Vastly different from his round, rotund human form, the Rift Dragon King, who wielded spatial power, possessed a speed in his original dragon form that far surpassed that of ordinary dragons.
With every beat of his dark green dragon wings, the space ahead would ripple with subtle distortions. This was a unique flying technique exclusive to spatial-type Dragon Kings—compressing the space along his flight path with mana to drastically shorten the distance traveled.
What appeared to be ordinary wing flaps actually contained sophisticated space magic, making each forward burst equivalent to several times the distance of a normal dragon's full-speed flight.
This was exactly why he could cover the hundreds of kilometers from his cave to the Dragon Nest so quickly through flight.
At such speeds, even with the protection of Yserazor’s spatial barrier, the oncoming wind pressure still made it difficult to breathe.
Starlight quickly waved his hand to conjure a mana shield for his companions, while his other hand gripped the gaps between the dragon scales tightly.
Sensing Starlight’s actions, silver light flared brilliantly in Yserazor’s dragon pupils.
With a deafening dragon roar, the scenery around them suddenly blurred—a sign that the spatial compression had reached its limit.
Under Yserazor’s full sprint, they covered half of the remaining dozens of kilometers in just a few dozen seconds.
From this distance, the sharp-eyed Xia Duo could already make out the situation behind the foothills.
Two massive, entirely ice-blue dragons were circling and fighting something above the ridge. At first glance, they were not inferior to Yserazor in size, clearly adult dragons.
Engaged in battle with them were several humanoid figures that looked exceptionally small against the backdrop of the dragon shadows.
Even more concerning were the various beams of magical light shooting into the sky from the mountainside. Those lights were precisely woven into a net, coordinating with the figures in the air to pincer the dragons.
“Those spells...” Moen’s pupils contracted slightly. The familiar energy allowed her to instantly recognize the source of these attacks. “It’s the people from Leaf-Cutter?!”
“What? Why are they fighting?!” Starlight was shocked by the news and immediately focused his gaze. “And who are those people in the sky?!”
“They are several Saint Rank experts of the Night Elves!” During the conversation, Xia Duo had already clearly identified the people fighting the dragons. They were the two Sword Saints they had dealt with before, El and Liu Ye.
Behind the two Sword Saints, another unfamiliar Saint Rank powerhouse was drawing a bow and nocking an arrow.
That person was dressed in the signature dark green uniform of the Leaf-Cutter Squad. With every soft twang of the bowstring, a light arrow shot forth, tracing a lethal arc through the air.
“That is...” Xia Duo said, “The Captain of Leaf-Cutter, the ‘Lightseeker’ Lions!”
The tide of battle was already clear. Under the seamless coordination of the three Saint Rank experts and the entire Leaf-Cutter Squad, even powerful adult dragons were gradually falling into a disadvantage.
The left wing of one dragon had already been pierced by several light arrows, making its flight erratic and unstable; the other was being forced back step by step by El’s sword qi, its ice-blue scales covered in charred marks.
But just as El and the others were preparing to end the battle quickly, a resounding dragon roar from the sky drew everyone’s attention.
A dark green dragon was piercing through the air at a terrifying speed, each flap of its wings leaving a trail of spatial distortion ripples behind it.
Yserazor’s massive dragon body finally reached the airspace above the battlefield. He came to a sudden halt, hovering in mid-air and successfully dividing the battlefield into two halves.
“Night Elves, stop at once!” A clear, commanding cry pierced through the din of battle.
El and Liu Ye both froze simultaneously. The two Sword Saints looked up at the source of the voice in disbelief—on the dragon’s broad back, a petite figure was standing up, leaning on Starlight’s shoulder.
The sunlight cast a golden edge over her silver hair, and those signature bright silver eyes were now shining brilliantly.
“Princess Lian?!” El’s sword tip lowered slightly, and his usually composed face showed a rare expression of shock.
The two Sword Saints exchanged a look and retreated dozens of meters in coordination, though the vigilance in their eyes did not entirely dissipate.
They truly could not understand why the Princess they had been searching for for days would suddenly appear in the dragon’s forbidden area, and even be so close to this green dragon who was clearly a Dragon King.
Lions, who was in the rear, also slowly lowered his longbow upon seeing this, though his fingertips remained on the string.
He shook his head slightly, and the members of the entire Leaf-Cutter Squad immediately stopped their movements as well.
The two heavily injured Blue Dragons also recognized the newcomer. They quickly descended from the air to the mountainside. The slightly larger one bowed its head, its horns nearly touching the ground, and spoke cautiously.
“Lord Rift Dragon King, thank you for your assistance. These elves suddenly trespassed into the forbidden area and even...”
“I know about the elves, we’ll talk about that later!” Yserazor interrupted him roughly, his dragon claw slamming onto the ground and sending rocks flying. “Where is Frost-Glow? And Ikana—why did he become like that?!”
Upon hearing this, the two Blue Dragons looked at each other with blank expressions, seemingly completely unaware of what Yserazor was talking about.
On the other side, Starlight and the others jumped down from the dragon’s back with Lian, landing beside El and Liu Ye.
The two Sword Saints stepped forward quickly and thoroughly checked Lian’s body several times. Only then did they slightly relax, fearing she was under some control spell or enchantment.
“Auntie Liu Ye! What are you doing?!” Lian felt uncomfortable being scrutinized by the two of them, her face flushing red as her previous imposing aura vanished instantly. “I’m really fine! Starlight and the others rescued me from the Crimson City-State!”
“By the way, where’s Uncle?” Lian suddenly looked around. “The intelligence said he came too, didn’t it?”
Hearing Lian’s question, Starlight only then noticed that You was not among this group.
El’s expression instantly became solemn. “We discovered something unusual near the Dragon Nest. Lord You and Wu Hua went ahead to infiltrate the valley earlier. We were just waiting for them here when we were accidentally discovered by the Dragon Race.”
“Something unusual?” Lian was slightly stunned. “It actually requires Uncle and Sister Wu Hua to go in together to investigate?”
“Yes. Lord You discovered that the magic surrounding the Dragon Nest seems to have developed some issues. To avoid alerting the enemy, he decided to go in and investigate first. In such a situation, the fewer people, the better,” Liu Ye explained with a nod.
“What are you talking about?” Yserazor’s massive head suddenly appeared above everyone. “The spells of the Dragon Nest have been running for so many years; how could they easily develop problems?”
He had just asked the two Blue Dragons several questions in a row but hadn't received a single piece of useful information.
The two injured Blue Dragons stood blankly to the side. They truly could only provide limited intelligence—they had discovered the elf squad trespassing in the forbidden area during a routine patrol, and a conflict had broken out afterward.
Regarding Ikana’s mutation and Frost-Glow Dragon King’s whereabouts, they appeared even more confused than Yserazor.
This undoubtedly made Yserazor, who had gained no information, feel very frustrated. It was at this moment that he happened to overhear Liu Ye’s words, so he immediately pressed for answers.
“This...” Liu Ye was momentarily at a loss for words, exchanging a helpless look with El.
As Sword Saints specializing in battle qi, although they could roughly understand the principles of magic, it was difficult for them to describe it in professional terminology.
At that moment, Lions had already finished a brief exchange of intelligence with Xia Duo.
He straightened his dark green cloak and stepped forward to give Yserazor a standard elven salute. “Respected Rift Dragon King, please allow me to explain. It was Lord You of the Dark Tribe who discovered that the underlying architecture of the magic formation maintaining the Dragon Nest has developed anomalies.”
Having said that, he made a gesture behind him. An elf mage from the squad stepped forward quickly, moving his hands through the air. Using his own mana, he condensed several strange runes that shimmered with blue light.
“Please look,” Lions pointed at the floating symbols. “These characters do not belong to any known Dragon Tongue system, yet they have been skillfully embedded into the key nodes of the outer magic formation.”
Following his explanation, the mage sketched several connecting lines in the air, demonstrating how these foreign runes were corroding the original magic formation structure like a virus.
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