The shockwave from Yasenia's all-out attack pushed Xiang Yinnu back several meters.
After the aftershocks subsided, she looked at the place where they fought and saw Yasenia heavily breathing and looking at her with eyes oozing combat spirit.
Her entire body erupted into chills, and her senses quickly searched and found the Devil Commander Puppet.
The dragon-human puppet was in an unrecognizable state. While four large gashes opened its chest, its limbs and skull were mangled after the explosion from [Celestial dragon Claw].
Following commands, the puppet was trying to stand up, but it kept fumbling and falling against the ground.
For Xiang Yinnu, her puppets were actually something very precious, so the almost demolished state was painful to look at. However, she didn't overreact like previously and cautiously observed the dragon.
The previously alluring face was now destroyed as one side of her face was brutally sliced, making her jaw slack and showing bone.
However, the perfectly fine side of the mouth arched upward as the long tongue of the dragoness licked the entire wound. With red eyes that looked lost in blood and a figure that had seemingly lost all her "humanity," only an injured but excited beast was left behind.
With a heavy step that cracked the ground, Yasenia gathered strength and prepared to lunge forward.
Xiang Yinnu's face became tense, and she ordered her remaining five puppets to fight with her. It looked like she would need to fight personally if she wanted to kill her this time. 'But, can she recreate an attack of that caliber at will? She must have constraints. Otherwise, Yasenia would've attacked sooner with something like that.'
Fourteen stars appeared around Yasenia, and her body blurred, speeding toward Xiang Yinnu. It was the speed acceleration from [Heavenly Constellation Steps, First Sky: Pegasus Gallop].
"[Puppet War Art: Balance Formation]."
The five puppets were pristine, except the one that Yasenia previously damaged with the Sun explosion. They all moved in a semi-circle before Xiang Yinnu and sped toward Yasenia.
Enhanced by [Creature Intent Level Four], the puppets were stronger, swifter, and had more intelligence and control.
Creature Intent was similar to a "Life-giving" intent for everything it affected.
Therefore, the strength of the five puppets was not to be underestimated. They were much stronger than the five low-level Epoch core cultivators she fought after hunting the Earth Serpent. Plus, their coordination was seamless.
The dragoness's eyes moved around quickly, calculating fighting tactics in nothing but a heartbeat.
When the first puppet arrived, she smiled widely, ignoring the pain, and continued forward while ignoring the oncoming sword slash.
Xiang Yinnu's heart dropped, and she quickly manipulated the puppet to stop and retreat. 'Is she going to do that attack again!?'
However, unlike what happened previously, Yasenia's body didn't burst with empyrean energies.
The dragoness pointed her sword at Yinnu and used [Lunar Star Charge].
She consumed half of the stars she had accumulated and half of the Moon energy she had saved in the previous battle. Yasenia's entire body and sword were enveloped in a spiral of silver energies with rotating white stars.
Xiang Yinnu's face crumpled. 'She deceived me!'
When her thoughts finished, the annihilating silvery vortex was in front of her eyes. Xiang Yinnu shouted with anger. "Don't underestimate me! [Devil Puppet Wall]!"
A wall of sewn creatures rose before her, surrounded by malevolent red and black energies.
BOOOM!
The sound of Yasenia colliding was followed by the wall before her eyes ripped apart, with Yasenia appearing in front of herself like an unstoppable silver meteor.
Thankfully, Yinnu could sense that the strength was much more manageable and that Yasenia had consumed quite a lot to pierce through.
Preparing her sword, Yinnu slashed and used her body cultivation's advantage, her physical strength.
Yet, unlike what she expected, as if Yasenia suddenly ignored the laws of motion, she came to a stop, making Yinnu slash at nothing and make her stance falter a little bit.
Yinnu's eyes looked down and saw the skin on Yasenia's legs ripping apart as they absorbed the absurd momentum that allowed the dragoness this heaven-defying motion-stop. Feeling danger, she began jumping back.
However, while releasing her Moon and Star energies, Yinnu felt a wave of heat hitting her as the dragoness brought her sword behind her for a wide strike, and the tail's scales behind her changed to a vivid golden color.
It was [Sun Dragon Body] activating.
With anger for being deceived twice in a row, Yinnu's black eyes shone maliciously as she tried to retreat, and a bright smile appeared on her lips. 'You are too slow. I got you.'
In that tiny time frame, while Yasenia raised her sword and Sun's energies accumulated, five puppets appeared around her, slashing at her. Yinnu had ordered their return and accelerated their movements with one of her skills, allowing them to catch up because Yasenia stopped her charge instead of following through.
Yet, Yasenia's red eyes kept being locked on her, making Yinnu's smile crack. The distance she had managed to create at that moment was a few meters, but that was nothing but mele range for people at their level.
The dragoness's sword burst into golden flames that shot to the sky as the image of a Sun appeared behind her.
As Yasenia lowered [Draconic Heart], the five swords of the puppets slashed and thrust at her. But, the dragoness left her defenses entirely to her bare body and [Celestial Cosmos dress] and her other buffing abilities.
"[Empyrean Sun Collapse]."
BOOOM!
Yinnu's eyesight was filled with white, followed by an unbearable feeling of being burnt alive and being struck by a mountain.
A golden explosion had swallowed the puppet cultivator, and her body was like a comet that soared across the arena.
At the same time, Yasenia felt two swords piercing into her, one sinking deep into her chest and the other into her waist.
Her dress blocked two other swords, and her tail stopped the final one.
Yasenia roared and spun her giant sword around her together with her tail, but the two puppets that scored a hit didn't miss the chance and used the momentum of Yasenia's strike to slice through and open large wounds in her body.
Bright red blood as beautiful as liquid ruby splattered around Yasenia, yet the dragoness didn't stop for a single second, wanting to charge toward the heavily injured Yinnu.
However, the five puppets were more persistent than she expected.
With a quick move of her sword, she clashed with the puppet coming from her right, blasting it flying, but there was a sword already near her shoulder, which she dodged with a flexible waist motion that ignored the deep wounds.
A third sword approached from her back, so she used her tail to grab the leg of that puppet and swung it toward her right, smashing against the fourth one. At that moment, the fifth puppet was attacking from above, but while twisting her upper body backward and placing her arms on the ground, she pushed and kicked the chin of the fifth puppet.
Spinning while upside down, the second puppet she dodged and attacked her again was struck by a tail lash on the head, sending it flying sideways.
When she recovered and rushed toward Yinnu, the first puppet she had parried had already recovered enough to attack again.
The dragoness began slashing and attacking as continuous strikes from the puppets rained on her. The attacks were continuous, and the clanging sound of swords colliding was unending as Yasenia moved with grace and blocked them.
In the meantime, she looked at Yinnu's position and used [Empyrean Galaxy Domain] to rain everything in the phantom night sky toward her. A tenth of her energy disappeared, making Yasenia feel a wave of exhaustion.
A spiral galaxy with thousands of stars, a giant Sun, and a giant Moon.
All of it, as if the strings that held them attached to the sky were cut, fell on top of Xiang Yinnu.
Xiang Yinnu looked at the wild spectacle, but instead of fear, her lips arched in a bright smile. Her voice was weak, and she muttered. "I don't need her anymore. I'll kill her."
Then, around Xiang Yinnu, a red dome appeared, which made Yasenia's expression harden. 'A life-saving treasure?'
Seeing this, her face hardened, and her objective changed. 'Get rid of the puppets quickly.'
[Dance In The Firmament] activated, making her motions more fluid and rapid, and she began attacking the puppets right when the tremendous explosion from the area where Yinnu lay lit up the entire arena.
Ignoring the momentary blindness, the puppets attacked again.
However, the first puppet's sword was deflected, but instead of the dragon attacking another one like before, she pushed on.
The Low-level Epoch Core puppet saw a fist magnifying with a golden aura around it.
BANG!
The punch squarely landed, and Yasenia's brute strength sent the puppet flying with a crushed face. With a quick turn, she swung her sword in a wide arc. "[Draconic Dusk]."
All her Moon energy was transformed into Sun energy while releasing a massive arc that slammed onto two puppets, making them fly with deep wounds.
Then, Yasenia dodged the last two, moving like a fish in the water, and created distance with [Pegasus Gallop].
She turned around, looking at the fearless puppets rushing toward her, disregarding their injuries, and smiled wildly. Her sword pointed at the sky, and she grabbed it with both hands. Next, she swung it down with a radiant golden glow exploding from it.
"[Draconic Noon]!"
ROAR!
The image of a golden dragon rushed toward them, forcing the puppets to stop and block the attack.
BOOM!
The puppets on the outer side of their semi-circle formation flew while spiraling in the air without control, and the three in the middle rag-dolled on the ground for hundreds of meters.
Then, the dragoness closed her eyes for a second, and her spiritual sense swallowed the entire arena.
After locking into the six damaged puppets, her mouth opened, and her voice echoed. "[Starfall]!"
Hundreds of stars ballooned, filling the space above Yasenia with countless white orbs, and they all flew toward the six locations where the puppets lay.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
All the puppets were swallowed in the destructive explosions of star energies, and Yasenia finally destroyed them all.
By this time, however, Yinnu was already on her feet inside the damaged red dome, with strands of energy rushing toward her as her heavily wounded body ascended upward, making Yasenia frown. 'I lost the chance created by sacrificing my body. This won't work twice… Moreover, I smell danger coming from her.'
By now, the deep wound on her face was mostly healed, but her chest and waist still had large gashes on them, with added small cuts here and there from her clash with the five puppets.
Still, they were not bothering her anymore. Yasenia's regeneration factor was absurd, after all.
Meanwhile, Xiang Yinnu floated ten meters off the ground as a massive wave of energy burst from her charred and injured body. "[Epoch Devil Puppet Descent]."
Yasenia's face became serious, and she spun [Draconic Heart] once, activating [Day and Night Cycle].
BOOOM!
The aura on both sides skyrocketed.
On Yinnu's side, a giant humanoid, bipedal puppet, fell from the sky, reaching 75 meters tall.
Its body was completely black with red markings all over it. It looked like a bipedal beast with long claws and no fur. The body was extraordinarily muscular but also looked agile, while two horns curled forward on the draconic head.
It was a mix of many creatures, making it worthy of its ominous name.
Threads burst from its chest and wrapped around Xiang Yinnu, swallowing her into its body.
The dragoness felt the profound energy waves and smiled. 'This is her final card. I also need to go all out, then.'
While [Day and Night Cycle] rushed around her body, increasing her strength several times with her other intents and buffs, Yasenia activated [Empyrean Cosmos Dragon Transformation].
A hurricane of Sun, Moon, and Star energies enveloped Yasenia, and her body grew in less than two seconds, reaching more than 50 meters in height and more than 200 meters in length, with a wingspan of a similar size.
The beautiful Moon and Sun on the Celestial Dragon's wings glowed as her blue, scaly body shone with starlight with golden patterns on her tail.
The majestic dragon and devilish puppet looked at each other for a second and roared, announcing the beginning of the final fight.