The Dinosaurian's threat didn't frighten the Gao Jiaren opposite him.
Or rather, the man had prepared to sacrifice everything before setting out on this crusade against the Demon King.
"If I fail here, they won't survive anyway."
Though he spoke to the Dinosaurian, the man kept his eyes locked on Li Ban.
He looked ready to attack Li Ban at a moment's notice.
The vertical eye in the center of the Gao Jiaren's forehead flared, and a pair of radiant, speckled wings erupted from his back.
He took off instantly, dodging a strike from the Dinosaurian.
But the Dinosaurian was massive. His incredibly long arms reached out a full twenty meters, swinging through the air like two giant pendulums with a shrill, shrieking whistle.
Yet despite his normally agile fighting style, the monster kept his upper body rigid and his head perfectly upright, as if terrified of dropping whatever sat on top of it.
Gritting his teeth, the warrior soared high into the sky before plummeting like a meteor straight toward the Dinosaurian's head.
The monster could have easily dodged just by tilting his head, but he stubbornly raised an arm to block instead.
Clang!
The Gao Jiaren's twin blades clashed against the back of the Dinosaurian's hand, throwing off a shower of bright sparks.
The blades were exceptionally sharp, but the thick scales on the beast's hand were just as formidable.
The impact knocked them both back. Neither gained the upper hand.
The Dinosaurian finally began to take the hero before him seriously.
Any Gao Jiaren capable of sneaking all the way here unharmed was no ordinary foe.
Despite his rising caution, the monster maintained a mask of sheer arrogance.
He stole a quick, imperceptible glance at the back of his hand.
His previously unblemished scales were chipped. One more direct hit to that exact spot, and the armor would shatter.
Even so, he kept his upper body perfectly rigid as the battle raged on.
It seemed to be a matter of absolute pride; if he tilted his head to dodge, he would consider himself the loser even if he won the fight.
The Gao Jiaren seized on this weakness. He relentlessly targeted the Dinosaurian's upper body and head, forcing the monster to constantly raise his arms in defense.
Soon, swathes of scales were hacked away from the beast's arms and hands, exposing the raw, bright red muscle beneath.
Seeing their leader bleeding while the Gao Jiaren remained entirely unharmed, the surrounding monsters grew restless. They roared, eager to swarm the intruder.
As the Gao Jiaren dove yet again—aiming to sever one of the monster's arms for good—the Dinosaurian suddenly dropped his guard and threw his jaws wide.
His jaw was naturally built to unhinge, and with a forceful stretch, the beast's gaping maw opened to a terrifying hundred and twenty degrees.
Bizarrely, he still fought to keep his head perfectly level. Because of this rigid posture, his open mouth wasn't quite aimed at the rapidly diving warrior.
It didn't matter. A torrent of blistering magma erupted from his throat, spraying outward to engulf the majority of the Gao Jiaren's body.
Just before the lava hit, the radiant wings on the Gao Jiaren's back snapped shut, enveloping him in a massive cone of light.
A gleam of triumph flashed in the Dinosaurian's eyes, and he abruptly cut off the flow of magma.
In the next instant, twin beams of light—as searing as the blazing sun—shot from his eyes.
The beams instantly pierced the protective cone of light, blowing two gaping holes straight through the Gao Jiaren's chest.
Before the blood could even spray, the sheer heat cauterized the twin wounds, sealing them with blackened flesh.
The protective cone split back into wings of light, carrying the severely wounded warrior higher into the sky.
He clutched his chest, staring down at the Dinosaurian in absolute disbelief.
"When did this beast gain an ability like that? Has their mutation rate sped up again? Heavens, Lord of the World, do you truly intend to wipe out every intelligent race?"
After so much frantic combat, the Gao Jiaren's stamina was teetering on its limit.
While his wings of light allowed him to deftly evade the monster's blows, maintaining them placed an immense burden on his mind.
Their radiance was already fading; they wouldn't hold out much longer.
The Gao Jiaren looked past the monster to Li Ban sitting on his head. A glint of final, desperate resolve flashed in his eyes.
He darted through the sky, dodging the Dinosaurian's flailing arms time and again. Then, slipping right into the beast's blind spot, he plummeted into a steep dive.
The wings on his back flared brighter and brighter, building toward an explosive critical mass.
The Dinosaurian whipped his head around and swiped to knock him away, but the warrior was simply too fast. Too late to strike, the beast could only throw up his other arm in a desperate attempt to shield his head.
Even the slow-witted Dinosaurian recognized that the Gao Jiaren was burning his own life force for this final strike.
The Gao Jiaren raised his twin blades, their tips blazing with blinding light, aiming dead center at Li Ban.
But at the very last second, a beam of starlight rained down.
The diving warrior and the defending beast were both instantly frozen in place, paralyzed in midair.
Li Ban finally stood.
His figure blurred, reappearing right beside the Gao Jiaren. Grabbing the man by the shoulder, he teleported them both to the mountain's peak.
Only a tiny patch at the very summit still retained a pure white layer of snow.
It was like the final piece of untainted land left in the entire world.
Only when the soft snow crunched under his boots did the Gao Jiaren realize where he had been moved.
He whipped his head toward Li Ban in utter shock, but his momentum didn't falter—his blades swept up in a vicious arc, slicing straight for Li Ban's neck.
Yet Li Ban merely raised a hand and casually pinched the edges of the speeding blades between his fingers.
The Gao Jiaren wrenched the hilts, trying to sever Li Ban's fingers, but to his horror, his absolute utmost strength could only manage to bend his own steel.
The tips of the blades, resting lightly in Li Ban's grip, did not budge a single millimeter.
Li Ban's lips curled into a smirk. "I thought you came to crusade against the Demon King. Why are you so determined to kill me?"
The Gao Jiaren panted heavily. "I've always known this world is sick. The monsters are nothing but the symptoms of the disease. We can only save our world by destroying the root."
"And you believe I am that root?"
"The Demon King is incredibly proud, yet he let you sit atop his head. He sacrificed his own body to protect you during the fight. You're the mastermind controlling these monsters."
"So you think killing me will return the world to normal?"
The Gao Jiaren answered with silence.
"And do you think you actually can?"
The Gao Jiaren fell silent once more.
But this time, his silence wasn't agreement.
Though Li Ban had only made two moves, those two moves had definitively proven that his power was far beyond anything the warrior could resist.
They weren't even in the same league.
After a long pause, the Gao Jiaren finally forced the words through his teeth. "I am no match for you, but I will kill you regardless."
"Naive."
Li Ban looked up, his gaze seeming to pierce through the azure veil of the sky to witness the gloomy void of the Shattered Realm beyond.
He abruptly waved his hand. No light flared; no shadow moved.
Down below, the frenzied Dinosaurian that had been wildly searching for his prey suddenly froze.
A second later, his massive head began to slide down, inch by inch.
His neck had been cleanly severed. The massive head slipped away to reveal a perfectly smooth cross-section before a fountain of blood erupted into the air.
Li Ban slowly turned back to the Gao Jiaren.
"Now, do you still believe I am the root that will destroy this world?"