Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 530

Chapter 530: Grappling

Sylas released his grip on General Ji's neck, standing with a heaving breath.

Grappling was dangerous.

If not for the sake of his Comprehension, he wasn't sure if he would do this. Plus, there was an obvious problem to it all... The fact that with how large beasts got sometimes, what good was a leg lock if his legs couldn't wrap around them at all?

It seemed silly to work on a skill that wouldn't be useful against such a large segment of his opponents. But he felt that if he couldn't use weapons like most people could, then he should have every method of protecting himself possible within reason.

Grappling was something most people didn't understand and could be great when he was facing off against an opponent he couldn't easily defeat through normal means.

'Keep going.'

Sylas practically ran the poor General Ji into the ground. The General lost count of the number of times he passed out.

He thought that he would get a reprieve when he could finally start using his full Strength, but the ending was the same. When he thought that using his weapon would be his saving grace, he ended up almost taking his own head off several times. When Sylas finally allowed him to use Skills, he might as well have not had the opportunity to use them at all.

He found the skills getting constantly canceled, and even when he managed to complete his Aether circulation, Sylas was restricting his movements in a way that he would have to kamikaze them both to get any sort of damage in.

The more Sylas fought, the more he felt that grappling was practically a poetic sort of experience.

He could feel his opponents breathing, movement, even panic in a way so intimate that nothing could compare. The kind of control it gave him over someone's life was intoxicating in its own way, and he seemed to completely forget the hatred he had for the movement.

It only took him three quick spars with General Ji to master <Interlocking Chains>. When it hit Legendary Mastery, he could feel its limits intimately, so he moved onto <Serpent's Embrace>, not bothering to try to improve it to Progenitor Mastery.

Progenitor Mastery required not just understanding, but improvement on a technique. Sylas didn't have the time to invest in it, and it was just an F- Skill Set regardless, so it wasn't worth it even if he did have the time.

Although he had given himself a month, he took every day like it was his very last.

<Serpent's Embrace> improved the rigid movements of <Interlocking Chains> a great deal. Compared to <Interlocking Chains>'s eight transitions, <Serpent's Embrace> had only four, but they were all streamlined and focused on flexibility in a way that made them applicable to a vast array of situations, far more than <Interlocking Chains>'s eight transitions could compare to.

Sometimes Sylas even moved as though he didn't have any bones at all, and he learned how to use the muscles of his torso to move around his opponent's body with more fluidity. That process of movement allowed the pressure on his arms and legs to lessen so they could focus on latching onto vital points and squeezing down. Even when General Ji thought that he had control over Sylas' limbs, a light twist and shift could find him spinning through the air again.

<Harmonizing Lock> and <Unity Hold> were extremely similar in their actions. They focused on using the opponent's methods against them, almost like constrictors; the more General Ji struggled, the more it seemed like he was suffocating.