Ahrag, Orrag, and Dgraah gazed in horror at the horrid fate of one of their own. They froze, unable to take a step forward for fear of the exact same thing happening to them. Ahrag knew its limits. It was far stronger than the rest, but not once had it been able to block a casual blast from Ruggrah with a single finger. It saw no reason to lose a finger to show off its strength.
The human was on a different level. Thoughts of continuing the battle fleed its mind. All it wanted was escape. Escape from this dastard place. But it knew that was impossible. If it did that, Mother wouldn't be happy with its decision and it would die a death far worse than anything this human could give it.
Orrag drew thick amounts of air into its mouth, hoping to regulate its spiking hormones and adrenaline. The fight or flee response settled on it. Yet it couldn't move. Not at all. Its eye-substitutes gazed at the fleshy sludge, the remains of Ruggrah, dripping down from Long Wei's hand onto the floor. The battle wasn't even a battle. Ruggrah attacked a steel wall and got turned to paste after the steel wall fell on him. Everything was one-sided.
"Should we stay?" Dgraah asked.
"Do you think that is possible? Mother won't let us flee. We are her soldiers. And we can't fly in the face of danger. We will just have to battle this human to the end. Hopefully, we can swarm him. Orrag, begin summoning you to know who. Dgraah you and I will take this anomaly head-on. That should buy Orrag enough time.
And don't mistake this for an offer or me asking you. This is an order from me as the Head Commander personally ordained by Mother. Dgraah. Let's go," Ahrag said.
Ahrag gathered all its energies to its core and let its blood energy course through its veins. Its body underwent minor changes. Mainly, its golden red hair lengthened, sweeping the floor. Its slender physique buffed up, gaining tons of muscle from nowhere.
Dgraah wasn't far behind. It ignited its blood energy. And the reverse happened to it. Its bulky balls of muscles deflated, and its height grew, towering a few meters above the average human.
Years of battling humans and other creatures that stained the lands gave them an uncanny ability to understand each other on a conceptual level. Ruggrah stepped forward. His body disappeared in a flash and Ahrag wasn't far behind him.
Orrag dug into the left of its chest and pulled out a bearing heart-like organ. No thread of discomfort weaved itself along the smooth counters of its face. The pain itself didn't register. Blood oozed out of the self-inflicted injury. It drew a symbol along its chest with the dripping blood and ignited its blood energies. Bright red engulfed the symbol. A deep roar seeped out of the symbol, shaking the foundations of the cavern.
From nowhere, other deep howls punctured the atmosphere arriving at the cavern within seconds. Its summoning ritual was partly complete. More needed to be done, but the foundations were all set.
Dgraah and Ahrag were on Long Wei. Dgraah used the sudden burst of space-warping speeds to pressure Long Wei with a flurry of attacks that had the potential energy to obliterate continents. And Ahrag used his amplified physical strength levels to keep Long Wei's focus solely on him.
Long Wei was caught in the heat of battle, doing absolutely nothing aside from blocking blows with a single finger. Dgraah flanked him, pushing a powerful fist right through his back, the momentum carried by speeds ap great black fissures appeared in the cavern. And Ahrag aimed a massive kick down toward Long Wei's legs.
The two's immense experience fighting together gave them impeccable timing. The moment Dgraah's fist drove into Long Wei's back, was the exact same moment Ahraga kick whipped against Long Wei's legs. Their plan was impeccable. Long Wei under normal circumstances could only entertain one of the two well-timed attacks. Any other Saint and this would have been the beginning of the end.
Not for him though. He was Long Wei, the Almighty, creator of miracles when there seemed to be none. He reacted at a speed they never thought was possible. Long Wei lifted his right leg and wrapped it around Ahrag's leg like a python about to eat its breakfast. Lifting the heel of his left foot, he gained the much-needed leverage to swing his right leg backward. An action, that did more than whip a devastating kick to Dgraah behind him. It also brought the poor Ahrag with it. Long Wei's kick landed squarely across Dgraah's jaw. The combined moment caused by Long Wei's own strength and Ahrag's full body weight deconstructed its jaw into pieces of flesh and bone. Ahrag didn't fare any better. Its leg turned to mush.
By the time Ahrag and Dgraah understood what was going on, they shot off into the distance, crashing through a series of cavern walls. Orrag rushed the process it started.
True fear suddenly gripped its heart. It didn't want to be here anymore. The human before it was something else. Even with its weak aura, it matched Dgraah and Ahrag's strength and speed with ease. Just when it thought its comrades would gain the advantage, they flew off into the distance. And worst of all, he didn't see what happened even though all its senses were trained on Long Wei.
It rushed to draw a few more symbols around its chest and activated its blood energies once more. Deep blue light gushed out the markings instead of the bright red of earlier. The caverns shook and rumbled. Flesh fell from what remained of the roofs.
Qin Yan gazed at the series of battles that occurred before he could even blink. Scenes of the day Long Wei helped him replayed themselves over and over and over again and again. His comrades were more than grateful. Some of those who had bad opinions of Long Wei had a change of heart. They couldn't understand why Long Wei chose to protect them. And yet, he did, breaking their expectations.
Long Wei's lips quivered, he had something to say but quickly realized his words wouldn't mean much to enemies that couldn't even understand him. He dusted the last drops of blood from his hands and turned his attention to Orrag. The creature morphed into a glowing blue torch of unknown proportions.
The cavern never stopped rumbling. And the howls, filled with anger and rage never stopped grating the atmosphere. It was starting to annoy him. But, some odd sensation struck his heart. He wanted to wait and see what game the creature was playing. Would it be something challenging? Would it make his calm heart rush?
The howls stopped. The rumbling stopped. And footsteps replaced the sudden gap of sounds. Long Wei reached out with his aura, and he felt it. An aura so powerful, it grated his dragon bloodline. It wasn't exactly powerful, but the purity irritated his bloodline.
It couldn't stand it that something was trying to slam it down into a kneeling position when it existed within the cavern. How dare it try?
Long Wei understood the feeling growing within the depths of his heart. The aura he felt sent wave after wave of bloodline suppressive force, hoping to drop him to his knees at its mere presence. His bloodline, something that stood head to head with the strongest bloodlines on the Myriad Realms would not take such a slight. He, the wielder of said bloodline, will not stand the disrespect.
He combated the wave of pure bloodline prowess with ease and remained where he stood. Worst of all the bloodline aura he felt was something completely foreign and unexplainable. He had felt each and every bloodline that existed on the upper echelons of the Myriad Realms and none of it felt like the thing he sensed. Its purity even sent shivers of discomfort to him? How was that possible?
He tried feeling out the aura deeper, hoping to gauge its strength. Disappointment flashed within him when he felt absolutely nothing strength-wise. Quickly, he sent qi to his Heavenly Shrouding Eyes and gazed in the direction of the creature. His eyes peeled away all the different layers of walls and flesh that blocked his spirit sense and saw the creature heading in their direction.
Shock ran through him when all he saw was a mass of purple floating flames. Nothing else. He churned his eyes to the max of their abilities in their current state. He hissed. Even at its max, he couldn't peer through the creature's body. All he saw was purple flames. That scared him. He couldn't understand.
His Heavenly Shrouding Eyes never failed him before. Why now? He gushed more qi into them. Still. He could see past the purple flames. His ears heard footsteps. Which let him know the creature had feet. But through his eyes, he couldn't see its shape at all.
He looked at Orrag, with his eyes.