First, a large dark-red spike, sharp like a war spear, broke through the frozen surface. The ice around it hissed, lting upon contact with the spike’s extre heat.
Then, a colossal claw erged. It was covered in dark red and black scales that seed to absorb the light around them, as if they were made of solidified lava. The claws at the tip of the paw were as long as swords and glowed with an intense orange heat.
Next, the entire body began to erge.
...
The Five-Horned Lava Lizard was gigantic.
Kyrian estimated its length at nearly twenty-five ters, perhaps more, considering part of its tail was still subrged.
Its body was muscular and elongated, covered with thick scales that overlapped like plates of armor. Each scale glowed faintly, pulsing with an internal heat that distorted the air around it.
Five curved, flaming horns sprouted from its head.
They were not like ordinary horns, they were made of a material that seed to be both bone and lava at the sa ti, a translucent substance that glowed from within.
Each horn pulsed with dense fire Qi, as if they were antennas channeling the power of fire directly.
The lizard’s eyes were pools of molten magma.
Red and black, with slit-shaped pupils, locking onto Kyrian with an intelligence that was both animalistic and ancient.
Kyrian clearly felt its strength.
Peak of the Core Formation Realm. Extrely close to Spiritual Awakening, perhaps only a single step, a single breakthrough away.
A beast that, under normal conditions, would terrify any group of cultivators in that region, no matter how well prepared they were.
And there was more.
A crushing pressure descended upon Kyrian the mont the lizard fully erged and fixed its flaming eyes on him.
It was not just brute strength. It was sothing primal, superior, it was the essence, the presence of a noble and ancient lineage.
Dragon blood.
The pressure did not co from the creature’s Qi but from its very essence. It was an overwhelming will that demanded submission, that commanded any living being to kneel, tremble, and accept its inferiority.
’Is this because of the dragon blood?’
’Truly powerful... far more than I imagined.’ Kyrian thought.
The pressure lasted less than a second.
Kyrian’s snowflake-shaped eyes shone brighter. It was a reactive glow, an unconscious response from his eyes.
His special eyes, whose true origin Kyrian did not fully understand, dispersed the draconic pressure as if it had never existed. The weight that tried to force him to bow simply vanished, nullified by sothing superior.
Kyrian remained standing. Upright. Without any sign of submission.
His eyes did not leave the lizard’s.
’So this pressure doesn’t affect my eyes...’ A faint cold smile appeared at the corner of his lips, a real smile, sothing rare.
’What would it be like against a real dragon?’
Curiosity burned within him.
It was not fear. It was not hesitation. It was pure excitent, the anticipation of a true challenge, of a battle that would test the limits of his eyes.
In the Blood Library, Kyrian had read about dragons. Ancient divine beasts, considered extinct for hundreds of thousands of years, dominated the skies and the earth with absolute power.
It was said that a single adult dragon could destroy the most powerful sects alone and that its re presence made entire kingdoms tremble.
Encountering a beast with even a drop of that blood was a rare opportunity, sothing few cultivators would ever experience in their lives.
Kyrian would not waste it.
...
The Five-Horned Lava Lizard tilted its head.
The gesture was almost human in its curiosity. For the first ti in a long ti, perhaps ever, its draconic presence had not made a prey kneel.
The pressure that ca from its blood, which made other cultivators tremble and flee, had simply been ignored.
Instead of terror, the small human before it looked at it with genuine interest. His eyes shone not with fear, but with sothing more dangerous.
Excitent and curiosity.
It was the gaze of a predator evaluating another.
The monster roared again.
The sound made the air vibrate like a giant drum, and the ash in the air scattered with the shockwave. The roar was a challenge, a declaration of territory, and a warning.
Kyrian did not retreat.
He took a step forward.
The ice beneath his feet spread even further, extending in all directions like a white mantle over the black earth. The cold mist emanating from his body intensified, wrapping around him like an invisible armor.
His eyes slowly rotated, condensing ice Qi in increasingly greater amounts.
"Co." He murmured, his calm voice echoing in the chaos around him.
"Show the power of a drop of dragon blood."
The challenge was accepted.
The Five-Horned Lizard lunged forward, its massive body moving with a speed that contrasted with its size. Flas escaped between its scales, and each step left lted marks on the stone ground.
Kyrian raised his right hand.
Crystals of ice began to rise from the ground around him, forming a forest of white spikes that glowed with a pale blue light. The contrast between the absolute cold he emanated and the infernal heat of the volcano was spectacular, dense white clouds spiraled upward as the two elents collided, creating a display of vapor and light.
The battle was about to begin.
And Kyrian, for the first ti in a long while, felt truly excited to fight.
...
In the distance, the fleeing group heard the second deafening roar.
The sound made so of them stumble, others covered their ears with their hands. The elder did not look back. He kept running, his eyes fixed on the horizon, his only goal was to escape.
Pan Zheng, however, looked back.
He saw the clouds of white vapor rising in the distance, the blue glow of ice contrasting with the red of the volcano. He could not see Kyrian, it was too far, but he knew he was still there.
Frustration ran across Pan Zheng’s face.
"We left him to die." He whispered, his voice breaking.
"We left him alone."
No one responded. They were all too busy running, too busy trying to save their own skin.
Pan Zheng kept running, but sothing in his chest had changed. It was no longer just fear but also the feeling of weakness.
None of them imagined that, in the center of the Interdiate Area, the young man in the blue-ice robe was facing alone one of the most feared, rare, and ancient beasts, said to be extinct from the Inner Area of the Great Volcano.
And he was smiling while doing it.
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