Close to the emerald green sea, hundreds of cultivators were gathering in hopes of striking down the Ancient and claiming its corpse for themselves.
"Alright, everyone. We have next to no knowledge of what this beast can do!" The city lord's representative shouted at the assembled crowd. "All we know is that it has a human form and a breath attack. And a powerful breath attack at that. Be careful of its claws, tail, and fangs, as well. We'll figure out its abilities as we attack. Questions?"
"Where is the city lord?" One relatively brave cultivator asked tentatively.
"He is currently getting his armour." Came the easy reply. "Any other questions? Good. Let us depart."
....
"Salem?" Ruby, who was in the middle of doing a loop-de-loop, called out suddenly. "We've got about a hundred people chasing us."
"I did warn them." Salem sighed. "This is going to get messy."
"What do they even want your heart for?" Alina demanded irritably.
"I don't know, but I think you should put your helmet on." Salem stopped flying forward and merely hovered, ready to receive his unwanted guests. "In case they can communicate with any other continent and place bounties on our heads, please wear your helmet."
"Alright." Alina nodded, placing it over her head and climbing his neck to sit in between his horns. "I'll have a great view from here."
"Ruby, why don't you join Alina?" Salem suggested, chuckling.
Ruby nodded and landed upon his head, tucking her wings against her back and sitting next to Alina.
Salem waited until the large group of people were within earshot and then roared.
"I thought I said any who pursued me would perish!" His voice created a shockwave that flew in all directions, disturbing the sea greatly.
The cultivators, fazed by his roar, continued forward more slowly than before. Each person didn't want to be the first to engage the massive black dragon, so eventually they floated at a snail's pace towards him.
"Wait what's that upon the Ancient's head?" A cultivator eventually noticed the two women sitting comfortably upon Salem's head.
"What IS that?" Another cultivator asked cautiously.
"The city lord is coming!" Another cultivator exclaimed, pointing behind them.
Salem was through with trying to intimidate them into leaving. He opened his mouth and shot a purple beam, instantly annihilating a few unfortunate souls that did not dodge in time.
"Spread out!" A cultivator screamed. "That way it'll be wasteful for the Ancient to use large-scale attacks like that!"
'Time to put my new cultivation method to the test.' Salem thought, channeling his energy in accordance to the method and abruptly creating ice spears that pierced some of the startled cultivators.
'Wow, it's really fast.' Oso remarked as the distance between himself and the Ancient shrank. 'And the two unidentifiable beings have yet to make a move.'
Just as Oso made that mental comment, Ruby created a sword out of nanobots and swung it in a lazy arc.
From the blade flew a crescent-shaped shadow that cleaved a cultivator in half.
Alina used the shadows of several of the cultivators to strangle them to death.
Oso arrived at the battle field and proceeded to charge up an sword attack.
Salem chuckled and gestured with a clawed foot, sending a spray of icicles at Oso, interrupting his sword spell.
"Distract the beast so I can charge up a killing blow!" Oso shouted at the remaining three quarters of the cultivators.
In response, nearly half of the cultivators charged towards the trio, while the rest hung back to either protect the city lord or their own lives.
Alina strangled a third of the remaining cultivators with a wave of her hand, using her body language to laugh at them.
Ruby reclined upon Salem's head, leisurely stretching herself out while simultaneously casting sword spells to devastating effect.
Salem threw another breath attack at Oso, causing the remaining thirty or so cultivators to band together and try and stop it so Oso could cast his final attack.
Another seven died blocking his devastating attack and fell into the sea below, but Oso managed to charge his attack in time. His sword crackled from the sheer quantity of energy he had collected in his sword, making him look like some sort of thunder god.
"Go to hell!" Oso shouted, swinging his electrified blade towards them, tendrils of electricity filling the air with the smell of ozone.
Ruby intercepted the attack easily, but it wasn't done yet. In the blue sky above, large, ominous clouds gathered, quickly obscuring the clear skies for as far as any could see.
Oso struggled to maintain his altitude with his small amount of remaining power, satisfied with the effect of his technique.
Salem hurriedly created a lightning rod connected to the water. From the clouds, a storm of lightning rained down upon their location, only to arc towards the lightning rod and dissipate into the sea, lighting it up briefly in the process.
"Not once did we do anything to harm you." Alina stood up proudly, coalescing the shadows around herself to back herself with an illusory and shadowy halo. "You lost your troops to your blind greed. And now you will lose your life to your own foolishness."
She raised a hand and from behind her spikes of shadow pierced through the light of day and into Oso's armour, nearly shattering it.
"I will haunt you in death." Oso cursed the three of them. "Even in death you will not be able to rest your eyes!"
"Your soul won't be able to follow us where we're going." Salem laughed, erasing Oso from existence with another lavender beam.
"Awww. I wanted to kill him." Alina pouted, sitting back down on Salem's scaly head.
"I think we all wanted to kill him." Ruby smacked Salem's head lightly. "You should have at least let me get a hit on him!"
"I'd hope you wouldn't hit on anyone else." Salem said mildly, resuming his flight across the sea.
"I would never!" Ruby exclaimed in response.
Salem laughed, enjoying their time together as they continued to fly through the salty air above the sea.