12.2. The Flood Dragon

The sutra of thorned branches was a spell Faust had found in the technique library. It was originally less advanced, but after some fiddling Faust had made some minor modifications for it to fully utilise his three-twelve foundation.

The flood dragon below writhed and squirmed on the ground, overturning trees and plowing through soil. It looked up defiantly at the heavens, rattling Faust’s bones as it roared in protest.

Sharp green tendrils shot out from the ground, wrapping around the flood dragon before their tips pushed through the scales and curled up inside the body, crushing bones and piercing organs.

“Huuuh…” Faust completed the spell technique, a combination of spellcraft and Qi techniques that found a middle ground between the two.

“Bloody hell…” Satheon was gasping for air, his outer robes torn to shreds and his inner robes barely maintaining his dignity.

Faust couldn’t help but agree with Satheon, nodding along as he cast the same spell technique yet again.

The flood dragon had eaten 4 more Solaris Lance spells and must have lost almost half its mass from flesh turned to charcoal, yet it still stubbornly clung to life, fighting to the bitter end.

It was only towards the end that the flood dragon had made the mistake of trying to draw Qi in from the environment to replenish its reserves.

Water Qi had rushed towards the dragon like a swarm of bees answering their queen’s call. It was no damn wonder it had taken so much Fire Qi and remained standing. Faust thought.

Faust had been under the impression that the beast was of Metal and Earth attributes, perhaps the Dark attribute as well. The spells and methods he chose were all based around that and the flood dragon had been intelligent enough to hide its attributes well.

Finally… With the flood dragon completely restrained. Faust took his time casting.

Satheon also stood his full height, preparing to engage the flood dragon again at a moment’s notice.

One hand seal.

Two hand seals.

After 188 hand seals, Faust exhaled deeply. This was the other spell technique he had made. Well… That he modified.

It was originally a spell with 244 hand seals and was lacking in power proportionally.

With that spell as a research sample, Faust found the problem was in its design being for stupid teenagers with two-three foundations.

Some ‘modifications’ later and he had stripped it of all its safety elements, converted part of the spell into a technique used in conjunction with the spell and maximised its power.

188 seals however meant it still took so long to use.

Countless sigils of Spirit Qi spread out in a circle above the flood dragon, forming a massive array.

Faust felt his Spirit Qi reserves run practically dry.

“Heaven’s smite.” Faust said.

Thunder cracked.

The sky darkened for an instant.

Satheon’s eyes widened.

Even Faust felt all his hair stand on end.

BOOOOOM!!!!

A bolt of lighting struck down from the sky. Turning the world black and blue for an instant as it fell.

There was no massive crater or shockwave.

The flood dragon went still instantly. Blue bolts of electricity sparked across its body.

Faust exhaled, finally relaxing, “Huuu…”

“Haha… What kind of attack was that…” Satheon asked, laughing dryly as he watched, letting his tired arms fall limply at his sides.

“My trump card. It’s based on a Golden Core level technique.” Faust responded, his flying sword drooping low to the ground beside Satheon.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I’m aware.”

“And you made it while still at the Meridian opening realm?”

“Parts of it. I wasn’t able to use the spell technique then. This was my first time using it. Fortunately it worked. Though it was quite flawed.”

“Flawed? What part?”

“It’s overkill for use against Open Palace cultivators and even if caught by surprise it probably won’t be able to one shot an early Golden Core cultivator.”

“So?”

“I either need to sacrifice power to make it viable mid combat, or I need to sacrifice speed to make it more powerful, enough to be used against Golden Core cultivators. In its current state, it’s not very useful.”

“…” Satheon looked skeptical, but also too tired to argue.

“Haiizzz. I’ll show you later at the sect. Let’s find Sirius and Phalecia.” Faust sighed. A near fully transformed flood dragon was going to be an immensely valuable haul. Almost every part was going to be valuable. Especially with the Water Qi and Metal Qi alignment rather than the Earth and Metal Qi one.

The two dragged their bodies to the edge of the formation.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“Wow!” Sirius praised, throwing her uninjured arm in the air. “The older brothers are amazing! You didn’t even need us!” She praised, while stirring a pot of meat, herbs and spices.

The group sat atop the charred corpse of the defeated flood dragon, which was ironically the driest place in the area. Its wide body had no shortage of room anyways.

Faust didn’t respond, drinking Pure Qi infused water he had brought in a bamboo canister, several low grade spirit stones, clinking around like ice, inside.

“HAHAHA! Of course!” Satheon bellowed loudly under the night sky, trying to sit up covered in Wood Qi infused bandages in similar fashion to Sirius. “Argh!” He suddenly groaned, wincing in pain as he fell back on his back, clutching his side.

Faust didn’t have any bandages, he hadn’t thought physically with the dragon apart from his failed attempt near the start of the fight.

The most damage Faust had taken was his last spell technique, where the incompleteness of the technique had caused some backlash. If not for the toughness of his Inner Palace foundation, he might have even been seriously injured by the spell technique. He would have to revise it a lot back at the sect.

“Sorry I didn’t help.” Phalecia said. She had been silent almost since the start of the fight.

“Don’t worry about it.” Faust responded, “This is your first mission outside of the sect. And our opponent was far more powerful than expected. A nearly fully transformed flood dragon.” He took another large sip of the Pure Qi infused water.

“Would we have died if it were fully transformed?” Sirius asked.

“It’s easier to tell it’s fully transformed compared to only mostly transformed. We would have abandoned the mission and run away otherwise.” Faust dismissed her concerns.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What if it was a thousand meters long!”

“We’d have died. It would see us long before we saw it in that case.” Faust shrugged.

“Nine hundred and ninety?”

“Flood, Sea, Gold and Sky dragons are easy enough to classify.” Faust cleared his throat to explain, “One meter, three meters, six meters and nine meters are the early, middle, late and peak stages of Qi Refining. Ten, thirty, sixty, ninety are the early to peak stages of Meridian Opening and a hundred, three hundred, six hundred then nine hundred are the thresholds for Open Palace.”

“Ohhhh… So Nine hundred to Nine hundred and ninety nine aren’t much different?”

“More or less.”

“The Golden Core realm equivalent would have been one thousand, three thousand, six thousand and nine thousand meters? Am I right, Senior brother?”

“More or less.” Faust nodded along.

After Sirius’s hearty meal that would make most restaurants seethe with envy at her skill, the group either slept or meditated. Satheon snored loudly while Sirius was leaning against Faust, drooling all over his robes. As an alchemist whose internal clock needed to be in perfect alignment, Phalecia also slept tonight, leaving Faust briefly as the only one awake.

Focusing on dealing with the backlash of the imperfect Heaven’s Smite spell technique, Faust wasn’t worried about other predators approaching.

The Qi in the area had become wild and tumultuous, the Qi cycles and feng shui had all been ruined as well. Not to mention, the Spirit Qi that floated around naturally in the environment was filled with the flood dragon’s resentment. Alongside the remnant Qi of the powerful spells, techniques and abilities used, any creature below the Golden Core realm would feel its hairs stand on end as soon as they approached.

The night passed uneventfully as the group rested and recovered.

Come morning though…

“Argh! Finally!” Satheon rolled his shoulders. The use of sleep to quickly absorb the bandages Wood Qi had done wonders for his bruised muscles and cracked bones.

“I’m so jealous of, senior brother!” Sirius pouted. She had taken the only direct hit in the group and several bones were shattered completely. After replacing the now ordinary bandages with fresh ones soaked with Wood Qi, she sat to the side leaving the other three to deal with the flood dragon’s corpse.