Chapter 17

Things weren't looking good for Ryuu. Just this first exchange had left him with multiple lacerations. None quite deep enough to harm him, but they would cause a lot of issues overtime due to blood loss.

Teuchi wasn't faring much better truth be told. He undererstimated the damage Ryuu would cause through his energy plating. He quickly realised just how ruthless Ryuu was in his attack aiming for his heart like that and trying to kill him.

Yet, instead of being angry he was amused. How long has it been that a low-ranking being caused him so much harm eversince he became a high-ranking devil. The answer was easy, never.

Skipping between the ranks is something very, very uncommon in the supernatural world for a simple reason; whenever someone like him would pop up they'd either be recruited or eliminated. Knowing how difficult it was to control such a person, faction leaders would usually eliminate them.

While Ryuu and Teuchi were assessing each others condition and were planning their next moves Teuchi suddenly received a secret transmission. The content of the message was as follows; kill the brat.

His backers were already feeling the heat and decided to nip the bud in the ground while they still could. Knowing there is no way for Teuchi to get out of this without killing the kid in front of him he sighed something that wasn't lost on Ryuu who studied his body language meticulously.

Teuchi was only able to become a high-rank devil because of all the resources they'd poured into him for the past five decades. Before becoming he was just a humble stall owner, his specialty being noodles, but he like many other devils held a special passion for fighting.

Everytime before opening the stall he'd train alone, not all that successesful. After all unlike Ryuu who had his experience as a guide. Having no one to rely on Teuchi was going through trials and errors to learn anything.

There were many times Teuchi didn't want to follow the cruel orders of his masters or "owners" as they like to call it, but whenever they mentioned his daughter Ayame he had no choice but to obey.

Looking at his opponent Ryuu who didn't look much older than his daugther he took a deep breath and let loose his killing intent with a heavy heart making Ryuu flinch in suprise before answering in kind.

This got the crowd mighty excited and some couldn't hold back their cheering anymore. The smell of blood seemed to permeat the air as killing intent clashed upon each other like blood soaked blades.

Ryuu felt Teuchis' impatient but didn't bother commenting on it. This fight meant too much for him to bother with anything else. While he let loose his killing intent he also pulled out fingerless gloves to put on. They were made out of a combination of dragon leather and mithril giving them flexibility and durability.

He had Serafall prepare them in order to use them against Teuchi. He didn't like armor as it felt too restrictive but he couldn't just allow himself to be continously sliced, could he? A shield wasn't an option either as it would clash with his burst-like hand-to-hand combat style.

Ignoring their surroundings they once again looked at each other before disappearing again. What followed was a clanking sounds and sparks followed by a grunt from Ryuu. Teuchis overwhelmingly superior physique was showing itself right now.

Ryuu was barely able to redirect most of the damage cause by his blade using small combustions to up the speed of his hands. It did leave him a bit rattled though.

Such exchanges of moves would continue for the next ten minutes. Flurries of attacks from Teuchi left Ryuu plenty exhausted and riddled with wounds.

Ryuu wasn't just dodging for dear life in those exchanges he analyzed his opponent and quickly found out that Teuchis' footwork was a mess lacking any formal training.

Making use of that he started predicting his moves and the direction he'd take to land some solid hits onto him. And it did leave some marks on Teuchi coupled with his earlier chest wound things were getting quite uncomfortable for him as well.

But Teuchi still prevailed over him due to his vaster experience and reservers. Ryuu on the other side only had so much stamina and Teuchi was giving him hell.

But instead of feeling pissed, angry or any negative emotion for that matter. His battle intent was surging and once again Ryuus' boderline obsessive behavior would guide him to do more; to do better.

After another five minutes Ryuu found himself kneeling on the floor with Teuchis' sword in his chest, barely avoiding his heart. He was bleeding heavily, exhausted beyond anything he'd ever felt before and unable to exert any more strength.

For the first time in the battle Teuchi spoke to him calmly, "it was a good fight. For entertaining me as much as you did I'm giving you a choice; become my follower or die."

Ryuu had disbelief marring his face; that was it? He who had sworn himself to protecting the world in Gods' stead would just fall here or become a slave to his opponent? Ryuu couldn't believe the irony.

He finally understood that the thought too highly of himself. Right now he was no one special, no one important. Just another ant struggeling towards greatness which made him chuckle to himself.

Teuchi raised an eyebrow as he saw his opponent near death and laughing but for some reason he had a bad feeling about it and decided it was better to just end it.

"Looks like you made your choice," he said coldly and was about to pull out his sword to end him as he was suddenly caught off-guard by a wave of dense energy emnating from Ryuu. This had him jump back to avoid any damage while decisively abandoning his sword in Ryuus' chest.

Ryuu was just standing there chuckeling. His chuckle finally turning into laughter laced with all kinds of strong emotions. Unwillingness and pride being at the front, followed by pure and unadultered rage directed at himself.

As his volume and intensity went up so did the energy that was coming off of him. The smarter bunch among the crowd noticed it to be Touki.

They were gobsmacked seeing someone with barely a mid-ranking physique radiate such pure and volatile life force. It made them wonder how this little monster trained.

"Ten years," Ryuu began leaving the confused Teuchi on his own. "Ten years I've done nothing but training and studying. From dusk till dawn until my limbs felt like lead and my bones like jelly. I've done so much yet nature kept on f*cking with me and limiting my growth," he continued.

This gained everyone's attention. How could a young boy become such a strong contestant, one of the reasons they now knew and also understood that replicating it would ne nigh impossible.

Another thing they noticed right away was him saying something about nature restricting his growth, which clearly indicated that he is purely of common birth which was rather shocking. It was an open secret that devils without noble blood couldn't achieve anything substential in ther lives.

Don't go looking at the humble stall boss Teuchi thinking he is also a pure common devil. Somewhere in his ancestry he has noble blood which allowed him to reach his current hights since the noble blood, regardless of it's quality removed all his limiters.

Pure descendants of Lucifers' first creations were really rare among devilkind even before the civil war.

Now, they weren't just seeing him but also experiencing first hand just how he defied nature and breaking through his limits and paving the way for something truly special.

Chains were currently surrounding Ryuu, trying to keep in check whatever he was letting out. But they were clearly unable to hold onto him much longer. With a grunt and a flex of his muscles his newly awakened touki compressed and released it back out to let it explode.

During this process the chains of fate were disintegrated and gone for good.