New weapon efficacy

Nura didn't miss Steve's moment of distraction, so when the man turned his head to see what that loud sound was, Nura pulled his club out of the ring and prepared to attack with all his strength.

When Steve realized what happened, he immediately turned his attention back to Nura, and to his surprise, the man that a second ago was weakly kneeling on the ground was now raising with a club on his hand, moving to hit him.

Just like Lia, Steve tried to reduce the incoming damage protecting his face and contracting all the muscle on his body to receive the blow and counterattack.

But never in his life would Steve have expected the pathetic man about to cry under his feet was actually on a higher level than he was. So Nura saw Steve raising his hand to protect his head and shifted his target to the ribcage, connecting a powerful blow at Steve's side.

When the blow hit Steve's ribs, he bent to the side of the blow, followed by a weird, disgusting noise that came out of his mouth as he spat out saliva. But Steve wasn't finished yet, and before he fell to the ground, he shifted his feet to regain balance. And gritting his teeth to resist the pain, he raised the sword in his hand, taking a defensive stance.

However, as soon as Steve prepared his posture, a second totally unexpected blow exploded on his side, at the same place as the previous one. On the first strike, some of Steve's ribs had already cracked, and now, with this second blow from the aftereffect of Nura's weapon, the damage penetrated directly into the internal organs.

With the explosion on Steve, he went to his knees, almost passing out because of the intense pain. But Nura wasn't feeling merciful that day, so when he saw the bald man going down, he took another blow to his back, ending the man once and for all.

Meanwhile, just a few meters from this massacre, Ryu landed a fair blow to Lia's forehead, sending her back with her face burned and dizzy, nearly fainting. However, Ryu's strength was not enough to make this single blow end the fight.

Since Ryu was only a level 11 cultivator while Lia was level 17, there was a large gap in level, translated in stats which placed Ryu at a disadvantage in raw strength and agility.

However, this outcome was within Ryu's expectations, and he didn't finish his advance with that first strike. Ryu pulled the staff back, rotating it above his head, at first, putting a large portion of the staff back, then, he sent the staff forward in a semi-circle, aiming to hit Lia on the head.

As the staff began the descending part of the semi-circle, Ryu felt part of his qi being depleted, while the surface of the staff in his hand gained a rocky crust, increasing the hardness of the wood in many folds. This thin layer of rock was the power of his immortal-grade skill bringing the power of earth element to the strike,

However, before the blow could land on Lia's head, the woman reacted in time, raising the sword on her hand horizontally above her head to block the incoming strike.

When the black smoke resembling a staff on Ryu's hand connected with the sword on Lia's hand, the weight of the staff brought such power that Lia was thrown to the floor with her hands broken. The sword fell off her hand while the woman fell back with her arms aching.

Ryu's blow landed on the sword, and the rocky crost covering the staff shattered, scattering tiny pieces of rock hidden by black smoke, but the rocks and the black smoke disappeared before they could reach the ground.

The woman fell to the ground lying on her butt, looking at Ryu with a look of despair, still not believing in the power carried by that single blow. Next, Ryu drew his staff, preparing to give a lateral swing smashing the woman's head before she could try something.

But, as Ryu began the swing, he lost all strength and had to stop the swing. So, Ryu placed the end of the staff on the ground, using it as a support stick while he began to gasp for air in complete exhaustion. With just two blows with the staff, all of his qi was drained, leaving him in a complete state of fatigue.

This draining effect occurred because of two factors: first, it was the staff itself that used part of its qi to trigger the inscriptions and release the black smoke that hid the staff and the elemental power of Ryu's blows, and second, it was his immortal-grade martial art skill which now used some of his qi to boost the elemental power of his attacks.

After breathing heavily five times, Ryu recovered part of his energy and walked in Lia's direction, dragging his wooden staff on the floor. The arrangement of the papers changed, as now the woman was on the floor scared while Ryu was on top looking down, but the difference was that the woman was not pretending to be fear like Ryu and Nura did.

At each small step Ryu gave, Lia's fear raised accordingly, and when he reached a single step distant, he pulled his staff and placed the end on her chest, pressing her down. The smoke was no more as Ryu had no qi to sustain the inscriptions, but this made no difference to build the fear on the woman's heart.

With her back glued on the floor, Lia tried to react, but with both her arms dormant, she was unable to put reaction, not even to push the staff pressing her down to the side. Then Ryu reached her side and looked down without any visible emotion on his face, but that lack of emotion didn't help Lia at all, as the cold gaze directed at her made her feel like something expendable.

"Start talking if you want to live." Ryu said, his voice cold as his gaze.

As soon as Ryu gave his ultimatum, Nura, who had just finished her fight, approached and called out, "Ryu."

Ryu closed his eyes, lifted his head, and opened his eyelids slowly, looking directly at Nura with the same impassive look he gave Lia. In that case, the question, however implicit, "What is this?" was clear as day for Nura.

Seeing that gaze on Ryu's face, Nura said, "it's nothing, proceed as you wish.". Nura intended to warn Ryu that they couldn't release the woman because the first thing she would do would be to go to their base and report their presence.

However, when he saw that gaze on Ryu's face, Nura abandoned the idea to warn him. Not because he thought that alerting Ryu to the potential risk of releasing the woman could affect the interrogatory. And also, not just from the simple fact that he realized that Lia had no chance to survive at all.

But because that gaze was so cold and devoided of emotion that even Nura got a little scared. Then Ryu looked down to Lia again, waiting for her answer.