“Hmph, that cat is way too arrogant for his own good. How dare he call himself invincible and unmatched when I, Divine Drako, exist?” Drako grumbled. But on the inside he was relieved to see his friend come back to himself. He had been a little shocked to see Raiko stand in a daze when danger was so close to him.
Beasts had very keen fighting instincts and they would sometimes react to hostility before the thought of what to do even crossed their mind. So for Raiko to be in such a lost state was very worrying.
However, although he didn’t approve of it, it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand. He knew of Keon and they could even be considered friends, to an extent. Seeing such an honourable warrior become a Creature of Envy, an Avatar at that, was definitely surprising. It didn’t even make sense unless the wolf had been hiding his true personality for over 100 years, which in itself was just as implausible.
He could only imagine how horrible Raiko must have felt to see one of his closest subordinates betray him like that.
He shook his head and focused his attention on the fight between Raiko and Keon. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the Avatars would always be useful, even if it was a lower grade Avatar like Keon (going by the amount of green features he had), so he didn’t want to miss it.
But as expected, the fight didn’t last very long. From the beginning, Keon was not much different from his fellow Kings in terms of cultivation. Even if he became an Avatar of Envy and got his strength upgraded, he was still going against multiple people with similar or even higher cultivation.
When the furious and embarrassed Raiko finally jumped in, planning to kill as fast as possible to regain his dignity as fast as possible, there was nothing Keon could do to resist anymore.
Raiko was a Beast Emperor and although his Essence cultivation was very low compared to others of his rank, being only at Stage 1 of the 4th Realm, there was nobody that dared to look down on him because it was his Anatomy Refinement that was the true backbone of his strength.
Last time Drako had heard, Raiko was in the 32 Stage of Anatomy Refinement. That was a number that could make even some of the toughest people flinch. Anatomy Refinement was a path of suffering and it only got worse the further you went. He could only guess how painful it was to progress in Anatomy Refinement after the 30th Stage because that was a pain that only Raiko knew about.
As for him, he hadn’t even reached the 10th Stage and was only at the 9th Stage. Anatomy Refinement was more painful for reptiles who had scales, and it was especially painful for the Dragon race because of their unique reverse scale.
Because of this, he was much inferior to Raiko physically. On top of Raiko’s Anatomy Refinement (and of course Essence Cultivation), he also had a special power that he was keeping secret that made every of his attacks very, very sharp, even if he was only hitting you with a blunt object like his tail. It went against common sense completely, but Raiko refused to open up about it and Drako refused to pry.
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All he knew was that every attack from Raiko was a lethal threat and his scales would never save him if an attack landed.
The only reason why he had confidence in beating Raiko in a fight was firstly because he could fly and use ranged attacks from a distance, and second because he not only had Mana that was powered by the Laws of Fire rather than Magical Energy (aka Law Mana) but he also had a powerful bloodline that enhanced his flame power.
His fire power was something that everyone feared.
And yet, not only had Raiko been able to close that gap with his Anatomy Refinement, the cat was actually so strange that he would sometimes request Drako to shower him in fire in order to progress his Anatomy Refinement.
Raiko worked harder than anyone else, so much so that it was scary at times. And yet the Tiger was still so sociable and good with other people like those little ones of the younger generations. It was remarkable and Drako respected him a lot.
However as he reached this point in thought he became a little confused. Although the extent of Raiko’s Anatomy Refinement was hidden, his impressive might was still common knowledge to all. It wasn’t something that Keon of all people could somehow not know, so why had the insolent wolf been so arrogant? Nothing about the entire situation made sense.
What on Eridius was going on?
“T-they’re coming!” somebody suddenly squawked.
Draco knew that voice. It belonged to a famous blue-coloured Duck who looked as delicious as he was annoying, and he was very annoying. Alas, Drako could not eat his allies, especially not the very Duck who had gone to great lengths to reach the birdy continent and inform them all about Envy. That would be quite bad for his reputation, and his life.
Looking down, he saw various deformed creatures lift into the air above the Corrupted Continent, flying towards them with obvious malicious intent.
They were the same abnormal creatures that were harassing his allies below. Only, these versions had wings that were functional for flight, even if there wasn’t a single pair that matched.
Their flight was so ugly and chaotic you would think that they were flying for the first time. The only thing going for them was their erratic speed. Honestly, Drako didn’t know how these weird creatures weren’t Abominations. Their auras were so messy that it looked like they would slip into mana deviation in the next second, but they never did.
Life was so weird sometimes.
Nevertheless, creeped out as he was, it did nothing to quell his rising excitement. A grin spread across his reptilian lips that revealed his pointy fangs, and the growing flame beneath that was waiting to be unleashed.
He may not be allowed to feast on the creatures corrupted by Envy if he wanted to avoid being corrupted himself, but he was perfectly content with indulging in his other favourite activity which was burning lives.