“We are envoys of the Sky Dragon Clan.” He stepped forward; power rippled around him, part draconic majesty, part demonic chill, “As for why we’re after you…”
Morven kept his eyes glued to Jared, and for one very clear heartbeat greed flashed across those pupils. “Because the Dragon Sovereign Bloodline running through you is already ours. We’re taking it, no matter what.”
Jared’s gaze hardened, the pupils tightening like drawn wire.
Dragon Sovereign Bloodline?
That was it… These people were here for exactly that reason.
Morven went on, “Young Master Chance, with that blood in your veins you should have ruled the Draconians. Too bad you’re far too weak.”
He shook his head, wearing the look of someone pitying a doomed man. “A common man with a priceless gem never lives long, you know the saying, don’t you…”
Jared looked straight at him and let an unexpected laugh spill out. “Understand? Of course I understand.”
He wiped the blood off the corner of his mouth and, with a level stare, asked, “So are you planning to kill me or haul me away?”
Morven considered for a blink. ‘We meant to take you alive, but you run too much. Dragging you along is trouble, so…”
He lifted his hand, a dark-red light gathered in his palm. “We’ll kill you. We can draw the bloodline from a corpse just the same.”
Jared drew a deep breath, and raw power stirred inside his veins. Behind him, the phantom of the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon took shape.
Battered, shackled, suppressed, none of it mattered. Jared never waited quietly for death.
“Come on…” He stared at the three shapes in front of him, unbowed. “Show me what you Draconian traitors can really do.”
A flicker of respect crossed Morven’s eyes. “Spine, I’ll give you that. Unfortunately…”
He didn’t finish. His body blinked forward, rushing Jared like a scarlet bolt.
In the gray edge of dawn the dark-red glow burst open.
Jared met the charge head-on. Golden dragon light rammed into the crimson blast.
Boom!
The crash rattled the sky itself.
Jared spun backward and slammed into the ground hard. He tried to push up, but blood sprayed from his mouth before his arms could lock.
The gulf in strength was brutal.
Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Two against three opponents sitting at High Immortal Realm Level Nine. If the Binding Collar were gone jared would have stood fearless.
Right now, tricked by the House of Chance and boxed in by three Level-Nine foes, even he had no certainty. Worse, he had no clue if more hunters from the family or the Celestial Palace might appear any minute.
He hadn’t been in the Fourteenth Firmament long, yet enemies were sprouting everywhere. Morven strode up and looked down on him. “Young Master Chance, it’s over!”
He raised his hand again; that dark-red light gathered once more. Lying on the dirt, Jared stared at the sky, and suddenly smiled. The smile lay quiet, unruffled. The crimson blast came crashing down.
Just then, a dragon’s roar ripped across heaven and earth.
Roar! A shaft of gold plunged from above and planted itself between Jared and the blow. Morven’s attack slammed into the gold and stopped cold. His pupils shrank. He snapped toward the newcomer.
“You?!” The gold light peeled away, revealing a figure. An elder stood there, gray at the temples, features stern, every inch of him wrapped in dense golden draconic energy.
Darian, the guardian dragon of the Primeval Dragonmere had arrived! No demonic aura clung to the old man, only pure Sky Dragon power, vast and commanding.
His arrival made the faces of Morven and his two companions tighten at once.
“Elder Darian…” Morven’s voice sank. “So you’re still breathing…”
Darian stared at the three figures in front of him. Heat flashed across his eyes, then a tight wince, and finally a dim chill that settled behind his lashes.
“Morven. Quentin. Silas.” He spoke each name steadily. “The three of you really did survive. Only…”
His gaze dropped to the faint dark-red haze coiling around them. A sharp ripple crossed his eyes. “You’ve sided with the demons after all.”
Morven let out a thin laugh. “Sided with them? Elder Darian, wrong word. We simply chose the right path.”
He tapped a claw against his own chest, then toward the two behind him. “Look at us. After merging with demonic aura our strength shot up. Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine, ready to step into True Immortal at any time. And the hide-bound Draconians clinging to the old ways? Ten thousand years later you’re still hiding in the dark, barely hanging on.”
Darian offered no rebuttal. He just kept his eyes on Morven. The calm weight in that stare made Morven’s shoulders prickle for no clear reason.
“Morven,” Darian said at last, “Do you recall why His Majesty the Dragon Emperor scattered the clan and hid our dens all those years ago?”
Morven froze for a heartbeat.
“It was never about running,” Darian went on. “It was to keep our bloodline from being tainted. Demonic aura looks like it boosts power, but it gnaws at nascence. You seem mighty now, yet before long you’ll lose yourselves and turn into puppets.”
Morven’s lips twitched, then he sneered. “Empty scare tactics.”
Darian shook his head. “You know whether they’re empty.”
He stepped forward and shielded Jared with one arm. “While I stand, none of you touches him.”
A feral light slid across Morven’s eyes. “Darian, you think you’re still the old Sky Dragon Elder? You rotted in Dragonmere for ten millennia! Your strength is dust. We’re at our peak. One of you against three of us?”
Darian didn’t answer. Golden light burst from his body.
A colossal golden dragon silhouette unfurled behind him. It dwarfed Jared’s earlier phantom, every scale solid, every line regal.
“Whether I can hold you back, let’s find out the hard way…”
Morven snorted. “Stubborn fool.” He flicked his wrist. Quentin and Silas attacked together.
Three dark-red beams roared toward Darian.
Darian raised his hand. Golden light spread into a shield.
Boom!
The blast rocked the heavens. The shield quivered violently but did not shatter. Color drained from the trio’s faces.
Darian’s strength was far beyond their estimate.
Morven ground his teeth. “All at once!”
The three unleashed everything. The demonic glow thickened until a foul stench rolled out.
Darian’s expression stayed level. Golden radiance cloaked him as he tangled with the three. For a while the forest flashed with light, explosions rolling one after another.
Jared lay on the ground, eyes fixed on the Draconian clash overhead.
So this is the clan’s true power…
Every collision of gold and dark red whipped up storms that tore at the trees. He could tell Darian, powerful as he was, had age on him. One against three, and the tide was creeping against him.
