The Steel-Hide Commander moved its paw, allowing me to stand. The mages were landing back on the ledge, gasping for air, their robes scorched and their faces etched with the deep fatigue of a high-tier battle.
Zhao Feng looked at my brothers, then at the empty sky, a look of profound respect—and a hint of fear—in his eyes. "The Li family... I heard rumors after the Sand River. I thought they were exaggerations." He looked at the smoking craters where Lv.5 spells had landed. "I was wrong."
Li Shen walked over to me, his boots clicking on the vitrified stone. He knelt down, checking me for scratches, oblivious to the fact that he had just helped rewrite the power balance of the region.
"You okay, Yuzi?" he asked softly.
I looked at the swirling river of souls only I could see, flowing into the vessel at my chest. I looked at the "Elite" hunters who were staring at my brothers like they were gods.
"I'm great, Brother," I said, a small, tired smile on my face. "But I think we're going to need a much bigger Space Ring for the next one."
...
The silence that followed the Storm-Call Commander's death was hollow, filled only by the distant, dying screeches of the scattered flock. My brothers and Captain Zhao Feng's team stood on the precipice, their chests heaving. High-tier magic at this scale wasn't just a drain on mana; it was a tax on the soul.
Li Wei's hands were still trembling from the recoil of the Lv.5 Fire Fist, and Li Shen's silhouette seemed thinner, his Shadow Element flickering like a candle in a draft. Even the Steel-Hide Commander had retracted its metallic plates, its golden eyes dimming as it stood guard over me.
"We need to move," Li Shen rasped, wiping a streak of soot from his forehead. "The blood in the air will bring the Rulers if we linger."
"Agreed," Zhao Feng panted, leaning heavily on a jagged rock. "Su Rou, give the boys one last burst of—"
He never finished the sentence.
A searing, golden beam of light lanced across the ravine, striking the ground between our two groups. The stone didn't just shatter; it vaporized.
"Light Element: Blinding Sword!" a voice thundered from the ridge above us.
From the concealing mist of the higher peaks, twenty mages materialized. Leading them was the scarred man from the Cloud-Reach Outpost, his "Azure Dragon" robes fluttering in the wind. Beside him stood three others wearing the gold-trimmed robes of the Eastern Maritime Association—Advanced mages, fresh and fully charged.
"You lot really did it," the scarred leader, Captain Chen, sneered. He held a glowing jade orb in his hand—a high-grade mana-tracking tool. "Five Commanders. A haul like that... it's wasted on a bunch of backwater brothers and a bunch of Union mercenaries."
"Chen?" Zhao Feng snarled, his eyes sparking with dying embers of lightning. "You're intercepting a Union-sanctioned hunt? That's a death warrant."
"Only if there are witnesses," Chen countered. He looked at me, sitting between the paws of the exhausted Steel-Hide beast. "And especially not if we 'rescue' the poor little kid after his 'unfortunate' family was wiped out by the vultures."
The Ambush: Predators vs. Vultures
The Azure Dragon team didn't wait. They knew my brothers were at their weakest.
"Wind Element: Hurricane Spiral!"
"Fire Element: Nine Dragons!"
The ridge erupted in elemental fury. Eight Advanced-tier spells were channeled simultaneously, aiming to sweep our exhausted group off the cliff in a single strike.
"Han! Protect Yuzi!" Li Shen bellowed.
Li Han didn't have the mana for a Lv.3 Earth spell, but he had something better. He bit his finger, smearing blood on the Steel-Hide Commander's obsidian forehead. "Protect him with your life!"
The beast let out a roar that shook the ravine. It surged forward, its body expanding as it used its Berserk Soul ability. It didn't fight back with magic; it became a physical shield, its metallic fur sparking as it intercepted the fire and wind, its massive body taking the brunt of the impact to keep the shockwaves from reaching me.
"You think we're easy prey?" Li Wei spat, his eyes burning with a predatory crimson light. He reached into his Space Ring and crushed a Fire-Element Mana Stone, a rare and expensive resource, instantly jump-starting his Galaxy.
"Fire Element: Sky-Flame Funeral – Lv. 3!"
The Azure Dragon mages weren't expecting a counter-attack so soon. Wei's flames collided with their "Nine Dragons," creating a localized firestorm that obscured the ledge.
The Shadow's Revenge
While the fire raged, Li Shen vanished. Even exhausted, his mastery of the Shadow Element was transcendental.
Captain Chen looked around frantically, his Wind-trackers spinning uselessly in the heat. "Where is he?! Find the eldest one!"
"Looking for me?"
The voice came from Chen's own shadow.
"Shadow Element: Giant Shadow Spike – Lv. 3: Multi-Pierce!"
Twelve spikes of absolute darkness erupted from the shadows of the Azure Dragon front line. Because they were focused on their offensive spells, their defensive barriers were thin. Four mages were skewered instantly—not through the heart, but through their mana centers, their Star Charts shattering mid-cast.
"A-Advanced Level 3 Shadow?!" Chen shrieked, backing away. "How do you still have the focus?!"
"Because," Li Zhu stepped forward, his eyes glowing with an eerie violet light. "Psychic Element: Feedback Loop!"
Zhu didn't attack their bodies. He attacked their arrogance. Every ounce of greed and fear in the Azure Dragon mages was amplified a thousand-fold. One of the Eastern Maritime mages suddenly screamed, clawing at his own eyes as his Fire Constellation backfired, engulfing him in his own flames.
The Final Lesson
The battle was short and brutal. The Azure Dragon team had numbers and fresh mana, but they lacked the one thing the Li family had forged in the Sand River: Cold, lethal synchronization.
Captain Zhao Feng's team, seeing the tide turn, joined in with their remaining strength. Zhao Feng channeled a final, heavy bolt of Space-compressed Lightning, shattering the shields of the remaining mercenaries.
In the end, only Captain Chen was left standing, pinned to the rock wall by one of Li Shen's shadow spikes. His robes were tatters, and his "Elite" team lay scattered and broken across the ledge.
Li Shen walked up to him, his boots clicking on the blood-slicked stone. He didn't look angry; he looked disappointed.
"You saw what we did to the Commanders," Shen said softly, the frost from his presence causing Chen's breath to hitch. "Did you really think we'd have nothing left for a few vultures like you?"
"P-please," Chen stammered, his eyes darting to the Space Rings on Shen's hand. "The Association... they'll hunt you—"
"The Association won't find anything but vulture scraps," Li Wei interjected, stepping up beside his brother. He raised his hand, a small, white-hot spark of Lv.5 fire dancing on his fingertip. "Yuzi, look away for a second."
I didn't look away. I watched as the Li family protected their own.
To Be Continue...
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