Seemingly infuriated by Rudi's rain of stones pelting him from head to toe and the black dragon's harassment, Dillon let out a long cry. His swordplay changed abruptly, every strike carrying a savage force that seemed bent on cleaving heaven and earth, emerald sword light tearing through the air. Rudi's face darkened further. He thumped his staff hard against the dragon's back, chanting an incantation that grew longer and more convoluted, its syllables so ancient they made one's scalp prickle.
The earthen-yellow light in the sky thickened into something like churned mud. Then a stone giant formed entirely of Earth Element, a full ten meters tall, rose rumbling from that yellow light! Its face was indistinct, but its body was frighteningly solid. Each step through empty air gave a muffled, drumlike thud, thud. Swinging a fist the size of a house, it smashed viciously at Dillon, who was wrapped in emerald battle-qi!
"Thud! Thud! Boom!"
High overhead became a terrifying arena where masses of green and yellow light savagely tore at one another, collided, and exploded. The noise and commotion were several degrees fiercer than before. Even far below, the town's houses shook and shed showers of dust, while ever more densely packed stones and assorted debris rained down.
At the storehouse of Baruch Mansion, Linley, who had raced back, dodged falling stones as he approached. The old housekeeper, Grandpa Hiri, ran swiftly toward him, red battle-qi rippling around his body. "Quick! Young Master Linley, get inside the storehouse!" Linley's younger brother Wharton appeared in the doorway just then, calling to him, "Hurry, big brother! Big brother!" At that very moment, an unusually large, two-meter boulder fell toward the storehouse. At the sight, Linley's eyes strained as though they would split. "Wharton, get inside!" he roared at his brother. The little boy had never seen his brother like this before and froze in fright. Linley charged toward Wharton without regard for his own life. Alarmed at the sight, old Hiri unleashed his battle-qi at full strength and rushed toward the brothers.
His face contorted, Linley roared at Wharton, "Get down!"
At the same time, he shielded Wharton with his own body. The boulder struck the storehouse wall, spraying fragments over Linley. Unable to hold any longer, the wall toppled toward him. Old Hiri's eyes instantly reddened at the sight. Moving like lightning, he unleashed his battle-qi and threw himself over Linley. All three were buried beneath the stones in an instant. In the courtyard, Hogg had just shattered a stone with his sword when he saw this. "Linley! Wharton!" His eyes immediately reddened.
In his panic, Hogg could not tell whether the stones had fallen on Linley and Wharton first or old Hiri had shielded them first.
Before Hogg reached the rubble, it burst open from within, revealing old Hiri. Hogg's voice trembled. "Uncle Hiri, how are they...?"
His gaze passed old Hiri and landed on Linley below, his head bleeding. Hogg's mind went blank with a buzz. Then Wharton's childish voice came from below. "Father." Seeing his bleeding brother lying over him, he cried, "Big brother! Big brother, what's wrong?"
"Linley, Linley..." Even Hogg's voice trembled.
Old Hiri said guiltily, "I'm sorry, my lord. I was still a step too late. Young Master Linley (the protagonist of Coiling Dragon died, the end-just kidding, of course) still took some blows to the head from the stones."
A flying stone had cut Linley's forehead, and blood smeared half his face, making him look rather frightening. Blood ran down his face and dripped inside his clothes, soaking the unremarkable Black Ring tucked against his chest. Its surface was filthy. As the blood moistened it, the indistinct, tangled patterns on it seemed to glow faintly for an instant, then vanished in a blink. No one noticed.
Hogg quickly examined Linley's wound and breathed a sigh of relief. It was superficial. He looked up at the stone giant fighting furiously overhead, his face grim. "That's one of an Earth Element Saint Magus's greatest abilities, the 'Earth Guardian.' Tenth-level magic..." His voice held irrepressible shock. Though the Baruch Clan had fallen on hard times, its accumulated knowledge remained.
Above, Dillon roared repeatedly, his sword light like a living dragon. At last, he caught an opening. An emerald streak of sword light, as solid as a drill, drove viciously into the stone giant's chest-the center where its power converged!
Boom!
The stone giant gave a soundless roar, its movements abruptly freezing. Weblike cracks instantly spread across its massive body, and then it collapsed with a crash, turning back into earthen-yellow motes drifting wildly through the sky.
But an instant before the giant fell apart, its fist, which could barely stay clenched, also slammed squarely into Dillon, who could not dodge entirely clear!
"Pfft!" Dillon shuddered violently and flew backward several hundred meters like a kite with its string cut. His face paled, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. The emerald glow of battle-qi around him dimmed considerably.
Yet before he could catch his breath, Rudi sneered from the black dragon's back below and waved his staff again. Dense earthen-yellow light surged once more, and another equally terrifying Earth Guardian began taking shape in midair!
"Dillon! Give in! Hand it over, and I'll grant you your life!" Rudi's voice rang with the grating smugness of certain victory.
Dillon wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes swept down over the town, now a wreck filled with cries and screams, then returned to the giant emerging before him, the glaring black dragon, and Rudi, who was clearly in much better shape than he was. A reckless viciousness flashed in his eyes, along with a hint of mockery.
He suddenly pulled something from inside his clothes. Wrapped in a soft ball of light, its exact nature could not be seen.
"Since I can't have it..." Dillon grinned, exposing bloodstained teeth, and abruptly clenched his hand!
"You wouldn't dare!!!" Rudi's smugness instantly became a shriek of shock and fury.
With a soft pop, Dillon crushed the ball of light in his palm. It became a cloud of luminous mist that vanished without a trace in the wind.
"There," Dillon said, spreading his empty palm. His face was even paler, but his gaze remained sharp as a knife. "Now it's gone. Do you still want to fight me to the death here? Rudi, I might fall here today, but don't think you'll leave in one piece either. Or... do you want to drag yourself home half-crippled? I can't guarantee you won't run into a few of your 'old sweethearts' along the way."
Rudi's face turned black as the bottom of a pot. His chest heaved with anger as he stared fixedly at Dillon. The thing was destroyed! He had pursued him for days and nights, fought desperately against someone of his own level, and ended up with nothing! Rage made his head swim, but he looked at Dillon, who had indeed suffered internal injuries yet had lost none of his fighting spirit, and weighed his own considerable expenditure of magical power and mental energy. When Saints fought desperately, if one wanted to die, the other would certainly suffer for it. Besides, Dillon's words had struck a sore spot. He did have plenty of enemies...
"Hmph!" After holding it in for a long while, Rudi forced a cold snort of resentment and venom through his teeth. He stopped looking at Dillon and waved his staff. The second Earth Guardian, still incompletely formed, slowly dispersed. Riding his wounded black dragon, he cast one last sinister glance at the antlike town below and Dillon swaying in the air, then turned and shot toward the distant sky, disappearing in a blink.
Only when the black dragon's silhouette had vanished completely did Dillon let out a long, pained breath, swaying in midair. He dared not linger. Without so much as a glance below, he forced up a surge of battle-qi and turned into a somewhat unsteady streak of emerald light, shooting away in the opposite direction from Rudi and disappearing as well.
The two Saints had arrived abruptly, fought until heaven and earth shook, and left just as decisively. Neither concerned himself with what the scraps spilling from their battle had brought upon the little place below called Wushan Town, as though it truly were only a handful of dust to be scattered at will.
When Loa finally stumbled across the last stretch of road piled with broken bricks and tiles and reached the place he remembered, he stopped dead. All his strength drained away at once, as though pumped out of him.
Before him, there was no familiar doorway with its wooden Blacksmith Shop sign, no chimney trailing gray smoke, no yard piled with coal and iron.
There was only a heap of ruins.
More than half the once fairly sturdy stone walls had collapsed. Charred beams and rafters lay twisted together every which way, with broken tiles and earth covering everything. He could just make out half an anvil buried beneath the bricks, a bellows handle warped into a bizarre shape, and several old hoes he had ruined while practicing, now broken into pieces...
The tools he had carefully maintained, the equipment Old Jack had used for half his life, the bowls in the kitchen that were crude but scrubbed clean, and... and the hide scroll he had hidden deep in the cupboard, carefully wrapped in oilcloth, depicting Old Jack and yesterday's battle...
All of it was buried.
Easily ground to dust by the stray force those two figures in the sky had casually let slip.
Loa's legs gave way, and he dropped straight to his knees before the cold ruins. Dust covered his trouser legs and hands, but he seemed not to feel it. He simply stared blankly, as though he could still hear the repeated clang of Old Jack's hammer by his ears, smell sweet potatoes roasting beside the forge, and feel the warmth of the old man's rough hand resting on his head...
Yesterday, this had still been his home, holding all the warmth, hardship, and memories of the past ten years. Today, only wreckage remained.
This cold, hard reality struck his heart more heavily than any dazzling or terrifying magic or battle-qi in the sky. In this world where the strongest fist had the final say, ordinary days and treasured hopes were so fragile after all-so fragile that a single careless brush from the powerful above could grind them utterly to ash.
He knelt there without moving, as though he too had become part of the wreckage. Only his fists remained clenched tight, their knuckles bloodlessly white from the force.
Before you continue