Even while still in shock, the Gold Flame Dragon King’s instincts as a top-tier powerhouse drove him to react instantly.
He suddenly threw a punch toward the sky. Several Dragon Tongue runes formed rapidly in the air, transforming into a massive shield that shimmered with golden light.
“Boom—!”
At the moment the giant claw collided with the barrier, the entire underground space trembled.
The shield seal released by Seranox steadily blocked the descending giant claw. It eerily absorbed most of the impact, converting the aftershock into brilliant golden lightning that struck back at the claw.
Taking advantage of the opening Seranox created, Starlight and the others quickly retreated to a safe distance.
This was nothing to be ashamed of; in a clash between two top-tier powerhouses, even a stray ripple of energy was enough to severely injure Starlight and his companions.
“That is...” Moen’s pupils trembled violently as she recognized the giant claw covered in black scales. “It’s the monster that appeared in Star-Song Forest!”
Back when the elves were attacked, it was this terrifying giant claw that had torn through space and rescued the heavily injured Yuta from Angela’s hands.
Now that it had reappeared, it radiated an aura even more terrifying than before.
“Who exactly are you!?” Seranox roared. His already tall and burly frame expanded by two sizes as he swung his fist toward the giant claw once more.
The wind from his punch carried the purest origin power of the Dragon Race, striking the palm of the corrupted giant claw like a dazzling meteor.
“Boom!”
The golden light pierced straight through the center of the giant claw’s palm. Wherever it passed, the blackish-grey scales disintegrated into fragments, and the claw was knocked back dozens of meters.
Although the giant claw was briefly repelled, the aura clinging to it did not diminish in the slightest. Instead, thick death energy erupted frantically from the wound, lunging toward the group’s position like a tidal wave.
“Petty tricks!”
Seeing this, Seranox erupted with golden light, erecting a wall of fire in front of him.
The death energy and golden flames hissed and sizzled upon contact, but the corruption was unable to break through this layer of defense.
“Is this all you’ve got? No... wait! Dammit!”
He quickly realized the problem. While he could perfectly resist the death energy with his own Dragon King’s power, Starlight and the others in the same space could not.
Not only was Starlight a key figure needed to repair the magic formation, but Little Gold, as his offspring, was the bearer of the purest Dragon God bloodline. Nothing could be allowed to go wrong with them.
The moment the death energy surged, Moen had already guided the natural energy within herself and Xia Duo to deploy a hemispherical emerald-green barrier around the group, shielding everyone within.
However, the death energy this time seemed different from what they had encountered before. Even with her full effort, she could not completely stop its spread.
Under the erosion of the thick power of death, the green barrier was receding at a rate visible to the naked eye. In just a few breaths, the corruption would reach them.
At the same time, Starlight also propped up his signature multi-layered elemental shields, but each layer was broken through by the death energy as if it were made of paper, proving completely useless.
Po Kong also swung the Sacred Wood Phantom, amplifying his War God Battle Qi to sweep against the black tide, but his attacks vanished like a stone dropped into the ocean, failing to cause even a ripple.
“Little Crescent, how much longer can you hold on? If it comes to it, I’ll have to use my ultimate move!”
The barrier Moen held was already on the verge of collapse, its emerald light covered in web-like cracks. “Five seconds at most!”
Seeing that all their attacks were ineffective, Po Kong grit his teeth and moved the Sacred Wood Phantom behind his back, beginning to concentrate all his power into his left arm.
It seemed he intended to activate the power of the Divine Artifact within his body to carve out a path for them. Although it was somewhat wasteful, he had no other choice in this emergency.
Just as Po Kong was about to give his all, a flash of golden light sliced through the sky-blotting death energy like a sharp blade, coming to a steady halt right in front of them.
The group looked up to see the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale shining with a never-before-seen white-gold light. It hovered silently above Little Gold’s head, dispersing all the surrounding death energy.
“Grab the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale! I’ve shared my origin power with you. Take Aidanach and evacuate immediately!” Seranox’s voice boomed through the death energy.
“Father! What about you?” Little Gold shouted anxiously, looking at the Gold Flame Dragon King in the distance.
“This fellow is strong, but not enough to be unbeatable. I can only use my full power once you’ve left! Go, now!”
Under Seranox’s repeated urging, Little Gold reached out with a trembling hand and gripped the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale tightly.
In the next second, five strands of pure radiance split from the golden scale, wrapping around each of their wrists. A wave of incredibly pure dragon power instantly surged into their bodies.
The moment the Dragon King’s power rippled outward, the tide of death that had left them helpless suddenly retreated frantically as if it had met its natural enemy!
Wherever the golden light reached, piercing shrieks erupted from the death energy. It twisted and rolled like a scorched living creature, forced back several meters in an instant.
Seeing the group temporarily out of danger, a relieved Seranox suddenly threw his head back and let out a resonant dragon’s roar, charging straight at the giant claw.
To everyone’s unease, amidst a violent tremor, a second giant claw tore through the solidified lava layer, striking toward Seranox with the force of ten thousand tons.
“Bang—!”
With a loud crash, Seranox’s figure was not sent flying as expected. Instead, he used his arms to physically brace against the claw strike that was powerful enough to shatter a mountain, not retreating a single step.
One had to remember that due to the size constraints of the underground space, the Gold Flame Dragon King had not chosen to return to his dragon form.
While dragons were more agile in their human form, their strength was significantly lower than in their true bodies.
This was common knowledge known to all dragon warriors and even the powerhouses across the continent. Yet at this moment, Seranox completely overturned this iron rule.
Even in this form where his strength should not have been outstanding, Seranox did not lose a single inch in the contest of power against his opponent. He even showed signs of suppressing the other, a testament to his incredible strength.
Meanwhile, the first giant claw, which was still leaking death energy, shook again. Wrapped in a foul wind, it smashed toward the Gold Flame Dragon King from another direction, looking to crush him in its palm.
Facing the pincer attack of the two giant claws, Seranox simply raised one leg to brace against the new assault.
“Cr-crack—”
With his footing as the center, the space within a hundred-meter radius shuddered violently. The rock layers and ground collapsed one after another, yet his figure remained as immovable as a mountain.
“You rat who dares to desecrate my race’s ancestor! Come out!”
Locked in a stalemate mid-air, Seranox suddenly changed his fists into claws and grabbed one of the giant claws.
A metallic cold light suddenly glinted on his slender fingers. His five sharp claws pierced into the gaps of the corrupted claw’s scales like a knife through tofu.
Accompanied by ear-piercing grinding sounds, the scales—which were comparable to the hardest armor—were physically torn open by him, leaving five shocking gashes!
Then, his waist arched back like a fully drawn bow before he suddenly yanked upward, swinging the dozens-of-meters-long giant claw like a massive whip.
“Rumble!”
The entire underground space began to shake violently. The solidified lava below shattered like crackers.
The colossal body connected to the two giant claws was physically dragged out from the depths of the earth. In an instant, death energy and rock fragments poured down like a torrential rain.
When the sky-filling dust cleared, everyone finally saw the terrifying full form—
It was a deformed dragon, pitch-black all over. Its withered body was covered in web-like dark red markings, as if lava were flowing beneath its skin.
Most striking of all were its pair of deathly white horns, which stood out against its black body like two crescent moons pinned to a pitch-black night sky.
Growing along its spine were not ordinary fins or vertebrae, but countless dense bone spikes. The tip of every spike shimmered with an ominous light, constantly dripping corrosive slime.
Rate on N.U.
