“We can’t let it finish!”
Dustin’s eyes turned cold. He would test it no longer.
The Xuanqing true qi within his body surged like a raging river, flooding into his sword.
The blade hummed, shining with dazzling azure light. Above him, a colossal phantom blade of pure sword-qi—over thirty feet long—took form, as solid as reality itself.
“Cut!”
Dustin gestured with his fingers, and the immense sword descended with peerless sharpness, like a heavenly judgment, slashing straight at the beast just as it tried to complete its energy sphere.
The killing intent of the strike locked the very space around it, leaving the flying beast no room to escape.
Sensing mortal danger, the monster’s single eye flashed with fear. Its unstable energy sphere detonated prematurely, surging forth to meet the descending azure sword.
BOOOOM—!!
The explosion shook the canyon more violently than ever before, as if the cliffs themselves were about to collapse.
For a brief instant, the black sphere and azure sword clashed. Then the light-blade cleaved through it, splitting the energy in half. The remnants of the sword’s might crashed down upon the beast’s jagged horn.
Crack!
The indestructible horn snapped cleanly in two.
The sword carried on, shearing the beast’s body from crown to tail.
Suspended in midair, the monster froze. The light dimmed from its lone eye.
A moment later, its body split apart, showering the canyon in blood as both halves crashed to the ground. It twitched twice, then lay still.
“I–Is it… over?” one guard swallowed hard, staring at the bisected corpse in disbelief.
Margaret exhaled in relief, but her gaze remained fixed on the remains. A faint dread lingered in her heart.
This beast was too strange. Could it really be dead?
Her premonition was soon confirmed.
The second form’s corpse quickly lost its luster, turning ashen. Instead of bleeding, it withered like sand crumbling in the wind, disintegrating into plumes of black smoke.
The smoke did not scatter. It coiled inward, condensing with terrifying speed.
From it surged an aura far more oppressive than either of the previous forms. It was suffocating, ancient, like a primeval demon-god stirring from eternal slumber.
At the smoke’s core, space itself warped.
A silhouette emerged—vaguely humanoid, slightly taller than a man.
Gone was its bestial form. Instead, it wore jagged armor of molten rock and bone, glowing dark-red. Beneath its helm burned two scarlet flames for eyes. In its hand, a long spear of pure darkness writhed and shifted, never fixed in shape.
This third form carried no outward roar. Its presence alone was enough. The aura was calm, yet bottomless. The scarlet flames beneath its helm regarded Dustin with no emotion, only the purest intent to kill and destroy.
Merely by standing there, it seemed to embody the canyon’s darkness and death.
Dustin felt the crushing pressure—stronger even than the white-robed man, nearly rivaling that robed elder from before. For the first time, his relaxed composure vanished completely.
He raised his sword, its tip pointing at the armored figure, his eyes sharp as blades.
Suddenly, the red-armored figure moved.
No roar, no warning. It simply thrust its spear forward.
Though the motion seemed slow, it crossed dozens of feet in an instant. Wherever the spearhead passed, space cracked with fine black fissures. An icy aura of death locked onto Dustin, the strike silent yet as fast as lightning.
This spear held no flourish—only raw speed and annihilation.
Dustin’s pupils contracted. This attack far surpassed the previous ones. He dared not underestimate it. His true qi erupted at full force, azure sword-qi flaring around him like a storm.
“Break!”
Exhaling sharply, he thrust his blade, meeting the black spear tip head-on.
CLANG—!
The collision rang shrill and piercing, like metal screeching inside the skull.
At the single point of contact, light and darkness erupted, azure and black consuming each other in silence.
No shockwave. All the power was compressed into that pinprick of destruction, making it infinitely more lethal.
Dustin felt the corrosive cold of death coursing up his blade, numbing his arm. Beneath his feet, the solid rock ground silently disintegrated into powder, sinking by several inches.
The armored figure did not budge. The flames beneath its helm flickered faintly, as if surprised Dustin had blocked its strike.
But it did not hesitate. Its wrist twitched, and the black spear recoiled like a serpent—only to burst into a storm of countless spear-shadows.
They came from every direction, sharp and relentless, each strike carrying soul-rending chill.
Dustin’s gaze sharpened. His body blurred within a single step, sword flashing into a dense curtain of azure light.
Clang! Clang! Clang!—!
The storm of collisions rang like rain upon leaves. Sword met spear again and again, shards of energy bursting outward. The canyon walls were shredded into rubble, riddled with scars.
The two figures moved with blinding speed, reduced to streaks of light colliding over and over. Each clash sent tremors through the canyon, the battle more perilous than any that had come before. - Marinien
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