Fatania slashed at the dragon's neck with the ki-infused blade technique Azura had taught them. Unfortunately, this dragon must have had some impressive body spell going, powered by its massive mana pool. Fatania's attack left a slash only a foot deep. With the size of this dragon, it was a shallow wound. It turned out that grounding the giant reptiles had been the easy part.

"EARTHEN LANCE!" The dragon yelled. Blades of earth erupted around Fatania, who was knocked back by the strike, but little else. Her ki-infused body had easily withstood the spell. The torrent of fire that followed melted the conjured stone spikes. Fatania barely dodged out of the way, rolling roughly on the ground. She could have taken the dragon's fire, but each blow she received would exhaust her supply of ki that much faster. She was about to rush in again when Tallous jumped onto its head, which was nearly twice his size. With a bellow, he punched down with an earthshaking blow that sent the dragon's head crashing into the ground. The dragon's eyes were crossed, and it lifted its head off the ground, swaying. Neither rat-kin let the opportunity pass. An overhead hammer blow from Tallous sent the dragon's head crashing into the ground again, where Fatania waited. Firmly rooted in place by the ki steps technique, she sent a massive surge of ki into her punch, which landed firmly in the dragon's unfocused eye. The eyes splattered as her fist penetrated deeply, the shockwave of ki liquefying the dragon's brain. It shuddered briefly before going still.

Fatania panted as she took stock of the situation. Many of the smaller dragons were dead. They were relatively easy to kill. The larger ones each had a fragmentation cultivator attacking it, or nearly a hundred foundation-stage cultivators battling them. The fight wasn't one-sided. Many kin lay dead. At the foundation stage, they couldn't withstand the dragon's attacks, and they didn't have enough fragmentation cultivators to battle each larger dragon. The sooner they changed that, the quicker this would be over. She rushed toward another dragon that Alenina was struggling with as Tallous chose another target.

"SEARING BLAST!" The dragon yelled as Alenina was knocked away, her clothes smoldering. The dragon was so intent on the rabbit-kin that it missed Fatania's approach. It was always a deadly mistake to overlook a rat-kin. The dragon began spewing its breath attack, augmented by a spell, when Fatania arrived under its head. She punched upward with all the ki-infused strength she possessed. The dragon's head snapped backward, its mouth closing, interrupting its attack. The spell destabilized in the dragon's mouth in a muffled explosion. This time, it wasn't magically powered flames coming out of its mouth, but boiling blood. The dragon would have screamed if it weren't choking on its life fluid. Suffocation wasn't its fate as Alenina dropped from the sky, landing on its head, forcing it down as Fatania was striking upwards with a ki blade technique. The two forces collided, severing the dragon's head, which rolled away from them, its eyes blinking in disbelief.

Alenina panted as she joined her friend, her hand on her knees. "How are we doing?" She gasped.

Fatania looked around. Most of the younger dragons were dead. She saw a dragon's head explode as Gerald's hammer slammed into it. Near him, a dragon furiously tore at its face, and she saw the residue of Hamal's itching concoction coating its eyes. Despite herself, Fatania winced in sympathy at that. Hamal could make some nasty shit.

"It's almost over. How's your ki?"

"Mostly exhausted," Alenina admitted.

"Go help with the wounded. Coralline is probably overwhelmed right now. That initial spell barrage hurt a lot of kin. I still have enough to help with one or two more. That just leaves Azura and that big bastard." Fatania looked off in the direction where the pair had landed and saw a massive explosion light up the sky.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Damn it girl, you better be okay," Fatania said as she sped off to help. The sooner they finished here, the sooner they could help her.

***

Azura panted as she jumped out of the crater that the last spell had made. She had tried to dodge, but the dragon's spell-casting was so good that it blocked every escape.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" The dragon demanded. Azura didn't respond and attempted to prepare to use Puncture, but was interrupted. Suddenly, hundreds of spell circles appeared around her. Each circle fired a condensed beam of destruction. Azura dodged out of the way of some and slapped aside others as their dance of death continued. The dragon appeared more and more shocked as their fight continued.

"DIE!" The dragon roared, then spewed white flames that incinerated everything in its path. Rocks were melted, and the sparse grass was instantly reduced to ash, which was blown away with the force of the breath attack. Azura had already dashed to the side as the dragon tracked her movements, its breath obliterating everything as she managed to stay just ahead of it. The dragon was good. She was moving at incredible speeds and was surprised that the dragon could keep up. The attack stopped as the dragon took a deep breath, either to yell at her more or cast another spell. This was the chance she had been waiting for. She was finally close enough. Azura sent a surge of ki into her legs, vastly increasing her speed. The dragon's eyes widen in surprise. She intentionally held back for just this moment. Before the dragon could stop her, she was under it.

"PEST!" The dragon roared, but it was too late. Azura had been gathering her ki into her fist, her Dao eager to reap its namesake.

"PUNCTURE!" Azura shouted as she blazed with a sanguine aura. The Dao of Blood was unleashed upon her unsuspecting victim. A dozen massive spears of crystalline blood erupted from her hand, plunging into the dragon's hide and then through it. Whatever spell it used to reinforce its body failed as the power of Azura's Dao overwhelmed it.

"AAARRRRHHH!" The dragon screamed for the first time in several millennia, then unleashed a massive spell from its center. She had just enough time to reinforce the ki flowing in her body.

"OBLITERATE!"

The spell launched Azura with blinding speed. She only stopped when she crashed into the side of the mountain in a thunderous explosion. Rock shards and dust erupted from her impact with enough force to skewer small dragons. Azura struggled out of the impact site, her vision fuzzy. Most of her ki was exhausted. Blood leaked from burns on her arms, which she had used to shield her face. Her green scale dragon armor was a melted ruin that was cooling into a fragile mess on her skin. Without her ki the armor would have fused to her flesh. Instead, it was no worse than a minor sunburn. That attack was on an entirely different level. How much mana did the dragon use to cast such a spell? Azura warily approached the dragon, who was wheezing with every breath.

"You monster…" The dragon said, its voice weak.

"I get that a lot," Azura said.

The combatants regarded each other. The dragon was critically injured, Azua's wounds were mild, but her ki was nearly exhausted. Both looked like a light breeze could knock them over. The next attack would be their last, which was why what the dragon did next surprised her.

"GRAND TELEPORT!"

Before Azura could finish him, the dragon was gone. She blinked, utterly surprised at how their battle concluded. He fled?! What the fuck!?

"Azura!" A shout came, and she turned to see her friends running toward her. The dragon's decision to flee suddenly made more sense now. The damn reptile must have used their brief conversation to ready its teleport. Hopefully, the beast would die from its wounds wherever it was.

"Everyone okay?" Azura asked as they joined her.

"We're fine. Coralline is treating the injured right now. It looks like you could use some healing yourself," Fatania said.

"I'll be fine once I cultivate all the dragon blood that's around." Azura looked at her friend with a relieved smile on her face. They had made it, all of them. This time, there was no one to put into the ground. She would have to work hard to keep it that way.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.