Chapter 168: Impossible Odds (VIII)

The dragon’s head snapped towards where the boy was moments ago… but he was not there anymore.

Ghost Blade had rendered him nearly impossible to track. The dragon’s tail closed on empty air as Ishiki twisted beneath it and then used them as a support to jump up in the air.

Ice needles materialized from thin air around him… each one no larger than a finger. They were only a dozen of them and they were not too strong either. It was all Yuki would muster at this point having healed two people.

All of them moved towards the dragon… but sublimated before reaching its body, transitioning from solid to vapor in an instant.

But it did what they were supposed to do… the distraction was enough.

Ishiki appeared above the dragon—having used Ghost Blade to reposition while attention was divided and then drove his foot into the dragon’s perfect face with every ounce of strength in his body.

The kick connected.

It didn’t do much damage… the force was barely enough to snap the dragon’s head sideways. But the impact and humiliation were real.

A weak looking boy had just kicked a three-thousand-year-old emperor in the face.

The dragon’s hand lashed out mid-air, catching Ishiki’s leg before he could retreat. Those golden eyes blazed with anger now.

“You son of a bitch,” it snarled.

Without saying a word further… he threw Ishiki away in random direction like toy.

The dragon turned back toward Filch, but his body was gone already. He didn’t realize when that happened.

The dragon turned around clearly with the motive to pursue Ishiki, and that was when Kaori struck.

She appeared from behind the rubble of a broken building. She had circled around during the chaos… positioning herself directly below the dragon.

She transferred the energy built from her running around to her fist and drove it upwards.

The punch connected with the dragon’s crotch.

The dragon’s entire body went rigid. Its golden eyes bulged. A sound escaped its throat that wasn’t quite a scream, nor a roar.

He shot upward into the air, wings beating frantically to gain altitude, hands moving to cup the injured area.

“You—!” The dragon’s voice came out several octaves higher than before. “You DARE—!”

A savage grin split kaori’s bloodied face. “Fuck you,” she gasped out and laughed.

The dragon hovered up, golden light blazing around his body as he tried to heal the injury. The pain was clearly immense—not life-threatening, but humiliating beyond measure for an ancient being who had just been struck in the most vulnerable spot.

Blood wings materialized beside it.

The demon who had earlier flown up, Arthur’s broken body was somehow still functioning despite catastrophic damage. Even though he could not see anymore… he had guessed that it was the dragon.

It held two spears in both his hands… driving both of them toward the dragon’s back.

The dragon spun mid-air, catching one spear and dodging the other. “You again?!” It yanked the caught spear, pulling the demon closer. “Why won’t you just die

?!”

It drove a fist into Arthur’s face. Bone shattered. The demon reeled backward, but the blood wings kept it aloft.

They clashed again… hard scales grew around the dragon’s fist and the demon used blood to construct gauntlets, two ancient powers trading blows in mid-air under the crimson moon.

But the dragon was stronger. Even injured, even suffering backlash from the Orb, it overwhelmed the demon with brutal efficiency.

A kick to Arthur’s ribs sent the demon spinning.

A backhand across the face snapped the stolen body’s neck—though the demon forced it back into place with blood manipulation, refusing to surrender even a corpse.

It dragon caught the demon by one of the blood wings… but the blood liquified and crawled up its arm… trying to reach the Orb on its forehead.

And as they fought, the aerial battle drifted forward across the secondary ring.

The dragon could now see the large obsidian gates which lead to the Inner ring. A smile erupted on his face as he thought of something.

The demon was an ancient being as well… so the barrier would also restrict him. It would be such a good scene to see it die because of that.

Having thought that the dragon spun and threw Arthur’s body towards the gates.

The almost dead corpse flew through the air and then slammed into the obsidian gates directly instead of being stopped. The dragon saw the scene with narrowed eyes.

“So… the barrier is only for me? Huh… to think that could stop me with such a thing.”

He was the rightful ruler of this place and that palace belonged to him.

“After I break my second seal… I should be able to break it. Let’s see.” It looked down and planned on killing more people to confirm that absorbing Synth energy from awakened people is what breaks his seals.

He descended toward the gates, he would kill the people living close to the gate itself.

He landed in a perfectly still area which was unaffected by the commotion earlier… but the people had obviously seen him and were hidden.

“Come on out,” he mused, slowly walking between buildings. “Your new emperor has come to pay you a visit and this is how you treat him?”

Suddenly his hair stood on end and he jumped back three steps. from the building to his right a large man in his mid twenties came out… his body broke through the wall with ease and it shimmered under the crimson moonlight.

It was made up of steel!

“A fascinating ability.”

The man didn’t speak as his mouth had turned to steel as well and he had lost his ability to speak temporarily. Instead of doing anything stupid he charged straight at the dragon.

The dragon braced the coming attack and caught the man’s arm with a swift action. Then he slammed a kick and sent him skidding on the marbled floor.

At the same time a shadow moved too fast behind him and a sword descended from left. One of his tail caught a scrawny guy who was moving too fast for the eye to see and the other slammed into the abdomen of the guy who had attacked with a sword.

With a flick of his upper wings it ended their lives in an instant.

As their bodies dropped to the ground… flowers bloomed from their blood and let out spores that were deep yellow in color.

The dragon’s intuition warned it. He flicked his wings to create a strong gust of wind that carried the spores away and even cut the flowers.

He looked around keenly but couldn’t find the guy.

The ancient being continued and caused a massacre killing almost 20 players in another hour. There were a lot of strong ones who fought him as equals and even lived to tell the tale.

But they feared for their lives as well… so they retreated and prioritized running away.

Two of the strong players even joined hands with the dragon and became his subordinates.

By the time Ishiki and Kaori reached there… all hell had broken loose. Hiding behind a broken building… they saw with awe and horror.

The dragon’s body began to glow. The Orb on his forehead pulsed and then the glow covered his entire body. After the glow retreated back to his body he looked at the obsidian gates and laughed.

His very presence felt suffocating now. It was the result of the breaking of his second seal.

The restriction that had limited its power even after the first seal broke. The barrier that kept it from accessing its full ancient strength shattered.

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