Gu Yue immediately imitated Lan Kai's movements, bringing her hands together and stretching them out in front of her. One attack after another, each infused with a different element, shot from her fingertips. Their target was the back of the thousand-year-old Crystal Bear's neck.
The thousand-year-old Crystal Bear had skin like copper and bones like iron. The back of its neck was one of its relatively vulnerable spots, and also easier to reach, so that was where Gu Yue aimed her attacks.
Of course, if Gu Yue used earth-element control to burrow underground, came up beneath the thousand-year-old Crystal Bear, and then unleashed the secret technique of the Leaf Body Fluid Art—One Thousand Years of Death—on it, the result would probably be even better.
The problem was that earth-element control on Douluo Continent rarely included abilities like earth-style burrowing. Aside from Tang San using a similar ability two thousand years ago to escape from Qian Renxue, who had just become a god, few earth-attribute Soul Masters had ever demonstrated such a skill.
It seemed that the whole of Douluo Continent was poorly prepared for someone burrowing underground. No wonder the Body Sect had managed to stir up trouble in Ming Capital twice by digging tunnels ten thousand years ago.
Still, although Gu Yue had changed her attack's wind-up pose, it had barely increased the move's power, and she still hadn't managed to break through the Crystal Bear's defenses.
The Crystal Bear merely paused and briefly considered whom it should deal with first. Then it ignored Gu Yue and continued toward Lan Kai.
"Cutting Ray!"
Lan Kai raised his right hand and aimed at the Crystal Bear's face. Rays of light, like sharp blades, shot toward it.
Before the Crystal Bear could raise its other hand to block, blood streamed down its face. One of its eyes had even been blinded, and it let out an even more pained howl.
"Ugh, Soul Beasts really aren't Super Beasts. I'd better just finish this quickly."
Lan Kai sighed, raised his hand, and tossed an Ultra Slash at the Crystal Bear, cleanly slicing off its head.
A powerful halo immediately burst from the Crystal Bear's body, spreading over everything within a three-meter radius. In an instant, the area was filled with crystal.
Only then did the Crystal Bear's body disappear, transforming into a large mass of warm spiritual energy. Most of it drifted toward Lan Kai, while only a small portion floated over to Gu Yue.
After the Crystal Bear vanished, Lan Kai saw the unwilling look on Gu Yue's face.
"...I think you'd be better off thinking about how to improve your control over the elements instead of imitating my poses."
Lan Kai quickly absorbed the spiritual energy, then moved off in another direction as he reminded Gu Yue.
Gu Yue followed with a displeased look, staring resentfully at Lan Kai's back. She seemed to want to raise her little fist and punch him, but after lifting it, she hesitated and eventually lowered her hand.
"Then what are all those poses of yours for? Clearly, you have to strike those poses to use your Self-Created Soul Skills, right?
"Why are you the only one allowed to use specific poses to boost your Soul Skill's power? Why can't I study them?
"Besides, I really did feel..."
"That's because your imagination isn't vivid enough."
In response to Gu Yue's questions, Lan Kai slowed his pace and explained.
When Ultraman fired a beam—especially the Ultramen from the Heisei era onward—he needed elaborate preparations to unleash a powerful one. The most iconic example was Orb firing his beam in the TV finale. After the other Ultramen had struck a whole string of flashy poses, the original Ultraman and Jack, who had borrowed their power and made a temporary appearance, simply raised their hands and fired a Specium Ray.
But that was mostly for show. The elaborate movements heightened the sense of power behind the finishing attack and roused the audience's emotions. They also helped fill out the runtime and made each Ultraman more recognizable.
In a fast-paced fight, though, the motions used to fire those beams could all be simplified. He could even just raise his hand and fire.
At most, those movements helped channel the power. Truly powerful Warriors of Light could fire their trump-card beams even without using them.
On Douluo Continent, the movements Lan Kai made served the same purpose: guiding the light within his body more effectively.
As a Warrior of Light who hadn't received much training, Lan Kai was naturally no match for his predecessors. For now, he couldn't do without these steps.
But if Gu Yue got caught up in studying poses, she would only stray down the wrong path. Although Lan Kai and Gu Yue weren't on good terms, he still decided to warn her, for Juggler and Leng Yaozhu's sake.
"When you use those poses, you feel like your attacks get a little stronger because the shapes you make are more aggressive. So when you unleash an elemental attack, the element naturally gathers into a more offensive shape.
"But instead of using those poses, full of openings, for a barely noticeable increase in power, you'd be better off improving your control over the elements. That way, whatever you use them for, you'll get twice the result with half the effort."
Not long afterward, both of them felt the ground tremble again and again. It seemed something enormous was approaching.
Soon, as the trees ahead toppled one after another, a Soul Beast even larger than the thousand-year-old Crystal Bear came into view.
It looked like a dinosaur, measuring ten meters long and over five meters tall. Iron-gray scales covered its entire body, and the most striking feature was the horn growing from the center of its forehead.
The thousand-year-old Unicorn Dragon was a type of earth dragon Soul Beast. Its formidable physical strength and the powerful protection of its scales made it one of the strongest among the earth dragons.
Although it couldn't attack from a distance, it was incredibly mobile. It could keep charging through even the most difficult terrain, and once it locked onto a target, it would pursue relentlessly with its powerful speed and agility, smashing its opponent to pieces with its body.
Even against flying Soul Masters and flying Soul Beasts, it could use its explosive strength to leap into the sky. Unless its opponent could fly higher than the Unicorn Dragon could jump, there was no way to defeat one without taking a hit.
According to a certain unreliable rumor, a ten-thousand-year-old Unicorn Dragon could fire its horn like a cannonball, and with considerable force at that. Whether the rumor was true remained unknown.
In terms of physical defense alone, this Unicorn Dragon was even tougher than the Crystal Bear.
Gu Yue acted at once. She predicted where the Unicorn Dragon would step and used her first Soul Skill to turn the spot into a patch of mud.
The charging Unicorn Dragon didn't notice in time. It stepped straight into the mud, and its massive body slipped, sliding diagonally forward.
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