Behind Doulong, the first guy quietly formed a sword made of glass, channeling his gray mana into it until it glowed. Then, with a sudden slash, he struck Doulong's back.
Doulong didn't see it coming.
The blade cut deep, tearing through skin and muscle. Blood sprayed as Doulong flinched and turned in pain.
At the same moment, the second guy had already stood up, forming another massive fireball in his hand.
Selay, seeing the danger, rushed toward Doulong at lightning speed. But the third guy quickly began forming obstacles of rock and soil to block him. Selay's eyes sharpened he sped up and dashed through before the barriers could even take shape.
In a blur, Selay reached the second guy, grabbed his arm mid-cast, and slammed him hard into the ground. The fireball fizzled out on impact.
Doulong gritted his teeth and turned back, ignoring the pain in his back. He launched a brutal punch into the first guy's face, the impact sending the man flying through the trees, coughing blood as he crashed through branches.
The third guy responded by hurling a massive stone at them. Selay grabbed the dazed second guy and threw him straight into the incoming boulder. The impact shattered the stone and the man's body crumpled against it.
The first guy, recovering fast, used dust and dirt to create a cloud of thick smoke. Inside the smoke, he conjured dozens of sharp glass shards, infused with mana, and launched them like bullets at Doulong and Selay.
Doulong jumped back, dodging the glass storm mid-air.
Selay didn't jump back. He didn't need to.
With sharp focus and superhuman speed, he blurred past the shards. They missed him by inches. He reached the second guy again, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into the same tree Doulong had thrown him into earlier. The tree cracked and then collapsed from the force.
Doulong landed, but the second guy had already snuck up behind him. He threw a punch but Doulong blocked it and countered with a fist to the chest that made the man grunt in pain and stumble backward.
The third guy tried to help again, forming a lasso from hardened soil and flinging it toward Doulong.
Doulong grabbed the lasso mid-air, yanked the third guy forward, and punched him so hard in the face that the man dropped like a rock, unconscious on the spot.
The second guy, smirking as he watched blood leaking from Doulong's back, whispered, "You haven't seen my spatial ability yet, kid."
He touched the blood on his chest and from it, shaped a red sword.
Doulong narrowed his eyes. "A blood skill?"
The man lunged. Doulong dodged the first slash.
The second came quick, but Doulong caught the blade with his hand and countered with a strong kick. But just before the kick landed, the man's blood solidified around Doulong's leg, trapping him in place.
The man jumped back. Doulong fell to the ground, unable to balance.
The blood sword glowed with mana. The man raised it high, ready to strike Doulong.
But Selay appeared again, charging in at high speed. He swung his arm for a punch but blood tendrils lashed out, trying to trap his hand too. Selay sensed it and jerked away just in time.
The man turned and swung his sword at Selay but Doulong, still grounded, kicked him hard in the ribs, sending him flying into the air.
Selay didn't waste a second. He jumped high, trying to land a finishing blow mid-air.
But the man smirked and spread wings made of his own blood. With a flap, he dodged Selay and landed back on the ground.
Doulong roared and rushed in, water spinning into a drill around his arm. He charged the man.
The man raised one of his blood-wings to shield himself.
Doulong's drill smashed through the wing, exploding blood everywhere. The spray soaked Doulong's body as he went in for another strike.
but suddenly, Doulong froze. His muscles screamed in pain. His breath hitched.
He collapsed.
The blood… it wasn't just blood.
It was poisonous blood.
Selay, shocked by what he saw, suddenly sensed the first man behind him. The man lunged with his glass sword wrapped in mana.
Selay reflexively dodged, kicked the sword, shattering it, then spun around and drove his other foot into the man's chest. In one spinning motion, he flipped and punched the second man in the head, grabbed his face with one hand, and slammed him into the ground his skull cracking as blood spread beneath him.
Meanwhile, Doulong staggered to stand up and his body wracked with pain. It felt as though poison was seeping through his veins.
The second man grabbed Doulong by the hair and sneered, "My blood is laced with poison. I was waiting for you to get close. Now that it's inside you, you'll suffer and die."
Selay dashed toward them, but Doulong raised a shaky hand. "No… I got this."
He clutched the man's wrist still tangled in his hair and growled, "Screw you." With a violent twist, he snapped the man's arm, causing him to scream. Doulong stood, grinned through the pain, and smashed his forehead into the man's face. "You're the doomed one," he muttered.
He summoned a fireball and hurled it into the man's face. But the man didn't even flinch instead, he drove his knee into Doulong's balls and headbutted him back.
Fires raged around them, spreading quickly through the nearby trees.
Doulong who wad weakened and disoriented, tried to move but his legs were trapped in the man's solidified blood.
Selay, in desperation ran with his wooden sword to strike the second man but before he could reach him, a wall of earth rose and trapped him.
"What the…?" Selay muttered, trapped.
Outside, the third man who had regained consciousness had created the glowing mana-infused wall to trap Selay. Suddenly, glass spikes pierced into the wall.
The first man was bleeding but recovered and was launching mana-infused glass shards toward Selay.
The wall began to close in, trying to crush Selay.
The spikes dug into his body, causing him to bleed.
From outside, the second man smirked and raised a fireball in his hand, pointing it at the fallen Doulong.
"Die," he whispered.
But just before the attack launched, his arm fell to the ground.
Selay had broken free, his sword slicing clean through the man's arm in a matter of second.
The man screamed in pain and tuned to Selay and moved his another hand toward Selay and said " Suck his blood from his body" to suck Selays blood from his body from the place where he was bleeding but it didnt work.
Seeing this, moving with super speed, he reached the second man, slashed again, and severed his other arm before driving his sword straight through the man's mouth.
" Serenader or he dies," Selay commanded the other two.
The first and third men froze, horrified.
The first man thought, "He's too fast… I can't even track his movements. His speed is on par with elite troops. I have to run! " Without hesitation, he turned and ran to escape.
"Wait for me!" the third man yelled, scrambling after him.
But before they could get far, armored knights appeared, blocking their path.
"You're not going anywhere," one knight said coldly.
The knights apprehended the two men with swift precision.
Selay took his sword out from the second man's mouth.
More knights arrived on horseback some were wearing armour and some without armour as their armor was glinting in the light of the nearby fires.
Seeing them, the second man's expression crumbled. No… I'm caught.
Two knights seized him.
Selay rushed to Doulong's side, knelt, and lifted him gently. Doulong had fallen unconscious.
One of the people in knight armor approached Doulong, summoning a soft green glow of mana in her palm.
Placing it gently on Doulong's chest, she spoke in a calm and female voice,
"Don't worry. He's just unconscious."
Another knight, who was holding down the second guy, turned to Selay and said,
"You two did a great job."
And one of them without knight dress was taking off the fires that had spread around the area with his water ability.
The second guy glanced at Selay, his thoughts in disbelief.
"No way… That kid mastered organic control so well that my blood-pull ability didn't work at all? I underestimated him... These kids… They're far stronger than their age suggests."
.....
In RUSA, one which was of the nine nations of the world which was a frigid northern continent lies a land split into two regions: the western half known as Ru, and the eastern half, Sa, separated by the vast Great RUSA Sea, which connects the Grand Sea and the Outer Sea.
In the Sa region, near the coastline, a dense forest stood quiet until now.
At its edge, over around forty people were gathered. Some were bleeding, some resting. The aftermath of battle was grim.
Near the center stood Douzen, beside Chaw, who was frantically attempting to heal a woman with vibrant orange hair and black eyes.
All around them were the corpses of two-meter-long piranha-fish with spider-like legs and jagged spikes.
The wounded woman whimpered through her tears,
"Am I… going to die?"
"Stay calm. I'm healing you. Just hold on," Chaw reassured, focusing her mana.
A younger man stepped forward.
"Why don't we try healing her inside the Redai?"
Another quickly responded,
"You must be new. Mana doesn't work inside Redai. If we take her there, she'll die for sure. Her only lifeline is her current mana flow."
"Oh... I didn't know," the younger man muttered.
Douzen turned to Chaw, voice firm.
"How long will it take?"
"Ten minutes," Chaw said through gritted teeth.
"Her soul is fading. Healing a soul is far harder than healing flesh."
Without another word, Douzen walked toward the sea. He stared at the dark sky above.
"I'll go check if we're being followed," he said.
"Alright, be quick," Chaw replied.
Douzen turned to the group and said " I will be right back " and they nodded and unfurled his divine wings, and took off into the night sky, flying deep into the jungle canopy.
Back at the wounded woman's side, a young girl with the same orange hair stood beside Chaw, eyes filled with worry.
"Ms. Chaw," she said.
"Yes?"
"If you manage to save her… I'll do anything you ask. I swear it."
She gently took the woman's hand.
"It's not the time to talk about that," Chaw said flatly, focused entirely on the healing.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook violently forming cracks causing ground to split.
And a massive dragon burst from the ground, tearing the land apart with its emergence.
Swords were drawn. Panic spread.
Seeing the dragon all of them jumped back to take position.
"Mrs. Chaw, we have to escape!" shouted one of the men nearby.
"Do whatever you must, but don't disturb me. If I lift my hand, she'll die!"
One of them lunged at the dragon, but it unleashed a torrent of blue fire, instantly freezing the man in solid ice.
A second tried to restrain it with flaming chains, but the fire evaporated the moment it touched the beast.
The dragon then turned toward Chaw.
In a flash, it lunged.
A man near Chaw raised a protective mana barrier, but the dragon shattered through it like glass. Another warrior leapt onto the beast's back only to be frozen solid, his body shattering into pieces.
The dragon's massive jaws opened, aiming directly at Chaw.
The man at her side yanked her away just in time.
but the wounded woman who Chaw was healing was swallowed whole.
"NO!" the orange haired girl screamed.
The dragon flapped its wings violently, launching her into the sea with a splash.
The others fired arrows, but the creature didn't even flinch.
It turned back to Chaw, eyes glowing.
From the sky, Douzen saw it all. He flew faster, wings burning with light as he rushed to intervene.
But he was too late.
The dragon's mouth clamped down....
"..."
Chaw tried to dodge but the dragon ripped off Chaw's head.
TBC....