Jared drew a steady breath, then drove the Dragonslayer Sword straight into the floor. At once, black-gold marked aura poured down the blade and roared into the stone beneath his feet.
The ground bulged. and dragon-shaped shockwaves, dozens of them, burst upward. Midair, they braided into a single five-clawed black dragon, savage and ferocious.
“Dragon’s power, subdue!” The dragon reared back and roared. The blast rattled glazed roof tiles loose, sending them clattering like lethal hail. With a whip of its tail, the beast hurled its entire body against the golden greatsword.
Boom! Holy power in radiant gold tangled with black-gold Power of Dragons, twisting into a storm of raw force that everyone could see.
At the eye of the storm, space warped. The shockwave slammed into the Holy Light Sect elders, who couldn’t dodge in time. They spat blood and crashed unconscious against marble pillars.
Outside the threshold, Flaxseed and Corin felt their hearts leap. Each collision, they realized, carried enough might to erase a beginner-phase Earthly Immortal Realm cultivator without effort.
Yet Jared, only at Wandering Immortal Realm Level Nine, had met an Earthly Immortal Realm Level Eight’s full strike head-on.
“That kid is an absolute monster!” Flaxseed exclaimed. Having dealt with the disciples, Flaxseed and Corin burst inside. The charm in his fist had been crushed out of shape.
Corin’s expression was grave. “Santino hasn’t even gone all out. He’s still testing Jared’s hand…”
His sentence was still hanging when a sharp crack split the air within the palace. Within the swirling maelstrom, a fracture traced across the golden greatsword, while the black dragon’s body flickered, edges starting to unravel like smoke in the wind.
Jared spat a mouthful of blood, his face sheet-white. Forcing dragon’s power through his meridians had overloaded them, his spiritual energy now churned in chaotic eddies.
Santino fared little better. The hem of his purple robe now sported black holes where the marked aura had eaten through, and a thin ribbon of blood clung to his lip.
Although Santino had gained the upper hand in that last clash, Jared’s unleashed dragon’s power still shook through him. The impact rippled inside his chest like thunder in a metal drum, churning his blood and forcing a bitter copper taste to the back of his tongue.
“For someone who has yet to break beyond the Wandering Immortal Realm, reaching this height is, admittedly, a reason for pride.”
Santino wiped the flecks of blood from the corner of his mouth, and a fever-bright hunger sparked in his eyes. “But the game ends now…”
He raised both hands, fingers painting a series of seals through the air. The light around thickened, turning to molten gold that ran over his skin like living metal.
All the scattered slivers of his broken golden blades quivered, then flocked back toward him. Shards fused into dagger-sized weapons that stopped attacking and began to orbit, layer upon layer, until they forged a full suit of lustrous armor.
Runes crawled across the cuirass, each one pulsing. Behind the armor, six pairs of radiant wings unfurled, plumes carved from the purest crystal, refracting light into blinding prisms.
In that moment, Santino stood like a legend come to life, a holy war angel whose very presence made the stone halls of the Holy Light Palace tremble.
“Holy Body, descend!” One stride from Santino, and blurred through over one hundred meters of empty air, reappearing a breath later directly before Jared.
His fist, sheathed in searing gold, drew back. Holy light coiled around the knuckles, promising to incinerate anything it touched.
The punch traveled slowly, almost lazily, yet every avenue of escape collapsed behind its advance. Long before the blow arrived, the heat alone singed Jared’s skin.
Jared’s pupils contracted to pinpoints. He swallowed the surge of blood rampaging inside his veins and lifted the Dragonslayer Sword across his chest, willing the surrounding marked aura into a half-formed shield.
Clang!
Fist met sword and spectral shield with the toll of a bell. A tidal force slammed through Jared‘s arms, numbing them to the elbows. The Dragonslayer Sword nearly flew from his grasp.
His boots plowed twin trenches across the cracked floor until his back smashed into a crumbling pillar. Only then did stop, coughing up another bright scarlet are that splattered the broken tiles.
Santino showed no mercy. The six crystalline wings beat once, and his figure flickered through the shattered hall like a vengeful ghost. Each reappearance came with a storm of blows-golden fists, razor-edged wing strokes, and thin spears of sanctified light fired between his fingers.
Speed and power worthy of an Earthly Immortal Realm Level Eight cultivator pressed in from every side, denying Jared even a heartbeat to breathe.
