12.1. The Flood Dragon

Satheon and the flood dragon charged each other down, both letting out guttural roars.

Satheon’s eyes went bloodshot.

BOOOM!

The flood dragon obliterated the ground, tossing rock and soil into the sky.

Satheon had dodged at the last second, swinging his halberd.

“HAAAH!!!” The halberd glowed as it came crashing down.

“RAAAHHHHH!!!!” The flood dragon screeched, twisting its body.

The halberd impacted the ground and the air briefly turned white from the pressure, the shockwave tearing and flattening the area.

The flood dragon’s twisted body curved, letting its head face Satheon.

White light began emanating from the flood dragon’s open mouth.

Satheon grinned madly as he attempted to dodge.

The light brightened, mist already spilling from the flood dragon’s jaw.

Sirius appeared above the flood dragon’s head.

“Hooooo. HAH!” Sirius swung her sword down.

“RA–GRRRR!!!” The flood dragon’s head was forced to the ground, its jaw being forced back as it rolled its charred eyes up to glare at Sirius, piercing yellow eyes filled with fury.

Satheon and Sirius retreated.

The flood dragon’s mouth opened again.

BGGGGGGZZZZZZZZZZUUUUUU!!!!

A beam of light tore through the forest, narrowly missing Satheon and startling the inexperienced Phalecia who was near the beam’s path.

In the air, Faust finished his cast. The flood dragon’s eyes snapped towards him as he clasped two fingers with his hand.

Faust threw both hands to the horizon.

The ground cracked and shattered. The now vast Earth Qi rolling across the surface after the fire spell turned to Metal Qi, forming into solid iron spikes.

“Raaaaaaah!!!” The flood dragon didn’t stay still, it threw its body out of the way desperately as the wall of massive iron spikes rose from the ground, intent on impaling it and reaching for the sky.

At the same time, Phalecia did her best to help, several Qi infused daggers with brightly coloured tips flew from her sleeve and embedded themselves into crisp flesh.

The flood dragon let out a pained whine as several of the towering metal spikes struck true, catching briefly inside its flesh before it jerked its massive body and snapped the spikes off, the tips still embedded into its side.

Light began forming around the flood dragon’s throat as its eyes fixated on Faust.

Faust prepared to defend, casting another set of handsigns, his hands becoming a blur of motion as Satheon and Sirius moved to attack. He locked eyes with the beast as they stared each other down.

Satheon jumped, almost disappearing into the sky before some kind of technique was activated. Satheon dropped from high in the sky, his halberd glowing, shining like a falling star as he descended from the heavens with a battle cry.

Sirius rushed in low, a golden glow covering her sword as she prepared to make an upward swing.

The flood dragon’s golden eyes narrowed and it rushed towards Faust, roaring as white mist fell out of its mouth once again.

Faust felt the roar reverberate through his bones. It was obvious the flood dragon would target him— too obvious. Right then, his eyes widened.

“WAIT!” Faust shouted.

The flood dragon rushed Faust, but as Sirius approached from low, the beast’s tail flicked up.

Sirius tried to redirect herself but had already sped up too much.

Sirius changed her sword’s trajectory to block, gritting her teeth and bracing for impact.

BANG!

Trees were pierced through and boulders smashed.

“Pah!” Sirius spat out blood as she lay among debris at the edge of the bewilderment formation. She tried to reach around and pull herself up but then fell down unconscious, blood dripping from somewhere and staining her clothes.

Satheon crashed down like a meteor. “HAAAAHH!!” He struck down.

CLLLAAAAANGG!!!!!

A deafening ring, like steel against steel, sounded as the shockwave made the air tremble. Yet.

Faust saw with the Clear Mirror Pupil, the flood dragon had focused almost all its Qi into only a few scales defending Satheon’s strike, leaving it near unharmed.

The flood dragon suddenly changed its direction, its head shooting up into the air as it continued to charge its breath, the light from its throat growing far more violently than before.

“Dammit!” Faust abandoned his spell mid cast, he drew his best sword, Orion and slashed at the beast’s undefended flesh.

Spirit Qi filled the sword, Faust abused the 12 Qi Transformations art to maximise the power of the ordinary strike.

SHING!

The sword cut part the way through before getting stuck. The Meridian opening weapon was too outclassed for the difference in technique alone to make up for.

“SATHEON—”

“I KNOW!!!”

Faust tried to shout warning as he was dragged suddenly high up into the air along with the flood dragon’s body as it twisted again, aiming its breath at Satheon.

Satheon sprinted at max speed, but the flood dragon aimed from high up and he was limited by the boundaries of the formation.

BGGGGGGZZZZZZZZZZUUUUUU!!!!

The blasts had previously all shot through the air harmlessly, but this one hit the ground not far from Satheon, missing only by a few tens of meters.

BOOOOOOM!!!!

A comforting, gentle warmth touched Faust’s skin as he looked with horror, his back going cold. He turned back to his stuck sword with gritted teeth.

A white sphere of light covered a third the formation, spreading hundreds of meters in diameter, bathing the surrounding forest in soft blue light and making the world dim with long shadows appearing where none were a moment before.

Faust put both hands around the sword handle and yanked hard. Orion slid out with a squelch, dragging flesh and blood out with it as he threw himself far into the sky and landed atop his flying sword once more.

Below, as the sphere of light faded, a shadow appeared.

A smoke covered Satheon shot out, his robes in tatters as he threw away a shattered piece of jade.

The beast turned and shot towards Satheon, its mouth open wide as it chased and tried to swallow him whole. Despite the power of Faust’s spells, the weaknesses were clear.

Faust began casting another spell, his eyes tracking the flood dragon intently.

Satheon sprinted away, just outpacing the flood dragon when the beast glanced up at Faust, then it shifted and changed direction towards where Sirius had crashed earlier. Phalecia was at her side, feeding her pills and rubbing salve across some minor wounds, so focused she became oblivious to the approaching beast.

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“SATHEON!” Faust shouted, he was about to abandon his spell.

“I’VE GOT IT!” Satheon’s voice boomed, he changed direction as well and raised his halberd.

“HRRRAAAAAAAHHH!!!” Satheon gave out a mad howl as the flood dragon charged him down with its jaws open wide.

“HHHHSSSRRRRRRAAAAAHH!!!!” The flood dragon met the howl with one of its own, no less vicious its intent.

The two met.

CLANG!

Qi reinforced silver steel met Qi reinforced white teeth.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!” Satheon continued his cry as the flood dragon continued, trying to slam its jaw shut over Satheon as he stubbornly maintained his grip on the halberd jammed between the flood dragon’s upper and lower jaw.

The flood dragon continued charging Sirius even as it dealt with Satheon’s resistance against its vice, but its eyes were fixed on Faust.

Faust completed his third spell.

The flood dragon made a sharp turn.

A thin orange line traced from the direction of the sun, striking just beside the beast as it tried to evade.

BOOOOOM!

The world became shades of amber as the Solaris Lance, one of Faust’s most powerful spells, just barely missed.

An orange sphere enveloped most of the dragon and another third of the formation, matching the flood dragon’s beams of light bit for bit, pound for pound.

A massive shadow escaped the ball of fire.

“Damn! That’s hot!” Satheon yelled through a strained smile as his halberd began making cracking sounds as bits flaked off the side. Satheon was still stuck holding onto the halberd stuck in the flood dragon’s jaw.

Faust looked around, trying to formulate his next move.

The flood dragon passed above the formation flags that were originally for the Qi Amplification formation.

Faust made a hand sign.

The formation flags trembled.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Several of the flags detonated, flinging wet mud and dirt across the forest and drying it in the same moment.

The flood dragon staggered for an instant and Satheon leapt away, rolling over the flood dragon’s head across its piercing gaze.