City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Stalemate

Most dragons could endure high temperatures, many fire dragons even able to bathe in lava. Putting minimal pressure on his allies, Bahamut pounced into the fight. The dragons in the tangle all fled to give him space, with only Kralkalor and two more of the most powerful dragons continuing to contend.

Wreathed in flames, his body quickly shrank down until he was less than fifty metres long; however, the temperature of the flames only grew while his red scales turned translucent. Sharon dodged his immediate attack, but her golden hair started to curl and char from the heat.

Sharon growled in anger, grabbing Bahamut by the tail. If this was any other dragon, she would be able to rip it off then and there, causing it to lose its balance and fall to the ground. However, she immediately yelped in pain and released her hold in panic; her palm was charred black with a green smoke that smelt like roasted meat spreading out.

The legendary mage jumped a thousand metres away, rubbing her hands hard to drop the ash as new skin grew over. She was back to normal in the blink of an eye, but despite glaring at the dragon she didn’t jump forward again. Instead, she started a quick chant that couldn’t be intercepted.

A number of new dragons appeared in the sky, with the legendary mage twirling her finger around and whistling clearly before she blinked on top of Bahamut’s head. Combining both hands, she smashed downwards.

A blue meteorite fell from the sky, striking the Flame Dragon’s head mercilessly and sending him crashing towards the ground. Half a dozen more followed in quick succession, but Bahamut regained his balance in mid-air and shrank down to a third of his size to dodge all but one. He also took the opportunity to counter-attack, managing to strike Sharon with his tail. The damage was minimal, a scorch mark on Sharon’s thigh, but the attack managed to burn off half of her skirt.

However, this time she didn’t grow furious. Her sky-blue eyes glimmered with a dangerous light as she calmed down, scanning her surroundings, “And here I was wondering when you found the guts to fight me. So it’s because you’re familiar with the laws of this plane.”

“Exactly!” Bahamut answered honestly, pouncing over once more.

Sharon’s hair flew up as she blocked the paw swiping down at her with one hand, the other spreading out and pointing at Bahamut’s face. Resplendent blue specks of light started to shine in the gaps.

Starbreaker Blast! Bahamut’s eyes narrowed as he pushed away, starting to flash around to avoid the attack. The light grew even brighter until it became a pillar that shot into the distance, disappearing after about ten kilometres. This didn’t seem like much when compared to its name, but only moments later spatial cracks started to litter the path it had left behind. The beam had pierced straight through space!

This single attack had cut a tremendous wound into the plane itself, so powerful that even the origin energy of the plane would be affected. Even Kralkalor would be pierced through by it, not to mention ordinary dragons. The spatial cracks themselves acted like the sharpest of blades, easily able to cut through an adult metallic dragon’s body.

Bahamut did all he could to flee the attack, barely escaping it before rushing back to battle immediately. Kralkalor and the two others charged forward to engage at close range, unwilling to fight from any distance. While Sharon was strong, that strength wasn’t enough to kill them outright.

The battle soon entered a stalemate. Bahamut’s growth in power from being at home was far too great, while his three allies were plenty strong as well. Although she had the power of an epic being, Sharon couldn’t take all of them out at once. If time allowed for it, such as if the fight dragged on for days, she would certainly manage to tire them out and kill them, but who knew how many other powerful existences would show themselves. Bahamut definitely wasn’t in the strongest tier of being on this plane, and there was at least one other existence with power equivalent to the Five-Coloured Dragon.

Realising this, Sharon’s expression darkened and blue light shimmered in her hands. Knowing how powerful the Starbreaker Blast was, all four dragons immediately manoeuvred away to dodge; the attack’s weakness was very clear despite its might. Once it was charged up, Sharon had no choice but to release it in a few seconds.

As they dodged the deadly attack, the dragons saw Sharon starting to create a portal in the sky. Bahamut bellowed and shot towards her to intercept, but Kralkalor quickly roared out a warning for him to get away. The Flame Dragon’s hesitation lasted long enough for the portal to explode, and despite his affinity for flames he quickly noticed the spatial rifts within and knew not to give chase.

Through the raging flames, the dragons could only watch Sharon land on the ground and grab a few of their injured kin, stuffing them into her spatial equipment. Four dragons were gone in the blink of an eye, leaving Bahamut completely shocked. He had never thought that spatial equipment could actually fit entire dragons, and would never have considered that the legendary mage had more than one.

Unfortunately, the rest of Sharon’s equipment was planned for the plunder of nests; it wasn’t nearly as spacious. Having to leave so quickly, it would all remain unused. Grunting in dissatisfaction, she grabbed another of the dragons by the tail and dragged it towards the teleportation gate.

Bahamut was absolutely furious, craning his neck as he bellowed wildly, but he didn’t dare to follow right through the explosions. While he could cross with limited damage, the three others could not. Without their help, he had no confidence in taking Sharon on even for a few moments. With someone of her power, the duration of a fight didn’t come close to determining its danger.

The Flame Dragon returned to his original size and floated quietly in the air as he watched Sharon escape, no emotion in his deep eyes. In stark contrast, Kralkalor couldn’t hide his despair as he flew over, his enormous body still small when compared to that of the Flame Dragon. The entire area went deathly silent as the flames sizzled away, the dragons even breathing quietly as if afraid Sharon would return.

“On the other end of this portal… is Sharon,” Kralkalor eventually broke the silence.

“That’s obvious,” Bahamut answered icily.

“What do we do now? If Sharon is there, I… I can’t go.” The outcome of the battle was obvious; Sharon had brazenly taken five dragons even when surrounded by Bahamut, Kaloh, and others in an unfamiliar environment. If the venue was elsewhere, even if she wasn’t a native of Faelor either, he would only be serving himself up on a silver platter. Even Bahamut would likely be captured.

The Flame Dragon whipped his tail around in frustration, glaring at Kralkalor, “That’s your problem. When it’s time, you still have to repay your debt!”

He then turned around and flew into the skies, entering the clouds in the distance. The gold dragon couldn’t say a single word, just landing in front of the portal and watching the imposing frame in a daze. The portal was still rippling from Sharon’s passage.

In that moment, Kralkalor felt incomparably lonely. Nobody planned to approach him, just silently cleaning up the area while taking care of the dead and wounded.

Seven dragons had died and five were captured in one go, the losses immense enough to shock the plane. The dragons were overcome with fear and rage, killing thousands upon thousands of their disciples once they returned. That number didn’t even count the number of elderly and children, which caused the numbers to skyrocket. Some turned entire villages into seas of fire as they vented.