to tremble, as if it was on the verge of collapse from his aura alone. John grit his teeth as the increased energy surging from within felt as though it would rip him apart in an instant, but an instant was all he needed to unleash his attack.
Boom!
Lightning exploded out from John's finger, bathing the cavern with blinding light as he unleashed his monstrous attack, formed from the fusion of the Dao's of Lightning and Power!
