"Look, how about both sides take a step back before things go too far," Yasha suggested as he tried to suppress the fear he felt when his eyes made tact with the eyes of the mystery man before him. "We're here on official business for the dragon's pit. One of our unhatched young was stolen by a human, and we're simply looking t them back. We don't wish to offe-"

  Wukong's mysterious senior brother didn't seem all that ied in listening to Yasha's expnation.

  Before the dragon could finish his sentence, he appeared directly in front of the dragon-scaled bear. His axe desded with unparalleled momentum as it cleaved the magical beast in two, leaving a giant scar in the ground below that was over 20 meters deep.

  "You…

  Who are you?!" Yasha asked fearfully as he looked fearfully at the man who calmly turo face him.

  As soon as he saw the look in the man's eyes, Yasha released another dragon's breath. It was unclear whether he held back slightly when using it previously or if the fear of death looming over his head allowed him to tap into his unlocked potential, but the power behind this one was almost double his st one.

  He didn't even stay to see if his attack did any damage. As soon as the bck fmes left his mouth, Yasha turned, and with a fp of his giant wings, turned into a bullet as it fled the se.

  As the bck fmes approached, the dark-haired man calmly raised his axe and casually chopped downwards in the dire of the fleeing dragon. "Sundering Decimation."

  His voice was soft enough to be cssed as a whisper, a, despite having traversed several hundred meters already, that whisper entered Yasha's ears as if he were right beside him, and to him, it sounded no different than a death sentence.

  A grey crest-shaped beam shot out of his axe and tore straight through the fmes chasing the esg dragon.

  As the fmes were split apart, they began to magically dissipate, uo do any damage to the intearget.

  Oher hand, the crest-shaped axe-light, though weakened slightly, tinued on its path, chasing after Yasha as though it were alive. Whenever he turned, so too did it.

  "NOOOO!" Yasha roared when he realised there was no evading this one.

  At that moment, he couldn't help but feel an intense regret well up inside him as he wished more than anything that he could go ba time and agree to Wukong's initial suggestion to go around Silverlight City.

  At the time, he saw them all as a bunch of ants whom he could destroy with little effort, but time and time again, those same ants showed that humans weren't to be looked down upon. Still, as a mid-ranked saint, he believed that he still had everything under plete trol, but now…

  As the man's attack made tact with the dragon's back, there was no explosion or shockwave like one would expect. Instead, the former obsidian scales began to grey, seemingly weakening until they became a brittle excuse of their former form.

  And just like that, the seemingly unbreakable scales turo dust, allowing what was left of the attack to tear straight through the dragon's back, which proceeded to devastate Yasha from the inside.

  "AAARRRGGGHHHH!"

  Yasha released a deafening painfilled roar, but Wukong's senior brother didn't care in the slightest as he calmly flew through the sky, aiming to finish the dragon ond for all.

  He raised his axe and was just about to behead the beast that almost killed his Junior Brother when he suddenly froze and diverted his strike, swinging his gigantic axe to his left.

  As he did, a giant crimson cw twice his size came out of nowhere, g violently against his axe.

  A pained grunt escaped his lips as he was sent flying through the air, only managing to e to a stop mere meters from Wukong's injured body.

  "I was beginning to wonder if the almighty king of the dragons was just going to sit bad watch as I killed one of his subordinates," The axe-wielder said indifferently as he looked up at the monstrous crimson blog half the sky.

  .

  .

  .

  After being oh his give during his fight with the fourth-rank magma hound, Ace became the biggest tributing factor in gradually turning the war around. He had bee even faster than before when assassinating each beast, and he could even assassinate some of the weaker fourth-ras without getting tied down.

  Despite their ck of intelligence, even the beasts uood that Ace roblem that o be stopped. Unfortunately, no matter what they tried, it proved impossible for the stronger beasts to get near enough to stop him.

  Upon realising the impact of Ace's presence, Kulen, one of the few remaining Silverlight generals, ordered his troops to keep the beasts away from Ao matter what.

  There were only a few humans in the fifth rank, but each of them made sure to hold up the stronger beasts whehey got too close to Ace. As did the mages and archers on the walls, and on the off y beasts did get past the humans proteg him, Ace, who seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, would quickly use [Soru] to escape their assaults.

  After monit Ace for long enough, Leini realised that Ao longer needed so much of her attention and began to actively re-ehe beasts, mainly fog on the more powerful beasts that attempted to close in on Ace.

  With the tides turning in their favour, the morale of the humans reached an all-time high, but unfortunately, the beasts refused to go down without a fight.

  It was at that moment, though, that the soldiers of Silverlight witnessed a sight they would never be able tet.

  Whilst her partner was taking owo saint-level magical beasts that put their junior brother through the wrihe burning-winged beauty just arrived at the main battlefield only to see the decimated corpses of hundreds as and humans alike.

  Whether it was Wukong, her, or her parthey were all very close to Venerin and his people. Her heart ached to see so many of the soldiers of Silverlight City dead. That pain quickly turned into a burning fury, and as if the world was subject to her emotions, the battlefield quickly began to heat up.

  Ace, who stantly had his [Observation] active, was the first to notice the violet-haired woman in the sky, only for her preseo suddenly vanish, or rather merge with nature. He didn't know who she was, but judging by the smouldering fury as her eyes looked at the beasts, he uood she had to be a friend – something that was more than weled, sidering his current dition.

  Even though he had no actual injuries to speak of, Ace had long since passed his limits. Whether it was his prolonged use of his haki, stant use of [Soru], or oh the give, Ace was thhly drained. It was his incredible willpower that allowed him to keep going as he had, but even he khat he couldn't keep it up for much longer.

  As the temperature rose, the beasts and humans stopped as they subsciously looked around for the source. They all uood that it was undoubtedly the cause of a hidden powerhouse, but they wao know whose side this mystery powerhouse was on.

  Venerin, who was also on his st legs from battling the armoured razorback wyrm, used the beast's sudden distra to put some distaween him and the terrifyi. As he did, he looked up only to see the enting violet-haired mage in the sky.

  "Haha, Lauriel, you're finally here?" The city lord said, a rexed smile suffusing his dried lips as he looked into the eyes of their saviour. "What about Kong? He's figh-"

  "Don't worry about anything else," Lauriel said as she looked at the beasts, who were now terrified, as they found the winged goddess floating above them. "Tell your people to retreat; leave the rest to Mathias and I!"

  "Haha, Mathias is here too? Good, very good! I rest easy." Venerin said as he gnced mogly at Sartius, who was staring up at Laurielle fearfully. "SILVERLIGHT RETREAT!"

  The Silverlight Soldiers didn't o be told twice. As soon as their orders were delivered, they all began to return to the walls. The beasts made absolutely no effort to stop them. In fact, as soon as they heard Laurielle's instrus for the humans, the beasts all turo escape bato the forest.

  Even Sartius, a dragon ih rank, was no exception. It should've been impossible, but the threat this woman gave off was han Yasha. And after witnessing Wukong in a first-hand, he uood that there were some humans who couldn't be expined using on logic.

  Ace used his give as a crutch as he retreated back to the city walls while itently turning back to watch what Laurielle po do .

  The beasts hurried away, with Sartius being the fastest of the lot. Unfortunately for them, they could run, but there was no hiding.

  As soon as the two forces had pletely separated, Laurielle slowly raised her hand, indifferently pointing toward the esg beasts. "On behalf of all the humans who died today, I sentence you all to a fiery death. [Heavenly Fire – Burning Fields!]"

  As the sound of her voice waned, a wave of violet fire suddenly shot forth. As the former fire logia from his st world, Ace was very much used to the power of fire, but never in his life had he seen fmes like that.

  "That's Laurielle Hyde, little Kong's senior martial sister. She may not be quite as talented as Kong, but she's still a genius amongst geniuses in her ht," Venerin expined as he approached the gobsmacked Ace. "She's a pure-blooded desdant of the Hyde family, also known as the Violetfme warriors – one of the four supreme warrior bloodlines.

  Those violet fmes allow her to jump ranks, but her incredible prehension of the ws of fire is what makes her virtually invincible in the ninth rank. It's how she's able to use a forbidden spell, which should only be useable by saints despite only being in the ninth rank."

  Ace watched, uo pick up his jaw, as every single magical beast was instantly ied by the violet fme wave. Even Sartius, a dragon that boasted incredible defences, was left without a corpse – his body unwillingly reduced to ashes.

  Venerin looked up at the fiery goddess in the skies in undisguised awe as he tinued. "Whether it's Wukong, Laurielle, Mathias or the rest of their martial siblings, every single one of that woman's disciples is a monster amongst monsters!"

  P.S. Support me oreon listed below to read ahead:

  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon: Book 2 - Chapter 28