The sky had gone black.
The sea itself trembled beneath the dragon's cry, waves pulling back as if fleeing its wrath. The ground cracked open in wide fissures; sand turned to ash under the weight of dark qi that blanketed the beach.
The beast's chest expanded — black flames gathering within its throat, molten light burning through its scales. Each breath it took made the world shudder.
Tian Bufen stood before it, robes snapping in the storm, a smile stretched too wide across his face. The dragon coiled around him like a crown of living shadow, its crimson eyes burning with ancient malice.
Then it struck.
A torrent of dark energy, thick and roaring, tore from the dragon's mouth — a blast wide enough to erase a mountain.
Elder Feng Yu moved first.
His blade flared blue, cutting a vertical arc through the black storm.
The impact cracked the earth, splitting the wave of power in two. But the force slammed into him like an avalanche.
"Rrgh—!"
