"What are you talking about?!" Demonic Dragon snarled as he slashed at me with his spirit saber. Since he was using a spirit weapon, I decided to humor him and parry his saber with my own. Azure Frost countered the saber – which I would later learn was named Domination – and I fended him off, sparks raining between us.
Behind him, I could see the silhouettes of his demonic monsters surging toward us like a literal monster wave. Whether it was Prickly Piranhas with devious jaws that resembled something out of a movie, Corrupted Crocodiles with rotting black scales and emanating corrosive miasma, Sail Lizards or Spine Lizards, they were coming toward us from over the cliff that we had just ascended. We had our backs to the waterfall, which meant we had no path of retreat.
Not that I ever intended to withdraw. Furthermore, the war was only just beginning.
A few seconds ago, when I snapped my fingers, my spirit beasts stirred to life, being summoned to this location. Suddenly, the enemy tide of demonic monsters found themselves broken upon a stalwart wall of Guardian Golems and a Titan Golem, their bodies crashing into the solid silhouettes with near bone crunching force.
It wasn't just the Golems. Scattered across their feet were various new spirit beasts that I had summoned in order to give them combat experience. The ghost type spirit beasts had seen a lot of fighting over the last few weeks, and they should get a rest. Instead, I filled the ranks of my current army with the fresh spirit beasts I had recruited from Yggdrasil.
Twig Turtles and Grove Turtles stood their ground, sending out razor leaves and other wood elemental attacks that spun around and cut through the Corrupted Crocodiles and Prickly Piranhas. Mud Fishes and Marsh Striders fired highly pressurized jets of water to wash them away or perforate them with violent bursts, though they also added muddy water and other mixed earth-water techniques to their arsenal, bombarding the demonic monsters with water and mud.
Those demonic monsters that got close were knocked aside by the Grove Turtles' hard shells or the Marsh Striders' muscular arms, pounded to the ground by the latter or tackled by the former. Accompanying the Mud Fishes was my Sea Scorpion, who stood next to the Colossal Crabs and single King Crab and fought fiercely, their pincers seizing the enemies or crushing them. Meanwhile, my Tyrant Rex was fighting alongside the Twig Turtles and protecting them alongside the Grove Turtles, using his jaws and claws to tear into the Spine Lizards and Sail Lizards that came too close.
"Where did they come from!?" Demonic Dragon growled furiously, unable to believe his eyes. He swung Domination at me once more, executing The Demonic Dragon Devours or some weird technique. I could see black qi swirl around his spirit saber and silhouette, the demonic energies emitting a creepy sensation. Around us, the surroundings began to crumble away at the touch of the corrosive qi.
"From nowhere," I replied, parrying his next blow. My own aura of azure qi was protecting me from the destructive effects of my opponent's energies, but each strike was sapping more of my strength as I reflexively expended more qi to defend myself. "But you…you're not from Europe. You're definitely not Scandinavian. You're from Hua Xia, just like me. You're a cultivator. What are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Demonic Dragon sneered as he delivered a decapitating strike that almost took my head off if I didn't parry it. I blocked his follow up strike and then deflected his next slash before spinning away from his attack. My foe pursued me relentlessly, laughing as he continued to assault me viciously and leaving decaying furrows in the rock and soil around us. "I'm here to plunder the rich qi in Scandinavia – especially all the dense energies emanating from the World Tree – and use them for myself! And I shall build myself a corrupted army of demonic monsters to unleash them back home! The creatures here are so much more powerful and more to my style of conquest!"
"…you mean a bunch of predatory fishes that are more commonly found in the Amazon River?" I glanced at the red and blue Prickly Piranhas. They didn't seem like they would live in the rivers of Europe, so I was guessing they either migrated here from the other spirit dimension or they were a native species corrupted and mutated beyond recognition. "That's…uh, kind of fishy, don't you think?"
"Shut up!"
"And the Corrupted Crocodiles. I mean, seriously? What kind of demonic monster is that? A crocodile that has been corrupted by demonic qi and turned into what looks like a half-zombie? C'mon, surely you can do better than that."
"I told you to shut up!"
"And where's the dragons? You call yourself Demonic Dragon, right? So where's your dragon?"
"SHUT UP!"
Demonic Dragon hollered as he swung a two-handed strike that split the earth apart, creating yet another fissure. I dodged that heavy blow, and then ducked under his next sweeping attack that would have cleaved me in half at the waist if I hadn't dropped to a crouch. I retaliated with a riposte, but he blocked it with his saber and knocked me away with brute force.
"Hidden Heavenly Dragon Formula, level 8!"
The entire area exploded in black flames as Demonic Dragon's demonic qi erupted violently, sending shockwaves. Even the surrounding spirit beasts were knocked back, and I could see a few Prickly Piranhas erased outright. Fortunately, my Twig Turtles, Grove Turtles, Mud Fishes, Marsh Striders, Sea Scorpion and Tyrant Rex moved out of the way, avoiding the blast.
Their opponents weren't as lucky. The Corrupted Crocodiles didn't seem to be affected that much, but the Spine Lizards and Sail Lizards hissed and withdrew, their scales melting from the touch of the deadly qi.
"Huff…"
I retreated, almost overwhelmed by the shockwaves. Demonic Dragon pressed his advantage, swinging his spirit saber and slashing at me, but I jumped back and narrowly avoided being eviscerated. I parried his next blow and kicked him in the knee, causing him to drop to a kneel. He snarled and lashed out, but I whirled away before stabbing his arm. He roared, but unfortunately for me, he had a dragon scaled gauntlet protecting his forearm, which absorbed most of the impact.
Even so, I realized that I wasn't the only one expending lots of qi. Every time we traded blows, I left his limbs frozen and locked in ice, forcing him to consume a huge amount of qi to shatter the ice. Despite breaking the ice, his movements remained sluggish and his qi was gradually clogged up.
The principle was simple. Every time we exchanged blows, a shot of chill penetrated his body and clogged up his qi circulation. He grunted and waved his Domination almost frantically, bellowing in rage as he attempted to cleave me apart, but I all but danced away while leaving frost in my wake. He snapped incoherently as he shattered the ice once more.
"You…!"
"Sorry for leaving you out in the cold."
"I told you to shut up!"
"Hey, you started it."
"Come here! You! And you!" Demonic Dragon roared at his subordinates. He could see that Celestial Avian was being tied up by Xiao Huo, Muscular Beast was being overwhelmed and dominated by Long Wang – who was stomping the poor guy – and Demonic Bat was being suppressed by Jun Hai and his spirit beasts. Muscular Beast was too tenacious to die, though, and despite Long Wang's advantage, he refused to go down. Demonic Bat was relying on his agility to avoid death by just a hair's breadth, and Celestial Avian was using her cunning to escape from Xiao Huo's flames.
Meanwhile, Sylvie and Silvia had joined my spirit beasts to stem the tide of Corrupted Crocodiles and Prickly Piranhas, their spells and spirit arrays activated to bombard the much larger Spine Lizards and keep them at bay, while discouraging the Sail Lizards from approaching aggressively.
"No way! How is my side being the one suppressed?!" Demonic Dragon bellowed. The Corrupted Crocodiles, Sail Lizards and Spine Lizards that he had marked out were trying to make their way to him, having been battered aside by the fairy sisters' spirit arrays. Partially wanting to get out of range of the deadly spells, they scrambled toward where their master was, eager to find easier prey.
Then evolution lights filled the air. I glanced at the location where my summoned spirit beasts were embroiled in the thickest of fighting. Apparently, a few of them had just made a breakthrough after accumulating enough combat experience. Combined with the training and spiritually dense environment they enjoyed in my dungeon, as well as being nourished by the rich mana emitted from the nearby Yggdrasil, they evolved.
Not only did more Twig Turtles evolve into Grove Turtles and Mud Fishes evolve into Marsh Striders, I saw two Grove Turtles evolve into Earth ranked Terra Tortoises and five Marsh Striders evolve into Mystic ranked Swamp Stompers similar to the one my brother owned. Too bad I didn't have a Steel Tri-horn like he did, but I did have Terra Tortoises now, so I couldn't complain.
Additionally, my Tyrant Rex evolved into a Giga Rex and my Sea Scorpion had taken the leap to evolve into a Mystic ranked Armored Carid. Honestly, that speed of evolution was unprecedented even in my dungeon. I had expected my Tyrant Rex and Sea Scorpion to require some more time before evolving, especially since I had just revived them from fossils only recently – less than two weeks.
And now they were Mystic ranked spirit beasts. What the hell? Did this have something to do with the Fossil Restoration Device that the system had given me as a reward? It surely had to. No wonder it was a system reward. There was no other explanation why the two spirit beasts revived through that device would evolve at such a miraculous pace.
However, the important thing was that my army had just grown stronger in the middle of battle, whereas for some reason, my opponent's army hadn't.
My Giga Rex lunged forward, biting the Spine Lizards' necks with his immense jaws and snapping them. His large talons trampled upon shrieking Sail Lizards, and he crushed and devoured Corrupted Crocodiles. My Armored Carid mirrored him, the bug and rock type spirit beast waddling into the river and cutting through Prickly Piranhas and Corrupted Crocodiles alike with his pincer-like claws. The newly evolved Swamp Stompers joined him, pummeling the Corrupted Crocodiles, Sail Lizards and Spine Lizards with their massive front arms while unleashing waves of muddy water to wash the hapless Prickly Piranhas away. On land, the two Terra Tortoises raised their legs and stomped down, causing earthquakes that sent the marching Spine Lizards off balance and crashing into each other. Even the Sail Lizards and Corrupted Crocodiles weren't immune to the tremors despite being on all fours, the violent aftershocks dealing massive damage.
Thanks to the tide of battle turning against the demonic army, my opponent couldn't expect any reinforcements. The monsters he had called over were intercepted and crushed by my summoned spirit beasts before they could take more than a few steps in our direction, pummeling them or cut apart by leaves, claws and fangs.
"Impossible!" Demonic Dragon spluttered, even as he frantically slashed at me. He probably thought that as long as he eliminated me, he could turn the tables on us and win. He was probably right. My spirit beasts would perish along with me.
But I wasn't afraid. Using my Eye of Odin, I read the flow of qi and disrupted the currents of his energies with precise strikes. He stumbled, his hands once again trapped in ice for a few second before he shattered them.
"You…! I was so close to achieving my goal! I was so close to achieving the goal my ancestors and predecessors had set to accomplishing over generations! To think that I would be the one to fail, this close to completion?! How can this be?!"
"Ancestors? Generations?" I repeated as I parried another strike. "What are you talking about?"
"You…you don't need to know!" Demonic Dragon hissed. He shook his head and cursed. "This is too early, but I don't have a choice. I guess I need to prematurely wake them up. Ugh! Otherwise, everything will be lost!"
I had no idea what he was ranting about to himself, but I wasn't going to let him succeed. I charged forward, thrusting my sword forward, but he deflected it to the side with his saber. With a yell, he unleashed his qi with the Hidden Heavenly Dragon Formula once more, hurling me away from his position.
Spinning in midair, I landed on a crouch without hurting myself, but I could feel my body going numb from the shockwaves and corrosive qi. Rising slowly, I saw Demonic Dragon sprint off and leap toward the archway. To my shock, he plunged his spirit saber into the stone, causing all the ancient runes carved into the surface to glow brightly.
Then the entire archway shattered. Freeing his saber from the crumbling structure, Demonic Dragon cackled as he leaped up and landed. Raising both hands and his saber to the heavens, he threw his head back and laughed.
"Go ahead and rampage! I know you're angry at being awakened early, and you might not have fully grown, but you should still have enough strength to destroy these usurpers! Rampage!"
For a few seconds, day turned into night as shadow was casted upon the river and the cliff, drowning us in shadow as gigantic wings flapped and guttural roars echoed.
Demonic dragons and demonic drakes swooped down on us, their night-black bodies bristling with foul miasmas.