Genetic Ascension

Sylas hardly reacted to the pain, his Will clamping down on his body and tearing the Aether about to rampage within him apart. Authrione felt his connection to the Skill he was about to activate sever.

What remained of Sylas’ shoes shattered, his feet and Scorned Wraps gliding back along the raging tides. In the depths of his eyes, he carried a calculating glow.

In a flashing instant, dozens of Runes appeared in the air, compressing and then shattering upon themselves.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Authrione was swallowed by the blast, and Sylas stomped a foot down hard, his body churning with a mass of compressed Aether. That single foot seemed to leave behind shockwaves no less powerful than Authrione’s, but it wasn’t a product of strength—it was a product of his control over the world around him.

He bent it to his Will, fighting back against Authrione’s Comprehension and strength to pull the world into his favor. His Fathomless Depths seemed to want to swallow the entire world.

It looked like Authrione was a single entity, and yet to Sylas’ senses he was like a looming ancient tree rooted into the world itself. He didn’t just disperse attacks through his own body—the ocean itself seemed to embody his very essence.

It was the most active Comprehension Sylas had ever seen, and Authrione’s ability to make use of it, to force it to act for him rather than just passively using it as a stat boost, spoke for itself.

This was a true Legendary Path Comprehension.

Sylas burst through the curtain of explosions, his body ignoring the Will attack hidden within.

Sparks of emerald rained, leaching into Authrione’s Will until the scope of his Fathomless Depths shrank into a single frame.

The frame of his body.

Sylas appeared before him, his hair wildly dancing in the air as though grasped by the ethereal hands of wind itself.

His fist descended like a meteor, his Scorned Wraps flapping and then pulling taut. BANG.

Authrione took a single heavy step back, his scaled lower body shaking the water below into waves. The depths of his eyes were sharply focused as he watched Sylas’ fist hit him, a pulsing wave of intent surging back.

Sylas sensed it even before it came, but he didn’t retreat.

A violent surge of strength returned to his fist. He activated [Glassvolt Shift] with a thought and his body morphed into lines of lightning that burst as though exploding from the inside out.

The energy gathered to the end, and [Glassvolt Shift] ended, turning back into Sylas with an ax kick descending from above.

BOOM.

The energy transferred to the leg of his Scorpion Warlord Armor, the burst boosting his strength and power in a single menacing collision that hit the top of Authrione’s head with such force the 018 Sanctum genius almost tipped into the waters headfirst.

Sylas landed on the churning waters as deftly as though it were solid ground, the ebbs and flows of the waves unable to rock his solid foundation.

His eyes flashed as he felt the piercing strike of Authrione’s trident coming once again. The world slowed and Sylas took it all in within the briefest instant. He could see the centaur before him tipping forward, using the momentum to accelerate his three- pronged blade toward his throat. He could see the churning waves being used to hide more sharp tendrils seeking to bore holes into his body. He could see the past effects of his explosion of Glassvolt Runes waning, and how Authrione’s Will was about to recover —as would the effects of his Fathomless Depths Comprehension.

And it all took him no more than a single blink of the eye.

Sylas’ eyes flashed, a tesseract appearing in their depths.

SHUUU.

The trident missed him, passing by the side of his head.

Sylas could feel the relaxation in Authrione’s gaze, and then the sudden confusion as he realized he had actually missed. But it didn’t slow his reaction as he took a step forward and used the centaur’s momentum against him.

A roar left Sylas’ lips as he drove an elbow across Authrione’s face, smashing into his nose. The former’s Scorpion Tail rose high into the air, dancing with sparks of lightning as it struck down toward an opening near the back of Authrione’s neck that had opened up.

Sylas realized by this point in their exchange that there were many advantages to having the lower half of a steed. He was powerful, he was fast, he almost always had leverage. But his agility was limited, his close combat skills were restricted mostly to what his upper half could do, and while targeting his lower half felt like throwing an egg at a rock, his upper half wasn’t nearly so sturdy.

Sylas had a feeling that as shocking as Authrione’s Constitution was, it wasn’t balanced across his body at all.

That still didn’t stop Sylas from coughing up a mouthful of blood when a tendril ripped through his [Chaotic Menace]-enhanced hair and into his back.

But judging by Sylas’ expression, it seemed that he had already seen this long ago and was more than prepared to react.

He suffered the blow, but his tail still pierced downward with all the momentum of the world.

Authrione sneered.

Chi.

Sylas’ Scorpion Tail shattered the moment it came into contact with Authrione’s skin, a reflective coating of translucent, almost illusory scales appearing as though junior versions of the toughened scales that covered his lower half.

Authrione’s trident was swift to react. Though Sylas was too close for him to use its blades, the length of the weapon’s polearm was more than long enough to give him the leverage to swipe it like a whip across Sylas’ side.

On impact, half of Sylas’ Warlord Armor shattered to pieces, the same half of his body being exposed to the harsh elements of the world.

He skidded across the waters, digging up large trenches as he practically vanished into the distance, coughing up mouthfuls of blood.