Chapter 545: Who Hunts Whom
Chapter 545: Who Hunts Whom
Before the words had even finished, Rayne, who had transformed into a Dark Silver Dragon, began to undergo a sudden change. Two large bulges swelled at the base of his neck, and two Red Dragon heads bloomed like flowers, rapidly growing out.
He had just silently used a recovery point.
In his Ancient Dragon Form, continuously casting ‘Shadow Traverse’ consumed a significant amount of psi energy, especially the second time when he had to carry the God of Hunting, Luen, through the shadows, which exponentially increased the energy drain.
“Multi-Headed Dragon Bloodline?”
The sudden transformation of Rayne caught the God of Hunting, Luen, by surprise, a flicker of astonishment crossing his eyes.
“Not bad, a pleasant surprise. However, you’re facing a true god. Even with the Multi-Headed Dragon Bloodline, you’re far from enough.”
“Rending Slash!” Luen’s arms, gripping dual battle axes, suddenly trembled slightly.
This tremor was so subtle that it would be hard to notice if one wasn’t paying close attention.
But in the next instant,
Two bloodlines appeared on Rayne’s Dark Silver Dragon body.
Feeling a sharp pain, Rayne looked down to see that the dragon scales, as hard as steel, had shattered, and blood flowed freely. Two deep slashes now marred his chest.
“See the difference?” Luen smiled, as if he had just done something trivial.
“This is the gap between humans and gods. Even if you appear to be on the same level, the actual difference is vast.”
“But since you have the Multi-Headed Dragon Bloodline, perhaps I’ll grant you a chance. Crawl at my feet as a servant, and I will forgive your insolence.”
Rayne was not surprised by the God of Hunting, Luen’s attack.
He had fought the Sea Goddess Hela three times, and in equal conditions, unless he used a higher-tier power, he was always at a disadvantage.
This was because gods, whether in wizardry or combat techniques, were nearly perfect in every aspect.
The long ages had endowed gods with unparalleled combat experience, which was dozens, even hundreds of times greater than that of humans.
So, it was entirely normal for Luen, as a god, to possess such strength.
“Is this your full power?”
“Seems weaker than I expected.”
While trying to provoke Luen with his words, Rayne quickly healed his wounds.
“Arrogant!”
Luen’s face contorted with anger, and he began to rapidly swing his two battle axes.
“Blade Dance”
“Swish, swish, swish!”
The axes sliced through the air, releasing transparent, wind-blade-like energy attacks that instantly hit Rayne.
Bloodlines appeared all over Rayne’s Dark Silver Dragon body, and for a moment, he seemed to have transformed into a blood dragon.
However, Rayne was not one to passively take the hits. He raised his Dragon Claw, and a humming Dark Silver Metal Disk appeared in the air.
In the next instant, it sped toward Luen’s waist!
“Trivial!”
Luen sneered and swung his axe at the disk.
“Swish!”
“Crack!”
The high-density transparent energy and the ‘Blade Disk’ collided, shattering instantly!
The two energies roughly canceled each other out.
This was the first time Rayne had encountered an opponent who could so easily counter his dawn spell.
“Useless?”
“It seems I have no choice but to use that move!” Rayne thought.
Rayne’s main dragon head opened its mouth and unleashed a conical blaze at Luen.
In response, a black film appeared on Luen’s body, and he quickly swung his battle axes at Rayne.
But what Luen didn’t expect was that Rayne’s other two Red Dragon heads also opened their mouths and began to breathe fire!
In an instant, three conical blazes from the dragon heads merged in mid-air, forming a particularly intense, blinding white ball of flame.
This was the Red Dragon secret technique that Rayne had learned from the memories of ‘Red Queen’ Menya—the “Core Flame.”
A technique that required three Elder Red Dragons to combine their efforts to execute, Rayne was now performing it alone.
“What!” Luen’s eyes widened in surprise.
Directly attacking such a ball of fire with an axe would cause it to explode, so the experienced Luen naturally chose to dodge.
But just as he was about to move, he felt his right ankle being tightly wrapped by a thick, resilient dragon tail.
“Damn!”
This momentary hesitation cost him the chance to evade, and Luen had no choice but to immediately defend, enduring the full force of the “Core Flame” explosion.
Boom!!!
A shockwave, akin to a small nuclear explosion, spread out in all directions from several thousand meters above the ground.
Vast swathes of clouds were instantly torn apart and vanished, like shredded white fabric.
From a distance, it looked as if a miniature star had exploded, its blinding white light flashing across the sky!
That momentary brightness far surpassed the sun.
Such power was so immense that even the two sides battling high above the Imperial Palace couldn't help but look up.
"That's the move!" Sea Goddess Hela, who had just defeated a green dragon, recognized it immediately. Rayne had used the same technique that had defeated her incarnation back then.
"Idiot Luen, he must have underestimated that human."
"Surely that accursed blasphemer Rayne didn't manage to survive again, right?"
Hela's eyes flickered, weighing whether to continue pressing forward or to turn back and deal with the human who had repeatedly disrespected her.
"Grek, can you handle things here? I'll go help Luen take care of that kid."
"Huh? Hela, is it really necessary?" Grek, a deity standing seventy to eighty meters tall, wore a crown adorned with jewels and a full set of bright golden armor.
What was truly shocking was the countless arms that grew densely across his body, clearly indicating that he was the eldritch deity worshipped by the Limb Grafting Cult.
He had already mounted the heads of a green dragon and a Red Dragon on two of his arms, and the dragon heads were spewing flames and acid in all directions.
"Let's quickly defeat these insignificant foes first, then we'll thoroughly eliminate that human emperor who seeks to reignite the divine flame. That's the most important task."
"You're right, Luen isn't so easy to defeat. Let's focus on the immediate threat."
"Alright." Hela nodded.
Although she still felt that the blasphemer should be eliminated as soon as possible to prevent him from growing stronger, there were indeed more pressing matters at hand.
Their primary goal this time was to kill the human empire's emperor, not to pursue other targets.
As time passed, their forcibly manifested incarnations would grow increasingly weaker.
Most importantly, she sensed that Luen's aura had not disappeared, meaning that the blasphemer's attack had not defeated him.
Meanwhile, on the human side.
"Lord Rayne is just too powerful! He actually took down a deity's incarnation in a one-on-one fight?" Swordsaint Lambert looked at the mushroom cloud in the distance, utterly amazed.
He had thought that becoming a swordsaint would significantly narrow the gap between him and Rayne, but it seemed the opposite was true.
The gap was only widening!
"No, not yet. The other side is only injured, not defeated." Menya observed more closely than Lambert and sensed that the Hunting God Luen's aura was still present.
"That's 'Core Flame'!" Elder Ivan, who had also made a pact with a Red Dragon, immediately recognized the technique Rayne had used.
"But how is that possible?" Elder Ivan's eyes widened as he muttered to himself.
The technique 'Core Flame' required at least three Elder Dragons of the Red Dragon lineage to perform together, similar to how human wizards needed to combine their efforts to cast high-level ward arrays.
It was simply not something a single Red Dragon could accomplish alone.
Yet, Rayne had managed to do it.
The other imperial guardians who had made pacts with Red Dragons also looked astonished, clearly recognizing what had happened.
As for the nobles and other combatants in the arena, their morale soared!
"Is that Lord Rayne? He's truly amazing."
"The Hunting God must have died in that explosion, right?"
"I wonder if Lord Rayne was injured?"
In the distance, high in the sky.
Rayne, transformed into a Dark Silver Dragon, was covered in blood, with hardly a single intact scale left.
He had taken significant damage from the 'Core Flame' explosion while holding off the Hunting God Luen, but fortunately, his extraordinary constitution and regenerative abilities were already healing his wounds rapidly.
In comparison, the Hunting God Luen was in even worse shape.
One of his eyes was blinded, his left arm was shredded from the hand to the forearm, and his entire body was charred and black, with black smoke still rising from him.
However, his body was also healing at a rapid pace.
What troubled Rayne was that while the other's aura had weakened, the sense of threat had only increased.
It seemed that he was about to face a catastrophic end.
"Very well!" Luen said in a deep voice.
"You have successfully piqued my interest, human."
"From now on, you are officially my prey. Struggle and fight for your life!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Luen swung the single-bladed battle axe in his right hand, chopping down at Rayne with a heavy, forceful swing from a distance.
But in an instant, an alarm bell went off in Rayne's mind!
"Phasing!" In a flash, Rayne, who hadn't had the chance to restore his stamina, immediately activated the unique ability of the Void Dragon.
The Dark Silver Dragon, over eighty meters long, instantly turned translucent.
"Shriek!"
Even so, a long tear appeared on Rayne's dragon body, running from the left side of his neck to the base of his right wing, blood spurting into the sky.
"What!"
"I thought my Phasing ability could resist over ninety percent of physical damage, but this..." Rayne's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the long gash on his chest.
"Hmm? You didn't die?"
In reality, the one more surprised than Rayne was the Hunting God, Luen.
As a deity, he knew exactly what he had just unleashed.
Faced with his "Rending Strike", even another deity would have been instantly torn apart. Yet, this human had managed to withstand it with some special ability.
"Double ability talent?"
"Even with the Multi-Headed Dragon Bloodline, you just used the 'Subspace Traverse' ability, and now you have 'Phasing' as well. This is truly extraordinary."
Luen quickly recognized that the ability Rayne had used was extremely similar to the Void Dragon's signature skill.
"I think I should capture you and study you thoroughly."
Meanwhile, Rayne was also contemplating his battle strategy.
In their brief confrontation, Rayne had used several of his trump cards. If it weren't for the three times he had restored his stamina, he would have been exhausted long ago.
"Since the 'Core Flame' from three dragon heads wasn't enough, I'll use four!"
"However, I need to distract him first."
As Rayne's eyes narrowed, thousands of meters away underground, a massive metallic object began to emerge from the ground. It was the head of a Maelstrom Dragon, its crimson eyes locking onto the Hunting God Luen, who was hovering in the sky.
"Hmm?"
Seeming to sense something, Luen, who was facing off against Rayne, slightly relaxed his focus and looked toward the ground.
"Whoosh!"
Two red energy beams instantly shot toward Luen.
At the same time, Rayne activated Shadow Traverse, appearing almost instantly behind Luen.
"Roar!!!"
Another massive bulge appeared on the neck of the Dark Silver Dragon, and another Red Dragon head opened its eyes.
The advantage of the Red Dragon's secret technique, "Core Flame", was that as long as there were enough Elder Dragons, the power could keep stacking up.
"Flame Breath!" Four dragon heads simultaneously spewed conical flames!
Four conical flames immediately rained down on the Hunting God Luen, forming a massive, glowing ball of flame in front of him, brighter and larger than before.
"You..." Faced with a light that was dozens of times brighter than the sun, Luen's face showed fear for the first time!
Rayne, more resolute than ever, activated Shadow Traverse again, using his dragon claws to pin Luen's arms and his tail to tightly wrap around Luen's waist from behind.
The only part hidden was the main dragon head.
"Boom!!!"
An even larger mushroom cloud erupted into the sky!
This shockwave even affected the buildings thousands of meters below, with at least a hundred structures suffering varying degrees of damage.
A few seconds later, Luen's massive figure was nowhere to be seen in the sky, leaving only the blood-soaked Dark Silver Dragon.
But Rayne's condition was also dire. He was gasping for breath, his tail now only a small fraction of its original size, most of it having vaporized in the intense explosion. His thick dragon claws were almost completely destroyed, the scales vaporized, leaving only a few bloody red patches on his arm bones.
However, even in such a severely injured state, Rayne's eyes glowed with an unusual intensity, fixed on the front.
In the sky, a blood-red crystal, palm-sized and similar to a Divine Power Crystal, was floating up and down. If one looked closely, they could see Luen's angry face reflected on the smooth, mirror-like surfaces of the crystal.
"Divine Power Crystal, no, this aura... it must be a Divine Spark."
Rayne could sense the powerful will of the Hunting God Luen contained within.
(End of Chapter)
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