"Brother Zhou Yang, just who are you?"
Na'er circled Zhou Yang, then lunged straight into his arms, clinging to him like a koala as she asked curiously.
Taking advantage of his height, Zhou Yang held back Na'er's head as she kept leaning closer and said with some amusement, "Just an ordinary man destined to become king."
"Ordinary? Become king?"
"Brother Zhou Yang, you're really brushing me off."
Na'er gave him a rather speechless look. Woz had just bragged about him like that, and after all that talking, he was simply borrowing Woz's words?
Zhou Yang smiled. "I'm not joking."
Hearing Zhou Yang's teasing words, Na'er pursed her lips but did not press further. After all, if he truly did not want to share certain secrets, or if it was inconvenient, she naturally would not force him.
He carried Na'er on his back along the way. No soul beasts appeared around them; instead, their surroundings were rather quiet.
Suddenly, Zhou Yang sprang backward, putting distance between them and their original position, where a red-and-blue ball of ice and fire exploded.
A scorched crater three to four meters across appeared at once.
Enemy attack!
Zhou Yang looked up and immediately spotted a huge tawny flying tiger that had been lurking high overhead, now gliding down at them with its wings spread. It stood over a meter and a half at the shoulder and was six meters long, its left eye ice-blue and its right eye fiery red. Mutually repelling, violent elemental fluctuations surrounded it as it stared fiercely at Zhou Yang.
The red-and-blue wings on its back, matching its eyes, spread wide, casting a huge shadow over them with an overwhelming sense of danger and pressure.
This was unmistakably an Icefire Demon Tiger.
"Boss, that's an Icefire Demon Tiger. Judging by its size, it's at least four thousand years old."
She climbed down from Zhou Yang's back and took out the Silver Dragon Spear, ready to act.
"Wait. Let me."
"Huh, Brother Zhou Yang?"
"...This soul beast isn't something an ordinary Soul Master can contend with."
"There's no need for that. I'm no ordinary Soul Master."
Na'er hesitated. After all, this was a four-thousand-year soul beast, and one whose danger rivaled a Man-Faced Demon Spider's. Even a three-ring Soul Master would have a hard time, let alone her and Zhou Yang, who only had two rings each.
But in the end, she chose to trust Zhou Yang.
"All right. Be careful, Brother Zhou Yang. I'll help if you need me."
With that, she retreated, giving Zhou Yang room without getting in his way.
"No need. It'll be dead in a flash."
Light flickered in Zhou Yang's hand, and the Zikan Girade appeared out of thin air, its keen blade pointing at the Icefire Demon Tiger before him.
He charged forward and swung the Zikan Girade, instantly cutting through a layer of the Icefire Demon Tiger's flesh and leaving a hideous wound that made it roar in pain.
"Mm, this really does feel pretty good."
The Zikan Girade in his hand swept through the air with fierce, whistling force, continually wounding the Icefire Demon Tiger.
He swung his sword and shifted his body, leaving a deep wound wherever he brushed past, as though dancing a bloody waltz.
But the Icefire Demon Tiger was no punching bag. Realizing that the tiny being before it was hurting it, it let out an utterly furious roar.
The tiger was the king of beasts. How could it tolerate this being hurting it?
Aiming for one of Zhou Yang's landing spots, it raised its enormous paw and slammed it down hard at the being before it.
Its sharp claws gleamed faintly, keen enough to slice through stone, sweeping toward him amid fiery-red waves of heat.
What met this blow, however, was a slash from Zhou Yang.
Like a hot knife through butter, it sliced through smoothly. Before the heat wave could reach him, Zhou Yang's sword stroke cleaved it apart, and the tiger's paw was sheared clean off.
The enormous paw struck the ground with a heavy thud. The Icefire Demon Tiger sensed that a piece of its body seemed to be missing, and excruciating pain surged forth.
The king of beasts was utterly consumed by fury. Burning with the desire to tear apart the being before it, it gathered immense elemental power in its mouth. The powers of ice and fire intertwined, vast and violent. Their mutual repulsion actually reached a delicate balance at that moment, gathering in the Icefire Demon Tiger's mouth to form a densely compressed sphere.
Roar!
Released with its roar, it blasted straight toward Zhou Yang.
Even a four-ring Soul Master would not dare take the full-force attack unleashed by a four-thousand-year Icefire Demon Tiger head-on, yet faced with such an attack-
Yet faced with such an attack, Zhou Yang felt no fear whatsoever. Instead, he raised the Zikan Girade and chopped straight down.
"Rising-Dragon-Slash!"
Zhou Yang casually shouted a name, looking rather unserious.
Yet the Icefire Demon Tiger's all-out attack, into which it had poured everything, was cleaved straight in half, becoming two arcs of power that exploded on either side behind Zhou Yang, leaving two deep craters.
Immediately afterward, he casually tossed aside the Zikan Girade in his hand.
"As the first target of my debut, you should count yourself fortunate."
[FINISH TIME!]
Zhou Yang rotated the Ziku-Driver once. Purple-pink light shone from his right foot, gathering a powerful force as he leaped high with tremendous momentum.
After a somersault, he launched a flying kick at the Icefire Demon Tiger.
[TIME BREAK (Time Break)]
The instant the mechanical voice fell silent, Zhou Yang's flying kick struck toward the Icefire Demon Tiger. His two-meter figure looked rather small compared with it.
Yet, unexpectedly, it was the Icefire Demon Tiger that was sent flying backward in that violent collision.
Zhou Yang landed nimbly on one knee, looking ahead. His movements were polished and elegant, as though he had repeated them countless times, without the slightest hesitation.
Under that immensely heavy force, the Icefire Demon Tiger flew backward, scraping across the ground for dozens of meters.
Finally, amid the Icefire Demon Tiger's unwilling whimpers, a tremendous explosion erupted. The power of the Rider Kick swallowed it completely, consuming every last bit of its already gravely wounded body and turning it into pure spiritual power.
Having watched everything from the side, Na'er could not help widening her eyes and looking Zhou Yang up and down repeatedly.
She had never imagined that Zhou Yang would be so strong.
Even she could not have killed the Icefire Demon Tiger so easily, much less abused a person-no, a beast-like this.
After being slain, the Icefire Demon Tiger released abundant spiritual power that surged toward Zhou Yang. Under his control, half of it went to Na'er.
Sensing the spiritual power, Zhou Yang was quite curious about what would happen to him, since he had no Spirit Soul.
The very moment he began absorbing the spiritual power, Zhou Yang felt an excited fluctuation from the Ryuki Ridewatch within him. It was Dragreder's joy.
He frowned and carefully sensed it.
In the Mirror World, Dragreder was letting out delighted dragon cries, happily devouring the spiritual power.
"Huh?"
Wait, Dragreder, you eat this too? Aren't you afraid of getting an upset stomach from eating junk food?
But Dragreder did not care about any of that. He merely let out grumbling roars, as though expressing his displeasure at being hungry, then continued munching away.
Dragreder: Like I give a damn. I'll just fucking eat, eat, eat!
Zhou Yang was speechless, but since Dragreder liked eating it, he might as well let him have it. Thinking carefully, apart from the few mouthfuls of Soul Power he usually fed him, Dragreder did not seem to have eaten anything good. Back in the world of Ryuki, he probably would have rebelled long ago.
He did not need spiritual power anyway, so he would just treat it as food for Dragreder.