Weapons collided, and even space succumbed to the power of the exchange as it rippled to the naked eye, spreading the spatial ripples throughout the arena. The crowd was once more stunned beyond all compare.
Not even the battle between Zeras and Lilian had created spatial ripples, and the only visible spatial distortion had been Lilian's spatial art, which was something completely different from pure physical power distorting space.
It was known that spatial ripples could only appear on the Divine Martial Continent when one unleashed an attack with the power of a Late Dao Transformation cultivator. And yet, these two had managed to accomplish such a feat with both being in the Late Heaven Tribulation realm.
It was at this point that everyone realized the two they were watching battle were complete monsters unable to be judged by cultivation norms they had known their entire lives.
They were able to jump a full major cultivation realm. They were watching two geniuses capable of transcending the cultivation laws of the world, and step into a tier of genius thought impossible.
The weight of John's scythe shocked Asuros, as he felt himself lose out on the exchange ever so slightly. It wasn't a loss in physical power, but a loss in weapon weight, which he had to endure the entire brunt of.
His arms buckled slightly with pain, but he easily ignored it as the slight surprise turned into a malevolent smirk. He recovered instantly, and he sped towards John's side like a ghost, saber cleaving outwards.
John withdrew his scythe and turned to meet the attack, but was only able to raise the shaft of the scythe in time to block the powerful saber slash coming down on him.
Bang!
John felt the weight of a mountain crush against him, and his feet skidded across the arena floor as he was knocked backward for a dozen miles. He had maintained his balance and composure, but that had all he had been able to do. Asuros appeared next to him once more, not giving John a single breath to recover.
Asuros' malicious smile widened, spreading from cheek to cheek like a demon's maw as his saber came crashing down on John once more with apocalyptic might.
Bang!
As had happened in the previous exchange, John was only able to raise his scythe shaft in time to block the attack, as the weight of the weapon was too much for him to quickly swing out towards Asuros.
John was knocked backwards again, with Asuros appearing before him like a ghost once more.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The flurry of apocalyptic saber slashes rained down on John, each powerful enough to shatter the land for dozens of miles in each direction. Only the durability of the arena and the formations lining it kept things intact, and unruined.
"Are you just going to guard this entire fight? Pathetic!" Asuros roared mockingly as he unleashed another saber slash onto John.
John's aura suddenly exploded outwards with heightened power, eclipsing his previous display of strength.
Supreme Battle Art!
His strength surged, and his scythe slashed out with equal haste, its blade slamming against Asuros' saber.
Boom!
Asuros' eyes widened for a brief instant as he felt himself knocked backwards, but quickly recovered his balance and landed on the arena floor. He skidded backwards for several hundred yards before coming to a stop.
"Ahhhh....there it is," Asuros said smilingly, "the battle art you used in conjunction with your Asura transformation has finally come out," he added, recognizing the Supreme Battle Art in an instant. John using the Supreme Battle Art in conjunction with his Asura Transformation had been the thing that allowed him to overwhelm Asuros in their previous battle.
"I was wondering how long you were going to hold that battle art back," Asuros said as he slowly started to walk towards John, each step trembling the arena around him with his brutal power.
"So you've finally decided to go all out? Good, then allow me to show you just how much I've changed since our last battle," Asuros said, his voice growing louder into a roar by the end of his words. "It's time you see the might of a true Asura! It's time you die!"
As he said this, a blood red sphere appeared in the air before Asuros. John's eyes instantly narrowed as he stared at the orb; an orb of blood. It was three inches across, and was something he instantly recognized, as he had seen it before.
It was the same as the blood drops he had absorbed in his palace realm each time he advanced in cultivation. He had always had lingering questions about the blood's origins, but with everything he had learned over the last year, he had full certainty of what it was.
It was Asura blood.
Asuros noticed John's narrowed gaze, and his smile widened to the point that it seemed it would tear his face in half.
"You seem to recognize this blood," Asuros said, "Good. Then watch as your fate is sealed," he added as the sphere of blood sped into his opened mouth. Asuros swallowed the blood without hesitation, his eyes never leaving John for a second.
"My body was not strong enough to endure this previously," Asuros said, his voice growing deeper. "But now it is. Watch as I become a true Asura!" he roared as his body began to change once more.
While Asuros looked like a hellish demon before he had swallowed the blood, his transformation became even more terrifying. His muscles wriggled all over his body, like worms underneath his skin, and then everything grew in size. Asuros became taller, more muscular, more terrifying.
His horns grew, his nails grew into claws, his teeth became fangs. In just a second, Asuros had gone from a demonic human, to appearing like a true Asura, over ten feet in height. It was as if he had become the Asura John had seen in the visions shown to him by Iris, the Asura of Anguish.
Asuros' horrifying aura skyrocketed, flooding the arena with a sinister malevolence that almost none aside from John would be able to bear.
This was Asuros' true power.
