Chapter 208: FRACTURES IN THE LINE (PART III)

Chapter 209 — FRACTURES IN THE LINE (PART III)

The hospital district came into view slowly.

From above, it looked like a cluster of pale white islands surrounded by chaos.

Four massive medical complexes stood across several connected blocks, their rooftops crowded with emergency helicopters and temporary landing pads hastily assembled during the evacuation crisis. Ambulances clogged the streets below in long lines that stretched across intersections and highways like veins trying to carry blood through a wounded body.

Floodlights illuminated the entire district despite the growing darkness of the sky.

Doctors and nurses moved frantically between buildings.

Stretchers rolled across emergency ramps.

Generators hummed loudly as the city’s failing power grid struggled to keep the hospitals alive.

For thousands of injured civilians across the metropolitan zone, this district had become the final line between survival and death.

And now—

The Jade Dragon was heading straight for it.

Its massive wings carved slow arcs through the clouds as it glided over the skyline. From this distance, the creature looked like a living storm cloud drifting across the horizon.

Emerald light pulsed faintly beneath its scales.

Not bright.

Not violent.

Just steady.

Deliberate.

The dragon had stopped roaring.

It had stopped raging.

Now it was simply dismantling the city piece by piece.

And the Eight chasing behind it knew they were already late.

The Weight of Delay

General Han Dae-Woo was the first to speak through the comm channel.

“This thing knows exactly what it’s doing.”

His voice sounded rougher than before.

The constant bursts of kinetic propulsion were starting to take their toll on his body. Each explosive leap through the air strained muscles already bruised and battered from earlier clashes.

Commander Rafael Ibarra followed close behind him, riding a spiraling column of water that stretched down toward the harbor far below.

“It’s not guessing,” Ibarra said.

“It’s studying.”

Above them, Headmaster Suryavansh Rao glided forward surrounded by faint solar light.

The glow around him had dimmed significantly since the start of the battle.

“That is what makes it dangerous,” Rao said quietly.

“It is adapting.”

Dr. Elena Kovács’ drones darted around the group like nervous birds, feeding constant streams of battlefield data into her display.

Her voice cut into the channel.

“Dragon altitude decreasing.”

Everyone looked up.

The Jade Dragon had begun descending.

Its enormous body lowered slowly toward the hospital district.

The creature’s shadow swallowed entire city blocks as it passed overhead.

From the ground—

People saw it.

Patients lying on stretchers.

Doctors standing beside emergency vehicles.

Families gathered outside triage tents.

All of them looking up at the impossible creature descending from the sky.

Screams spread through the district.

Evacuation alarms began blaring across the hospital complex.

But there was nowhere to move the patients.

Too many.

Too injured.

Too dependent on machines that could not simply be unplugged and carried away.

High above them—

Dean Xu Canglong finally spoke.

“Faster.”

The Eight surged forward.

But exhaustion was now impossible to ignore.

Han’s movements were slower.

Ibarra’s water currents wavered slightly.

Nyx’s dimensional jumps carried brief flickers of instability.

Even Rao’s solar aura flickered between pulses of light.

They had been fighting a dragon for hours.

And the dragon—

Still looked fresh.

The Dragon’s Choice

The Jade Dragon reached the hospital district.

Its wings spread wide as it hovered over the largest medical complex.

A thirty-story tower of white glass and steel.

Thousands of patients inside.

Emergency generators hummed loudly across the rooftop.

Helicopters scrambled to lift off as the creature approached.

The dragon studied the building.

Its emerald eyes scanned the structure slowly.

Floor by floor.

Wing by wing.

Like a scientist examining a fragile experiment.

Then it spoke.

Its voice rolled across the district like distant thunder.

“Fragile structures.”

The Eight arrived seconds later.

Han shot forward first.

“Hey!”

He slammed into the dragon’s shoulder with another explosive punch.

“Titan Breaker!

”

The impact thundered across the skyline.

The dragon’s body shifted slightly.

But again—

Barely.

The creature turned its head slowly toward the general.

“You persist.”

Han floated backward slightly, breathing heavily.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

“Seems to be a theme today.”

The dragon’s tail moved.

Han barely dodged as the massive limb carved through the air beside him.

The shockwave shattered dozens of hospital windows below.

Feng Yanrui followed immediately.

Phoenix flames ignited around him once more.

“Phoenix Sovereign Descent!”

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

Crimson fire erupted across emerald scales.

But the flames faded quickly.

The dragon had already adapted.

Commander Ibarra attacked next.

Water surged upward from broken pipes and nearby reservoirs.

“Leviathan Spear!”

The spiraling drill slammed into the dragon’s wounded chest again.

Several cracked scales shattered.

Fragments of jade crystal fell toward the streets below.

But the dragon did not retreat.

Instead—

Its claw descended.

The upper floors of the hospital tower collapsed instantly.

Glass exploded outward.

Concrete shattered.

Entire sections of the building crumbled inward as if crushed by invisible hands.

From the streets below—

Screams erupted.

Doctors ran from the collapsing entrance.

Stretchers rolled across the pavement.

Ambulances reversed desperately as debris rained down around them.

Nyx appeared directly above the dragon’s head.

Her blade flashed.

“Void Crescent.”

The dimensional slash carved across the dragon’s horn.

A large shard of emerald crystal broke away.

But the creature kept moving.

Rao descended next.

Solar light gathered between his palms again.

“Solar Cataclysm!”

The beam struck the dragon’s jaw.

The blast forced the creature to tilt its head slightly away from the hospital tower.

For a moment—

The destruction paused.

Han wiped blood from his lip again.

“Okay,” he said.

“That got its attention.”

But the dragon was already looking somewhere else.

Across the hospital district—

A cluster of emergency tents filled an entire city park.

Thousands of injured civilians lay on temporary beds beneath floodlights.

Field surgeons moved quickly between them.

The Jade Dragon’s gaze shifted toward the park.

The Eight saw it happen.

And every one of them felt the same cold realization.

The dragon had not been trying to kill the hospital patients directly.

It had been forcing them outside.

Where they were easier to reach.

Nyx whispered quietly.

“It’s herding them.”

The dragon lowered its head slightly.

Emerald energy began gathering in its throat again.

Not as large as the beam Dorje had stopped earlier.

But more than enough to erase the field hospital in a single strike.

Canglong’s voice cut through the comm channel immediately.

“Stop that attack!”

The Eight moved.

But they were slower now.

And the dragon had already started charging.

The emerald glow intensified.

Patients screamed below.

Doctors dragged stretchers desperately toward the remaining hospital entrances.

Han launched forward again.

Nyx vanished into a dimensional jump.

Ibarra summoned another rising column of water.

Rao gathered solar light.

Feng ignited phoenix flames once more.

But the dragon was ready.

It inhaled deeply.

And the emerald glow in its throat expanded into a swirling vortex of destruction.

The Eight raced toward it.

But the distance felt longer than ever.

And below them—

Thousands of helpless civilians waited beneath the dragon’s shadow.

The Jade Dragon opened its jaws.

The next attack was seconds away.

[Chapter ENDS]

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