I didn't respond to that threat. I was more concerned with staying alive, especially when the situation was falling apart dramatically over the last few minutes.
As if to emphasize the severity of the current crisis, there was another crash. A second siege tower toppled, trampled upon by another Siege Flood Dragon, despite the attempts from my Mystic ranked spirit beasts to stop it. There was simply too many of them.
"Keep them away!" I ordered, risking a glance at the remaining Guardian Golems, Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths. Another couple of Guardian Golems were down, but the others were making valiant efforts to tackle the Siege Flood Dragons and pin them in place before they could demolish my dungeon. They were particularly focusing on the siege towers because those were the most dangerous fortifications in the Deep Sea Palace.
The problem was that they left their flank exposed to the Flood Dragon Behemoths. A few of them pounced, and my Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths were forced to divert their attention to the greater threat, only for a Siege Flood Dragon to break free and charge straight into a third siege tower, obliterating it with a thunderous tackle.
This wasn't good. We had to do something fast, or we would be routed. Unfortunately, before I could think of anything, the Flood Dragon King was upon me again. He darted across the courtyard with a speed that belied his immense size, throwing a clawed fist in my direction. Though I managed to fling myself to the side and evade the powerful blow, I watched in horror as his punched carved a crater into the earth.
Holy…if that had hit me, I doubted anything would have remained of my body.
Cartwheeling in the air, I landed on my feet and skidded back. Once I righted my stance, I swung Azure Dragon and Azure Frost, unleashing a series of freezing blasts that the Flood Dragon King almost casually batted aside. Frost glittered across his claws, but they crumbled instantly from the qi that radiated from his armored body.
Then his claws pummeled my location. I jumped away and somehow landed on his huge, pillar-thick arm. Running along the length of the scaly limb, I slashed at his neck, head and chest, but my blades were deflected by the armored scales that covered his body. They didn't even leave a mark.
Damn, I should have swapped weapons to a hammer instead. Swords weren't going to be effective against the Flood Dragon King.
He snarled and swiped at me, but I leaped away, spinning in midair and launching another couple of freezing blasts before landing on the ground. Executing Flowing River Clear Sword, I read the flow of his qi and anticipated his next attacks, which allowed me to evade. Weaving swiftly through his barrage of blows, I countered as best as I could, but still couldn't cut through his armored scales.
Did I really need a fucking hammer to beat this guy? Or a parasite? There had to be something I could do…this one-sided beating was frustrating to the extreme. At least I was fast and he couldn't even get a single hit in. My advantage was my speed.
"And I thought ice was supposed to be super effective against dragon," I muttered under my breath. Maybe the Flood Dragon's secondary water type cancelled out the dragon's weakness to water? Or maybe I was mixing reality up with games.
In any event, I should focus. One small mistake and the Flood Dragon King would slaughter me in a single blow.
Just when I dodged under a slash that actually sent a shockwave rippling through the air, I heard the dreadful crash of a fourth siege tower going down. A Guardian Golem had fallen, crushed under a Siege Flood Dragon as it reared up to slam its drilling horned head into the weakened structure.
Not again…
"Sorry, big bro!" Silvia shouted as she stopped operating the spirit arrays, leaving them to Sylvie. "We'll have to implement the emergency plan! We can't hold off the Flood Dragon Behemoths like this!"
"Huh? What emergency plan?"
"I'm activating the teleportation spirit array! Big sis, I'll leave the other spirit arrays to you!"
"Understood." Sylvie didn't look happy, but she took over the other spirit arrays, her hands continuously drawing arcane diagrams in the air as they unleashed elements. This time, she took charge of a sword spirit array, manifesting hundreds of spiritual swords that she then launched at the Flood Dragon soldiers, impaling many of them. The bombardment of blades was so powerful that even one Flood Dragon Behemoth was perforated, turned into a pseudo pincushion after being pierced by so many swords. It shuddered, leaking blood, before it bellowed in agony. Turning about to charge defiantly at the fairy sisters, it didn't get more than a few steps before a fresh wave of swords cut it apart.
"Wait, teleportation spirit array? What teleportation spirit array?"
"Haven't you watched the Beast Tamer anime?" Silvia scoffed. "Fairy spirits can set up teleportation spells to transport people from one place to another. That's how Sora and Luna brought the victims of the mayor's son to safety after rescuing them from his mansion."
"That's not what I'm asking! I know what a teleportation spirit array does! I'm asking why you set up one?! Who are you teleporting over?"
I knew that they weren't teleporting us or my summoned spirit beasts away because I could do that myself. I didn't need a teleportation spirit array to transport myself or any of my summoned spirit beasts to the outside world. On the other hand, the only way to bring someone from the outside world to here was through a teleportation spirit array. Someone who wasn't a summoned spirit beast or contracted to me.
"You will see!" Silvia said gleefully.
"I'm sorry, Jun Wen," Sylvie apologized sourly. "But she insisted."
"She?"
Silvia's teleportation spirit array glowed and a familiar figure materialized in the center of the luminous circle. She immediately sprang into action, instinctively taking in the situation as she swept her blue gaze around. The gem-encrusted treasure sword in her hand blazed with cerulean qi before she swung it, unleashing a tsunami that washed away the advancing Siege Flood Dragons and Flood Dragon Behemoths.
"Myria?" I said, unable to believe what I was seeing. She landed gracefully in the center, flicking her sword and slashing another Flood Dragon Behemoth. It growled as it fell back, blood dripping from split scales.
"Seems like you guys were in quite the pickle," Myria remarked, looking around somberly. She glanced at Silvia. "You should have teleported me over sooner."
"Ha ha, we had the situation well in hand initially. It's just the last couple of minutes when the situation turned dire. Anyway, glad to have you here on board, sis Myria."
"Don't worry, I didn't come here to play around." Myria took a deep breath and ran her hand along the blade of her gleaming sword. "Bankai."
"…huh?" I narrowed my eyes before being forced to duck under the Flood Dragon King's next strike. He lumbered toward me, turning slowly as I leaped to his flank, my swords glancing off his armored scales once more. Fireballs detonated over his face as he tried to track my movements, causing him to snarl in irritation. Xiao Huo and Xiao Huo Long were hurling fireballs from afar, distracting him.
Then Hei Ba bit down. His fangs didn't penetrate the Flood Dragon King's scales, but his crunch was enough to elicit a growl of pain. The Flood Dragon King reached down half-distractedly, his attention diverted by the fireballs from Xiao Huo and Xiao Huo Long and the icy qi from my swords. That allowed Hei Ba to coil his body around him and trapped him.
However, the Flood Dragon King possessed incredible physical strength. Despite Hei Ba's constricting coils restraining him for a few moments, he managed to break free of the bind, sinking his claws into the Abyssal Serpent's body and flinging him aside.
But that bought me enough time to fire Azure Frost with Obsidian Drake. The sword-turned-arrow exploded against his face, turning into an icy nova that engulfed the upper part of his body. With a violent shake, the Flood Dragon King broke free of the ice and bellowed furiously at me.
At least I did some damage this time. I noted the angry splotches where the extreme cold had cracked his scales and left possible vulnerabilities. The only problem was finding the opportunity to exploit those new openings.
The Flood Dragon King was clearly not going to give them to me. If anything, he was enraged. Before I could come up with a new strategy, he suddenly surged forward, ignoring the flames from Xiao Huo and Xiao Huo Long to appear in front of me. I managed to duck his first blow, but his second punch caught me.
Despite parrying his claws with Azure Dragon, I was sent hurtling across the courtyard, disappearing under debris after hitting the cave wall. With a groan, I felt hundreds of kilograms of concrete or stone burying me.
"Ugh…"
"Jun Wen!" Sylvie shouted in concern.
"I'm all right." I coughed as I kicked the rubble off me and staggered free. The Flood Dragon King lunged foward, only to be intercepted by a furious Hei Ba, the Abyssal Serpent refusing to be dismissed so callously.
As the strongest spirit beast in my dungeon, he had a huge amount of pride. And now he had been humiliated a couple of times by the Flood Dragon King.
It was not all bad news, though. With the arrival of Myria, the tide of battle had turned in our favor. She had activated her…uh, "Bankai" (though I suspected she was just copying Bleach) and unleashed her ultimate technique.
"Minazuki."
"Please stop that! We'll get into trouble with copyright if you use that name! And you are not Unohana Retsu or Unohana Yachiru!"
Myria ignored me, even as she floated above the ground. Several geysers of water splashed downward and flooded the cavern, taking on a blue tinge. I tried not to roll my eyes when I realized that it was simply her Sea Storm technique.
Before I could reprimand her, she was already moving. She darted into the midst of the Flood Dragon Behemoths that were pursuing my Guardian Golems, Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths who were trying to stop the Siege Flood Dragons. Initially, they ignored her, but that proved to be a fatal mistake.
Several highly pressurized whips of water lashed out from her blade, flexible arcs that twisted and curved according to her will. Before the Flood Dragon Behemoths realized what was happening, they were being cut apart. Not literally – their incredible resilience meant they wouldn't die from the first barrage. Nonetheless, blood spurted from multiple wounds as they recoiled from the lethal water whips. Myria flicked her wrist and sent the rippling water whips lashing out once more like unfurling serpents. This time, one of the Flood Dragon Behemoths fell, its head detached from its neck. Its limbs fell off as the water whips lanced through the armored scales, muscle and bone, almost like molten knives through butter.
"Oho!" Silvia chuckled. "As I thought, the queen is always the strongest piece in chess!"
"I don't think Myria appreciates being called a chess piece, Silvia," Sylvie admonished her. Myria, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. Sighing, Sylvie followed up by sending another volley of spirit swords from her array into the gathering Flood Dragon soldiers, earning my beleaguered spirit beasts a reprieve. The aquatic armada were mustering in a formation to produce more lightning, while the Colossal Crabs, Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins gathered to break another Flood Dragon charge. They were led by Da Hai and Xiao Ke, who coordinated the defense.
"I'll handle these huge brutes," Myria told me. "So get your big guys to eliminate the large creatures with horns and drills."
"Yeah," I complied, crawling to my feet. Myria continued to pummel the remaining Flood Dragon Behemoths with her sword's water whips, slicing scales and segments of flesh off bone. They growled and snarled, trying to converge upon her position to surround her, but for now she managed to buy enough time for my Tree Revenants, Pumpkin Wraiths and Guardian Golems to slay the Siege Flood Dragons.
Assuming they had the strength to do so, that is…
"Your queen, huh?" The Flood Dragon King cocked his head to one side, observing Myria. Then he leered. "I guess I'll take her out first."
In a single bound, he launched himself at her, but I managed to get there in time to block his blows. I felt the breath crushed out of me when I blocked his claws, my legs half-buried into the ground when he hammered down. Blood trickled from my mouth, but I somehow managed to cross my blades when he kicked, mitigating the worst of the damage.
Still, I was hurled across the courtyard once more, almost blacking out from the force.
"Hmm, maybe I should focus on killing you first," the Flood Dragon King said as he turned to my sprawled body, clicking his claws. "After all, with your death, this dungeon will be mine. And your queen will belong to me too."
"Over my dead body," I hissed. The Flood Dragon King chuckled.
"With pleasure."
"Oh, I doubt it," I muttered when I saw the countdown timer finally reach zero. The notification window then displayed the Upgrade Complete message, and I smirked. "You just ran out of time."