War Machine (Part 2)

Without a second's pause, the Chrome Dragon pulled out the bone spike and charged forward again.

Still pouncing like a cheetah, Xilong avoided a head-on clash. Holding the bone spike in reverse, like a short dagger, he drove it into Kेलaili's scales without pulling it back out, immediately flowing into his next movement as he flipped and leaped.

He backflipped, then stomped down hard with his clawed foot onto the bone spike embedded in the Cobalt-Blue Overlord's flesh, driving it several inches deeper.

Kेलaili let out a low growl, his scales flexing like saw teeth.

Yet Xilong's assault flowed like drifting clouds and running water. He had already pulled away again, leaving Kेलaili's counterattack unable to hit. With the bone spike lodged in his body, pain made him bare his fangs.

The Cobalt-Blue Overlord pumped his muscles. Only after a long while did he force the bone spike out. When it fell to the ground, his blood had corroded it until it was as thin as a short needle, wisps of smoke rising from it.

Xilong landed some distance away, staring at Kेलaili's body as he slowly paced.

Though this distance was close, it was still safe. The Cobalt-Blue Overlord lacked the ability to pounce with explosive speed. As long as Xilong kept an eye on that sledgehammer-like tail, he could precisely calculate his attack range.

Xilong considered as he flexed every joint in his body.

There were thousands of bones within a Chrome Dragon's body. When needed, those bones could be reassembled in any manner.

As Xilong walked at an unhurried pace, his body began to recalibrate. Some bones fused tightly together, their gaps vanishing as they became a single slab of hard bone.

Other joints loosened, gaining broader and more complete mobility.

If Cobalt Dragons were walking war fortresses, then Chrome Dragons were merciless dueling machines. Through a million years of conquest and slaughter, these Higher Species had long since evolved their respective traits to the utmost limit.

At last, supported only by his powerful hind legs and reversed joints, Xilong pressed his long cervical vertebrae into his back and rose nimbly upright.

"Here it comes again..."

Bido muttered. The several Nickel Dragons clinging to the jagged rocks all widened their eyes, once more feeling piercing pain in their skulls and spines.

That posture could be called upright, yet it was also slightly hunched, carrying an intensely savage air. It freed every limb on his body, turning each into an independent weapon.

The Chrome Dragon had used this method to tear apart the Nickel Dragons' encirclement. Even now, it still left them with lingering fear.

At the center of the field, Kेलaili's pitch-black pupils contracted as he sensed a silent danger.

This time, he chose to attack first. His heavy footsteps shattered the broken rocks as he used his enormous body to charge recklessly forward, then followed the momentum to slam himself down, rolling and crushing across the ground.

This was entirely the motion of a Cobalt Dragon rolling about in water. It looked ridiculous, but this truly was how they had always fought.

With their terrifying strength and weight, a rolling Cobalt Dragon was like a heavy hammer bouncing across the ground. Any ordinary creature caught beneath such crushing force would immediately become a puddle of bloody pulp.

But against a Chrome Dragon, such movements appeared somewhat clumsy and foolish.

"If it were me, I could dodge that too."

Moqi muttered from the sidelines.

Xilong remained expressionless. As the Cobalt-Blue Overlord rolled over him, he twisted his hind legs and arched his body backward in a spinning motion. Like a lynx hunting colossal prey, he retreated lightly.

He did not merely retreat and evade. He counterattacked at the same time, pulling another bone spike from beneath his neck and driving it into Kेलaili's body once more.

As the Cobalt-Blue Overlord rolled, that bone spike immediately vanished from sight, leaving only a thunderous rumble like boulders rolling past.

Pain shot through Xilong's clawed toes. Merely touching the rolling Cobalt Dragon had instantly injured him again under that immense momentum. Fortunately, he did not hesitate, immediately abandoning the bone spike and darting backward once more.

Xilong wheeled, shifted, and leaped around the massive Cobalt Dragon, sometimes moving sideways, sometimes sliding low. Using Kેલaili's initiative against him, he once again turned their back-and-forth offense and defense into a high-speed strangling battle.

That was the field Chrome Dragons excelled in most. Xilong lunged, darted, and pounced. Whenever he closed the distance, he would immediately reach beneath his neck or toward his shoulder blades like lightning amid the gaps in his attacks.

Squelch!

Squelch!

Blood sprayed everywhere. One sharp bone spike after another was ripped out from Xilong's body at the root and densely driven into Kेलaili's flesh—pinning, slicing, piercing through!

The heavy armor on Kેલaili's body began to burst apart over wide areas. Every wound torn open would inevitably receive another bone spike driven into it without mercy by Xilong.

The Cobalt-Blue Overlord was completely suppressed by this hunting-and-dismemberment style. His bodily structure destined him to be unable to keep up with Xilong's darting movements. Like a gigantic snapping turtle, he could only remain where he was, constantly adjusting his center of gravity and using scales and muscles to endure the blows.

Back then, the Cobalt Dragons had hidden in the Sunken Hollow and quietly analyzed the situation, claiming that Cobalt Dragons feared no dragon of their own age. They only feared older Chrome Dragons, because only older Chrome Dragons could move so fast that they could not react, effortlessly tearing through their scales.

Just like Xilong!

The battle gradually pushed toward its end. Kेलaili began to feel exhausted. Xilong, speeding at full force, seized an opening as the power within his body gathered completely. His chest, shoulder blades, and clawed arms collapsed inward in an instant.

That was a killing art from the Iron Dragon's inherited secret techniques. Xilong had already mastered some of its techniques for exerting force. Gripping the last bone spike, he squeezed it together with the five finger bones, forming a searing war spear that he thrust straight at Kेलaili.

Squelch!

Xilong pressed all his weight and momentum into that claw strike. From above, he chiseled through the Cobalt Blue Overlord's block-like scales and drove his entire right arm straight into the depths of Kेलaili's shoulder blade.

For the first time since the battle began, the enormous Cobalt-Blue Overlord staggered backward, nearly unable to remain standing. Cracks burst through his bones in succession, and blood surged out like a waterfall.

Normally, at this point, the battle should have ended. Any hatchling facing such a piercing, devastating injury should have collapsed and surrendered.

Yet Kेलaili panted heavily and actually raised both claws, locking Xilong's forelimb in reverse. Face to face, they glared at one another with fangs bared.

"Got you."

A vicious look appeared on Kेलaili's face. His voice, always muffled and heavy, carried a genuine savage edge as he roared and unleashed tremendous strength, making the Chrome Dragon's scales and skin burst apart.

"Xilong, surrender!"

Kेलaili warned, "Otherwise, I'll twist your forelimb off."

"Come on."

Xilong tensed his body as well. His spine slowly twisted and tightened. "Let's compare and see whose will is stronger."

As soon as the words fell, he used his spine as an axis and violently spun, unleashing a predator's primal death roll. The tips of his clawed toes became a spiraling spear, drilling deep into the Cobalt-Blue Overlord's body amid a shrill screech of grinding bones.

At the same time, every muscle across Kेलaili's body twisted taut, exerting force in unison to wrench off the Chrome Dragon's clawed toes along with their bones!

Both released deep, thunderous roars at once.

They were both powerful pureblood dragons—one a Cobalt-Blue Overlord, the other a mutant Chrome Dragon. Each wielded terrifying violence. Under such a vicious clash, their scales and skin completely broke apart, their bones and muscles cried out in succession, and blood gushed forth like a raging torrent.

Only after a considerable time was the victor finally decided.

Xilong slowly withdrew, his right arm hanging limply at his side. Kेलaili's strong acid corrosion and scale-grinding had destroyed all the scales, skin, and muscle on his clawed hand, leaving only a snapped length of bone.

Blood dripped onto the ground from the chromium-rich bone.

But he was still standing.

On the other side, Kेलaili was already sitting on the ground. A massive hole had been drilled through his shoulder blade. He panted with difficulty, having lost the ability to move.

In truth, he had one other choice. So long as he held Xilong in a death grip and refused to let go, the Cobalt Dragon's unique corrosive blood would drown Xilong and completely corrode him into a dragon skeleton.

But in that case, once Xilong sensed the danger, he would probably directly shred Kेलaili's heart.

This was, after all, only a clash between hatchlings. They could not use such a perish-together fighting method.

"As expected of the sharpest Chrome Dragon."

Kेलaili panted for a long while before he could finally speak. "You're stronger than me now."

As his words fell, another streak of light shot from his body. This time, however, it was not a scale, but a glittering gold coin.

"Then come challenge me again next time."

Xilong caught it with his left claw and smiled lightly. "Remember to bring gold coins."