After slaughtering seventy-three vampires in the small town, the life energy Ryosuke gained was enough to support him walking under the sun for thirty minutes.
Considering that a fierce battle with Kars would inevitably result in injuries and thus shorten his operating time, Ryosuke set his own safety window as,
Five minutes.
Not five minutes to kill Kars.
But five minutes to find a chance to tear open a small gap in Kars's spine or heart, these two places where life energy was the most abundant.
As long as there was a small opening, the spinning steel ball could hit. Then Ryosuke would be able to absorb an unimaginably vast amount of life energy.
However, for the current Ryosuke, this was not an easy task.
If he fought Kars head-on in a straight duel, let alone five minutes, even fifty minutes, five hours, Ryosuke would never find that opportunity.
Ryosuke himself was half an Ultimate Lifeform. He knew very well that a body that had undergone multiple genetic improvements possessed unimaginable power in reaction speed, learning ability, and instantaneous battlefield judgment.
In this regard, Kars would only be stronger than Ryosuke.
The only things Ryosuke could rely on were three variables.
Joseph.
Stroheim's army.
And Kars's arrogance.
And now, the variable had arrived...
BOOM!
On the otherwise ordinary cleaver, an unimaginable crimson-gold brilliance burst forth, shooting straight into the sky and tearing open the clouds.
"You're about to say..."
Joseph pointed at Kars. "Was this also part of your plan, Ryosuke?"
Seeing Ryosuke's transformation with his own eyes, Kars shouted in shock, "Was this also part of your plan, Ryosuke, what?!"
Kars hadn't expected his thoughts to be seen through by Joseph, nor had he expected that the lowly vampire before him could erupt with such powerful, terrifying strength.
Was this really power that humans could wield?
No, forget humans. Even a Pillar Man, even an Ultimate Lifeform, shouldn't be able to do this.
At the instant between life and death, the Ultimate Lifeform's keen analytical and judgment abilities kicked in.
Kars turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees, staring at the steel ball spinning around his spine, and understood that this was the source of Ryosuke's change, 'A steel ball rotating along a special trajectory interfered with my control over flesh and blood, allowing Ryosuke to absorb my life energy. That's what caused this bizarre transformation.'
Kars twisted his right arm backward at the joint and grabbed the steel ball.
The high-speed spinning steel ball exploded in his palm, knocking his hand away. In the next second, a thick shell formed over Kars's palm, and he grabbed the steel ball again.
The extraction of life energy was cut off.
A ripple appeared in the energy transmission of the Past Projection.
The Ripple surrounding Ryosuke, which was about to condense from flames into crystals, fell back to the flame stage once more.
Ryosuke stopped gathering energy and brought his blade down on Kars in a head-on strike.
Rip!
The legendary Ultimate Lifeform was split directly in half by a single slash.
The crimson-gold blade light tore through the earth. And that wasn't all, Ryosuke reversed the blade and followed up with a horizontal slash. Kars's head flew high into the air.
In the distance, Stroheim's troops instinctively shrank their necks, afraid that this terrifying blade light might cut them down.
"Is he dead?!"
Stroheim adjusted the binoculars on his face and looked toward Kars's head flying high and the remaining body.
Judging by the wounds, it was certainly fatal.
The wounds had turned to charcoal, heat waves radiated from the whole body, it looked like seven-tenths-cooked roast meat. But thinking about the fact that the opponent was an Ultimate Lifeform…
"He's not dead."
Lisa Lisa walked over with the support of a soldier.
She had been badly injured earlier by Kars's attack, but as a Ripple user of many years, after receiving simple treatment from a field medic and regaining her mobility, she rushed back to the battlefield immediately.
She couldn't let her child (Joseph) face Kars alone.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she arrived, Lisa Lisa witnessed Ryosuke cutting Kars down with two strikes.
She also felt a brief moment of joy, but immediately sensed the problem. On Kars, Lisa Lisa felt Ripple.
Crackle!
Lightning flashed. From Kars's "scattered remains," sunflower-yellow Ripple lightning appeared.
Golden lightning spread outward with Kars at the center, whipping and crackling like chained lightning, smashing the ground apart again and sending countless stones flying, forcibly driving Ryosuke and Joseph back.
Learning Ripple techniques in the middle of battle was not a difficult thing for Kars.
With the Ultimate Lifeform's life energy amplified by Ripple, the shattered remains suddenly transformed into birds and beasts, then fused together, once again becoming Kars, a cold, focused Kars.
"Just a little short."
Kars rose into the air on his wings and looked down at Ryosuke.
"You were just a tiny bit away from killing me."
Ryosuke picked up the steel ball from the ground.
Kars was right.
Just a tiny bit, if the steel ball could have held on for another half second, Ryosuke could have pushed the Ripple flames into Ripple crystals, and with one strike, wiped out every single cell in Kars's body.
Even an Ultimate Lifeform, with all its cells annihilated, could only accept death in despair.
In the end…
A Lesson 3–level Golden Spin, with his current "mortal flesh," was still too taxing when facing a monster of Kars's level.
If he could reach the next level, Lesson 4, everything would be different. That would be the true…
Golden Spin.
Lesson 4, Express respect. Express respect, and then step into a brand-new stage of rotation.
But…
What exactly did that mean?
Rei had already stepped into Lesson 4. Ryosuke had once asked her about it. Her exact words were, ("It's like being exhausted after a whole day and wanting to go home to eat a bowl of udon. You open the door, and find that Mom made udon for dinner and even fried tempura.")
("Everything is a perfectly timed coincidence.")
To this, Ryosuke's response was, ("I don't get it.")
As for the Slug Sage's Path of the Past, Ryosuke had built the Past Projection in just one night.
As for Ripple martial arts, Ryosuke had long since trained it to the limit, and now he was undergoing the Kars trial.
Only the Golden Spin…
'Sure enough, I still don't like riddle-talkers.'
Ryosuke let out a quiet sigh in his heart and put away the fleeting disappointment.
This was Kars. This was the Ultimate Lifeform.
Any tiny flaw would be seized by Kars, especially now, when he truly felt a threat to his life, cast aside all arrogance, and treated Ryosuke as an equal enemy.
"You are an outstanding warrior, an excellent killer. I apologize for underestimating you earlier. From now on..."
Kars flew higher, standing at an even greater height, and said coldly, "I will not relax in the slightest, nor will I engage you in close combat."
"The blazing sun will burn away your life. I will wait for you to be killed by the sun's light."
"Ryosuke, I admit you are very strong, but this world only needs one perfect lifeform, and that is me."
Seeing this, Stroheim snapped back to his senses and roared at the soldiers, "Fire! Open fire!"
"Blast him down for me!"
The soldiers regained their composure, set up the mortars, and fired shells at Kars, all of which he calmly dodged.
A smile appeared at the corner of Kars's mouth.
No matter how many bizarre tricks Ryosuke had, he couldn't possibly fly into the sky.
Even taking an airplane wouldn't help.
Human aircraft might be faster than Kars in straight-line flight, but in terms of maneuverability, planes of this era were no match for Kars.
Suddenly, a figure flashed past.
Ryosuke leaped up fiercely and landed steadily on a shell that had just been fired.
Ripple tightly "glued" Ryosuke's feet to the shell.
Before the Ripple flames summoned from the Past Projection were fully exhausted, Ryosuke charged toward Kars in the sky.