The clone flung Wavedancer aside, looking down as Lindon drowned in pure madra, his Hollow Armor starting to crack as his pure madra started to run out from the strain.

“What’s that? You need more pure madra?” The clone smiled as he knelt, patting Lindon’s bruised forehead. “Don’t worry. A teacher always shares with his student.”

The Striker techniques finally faded away, leaving Lindon smoking in the sand. His Hollow Armor and Soul Cloak ran out, revealing a battered and broken body. His bones stuck out in places, his skin was covered in bruises, and his mouth was bloody.

Lindon turned his bruised eyes to the clone, channeling Blackflame in his eyes. He was too weak to use the Burning Cloak, but he raised his fist, his teeth gritted as tears of pain flowed out of his eyes. He spoke through his broken jaw.

“The…..Dragon……Advances.”

The sand clone sneered. “Not this one.”

He grabbed Lindon’s face.

Eithan’s imposter began to pour his madra into Lindon’s body. It ran through his channels, Lindon desperately cycling it into his own core. It overloaded his core, reaching its limit. Still it came on strong, his core growing so big it began to dwarf his Blackflame core, beginning to get diluted away.

“No!” Screamed Lindon. He used the clone’s madra to Forge a giant Empty Palm, so big it covered the entire room, smashing into the sand clone’s body.

The clone grinned as the Empty Palm hit harmlessly, breaking down the madra and pouring that back into Lindon’s throbbing core.

The clone’s soulfire poured into Lindon’s body, burning his channels. Tears started to appear in his channels, his pure core beginning to crack and letting out flares of power.

“NOOOOOOO!”

The pain was too much for Lindon to bear. He was going to die here, alone.

I have to save Sacred Valley! I can’t die here! I WON’T!

Lindon screamed at the clone, roaring like a dragon. The clone was lucky Lindon couldn’t move, or he would tear the throat out with his own teeth. He would break the head off, burning the body into dust.

The clone smiled at Lindon’s screams, laughing as he squeezed Lindon’s head, beginning to crack the skull as Lindon’s body weakened.

“Hold.”

The world froze for Lindon. The sand all around stopped flowing, and the clone no longer moved.

Northstrider stood next to Lindon, crossing his scaly arms together as his golden eyes stared down, his pupils slitted in vertical black lines. Like a gold dragon’s.

He understood this was not actually the Monarch, but a projection of his will.

[Master….] Dross whispered in awe.

“You still owe me a debt.”

Lindon gasped as Northstrider’s Authority healed him, his body back to normal. There was something else also. A spark of knowledge blossomed in Lindon, and he came to a new understanding of himself. It brought tears in his eyes, his soulfire resonating with this new understanding.

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“I give you this last chance to redeem yourself. Prove to me you are worthy for me to teach you, and this debt you owe me may be of benefit to you.”

Lindon bowed to the Monarch. “I will.”

The Monarch closed his eyes, and the projection faded, time resuming back to normal.

Lindon quickly recovered Wavedancer and the remains of his shield, putting it into his void key.

Eithan’s clone stopped his techniques, standing up to look at Lindon with annoyance. Lindon was out of tricks. He had nothing left to show Eithan with his Underlord abilities.

“A student should know when he has failed.”

Lindon closed his eyes, focusing. “You are not my master.”

The clone filled the entire room with pure madra, surrounding both him and Lindon in a small area. The blue-white walls closed in, roaring with soulfire.

[Lindon, there still some dream aura in the air. It’s from Mercy’s Dream of Darkness earlier. Can you cycle it to me?]

Lindon reached out with his hunger binding, grasping the last wisps of the aura, and giving it all to Dross. The baby presence gathered it, preparing it.

[You ready?]

Lindon opened his eyes and snarled, Blackflame blasting out of him as the spark of knowledge Northstrider had given him connected with his soulfire. It burst out of his body, consuming him in a blaze of gray light that reforged his body anew.

The walls of pure madra closed in on Lindon, holding the power to shatter his core on contact. As they slammed tight, they suddenly stopped. The walls never touched Lindon.

The clone watched in horror as the pure madra withered away, revealing the Blackflame Overlord glaring with black and red eyes.

Hunger madra swirled from his Remnant arm, the binding’s power increased as it created a dome of hunger madra around him. It pulled the pure madra around him as the clone poured down Striker techniques, unable to penetrate his own madra.

Lindon used his new power to make a new technique.

He Forged a giant dragon of Blackflame, its head appearing behind Lindon. Its jaws had black teeth that dripped with red flames, looking like blood. Lindon stood in its jaws, its red tongue flaming around his ankles.

The beast was made of fiery scales, stretching out of the room and radiating fire and destruction aura. It grew long wings, holding the power of the Void Dragon’s Dance. Claws ripped into the sand, crackling with the power of the Dragon Descends. Its entire body lit up with the Burning Cloak, licking up and destroying the sand around. Lindon coated its body with the Eithan’s pure madra, protecting it from the clone’s attacks.

Dross filled it with dream aura, causing its eyes to glow purple. Now it would confuse Eithan’s bloodline ability, making it easier to hit him.

As the power grew, Lindon completed the technique as he lifted his Remnant arm, a ball of hunger madra hanging above. It floated out of his hand, resting in the center of the dragon’s mouth.

[What are we going to call this?]

Lindon kept his hand raised, his hair whipping away as he made a fist. A smile grew on his face.

The dragon snapped its jaws shut, hiding Lindon momentarily as it rushed towards the clone. The room melted away, rooms in all directions exploding in a chain reaction. Up above, Xorrus and Fury stopped their fight temporarily as they sensed the fight underneath them.

Lindon emerged again as the dragon’s length finished blasting away, revealing Lindon in a swirl of Blackflame.

“The Dragon Advances.”

The clone raised a wall of pure madra in front of him, pouring all his soulfire into it. His Hollow Armor almost faded away as he drained himself, putting everything he could into defense.

The dragon let out a roar as it neared, opening its mouth as the hunger madra ball expanded. It exploded like a bomb as it shattered the pure madra wall, hitting the sand clone’s body and taking its madra away in an explosion of hunger aura.

The sand clone screamed, its body melting away. The dragon continued rushing forward, dragon’s breath coming out after the hunger madra, a pillar of black and red that hit the clone like a cloudship.

The clone hit the wall, screaming in agony as its body was set on fire. He gave one last scream as the dragon’s jaws bit into his face.

The clone was finally destroyed from existence as the Forged dragon swallowed, chomping down. It raised its head as it went back to Lindon, spinning around him, and screaming with victory.

The Blackflame Overlord walked back to the portal as The Dragon Advances technique faded away, unable to wipe the infectious smile cracking open his face.