"Twenty li left. Almost there."
They'd smashed through two blockades already, Sellia looming ahead when hoofbeats pounded through the trees. Melina burst from the forest, her contract with Throne functioning like some infernal tracking spell—no mountain vast enough to lose him.
Torrent skidded to a halt, flanks heaving, mud caking his legs.
No greetings. Melina swapped the mask back, dissolved into spirit motes before the last syllable could fade. Throne caught the mask, slapped it against his face, swung into the saddle in one motion. Millicent vaulted up behind him. He dug his heels in.
Hooves churned mud.
The Spirit Steed made up for lost rest time with mechanical precision—every stride calculated, every breath accounted for. Throne didn't ask how Melina shook pursuit. His bones vibrated with the certainty of enemies converging from every ravine and ridge. Close ones now, footsteps crunching through wet leaves behind them.
Cold autumn rain needled his face. Throne twisted in the saddle—the forest trembled with movement, hundreds pouring after them. But nothing on land outpaced Torrent. Their rage meant nothing. The steed crested a ridge.
Eastward, another mountain range sprawled beneath lightning flashes. Redmane banners snapped atop watchtowers. Each blue-white bolt illuminated patrols of hulking beasts—a dozen at least. Throne yanked the reins. Not hesitation.
He fed Torrent a Rowa fruit first, fingers combing through the steed's damp mane. Then he secured his spear and axe along the saddle like a knight preparing for the tilt.
"Finally."
He glanced back at the seething mass of pursuers—not just Bloody Fingers now. Multiple Rot Kings surged forward, desperation in their loping strides.
Throne inhaled. Raindrops stung his lips as he raised the spear. Torrent reared, hooves slicing silver arcs through the downpour.
"Come on then! Last dance!"
Thunder detonated.
The lightning's afterimage burned the scene into the mountains—knight and steed frozen mid-charge, spear leveled like a jousting lance. Every living thing saw it: Rot Kindred, Bloody Fingers, dragons circling above, Redmane sentries in Sellia's towers. A heartbeat later, the valley erupted.
"Pursue!"
"Kill him!"
Voices and wordless roars merged as the forest vomited forth a black tide. But Torrent's hooves already pounded eastward, arrow-straight. The dragons noticed. Such brazen speed insulted their aerial dominion. One gray-white elder threw back its head.
The hunting cry shook the mountains.
A dozen winged shadows stooped like falcons, windshear twisting rain into spirals. Throne tilted his face upward as the monsters filled his vision—scales gleaming, ten-meter bodies swelling with each heartbeat of descent. No thoughts. Just muscles coiling as he stood in the stirrups, crystal spear humming with stored lightning.
Storm Spear.
He hurled it at a hundred meters. The projectile tore through the rain-curtain like parchment, trailing ozone.
The leading dragon opened its huge mouth, and before its scorching breath could gush out, it felt a pain in its throat on the spot and hurriedly flapped its wings to dodge to the side. Its dodge exposed the second dragon. This dragon hadn't figured out what was going on when the man and horse had already charged before its eyes.
Swish—
As they crossed, the golden battle axe held horizontally, borrowing the power of the charge, sliced a small piece off its wing. The dragon immediately lost its balance and tumbled several times in the mud and water. Throne didn't even look. Without needing his control, Torrent had already leapt to the side, and a stream of scorching dragon fire scorched the ground right against his body.
It performed a double jump in the air, dodging the incoming dragon tail, and the knight on the horse's back wasn't just watching; he threw his battle axe at the dragon that had missed with its tail. Whoosh—thud! The spinning golden battle axe nailed directly into the dragon's forehead, causing it to howl in pain.
When it opened its eyes again, the Spirit Steed flew over as if gliding, and the knight hung upside down on the side of the horse, spreading his arms. His right hand pulled the axe, and his left hand bloomed with a magic crest, forming a long, narrow blade of light. Carian Piercer!
In an instant, they crossed, and the several-meter-long blade of light had already pierced its right eye, causing the behemoth to roll around in pain. Meanwhile, the horse's hooves stepped on the back of its head, just like a stepping stone, making the charging speed even faster as it lunged toward the fourth dragon.
"Duck."
The two and the horse lowered their heads simultaneously, feeling a storm sweep over their heads; it was the dragon's blade-like wing. However, it still missed, and the only thing greeting it was a vertically raised great axe. Clatter... The bleeding was massive.
Relying on the inertia of their crossing, Throne didn't need to use force; the axe blade had already cut a large gash in the dragon's wing. The dragon, in pain, struggled to maintain its balance, but a Comet Azur had already slammed into its back, blasting the scales apart. Storm Assault. The magic shockwave combined with the gale, causing the Spirit Steed to be propelled out like an arrow.
The fifth dragon was dumbfounded; it subconsciously opened its mouth, preparing to burn the opponent to a crisp. This horse didn't have wings, so how could it accelerate in mid-air? However, Throne wouldn't stop to explain. He stared directly at the flames gushing from its throat sac and slashed an axe directly onto its upper jaw.
"Shut your stinking mouth!"
With a dull thud, the dragon's head was knocked sideways, and the gushing breath actually burned another dragon that was circling from the side, setting it ablaze. Millicent looked up and saw a pale dragon tooth spinning in the air. Looking behind her, five or six dragons, though not dead, were either rolling in the mud, clutching their eyes and wailing, or covered in fire. How is this possible???
The young girl was completely bewildered. Looking back, she could only see the not-so-broad back in front of her. He blocked out the wind and rain, and she couldn't even see the ferocious dragons ahead. He was like a mountain peak, blocking all hostility. Millicent could do nothing but grip the horse's belly tighter and clutch her hem.
"A bunch of trash."
Ekzykes, 'Decaying Ekzykes', let out a roar. It wasn't just the embarrassment of an overlord of the sky rolling into the mud, but rather, it completely couldn't understand what was happening. This Spirit Steed had actually 'flown' over a hundred meters in the sky, consecutively slashing several dragons into the mud. How could that be possible? Man and horse as one, its sharpness was unstoppable.
"Scatter!"
Ekzykes, which had been holding the line high in the sky, tucked in its wings, letting gravity pull its body down. It was faster and larger. Its scarlet eyes aimed at the trajectory, and it opened its huge mouth, with a foul-smelling breath brewing. However, in the blink of an eye, a blurry figure appeared beside it. Throne had long since noticed this most powerful rot dragon.
He had arrived with a Starlight Leap; not only could man and horse be one, but they could also separate. This maneuver was clearly beyond Ekzykes' expectations. Fortunately, it reacted extremely quickly, hurriedly closing its mouth and lowering its head. Clang!! The great axe struck the hardest part of its forehead, bursting into a spark.
The feedback force shook Throne's tiger's mouth until it was numb. Looking up, he saw that long, slender dragon tail actually stabbing down from above, just like a giant sword. Throne certainly couldn't fly. As long as they were in the air, almost all powerful beings of the same rank would be at a disadvantage against dragons, but he could also dodge in another way. Gravity stacking!
He surged with purple light and immediately plummeted. While letting the dragon tail graze over his head, he simultaneously stomped hard on the back of Ekzykes' head. Frost Freeze. Where it touched, a large area of frost spread outward. Ekzykes felt as if its brain had been frozen, and it hurriedly, subconsciously, began to roll in the air.
Throne, who was about to raise his axe to sever its neck, was immediately thrown off. Flying in mid-air, he saw the rot dragon's wide-open mouth. Rot Breath! A stream of extremely foul-smelling breath emerged, and because of the rotating body, it formed a vortex cloud. In an instant, it was too late to use Starlight movement.
Throne also twisted his body in the air, and his golden long tail slammed hard against its face.
"Spin your ass!"
Aspects of the Crucible: Tail directly swatted the dragon more than ten meters away. Millicent gripped the reins, looking up at the rot dispersing a hundred meters in the air, her heart rising into her throat. Is Teacher alright...
The young girl simply couldn't participate in this battle. Torrent didn't need her control either, only focusing on repeatedly double-jumping to dodge attacks. Meanwhile, those rot breaths mixed with raindrops fell, forcing the surrounding dragons to scatter and dodge. Not every dragon could accept rot, just as not every person could accept eating shit.
The curtain of rain was instantly dyed brown, and a stench, even more intense than before, spread in all directions. Millicent kept turning her head, trying to find the figure of that man. As a result, a few particles appeared, and he appeared in front of her again, using that not-so-broad back to continue shielding her from the wind and rain.
"Wait a little longer, just one last bit left."
Throne said without looking back, glancing at the Melina doll in Torrent's saddlebag. The reason he could pinpoint the location so accurately was all thanks to this thing; otherwise, Ranni wouldn't have been able to land precisely on the back of the galloping horse. Boom! A meteorite slammed down a hundred meters ahead.
Ekzykes shook its head, flinging off a large amount of ice shards, its aura even more tyrannical than before.
"Persistent as a ghost, has the Scarlet Rot ruined your brain?"
Throne didn't know what reason this guy had to desperately block him. He turned his head to look behind him, and his pupils couldn't help but shrink sharply.
He saw a strange way of moving; blood-red mycelium surged like ocean waves. It landed and paused for a moment, then another wave followed; each advance was several hundred meters. Throne didn't know which King of Rot this was, but its strength was certainly astonishing.
"Damn it, I don't have time to waste on you!"
Throne couldn't help but get ruthless.
Even though he could escape by throwing the young girl on his back away, he only took out his long spear and threw it from far away. Bang—
Ekzykes was prepared, using its hard dragon tail to blast the long spear to pieces. Already irritable, it had lost its sanity due to the Scarlet Rot, and even the other dragons hurriedly dodged.
"Stinking reptile, I will kill you!"
That was a roar full of stench. Throne gently patted Torrent's neck.
"Separate."
The knight immediately landed on the ground. Ekzykes didn't even look at the Spirit Steed; the young girl on it had no attack power, and could the Spirit Steed itself really gore it to death? In a short-distance sprint, Throne's speed was not a bit slower than Torrent's.
With a greatsword in one hand and a heavy axe in the other, each step was over ten meters. Ekzykes didn't waste words, unleashing a mouthful of Rot Breath directly at his head. This stuff couldn't be touched; getting a debuff now would be a dead end. So Throne stopped abruptly, his legs plowing a several-meter-long trench in the soil, and he slashed his greatsword down, meeting the breath.
Moon Slash! The half-moon-shaped sword aura split the breath in two from the middle. Throne took another step and threw the golden battle axe directly. Ekzykes was wondering how the opponent had blocked it when a spinning great axe arrived before its eyes. It hurriedly lowered its head to avoid it, kicked off the ground with its hind legs, and actually lunged forward to meet him.
Throne had just charged out of the breath, his body still covered in a fair amount of highly corrosive, foul-smelling liquid, making him look like he was on fire. As a result, when he looked up, he saw a dragon mouth like an abyss. Swallow you! The mouth closed instantly, but it felt a sharp pain. Its eyes shifted down to see Throne holding the greatsword high, making it unable to close its mouth.
So what? It ran frantically, stomping deep pits into the damp earth, and actually carried Throne in its mouth as it charged westward. This madness caused even the dragons on the path to scatter to both sides. To the west were countless enemies, each full of hatred and wanting to tear him into ten thousand pieces. The scarlet wave had even approached within five hundred meters.
Moving towards each other like this, it would only take a few leaps to reach his side, and then poke hundreds of holes in him. But Throne still wasn't panicked, his eyes also looking to the side. Torrent wasn't carrying Millicent away, but was sprinting over. The young girl on its back rode the horse and raised her blade, looking heroic and spirited.
Ekzykes didn't even put her in its eyes, just closing its eyelids to avoid being poked in a weak spot by a toothpick. But the moment it closed them, it saw Throne smiling. Huh, what is he smiling about? Just as this thought emerged, it felt a sharp pain, a sharp pain that penetrated deep into its soul.
The girl in the black dress stood on its forehead, stabbing the short blade containing Destined Death hard into the wound Throne had previously blasted open, just like stabbing into the rot dragon's soul. The rot dragon was wrong; Throne's backup plan was indeed a small toothpick, but this 'toothpick' was something even demigods couldn't withstand.
Roar—
That pain surpassed the madness brought by the rot. Ekzykes instinctively roared, wanting to shake the opponent off. However, Melina had already actively vanished; the amount of Destined Death on the short blade in her hand was too small to take the dragon's life. The one to take its life was someone else!
Throne broke out; as soon as he lost the pressure, he immediately turned into starlight and dissipated, looking down from above, overlooking the rot dragon rolling in pain in the mud and water. Crisp, decisive, concise, without a moment's hesitation. Moonlight Slash! The Dark Moon Greatsword condensed a blade several meters long, and he slashed down while rolling.
His body spun like a top, dragging the blade's arc into a silver crescent that filled the sky. The severed dragon head tumbled through the air, its frozen snarl twisting between terror and agony.
Throne didn't watch it fall. He kept dropping through the smoke, arm outstretched until Millicent's grip locked around his wrist. The Spirit Steed's wings thundered above them, yanking them both skyward with a jerk that rattled teeth.
His rotating body pulled the blade light, forming a vast full moon in the night sky.