The Divine Dragon's roar didn't just shake the ground—it rattled their bones, each thunderous bellow vibrating through their chests like the heartbeat of a god.
Klaus shot forward first, the wind coiling around him in violent spirals, carrying flecks of snow and shattered ice like razors.
Sparks crawled along his blade, building into arcs that snapped and hissed.
Sofie followed, a crimson trail in the white storm. Her hands glowed molten, flames wrapping her arms in twisting serpents of fire. Each breath she took exhaled heat into the freezing air, her steps leaving scorched prints in the snow.
The dragon's colossal leg slammed down just ahead, the impact sending a shockwave that nearly tossed them aside. Klaus used the burst, letting the wind whip him higher into the air. He spun mid-leap, lightning surging down his sword until it screamed, then brought it down in a cleaving arc.
CRACK!
The strike didn't just cut—it detonated. Bolts spiderwebbed across the scales, the shock freezing the dragon's limb mid-motion for a split second.
Sofie didn't waste it.
"MOVE!" she shouted, hurling a concentrated sphere of fire the size of a boulder. It smashed into the joint, erupting in a sun-bright inferno that melted scale and sinew in a violent burst.
The dragon howled, the pitch so high it felt like their eardrums would tear. Its massive tail whipped around in a blur. Klaus barely ducked under the swing, the wind pulling him just out of reach while chunks of ice exploded around them.
Above, through the haze of frost and smoke, Ryouma was a streak of steel and shadow, clashing with the dragon's head. His movements were too fast to follow, each clash producing bursts of light and shockwaves that made the clouds ripple.
Klaus gritted his teeth, voice sharp over the roar."Again! Don't stop until it can't move!"
Sofie's grin was feral. Flames coiled tighter around her body until she was a living inferno. She darted under the dragon's leg, slammed her palms into its flesh, and let loose a chain of explosions that lit the storm like a second sun.
The dragon reeled, snow and ice vaporizing around it.
Klaus followed through with wind roaring at his back, lightning screaming down his blade and with one more swing, he carved deep into the weakened joint, the smell of scorched flesh filling the air.
The Divine Dragon staggered for the first time.
The arena trembled under the Divine Dragon's weight, its molten eyes scanning the three intruders. Clouds churned beneath their feet like a restless ocean. Klaus's grip tightened on his lightning-wrapped blade, Sofie's palms flared with heat, and Ryouma's grin was sharper than steel.
The roar came first an ear-splitting, bone-shaking blast that forced Klaus to dig his heels in as wind whipped around them. Even the air seemed to shudder.
Then it moved.
The dragon planted its claws deep into the cloud-ground, a brilliant white glow spilling from them. The light built until the very mist sizzled and in a blink, the ground erupted. Klaus yanked Sofie aside, the blast swallowing the space they'd just occupied.
It followed instantly, whipping its massive wing across its body. The wingtip flashed like a star before detonating mid-swing, hurling shockwaves across the arena. Sofie ducked and rolled, answering with a roaring wall of fire that clashed against the explosion, scattering embers through the air.
The beast rose to its full height, wings blazing with raw power. With a howl that rattled their teeth, it slammed both down, sending a crushing wave of energy forward.
Ryouma was already airborne, twisting over the blast before landing a flurry of strikes against the dragon's crown. Sparks danced where his blade met its scales.
Its throat glowed, orange bleeding between its fangs before it spat a massive orb of flame. Klaus slammed his sword into the ground, pulling the wind into a spiraling barrier. The fireball split apart on impact—but the flames trailing behind it turned the clouds into a burning maze.
A sudden scream ripped from the dragon's throat. It dropped its head, spewing fire in a perfect circle around its feet. Sofie countered instantly, her own flames exploding outward to meet it. The two rings collided, the shockwave blasting them both back.
The beast's claws blazed orange as it drove them into the ground. Heat surged up from beneath, turning the mist to steam. Klaus vaulted over the scorching zone, flipping through the air before driving lightning into the creature's shoulder. The stench of scorched hide filled the air.
It retaliated with a sweeping torrent of flame, its head whipping side to side until the entire arena was alight. Ryouma darted between burning trails, carving vicious strikes along its jaw before flipping clear.
The dragon's right arm burned white, lifting high above its head before slamming down. The ground buckled under the impact, a blast shoving Klaus and Sofie toward the edge.
Without warning, it lunged three quick steps and then a full-body slam that sent Ryouma skidding backward, his blade buried deep in the dragon's snout.
Spinning on its hindlegs, the beast lashed its tail. Klaus caught the strike on his blade, sparks bursting as the force hurled him across the arena.
Its wings turned blinding white as claws gouged into the ground, energy bleeding forward before exploding in a fissure that ripped the clouds apart. Klaus's wind shielded Sofie from the tearing light.
The dragon suddenly shot upward, raining searing white shards across the battlefield before crashing down. The blast that followed ignited the air itself, forcing Klaus and Sofie to pour every ounce of power into holding the wall of fire back.
Then the shift came as its body burning with a deeper orange-red glow, movements becoming sharper, crueler. Fireballs erupted in unpredictable volleys, wings struck the ground with explosive force, and its blows came in relentless pairs, shaking the arena apart.
Still, the three moved like predators in perfect chaos with Klaus's lightning carving open seconds of safety, Sofie's flames hammering at its weakened points, Ryouma's blade flashing toward its eyes and throat.
The dragon reared, steam hissing off its scales. Each breath felt like the prelude to the killing blow.
But not one of them stepped back.
---
The ground convulsed beneath their feet as the three clashed with the advancing monstrosities.
Klaus blurred forward, the air around him splitting into jagged streaks of violet. One Execrant didn't even have time to turn—its head vanished in a spiral of wind and lightning, the body collapsing in a twitching, headless heap. Blood sprayed across the stone in a fine mist, carried away by the sudden gusts that trailed his movement.
To his left, Sofie's fire bloomed without warning—an eruption of molten orange that swallowed two enemies whole. Their shrieks cut short as their armor warped and bones blackened inside the blaze. Charred flesh peeled from their limbs in sizzling strips, embers dancing like fireflies across the battlefield.
Ryouma didn't stop moving. He weaved through them, sword carving arcs so clean they left faint ribbons of steam in the air. Every step ended in a cut—an arm falling here, a torso split there. Blood spattered across his cheek, warm and metallic, but his eyes never blinked.
The Execrants retaliated—massive claws tearing through walls, spears whipping forward with enough force to gouge the earth. Klaus bent with the wind, body flowing through the narrow gap between two strikes.
Lightning coiled around his arm, and with one vicious thrust, the air itself ruptured. An enemy exploded into pieces—shards of armor, shredded muscle, and wet fragments of bone raining onto the stones.
Sofie ducked beneath a clawed swipe, her hair catching the glow of her own flames. She pressed her hands to the ground, and fire surged upward in a twisting column that devoured the attacker from the inside out. Its blackened skeleton toppled forward, crumbling into ash before it hit the ground.
The three of them moved like a single killing machine wind shredding, fire consuming, steel cleaving. The air was thick with heat, smoke, and the stench of cooked flesh.
A larger Execrant broke through the haze, armored plates glistening with black ichor. It roared a sound like grinding stone and charged.
Klaus's eyes narrowed.
Lightning coiled along his arms like starving serpents, every crackle snapping in the blood-soaked air. His eyes locked on the charging beast ahead its fanged maw glistening with chunks of flesh from the last soldier it tore apart.
In the same heartbeat, Sofie surged forward beside him, her palms bursting with molten light. The heat coming off her was enough to warp the air, her hair whipping back as fire coiled up her arms and pooled between her fingers.
She hurled it not as a neat sphere, but as a roiling storm of embers that splashed against the monster's torso and exploded outward in a shriek of flame.
The creature didn't scream. It roared — and kept coming, its hide peeling away in sizzling chunks.
Ryouma was already moving his blade dragging a silver arc through the air. The cut was so clean the blood didn't even fall right away, just hovered in the momentary vacuum left behind before gravity claimed it, splattering the ground in a crimson sheet.
Another enemy lunged at Klaus from the side claws like hooked blades aiming for his throat.
The wind bent at his will, slamming into the creature's flank with hurricane force, sending it tumbling midair. Before it could hit the ground, Klaus was already there as lightning flashing down his arm as his fist caved its skull inward.
Bone shards tore through the back of its head like shrapnel.
The three of them moved like predators in perfect, unspoken rhythm.
Wind howled, lightning cracked, fire roared, and steel sang. Blood misted the air so thick it stuck to their skin like a second layer. The ground was slick underfoot, the copper stench turning every breath into a weight in the lungs.
Still, they didn't stop.
Because stopping meant dying.