Just as the Skyvault Skiff shot through the Windspirit Continent's only passage, a vast, terrifying aura erupted in the sky, raging with overwhelming ferocity...
Several miles away...
Boom! With an earth-shaking explosion, a boulder several miles across suspended in the void shattered. A red Giant Dragon hundreds of feet long burst skyward, blasting the enormous rock to pieces...
The moment the Red Dragon appeared, his immense body swelled in the wind. In mere moments, he grew thousands, then tens of thousands of feet long and let out a roar that shook heaven and earth. His colossal claw, thousands of feet across, suddenly blazed with red light. Countless mysterious, crimson-shimmering runes covered it, radiating a boundless aura as he slammed it straight down at the fleeing Skyvault Skiff...
"Rumble!" The entire sky trembled violently. The space for hundreds of miles around seemed to turn thick and viscous. An immensely powerful aura that commanded heaven and earth imprisoned everything within that range. Space twisted and shuddered ceaselessly, and the Skyvault Skiff slowed abruptly, as though it had plunged into a mire...
"Boom!" With a muffled explosion, the entire Skyvault Skiff came to a sudden halt, seemingly unable to move in the void...
It took longer to tell than to happen!
In an instant!
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" A piercing whine erupted, and the Skyvault Skiff instantly released countless streams of five-colored spiritual light. The light surged across the entire skiff, forming a shimmering, five-colored defensive light barrier...
At that very instant...
"Rumble!!" The Red Dragon's immense descending claw slammed directly into the enormous Skyvault Skiff...
"Clang!!" A piercing, sky-shaking crash like weapons clashing erupted. The entire five-colored spiritual light barrier around the Skyvault Flying Boat shattered under the blow. The enormous claw struck the boat itself, producing another earth-shaking, deafening metallic clang.