No one could tell what had happened within the confines of the mist. No noise, yelps, or clashing sounds were heard. It was as if the battle had ended in an instant, and so it had.
Chen Ling saw it clearly though. It probably wasn't mentioned before, but one of the perks of their soul link was the ability to share senses. This was a popular ability for scouting, though sharing one of the main five senses at a time is the limit of a normal soul contract. She used this to watch the battle through Xiaohei's eyes.
Just kidding, he couldn't see through the mist either. But she instead felt all the movements of his body, the reactions, his hearing of its footsteps, the skillful maneuvers necessary to counter the ambush. She felt like she was flying when he moved nimbly across the frosty ground. Unfortunately, she also felt the moment that claws met flesh and blood. That was not so pleasant, and in fact made her slightly sick.
Not just the 5 sense, but a soul link of her and Xiaohei's level could share the other lesser known senses as well. These include temperature, balance, pain, movement, fear, and hunger. Though some are pretty useless, like hunger, because it's certainly interesting to know how hungry the other is. But senses like temperature can help in a crisis. Such as if trapped in a hot place, the other can sit in air conditioning, and share the feeling of coolness with the other. Fear is also useful in assessing danger.
As a natural soul link, they also have the privilege of sharing 2-3 senses at the same time. If she wanted to, Chen Ling could experience what it's like to be a cat with the right sense. Though why she would do that is beyond anyone's guess.
Currently, she is using this sense sharing ability to gain battle experience without being in battle. To feel the movements and perception of his skill is subconsciously honing her own sense of movement and perception, causing slight improvements. By the way, this was all researched and suggested by her by sister, Chen Yan.
With this, she was feeling more confident.
"Is t it enough by now, Mr. Blue Dragon?" She didn't know his real name, so she just called him that. She was hoping he would give up after witnessing Xiaohei's strength. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.
"Kh! Don't you mock me! Aside from Red Phoenix, I'm the strongest!" He was gritting his teeth in anger. He thought she was taunting her, since Xiaohei was smirking at him in a disgustingly annoying manner, an "is that all?" kind of smirk, the one that frustrates you just looking at it.
"You will pay for what you've done to Black Turtle and White Tiger! We won't lose that easily! I'll show it to you! The strength of our bond!" He then pulled out a ring from the inside of his jacket, equipped it, and pointed it at the sky.
Nothing happened.
"Oh! Uh..." He let down his hand and flipped a switch on the side. Now it was glowing an energetic blue light.
"I'll show it to you! The strength of our bond!" He repeated his line, and held up the now glowing ring.
This time, there was a rumble of thunder, and a storm cloud formed over the playground. All the students marveled at the phenomenon. Though it was only a small cloud around 3 meters in radius. It was also only around 20 feet in the air. But it was amazing nonetheless!
Even Chen Ling thought it was amazing, as she hadn't seen something similar before. Xiaohei only snorted in derision.
The black cloud flashed with blue lightning, and deep rumbles of thunder echoed through the playground.
Then a pair of electric blue eyes appeared from the cloud. The cloud then began to swirl, and an ominous black wind formed a vortex below it. From which the pair of eyes slowly descended.
When the vortex began to slow down a little, the beast, the vague figure of Qinglong could be seen.
Cold, hard, electric blue scales, a body that was at least 10 meters in length. It's wings spread out with a wingspan of at least 4 meters, and caught the air in leathery folds that rippled with strength. It's entire body was Rippling with blue lightning, and an unconcealed pressure fell upon all those present.
Many had to shield their eyes at the bright light.
"Is that... the dragon?!"
"Woah! It looks strong!"
"Scary..."
"Behold, the power of Qinglong!" The hat kid had a smug look as he stood behind his brothers contract beast as if it was his own. He listened to all the comments and lavished in their astonishment. Then one noise rang out.
"Nyehehe~!" A weird, high pitched noise that sounded kind of like a meow rang out amidst the dramatic entrance.
"What was that?" He was confused as he immediately looked ahead at Chen Ling, who was looking at Xiaohei while scolding him.
"Xiaohei! You can't laugh at it! It's not nice to make fun of people, whether human or animal!" He followed her gaze, and sure enough, he saw the cat that beat his two comrades covering its mouth and laughing(?) derisively.
"Nyehehe~!" Depending on the person, one could find the cat laugh cute, annoying, or just plain unsettling. Though in the hat kids case, he found it extremely irritating.
"W-What are you laughing at!" He shouted, pointing at the cat. Some of the students noticed the outburst.
"Xiaohei! You can't say that, it's mean!" Chem Ling said to Xiaohei worriedly. She had never seen him laugh like that before. It was a little out of character for him to smile, let alone laugh.
"What did he say?! What's he laughing about?!" The laughing cat was starting to make him anxious and self conscious as he checked his clothes in worry.
"Oh! Xiaohei says you've got a lot of nerve calling it a dragon." She said without pulling any punches, phrasing it just as Xiaohei said it.
"W-What?!"
"He says that's not a dragon, he says it's just a big snake with wings." This caused everyone to look at Qinglong, who was still under its thundercloud, surrounded by black wind as it was tilting its head in confusion at the weird reactions to its entrance.