Purple lightning churned within the inky clouds, and a damp, frigid wind swept the scent of rotting leaves across the woodland. Twenty-one figures scattered like ghosts, locking the figure in the black robe firmly at the center of their encirclement.
"Attack!"
Arthur, Grand Commander of the Templar Order, roared, his voice tearing through the dense forest. The gilded Holy Sword hummed as it left its sheath in his hand, and the inscription on its blade—"Faith Is My Shield"—burst forth with blazing white light.
Before his words had even faded, the Divine Arbiter Gabriel had already soared into the air. A pair of wings actually unfurled behind him, and the Spear of Judgment gathered in his palm pierced toward Yang Tianhai, the Dragon King, with a shriek that tore through the air.
The hem of the Dragon King's black robe stirred without wind. He neither dodged nor retreated. As his left palm turned over, a ball of dark-purple Qi had already condensed within it, smashing head-on into the Spear of Judgment.
With a crisp crack, the spear formed from holy light shattered inch by inch. Gabriel was struck as though by a giant hammer and flew backward, smashing through three ancient trees that had stood for a thousand years. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the forest grass.
But this was merely an appetizer.
Jungle Hunter Jack had already merged into the shrubs at the cliff's edge. The bone blades at his fingertips were coated in poisonous miasma from the Southern Seas. Every slash carried the soft rustle of grass and leaves, precisely sealing off every angle through which the Dragon King could evade.
This Saint-level Hunter, famed for tracking, had once hunted an adult Thunder Flood Dragon through the Amazon Jungle. Now, every breath he took