Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 28, Submission
“Rumble.” The earth broke apart with many cracks appearing, and sand and stones slowly rolled into those crevices.
A mountain-sized indentation in the ground. The massive dragon shook its head twice, then stared at the terrifying creature which had stopped in midair. The dragon’s fiery red eyes were filled with disbelief. A peak Dragonblood Warrior! Those dark golden eyes swept down towards the Tyrant Wyrm.
Silence!
The only sound that could be heard was that of the wind blowing, the leaves falling, and dust scattering. The Tyrant Wyrm, the Thunder Lizard, and the Gold Dragon had all been stunned by Linley’s terrifying strength.
“Wow! Father’s awesome!”
The distant Taylor was beginning to cheer, while Cena and Sasha were excited as well. In Delia’s heart, she felt all the more proud of Linley. After all, this was her man! Bebe chortled and said, “These three Saint-level dragons aren’t bad. They’ve forced the Boss to use his Dragonform.”
Linley’s current Dragonform was different from how it had been in the past.
In the past, Linley’s scales had been black, but now, they were a fusion between ‘black’ and ‘azure’, creating a ‘deep azure’ color!
“Although I drank the blood of the Armored Razorback Wyrm in order to activate my Dragonblood in my veins, it was still the Dragonblood that truly caused my power to increase.” Linley secretly mused. How could the energy in the draconic crystal of the Armored Razorback Wyrm compare with the exalted lineage of the Dragonblood Warriors?
A pure Dragonblood Warrior, when transformed, should have azure scales like Wharton did.
Despite having drank dragon’s blood, upon transforming after having reached the Saint-level, the scales would still trend towards azure.
The massive body of the Tyrant Wyrm flew into the air, once more joining the Thunder Lizard and the Gold Dragon. These three dragons exchanged glances, then turned and looked seriously at Linley. They didn’t have any of their earlier arrogance and boastfulness.
Linley had a better sense for these three Saint-level dragons as well.
The Tyrant Wyrm’s power and strength wasn’t any weaker than that of peak Dragonblood Warrior. The reason why Linley had been able to so easily grab the opponent’s tail wasn’t just through his strength; he had also used his Pulseguard Defense to reduce the opponent’s attack power.
After transforming, the battle-qi in Linley’s body was far more powerful than it had been in the past.
The Pulseguard Defense was naturally even more powerful after transforming as well. Using it to reduce the attack power of the tail before grabbing it allowed him to seemingly easily grab the Tyrant Wyrm’s tail, then send it flying far away.
As for the Thunder Lizard...
Linley was certain that even after transforming, in terms of speed, he was still a level lower than the Thunder Lizard. But the opponent’s attacks weren’t very strong and thus weren’t able to harm him. Naturally, the ‘not very strong’ attacks was only in reference to someone with Linley’s level of terrifying attack power.
Gold Dragons...
This was a race of dragons that was extremely good at using magic. Linley was now certain of it. But what they had done just then was a simple exchange. He still wasn’t too clear on the extent of it.
“Done chatting?”
Linley stood there in mid-air, his dark golden eyes staring at the three Saint-level dragons. In a bright voice, he said, “The three of you, do you intend to fight me to the death, or just give me a little bit of draconic blood?”
The three Saint level dragons had already come to a decision. Their leader, the Thunder Lizard, rumbled out, “Linley of the Anarchic Lands, your power has earned our respect. As long as you leave immediately, we can agree to not quibble about what just happened.”
Linley’s lips quirked upwards.
Twelve years of quiet training had improved his temper quite a bit compared to the past.
“It seems we will have to let our fists do the talking.” Linley clenched his fists, and a wave of deep azure battle-qi spread out around Linley, blasting wildly in every direction and causing the entire area to shake.
Linley’s dark golden eyes stared coldly at those three Saint level dragons. “Come. I haven’t had a true, full-force fight in twelve years. Today...I’ll have a good bit of fun with you.” Linley’s draconic tail swished, causing the air to shudder with each movement.
The three Saint level dragons all stared at Linley.
“That was just one of our simplest teamwork attacks. You had best not really believe you can beat all three of us.” The Thunder Lizard rumbled. “Linley, I’ll tell you clearly. The name of this technique is called ‘Lightning Flashing, Thunder Booming’.”
Clearly, this Saint-level Thunder Lizard was totally confident.
Linley stood there in midair like a demonic fiend, not concerned about the three Saint-level dragons in front of him at all.
“Rumble...”
The Thunder Lizard’s blue scales began to flash with lightning, and the air itself seemed to have become electrified as lightning snaked everywhere. At the center of it, the Thunder Lizard stared coldly at Linley...and then suddenly, a terrifying, enormous bolt of lightning struck towards Linley.
No. It wasn’t a bolt of lightning. It was the Thunder Lizard’s body itself!
“Haha...”
Laughing loudly, Linley instantly transformed into countless shadows as he began to move at high speed. The space around Linley seemed to have frozen, while at other times, it seemed to have folded and distorted. The area around him was totally blurred.
The Dragonblood Warrior, Linley, was constantly shifting about.
Relying on his understanding of the Elemental Laws of the Wind, he was actually able to dodge the Thunder Lizard’s attack. The dragon passed by Linley, clearly not having hit him at all...but the lightning flashing in the Thunder Lizard’s eyes became even more cold and sinister.
“Rumble...” A clap of thunder could be heard.
The thunderclap seemed to appear in Linley’s area, as the Thunder Lizard’s powerful draconic tail struck wildly and nonstop at Linley. The speed of the tail was far faster than the speed of the Thunder Lizard itself, and Linley didn’t have time to dodge at all.
Because of the back-and-forth motion of the attacking tail, the nearby space began to be distorted, creating multiple terrifying thunderous booms.
The draconic tail attack was the real power of the ‘Lightning Flashing, Thunder Booming’ attack.
Linley’s Pulseguard Defense retracted to the thickness of just twenty centimeters, but the power of the Pulseguard Defense didn’t lessen at all. It was like an elastic membrane; each time the draconic tail slashed towards him, the Pulseguard Defense was able to neutralize over half of the force.
One or two hits, Linley didn’t mind.
But in the blink of an eye, that draconic tail had whipped him a thousand times.
“This speed really is terrifying.” Linley was truly speechless. He had never seen such frightening speed. A dragon’s tail was also shockingly fast, and naturally, the tail of the speed-focused Thunder Lizard had reached an apex of speed.
“Is Father alright?” The distant Sasha was worried.
“Uncle Bebe, is Uncle Linley...?” Cena was a bit worried as well. They simply couldn’t tell clearly what was going on in the battle in the distance. All they heard was constant, awe-inspiring thunderclaps and countless lightning bolts appearing in the area.
Bebe grinned widely, revealing his white fangs.
“Beat it!” Linley let out an angry growl.
And then, with a clapping sound, the Thunder Lizard suddenly retreated at high speed, while at the same time, its draconic tail could no longer attack at high speed...because just then, Linley had landed a full force punch against the Thunder Lizard’s tail.
The Thunder Lizard possessed powerful defense. An ordinary power punch wouldn’t do anything to it, but Linley’s punch included the ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’. The cartilage and soft, flexible bones inside the draconic tail had been broken by the vibrations. The Thunder Lizard roared angrily, “Quick!”
The three Saint-level dragons moved in concert in a practiced manner.
“Grooooowl!” An angry howl erupted from the Gold Dragon’s mouth.
The Gold Dragon had been collecting energy for a powerful attack this entire time. And now, a pure, thick white spear of light shot down towards Linley from up high. This pure white spear carried with it a terrifying amount of force, and even Linley’s face changed slightly.
“Light-style, forbidden magic: ‘Holylight Lance’?”
The power of a single-target forbidden-level spell was shockingly strong.
Linley didn’t have the chance to dodge at all. All he could do was watch as the light flashed, and as it did, the huge white spear of light slammed against his body, like a sharp spear slamming against a tough shield. But this spear was the light-style forbidden level spell, ‘Holylight Lance’.
And the shield was a peak Dragonblood Warrior who had the Pulseguard Defense!
“Boom!”
Linley’s body was sent flying into the ground. The collision between him and the Holylight Lance had caused invisible cracks in space in every direction, and wherever those cracks in space passed by, the nearby trees and boulders turned into powder.
The cracks were like ripples in water.
Even the earth itself rippled once.
“Careful.”
Bebe immediately used a powerful amount of darkness-style energy to easily stop this omnidirectional ripple attack. Even at such a distance, the ripple still possessed tremendous force, and within a radius of several kilometers, everything had been turned into dust. Not even a single leaf could be seen.
Because the leaves had been turned to dust as well.
“Is he injured?” The Tyrant Wyrm said quietly.
“That was a forbidden-level spell. Even powerful Saints shouldn’t be able to take it head on. However, Plaket, since he was able to grab onto your draconic tail, most likely his defense is very powerful.” The Gold Dragon was somewhat uncertain and hesitating as he spoke. “But even if it couldn’t kill him, it should have badly injured him.”
“Prepare the final attack.” The Thunder Lizard said quietly.
The Gold Dragon and the Tyrant Wyrm immediately began to prepare. Their ultimate attack was a single combination attack using the power of all three of these Saint-level dragons. This combination attack was so strong that as far as they were concerned...there shouldn’t be any expert beneath the Deity level who was capable of blocking it.
The Gold Dragon’s massive mouth was mumbling, as though chanting the words to some sort of malediction.
Draconic-language spell!
“Bam!” Linley shot out from the ground like an arrow with grace and speed. Not a single wound could be seen on him. The defense granted to him after transforming by his Pulseguard Defense and his draconic scales was terrifying indeed.
Just then, the forbidden-level spell had broken through his Pulseguard Defense, but the remainder of the power of the spell wasn’t able to damage his scales at all.
Suddenly, the world began to shake. An invisible ripple began to emanate from the Gold Dragon’s body, then charged directly towards Linley. Linley instantly understood...in the past, Desri had used this exact technique to badly wound Lehman, the Commander of the Zealot Division, and knock him into the lake.
The ultimate attack of the Saint-level Gold Dragon – Soul Shout!
The Pulseguard Defense around Linley’s body just barely weakened the power of this invisible ripple, which charged directly against Linley’s consciousness.
Now...
In the mysterious depths of his consciousness, a half-translucent, seven-colored crystal floated, surrounded by an endless, ocean-like amount of spiritual energy. This endless amount of spiritual energy slowly flowed about it like water, but with a strange rhythm that seemed to carry the mysteries of the Profound Truths of the Earth within it.
If one was able to carefully inspect it, one would find that the spiritual energy surrounding that seven-colored crystal had an extremely faint layer of azure light protecting it as well.
Currently, that external burst of ripple-like spiritual energy was charging in wildly, with the target being Linley’s soul.
“Bang!”
The Gold Dragon’s most powerful attack collided with Linley’s soul.
When the Gold Dragon used this technique, the Tyrant Wyrm once more began to emit hellfire from its body, while at the same time, with a thundering sound, its muscles and bones began to crackle and pop as it gathered a tremendous amount of force.
The Thunder Lizard was very confident. It was certain...that right now, Linley had already had his soul badly damaged. Even if he didn’t die, he would be dizzy for a while.
In this sort of situation, Linley wouldn’t be able to control his defense at all.
But just as the Tyrant Wyrm was preparing its most powerful attack...
“Swish!” Linley, who logically shouldn’t have been been able to move at all, suddenly transformed into a blur and struck against the exhausted Gold Dragon. With just one mighty fist, he smashed the Saint-level Gold Dragon out of the air and into the ground.
The Tyrant Wyrm and Thunder Lizard stared at Linley in shock.
Linley’s dark gold eyes swept them with its icy gaze. His voice was calm. “Stop resisting. Plaket, I can tell that the power of the attack you are about to use is definitely ridiculously powerful. However, given your speed, there’s no way you will be able to harm me at all.”
How could the Tyrant Wyrm not understand this logic?
If he couldn’t touch the opponent, what use was even the most powerful of attacks? They had thought that combining this attack with the ‘Soul Shout’ would be perfect, but Linley wasn’t affected by the Soul Shout at all. The three Saint-level dragons couldn’t believe what they had just seen.
Linley was secretly laughing.
“Spiritual attacks? My ancestors in the Dragonblood Warrior clan were able to reach the Saint-level in just a few decades. They didn’t have a high level of understanding, and their spiritual energy wasn’t very strong either. There are many people in the world capable of ‘spiritual attacks’. So why, then, was our Dragonblood Warrior clan so famous? Why would they be proclaimed as the strongest of Saints?”
The Dragonblood Warriors were the Supreme Warriors who had been blessed by the heavens.
Even Linley’s ancestors, who had ordinary souls, no longer feared spiritual attacks upon reaching the Saint-level. This was because once they Dragonformed at the Saint-level, their souls would be protected by a unique, strange energy possessed only by the Dragonblood Warrior lineage.
This was what a Dragonblood Warrior was! The invincible Dragonblood Warriors!