Chapter 206: FRACTURES IN THE LINE (PART I)

Chapter 207 — FRACTURES IN THE LINE (PART I)

The bridge collapsed slowly.

For something so massive, the destruction felt strangely quiet.

Steel cables snapped one after another with sharp metallic cracks that echoed across the river. The center span of the freight bridge twisted inward like a wounded animal trying to curl into itself. Then gravity took the rest.

The structure folded.

Concrete slabs, steel girders, and entire lanes of roadway plunged into the water below. The river exploded upward in a violent eruption of spray and shattered debris. Freight trucks that had been abandoned during evacuation tipped sideways and disappeared beneath the churning water.

For several seconds the only sound was the roar of the collapsing bridge.

Then silence returned.

High above the river, the Jade Dragon hovered with slow, steady wingbeats.

It watched the destruction with something disturbingly close to indifference.

Not rage.

Not triumph.

Simply observation.

As if it were studying the result of an experiment.

Across the skyline, emergency sirens screamed louder as the scale of the damage became clear. The loss of the bridge had severed one of the main evacuation corridors leading out of the harbor district.

Thousands of civilians were now trapped behind traffic lines and debris.

The dragon shifted its gaze again.

Another target.

Another artery of the city.

And that was when the Eight realized something.

They were already too slow.

The Eight

General Han Dae-Woo burst out of the wrecked warehouse roof in a spray of dust and bent steel.

He landed hard on the cracked pavement below before launching himself back into the sky using a violent burst of kinetic force.

His armor was dented.

Blood ran down his left temple where a falling beam had struck him.

But his eyes burned with frustration.

“That thing is ignoring us!”

Above him, Astra Nyx stepped out of a ripple in space and hovered near the others.

Her normally steady breathing had grown noticeably heavier.

Even she was beginning to feel the strain.

“It’s not ignoring us,” she said quietly.

“It’s prioritizing.”

Across the sky, Dean Feng Yanrui circled once with phoenix fire trailing behind him.

Flames flickered unevenly around his body.

His earlier techniques had drained more energy than he wanted to admit.

“So what,” he said sharply, “we just let it dismantle the city?”

“No.”

The voice came from Headmaster Suryavansh Rao.

The solar master hovered several meters above the others, golden light faintly radiating from his palms as he maintained a low-level stabilization technique across the battlefield.

But the brightness of that light had dimmed since the beginning of the fight.

“We continue intercepting,” Rao said calmly.

“But we must adapt.”

Han scoffed.

“Adapt how?”

“We can’t be everywhere at once.”

Before Rao could answer—

Dr. Elena Kovács’ voice cut through the comm channel.

“Next target confirmed.”

Her drone feed projected a holographic map of the city in front of the group.

Several blinking red markers appeared across the urban grid.

Kovács zoomed in on one.

“Primary water purification plant.”

Then another.

“Central rail hub.”

Then another.

“Fuel depot.”

Ibarra cursed quietly.

The naval commander hovered near the edge of the skyline, surrounded by spiraling currents of water drawn up from the river.

“He’s dismantling infrastructure faster than we can respond.”

Nyx nodded slightly.

“That is the point.”

Above them—

The Jade Dragon moved again.

Its massive wings beat once.

The air rippled across several city blocks.

Then the creature angled downward toward the western rail district.

Miles of train lines connected there.

Passenger lines.

Freight routes.

Emergency evacuation corridors.

Destroying it would paralyze movement across half the city.

Canglong’s voice cut through the comm channel immediately.

“Intercept.”

The Eight moved.

The Strain

They surged across the skyline like scattered comets.

Han launched himself forward in explosive bursts of kinetic propulsion.

Nyx blinked through space in short dimensional jumps.

Feng Yanrui streaked ahead in a trail of phoenix fire.

Ibarra rode a spiraling column of water through the air.

Rao descended with controlled solar propulsion.

But even as they raced toward the rail district—

The gap between them began to widen.

Han reached the dragon first.

He slammed into the creature’s side with another explosive strike.

“Titan Breaker!”

The impact thundered across the rail yards below.

But the strike lacked the force of his earlier attacks.

The dragon barely shifted.

Its enormous head turned slowly toward the general.

Han saw it immediately.

That was not the reaction he wanted.

“Aw, come on.”

The dragon’s tail moved.

Han barely had time to raise his arms before the strike connected.

The impact launched him across the rail yard.

He crashed through a tower of cargo containers, flattening several rows before finally stopping.

Steel walls collapsed around him.

Across the sky, Feng Yanrui unleashed another attack.

“Phoenix Sovereign Descent!”

A flaming phoenix avatar slammed into the dragon’s back.

Crimson fire erupted across emerald scales.

But the flames did not spread like before.

The dragon’s armor had adapted.

The fire burned out quickly.

Feng’s eyes narrowed.

“That’s new.”

Below him—

The dragon’s claw descended.

The primary rail station building shattered instantly.

Concrete collapsed.

Steel tracks twisted upward as if pulled by invisible hands.

Evacuation trains derailed across the yard.

Hundreds of meters of rail infrastructure vanished beneath the dragon’s strike.

Ibarra arrived seconds later.

“Too late,” he muttered.

Water surged upward from the river behind him.

“Leviathan Spear!”

The spiraling drill struck the dragon’s injured chest.

The attack cracked several scales.

But the dragon simply continued forward.

The creature had stopped reacting to individual attacks.

It was treating them as interruptions.

Not threats.

Nyx appeared directly above the dragon’s head.

Her blade shimmered with dimensional distortion.

“Void Crescent.”

The slash carved across the creature’s horn.

A fragment of emerald crystal broke away and fell toward the ground.

But the dragon kept moving.

Rao’s voice came through the comm channel.

“Everyone regroup.”

The Eight pulled back.

They gathered above the ruined rail district while smoke rose from the shattered infrastructure below.

For a moment nobody spoke.

The damage was becoming obvious.

The city was falling apart piece by piece.

Han climbed out of the cargo container wreckage and rejoined them in the air.

He wiped blood from his jaw.

“Okay,” he said.

“Now I’m officially annoyed.”

Nyx didn’t smile.

“Annoyance will not solve the problem.”

“Yeah?”

Han gestured toward the dragon.

“Because whatever we’re doing right now isn’t working.”

No one argued.

The truth was painfully clear.

The Jade Dragon was forcing them to react.

And reacting meant falling behind.

The dragon turned again.

Its emerald eyes scanned the skyline.

Then it moved toward the next district.

The Eight stared at the creature in silence.

For the first time since the battle began—

A thought crept into their minds.

Not fear.

But something close.

They were losing control of the battlefield.

And if that continued—

The city would fall long before the dragon did.

Canglong finally spoke.

His voice was calm.

But heavy.

“We cannot continue like this.”

No one disagreed.

Because the Jade Dragon was already approaching its next target.

And the Eight were already too late.

[Chapter ENDS]

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