CHAPTER 197 — THE PRICE OF STANDING
The Jade Dragon was bleeding.
That alone was a miracle.
Emerald crystal fragments drifted through the sky like shattered glass after the last exchange. A cluster of scales along the dragon's left wing still glowed with molten fractures where Azure Heaven Severance, Phoenix Sovereign Descent, and Solar Cataclysm Beam had converged.
The damage was real.
But the dragon still ruled the battlefield.
Its enormous wings stretched across the sky like a living mountain range. Emerald veins pulsed brighter beneath its crystalline armor as the creature hovered above the broken plain.
The Nine stood scattered across kilometers of devastation.
Bruised.
Bleeding.
Still alive.
Still fighting.
Dean Xu Canglong wiped blood from his jaw and lifted his sword again. The azure blade hummed quietly, its edge flickering with restrained power.
"Pressure the left wing."
General Han Dae-Woo cracked his neck.
"Thought you'd never ask."
