Even though he was able to avoid and protect himself from most of the lizard beast attacks, there are still some that we're able to pierce his defense. By the time the lizard beast stopped its attack, he was badly battered and no part of his body was unscathed except his face.
He let out a weary breath. Even though he was able to avoid most of the dangerous attacks, the continued attack had hurt him, though thankfully, not badly. Still, he has an important question regarding the beast.
'How did it use the earth around us without expanding too much qi?' he silently thought to himself. To mobilize all of the earth around and use it to attack its opponent, it would be almost impossible for even a peak of Genesis Source experts and beasts.
The cultivation realm needed to do such a thing would be around Genesis Spring and above. But the lizard beast is clearly a Genesis Source beast so there is no possible way for it to do such a thing.
'Maybe it was its innate ability?' he thought to himself. Some beasts possessed innate abilities, like the ability to produce silk threads by spider beasts, or the ability to manipulate water by aquatic beasts.
As he pondered the answer, he could feel the earth around him move again. Realizing he was outmatched inside the mine, he was about to bol away when he felt something inside him. Looking inside his Inner Realm as he moved towards the path to the entrance, he felt a small rock, one representing his comprehension and mastery of Law of Earth vibrating.
Looking around him, he could feel the earth qi and something akin to an understanding dawn to him. He stopped himself from moving as he waited patiently for the lizard beast to begin its next attack.
When the earth inside the mine began to move once again, he released his qi and enveloped the nearest rocks and earth around him. He willed himself to use his mastery of Law of Earth. This resulted in the earth around him to stop moving.
His eyes widened as he didn't expect the result to be so good. 'It looks like mastery of any Path allows one to have control of said Path. I knew increasing one mastery would help but I don't think it would allow one to do such a thing,'
As he thought about it, more and more things began to make sense. Why he was able to sense qi related to the Path he comprehended and why he could control it better. The realization made him realize how he had used his strength wrong for some time.
To begin with, Ryker couldn't really be blamed for not thinking about it. In the first place, that information was usually kept as a secret by the powerful forces, though mostly because mastery of even the Elementary Understanding is near impossible for the average cultivators unless one found a great opportunity, either in the form of inheritance of powerful experts or precious natural treasures.
So, there rarely is any circulation of information about what one can do when one reaches a certain level of mastery. Only the powerful forces have information regarding it, and only the most powerful forces have people at the strongest mastery level.
Because Ryker is mostly self-taught, at least in everything else except for ways to cultivate, he didn't know most of the things that one could learn if he was born into a powerful family. So, he needed to thread it on his own most of the time.
But still, now that he knew about it, it didn't take long for him to use it to his advantage. His earth qi began to spread and stopped the manipulation of the earth by the lizard beast. Seeing how its attack no longer worked, the lizard beast roared angrily before it began to crawl towards Ryker.
Despite the beast's large size, it was able to move very quickly, something hard to believe due to its lumbering size. Realizing the danger he was in, he used his mastery of Law of Wind and took off faster than when he just used his cultivation realm.
Taking a look at the lizard beast, he began to think of the possible ways to kill the beast. His current problem is not that he can't kill the beast, but that there are too many ways for him to kill the beast.
After all, besides the Law of Fire and Wind, the former because of the danger of using it inside an enclosed space, the latter because of the difficulty of using it deep underground, he has 6 other Path he had mastered that he could use.
While flying away from the beast, he touched his chin, some of his blood hitting his clothes. His current thought process as he was flying is this 'What Path should I use? If I use the Law of Earth then it could counter it, for Law of Metal, I'm not sure if it would be effective or not.
Law of Death is a bit of a wildcard, I'm not sure if I can control it properly. But still a strong contender. Lore of Sword has some trouble piercing its defense but could break it if enough power is applied. So, the best one would be Law of Nature and Law of Water,"
As he flew around, one of the boulders thrown by the lizard beast hit him and slammed him to the wall, momentarily making him remember his current state. Peeling himself from the wall before flying away from the beast, he concentrates on Law of Nature.
As his nature qi spread across the mine, the lizard beast began to feel uneasy as it no longer controlled the earth effectively. Before it could do anything else, Ryker used his nature qi to make countless vines grow and grabbed the lizard beast.
The vines and plants also restrain the earth, making it hard to for the lizard beast to control it. With its main attack being restrained, Ryker began to make his move, "Everbinding Overgrowth!" he yelled, as thick vines and plants restrained the beast, making it unable to escape.
The beast roared, all its attempts to control the earth ended up in failure. With the beast no longer able to move, Ryker took out his sword and infused it with both his sword and water qi.
"River Sword Current," he unleashed a powerful thrust, the attack weaker compared to the previous Deathly Flame Sword but at least it won't end up destroying the vines holding the beast.
Besides, he had made sure to target the beast's weak point. With it not able to move, the sword easily pierced its weak point with no trouble. The beast let out a powerful roar but the sword and water qi ravaging its body made it unable to do anything else as it focused on stopping his qi.
Ryker then unleashed two more strikes, this time with the Law of Metal and Law of Nature. With its body slowly destroyed by the errant qi, the beast let out a reluctant roar before falling, the life in its eyes fading away.