Fierce battle in the tower

Flames licked the air, slapping searing waves of heat against Liu Qian's face.

He rolled awkwardly aside. Dragon breath grazed the hem of his robe, instantly reducing it to charred scraps and exposing the pale skin beneath.

Fighting a Chimera really burns through your clothes, Liu Qian grumbled inwardly.

Then he looked toward the arched dome above the circular hall, considering his tactics.

The circular hall might have seemed spacious to a human, but it left Liu Qian no room to maneuver in dragon form.

A dragon's power came from the sky, from the tremendous mobility of wings that stirred up fierce winds.

Inside this cage of stone walls and a vaulted ceiling, evading the torrent of destruction pouring from the Chimera's jaws was a pipe dream.

Besides, the Blood Warlock had laid a trap here. Who knew what else he had waiting? Liu Qian absolutely could not linger.

As he dodged the Chimera's fiery attacks, Liu Qian collected the Dragon Spirit from the Scaleclaws he had killed earlier, weaving through gaps in the flames as though dancing on a knife's edge.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Osarion standing beneath the massive stone archway through which he had entered the hall.

The door!

An idea flashed into Liu Qian's mind.

He could escape first, then fight the Chimera out in the open. Once airborne, he could deal with it however he pleased.

Liu Qian pushed hard against the cold stone floor, racing through the shadows along the edge of the hall.

Behind him, the Chimera's lion roar, goat bleat, and snake shriek merged into a chilling howl.

Flames followed like greedy tongues reaching out of hell, pursuing him relentlessly.

Liu Qian felt scorching heat against his back. Thanks to his [Fire Wielder] talent, the searing flames merely evaporated the sweat in his pores, leaving crystals of salt.

"Enough! You damned beast!"

Osarion's voice, shrill with fear, pierced the roar of the flames. "Kill him now! Do you hear me?"

The Chimera's imposing lion head snapped toward its creator, a lava-red glow churning deep in its throat.

A deafening roar exploded forth, thick with violence.

It was not an answer. It was a warning.

The blast of sound drove Osarion staggering backward, draining every trace of color from his gaunt face.

A Chimera was not a Great Dragon that could be tamed. It was savage and unpredictable by nature.

In that instant, Liu Qian shot beneath the stone archway like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The Chimera leaped behind him. The snake emerging from its rump curved forward, baring enormous fangs as it tried to swallow Liu Qian in its foul maw.

Liu Qian answered with a blast of Dragonfire. Its heat made the Chimera's snake head recoil sharply.

Seizing the opening, he plunged through the stone archway. But the broad corridor he remembered leading to the exit was now blocked by a massive black stone door of despairing thickness.

That old bastard Osarion had prepared for this after all!

His icy gaze swept across the passage like a blade. To the left, a dim spiral staircase coiled upward like a giant python, disappearing into unknown darkness at the top of the tower.

He charged into it without hesitation.

The stairs were astonishingly broad, a full fifty or sixty feet across, faintly gleaming in the gloom and thick with the smell of old mildew.

That was more than enough room for the terrifying Chimera to pursue him freely.

Behind him, the Chimera's roars and the rumble of its fiery breath drew closer. Every footfall shook the stone steps.

Liu Qian drove the dragon blood coursing through him to its limit and sprinted up the endless spiral.

The Wizard Tower was far taller than he had imagined. He had no idea how long he had been running up the spiral staircase; it seemed to have no end.

But he noticed that every hundred steps, a narrow window had been cut into the outer wall, each twice a person's height.

Bone-chilling wind poured through them, carrying impenetrably thick white mist and whipping Liu Qian's robe.

He could not help stopping beside one of the windows to look outside.

As far as he could see, rolling fog had swallowed all of Tyria, leaving only vague outlines of buildings.

The distant Blackstone Walls and enormous gate that had once seemed so oppressive had shrunk to a thin, dim black line on the ground.

Liu Qian sucked in a cold breath.

He was already thousands of feet in the air.

How else could those magnificent walls look so small?

"ROAR!!!"

From deep in the spiral staircase below came the Chimera's furious roar.

Then crimson flames illuminated the dim stairs, licking the ancient stone walls. The stench of sulfur instantly overwhelmed the mildew and damp chill.

The monster was here!

It stood on all fours, powerful muscles bunching in the shadows and crimson veins pulsing beneath taut skin.

The six eyes on its three heads burned like coals, fixed on Liu Qian by the window, seething with bitter hatred and an endless hunger to kill.

Lava-like light gathered again deep within its bloody jaws. Its deadly breath was about to erupt.

Liu Qian looked at that source of destruction, then glanced at the window beside him, opening onto endless fog. A mad but clear plan instantly took shape.

A mocking smile slowly tugged at his battle-taut face.

Just as the red glow in the Chimera's throat was about to erupt, Liu Qian stepped onto the windowsill and gave the hideous composite beast a deliberate wave.

Then he leaped outside without hesitation.

"Roar?" The flames in the Chimera's throat abruptly went out, its hideous jaws freezing in bewilderment.

Its massive body lunged forward, all three heads jostling to reach the narrow window.

The lion head stretched outside, searching the rolling fog. The ram's head anxiously battered the stone wall, while the snake's neck twisted frantically outward. Nothing answered them but deathly white silence and the howling cold wind.

The Chimera went utterly berserk. Its three heads roared, bleated, and shrieked together, their soul-shattering cries filled with the fury of being fooled and a destructive urge with nowhere to go.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, an irresistible force stirred the dense fog outside the tower, forming an enormous vortex.

A violent updraft surged from the abyss, tearing at the air.

Then a vast golden shadow ripped through the

mist and shot upward along the High Tower's sheer outer wall like a golden spear hurled by the gods, carrying the force of a thunderbolt!

It moved so fast that the pressure of its wake stripped loose stones from the tower wall.

Before the Chimera could react, the enormous golden shadow reached the window. Dragon jaws lined with jagged teeth opened wide and clamped savagely around the lion's neck protruding through the opening!

Crack!

The teeth-grating sound of shattering bone accompanied a wild spray of blood.

The lion head screamed with a shrillness scarcely possible for a living creature, thrashing wildly in agony.

It was Liu Qian! Liu Qian, transformed into a Golden Dragon!

After killing the Scaleclaws guards in the hall, the purity of the dragon blood coursing through Liu Qian had reached 3.3%, enough to sustain the form of a ten-meter-long golden Great Dragon.

The instant he saw the window, he had thought of using what his enemy did not know to launch a surprise attack.

How could this stupid composite beast know that the human it hunted was a true dragon, capable of soaring through the heavens at any moment?

Liu Qian could jump out of the window into its blind spot, hide in the fog to transform into a Great Dragon, then strike with thunderous force as the sovereign of the skies.

That was also why he had chosen not to transform directly inside the circular hall.

Now, this majestic, ferocious creature pressed his enormous body against the cold outer wall of the Wizard Tower.

The sharp Scaleclaws at the tips of his wings sank deep into the hard tower stone, while his powerful hind legs gouged long furrows in the wall.

He clamped down on the lion's neck and whipped his massive head violently from side to side, tearing at his prey.

Every shake brought the sharp crack of breaking bones and the muffled sound of muscle fibers being ripped apart.

The lion head's cries quickly weakened, dwindling to the wet rasp of a ruptured windpipe.

Only then did the Chimera's other two heads recover from their utter shock.

"Baa!" The goat head bellowed angrily, sharp teeth gleaming coldly in its mouth.

The snake head opened its jaws silently, exposing deadly venomous fangs.

They needed no command. Their survival instinct drove them to aim at the Golden Dragon clinging to the tower wall and unleash two streams of fire hot enough to melt metal.

The two crimson pillars of flame instantly vaporized the fog in their path. Their terrifying heat violently warped the surrounding air, setting it crackling.

The hard stone around the window rapidly reddened and softened beneath the flames, then melted.

But a flowing layer of pale golden light suddenly shone over the Golden Dragon's body. The two destructive columns slammed into it like raging currents striking solid rock, their power sharply weakened and dispersed.

His [Fire Wielder] talent helped him withstand the flames' initial heat, but the golden glow gradually thinned under the relentless fire.

I have to finish this quickly!

Liu Qian bit and tore even more savagely.

His dragon teeth pierced flesh and sank deep into the bones of the neck, producing a scalp-prickling grinding sound.

Scalding dragon blood mingled with the Chimera's foul blood, streaming down his lower jaw and dripping into the distant fog below.

At last, with an earth-shaking rip and the sharp snap of a spine breaking completely, Liu Qian tore the enormous lion head clean off its neck.

The Golden Dragon let out a triumphant roar that shook the heavens, released his claws from the stone, and beat his enormous wings. Fierce winds swirled as he instantly gained altitude.

He hovered outside the tower, looking down at the window now filled with blood and fear.

His dragon jaws opened. Deep within his throat, pale golden flames gathered, purer and fiercer than the Chimera's breath!

Boom!!!

A thick column of golden fire poured into the spiral staircase like divine punishment.

The Chimera's two remaining heads shrieked in terror. Unable to attack the exceptionally agile Liu Qian far out in the air, it could only flee instinctively into the depths of the staircase.

Liu Qian's cold dragon eyes tracked the Chimera scrambling through the tower as he continued to spew flames.

Every blast of Dragonfire struck like a heavy hammer.

The sturdy tower walls became as fragile as rotten wood beneath his breath. Huge chunks of stone exploded and peeled away, exposing the staircase within, while shattered rocks tumbled into the boundless abyss of fog below.

A dragon and a beast: one rained destruction from the sky, while the other fled for its life inside the tower.

Dragonfire burned and shattered its way downward, precisely following the Chimera's escape route. Scorching rubble rained onto its body.

The snake tail behind it had long since been burned black and carbonized, giving off a pungent charred stench.

One eye of the central goat head had been struck by splashing, lava-like debris and ran down like a melting candle. Its sole remaining eye was bloodshot and crazed.

Its chest, where the lion head had been bitten off, was a mangled ruin of flesh and blood. Severed vessels and shattered organs were faintly visible, and every leap scattered a filthy rain of blood.

Even so, this monster forged from blood and dark magic still displayed astonishing vitality.

Using all four limbs, it bounded down the spiral staircase like the wind. Hideously wounded, it finally plunged back into the familiar circular hall on the lowest level.

Liu Qian folded his wings. With heavy, muffled thuds, his enormous dragon body slowly climbed into the hall through the breach widened by Dragonfire.

At the center of the hall, Osarion's withered figure stood frozen, his face locked in an expression of utter shock and despair.

His proudest creation, the ultimate work into which he had poured countless lives and endless effort, now fled back to his feet, howling, drenched in blood, its flesh split open and its body reeking of approaching death.

Then Osarion's gaze froze.

A Great Dragon every bit as large as the Chimera, covered in magnificent, imposing golden scales, was slowly stepping into the hall through the smoke-filled breach.

With every step the Great Dragon took, his powerful hind legs made the floor tremble faintly.

The sharp claws on his wing forelimbs lightly gripped the ground. His golden slit pupils, like two cold suns, fixed on the Blood Warlock.

"No... impossible..."

Osarion's shriveled lips moved, his voice full of incredulous confusion. "Great Dragons are extinct... I tried so many times... sacrificed so much, but I couldn't awaken one... couldn't recreate one... this is impossible... absolutely..."

His gaunt fingers twitched compulsively, as though trying to grasp the apparition before him that had overturned everything he had believed throughout his life.