Battle Between the Strong

Battle Between the Strong

"So this was a dragon?" Li Junshan thought the Black Dragon looked far uglier than the Chinese dragons from his original world. But that did not make him underestimate it in the slightest. Judging by its body alone, Li Junshan had no doubt it could tear apart any creature that blocked its path.

The Black Dragon lay on the ground. Beneath its belly, a pool of black liquid had seeped out, staining a large patch of the bluestone ground beneath it. A hundred meters opposite it, a middle-aged blond mage in white robes stood quietly on the back of a ninth-rank magical beast, the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle. The Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle's left wing drooped weakly to the ground, blood dripping from it nonstop. It had clearly been wounded as well.

To the Black Dragon's left stood an old man in gray robes, with disheveled hair, an arrogant, domineering expression, and a broadsword at his waist.

"Hickory, I discovered the Black Dragon first. If you leave now, I guarantee I won't hurt you," the mage in white said coldly without even lifting his head. He did not seem to exert any effort, yet his voice echoed through the mountains like rolling thunder.

"Bullshit." The gray-robed old man opened his mouth and cursed, "Laurat, why don't you just go die? Aren't you afraid the wind will be strong enough to twist your tongue? You're only a Saint Mage. You think I'd be afraid of you?" His voice was actually no quieter than the mage's.

The mage named Laurat gave a few cold laughs and said, "Hickory, since you refuse to leave, you can't blame me." The Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle beneath him sensed its master's anger. It opened its beak and let out a clear cry, spraying clusters of black smoke threaded with sparks from its sharp bill.

"Hmph." Hickory snorted coldly a few times, raised his brows, and shouted, "I'd like to see just how powerful your magic has become after more than ten years."

"You'll see." Laurat raised his head, his lightning-bright gaze turning toward the giants and dwarves as he said, "But first, let me dispose of these lowly, ugly, vile races. Then I'll make sure you see it."

The Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle turned its massive body, stretched out its neck, and let out an angry screech. Immediately after, a tongue of flame like a streak of silk shot from its sharp beak, sweeping back and forth through the huddled, trembling giants and dwarves. Miserable screams rang out without end, and the valley was instantly filled with a charred stench.

The giants and dwarves who had been clustered together scattered in all directions. Under the scorching jets of flame, more than a hundred giants and dwarves were turned into moving fireballs in an instant. Like the incendiary bombs Li Junshan had seen explode in movies in his previous life, the flames sprayed by the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle engulfed anyone they touched, even with the slightest spark. They rolled desperately on the ground, but it did nothing to diminish the power of the raging fire.

At first, some still resisted. The giants hurled the thick stone pillars and tree trunks in their hands at the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle, but before they could get within about ten meters of it, they were blocked and knocked back by an invisible transparent wall of light. In an instant, of the more than four hundred people, fewer than a hundred remained. Those lucky enough to escape the tongues of flame fell into chaos and ran desperately out of the valley.

"Trying to run?" Mage Laurat snorted coldly. He silently chanted an incantation, and a mass of black cloud began to gather above the mountain pass. Laurat raised his hand, and dozens of bolts of lightning as thick as a child's arm immediately struck down from the dark clouds. Crackling sounds rang out nonstop. Like a waterfall, the lightning poured down and blasted the mouth of the valley into ruins.

The dozens of people running at the front were instantly struck into charcoal by the lightning. The others were scared out of their wits and lost all sense of direction for a moment, turning around and running toward the Black Dragon.

From the moment Laurat's magical beast, the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle, began spraying tongues of flame, to the lightning magic he cast afterward, the Black Dragon's huge eyes had been half-open, half-closed, and it had never moved from where it lay on the ground. Seeing the terrified giants and dwarves running toward it, the Black Dragon opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of black mist, instantly enveloping them. When the black mist dispersed, the ground was covered in pus and blood. Not even half a bone was left.

At that moment, aside from the charred corpses and large pools of pus and blood covering the ground, only the mage, the Sword Saint, and the Black Dragon remained in the valley.

From beginning to end, the Sword Saint Hickory stood to one side with his arms folded and a cold smile on his face. Only when Laurat cast the lightning spell and when the Black Dragon spat out its poisonous mist did his expression change slightly and grow grave.

Li Junshan was dumbfounded. He felt a chill run constantly up and down from his tailbone to the back of his head, and cold sweat poured from his entire body.

So this was a mage? A Saint Mage!

From the time Laurat began chanting the magic incantation to the moment he released those dozens of lightning bolts, Li Junshan estimated that not even thirty seconds had passed. To be able to unleash such terrifying lightning magic in so short a time was frightening enough, never mind the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle beneath him, which was comparable to a giant flamethrower.

Beside him was Hickory, watching like a tiger eyeing its prey, a Sword Saint who seemed not at all afraid of this mage.

And that Black Dragon was even more terrifying. With a casual puff of black mist, it had turned more than a hundred giants and dwarves into a puddle of pus and blood in an instant. Compared with it, the corrosive power of Xenomorph blood was simply the difference between a water gun and an AK.

Li Junshan regretted it. He regretted it so much his guts turned green. Any one of these three was not someone he could handle. He bent down and was just about to climb onto the Xenomorph when, all of a sudden, Li Junshan felt his whole body turn icy cold, as if ice water had been poured over him from head to toe. Li Junshan looked back and saw Laurat's eyes looking in his direction.

"Ugh..." Certain that Laurat could not see him clearly in the bushes and woods, Li Junshan had a flash of inspiration and imitated a dwarf's groan.

Perhaps Laurat truly believed Li Junshan was a wounded dwarf who had crawled to the valley entrance, or perhaps the arrogant mage simply did not care about his existence. Laurat withdrew his gaze and turned it toward Hickory.

Li Junshan was inwardly miserable, but he did not dare move recklessly. He groaned from time to time, while the Xenomorph folded its limbs and lay beside him like a mongrel dog.

"You still have time to leave." Laurat's voice held not a trace of emotion as he said slowly, "I won't hold your rudeness and arrogance against you."

"If we're fighting, then fight. Why so much nonsense?" Hickory's temper was clearly explosive. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Junshan did not even see him move, but the broadsword appeared in Hickory's hand. With one swing of the broadsword, a yellow sword beam half a meter wide and more than ten meters long tore through the air, carrying scorching flames as it carved a deep trench into the ground and stabbed straight toward Laurat.

Laurat neither dodged nor evaded. He stared coldly at the enormous sword beam and quietly chanted a magic incantation.

Boom...

With a deafening crash, the sword beam struck the magic shield outside Laurat's body. The transparent magic shield and the sword beam collided, suddenly erupting with dazzling light.

Hiss... The Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle was not idle either. It opened its long beak and sprayed out a tongue of flame, which reached Hickory in an instant. A dazzling yellow light suddenly flared around Hickory's body, making him look as if he had been encased in an eggshell. The Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle's tongue of flame did not harm Hickory in the slightest.

"Let's see how long that magic shield of yours can hold." Hickory roared angrily and slashed out another fire-type battle aura sword beam, which gave off a sharp whistling sound as it tore through the air.

Li Junshan watched until his blood boiled. Suddenly, his vision darkened. At some point, a vast mass of black clouds had appeared above the top of the valley, and wandering arcs of electricity crackled within them.

Rumble...

An enormous peal of thunder resounded between heaven and earth. A bolt of lightning with astonishing might ripped through the sky and struck down, actually thicker than the Black Dragon's body.

Hickory did not dodge either. With a sharp shout, he actually raised the broadsword in his hand high and sent out a sword beam to meet the thick lightning. With a thunderous boom, the lightning vanished, and Hickory's body swayed slightly.

Electric light began to wander through the black clouds again. Laurat silently chanted, brewing his next attack.

Clearly, both sides' attacks were currently aimed at breaking through the other's magic or battle aura shield. Yellow sword beams carrying flames slashed horizontally and stabbed vertically, while lightning and tongues of flame shone in alternation, leaving Li Junshan dazzled.

"Calm down, calm down." Li Junshan's heart nearly leaped out of his chest as he told himself inwardly, Calm down! Keep a low profile. I absolutely have to keep a low profile from now on. I was way too impulsive this time.

Before long, Laurat's magic shield was the first to fail. Controlling such powerful lightning magic attacks while also maintaining the magic shield clearly meant his magical power was not as inexhaustible as the sea. As Hickory launched another sword beam attack, the magic shield gave a rumbling crash, stirred up a visible ripple, and vanished in an instant.

Hickory was overjoyed. He threw himself into the air, and the broadsword in his hand emitted a dazzling yellow light as he stabbed toward Laurat like the sun itself.

There was no terror on Laurat's face. On the contrary, his eyes even held a faint trace of mockery. Hickory, who was in midair, saw it, and unease instantly rose in his heart.

Crackle...

Countless tiny bolts of lightning like long arrows suddenly drilled out of the black clouds in the sky. There were no telling how many thousands of them, and they struck obliquely down toward Hickory in midair. Those tiny lightning arrows gathered together in midair as if drawn to one another, suddenly forming one thick Thunder Arrow that struck straight down.

"Eighth-rank magic, Thunder Arrow. Hasn't he been casting Heavenly Thunder Art this whole time? Could he actually be able to instant-cast eighth-rank magic?" Hickory's heart jolted in shock in midair. He forcefully stopped himself there, raised the broadsword in his hand, and swung a dazzling yellow sword beam into the air to meet the terrifyingly powerful Thunder Arrow.

Boom...

A tremendous sound resounded through the valley floor. Hickory's body shook violently, and the yellow battle aura shield around him was immediately shattered by the Thunder Arrow. "Pfft!" Hickory opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood, his face deathly pale.

"Damn it." Laurat looked calm, but inwardly he thought, Earlier, I exchanged a few moves with the Black Dragon, which consumed a great deal of magical power and injured the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle. The Black Dragon is still watching from the side. I can't keep wearing myself down against Hickory like this.

"Hickory." Seizing the chance while Hickory was injured, Laurat shouted coldly, "You are no match for me. I'm warning you one last time. You still have time to leave now."

Laurat's expression was no better. Mages spent much of their time in meditation, and his complexion was naturally rather fair, but now it was a sickly pallor.

"Bullshit." Hickory circulated his battle aura and hovered in midair, glaring fiercely at Laurat as he snapped, "You think you're fine? It's still too early to say who's won and who's lost."

So this is a battle between the true powerhouses of this world! Li Junshan hid quietly in the dense thickets, overcome with emotion.

The battle was not over yet.

As the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle let out a clear cry and spat a tongue of flame, Hickory moved as well. Gripping his broadsword, he dodged the fire and lunged toward Laurat on the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle's back.

Laurat's body flickered, and he hid behind the Golden-Eyed Magic Eagle's raised wing, chanting an obscure magic incantation in a loud voice.

Suddenly, fierce winds roared through the valley, and the sickly Black Dragon, which had looked as if it were on the verge of death, abruptly moved.

When the Black Dragon was still, that was one thing—but the moment it moved, it shook heaven and earth!