In the midst of this intensive battlefield that had once been the proud Red Eastern Guild headquarters, two figures stood facing an opponent that seed to have crawled out of nightmares themselves.
The double-headed dragon was standing firmly, one head staring at Ryon and the other at Zhou.
One head bore eyes that burned with orange flas, while the other glowed with deep crimson, as red as blood. Both stared with predatory focus at their respective opponents.
Ryon was in his transford state—a massive skeletal undead, to be precise, with hollow eye sockets that seed to contain endless darkness and long grey hair that flowed with the wind.
The transformation had elongated his size considerably. Where once stood a decently impressive-shaped human, now evolved a towering skeletal figure around eight feet in height.
Also on the battlefield was what appeared to be a panda—but calling it a regular panda would be like calling a tornado a gentle breeze. This was Zhou in his transford state, and the transformation had not in any way taken the cute and cuddly image of a panda.
It looked more like a gorilla in panda skin.
Zhou's face retained so human features, but his eyes were small and beady.
The first exchange had already given the two Sen enough warning not to charge in blindly.
The mory of their initial strike was still fresh and humbling—Zhou's full-strength punch connecting with the dragon's scales had felt like child's play.
Striking the dragon with their current offense was as ineffective as trying to split a rock with a knife.
Their eyes were locked, not making any move, their hair fluttering backwards from the gust of wind coming from the attacks of the others who had obviously engaged the other beasts.
Taking his stance, Ryon was the first to break the stillness that had stretched between them for too long.
"Zhou," Ryon called out, his voice carrying clearly and low across the space between them. "We have a slight advantage, so take your stance."
Zhou imdiately dropped into his own fighting stance, his massive panda form settling into a crouched position. His red eyes never left the dragon as he waited for Ryon to continue, knowing that Ryon wasn't done.
"Its size is our upper hand," Ryon continued, and in those simple words, Zhou could already begin to translate the entire picture that Ryon had constructed in his mind.
*Vwoom.*
Ryon had only given a clue, but Zhou's instincts could already decipher the entire strategy. The size was indeed a major factor and their trump card in this seemingly impossible fight.
The double-headed dragon was standing on all fours, yet it towered around fifteen feet high at the shoulder. Its length from snout to tail had to be at least forty feet, making it easily the largest opponent among all the familiars that had descended.
Each of its four legs was like a massive pillar—and the weight of each was apparently significant enough to crack stone with every step.
This was the first advantage they possessed: this dragon could never possibly be as fast as Draki or Valachi due to its incredible size and weight.
And they were right about that assumption. The dragon's movents, while fluid and controlled, lacked the extraordinary quickness that had made Valachi such a nightmare to fight against.
Where Valachi had such speed that could make his movents seem as if he disappeared and reappeared, this creature's movents were sothing any Sen could handle.
That should have been all, but Zhou, being a maniac as always, found a third benefit. The bigger a creature, the greater the quantity of blood to spray—this creature was just the size he loved.
All these factors combined to give both Sen a surge of confidence they hadn't felt since this nightmare had begun.
The fact that the three black-marked familiars had been split up among different opponents ant that they were going to have the luxury of facing this dragon with full concentration.
The overwhelming fear they had all felt at the beginning was gradually being replaced by growing determination.
The only thing they truly feared now was the possibility of anyone from their side being killed in this battle.
*Vwoom.*
Just as Ryon had blasted himself forward after his brief tactical conversation with Zhou, Zhou also charged in after he analyzed everything within one-third of a second.
They were two combatants against a two-headed opponent. One Sen could engage each head, preventing the creature from bringing its full attention to bear on either of them individually.
"Haaaaaaaaa!!!"
Zhou scread as he charged forward, the sound erging from his transford throat as sothing between a war cry and a roar.
His target was the left head, the one whose eyes burned with orange blaze. The double-headed dragon didn't possess just two heads—each head was supported by its own incredibly long neck that allowed for a range of motion of several yards.
The necks were easily twelve feet long each, covered in the sa seemingly impenetrable scales as the rest of the creature, and appeared to be capable of striking while still maintaining their connection to the central body.
Zhou closed the distance with impressive speed, his powerful legs pushing his massive panda form forward. His plan was simple and direct—get close enough to land a devastating blow.
*Clang.*
The sound of Zhou's enhanced fist eting the dragon's scales was like tal being struck by another.
Zhou's hand bounced off the beast's hard scales like he had just punched an unbendable tal wall, not even causing the slightest scratch or producing the faintest mark on the creature's hide.
The scales didn't even show scorch marks or scratches from the impact.
*ROAR!*
The dragon head responded imdiately. The sound that erged from its throat wasn't rely a roar—it was infused with one of its abilities.
The force of the roar was so intense that it lifted Zhou completely off his feet and drove him backward through the air like a projectile.
*CRASH.*
His massive form sailed through the air for nearly thirty feet before crashing to the ground with incredible force.
"Damn," Zhou managed to gasp, his voice muffled by his face being pressed into the dirt. His enhanced panda form was tough, but the sheer force of that sound attack had been overwhelming.
"I put everything I had into that punch! At the very least, I should have given it a headache!"
The wave of crushing force from the ongoing roar continued to press down on him, making it almost impossible to move.
Zhou could barely sense his fingers, let alone command them to help him rise. His entire body felt as though it were being compressed by an invisible weight that was steadily increasing.
The roar clearly wasn't re sound; with the power behind it, it was definitely amplified with gamma energy, pressing Zhou with oppressive force to the ground.
When the roar stopped, Zhou had already been completely immobilized.
'I am down already!' he thought in his mind, wishing his mouth was capable of moving enough to speak out.
But his situation was about to beco significantly worse, and Zhou noticed it quickly with the side of his eyes.
"No, no, no, no. This can't be happening. Not like this. Not when I haven't even gotten started yet!"
The pressure in the air began to change again, and Zhou, with his face pressing against the ground sideways, moved his shaking eyeball in horror to stare at the dragon head that had put him in this state.
The creature was preparing a second attack, and this ti it wasn't going to be re sound and force. This ti, flas were gathering in the dragon's throat—flas that burned with such intensity that Zhou could feel their heat even from this distance. The orange fire built and danced within the creature's mouth, growing brighter and more concentrated with each passing second.
*Recover Flow*
The technique activated just as the dragon's head snapped forward and opened its jaws to release hell itself.
*BWWOOOOOOOMMM!*
The sound of fla consuming everything in its path filled the air with a roar that outclassed even the dragon's earlier sound attack.
The fire was a pure orange blaze, sothing unlike any fire on planet Terra.
The fire burned with such incredible heat that it didn't just incinerate everything in its path; it lted the very ground beneath it, turning solid earth and stone into bubbling, red-hot lava that lightened the darkness of the night.
The fla lasted for what felt like an eternity but was probably only around five to ten seconds. When it finally died away, a perfectly straight line of destruction marked where the attack had passed.
Everything in its path had been reduced to molten fluid.
Ryon, who had been engaging the other draconic head—the one with red eyes—froze in the middle of his own combat and slowly turned toward the field where Zhou had been fighting.
His hollow eye sockets widened in what could only be described as shock as he glanced at where Zhou should have been a second ago.
For a mont, the realization of what had just occurred almost made the stoic Ryon falter. The possibility that Zhou had just been reduced to ash was almost undeniable.
But then, in a gesture of annoyance, Ryon scoffed and turned away from the scene of destruction.
"I hate it when you don't value your life, Zhou," he comnted aloud, his hollow voice carrying loudly.
"Yeah, yeah," ca Zhou's voice from directly beside Ryon, causing the skeletal Sen to turn to him without the slightest bit of surprise. "Where's the fun when there are no spices?"
Zhou was standing right next to Ryon, his massive panda form intact but clearly showing the effects of his narrow escape. His fur was smoking, masking him in black cloud.
Parts of his black and white coat appeared scorched, and there were small patches where the fur had been burned away entirely, revealing skin that was reddened but not seriously damaged beneath.
"*Recover Flow*,"
Zhou chanted again, this ti with enough ti to spare to perform the technique properly.
As soon as he healed, he wasted no ti.
"*Affinity of the Cursed Panda: Bamboo Forest Dominion!*"
As soon as Zhou chanted these words, the entire nature of the battlefield began to change drastically at such speed that should have been practically impossible.
From the ground itself, from every crack in the devastated earth, countless bamboo stalks began to erupt with violent force.
These weren't the gentle, swaying bamboo shoots one might find in gardens or even forests.
These were bamboo stalks infused with Zhou's gamma energy and shaped by his affinity's default. Each stalk was easily six inches in diater and rose to heights of thirty or forty feet.
More importantly, they moved as if they were alive, bending and twisting through the air with flexibility that even Chinese Bamboo didn't possess.
The bamboo stalks that erged from the ground intertwined around the dragon's legs, torso, necks, and even attempted to bind its massive wings. They moved with such coordination that it was clear they were controlled by Zhou's will.
The dragon recognized this threat early, but by the ti it decided to react, it had already been entangled.
*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!*
This ti, both heads roared simultaneously, creating a sound that was so trendous that the ground shook with the force of an earthquake. The sound waves didn't just carry force—they were infused with invincible destructive energy that ravaged everything in its path.
Zhou and Ryon both imdiately dug their feet deep into the ground, bracing themselves against the trendous force that was about to hit them.
Despite being as prepared as they were, the sound attack was overwhelming. The sound waves struck them like a physical blow that almost lifted them off their feet and sent them flying backward.
All the bamboo that had been wrapped around the familiar—every single stalk that Zhou had summoned and carefully positioned in binding that had been wrapped around the dragon's form—was torn away by the sheer force of the dual roar.
"Wow," Zhou exclaid with genuine appreciation, even as he struggled to maintain his footing against the continuing sound attack. "That was one hell of a roar. I'm actually impressed."
The roar finally died away, leaving behind a battlefield that had been cleared of everything except the combatants—Zhou's bamboo forest was gone.
However, the dragon wasn't finished. Having cleared away Zhou's entangling attack, it was now prepared to retaliate with sothing far more than re sound.
The right head—the one with red eyes—began to open its massive jaws, and within its maw, flas began to gather.
"This is going to be..." Ryon began, his hollow voice trailing off.
"Extrely troubleso," Zhou finished. They were right, especially since the distance between them and the beast had stretched quite far from all the sound attacks.
"Move!" Ryon shouted, though his voice carried clearly without the need for raised volu.
*ROOOOOOOAAAAAR!*
The blood-red flas erupted from the dragon's jaws, starting with a tunnel shape, advancing forward with destruction. The fire moved faster than either Sen could run, expanding outward in a cone that would have engulfed everything in its path if there were still sothing left other than the combatants.
Zhou and Ryon both sprinted in opposite directions, their enhanced speed allowing them to stay just ahead of the expanding blast of fla. The heat was so intense that even at the edges of the attack's range, they could feel their skin beginning to smoke.
*Cursed Panda Technique: Bamboo Bridge!*
Out of thin air, a pathway began to form for both of them—a bridge made of the sa reinforced bamboo he had used in his earlier attack. The bridge extended from their current positions directly toward the dragon, creating a route just beside the ongoing blast of fla that allowed them to close distance while it was busy attacking.
Unfortunately, the other head wasn't just going to watch things play out while doing nothing.
*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!*
The sound attack struck the bamboo bridge, shattering Zhou's carefully constructed pathway and sending fragnts of bamboo flying in all directions. Once again...
"*Affinity of the Graveskull: Death Wish!*"
Ryon chanted desperately, his hollow voice almost lost in the face of the dragon's.
"*Cursed Panda Technique: Gamma Amplified Bamboo Wall!*"
Zhou shouted simultaneously with Ryon.
The two Sen were quick enough to react. Ryon activated his familiar affinity while Zhou quickly created an obstruction for them to stop them from being blown into the still ongoing fla release from the red-eyed dragon.
Zhou's technique raised a massive wall of bamboo that erupted from the ground directly in front of them, but this wasn't the sa bamboo he had used before. This bamboo was infused with concentrated gamma energy, making it significantly more durable and resistant.
The sound attack struck the bamboo wall with trendous force, but this ti Zhou's defense held. The wall cracked and swayed under the assault, but it didn't shatter completely. More importantly, it provided them with protection from being flung into the continuing stream of blood-red fla that was still pouring from the other dragon head.
When both attacks finally ended, Zhou found himself hanging from his own bamboo wall, his claws dug deep into the bamboo. His body was nearly as damaged as the last fla attack he escaped, but he was alive and still capable of fighting.
"We're still alive," Zhou exclaid with a grim grin spreading across his panda features. "Let's go again."
He activated his Recover Flow technique, feeling the energy flow through his damaged body and begin the process of healing his damaged body parts. The technique, in just a few seconds, brought him back to his pri.
"You ready, Ryon?" Zhou called out, expecting to hear his partner's dry response.
But no response ca.
"What u..." Zhou turned sideways, and his cocky expression was slowly replaced with a terrified expression spreading across his face.
Zhou frantically scanned the area where Ryon should have been. There was nothing—no ash or any trace that the Graveskull Undead had ever existed.
The realization finally dawned upon him—he was too occupied to rember placing an obstruction for Ryon the mont the sound blast ca.
Even with his Death Wish technique activated, which should have granted him abnormal durability, the flas had been too intense, too overwhelming.
The blood-red fire was not the type to burn or lt; it consud everything in its path, and Ryon's skeletal form had been no exception.
Even the ground where it had struck wasn't lted to molten lava; rather, a dark endless pit could be seen.
Ryon had died.
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