Chapter 170: Outmatched

Adam doubled over, a sharp impact slamming into his stomach that sent him stumbling backward through a tangle of unfamiliar vegetation. His instincts screamed—attack!—and his body coiled to retaliate, scales already rippling across his skin.

“Adam! Adam, are you okay?!”

Ignis’s voice cut through the adrenaline, and Adam froze mid-strike. The “attack” was Ignis herself, wrapped around his torso like an overgrown lizard, her face buried against his chest. Her flames flickered erratically, more from emotion than combat readiness.

“Ignis?” Adam’s arms came up slowly, carefully, paturing her back. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Calm down.”

Ignis squeezed tighter, her voice muffled against his clothes. “Adam… I thought… when that light hit us, I thought I lost you too…”

Adam let her cling, his own heart still pounding from the teleportation and the sudden impact. After a long moment, he gently pried her loose enough to look around.

They were in a forest. Dense, ancient, with trees so tall their canopies blotted out most of the sky. Sunlight filtered through in scattered golden shafts, illuminating undergrowth that looked nothing like the rocky terrain of the Ghostwind Gorge.

[Ellen (Lv. 54) and Westin (Lv. 57) defeated by party members]

[+658 EXP | +520 EP]

[Ding! Level Up!]

[Level: 69 – > 70]

[EXP: 20/620 -> 678/640]

[Skill Point Gained: +1]

[Total Skill Points: 10]

[Evolution Points: 4584 -> 5104]

Adam blinked at the notification. “Because there is no notification it seems Derek’s still alive.” His jaw tightened. “That bastard…”

Ignis finally pulled back, her eyes red-rimmed but fierce. “Where are we? Is this the same forest? Can we go back?”

Adam shook his head slowly, his Hunter’s Tri-Sense pushing outward—and finding nothing familiar. Just the rustle of leaves, the distant call of birds, the whisper of wind through alien trees.

“This isn’t the same forest. Different ecosystem, different mana signature.” He closed his eyes, reaching through the mental links he shared with his companions.

Silence.

He tried Lilith’s thread—nothing. Ignis’s was there, humming with her presence beside him, but Lilith’s end of the connection was simply… gone. Beyond range. Severed by distance or some interference.

“I can’t reach Lilith,” Adam said quietly, opening his eyes. “We’re outside her range. Way outside.”

Ignis’s face crumpled for just a moment before she forced it back into determination. “Lilith… is she okay? She was fighting so many of them…”

Adam placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. “Lilith’s strong. Stronger than anyone gives her credit for. She can handle herself.” His eyes darkened. “But Elise and Seraphina… they’re not. And if that Lich is still watching, still waiting for an opportunity…” He didn’t finish the thought. He didn’t need to.

Ignis’s flames flickered brighter. “Then we have to go back! Right now! I’ll change and fly us—”

“No need.”

Ignis blinked. “Huh?”

Adam’s lips curved into a faint, determined smile. “I can fly too, remember?”

Ignis stared at him for a moment, then her face flushed. “Oh. Right. I forgot.” She scuffed the ground with her foot, suddenly embarrassed.

Adam’s smile softened. “It’s fine. Come on.” He extended a hand toward her. “We’re going to find a way back. And when we do, we’re going to rescue them. Together.”

Ignis took his hand, her grip warm and steady. “Together.”

Adam’s wings snapped open—a magnificent span of obsidian scales and shadowy membrane that caught the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy. Beside him, Ignis’s own wings unfurled, crimson and gold, blazing like living fire against the green of the ancient trees.

They shot upward, bursting through the canopy and into the open sky.

Adam’s breath caught.

Forest. Endless forest.

The treetops stretched in every direction like a green ocean, rolling hills of foliage that disappeared into the distant haze. No mountains. No canyons. No familiar landmarks. Just… trees.

“This is…” Adam’s voice trailed off. “Where are we? This isn’t anywhere near the gorge.”

Ignis hovered beside him, her flames flickering with confusion. “I don’t recognize this place either. But…” She tilted her head, nostrils flaring. “I feel something familiar here.”

Adam turned to her, brow furrowing. “Familiar how? Can you—”

FWOOOM!

Something slammed into Adam from the side with the force of a falling meteor. He didn’t see it coming—didn’t sense it, didn’t register any threat until the moment of impact. His body folded around the strike, wings snapping shut involuntarily as he hurtled toward the ground like a comet.

CRASH—BOOM—CRUNCH!

Trees exploded as he tore through them, branch after branch, trunk after trunk, carving a swath of destruction through the ancient forest. He hit the ground hard enough to crater it, stone and soil erupting around him in a spray of debris.

“Ignis—!” The name tore from his throat even as his body screamed in protest. His regeneration kicked in, knitting torn flesh and cracked scales—but slower than usual. Too slow. His energy reserves were dangerously low after the battle.

Above him, Ignis had barely begun to react when a second strike caught her. She twisted, flames flaring in a desperate defensive burst, but the force was overwhelming. She plummeted, crashing through the canopy and slamming into the earth not far from Adam’s crater.

Adam pushed himself up, shaking off debris, his crimson eyes scanning for the attacker. His body ached—every nerve firing with pain that his depleted reserves couldn’t fully suppress.

’What was that? Too fast—I couldn’t track it at all. My regeneration is slow. I’m running on empty.’

A flicker of movement. Adam’s instincts screamed. Mirage Cascade—he blurred into afterimages, scattering in three directions.

The attack still found him.

Something—a hand? a claw?—slammed into his ribs from an angle he hadn’t anticipated, lifting him off his feet and hurling him sideways into a massive tree trunk. Wood exploded, and Adam crumpled at its base, gasping.

Through the haze of pain, he finally saw his attacker.

The figure stood in a shaft of golden sunlight, and everything about him screamed ancient power. Long white hair cascaded past his shoulders, framing a face that was both beautiful and terrible—ageless, weathered by centuries, with features sharp as carved jade. Twin horns rose from his temples, curving back like a dragon’s crown, their surface polished to gleaming ebony. His eyes… his eyes were molten gold, slitted like a serpent’s, burning with an intelligence that had watched empires rise and fall.

Scales covered parts of his body—crimson and deep, peeking from beneath robes that had once been magnificent but were now worn by time. His frame was tall, lean but corded with the kind of strength that came from millennia, not mere training. When he moved, the air itself seemed to bend around him, acknowledging something older than the forest itself.

Adam’s mind raced, even as his body screamed. ’This is bad. This is really bad.’

The ancient being advanced toward Adam, his golden eyes fixed on the fallen serpent with an expression that held no emotion at all. His hand raised, power already gathering—

“Ignis!—”

A blazing comet intercepted him.

Ignis slammed into the ancient’s side with all the force she could muster, her body wreathed in solar fire, her draconic features fully manifest. Flames erupted in a concentrated burst meant to incinerate anything in its path.

“Don’t you TOUCH Adam!”

The ancient being didn’t even look at her.

His hand snapped up, catching Ignis’s fiery fist with casual ease. The flames that should have burned through anything splashed against his palm like water against stone, dissipating harmlessly. His golden eyes finally moved, fixing on the young drake with an expression that might have been… curiosity?

“Cease your pointless resistance,” the ancient said, his voice deep and resonant, carrying the weight of ages. “You cannot harm me.”

He flicked his wrist.

Ignis went flying with the casual dismissal of someone swatting an insect. She tumbled through the air, crashing through several trees before finally coming to a halt against a massive trunk, her flames guttering.

“IGNIS!” Adam’s roar tore from his throat as he watched her fall. Something inside him snapped.

His aura erupted.

It wasn’t controlled. It wasn’t measured. It was pure, raw, desperate fury given form—the same sovereign pressure that had made lesser beings flee, but now amplified by rage and fear and the absolute refusal to lose anyone else. The Crown of the Hollow Glutton blazed on his brow, its hunger momentarily sated but its presence unmistakable.

“You BASTARD!” Adam’s voice carried the weight of Progenitor’s wrath. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re going to PAY for hurting her!”

He surged forward, every ounce of remaining power channeled into a single strike—Monarch’s Pierce, aimed at the ancient’s heart.

The ancient being watched him come.

And for the first time, something shifted in those golden eyes. Not fear. Not concern. But… interest.

“Progenitor’s bloodline,” he murmured, almost to himself. “How curious. And the girl—Blazeheart lineage, but tainted with something else.” His head tilted, studying Adam’s approach with the detached fascination of a scholar examining a specimen. “What are you, I wonder?”

Adam’s fist drove toward his chest.

The ancient caught it.

He simply reached out and caught Adam’s fist in his palm, halting the strike cold. The impact that should have shattered mountains dissipated against his grip like a wave against a cliff.

Adam’s eyes went wide. His fist was trapped, immovable, held by fingers that felt like forged divine steel.

“Impressive, for one so young,” the ancient observed. “But young you are. And tired. And far from home.” His golden eyes bored into Adam’s crimson ones. “Tell me, hatchling—how did you come to be in my forest?”

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