“Haha! Beautiful! What a beautiful Beast Slaughter Formation! Well done!” One of the guys said and slapped the man responsible for it on the back.

“Alright, don’t get too confident. There is nowhere near enough energy in it to finish the job.” The man replied.

And indeed, a few seconds later, the barrier began to crack as the inside filled with flames and blood. The Drakes were practically glowing from heat and roared in unison. The barrier exploded and the blades shattered. The Drakes emerged, somewhat worse for wear, and covered in blood. But with their massive bodies, the bigger ones were barely damaged. Only the young ones looked significantly hurt.

But that meant about half of them should be out of commission in a few hits.

“Let’s go!” One of the Cultivation roared and I saw the rest of them forming glyphs in the sky.

“Shoot!”

A rainbow of colors split the sky as all kinds of attacks bombarded the remaining Drakes. The young ones were nearly instantly out of the fight, some of them killed outright and blown up, but the large ones tanked the damage like it was nothing. A flaming barrier encased their bodies and they retaliated with flaming magic of their own.

“Disperse!”

The Cultivators all ran in a different direction, letting the fiery bombardment hit naked stone.

“Kid! Watch out!” I heard a man shout and in the heat of battle, I didn’t realize he was talking to me. Immediately after, a Drake collided with me and sent me flying over the river. The beast then launched itself across the gap and chomped on me as we went tumbling down behind some boulders on the other side.

I heard some shouts coming from other Cultivators and saw a man nearly get hit by a two-meter-wide fireball. It exploded behind him and flash-fried his back. He roared and arched back, and an instant later, the Drake was upon him.

“Nooooo!” He shouted and I saw his Qi swirl around him. The Drake Opened its giant maw and chomped. He was gone.

He was literally gone, there was no trace of him left, but then I saw him reappear in a flash a hundred meters away. The Drake turned and roared at him, and charged again. He screamed and activated his Movement Art again.

“Falcon Flash!”

The Cultivator disappeared again and reappeared further up the cliff. I then saw him jump in the air and flash again, reappearing further up still. He then flashed one more time and I didn’t see him again. He escaped. Well, good for him. That burn on his back looked awful.

I turned back the attention to myself as I was getting thrashed around by the beast. Its long teeth pierced my skin and were drawing blood. My bones didn’t break, but I was leaking all over the place.

[Hey! Do you mind?!]

I was ignored and the Drake slammed me on the ground, pushed me down with its front paws, and began tearing at my flesh. I could barely move. It was unacceptable! I summoned some Qi and discharged it in a flash of Lightning.

The Drake yelped and released me and I could finally move once more.

[Aaaah! You bastard! Look what you’ve done to my clothes!]

I quickly checked my sleeve if the Ferrite box was still there, and luckily it was. I really didn’t want to lose it.

I quickly took off my Ring of Weightlessness and even increased my weight with the help of gravity manipulation.

The Drake already recovered from the Lightning and pounced at me again, but that time I was ready. As it maw neared, I delivered a devastating uppercut to its lower jaw, releasing a loud thunder crack in the process. The beast’s head whipped back and its entire body was momentarily lifted into the air from my punch. It then slammed back down as it fell to the side.

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It shook its head and then growled at me.

[Ye, wasn’t funny, was it?!] I roared back.

I took out a Spirit Sword and took hold of it with Telekinesis. I then began carving my back, drawing runes all over it.

The large lizard turned its head sideways in confusion and then blew a column of fire at me. I just ignored it and continued slicing up my back.

[Weakling.]

I stomped forward and charged another Lightning Bolt and threw it at the beast. It cracked and exploded, throwing the Drake off its balance. But it had four legs, so it didn’t stumble, it just collapsed down as its entire body spasmed for a few seconds.

I jumped at it and delivered another punch to the same place, breaking some scales and drawing blood on its snout. The wound was tiny for a beast of its size, but it was enough. I grabbed it and sent another surge of electricity directly into it, frying it from the inside.

But all that was nowhere near enough to kill it. I just wanted to incapacitate it for a short time. Grabbing a handful of its blood, I splashed it over my back, and it was sucked into the drawn runes.

I then sprayed down some of its blood mixed with mine and drew Formation in a circle. I then activated it.

[Waaaaaah!] I flexed my muscles in pain as the two magic drawings began changing my body and merging it with the beast. The Drake roared and tried to pull back as its blood was drawn from it, towards me.

To my knowledge, nobody tried to use a live beast to merge with, especially one that was many Layers higher than them. But I knew it should theoretically work, according to my understanding.

It’s just that such a thing was crazy. You would have to resist the beast’s Soul attacks as well as the physical ones at the same time.

The Drake spat fire at me and clawed at my chest, but I just reinforced my body and resisted with minimal damage. I didn’t even feel the pain as the power flooding into me was overwhelming. I felt my abilities skyrocket and imbue my flesh. I roared with the madness of a beast and then pulled to the surface some old techniques requiring Dragon’s bloodline.

[Ooooh, fuck yeeeeah!]

I roared in ecstasy and pushed my energy to change my body. My skin inflated and turned red, and then began to harden and crack. My fingers elongated slightly and the tips curved, my fingernails growing thick and sharp. The spine on my back extended through my skin and grew into dangerous black spikes like the rest of my bones.

My body grew, and small black horns grew from my head, curving backward.

I roared as the transformation stopped, my body a smaller version of a Drake mixed with human form.

I touched my face, feeling hard scaled instead of skin. I began to laugh. I laughed a loud, mad kind of laugh as I threw my head back. My newly formed tail swiped left to right like a whip as my entire body shook from excitement.

Dragonic transformation. But the new bloodline was thin. Very thin. But all of them were. The Phoenix, the flying beasts, and now the Drake. I was a poisonous fire lizard. I flicked out my forked tongue and tasted the air. It tasted like ash and rancid flesh.

[Aaaah~ Yessss…] I looked at the Drake who granted me this power. It appeared weak and in pain. My poisonous blood finally began to take its toll on the massive beast.

[You ate me, now I’ll eat you.] I grinned.

The beast responded with a weak roar and blew one last fireball at me. I slapped it away and it unraveled into nothing. I was the master of flames. Second to none.

I fell on all fours and jumped. I extended my lower jaw, nearly opening my mouth 180°, and bit down on the succulent flesh. I drank its blood and ate the Drake as the explosions and screams continued on the other side of the river, hidden from my sigh by the massive stones.

I ate and I feasted, and I would have devoured until I was full, but I was short on time.

I devoured the massive beast, most of it transformed into pure Essence to empower my body and replenish my reserves. I took its bones and even some of its blood and stored it for later use.

Its Soul was devoured as well, a Golden Core Sixth Layer, with all the knowledge and memories a beast of its caliber had.

Having finished it all, I grinned, gaining confirmation of the Martial Arts I already knew. Dragon Scales. The ultimate form of defense. Dragon Bones and Dragon Marrow. Undying vitality. And Dragon Veins. Its blood ran through my veins, empowering my Golden Meridians. Now called Golden Dragon Veins. And it was mine.

[All mine! Gaaahahaha!]

The ground suddenly shook and I heard a loud boom from the other side of the canyon. I quickly straightened back up and recalled the transformation. The scales sank into my flesh and were replaced by my pale skin, claws pulled back and fell off, replaced by fresh fingernails, and my teeth pulled back in, though I noticed they remained significantly sharper and pointier than before.

Like the teeth of a true predator.

I then purposely cut and scratched myself, smeared some blood over my body, and then ran towards the sound of destruction. My clothes were torn, but it wasn’t too bad. Though my back was exposed, my privates were not. And there was no sign of the drawing I carved into my skin.

“Oh! The kid’s still alive!”

“Good for him, now keep going! We need to stop the beasts before they reach the big boss!”

I saw all remaining Drakes running deeper into the canyon, toward their nest, from where loud roars, explosions, and tremors were coming from.

I noticed many Cultivators were missing, but so were a few of the beasts. The few of the highest Layers were still there though, with their bus-sized bodies not much worse for wear.

I dropped on all fours again in the form of a Hunting Tiger and ran faster to keep up with the rest. Any battle with the large monsters I couldn’t afford to miss. And not just because I wanted to watch it and absorb their Souls.