Agonized screams rang and rang within the flames—then guttered out, lives swallowed whole by fire.
The mother and son following behind him saw everything. She stared at Skyler Quinn, disbelief written clear in her eyes.
Too strong.
Those terrifying, deadly mutant sea beasts were like ants before him—effortless to wipe out.
Since the resurgence of spiritual energy, most people had awakened abilities. She had seen members of the Bureau of Spiritual Energy unleash theirs—impressive in their own right. But compared to this young man, the gap was vast.
Before she could think more, the fire he had loosed scattered again. Crimson surges roared across the ground, heat pulsing as if the world itself might be reforged into a realm of flame.
For a split second she felt dazed, and when she looked at Skyler it was as if she were looking at a god of fire striding through conflagration.
With such power… After the shock ebbed, a shadow of sorrow dimmed her gaze.
If Haicheng had a superpowered guardian this strong, the city should never have fallen this far.
Skyler had no idea what she was thinking. His eyes stayed cold, his killing intent bared as he butchered the mutant beasts pressing in on them.
Right now, his heart was nothing but rage at them—and the will to slaughter.
"Roar!"
For an instant it seemed a crimson dragon surfaced behind him. The surrounding fire surged, and the ground was left only with scorched scars and corpses charred black.
Yes, these mutant sea beasts could be harvested for meat or refined for pills. Burning them all to ash was wasteful. But that thought no longer had any place in his mind.
In his eyes, every last beast here was tainted with human blood.
So they all deserved to die—to be swallowed by flame.
"Die."
At his ice-cold word, the surging fire grew even more domineering, burning one after another of the mutant beasts that had been drawn by the commotion.
Before long the beasts themselves seemed to feel terror—the prickling instinct to fear. They began to break and run for the distant streets.
Skyler gave them no chance. The sea of fire swept outward and wrapped them all, and they burned to nothing.
"Help!"
"Help—please!"
"I'm here! I'm here!"
Sudden cries carried from a room not far away. Skyler's expression did not change. His body flashed—he became a streak of fire and moved straight toward the voices.
"Dragon Emperor, I finally get to see you."
"You're my idol!"
A handsome-faced teenager stared at the figure in the Flame Dragon Armor, eyes shining with absolute adoration.
"You…"
Skyler looked him up and down, surprised.
There wasn't a mark on the kid. Not even his clothes were torn.
His mental state was excellent too—excellent enough to crack jokes.
"Oh, you're wondering why I'm totally fine and still this excited, right?"
The teen seemed to read Skyler's doubt. Scratching his head, a little embarrassed, he said,
"Since everyone started awakening abilities, I figured something like this might happen one day."
"So I paid to have a basement built."
"Stocked food and everything—heaps of it. Got a dozen generators, too."
"I thought I'd be waiting at least a month for you guys to show up. Didn't expect you this fast."
"It's only been one night."
"No wonder—they say the Flame Dragon Steed is peerless!"
"Oh—right, Dragon Emperor, I'm Ye Changtian. Could I get your autograph later?"
"…"
Skyler was silent for a beat. Then he nodded and said,
"Are you going to keep hiding in the basement, or leave with me?"
"Leave with you, of course!"
Ye Changtian answered without a flicker of hesitation.
"You don't know, Dragon Emperor—on my monitors those mutant 'seafood' are built like tanks, fierce as hell."
"With this basement? I've no idea how many hits it could take."
"I'm not about to gamble."
Before mutation they were just seafood. After mutation, even the small crabs were a meter across; the big ones were three meters, five meters—bigger. One snap of those claws and the basement's defenses would fold, he was sure of it.
"Let's go."
Skyler said nothing more. He turned away with a quiet word and headed back out—seeking other civilians even as he cut down the mutant beasts.
Time slid by. Skyler himself had no count of how many beasts he'd destroyed.
But his face only grew colder.
Too many.
There were too many mutant sea beasts in Haicheng.
A million?
Perhaps. But it was not as simple as a million or two.
It wasn't only the initial beast tide. From the open sea, mutant creatures kept pushing into the city in a ceaseless stream.
Behind Skyler, the pair of mother and child and Ye Changtian were no longer alone; more than a dozen had joined them.
There was a thin, frail-looking middle-aged man; panic-stricken women; even a pregnant woman. Because she could not move quickly, she had missed the window to flee; her husband had all but resigned himself to waiting for death with his family.
They were lucky. They met Skyler instead.
They followed in his wake, listening to Ye Changtian and others recount what they knew: that he was recognized as one of the Four Great Powerhouses of Huaxia; that he bore the title of Dragon Emperor; that he was the hero acknowledged by the Flame Dragon Armor; that he was the strongest of the Imperial Capital's Bureau of Spiritual Energy…
Those epithets—and the power Skyler displayed along the way—turned the look in their eyes from awed fear to open worship.
A god walking out of flame—wherever he went, however many mutant beasts there were, all would be devoured by the fire.
At times the blaze even gathered into a scarlet dragon, wheeling above their heads—its might enough to chill the soul.
They found themselves thinking, unbidden: How fortunate that Huaxia has such a powerhouse.
More fortunate still that Huaxia does not have only one such prodigy.
With that thought came regret, and pity.
Pity that Haicheng had not produced an ability-wielder like this.
Regret for the Haicheng civilians who had died before help arrived.
Within the armor, Skyler's brow creased slightly.
He had been using his ability nonstop, and the total spiritual energy in his body had dropped markedly. And here, so close to the sea, water elemental energy far outweighed fire.
As if sensing his thought, a faint dragon's cry seemed to ring at his ear.
At the same moment, he perceived his absorption of fire elemental energy accelerating—not by a mere fraction, but by more than tenfold. He didn't even need to draw it in; the fire element fought to pour into him.
"This is an ability of the Flame Dragon Armor?"
He was puzzled, but for him it was a pure boon.
At least for now, he didn't have to worry about running dry.
In that case—red light flickered deep in Skyler's gaze.
"—Sing!"
An earth-shaking dragon's roar split the sky. His aura climbed higher and higher, and the pressure he radiated surged outward in all directions.
(End of this chapter)