"Enough talk."
The voice was not loud, but it cut through the tense silence on the stage with the finality of a guillotine. Tang San stepped forward, his expression as calm and as cold as a winter morning. He looked past Huo Wushuang, his gaze sweeping over the entire Blazing Academy team, and there was not a flicker of fear, not a hint of doubt, in his eyes.
"We will not forfeit," he stated, his voice a simple, undeniable fact. "If you wish to defeat us, you will have to do it on this stage."
He then turned to Dai Mubai, his gaze softening almost imperceptibly. "Boss Mubai, Brother Tianheng, get ready. This will not be an easy fight. Listen to my commands."
The two powerful, beast-spirit masters just nodded, their own doubts, their own fears, momentarily washed away by the sheer, unshakeable confidence of their new leader.
The referee, sensing that the pre-match pleasantries had come to a definitive, and very tense, end, stepped forward. "Both sides, prepare yourselves!"
The two teams fell into their respective formations. The Shrek team formed their classic, aggressive arrowhead. Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng at the front, a twin-headed spear of tiger and dragon. Tai Long stood just behind them, a mountain of pure, physical power, ready to act as their shield and their secondary hammer. Tang San took his position in the center, the undisputed core of the team. Ma Hongjun and Xiao Wu flanked him, a wild card of fire and a ghost of agility. And at the very back, Oscar stood, his hands already glowing with a faint, supportive light.
The Blazing Academy's formation was a different, more complex beast. Huo Wushuang stood at the front, a solitary, unshakeable pillar of draconic fire. Behind him, the Fire Leopard Spirit Master crouched, a predator ready to spring. The two twin Fire Crane brothers were on the wings, their gazes sharp, their posture light, ready to take to the skies at a moment's notice. And at the very back, a fortress of support, stood the two massive, Spark-spirit masters, and between them, a beautiful, deadly queen, Huo Wu.
"The match," the referee roared, his hand chopping down, "begins!"
The world exploded in a symphony of fire and fury.
"Evil Eye White Tiger, Possess!"
"Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, Possess!"
"Vigorous Ape, Possess!"
"Evil Fire Phoenix, Possess!"
"Soft Boned Rabbit, Possess!"
On the Shrek side, a storm of spirit power erupted. Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng were wreathed in white light and blue lightning. Tai Long's already massive frame swelled, his muscles becoming like coiled cables of steel. Ma Hongjun was engulfed in a torrent of strange, purplish-red flames. And Xiao Wu's eyes turned a deep, beautiful pink, her aura a thing of soft, deceptive power.
The Blazing Academy responded in kind.
"One-Horned Fire Dragon, Possess!" Huo Wushuang roared, his body erupting in a wave of pure, explosive crimson flame.
The stage, which had been a simple, stone platform just a moment before, was now a battlefield of gods and monsters.
"Go!" Tang San's voice was a sharp, clear command that cut through the roar of the crowd.
Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng did not hesitate. They charged, a twin-headed spear of pure, destructive power aimed directly at the heart of the enemy formation.
"Third Spirit Ability! White Tiger Vajra Transformation!"
"Third Spirit Ability! Thunder Fury!"
The two powerful Spirit Ancestors unleashed their amplification skills in unison. Dai Mubai was coated in a brilliant, golden light, his power and defense skyrocketing. Yu Tianheng became a living thunderstorm, the blue lightning that crackled around him intensifying, exploding outwards.
Huo Wushuang met their charge, his own expression a mask of calm, confident power. He did not retreat. He did not waver. He simply stood his ground.
"First Spirit Ability!" he bellowed. A layer of thick, deep red scales, like the hide of an ancient dragon, instantly covered his entire body.
He met their combined assault head-on. The clash was a beautiful, terrifying, and world-shattering thing. The golden light of the tiger, the blue lightning of the dragon, and the deep, crimson fire of the One-Horned Tyrant, all met in a single, explosive instant.
BOOM!
A shockwave of pure, elemental power erupted from the point of impact, tearing across the stage. Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng were thrown back a step, their faces a mask of pure, unadulterated shock. They had expected to break through, to shatter his defense. But he had held. Alone.
And while the vanguard was locked in a brutal, head-on collision, the true battle, the battle of control, had already begun.
The moment the match had started, Tang San had acted.
'They are fire,' his mind, a cold, analytical machine, had calculated. 'My poison is a powerful tool, but against their pure, high-temperature flames, its effectiveness will be reduced. I must end this quickly. I must control the field.'
His first three spirit rings, two yellow and one purple, flared to life in unison.
"Purple Spirit Grass!"
The ground around him exploded. A forest of deep, royal purple vines, as thick as a man's arm, erupted from the stone stage, a silent, deadly web that shot towards the Blazing Academy's formation.
"First Spirit Ability: Bind!"
"Second Spirit Ability: Parasite!"
"Third Spirit Ability: Miasma Pulse Root!"
He unleashed his entire arsenal at once. The main vines shot towards the front line, seeking to bind Huo Wushuang and the Fire Leopard. A cloud of tiny, invisible parasitic seeds rode the air currents, seeking to land on the backline. And a wave of pure, purple, and incredibly toxic miasma pulsed outwards from the ground, a wide-area attack designed to poison and disorient the entire team.
It was a brilliant, multi-layered, and perfectly executed control strategy.
And it was completely, utterly useless.
The moment his purple vines, his poisonous miasma, came within a meter of the Blazing Academy, they were met with a wall of pure, incinerating heat.
The two massive, Spark-spirit masters at the back of their formation, Huo Chui and Huo Jun, roared in unison. Their third, and only, spirit rings, two deep, majestic purple ones, flared to life.
"Third Spirit Ability: Blazing Aura!"
A wave of pure, intense, and almost physically tangible heat erupted from their bodies, forming a shimmering, defensive dome over their entire team.
The purple vines, which could have shattered steel, simply… withered. They touched the Blazing Aura, and in a single, heart-stopping instant, they were turned to ash. The poisonous miasma was incinerated, its potent toxins rendered harmless by the sheer, overwhelming temperature. The parasitic seeds were burned from the air before they could even reach their targets.
Tang San stared, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated shock. His spirit. His new, powerful, and supposedly versatile Purple Spirit Grass… it had been neutralized. Effortlessly.
And he was not the only one.
"Damn it!" Ma Hongjun snarled, his own, purplish-red phoenix flames sputtering and dying against the Blazing Aura. "Their fire… it's suppressing mine!"
It was a battle of attributes. And they were losing. Badly.
Huo Wu, who had been a silent, smiling observer throughout the entire, beautiful exchange, finally made her move.
"Now," she said, her voice a clear, confident chime that cut through the roar of the crowd. Her first two, brilliant yellow spirit rings flared to life.
"First Spirit Ability: Fire Shield!"
"Second Spirit Ability: Resisting Ring of Fire!"
A series of small, swirling shields of pure, condensed fire materialized around each of her teammates, a secondary, personal layer of defense. And at the same time, a series of brilliant, crimson rings of fire erupted from the ground beneath the feet of the charging Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng.
The rings were not a binding attack. They were a pushing attack. They slammed into the two powerful Spirit Ancestors, not harming them, but disrupting their charge, pushing them back, throwing their momentum into chaos.
It was a masterpiece of control. She had not just defended against their assault; she had turned their own, aggressive power against them.
And she was not finished.
Her third, deep, majestic purple spirit ring flared with a brilliant, blinding light.
"Third Spirit Ability: Fire Shadow Doppelganger!"
A perfect, ethereal, and completely lifelike copy of herself, wreathed in a shimmering aura of pure, crimson flame, detached from her body. The Fire Shadow, its eyes glowing with a faint, malevolent light, immediately shot towards the backline of the Shrek team, its target clear.
Oscar.
The battle had just turned from a simple, head-on clash into a complex, multi-layered war of attrition. And Shrek was on the losing side.
'This is bad,' Tang San thought, his mind racing, a cold knot of dread forming in his gut. 'My spirit is useless. Our power attackers are being held at bay. Our own fire user is suppressed. And their control type is now free to attack our support. We are being dismantled.'
He had to act. He had to change the game.
He abandoned his spirit. He abandoned the thought of a grand, sweeping control strategy. He became what he had been in his previous life. A killer. An assassin. An artist of the Tang Sect.
His own eyes, which had been a calm, analytical black, suddenly flashed with a brilliant, beautiful, and profound purple light. The Purple Demon Eye. The world, to him, was now a different place. He could see the flow of spirit power, the subtle, almost imperceptible weaknesses in their formation, in their techniques.
His feet blurred, tracing the complex, ethereal patterns of the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. He was no longer a stationary core. He was a ghost. A phantom.
He moved, a blur of motion, his target not the powerful front line, not the dangerous back line, but the two agile, and currently unoccupied, agility attackers on the wings.
The twin Fire Crane brothers, Huo Yun and Huo Yu, saw him coming. They had been waiting for this. They had been tasked with one, single job: to intercept and destroy the Shrek team's control type.
They moved in unison, their bodies erupting in a brilliant, fiery light, their arms transforming into a pair of magnificent, flame-wreathed wings. They shot into the air, a pair of beautiful, deadly phoenixes.
"Fourth Spirit Ability: Twin Crane Fire Storm!" they roared in perfect, beautiful unison.
They flapped their wings, and a storm of fiery, feather-like projectiles rained down on Tang San, a beautiful, deadly blizzard that sought to turn him into a pile of smoldering ash.
Tang San did not dodge. He did not retreat. He moved forward. Into the storm.
He was a ghost in the fire, his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track a masterpiece of evasive art. The fiery feathers, each one a deadly, explosive projectile, passed him by, missing him by a hair's breadth.
He was in their blind spot. He was beneath them. And he was in range.
His hands blurred. It was not a grand, dramatic gesture. It was a series of small, subtle, and impossibly fast movements.
And the world was filled with a rain of a different kind. A rain of pure, cold, and deadly steel.
'Hidden Weapon Hundred Separations: Cloud Piercing Rain.'
A thousand, ten thousand tiny, hair-thin needles, each one coated in a subtle, paralytic poison, shot from his sleeves. They were not a single, cohesive attack. They were a wide-area, indiscriminate barrage, a silent, deadly storm of his own making.
The two Fire Crane brothers, who had been so focused on their own attack, had no time to react. The needles were too fast, too numerous, too… silent. They felt a thousand tiny, stinging pricks all over their bodies.
And then, their world went numb.
Their wings, which had been beating a powerful, steady rhythm, faltered. Their spirit power, which had been a raging, fiery inferno, sputtered and died. They fell from the sky, two broken, paralyzed birds, crashing to the stage with a pair of soft, pathetic thuds.
The first blood had been drawn. And it was a deep, and very, very serious wound.
The entire arena fell silent. The crowd, who had been roaring their approval for the Blazing Academy's dominant performance, just stared, their faces a mask of pure, unadulterated shock.
Huo Wushuang, who had been locked in a brutal, head-on struggle with Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng, felt the shift instantly. He looked over his shoulder and saw his two fallen teammates, his two younger brothers. And his calm, confident expression finally replaced by a look of disbelief.
He had been so focused on the front line, on the raw, brute power of the tiger and the dragon. He had forgotten about the dangerous poisonous grass.
And the grass had just struck.
The fight, however, was far from over.
The sudden, silent takedown of her two teammates was a brutal, shocking blow, but Huo Wu was the soul of the Blazing Academy for a reason. Her mind, a brilliant, fiery forge of tactical genius, did not panic. It burned.
A wave of pure, cold fury washed over her. She looked at Tang San, at the faint, almost invisible traces of steel that were still glinting in the afternoon sun, and she understood.
'Hidden weapons,' she thought, her beautiful face twisting into a snarl of pure, unadulterated contempt. 'Mechanical tricks. The weapons of an assassin, not a Spirit Master. To use such a thing in an honorable duel…'
She glanced at the referee, who stood at the edge of the stage, his expression a mask of stone. He had not stopped the match. He had not disqualified the boy.
'So, they are allowed,' she concluded, her fury crystallizing into a cold, hard resolve. 'Very well. If they wish to fight a battle without honor, then we will give them a war without mercy.'
She moved, her body a blur of crimson and gold. She appeared before her brother, who was still locked in a brutal, head-on struggle with the tiger and the dragon of the Shrek team.
"Brother, fall back!" she commanded, her voice a sharp, clear sound that cut through the roar of the crowd.
Huo Wushuang, his face a mask of furious disbelief at the loss of his two teammates, did not question her. He trusted her. Completely. With a final, explosive burst of his draconic fire, he pushed Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng back, creating a precious, fractional second of breathing room.
And in that second, Huo Wu acted.
Her third, deep, majestic purple spirit ring flared with a brilliant, blinding light.
"Third Spirit Ability: Defying Flame Ring!"
A dazzling, ring-shaped wave of pure, crimson fire erupted from her body. It was not an attack. It was a statement. It was a wave of pure, concussive force that slammed into the charging forms of Dai Mubai, Yu Tianheng, and the massive, brutish Tai Long, who had been moving in to support them.
The three powerful, power-attack-type Spirit Masters were sent stumbling backwards, their momentum completely, utterly broken.
The Blazing Academy had been given a moment to breathe. A moment to regroup. A moment to unleash their true, fiery hell.
"Huo Lie! Huo Chui! Huo Jun! Now!" Huo Wu's voice was a sharp, commanding crack.
The three remaining support and agility members of her team, who had been a stunned, disorganized mess just a moment before, now moved with a new, vicious purpose.
The Fire Leopard Spirit Master, Huo Lie, let out a low, guttural snarl. His third spirit ring flared. "Third Spirit Ability: Blazing Pounce!"
His body, which had been a lean, predatory form, was now wreathed in a thick, powerful aura of pure, explosive fire. He shot across the stage, a crimson and gold meteor, his target not the powerful front line, but the two seemingly weaker, and far more vulnerable, members of the Shrek backline.
Xiao Wu and Oscar.
At the same time, the two massive, Spark-spirit masters, Huo Chui and Huo Jun, unleashed their own, unique, and terrifyingly powerful third spirit abilities.
"Third Spirit Ability: Cinder Storm!"
They slammed their massive fists together, and the air around them exploded. It was not a single, cohesive attack. It was a storm. A swirling, chaotic vortex of superheated embers and razor-sharp, flying sparks that shot across the stage, a wide-area, indiscriminate barrage that sought to burn and blind the entire Shrek team.
The Shrek team, which had been on the offensive just a moment before, was now in a desperate, defensive scramble.
"Tai Long!" Tang San's voice was a sharp, urgent command.
Tai Long did not need to be told. He saw the Blazing Pounce, the Cinder Storm, all converging on Xiao Wu. And he acted.
He was not a man of strategy. He was a man of loyalty. And of pure, unadulterated strength.
"Third Spirit Ability: Mountain-Crushing Barrier!" He roared. His third spirit ring which was of purple color flared with a brilliant, earthy light.
He did not dodge. He did not retreat. He became a wall. He planted his feet on the stage and slammed his massive, gorilla-like fists into the ground. A thick, powerful, and almost physically tangible wall of pure, earthen energy erupted from the stage before him, a shield of pure, unadulterated durability.
The Blazing Pounce, the Cinder Storm, they all slammed into the barrier. The clash was a beautiful, terrifying, and world-shatteringly loud thing. The crimson and gold of the fire and the deep, earthy orange of the barrier warred with each other for a single, brilliant, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly beautiful instant.
And then, the barrier shattered.
The sheer, overwhelming, and concentrated power of three different, fire-attribute Spirit Ancestors was too much. The earthen wall exploded into a million, harmless motes of orange light.
But it had done its job. It had bought them a crucial, life-saving second.
Tai Long, however, was not so lucky. The backlash from his shattered shield, combined with the searing, incinerating heat of the Cinder Storm, washed over him. He let out a raw, agonized scream as his powerful, ape-like form was wreathed in a storm of fire and embers. He was thrown backwards, his body a smoking, blackened mess, crashing to the stage in a crumpled, unconscious heap.
The Shrek team had lost its shield.
And the battle had just begun.
While the backline was in chaos, the main front had become a brutal, head-on war of attrition.
Huo Wushuang, his face a mask of cold, furious rage at the loss of his two brothers, was no longer a calm, confident captain. He was a monster.
"Third Spirit Ring Ability! Wrath of the Tyrannosaurus!" he roared.
His entire body, which had been covered in a thick, defensive layer of deep red scales, now erupted in a raging, all-consuming inferno of pure, explosive fire. He was a living, breathing volcano, a creature of pure, destructive power.
He met the renewed, furious charge of Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng, and this time, it was not a stalemate.
He was a storm of fire and claws. He ignored his own defense, his own safety. He simply attacked. He was a whirlwind of pure, unadulterated fury, his every blow a devastating, explosive release of his draconic power.
Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng were thrown back, their own powerful attacks, their own magnificent beast spirits, seeming weak, pathetic, in the face of his pure, overwhelming, and almost religiously profound rage.
Ma Hongjun, who had been trying to provide support from the flank, was having an even worse time. His Evil Fire Phoenix, which had always been a source of proud, arrogant power, was now a sputtering, pathetic thing.
The Blazing Aura of the two Spark-spirit masters was a constant, oppressive presence, a wave of pure, intense heat that seemed to suck the very life from his own flames. He was being completely, utterly suppressed.
And Oscar… Oscar was a panicked, flying squirrel. He had eaten one of his own Flying Mushroom Sausages and was now hovering high above the stage, a desperate, and very obvious, target.
The Fire Shadow of Huo Wu, a silent, deadly creature of pure, crimson flame, was now his personal, private nightmare, its fiery projectiles a constant, harassing barrage that forced him to dip and weave, his mind completely, utterly focused on his own, desperate survival.
The Shrek team was in a state of complete, and utter, and almost comically catastrophic, disarray.
It was all up to him.
Tang San, who had been a silent, analytical observer to the beautiful, chaotic, and utterly devastating counter-attack of the Blazing Academy, finally, truly, understood the depth of his own, personal failure.
His spirit. His precious, powerful Purple Spirit Grass… it was useless. A liability. In this battlefield of pure, incinerating fire, it was not a weapon. It was a joke.
But he was not just a Spirit Master. He was Tang San.
He abandoned his spirit. He abandoned his role as the team's control type. He became a ghost. A phantom. A killer.
He moved, his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track a masterpiece of evasive art. He weaved through the chaos of the battlefield, a silent, unseen presence.
He appeared behind the Fire Leopard Spirit Master, Huo Lie, who had just been about to launch another assault on the now-exposed Xiao Wu.
Tang San's hands were a blur. It was not a grand, dramatic gesture. It was a single, silent, and impossibly fast movement.
'Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon.'
An invisible, irresistible force latched onto Huo Lie's charging form. The powerful, fire-wreathed leopard, who had been a blur of motion just a second before, was suddenly, inexplicably, yanked sideways, his own momentum turned against him. He crashed into one of his own teammates, the massive, Spark-spirit master Huo Chui, sending them both tumbling to the ground in a clumsy, undignified heap.
Tang San did not stop. He was a whirlwind of silent, deadly motion. His hands were a blur, a storm of his own making.
'Hidden Weapon Hundred Separations: Bone Piercing Icicle Needles.'
A dozen small, almost invisible needles, crafted from the thousand-year-old Deep Sea Mithril, and chilled to a temperature that could freeze the very air, shot from his sleeves. They were not aimed at the powerful, fire-wreathed bodies of his opponents. They were aimed at their joints. Their eyes. Their weak points.
The needles struck, and the two massive Spark-spirit masters, who had been an unshakeable, fiery fortress just a moment before, cried out in a mixture of shock and a new, strange, and incredibly painful cold. Their Blazing Aura flickered, weakened, the sudden, intense cold a jarring, disruptive force against their pure, fiery power.
But it was not enough.
They were still too strong. Their teamwork was too perfect. Their fire was too… absolute.
Huo Wu, who had been a calm, commanding general throughout the entire, beautiful, and utterly devastating counter-attack, saw it. She saw the new, strange, and incredibly dangerous threat that Tang San had become. And she knew.
She had to end this. Now.
She stopped her harassment of Oscar. She landed on the stage, her feet touching the ground with a soft, silent grace. She looked at Tang San, at the cold, hard, and incredibly dangerous light in his eyes. And a slow merciless smile touched her perfect lips.
"You are good," she said, her voice a clear, musical chime that cut through the roar of the crowd. "Very good. But you are still just a boy, playing with toys."
She raised her hands, a pair of brilliant, orange flames emitting from her palms, rising a meter high. The previously scorching, fiery light of her own aura abruptly vanished the instant the flames turned white, as if they were no longer fire, but a thing of pure, unadulterated, and almost religiously profound heat.
Her fourth, and most powerful, spirit ring, a deep, majestic purple one that pulsed with an ancient, profound power, flared to life.
"Fourth Spirit Ability: Brilliant Sun."
An enormous ball of pure, white flame began to condense over her head, radiating a light so intense, so brilliant, that it was like a true, miniature sun. The real sunshine in the sky was eclipsed by it. The very air around her seemed to warp, to distort, the heat so intense it was a physical, tangible thing.
The Shrek team, who had been a scattered, desperate, and losing army just a moment before, now froze. They stared at the brilliant fire that was now hovering over the stage. And they knew.
This was it. This was the end.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels like "Douluo Dalu: Time Travel", "Harem Master: Seduction System" and the "Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist" and I hope you like this story and those stories as well.
Check out more chapters on my P.atreon. The P.atreon will have 20+ Chapters ahead for this story. I hope you like it.
The link of p.atreon is: bit.ly/evildragon