Chapter 825 825. Path
Noah had been unable to use his old martial art since he had fused his body with a Cursed Dragon. The physical strength that he had been capable of expressing since that moment prevented him from using the forms ideated by the cultivators through the years.
He was simply so strong that he couldn't force himself to reach the human requirements that the martial arts had.
That didn't hinder his battle prowess too much because even his casual slashes could match the power of a spell since the insane body of a hybrid backed them. However, those attacks would be somewhat predictable due to the lack of intricate forms capable of giving birth to amazing effects.
Noah had created martial arts over the years, but they had always been simple tools that made use of his physical strength. His greatest achievement in the past had been a slash that spread his destruction after it landed.
Nevertheless, he had always abandoned those forms due to the lack of harmony in his centers of power. The "Breath" required to match his physical strength would often surpass what he was willing to consume.
That issue had become somewhat bearable when his dantian reached the fourth rank. However, he still had to gather enough experience with his real power before creating something able to express everything that he was capable of.
It had been more comfortable with the spells since his body didn't play a part in their activation. Still, he had to become a complete rank 5 cultivator and create his Demonic Sword before he felt confident in creating a proper martial art.
His current Dragon's Claw was a rank 5 martial art with two forms. The first one created sharp lines that he could detonate to envelop his opponent in the corrosive smoke of the Demonic form. The second one used the Shadow Copy spell to perform a stronger version of the Third Form of the martial art that he had been forced to abandon when he was still a human cultivator.
'Void,' Noah thought the name of the final technique of the Three Forms of the Ashura when he saw the black smoke in front of him dispersing due to his last attack.
Void didn't release any black line or corrosive smoke, but cut directly toward Noah's target, severing everything in its path. It wasn't a flashy technique, but it was quite complex to execute and extremely powerful.
In its original version, the Third Form of the Three Forms of the Ashura would bring a cultivator's body to its limit to express such power. However, in the modified version, Noah had to compensate for his already overwhelming physical strength by using a spell together with the martial art.
Also, he had to be in the complete Demonic Form to create the additional arms and express the full power of what probably was his strongest attack.
It was needless to say that the effects of such a technique were astonishing since it fused a hybrid body, a martial art, a spell, Noah's darkness, and the Demonic Sword.
Peaceful Storm couldn't understand what had happened. A deep cut had appeared on his torso without him even seeing the attack that had caused it!
His focus went on his area of distorted space at that point, and his eyes widened when he saw that a long gap had appeared in his defensive method.
There was no black smoke on the edges of the gap, and the rest of his defensive method was still in place. Yet, a vast chunk of the distorted space between him and Noah was missing.
For the first time in the battle, Peaceful Storm felt fear. If it weren't for his defensive spell, Noah's attack would have landed on his head, and half of his brain would have vanished in that case.
As a rank 5 cultivator, there were only a few beings that could threaten Peaceful Storm's life. However, they were quite easy to avoid, mainly since he belonged to the stronger organization in the Mortal Lands.
Also, it was a rare event for cultivators in the fifth rank to engage in a deadly battle. The organization behind each of those assets would step forward whenever their life was in danger. After all, beings on that level were simply too valuable to risk losing them over something that could be solved with money and resources.
Nevertheless, Noah had almost killed him in a battle for a city that the Empire was already ready to lose.
Anger soon replaced the fear felt by Peaceful Storm. The cultivator from the Empire couldn't accept that such a young monster had forced his survival instinct to resurface.
His internal organs were about to come out of his injury, but he didn't care. He had to show to the Demon Prince that his forty years spent at that level weren't enough to match the experience gained in centuries of training.
The remains of the distorted space exploded outward, enveloping the entirety of the black cloud and flinging Noah away. Then, Peaceful Storm followed that attack by unleashing almost all the talismans contained in his space-ring.
The chaotic pressure hurt Noah's internal organs as he flew backward, pushed away by the might of the explosion. Yet, his instincts suddenly sensed a significant threat following after him.
Noah didn't try to stop the pushing force of the explosion anymore at that point. He worked together with it to escape from the bad feeling that was drawing near.
When his consciousness managed to analyze the cause of that threat, Noah could see that a wave of spells of the wind element was chasing after him as it filled the sky. It was as if a vertical tornado had appeared and was moving at high speed toward his position.
Various spells made the tornado. Noah recognized all the talismans that Peaceful Storm had used previously together with other attacks that he had never seen. There were spears, slashes, griffins, and even a few peculiar wolves that seemed to hold all those forms together in a single offensive.
'Is this his most powerful attack?' Noah thought as he used the Merging spell to escape faster from the incoming wave.
There were simply too many spells in that wind-wave. Noah guessed that Peaceful Storm had activated more than two hundred talismans at the same time to create something so powerful!
That wasn't something that he could face alone, and he would have problems blocking it even with the help of the other Elders.
'His stash of talismans is simply incredible,' Noah thought as he tried to find a way out of that situation with the Divine Deduction technique. 'He must have spent at least a century to create all of them.'
The Elders of the Hive noticed that attack, but they were busy with their battles and couldn't intervene. Noah was on his own.
'I need to use everything.' Noah calmly decided when he understood that he couldn't avoid the wave. 'I need to open a path in the middle of the storm.'