"Roar! Roar!" (You've forgotten, have you? Then let me help you remember!)
Asterion stopped what he was doing immediately. At this moment, concepts like global evolution or high-martial realms didn't matter at all. A so-called Forbidden Species wasn't just the pinnacle of raw power; it represented absolute freedom within the ecological hierarchy—and freedom meant doing whatever the hell he wanted!
His solid muscles instantly sprang into action. Asterion slightly raised his massive forebody, and the eight giant wing-bones on his back surged upward and backward like unsheathed swords, fanning out into a slight crescent. Immediately after, the eerie blue bio-energy stopped radiating indiscriminately in all directions. Instead, it rapidly converged at the tips of his wing-bones, forming high-pressure jets of blazing blue tail-flame.
"Roar!" (What do you think you're doing?!)
The Kushala Daora, who had been maintaining a haughty, high-and-mighty posture, instantly tensed up. He could clearly feel the overwhelming pressure radiating from Asterion and had no doubt about Asterion's combat prowess—but out of all the dragons present, why were those eyes locked onto him?!
His scalp tingled. An intense sense of crisis forced him into a defensive stance, his metallic scales tightening across his entire body.
"Roar!" (Why, taking a trip down memory lane, of course!!)
Letting out a wild battle cry, a blinding ball of light slammed directly into the Kushala Daora's face in the very next second!
At such a short distance, the simultaneous full-throttle blast from the eight wing-bones granted Asterion a terrifying, logic-defying acceleration. The Kushala Daora saw nothing but a flash of blue and white, completely unable to track Asterion's movements.
The speed was simply too fast—so fast that this battle-hardened Kushala Daora had absolutely no time to react or dodge. He hadn't even processed what was happening!
At the exact moment of impact, the Kushala Daora's brain momentarily short-circuited. For a fleeting second, he felt as though he had been thrust back into his distant youth—back to a particular afternoon when his control over the wind was still clumsy, and he had pulled off a high-speed dive only to slam headfirst into a mountain.
Except this time, he hadn't crashed into a mountain; the mountain had crashed into him.
The instantaneous burst of speed didn't just make Asterion fly fast; it provided him with immense, devastating kinetic force. Driven purely by a desire to have fun and vent some old frustration, he didn't even bother with flashy energy attacks. He relied solely on his pure physical mass and raw momentum to deliver the impact.
Yet even this primitive assault caused an instantaneous wave of destruction that startled the surrounding spectator Elder Dragons.
Who says you can't kill someone with a spear that lacks a tip? Or rather, who says a blunt impact can't crush a dragon to death?
In the distance, a Teostra, acting purely on instinctual reflex, immediately spread his wings to shield a Lunastra tightly behind his broad back, terrified that Asterion might come hurtling toward them next like a stray meteor.
Truly fitting for a Teostra—the quintessential perfect husband.
Meanwhile, a younger Kushala Daora who had arrived alongside the first elder dragon finally snapped out of his brief, paralyzed shock. Without hesitation, he spat a pressurized wind blast directly at Asterion!
Clang! Clang!
Highly condensed by a specialized internal organ unique to Kushala Daora, the wind pressure packed inside these blasts possessed a terrifying destructive force capable of instantly shattering massive rock strata.
But it was entirely useless.
When the wind blast struck Asterion's right flank with pinpoint accuracy, there was no gruesome tearing of flesh or agonized shrieks. Instead, a few sparks of eerie blue fire flared up and vanished in the blink of an eye. Aside from that, there was only a crisp, metallic clink, as if someone had struck a suit of heavy steel armor.
It couldn't even pierce his defense.
"Roar, roar, roar!" (Heh heh heh heh heh!)
It was hard not to laugh out loud.
Talk about completely letting loose. He was utterly unchained.
Having thrown all caution to the wind, Asterion was acting like an utterly unhinged thug of a dragon. In a bizarre posture completely unbefitting the elegant image of an Elder Dragon—uh, one might even call it slightly unseemly—he pinned his massive, heavy frame firmly against the Kushala Daora's back.
Asterion's two thick foreclaws pinned the Kushala Daora's head and one of his shoulders flat against the ground, grinding his face mercilessly into the shattered crystals. No matter how much strength the elder dragon exerted, he couldn't lift his head an inch.
At the same time, Asterion's thick, elongated tail wrapped around the Kushala Daora's long tail like a massive steel shackle, completely locking down his lower body.
Heavy!!
The Kushala Daora felt as if an entire mountain range had been stacked onto his back—a weight so crushing that even he found it impossible to resist.
Only when two dragons locked in such close-quarters melee combat could they truly grasp the absolute disparity in their size and strength. Asterion was draped over him like a giant rag—uh, that metaphor isn't quite right. It was more like he had draped himself over the Kushala Daora like a heavy cloak, weighing him down so completely that he couldn't even raise his head.
Even breathing was becoming difficult, let alone moving. Although the Kushala Daora had descended into absolute madness, entering a desperate, frenzied state of struggle where his claws violently gouged out trenches several meters deep into the crystalline ground, it was all in vain. Asterion held him pinned to the earth with absolute finality; there was no escape.
"Roar!" (Let him go!!)
Anxious to save his companion, the eyes of the younger Kushala Daora turned crimson with rage. He violently beat his broad wings, the massive counterforce propelling his huge body backward to create distance in an instant. Within seconds, the surrounding atmospheric pressure plummeted. A pitch-black tornado that connected heaven and earth rapidly materialized before him, sweeping toward Asterion with a ferocity meant to shred everything in its path!
But the younger dragon's assault wasn't over yet. Almost simultaneously, he snapped his head around and launched three more pressurized wind blasts from a flank angle straight at Asterion's head!
Useless! Useless! Useless!!
A blinding, eerie light suddenly erupted from the area where Asterion's back connected to the base of his wing-bones. Centered around his body, an overwhelming torrent of blue bio-energy surged forth like a bursting dam, crashing against the black storm. Under the sheer impact of this energy, the apocalyptic tornado held on for less than two seconds before being violently torn apart and penetrated, ultimately dissipating into harmless, scattered currents of air.
At the exact moment he released that energy shockwave, the massive wing-bone on Asterion's left snapped outward to a full 180 degrees. Utilizing a bizarre and unnatural generation of force, the incredibly hard skeletal frame reversed its direction in an instant. Sweeping from back to front, it ripped through the air to generate a localized sonic boom, slamming diagonally forward—a brutal slap!!
As if swinging a baseball bat, the four tightly compressed, thick wing-bones effortlessly swatted and detonated the incoming wind blasts mid-air. Not only that, but the heavy, unyielding momentum of the swing carried through, delivering a solid, crushing blow straight to the head of the younger Kushala Daora, who was stuck in the vulnerable recovery frames right after spitting his attack!
Another agonizing, teeth-grating metallic clash echoed. The younger Kushala Daora was clearly dazed by the strike. The immense kinetic energy forced his entire head to twist violently backward at an unnatural angle, looking for all the world as if his neck had been snapped, accompanied by a strange crack loud enough for Asterion to hear.
His massive body instantly lost its balance, collapsing heavily to the side.
He wasn't dead, but truthfully, he wouldn't be getting back up anytime soon.
A Kushala Daora truly lived up to its name; its metallic shell provided defensive capabilities well above the average for Elder Dragons. Whether it was the skull or the body, its hardness was akin to solid ore. While Asterion thoroughly enjoyed delivering that incredibly powerful slap, it had vibrated back and left his own bones feeling rather sore.
"Roar!" (Time to give you a perm!!)
Asterion laughed wildly. He didn't retract the wing-bone that had swung to the front of his body. Instead, he precisely adjusted its direction and angle, aiming the glowing blue nozzle at its tip directly at the head of the younger Kushala Daora, who was dizzily trying to scramble to his feet—Thermal Jet!!
Dual Dragon Gem System! Kid!
Azure Star Dragon's Underworld Gem!
Azure Star Dragon's Thermal King!
Right here, right now, it's time for the Thermal King to shine!
A fierce flame, so white-hot it appeared pure white, poured open like a column of water from a high-pressure hose, erupting furiously from the nozzle at the tip of his wing-bone!!
Under the scorching torment of this extreme heat, even the metallic shell forming the Kushala Daora's body began to glow a faint red within a very short period. The young dragon's scales rapidly softened and oxidized under the temperature, and the direct point of impact turned a dull, matte charred black. The air filled with a peculiar scent of oxidizing metal.
Exhilarating!
You always pick on the easiest target! What fun was there in bullying ordinary monsters compared to thrashing Elder Dragons? Asterion felt utterly invincible. Even as he knocked the younger Kushala Daora senseless, the old acquaintance he had been pinning down from the very beginning hadn't managed to crawl a single inch out from under his claws.
It was glaringly obvious that the two sides were no longer even the same tier of biological existence; their combat capabilities were separated by a vast, insurmountable gulf.
This terrifying spectacle of taking on two opponents at once with absolute, ruthless efficiency—playfully crushing two adult Kushala Daoras in an instant—profoundly terrified the Teostras and Lunastras watching from afar.
The manes around their necks trembled involuntarily. With their high intelligence, they naturally understood exactly what it meant for Asterion to subdue two Kushala Daoras so effortlessly.
After all, as the true rulers of the volcanic regions within the Elder's Recess, the Teostras and Lunastras had clashed with the resident Kushala Daoras countless times over the millennia. With victories and defeats on both sides, they had only recently established their current respective territories.
Since a Kushala Daora, whose power was roughly on par with theirs, could be defeated so effortlessly, if they were to step up...
The clever Teostra was already turning around, leading his wife to retreat. Such was the wisdom of an Elder Dragon!
Darting down the slope in a flash, they made a few leaps across the fallen crystals and slipped back into the rocky tunnel they had come from. Time to bounce, brother, time to bounce.
Hmm, not bad. At least they have good situational awareness.
Glancing at the fleeing oversized cats, Asterion withdrew his gaze in satisfaction. Their sensible behavior made him abandon any thoughts of chasing them down for a total slaughter. After all, he had come to the Elder's Recess to build, not to commit mass genocide.
Right now, the most important matter was his old acquaintance.
Ha! You arrogant little punk, you've finally fallen into my claws! Where is that cocky attitude from fifty years ago now?!
You recklessly summoned those rainstorms and flooded my home! Even my Kulu-Ya-Ku buddy almost lost his damn life! Where is that attitude of doing whatever you pleased back then?! Where is that arrogance that looked down on ordinary life?!
And at the very end, you flew off so casually like some peerless master, leaving me behind with that old Kushala Daora!
True, if I were still just an ordinary Glavenus, I would have had no choice but to swallow my pride and accept it. You could be as arrogant as you wanted without ever fearing my revenge—but I am no ordinary monster!
How the tables have turned!
"Roar! Roar!" (Let me go! Who the hell are you?!)
This hundred-ton hunk of living ore was still struggling desperately, his thrashing limbs and wings grinding frantically against the crystals below, sending sparks flying everywhere. Yet despite all this, the fellow still hadn't recognized Asterion.
"Roar, roar! Roar, roar, roar!" (Do you still remember the old Kushala Daora from fifty years ago? The one who came from afar?)
Seeing off an elderly, dying member of one's own species, or even delivering the final blow to end their suffering, was undoubtedly an incredibly rare and momentous event in the extraordinarily long lifespan of an Elder Dragon.
Thus, the instant he heard Asterion's hint, the Kushala Daora rapidly recalled every detail from back then. Inevitably, his mind drifted back to the creature who had also witnessed the entire event—the one who had amused him enough to make him abandon the idea of sending off his kin, choosing instead to respect the old Kushala Daora's wishes and leave him there.
But didn't that make this even more unbelievable?!!
"Roar!!" (Impossible!!)
"Roar, roar, roar!!" (How could it be you?!! You look completely different!!)
"Roar!" (Impossible! Absolutely impossible!!!)
Compared to the fact that he was being pinned down by another dragon without any ability to fight back, what the Kushala Daora found far more unacceptable was the sheer transformation Asterion had undergone.
Elder Dragons were incredibly proud creatures, and Kushala Daoras possessed an exceptionally fierce sense of self-esteem. Not only did they look down on ordinary organisms, but even if they were attacked, their metallic shells were virtually impenetrable. They often wouldn't even bother to retaliate, simply waiting for the lesser creature to realize its own utter futility and slink away.
This wasn't out of magnanimity or soft-heartedness; it was pure, unadulterated disdain. But why?!
Why was he currently being pinned beneath a tiny, insignificant creature he had utterly looked down upon back then?!
A perfectly ordinary, run-of-the-mill monster that originally couldn't even scratch his metallic armor had somehow, in such a short span of time, completely surpassed him and stood squarely over his head?!
This Kushala Daora's... his very worldview was completely shattering.
A profound sense of humiliation welled up inside him. While his core convictions hadn't entirely collapsed just yet, the elder dragon had undeniably fallen into an indescribable state of pure hysteria.
For beings possessed of such lofty pride, having their self-confidence utterly demolished was a fate far more excruciating than death itself.
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