At the same time it was facing the encirclement and assault of four such opponents, the Xeno'jiiva—barely an hour old since its birth—learned the very first lesson this world taught it.
Danger.
Any one of those four, taken alone, would be an existence of extreme danger to the newly born it. Even Ruiner Nergigante, the one that posed the least threat comparatively, still possessed the possibility of killing it before it had completed its metamorphosis—let alone with all four present at once.
Even in such a desperate situation, its growth rate was so fast as to be outrageous. Its control over energy and its overall strength both experienced exaggerated increases. Yet as its flesh and blood grew ever more solid, as the various organs of its body began to take shape, despite possessing life energy that far surpassed that of all the Elder Dragons present, truly life-threatening injuries continued to appear on its body without pause.
On the platform, only Kulve Taroth—unable to fly—and Xeno'jiiva remained, the latter having its wings continuously attacked and therefore unable to meet the conditions required for takeoff.
Meanwhile, Logan maintained a position above Xeno'jiiva throughout the entire exchange, continuously employing various attacks to probe Xeno'jiiva's weak points, while firmly suppressing its attempts to take flight.
As for Ruiner Nergigante—the one that had suffered a stifling setback—it likely also realized that it had no way of taking down Xeno'jiiva, this "big meal," through solo combat. After being caught in several waves of Kulve Taroth's ultra-high-temperature heat surges, it finally came to terms with reality and obediently assumed the role of a flight-suppression tool dragon and a living restraint.
To disrupt Xeno'jiiva's state while it was clashing beams, and to give Kulve Taroth a fixed target position by pinning Xeno'jiiva in place.
Darren—on whom Logan had placed high hopes—seemed to have completely adapted to Logan's fighting style of using electric currents to tug him along and fling him around. At certain moments, he was always able to drive a blade deep into Xeno'jiiva's vulnerable parts, as well as into those organs that were faintly taking shape, and that could be roughly observed through the scales because Xeno'jiiva's entire body was glowing.
Kulve Taroth, who neither needed to consider the opponent's dodging route nor engage in close combat to wear down the opponent's stamina, had never fought such a comfortable battle.
Its body temperature climbed even further, and the ground beneath its four limbs had long since turned into molten lava.
That seemingly bloated, massive body continued to slide through the lava, spewing out mouthful after mouthful of ultra-high-temperature heat surges without the slightest concern, wantonly enjoying the sounds of the enemy's scales melting under the high heat, hissing with sizzle after sizzle.
In this world, the underground was truly far too vast. Although the threats there were even more terrifying than on the surface, one often still had to take the current position into account.
The earth shook and collapsed—yet even an Elder Dragon like Dalamadur, capable of shattering mountains and splitting the land, would face severe danger. As a result, battles between underground Elder Dragons often ended with restraint, stopping short.
As the "Mother Goddess of Gold," Kulve Taroth's temperament was good, but there was likewise no shortage of violent factors deep within its monster genes.
Rarely having such an object that it could attack as wantonly as it pleased, it truly kept its firepower fully unleashed from beginning to end—so much so that even its body's heat dissipation nearly couldn't keep up.
Szzzt—
A massive laser descended from the sky, passing over the dodging Ruiner Nergigante and striking straight into Xeno'jiiva's back, which had already turned pitch-black.
The tremendous impact force pressed it directly into the ground. The back scales that had already taken shape shifted from black to red within the laser; however, because the metamorphosis itself was drawing in energy, and was continuously extracting vast amounts of bioenergy from its body, the entire set of back scales presented an abnormal blue-red coloration.
"Its resistance has increased again!!"
Do not be fooled by how miserable Xeno'jiiva sounded at the moment. Logan, who had launched that strike, could clearly feel that the resistance encountered within his breath had increased by a considerable margin compared to before. What was more, despite clearly enduring his attack, after letting out two agonized cries, Xeno'jiiva rotated its long neck, ignored the laser on its back, and fired a very similar breath straight back toward Logan.
Spreading his wings to evade—at this level of purity, such a bioenergy laser was already sufficient to break through his Terastal membrane defense and strike his true body directly. Taking a hit like that would not be worth it.
Moreover, his objective had already been achieved!
Xeno'jiiva had grown stronger—and at the same time, a fatal weakness had likewise taken shape at this very moment!
Although those back scales that had turned black due to metamorphosis blocked direct observation from above, judging from the internal organs of Xeno'jiiva's body illuminated by the breath just now, one of a biological organism's greatest weaknesses—the heart—had already fully formed.
Moreover, Xeno'jiiva's heart had already successfully become the key node of its internal energy circulation. One "blood vessel" after another, transporting bioenergy, ultimately connected and converged upon that constantly beating heart!
Not every Forbidden monster possesses an undying heart. At the very least, Safi'jiiva—one that can be killed—does not have such an ability.
At this moment, Xeno'jiiva, as the juvenile stage of the Red Dragon, had yet to complete its metamorphosis. Its body was still not that indestructible!
The energy within its body also could not yet be perfectly controlled. It was still using the most primitive method of energy application, rather than terrifying techniques like the Sapphire of the Emperor—moves that condense all ley-line energy, can activate an entire region, and blanket it with a ley-line energy explosion that is nearly impossible to evade, leaving only head-on confrontation.
Now! This was the best moment to kill this future king of Elder Dragons!
"Roar!!"
After evading, Logan's resounding dragon roar swept across the battlefield.
Kulve Taroth, which had been waiting all along for a chance to find the killing blow; Ruiner Nergigante, wearing a completely baffled expression and having no idea what was happening; and Darren, who had been pulled into midair by Logan's lightning—all simultaneously accelerated their offensive.
Logan spread both wings to their fullest extent, suspending his entire draconic body in the air solely by the updrafts he generated.
Lying in ambush nearby, the Radiant Crystal Butterflies that Logan had mobilized from across the entire Elder's Recess rapidly flew out from the Crystals. Fearless unto death, they slammed into the platform where the battlefield lay. Even when swept up by flowing magma, they showed not the slightest hesitation.
One by one, and group by group—the Radiant Crystal Butterflies that had multiplied within the Bioenergy Crystals until now existed precisely for this moment!
They used their own bodies to carpet the entire platform, injecting pure Terastal energy into the depths of the ground, allowing Logan, within an extremely short span of time, to directly create a Terastal domain of extraordinarily high energy purity—so high that it was sufficient to repel and isolate ley-line energy, leaving only Terastal energy to exist!!
Logan was not Alatreon. He did not possess the ability to easily create a "divine domain" that contained only attribute energy. He needed time!
And the presence of the other dragons happened to be able to create exactly that time for him!
Kulve Taroth also began, for the first time in this battle, to employ its own authority. Through the flow of magma that it had melted, combined with its own bioenergy, it began to draw and redirect the movement of ley-line energy across the platform—reducing Xeno'jiiva's absorption of ley-line energy while also making the construction of Logan's isolation zone proceed far more smoothly.
Ruiner Nergigante transformed into a living face-hugger, wrapping itself tightly around Xeno'jiiva. Against the opponent's attacks, it blocked whatever it could; if it could not block, it still had to drive an elbow strike in first before carrying out an evasive maneuver.
For a moment, even Xeno'jiiva itself could not tell whether the pressure it was under had suddenly skyrocketed—or abruptly dropped!!
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---