Reaper of the Martial World

Book 4: Chapter 55: Saru

Saru’s voice seemed to be everywhere at once. It echoed and reverberated as though a single sentence from her was worth the weight of thousands.

The air sung along with her melodic tone, trembling and dulling Dyon’s senses. He couldn’t help but stand there blankly for an instant, mesmerized and enraptured.

Vidar suddenly grinned on the sideline. This was how he had lost! Although Saru hadn’t spoken to him, she had seemingly been able to effect change in the atmosphere, stunting his inner ear. He was disoriented and before he had the opportunity to do much of anything, he found himself kneeling in submission with his life under the full control of the beauty.

It was suffice to say that since Saru went out of her way to speak to Dyon, her attack on him was many times more effective!

This was a music path that Dyon had never heard of before… Something completely new. It went so far as gaining control over an entire sense!

Dyon’s eyes dulled, darkening from their bright hazel green to a murky blackness. It was almost as though he had lost consciousness – losing a tangible understanding of what was going on around him.

Saru floated forward. Her speed was quite fast, and yet she still managed to seem unhurried.

A strange vibration began to compress on her small and delicate palms as she rapidly closed the distance. Her eyes were calm as a lake and her facial features didn’t fluctuate. But, if you paid close attention, one could almost notice the small semblance of loss … No, it was more like disappointment.

Saru lightly stepped before Dyon, the air on her palm oscillating gently as she pushed it forward.

All of her actions were graceful and seemingly without killing intent. However, any expert could see the danger of this attack. Despite all of the great warriors they had seen, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Saru Shruti still boasted the strongest attack power!

BOOM!

Blood flew from Dyon’s mouth as his chest almost caved inward. His body flew backward with such velocity that the back of his clothes were sheared off – first by the wind, and then from the friction, burning them to nothingness.

“Dyon!” Ri, Madeleine and Clara covered their mouths in horror. They had become so used to Dyon having everything within his control, so used to him being able to figure things out before he ever entered any real danger … and yet, he had failed this time!

Even when he fought Femi, although there was a point where it seemed like he might lose, he had at least been able to put up a fight first! What was going on?!

Saru watched quietly as Dyon’s body catapulted through the air. In her eyes, there was no need to attack again. She had no malicious intentions against Dyon. In fact, she cared little for this tournament in general. The only reason she fought was to sharpen her skills. She had thought that Dyon would be someone she would be able to do this against, but it seemed as though she had overestimated him.

In these tournament rules, there was no such thing as out of bounds. In reality, although the stage was quite large in and of itself, fights at this stage were no longer so restricted since they were occurring one at a time.

The battle would end when someone either gave up or lost consciousness. Those were the only two ways. Aside from death, of course.

Saru looked toward Elder Den to call the match. There was no reason to continue. In her estimation, there was no way Dyon had maintained his consciousness. The way her technique worked, it made powerful bodies obsolete. It didn’t matter how powerful Dyon’s body was. In fact, as long as it was within Saru’s range, having a more powerful body might be more of a detriment than a help.

Dyon’s body crashed to the ground, skidding and skipping as though he was a flat rock gliding across water. The tough arena material even broke apart and separated as though it, itself, really was a liquid!

Noticing Saru’s gaze, Elder Den frowned. He had been told, very strictly, by Patriarch Ragnor to maintain absolute fairness because they had been embarrassed enough times. He simply couldn’t call the match even if he wanted to, Dyon still had his consciousness!

The flow of energy within a conscious versus unconscious expert was very clear an obvious. As a peak saint expert, how could Elder Den not be able to tell the difference? If he called the match prematurely, he’d become a laughing stock.

Saru Shruti raised an eyebrow, but, noticing that Elder Den had no intention of calling the match, a rare bit of surprise rippled across her features. “Oh?” Her voice was light and detached as she looked toward the crater Dyon lied in.

She didn’t hurry forward, deciding to observe the situation first. For him to take the full brunt of her attack like that, there was something off…

A hoarse cough suddenly sounded through the silent arena. The crowd watched with anticipation, wondering just what was happening.

Dyon stood slowly, still coughing. He winced a bit, stretching his back and spitting away the last bit of blood from his mouth. “That was some attack,” He said, laughing bitterly. The dullness in his eyes had faded, giving them back their previous sharpness.

Clara blushed furiously as she looked at the monitor, looking away to stop the quickening beat of her heart. “Put on some clothes you pervert!”

Madeleine and Ri giggled at Clara’s innocent reaction. But, what was maybe more surprising was the fact even Saru blushed, averting her gaze in such a way that it didn’t seem like she was embarrassed, but rather that she couldn’t be bothered to look at Dyon.

Looking down at himself, Dyon didn’t seem too embarrassed. The sound of screeching females in the audience, though, awoke him to the fact that Ri would probably kill him if he didn’t put on clothes soon.

Stretching his neck, Dyon’s eyes flashed with gold, replacing his lost clothes in an instant.

Dyon jumped, propelling himself with wind will until he gently fell back a few meters before Saru. “I have to say… Your technique is quite dangerous. It’s certainly not simple to counter. But, if that’s all there is, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint another beauty today.”

Saru Shruti raised an eyebrow. She was trying to figure out whether this Dyon character was bluffing or not.

On one hand, it made no sense for him to have seen through her technique in only a single instant. It was much too complex, layered, and quite frankly, too high level for this universe.

But, on the other hand, he was clearly standing before her, perfectly fine. Had she underestimated the strength of his body? Or was there another problem with her calculations?

‘No,’ Saru inwardly shook her head, ‘My calculations are never wrong.’

“I’m surprised, honestly.” Dyon said, still stretching out the kinks in his body from being sent flying so far, “For such a dainty woman to be primarily a body cultivator. That’s quite interesting.”

Saru froze, her eyes narrowing.

Vidar grit his teeth. Dyon had already lasted for longer than he had, and he had clearly snapped out of the state he had the inability to.

Truth be told, Vidar’s understanding of wills was shallow. It was his major flaw and a reason why his father hadn’t hesitated to bring in Thor as a second first in line genius. Had he not been his son, Vidar might not have had that position to begin with.

That combined with the fact that Saru wasn’t exaggerating when she said that her technique was far above anything from this universe, and Vidar simply stood no chance. He didn’t have the experience, nor did he have the talent.

Suddenly, the space around Dyon began rippling.

“You…” Saru didn’t know how to feel. Just what was she seeing? “I don’t believe it.” She said defiantly.

Saru flashed forward, no longer waiting and definitely no longer patient.

Her delicate palm stretched out, oscillating the air around it and compressing it into an attack.

The atmosphere around them began to gain that heavy and illusory feel it had in the beginning. Bells suddenly appeared along Saru’s sky blue dress, causing a corrosive whistling sound to fill the atmosphere. There was no question that the level of this attack on the senses had reached an unprecedented level.

Members of the nearby audience began to lose focus in their eyes, becoming disoriented. Some of the even weaker began to bleed from their ears, seemingly oblivious to what was happening to them.

At this point, the damage to the audience could no longer be ignored. Just what level had the younger generation reached to be able to do such a thing? This had never happened during previous world tournaments!

Elders of the Cavositas family had no choice but to flash outward, acting as protectors to several sections at once. This universe simply didn’t have array alchemy on the level necessary to provide such protection. Providing arrays for voice amplification of image projection were about their limit. Had it not been for the previous Celestial Deer Sect, even interplanetary travel would be near impossible!

In an instant, Saru appeared before Dyon. Her palm struck outwards, decidedly more vicious.

A strange white pureness came condensed with her attack, causing its danger level to increase even further.

Dyon’s eyes flashed with a high degree of focus before his palm, too, struck outward.

The air between their strikes compressed, turning into such a powerful vacuum that the tiles beneath their feet blasted outward.

For a moment, it seemed as though they were evenly matched. Both Saru and Dyon stood in a deadlock, palms seemingly touching, but really, they were separated by a thin film of volatile air.

Suddenly, the skin of Dyon palm sheered, splitting open and erupting in a volcano of blood as his body was once again sent flying without remorse. And yet, Saru was not the least bit happy as she watched him once again skid through the air and ground.

It didn’t take Dyon so long to get up this time. He was up in an instant, flashing toward Saru and striking his palm outward again.

Saru’s palm slapped Dyon away again, her strange white energy becoming more intense as her agitation grew.

However, despite being sent flying for the third time, Dyon didn’t seem perturbed. In fact, there was a light smile playing on his features.

The crowd seemed confused. Why was this so one sided? And since it was, why hadn’t Dyon given up yet?

A chorus of boos began to rain downwards as chants for Dyon to give up became louder and louder.

Vidar stood on the sidelines, sneering on one hand, and sighing in relief on the other. So what if he had lasted a bit a longer? Vidar thought. Even if he had, it just made Vidar look smarter for resigning much quicker. One knew his limits, and the other didn’t.

That said, the growing frown on Saru’s face told an entirely different story. In fact, if anyone was really paying attention, they would have noticed that she had long since stopped trying to use her confusion technique at all. Why? Because it wasn’t working!

Dyon leaped upwards for the fifth time, his clothes completely unscathed and the smile on his face all the more entrancing.

“Time to get serious, don’t you think?” He said lightly as his skin subtly bulged in agitation. “Demon Emperor’s Will. Act 1. Stage 3. Perfection.”

Dyon’s speed reached an all new height. Booms of sounds and circles of agitated air blasted in his wake as he sent a sixth palm toward Saru.

Vidar’s sneer only got wider as the crowd continued to boo, calling for Elder Den to end it. And yet, something astonishing happened.

BOOM!

Saru and Dyon’s palms met. However, this time, there was no pocket of air between them and there definitely was no one sided affair. Even Saru’s odd wide energy cracked under the pressure, slamming their palms together.

For a moment, people were almost fooled into thinking they were once again equal. But then, Saru stumbled backward!

Saru looked up in shock even as her father, Patriarch Shruti eyes widened in surprise.

She had lost her first exchange!

A light smile played Dyon’s lips. But, inwardly, he was still quite surprised. He had boosted his body cultivation by eight and yet he had only managed to make Saru stumble a step or two. Maybe the most troubling part was the fact he was sure that as a body cultivator, her techniques weren’t limited to this.

Not to mention the fact his palm was still trembling from their contact, ‘I won’t be able to beat her with just body cultivation.’ Dyon thought to himself silently.

“To have figured it out so quickly… You are truly a wasted genius.” Saru said lightly, however, her latter words were spoken directly into Dyon’s mind.

‘Wasted genius?’ Dyon raised an eyebrow but didn’t think much of it.

“Your technique is fairly clever, but I have too much experience in the wills you use for it to have taken me a long time to figure it out.” Dyon responded.

Saru shook her head, flashing forward to clash palms with Dyon once again.

Their battle raged, ripples in space and compressed air sending loud and crashing booms to the ears of those in attendance.

“You don’t seem to understand,” Saru said, her face serene even as their mighty strikes seemed to cause the world itself to collapse. “You’re not normal.”

Dyon smiled lightly as he began to coat his palms with celestial will, seeking out a way to break Saru’s odd white energy.

“It’s more so that you’re underestimating the world I come from,” Dyon replied.

The two of them clashed, their bodies both being sent flying.

An array appeared behind Dyon in an instant as wings burst from his back. A violent wind will sharpened his palm strikes and he sent wave after wave of compressed air toward Saru’s retreating figure.

“Your first technique was a simple trick. You disorient the senses by using a combination of essence energy sent messages with real world messages. Something as simple as making a sound that really comes from the right, actually seem like it comes from the left, can cause an odd sense of imbalance and confusion.” Dyon slowly explained even as weapon’s hell array spun into existence, hundreds aiming directly at Saru.

“The inner ear itself is already important toward balance. So, if you add an extra level of complexity by disrupting its function, then you have a technique that leaves a person in an uncomfortable daze.”

Saru leisurely dodged Dyon’s attacks, slipping by them with ease. Her clan had its own sensing type technique that once again made use of vibrations and music will. She could dodge these attacks even with her eyes closed if she chose to.

But, despite her outward appearance, the shock in her heart was truly too much. She had expected Dyon to have a surface level understanding of her technique considering her had been able to adapt so quickly, but this explanation was truly too in depth! At Saru’s level, that was exactly how the technique worked!

Dyon’s weapon’s hell pagoda blossomed into existence, plunging the surrounding arena into an eerie darkness of dripping blacks and reds.

A javelin jetted out from its doors, landing in Dyon’s hands as a blazing formation of blinding white lights.

“Your palm strikes though,” Dyon continued as he layered his javelin with piercing sword and wind will before pumping it was such pure demonic will that his skin reddened even further. “Those are quite special and are what really took me a bit of time to counter.”

Dyon’s arm shot forward, relentlessly sending his javelin toward Saru’s calm features.

“Shruti’s Stomp, First Performance.” Saru’s curved body quivered, her hands clapping together as he foot rose before gently falling. There was no force in her actions, and yet a light ripple of blazing white took form, meeting Dyon’s javelin head on without fear. Saru didn’t even feel the need to dodge

“Every object has a certain frequency to it. The reason why a voice can shatter glass is exactly because of that. But, it’s also what makes you quite dangerous,” Dyon said, admiring Saru’s defenses as they stopped his javelin.

This was why Saru had attack power among the best and why powerful bodies meant nothing to her. Saru had such mastery over the vibrational path of music will that she was capable and keying in on an object’s internal frequency. She would then use that information to send palm strikes at this frequency to shatter her attack target in an instant. By all rights, Saru’s first palm to Dyon should have completely crushed his inner organs to minced meat.

The only way to counter this technique was by either using overwhelming energy to supress the attack, have a body so strong that it was outside of Saru’s capabilities to match the frequency of, or, as Dyon had done, counter her wave frequencies with your own!

A massive animal’s foot stomped down on Dyon’s javelin, shattering it in an instant and leaving behind Saru’s immaculate figure in the center of the ring.

Dyon’s wings flapped leisurely in the skies as he looked down. He was confident, but he was also being cautious now. Although Saru had displayed more than enough talent to warrant the top ten, she was definitely still withholding more of her power. The question was… Just what were her limits?

Suddenly, Saru’s white aura amplified to an all new level.

Her sharp blue eyes paled so completely that they became as white as the energy raging around her.

In the next instant, an oppressive and royal aura filled the stadium. It took Dyon but a moment to recognize the will path… The sovereign path…

Saru’s long brunette hair whipped about wildly as her aura continued to grow.

Her body disappeared behind the blinding lights, sheering her clothes away as her skin began to be coated from toes to neck in a beautiful white leathery skin.

Patterns of gold and black trailed over her body, complimenting the tyrannical white. In the end, even her hair became a wonderland of blinding lights.

In the next moment, a five headed white elephant manifested ethereally above her head, roaring into the skies with a domineering might that shook the very foundations of the stadium.

Saru Shruti stood completely unperturbed. It was as though she had swapped her dress for a tight-fitting leather body suit, however, the partial scale covering on her nipples and treasured area made it clear to everyone watching that this was in fact her very own body.

She was like a she-devil. But her beauty had been brought to such an oppressive level that it was becoming difficult for bystanders to control themselves. It was as though a beauty beyond words had put on a skin-tight body suit that left so little to the imagination that she might as well be naked.

Saru’s hair finally settled down from its blinding light, resting to a bright white along with her eyes.

“You should be proud,” Saru said lightly, her voice seemingly layered with the airs of a queen, “Although this will be over before you get to enjoy the feeling, know that you are the first of my generation that I’ve had to use this transformation on.”

Saru’s feet sunk into the arena, cracking the tiles. It wasn’t that she tried to do so… She was simply too heavy now.

“Come.”