The moment the Sun God's and Moon Goddess's energies merged with the Heavenly Tribulation Soldiers, their entire bodies began distorting and transforming. Depending on who lent their power, their color changed to a pure golden or radiant silvery.
Moreover, their energies surged, increasing their strength and power and altering their appearance. Usually, a Heavenly Lightning Soldier was humanoid, geared with heavy armor, and carrying a long sword around half their body length. After the Moon and Sun God's energies hit them, their heads and bodies changed as they became more draconic.
The bodies of the golden soldiers became bulkier, making them look like juggernauts, while the silvery ones took a leaner approach, showing agile and streamlined figures. Their helmets, resembling a dragon's head, gained an ethereal glow around the eye area that shone through the visor.
Yasenia looked at them and saw one of the golden Soldiers lifting their long sword vertically and grabbing it with two hands in a gesture that would be considered respectful. Of course, it was just a movement recreated by the Heavens to indicate which Heavenly Lightning Soldiers would approach.
Everyone looked over and saw the golden soldier step on the ground, their body shooting forward at an incredible speed. However, even when its speed was something that most would not be able to follow, for Yasenia, it was an actual manageable speed. She didn't feel that it was going too fast or that it was untraceable. On the contrary, the strength was very manageable.
Yasenia charged at it with all her strength, her body becoming a streak of light, and she appeared right before it. The Golden and bulky soldier didn't hesitate for a second and swung its sword with tremendous strength against her.
Yasenia didn't choose to exchange attacks and quickly ducked, barely dodging the weapon aimed at her neck. Then, with a quick step forward, the distance between her and the two-meter-tall soldier became close enough to be at a close melee distance.
While the soldier's sword was in an awkward position to swing down, it wasn't a simple creature. The leg was quick to follow his attack, approaching the dragoness's waist like a lightning bolt.
However, the dragoness used her [Firmament Battle Dance] skill to quickly circle around it and swing her sword backward while using Sunrise to add speed and strength to her attack.
The sword cleanly landed on its back, sinking into it more than halfway and almost appearing from the other side.
Yasenia's pupils constricted when the golden soldier stabbed the sword backward, aiming at her stomach. Yet, with ethereal movements, she spun three times, releasing six [Crescent Moons] with each of those spins by using her sword and tail.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Heavenly Lightning Soldier was decimated, and Yasenia turned around to look at the Sky, her face nonchalant.
From the outside, the golden soldier flashed forward at tremendous speed, making the hearts of many jump in fright. Yet, when it was around 200 meters away from Yasenia, the dragoness was surrounded by fourteen stars and disappeared from her standing position.
Only a few could follow her attack as she quickly reappeared behind the golden Heavenly Lightning Soldier, and several silver streaks flew downward behind her. Her body had left a trace of light as she overtook it and reappeared behind it.
Right after, the Heavenly Soldier exploded, leaving everyone stunned. The exchange between her and the Heavenly Lightning Soldier was so quick that many lacked the ability to perceive what had happened.
Yasenia looked toward the sky, not checking what had happened to the creature she just slaughtered. She had used her Pegasus step to move at ridiculous speeds while a quick combination of sword skills allowed her to overwhelm the golden lightning soldier.
Its body was sturdy, but Draconic Heart could cut cleanly, thanks to her focus. The powerful edge of the sword was strong enough to cut through almost all Heaven-ranked armor as if it were paper. And, even though the golden soldier's defense was similar to a creature clad in a complete set of peak-level Heaven-ranked equipment, Draconic Heart was able to pierce through, thanks to her speed and strength.
She wasn't delighted, though. Yasenia understood better than anyone else how absurdly quickly Heavenly Tribulation escalated. If she had struggled with just the first one of the 32 that appeared, she would've honestly felt a sense of danger and defeat.
The two gods looking from the sky didn't show any reaction. They had already expected an outcome like this one.
The Heavenly Tribulation Soldiers were exceptionally strong, to the point that one of them would slaughter any low-level Fifth realm cultivator as if they were chopping chicken.
Their own energy had enhanced them further, giving them characteristics and elemental strengths. The Golden Soldier's defense was at least four times stronger than the previous form, while their speed remained identical to before the transformation. Meanwhile, the silvery ones had the defense of the original Heavenly Tribulation but around four times their speed.
Naturally, their elements were Sun and Moon elements, dealing exceptionally high damage as long as their attacks landed.
Yet, while they expected that even when four of the soldiers worked together, they would have trouble dealing with the dragoness, they really did not predict an instakill when only one came.
Tai Yang's mind flashed with Yasenia's movements, and he felt that the change from the previous time they had seen her fight was terrifyingly high.
Because in the Unification Realm Tribulation, Yasenia's rebirth occurred, they weren't able to witness any change to her abilities other than the strengthened skills she used. For these two, the last time they saw Yasenia properly struggling was back when she entered the Mental Nourishing realm. 'The change is too big. From what I can tell, Yasenia's bone age doesn't reach forty years old, while her soul's age is less than 60. So, while she probably entered an accelerated time-space, it was just 20 years. The timeframe was small enough to be unnoticeable. Yet, the effects have been outstanding.' Tai Yang's golden slit eyes observed the next two soldiers preparing while his thoughts swirled. 'The secret realm's expedition was quite a big opportunity, and it appears like Yasenia could completely take advantage of it.'
Meanwhile, Yasenia looked at the silver and golden soldiers who lifted their swords and prepared. 'The golden one was relatively slow, but the armor was really robust. Perhaps blunt damage works better against them? No. Their entire bodies are the armor; it makes no sense to try and penetrate any internal organs where there probably aren't any. I could see its insides for a second before it exploded, and there was nothing.'
The dragoness focused on the silvery dragonoid creature, and the moment the two soldiers lowered their swords, they charged down from the skies.
However, Yasenia's pupils thinned to vertical lines in surprise as the Moon Heavenly Lightning Soldier crossed the distance between them in what felt like an instant. The speed was high enough for Yasenia to see it blur, making her body tense and prepare to counterattack.
Using all her enhanced senses, she could see the Heavenly Lighting Soldier coming straight at her and lifting its sword to attack her frontally. The dragoness lifted her sword, yet the second she started the movement, the Moon Soldier stomped the air, creating a crackling sound of electricity, and accelerated, appearing right behind Yasenia and dropping its sword toward her shoulder.
The dragoness's face didn't change, and the energy that was circulating around her body to gather in her sword changed directions, going through her meridians and being absorbed all around her tail.
"[Draconic Sunset]."
The Moon Soldier saw a flash of light rushing up from below and quickly changed the direction of the attack to block it.
BANG!
The strength behind the tail strike blasted his sword upward, but Yasenia didn't have time to do anything more as the Sun Soldier had arrived. This time, instead of a quick and decisive blow, the dragoness decided to clash head-on and test the waters.
The enormous sword and the Sun Soldier's sword clashed, creating a massive shockwave that blasted against the formation wall with a sonorous explosive sound.
Yasenia was pushed back around 100 meters while the Sun Soldier was pushed back double that distance.
The dragoness didn't stop for a single moment and charged back at them, starting a complicated and frantic fight between her and those two soldiers.
The clashing of weapons echoed as the three moved around the entire arena with blurring speeds. Explosions of all kinds, quick attacks, rapid exchanges, and the sonorous sound of lightning bolts rumbling filled the area.
After a while, Yasenia's body burst with energy and quickly sidestepped the Moon Soldier's quick sword. Then, she extended her hand wrapped in blue scales and grabbed its leg.
The terrifying Heavenly Lightning that composed the Heavenly Lightning Soldier tried to burn and freeze her hand, but before it could turn around, Yasenia opened her mouth and released a massive golden beam.
[Sun Dragon Breath] swallowed the Moon Soldier, eliminating it.
While she did that, the Sun soldier tried to take advantage and attacked one of her legs from below. However, contrary to what others expected, the dragoness didn't dodge but gathered energy toward her leg, and after her nebula-like dress covered it in empyrean laces, she kicked him.
BOOM!
The whip-like leg of the dragoness created an explosive sound after contact and flung the Sun Soldier flying backward.
Taking advantage of the situation, Yasenia used [Starfall] and threw hundreds of stars, killing the Sun Soldier with a terrifyingly powerful star rain.
Her face and breath remained steady, while her energy reserves were still above 90%. 'Unless the attack patterns are too different, I have a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses.'
Looking skywards, Yasenia's feet landed on the ground, and she prepared for the next round.
It left very little time to rest as four Heavenly Lightning Tribulation Soldiers, two of each element, zoomed toward her.
To the dragoness's surprise, they didn't charge at her individually this time. The two Sun Soldiers came first and began exchanging blows with her, trying to control her.
This time, on the ground, Yasenia could maneuver better and more agilely. While she had learned to fight in the air for a while, and she had natural instincts about it as a dragon, she had trained most of her life on the ground.
The quick-paced battle felt different on the ground, and even when the Moon Soldiers tried to take advantage while attacking from the sky, the situation felt much more controlled.
Her feet moved several times with surgical precision, dodging three attacks in succession and coming face to face with a Sun Soldier. Her mouth opened, and a silver beam blasted through the upper part of the Sun Soldier.
When the other three attacked as their companion perished, a silver dome with relatively weak strength ballooned from her body, pushing them back and giving the dragoness half a second of time.
After all, with the strength she used the skill, it lasted one hundred attacks at most, something a Heavenly Lightning Soldier could release in an instant.
Yet, this tiny time frame was long enough to allow Yasenia's guard to strengthen and re-engage with the remaining three.
The round ended with Yasenia receiving zero injuries again, leaving the spectators in pure awe.
However, Yasenia was not relaxed. On the contrary, her guard strengthened. 'These first seven were somewhat easy thanks to my current state of being connected with the [Celestial Pearl]. But I can't do this often as I need the [Celestial Pearl] to charge strength for months or years. Once the pearl's effect disappears, I'll be on my own and will need to face them while being weaker. This fight is far from over.'