Slaying

The Flood Dragon suddenly raised its head.

Two massive crossbow bolts had pierced its body, but compared to the Flood Dragon's enormous size, it was like an ordinary person having the flesh of a finger pierced by toothpicks.

It hurt, but the damage was not severe.

The Flood Dragon turned its head and let out an enraged roar at the Ox Tribe warriors.

Thick black poisonous gas spewed from between the Flood Dragon's teeth. It suddenly opened its mouth, and vast clouds of black poisonous smoke became a gale that howled across the surface of the Wetland.

Wherever the black poisonous smoke passed, swathes of aquatic plants shriveled and died, while flocks of glowing little insects dropped from the air.

Of the ten Stone Giants, five suddenly charged out.

They threw down their great axes, their arms intertwining as the five formed a bizarre shape.

With a roar, the earth shook violently. Powerful, boundless Earth Vein Power surged howling from underground and poured into the bodies of the five Stone Giants. Yellow radiance burst from their bodies, beams of light crisscrossing and weaving together into the shape of a mountain a hundred zhang tall.

The mountain spewed vast amounts of earthen-yellow mist, standing before them like a city wall.

The black poisonous smoke crashed into the earthen-yellow mist and rolled backward. Not a wisp of poison could pass through its protection and harm the Mist Blades forces behind it.

The other five Stone Giants strode out as well. One stood in front and four behind, forming another strange formation, their auras perfectly melding into one.

They leaped over the peak of the small earthen-yellow mountain, and as they passed over it, huge amounts of earthen-yellow mist merged into their bodies.

A heavy, savage aura surged from the bodies of the five Stone Giants.

Accompanied by an earth-shaking roar, the five Stone Giants shone with yellow light. A giant figure a hundred zhang tall rolled out from above their heads, wielding a spiked great axe that came crashing down upon the Flood Dragon.

All of this happened with breathtaking speed. Just as the giant figure brought down its axe, the two bolts embedded in the Flood Dragon's body suddenly exploded.

The blast was a hundred times more powerful than the Mountain Splitting Thunder used by Wu Family miners. Explosive flames covered dozens of meters around them, and enormous splashes churned through the Wetland as mud shot dozens of meters into the air.

A hole more than two meters across was blasted into the Flood Dragon's belly. Blood sprayed everywhere, and its body was nearly blown into two pieces. Only a section of blue-black dragon bone and half its flesh barely held its upper and lower body together.

The Flood Dragon howled in pain, tears gushing from its eyes. The black poisonous smoke from its mouth suddenly ceased, replaced by torrents of blood.

It smashed its head into the Seven-Colored Crystal behind it, opened its mouth, and hurriedly lapped at the viscous fluid flowing down the crystal.

As it swallowed great quantities of the thick fluid, the massive wound in the Flood Dragon's abdomen visibly wriggled. Flesh rapidly regenerated, and within a single breath, such a huge wound had been covered by a blood-colored membrane, with no more blood leaking out.

The giant figure swung its spiked great axe down, striking the Flood Dragon squarely on the forehead with a bang.

The Flood Dragon's freshly healed head was split open by a wound several meters long. Scales flew everywhere, its skull cracked open, and another torrent of blood and brain matter sprayed out.

The Flood Dragon shrieked in agony, its body convulsing violently. Then, at the vital spot seven inches below its head, a dazzling blue-black light lit up.

That patch of flesh seemed to turn translucent. A mass of blue-black flame blazed fiercely within its body, expanding and contracting rapidly, visible even through its thick scales and flesh.

A low, deep, long howl with terrifying penetrative force came from inside the Flood Dragon's body.

The Flood Dragon abruptly opened its mouth and spewed out a sheet of viscous blue-black flame. Having been badly wounded, it no longer cared about suffering grave damage to its vitality and used the trump card it had kept hidden at the bottom of its chest.

The five Stone Giants had joined forces to unleash a devastating move. The giant figure had only just drawn back its arm when the five Stone Giants crashed heavily to the ground. The instant they landed, the blue-black flames descended over their heads.

The earthen-yellow mist on the Stone Giants' bodies was burned away in a flash. Their metal armor turned red-hot in the time it took to snap a finger, then melted into molten iron.

Miserable howls rang out as the five Stone Giants were burned until their flesh split apart. Covered in flames, they rolled wildly across the ground.

The water in the Wetland was roughly three feet deep. The Stone Giants, each over ten meters tall, rolled and thrashed in the mud, while the blue-black flames clung to their flesh. The water on the ground could not extinguish the flames at all.

Steam rose into the air. Instead of weakening the flames, the evaporating water intensified their fury, burning the five Stone Giants until their entire bodies were reduced to pulp. Strands of flame even continued burning deep into their bones.

In only a few breaths, the five awe-inspiring Stone Giants stiffened and fell to the ground.

All the flesh on their bodies had been burned away, and even their skeletons had been scorched dry and withered. Though they had originally stood over ten meters tall, the skeletons left behind were only five or six meters long.

Wu Tie stared in shock, his mouth hanging open. For a long while, he could not say a word.

This was the strength a Flood Dragon ought to possess. Things like black poisonous smoke were merely small tricks it used to hunt food in ordinary times, not trump cards for fighting to the death.

The five Stone Giants who had formed the earthen-yellow mountain and firmly protected their companions behind them let out mournful wails.

Mist Blades had a great many elite assassins, countless servant warriors, and slaves, but even with its immense power, it had only raised one small Stone Giant tribe.

The entire Stone Giant tribe had only ten adult warriors.

And now, half had been lost in a single stroke.

They were brothers of blood and flesh. The deaths of their own brothers made these simple, honest Stone Giants roar and mourn, tears streaming endlessly down their faces.

Even though their hearts were twisted like knives, the five Stone Giants remained standing where they were, utterly motionless.

Their auras remained linked as they stirred Earth Vein Power and continued forming that earthen-yellow mountain, shielding the great Mist Blades army behind them.

The blue-black flames swept over and crashed fiercely into the small mountain.

The earthen-yellow radiance making up the mountain rippled violently. Vast swathes of earthen-yellow mist evaporated and vanished, yet more continually surged from underground, replenishing the small mountain without end.

The Flood Dragon shrieked hoarsely. The blue-black flames near its vital spot grew brighter and brighter, and the flames it spewed became ever hotter, covering an area hundreds of meters wide.

The small earthen-yellow mountain gradually melted away, visibly being refined bit by bit by the flames.

The five Stone Giants were drenched in sweat. It streamed continuously from the gaps in their armor like little brooks.

A group of Ox Tribe warriors tensely loaded their crossbows again. Then, with two thunderous booms, two specially made bolts were hurled out, piercing precisely into the Flood Dragon's coiled body.

The Flood Dragon's body twitched, and then the bolts exploded once more.

Great swathes of scales shattered. Flames soared into the sky, mud shot dozens of meters high, and another hole two meters long was blasted into the Flood Dragon's body. Blood mixed with fragments of internal organs sprayed everywhere.

The flames in the Flood Dragon's mouth abruptly vanished. Tears streaming down its face, it turned around, opened its jaws, and clamped more than half the crystal in its mouth, sucking greedily.

Huge amounts of viscous fluid surged from the crystal. The Flood Dragon's wounds healed rapidly at a pace visible to the naked eye. In scarcely two breaths, not only had all its injuries healed, but the two short dragon horns on its forehead rapidly grew back as well.

The two horns returned to a length of more than three meters, and the spiral patterns upon them were even clearer than those on the two horns Wu Tie had devoured.

With two cracks, after consuming a vast amount of fluid seeping from the crystal in such a short time, four enormous fleshy lumps suddenly bulged from the Flood Dragon's abdomen. Before the Mist Blades forces could react, the four lumps exploded, and four thick legs with sharp claws grew out.

With horns and legs, the Flood Dragon had clearly taken another great stride along the path of evolution.

"Oh, oh, this fellow..." Old Tie murmured in astonishment. "It really has no regard for its life... It used to be clever enough to know the fluid inside this crystal was no good, so it spent year after year, little by little, sucking up the fluid that flowed out..."

"But this time, it consumed a huge amount of the crystal's fluid in a short span of time... this fellow..."

Wu Tie saw that the Flood Dragon's originally shattered-gold eyes had turned into a hazy kaleidoscope of colors, the same seven colors as the Seven-Colored Crystal.

The original savagery and malice had vanished from its eyes, replaced by something colder, more ruthless, utterly devoid of the emotional fluctuations any living creature should possess... a deathly stillness...

The Flood Dragon had originally been a living creature, so naturally it possessed emotional fluctuations.

But now, all emotional fluctuations had disappeared from this Flood Dragon. It seemed to be rapidly transforming into another kind of terrifying "aberration."

Even more horrifyingly, the pitch-black, iron-cast-looking scales covering its body had gained a lustrous sheen, as though they had been forged from crystal.

Great masses of Lizardmen archers rushed out of the fern forest, and arrows dense as rain came whistling down from the sky.

The arrows fell thickly upon the Flood Dragon's body, then exploded violently.

The force of every arrow's explosion was comparable to the Mountain Splitting Thunder used by Wu Family miners.

One Mountain Splitting Thunder was naturally not very powerful, but hundreds, thousands of Mountain Splitting Thunder erupted one after another across the Flood Dragon's body. Countless clusters of fire covered its entire body, shaking it into shrill cries of pain.

Though its scales seemed to have grown even tougher, under such savage bombardment they were still blasted to pieces. Great chunks of flesh were blown apart, and blood dyed several mu of the surrounding Wetland red.

The Flood Dragon could no longer endure the pain. It suddenly released the strange crystal, dropped it, planted its four legs on the ground with great awkwardness, and twisted its enormous body as it charged toward the Mist Blades army.

As it ran wildly, it opened its mouth and spewed flames that had completely turned black.

With a sizzle, like a red-hot iron rod thrust into a pile of snow, the earthen-yellow mountain the five Stone Giants had struggled to maintain was burned through with a hole more than ten meters wide. The five Stone Giants did not even have time to grunt before directly vaporizing in the black flames.

The earthen-yellow mountain collapsed. With a tremendous explosion, vast amounts of earthen-yellow mist burst apart. Great numbers of nearby Mist Blades forces were hurled away by the shockwave. Some were blown to pieces outright, while many more lay farther away, coughing blood continuously and unable to rise for a time.

A squad of fierce Ox Tribe warriors bellowed "Moo! Moo!" as they charged forward, swinging heavy weapons and raining wild blows upon the Flood Dragon's body.

Their heavy strikes landed on the Flood Dragon's scale-shattered body. The Ox Tribe warriors' eyes were red as though they were drunk, and they fought without fear of death, their brute strength increasing greatly.

The Flood Dragon staggered from the blows. Humiliated and enraged, it let out a long howl, turned around, and spewed a blast of black flame.

Nearly a hundred Ox Tribe warriors were engulfed by the black flames. They screamed miserably in unison, becoming human-shaped torches standing where they were and burning fiercely. Within a few breaths, they had been reduced to ash.

The Flood Dragon panted raggedly, spewing large amounts of flame and black smoke from its mouth.

Having only just completed its evolution, it had consumed an enormous amount of energy. After spitting fire in a frenzy, it felt wave after wave of exhaustion, as if its whole body had been hollowed out.

Countless Lizardmen warriors around it continued launching arrows. Arrows constantly exploded against its body, shattering its scales and blasting open its flesh.

These arrows could not truly inflict grave wounds upon it, but the unending rain of arrows continued adding injury upon injury. Its wounds kept worsening, and its strength was steadily being drained.

Even more Wolf Tribe warriors came howling in. They raced past in groups of three or five, continuously hurling poisoned throwing knives at it.

Large patches of scales on its body had shattered, exposing bloody wounds.

The throwing knives sank viciously into its damaged flesh. The secret poison concocted by Mist Blades accumulated within its body, and waves of weakness and numbness swept over it. The Flood Dragon swayed, finding it difficult even to move its four legs.

It twisted its body wildly and sprayed flames haphazardly in every direction.

But whether the Lizardmen or the Wolf Tribe warriors, these Mist Blades forces skilled in cooperation no longer approached it.

Arrows continued falling, and throwing knives continued piercing into its body.

At this moment, the Flood Dragon's enormous body had become its greatest weakness. It was simply too easy to hit.

A quarter of an hour later, the Flood Dragon swayed as it tried to rush back toward the crystal and replenish itself with more of the fluid seeping from it.

A figure suddenly appeared out of thin air above the Flood Dragon's head, precisely between its two long horns. The Mist Blades Grand Commander dragged a long afterimage behind him. A pitch-black straight blade appeared in his right hand, and he silently slashed downward.

A flash of cold light streaked through the air. The straight blade sank into the Flood Dragon's skull, reaching deep into its brain.

A terrifying chill surged from the straight blade, instantly freezing the Flood Dragon's entire brain into a block of ice.

The light in the Flood Dragon's seven-colored eyes suddenly froze. Its enormous body staggered forward a few steps before collapsing headfirst onto the ground.

The ground trembled faintly. The Flood Dragon did not even let out a final mournful cry before falling dead upon the ground.

The Mist Blades Grand Commander gently pulled out his straight blade and looked toward Wu Tie and Old Tie hiding in the fern forest.

"What, do you want to snatch something from my hands?"