“Theo… you won’t get away this time.”

Theo smirked.

“Why would I want to?”

Blaze snorted in response and turned to the Silver Crane Sect disciples. “The three of you take care of his friends,” and then looked at Drake before continuing, “The two of us will take him down this time.”

Drake nodded in confirmation. They didn’t plan on killing Theo, but only capturing him to exchange with Helen, something Drake had no qualms about.

Coming to an agreement, Drake and the others faced the dark mages again.

For a second, nobody spoke, and an eerie silence filled the air.

Theo closed his eyes and began gathering his mana.

“Dragon step!” Blaze charged immediately, sword held at an angle on his side.

The other dark mages tried to intercept him but were stopped by the Silver Crane Sect disciples.

Within a few seconds, Blaze was about to reach him. However, Theo finished his summoning.

“Black python! Lightning python! Rock python!”

Three lights condensed from his palm and floated above him, before instantly transforming into three, twenty-foot long pythons. The pythons coiled around Theo and hissed menacingly at Blaze. Facing his approach, the lightning python charged.

“Fire blade!” Blaze yelled and shot a blade of fire at the incoming python. However, the lightning python was extremely fast. It quickly moved to the side and dodged before continuing to charge at full speed, followed closely by the other two pythons.

At the final instant, Blaze brought his sword up and the python crashed against it, pushing Blaze back several feet. He dug his heels into the ground, quickly bringing himself to a stop. The lightning python slithered back a few steps, as the rock and black python surrounded Blaze, the three of them forming a triangle around him.

Facing the rank two spirits surrounding him, Blaze cursed.

Satisfied at Blaze getting held up, Theo turned to face Drake.

‘I need to get rid of this kid first,’ he thought and smirked.

Seeing this, Drake finally made his move. He poured mana into his boots and lightning erupted from his feet.

Shadow steps!

Drake activated his martial technique and moved like a shadow. He was much faster now, leaving behind a trail of dust and sparks.

Within a few seconds, Drake was above him.

“Crescent slash!” Drake swiped his fingers across the air and a crescent blade flew out.

Theo brought his sword forward and blocked the blade just as it was about to reach him.

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed out into the surroundings.

‘He’s gotten faster!’ Theo was surprised. ‘But still not as fast as the other guy.’ He cut through the crescent blade and focused on Drake again.

Drake faced Theo calmly. He raised his arm and poured mana into his glove.

“Solar barrage!”

Over a dozen large fireballs instantly appeared before Drake and shot towards Theo.

Snake walk!

Theo activated his martial technique and disappeared just as a fireball zoomed past where he was standing. The next instant, he reappeared, closer to Drake as the rest of the fireballs flew towards him. With his sword ready, Theo repeatedly disappeared and reappeared, dodging the fireballs while continuously moving closer to Drake.

Within a few seconds, Theo dodged all the fireballs and appeared right in front of Drake. He raised his sword and swung downwards.

“Light barrier!” Drake immediately poured mana into his robes and activated one of his barriers.

Theo struck down heavily on Drake’s barrier but he couldn’t break through.

“Tst,” Theo cursed and pushed himself off the barrier. He rotated in the air while pouring mana into his chains. The chains began glowing red as they emitted poison mana, while also extending to several times their size. Theo landed heavily on his feet while his chains trailed behind him in the air. He pivoted on his heel and rotated his body. The chains spun and changed directions, shooting towards Drake’s barrier.

BOOM!

Theo used all his strength and momentum to slam the chains coated in poison mana against Drake’s barrier. Despite being summoned by a rank three artifact, the barrier cracked instantly. The next second, it broke apart.

Shadow steps!

Drake activated his martial technique at the last second to dodge as the chains came crashing down at the spot he was standing in. The chains cracked the earth and formed a small crater, releasing a dust cloud.

Cough! Cough!

Having his barrier break so suddenly made Drake suffer a small backlash. Drake stumbled backwards, momentarily becoming disoriented.

Theo wasn’t going to let this opportunity go. He tensed all his leg muscles and jumped, shooting towards Drake like a bullet, his sword aimed at Drake’s chest.

“It’s over!” he laughed as he approached infinitely close. But just then, Theo felt an immense amount of mana gathered in two of Drake’s fingers. At the same time, he noticed the ends of Drake’s lips curled into a smile.

‘No! It was a trick!’ thought Theo, but it was too late.

Drake rotated while bending backwards till his spine was at ninety degrees to his hips. As Theo’s sword passed over Drake’s body, he heard two words.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Finger thrust!”

An unbelievably powerful force struck his solar plexus like a cannon. As Drake sprung himself back up, he continued to jam his finger thrust into Theo, pushing him up with an incredible might.

Theo was launched into the air.

“Argh…” Theo wanted to scream but his throat became blocked so he just coughed out blood. His body became weak, making him move powerlessly under the force of Drake’s attack like a pebble being pushed by a raging river.

Theo landed heavily on the ground several dozen metres away but continued bouncing and rolling forward another dozen metres due to this momentum. It took several more seconds for him to come to a stop, at which point Theo laid unmoving on the ground, panting for breath.

“Yes Drake, keep it up, I’m almost there!” screamed Blaze, as he finally found an opening to cut cleanly through the black python. The rock python was also severely injured. It shouldn’t take him long to deal with them and join Drake.

Drake approached Theo cautiously. He knew how powerful his finger thrust was, and taking a direct hit from it must have been devastating. However, he wasn’t going to drop his guard around Theo. Hence, he poured mana into his glove, ready to activate chain lightning at a moment's notice.

‘I… underestimated him…’ Theo thought, while gasping for breath, as Drake approached him. He quickly took out and consumed several healing pills, allowing him to recover quickly.

As Drake came close, he observed Theo, expecting to find him riddled with injuries. However, all he spotted was a hole in his leather armour around his solar plexus, with his skin underneath being completely unharmed. The rest of his outfit was worn and dirty, but he was unscathed.

‘How’s that possible?’ thought Drake while warily eyeing Theo, standing just a few metres away. Theo was still lying on the ground, eyes closed and out of breath.

Humph! Drake snorted and raised his hand.

“Chain lightning!”

Large streaks of lightning shot out of his glove artifact towards Theo at an incredible speed. When they were an inch away from Theo however, he disappeared.

‘Oh no!’

Acute sense!

Theo moved so fast that Drake needed acute sense to barely track him.

‘Was he holding back before?’ Drake thought, turning around.

However, when Drake turned, he didn’t spot Theo behind him. Instead, Theo was much further away, next to one of the Silver Crane Sect disciples.

Drake’s eyes widened.

“Watch out!” he screamed, but it was too late.

Theo suddenly appeared next to a Silver Crane Sect disciple fighting one of the dark mages who had summoned a dozen blood bats. The disciple was shocked and instinctively activated a barrier.

However, Theo laughed and struck with his sword.

“Skewer!” he screamed, activating his martial technique. The sword pierced through the barrier like nothing before arcing towards the disciple’s neck.

As soon as the barrier broke, the disciple jumped back. However, the sword was already too close to dodge. The disciple screamed in pain as the sword cut into his shoulder.

Theo pulled his sword back, leaving a deep wound and a trail of blood. He licked the blood of his sword with an evil glee.

The disciple stumbled backwards. The dark mage used this opportunity and ordered the blood bats to attack. The disciple was in no state to defend. He jumped out of the way of some of them, but the remaining bit into his back, arms, shoulder, legs, and other parts of his body.

“Jordon, nooooo!” screamed the other Silver Crane Sect disciples as they rushed to help. However, the dark mages they were fighting suddenly attacked even more ferociously, preventing them from moving.

“DAMN YOUUU!!!!” came a booming voice.

Blaze finally finished off the remaining two snake spirits and charged at Theo like a maniac.

Theo slightly rotated his head to see Blaze rapidly closing in from behind.

Blaze jumped and chopped down towards Theo’s head with his huge sword.

Snake walk!

Theo disappeared at the last second, making Blaze crash onto the floor. The force of the impact formed a crater, with large cracks spreading outwards.

By this time, Drake had been running at full speed and was about to catch up. However, he suddenly heard a cry.

“Iron shield!”

A large shield appeared directly in his path, forcing him to slow down and move sideways to dodge. Just as he did so, over a dozen blood bats appeared in the air all around him.

“You’re not going anywhere!” the same voice spoke, standing behind the circle of blood bats.

Drake noticed that this was the same dark mage that was fighting the Silver Crane Sect disciple, Jordon Swift, earlier. Now that he was heavily injured and out of commission, this dark mage was free.

‘I see… so he wanted to get rid of our number’s advantage…’ Drake realised. Theo knew that he couldn’t fight both Blaze and Drake at the same time. So, he went after one of the weaker and unsuspecting members to free up a dark mage so they could keep Drake occupied.

The next second, Drake’s face turned cold as he faced the dark mage and his blood bats.

“Let’s see if you can hold me back!” Drake challenged.

The dark mage snorted and ordered his blood bats to attack.

Blaze observed Drake getting held back by the dark mage, and then turned to see Jordon lying weakly on the ground, consuming some healing pills, attempting to recover. He then turned to face Theo who had the same smirk on his face.

“It’s not nice to gang up on people,” Theo laughed. “Now it’s more even don’t you think?”

Blaze ignored Theo and made a silent decision. He closed his eyes and focused on his inner realm.

The mana in his body sensed his will and moved. They flowed out of his inner realm and into his left arm. Blue streaks could be seen under his skin where they were still exposed by his loose leather armour.

Theo sensed the large amount of mana gathering in Blaze’s arm and became serious. He held his sword tightly and readied himself to face whatever Blaze was coming up with.

Blaze still had his eyes closed and whispered two words. However, his voice was filled with mana and echoed across the battlefield.

“Dragon. Form.”

A huge amount of mana exploded from his left arm. The mana formed long streaks and coiled around his arm, rotating faster and faster.

As Theo watched incredulously, Blaze’s arm began to glow and enlarge before being covered with dragon scales.

BOOM!

Blaze opened his eyes and a wave of fiery red mana was released from his body. His left arm had become more muscular and was covered in thick, red, dragon scales.

Theo gulped. However, he faced Blaze with the same determination. There was no fear in his eyes – in fact, there was a strange excitement.

Blaze didn’t say anything and just made his move. Holding his sword firmly in his right arm, Blaze dashed towards Theo.

Theo stood his ground as Blaze closed the distance between them at lightning speed.

When Blaze was close, he jumped into the air and slashed his dragon arm with all his might.

“Dragon claw!” he yelled.

Three fiery streaks shot down from the night sky, emitting an incredible amount of mana.

Theo felt the mana held within that dragon claw and knew he couldn’t block it. He activated snake walk and dodged as the claw crashed into the ground a moment later.

The impact created a huge explosion as the claw dug deeply into the earth, releasing a large dust cloud and huge waves of mana.

As soon as Theo landed, Blaze crashed down with his huge sword. Theo raised his arm just in time to block it, but the force of the attack was far greater than he anticipated. He was instantly brought to his knees.

Theo used his left arm to instinctively grab the other end of the sword, relying on his chains to protect his flesh from its sharp edge. He used all his strength to push, barely managing to hold back Blaze’s attack.

‘How did he become… so strong!?’ Theo screamed in his mind.

But Blaze gave him no time to think. He swept his dragon arm sideways.

Theo saw it approach him but was helpless to defend against it.

The dragon arm crashed against Theo like a truck. Even though his armour was strong enough to protect him almost completely from Drake’s finger thrust at point blank range, Theo now felt several of his bones break under the impact.

Theo flew across the battlefield, rolling around and around on the ground. An unbearable amount of pain filled Theo’s body, which was accentuated each time he crashed against the ground.

He flew for several seconds before crashing heavily against a boulder which forced him to a stop. Theo coughed out blood. He wanted to take out some healing pills but he felt too weak to even move.

However, a large shadow suddenly fell over him and Theo felt a deep bloodlust. He managed to gather enough strength to barely lift his head and looked up.

Blaze towered over the helpless Theo. He used his dragon arm to grab him by the head and lift him up.

Theo felt a crushing pressure on his head and dropped his sword. His right arm was already broken so he used his left to push against Blaze’s hand. However, it stood firm as a rock. He tried punching and grabbing it again and again, but he couldn’t move Blaze’s hand even an inch.

“I told you already,” Blaze spoke with a deep voice. “You won’t get away this time.”

Theo lost his strength and his arm fell limply to his side again.

‘Is this it?’ Theo wondered.