Can LV10 Flame Dragon Breath actually change color?
Or did Dean activate some self-destructive secret art, layering it with the Dragon Breath to achieve this effect?
However, with his own [Fire Resistance LV10], should he really be afraid of him?
The Marshal Puchi raised its four thick tentacles high. They drew taut in midair into four arcs ready to strike, then violently smashed down toward that tiny figure, every blow packing enough force to grind boulders into dust.
It missed.
Dean shattered the earth, his figure disappearing in the rubble and dust. The next instant, he had already leaped in front of the Marshal Puchi, whose defenses were wide open from the swing, its mushroom cap completely exposed before him.
Pale blue flames burned fiercely on his fists.
Just one punch.
Half of the Marshal Puchi's mushroom cap vanished directly in the blazing flames. The blue fire continued to burn at the edges of the strike, suppressing a significant portion of its regenerative power.
Only then did the four tentacles that had swung at empty air belatedly return.
Dean threw a punch to the left and a punch to the right. Wherever his fiery fists passed, the tentacles exploded into ashes that fluttered down through the sky.
"Lord Patriarch—!"
As this scene fell into the eyes of Feng Yi and the other Demon-kin, they almost forgot the battles raging around them, hot blood rushing straight to their heads. Just a few more punches! A few more punches, and that damn Giant Puchi would completely fall!
"Stay away from the Boss!"
A furious shout tore through the battlefield.
Little Pig charged in from the flank. Enduring the heatwave that twisted and scorched the very air, she gripped her greatsword with both hands and swung it horizontally.
Her posture didn't look like swinging a sword; it looked more like swinging a giant shield, intent on swatting Dean away like a fly.
Dean turned and threw a punch to counter the attack.
At the exact moment the fist and sword were about to collide, Little Pig's scarlet eyes suddenly turned pale.
[Petrification Ray]
Two grayish-white beams shot from her eyes, squarely hitting Dean's swinging arm.
That section of skin covered in magic patterns instantly turned the grayish-white of rock, and the movement at his joints came to a grinding halt. Dean frowned and gave a forceful flex. The petrified layer shattered, the stone fragments rustling down.
But this momentary stiffness was enough.
The greatsword slapped into him with a howling wind.
Dean was like a skipped stone, sent flying horizontally. He carved a deep trench dozens of meters long into the ground, finally crashing into a pile of Puchi remains and kicking up a cloud of dust.
The price for this was that Little Pig consumed her ninth vial of Water of Life just to recover from the intense heat damage.
However, the moment she landed, Dean—who should have been sent flying—wrapped himself in blue flames and charged right in front of her again, clamping a hand over her head.
The Blood Crystals on her face began to melt bit by bit, looking as if the heat would consume her directly.
Little Pig swept her sword horizontally with one hand, which Dean blocked with a single arm.
Instead of using her other hand to protect her head, she extended a finger, condensing several blood-thread flowers between her and Dean, and then unleashed a sweeping slash that disregarded both friend and foe!
Dean suffered slashes to his chest and wrist, but he didn't let go.
Little Pig fared worse. The Blood Crystals on her armor were already mostly melted, and this attack inflicted severe damage across her form.
Fortunately, Lin Jun rescued her in time. A fully regenerated tentacle smashed down.
Dean dodged, and the tentacle merely swatted Little Pig safely into the ground.
Her status panel was still there; it wasn't a major issue, just a temporary exit from the fight.
The Giant Marshal Puchi, its cap still missing an unrecovered corner, turned toward Dean.
Now it was a fair one-on-one!
This was naturally because Lin Jun valued fair duels, and definitely not because ordinary Puchis couldn't get close to this kind of flame.
Honestly, Dean's strength after turning into this 'Super Blue' state had indeed somewhat exceeded Lin Jun's expectations. The heavily-invested Little Pig couldn't even hold him off for a short while.
However, it wasn't a big problem.
At this moment, Dean's physical form within the blue flames was heavily consumed by the intense magic, acting as fuel for his power; only the magic patterns on his body remained perfectly intact.
His speed had slowed down significantly, but he still charged toward the Marshal Puchi with unwavering determination.
Four mycelial tentacles swept over one by one from the front.
Dean once again took them out with a single punch each. Every time his fist made contact with a tentacle, it was instantly destroyed.
Without Little Pig's interference, Dean wasn't going to leave the Giant Puchi any time to regenerate.
However, after he continuously blasted three tentacles, his raised right fist suddenly lost all sensation and dropped abruptly.
The next instant, Dean was sent flying by the final giant tentacle, crashing into a small slope not far away.
"Patriarch? What happened?" Feng Yi looked panicked in the direction Dean had fallen, unable to understand how the Patriarch had suddenly been swatted away.
He wanted to go help, but currently trapped within the Puchi swarm, they could barely protect themselves, let alone intervene in the decisive battle.
Pu—ji—
The Giant Marshal Puchi's tentacle slowly regenerated against the blue flames.
"What's wrong? Weren't you going to burn me clean?"
Propping himself against a wall with one hand, Dean stood up from the ruins. The blue flames gradually extinguished, revealing his heavily battered body underneath.
Dean couldn't feel his right hand or his left leg, and he knew this wasn't caused by the backlash of the blue flames.
Poison?
No, in his burning state, it was impossible for him to be affected by toxins.
Then why?
The Marshal Puchi's tentacle gently gave Dean a push. This time, as the sensation in his right leg vanished, Dean swayed and collapsed to the ground.
Dean's mind was still pondering whether it was a curse or a toxin, yet he couldn't think of an ability that matched this scenario.
[Soul Touch]
Every point of contact with the Marshal Puchi resulted in mutual annihilation on the soul level.
Even as strong as Dean was, there was nothing particularly special about his soul.
After seven or eight touches back and forth, he began to lose control over his body.
"Nothing more than this." After another barrage of tentacle strikes, the Voice Puchi squirmed next to the completely immobilized Dean. "How about it? How about surrendering? The Mushroom Fortress's enemy is the Empire. There's no need for you Demon-kin to fight to the brink of extinction for that Vampire, is there?"
Knowing he was already defeated, Dean looked sideways at the Voice Puchi. "Are you saying I should let that mycelium crawl all over my body, and then have my entire race become your slaves? Heh..."
"That is prejudice. You just don't know the benefits of mycelium yet. It's fine, I have always been magnanimous; I'm willing to give you time to experience it." Saying this, the Giant Puchi's mushroom cap squeezed, and spores drifted down.
Then, a tentacle curled toward Dean, planning to store him away first.
"I won't be experiencing it, Feng Yi!" With a furious roar, the magic patterns on Dean's body suddenly lit up. His power contracted along the patterns into his magic core. In the blink of an eye, Dean's physical form withered away, while his magic core shone with unparalleled brilliance.
At the same time, Feng Yi's final white-shafted, blue-feathered arrow crossed the battlefield. The fierce wind swept the magic core up into the sky. The Marshal Puchi tried to grab it but missed.
Having fired this arrow, Feng Yi's bowstring snapped, leaving him with no combat power left. Not long after, he and the few remaining Demon-kin elites beside him were engulfed by the Puchis.
A magic core escaping?
Looking at the arrow that had already disappeared into the horizon, Lin Jun found it somewhat hard to bear.
They really all had their own unique tricks! He had been afraid Little Black would rush out of the fungal mat's range and get lost, so he hadn't brought her along. Otherwise, they might have been able to catch up to the arrow.
However, Demon-kin couldn't resurrect through a magic core, so what was the point of sending a single magic core away?
A tentacle reached into the pit, dug around, and pulled out Little Pig. She had mostly recovered thanks to the Water of Life but was still a bit groggy.
"Stop sleeping, get to work, take down Dragon Horn Fort!"
"And send people south to look and see if we can get that Dean's magic core back."
Afterwards, the Marshal Puchi jumped out of the Giant Puchi, found the unconscious and captured Feng Yi, and stomped on him a couple of times.
One by one, they all harbored prejudice against mycelium.
What was so bad about being parasitized? Just look at the Mush-kin, weren't they living very well right now!
Honestly!
A day later, Dragon Horn Fort fell.
A few days after that, Norris also converged with them. The grand army then continued south, swallowing up the territories of the two Dukes.
This scared Duke Levi, who was sandwiched between the Dwarves and the Puchis, so much that he even prepared to run away at a moment's notice.
As for Dean's magic core, after being carried far away in the sky, it landed right in front of Grey, who was still struggling to make his way to Dragon Horn Fort.
Feeling the familiar aura upon it, Grey tremblingly held up this magic core: "Patriarch?!"
(End of Chapter)
More chapters coming soon!
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