Chapter 93: Intense Battle!

"Now we’re fighting."

Ao Longtian understood the declaration perfectly.

The Jiao’s enormous golden eyes narrowed, and for several seconds, neither side moved.

The atmosphere between them had changed completely now.

Damian was no longer casually testing new abilities against an angry Semi-Divine Beast, and Ao Longtian was no longer treating him like some irritating Qi Condensation cultivator who had wandered into its river and forgotten his place.

Then Damian felt something strange... pressure!

It was not the spiritual pressure Ao Longtian had already been throwing around, but something far more... physical.

His <Divine Sense> spread downward and immediately caught the change beneath them.

The river was... rotating?!

Slowly at first, then faster!

Water began circling beneath the Spirit Boat in an increasingly enormous spiral, pulling branches, floating debris and entire sections of the surface current into its rotation.

Damian’s smile disappeared. "Oh, you bastard."

Ao Longtian had learned.

The Human could avoid straightforward projectiles by moving that flying vessel around?

Fine, then attack the battlefield itself!

WHOOOOOOOOOM!!

The whirlpool suddenly accelerated, and the air above it changed alongside the water.

The Spirit Boat lurched downward so violently that Lin Meiyu screamed while everyone else grabbed the nearest stable surface.

"Lord Damian!" Jian Rui shouted.

"I know!"

Damian forced power through the Spirit Boat’s controls.

Its damaged formations flashed brightly as the vessel tried climbing, but the whirlpool dragged harder.

For several seconds, the boat remained suspended between both forces, shaking violently as though something enormous beneath the river had grabbed it with invisible hands.

Ao Longtian’s whiskers lifted, then the Jiao disappeared beneath the river.

Damian’s eyes widened.

Where had it gone?

<Divine Sense> caught it immediately.

Directly below!

"Move!"

The Spirit Boat shot sideways just as Ao Longtian erupted from the center of the whirlpool.

ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!

Its jaws opened beneath them, rows of enormous teeth flashing past the vessel’s underside by barely several meters before the displaced water struck everyone aboard like rain fired from a cannon.

CRACK!

Another section of railing shattered.

Ning Ruomei’s eyes widened as wooden fragments flew past her face.

"He’s targeting the boat!" Mu Qingyao exclaimed.

"No shit!" Damian responded on the fly.

"Lord Damian!" Mu Qingyao chided him for vulgar language.

"Sorry!" Damian quickly apologized then refocused.

Damian twisted the Spirit Boat upward while Ao Longtian followed, and that alone immediately taught him another unpleasant lesson.

The Jiao could not truly fly, but apparently, it did not need to.

River water rose beneath its body like an enormous moving pillar, carrying Ao Longtian upward while twisting around its scales like a living storm.

Damian stared. "So you’re cheating too?"

"THIS KING COMMANDS THE WATERS OF HIS DOMAIN!" Ao Longtian bellowed grandly.

"Yeah, that’s cheating!" Damian retorted with chagrin.

Ao Longtian roared furiously. "AH!! INSOLENT!!!"

Shen Xueyi looked between the two of them and, despite the danger, found herself struck by an absurd realization.

Damian was enjoying this.

And not because he was winning, because he very obviously wasn’t, nor was it because Ao Longtian was weak, because that was even more obviously false.

Rather, this was perhaps the first opponent since she had met Damian who could survive long enough for Damian to properly experiment against it.

His eyes kept moving, studying, calculating, adjusting.

Every exchange revealed something new.

Every failed attack gave him information.

Every successful defense told him something about his current limits.

Instead of becoming discouraged, Damian appeared increasingly focused, as though he were treating a near-Golden Core-level Semi-Divine Beast like some absurd practical examination.

Shen Xueyi suddenly understood something she had only vaguely grasped before.

This... might be part of why his growth was so terrifying!

Ao Longtian lunged again.

Damian’s hand moved. "Incende!"

A bolt of golden flame shot downward.

<Sacred Flame>!

The divine projectile struck Ao Longtian’s snout.

BOOM!

Its head snapped sideways and a golden scorch mark spread across several scales.

Damian watched carefully, expecting perhaps a weaker version of what happened to Fang Lu.

Nothing of the sort occurred.

Ao Longtian possessed no Corpse Qi, no unnatural death cultivation and no unholy corruption for Holy power to violently purify.

The Cantrip still hurt, but that was all.

Damian nodded. "Good to know."

Ao Longtian’s expression became almost humanly incredulous.

"YOU ATTACK THIS KING MERELY TO LEARN?!"

Damian thought about that.

"...When you say it like that, I sound kind of unreasonable."

Mu Qingyao’s eyes widened. "Kind of?!"

"Circumstantial detail!"

"You already used that excuse!"

"Still applicable!"

Ao Longtian had clearly heard enough of their nonsense.

Its claw slammed downward, and the pillar of water supporting it exploded outward, hundreds of compressed water blades filled the sky.

Damian’s expression changed immediately.

<Divine Sense> flooded his mind with incoming trajectories while <Perfect Combat Instinct> began selecting possible paths through them.

The problem was obvious.

Damian was not currently one Human body moving through the sky.

He was effectively piloting a several-meter-long target containing seven additional people.

There was no clean route through the barrage.

At least, none large enough for the entire vessel.

"Qingyao! Xueyi!"

Both women understood immediately.

Refined Qi erupted from them.

Mu Qingyao formed a defensive wood barrier around the left half of the Spirit Boat while Shen Xueyi gathered water into a rotating barrier across the right.

Damian instinctively tried to reinforce the center.

"Tu Es Forte!"

...but nothing happened.

Damian blinked.

Right, already used.

That Divine Spell Slot was gone.

"...Fuck."

The water blades arrived.

KRAK! KRAK! KRAK! KRAK!

Mu Qingyao’s wooden defense shuddered violently while Shen Xueyi grunted as several blades smashed against her barrier.

A few still penetrated the gaps as Damian stepped forward, letting his <Mage Armor> catch the first few.

CLANG!

The impact sounded like metal striking stone!

Another blade slashed across his shoulder and the magical armor resisted most of it before the remaining force threw him sideways.

A third struck his thigh, and Damian’s absurd Constitution absorbed what passed through, though pain immediately followed.

Then one blade slipped completely past him and headed straight toward Bo Wen.

Damian’s eyes snapped toward it.

It was too far to intercept physically!

His hand moved automatically.

"Resisto!"

<Resistance>!

Golden light wrapped around Bo Wen just before the water blade struck his chest.

BOOM!

The young cultivator flew backward.

"BO WEN!"

Jian Rui caught him before he hit the deck.

His robes had split across the chest and blood appeared beneath them, but he was alive... thankfully.

Bo Wen looked down at himself in horror, then toward Damian.

"What just..."

"Stay down!"

The barrage ended.

Mu Qingyao immediately crouched beside Bo Wen while Shen Xueyi remained standing, her eyes fixed upon Ao Longtian.

Her expression had become colder.

"Lord Damian."

"I know."

"This is becoming dangerous."

"I know."

"The boat cannot withstand many more exchanges."

"I know!"

Shen Xueyi stared at him.

Damian sighed. "...Yes, Mom."

Her eyebrow twitched and Mu Qingyao nearly laughed despite everything.

Then Ao Longtian attacked again and Damian snapped both hands forward.

This time, he had no intention of merely dodging.

"Treme!"

A Level 4 Spell Slot ignited.

<Ice Storm>!

The sky above Ao Longtian changed instantly as cold exploded across the battlefield.

An entire region of the river suddenly became winter.

BOOOOOOM!!

Massive chunks of magical ice crashed downward as Frost energy detonated across Ao Longtian’s exposed body.

300% Frost Damage!

The freezing storm engulfed more than ten meters around the Jiao while Light Freeze accumulated over everything inside its range.

Water became ice and mist became crystals.

Ao Longtian’s scales frosted white while the enormous pillar supporting it partially froze beneath its body.

For the first time since the fight began...

Ao Longtian lost altitude.

CRAAAAAACK!

Its weight smashed through the frozen water column and the Jiao crashed into the river.

BOOOOOOM!!

A wave several meters high rushed outward.

"YES!" Lin Meiyu shouted before apparently remembering exactly what she was cheering at.

Damian smiled. "That worked."

Mu Qingyao stared at him. "That was another new spell?"

"Yup."

"How many did you learn?!"

"Recently?"

Damian coughed. "A few."

Shen Xueyi’s eyes narrowed, because that answer clearly meant too many.

Ao Longtian exploded from beneath the frozen surface.

ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!

Ice covered much of its upper body, while several scales had cracked and one whisker was partially frozen solid.

The Jiao was furious, but Damian immediately noticed something important.

The <Ice Storm> had hurt it permanently.

The Cantrips had annoyed Ao Longtian, but this?

This was actual damage! ℯℯ𝑙.

Damian’s eyes sharpened.

Good!

So proper mid-level spells could meaningfully injure it!

Now he had a benchmark.

Ao Longtian’s Demonic Qi erupted.

BOOM!

The ice coating its body shattered and steam rose where bloodline power fought the lingering Frost, then the Jiao opened its jaws.

Damian felt the energy gathering inside before anything appeared.

Dense!

Extremely dense!

His instincts screamed.

"Everyone down!"

A sphere of dark-blue water formed between Ao Longtian’s teeth, then compressed!

And compressed!!

And compressed again!!!

The sphere shrank until it was barely the size of a Human head.

Damian’s expression became ugly, because that tiny thing contained more energy than the gigantic water serpents from before.

"What the heck, a tailed beast bomb this early?!" Damian complained.

Shen Xueyi saw it too, and her face changed.

"That’s its bloodline breath!"

Ao Longtian fired.

KRAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!

A beam of compressed water and Demonic Qi crossed the sky.

Damian had perhaps one second, maybe less.

At first, <Misty Step> immediately entered his mind.

Easy, just teleport away.

He could beam two hundred and eighty meters and be done with it.

Then <Divine Sense> registered Mu Qingyao, Shen Xueyi, Jian Rui, Bo Wen, Lin Meiyu, Shen Lian, and even... Ning Ruomei.

...Fuck.

Fine.

If he couldn’t move... then he would block!

Damian thrust his hands forward and his Grandmaster <Mage Armor> intensified.

At the same moment...

"Ex Textura!"

Golden radiance answered as <Guardian of Faith> manifested!

A towering divine figure appeared directly ahead of the Spirit Boat that was humanoid and armored, completely featureless beneath a radiant helm.

It planted itself in empty air between Ao Longtian’s bloodline breath and Damian.

The beam struck.

KRAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOM!!!

The Guardian took the attack head-on as golden radiance exploded!

The divine construct shuddered violently as its arms rose against the beam!

The attack pushed, but the Guardian held!

Three seconds... four... five!

Then cracks finally began spreading through its golden body.

Damian’s eyes widened.

"Come on...!"

CRACK!

One arm shattered, but the beam continued while the staunch Guardian remained standing.

Then...

BOOOM!

Its entire upper body exploded into golden fragments!

However, the bloodline breath had also been weakened enormously.

Though, what remained still slammed into Damian.

His <Mage Armor> flashed and the Spirit Boat lurched backward.

Damian felt something inside the armor crack, then pain erupted across his chest.

"UGH!"

Blood sprayed from his mouth as his body flew backward.

"Damian!"

Mu Qingyao caught him before he smashed into the opposite railing.

The Spirit Boat spun violently in the air, but Shen Xueyi seized the controls for half a second and forced it level.

Damian coughed as more blood stained his lips.

His chest hurt badly.

It was not shattered-ribs bad, but definitely far beyond a love tap.

Probably.

Mu Qingyao’s face had gone pale.

"Enough! Lord Damian, enough! We should leave!"

Damian inhaled and winced in pain.

He raised one hand and golden light spread through him.

"Te Curo."

<Healing Word>!

Divine energy rushed across his injuries, and the pain rapidly reduced as the internal damage began mending.

Damian exhaled slowly while Mu Qingyao stared.

"...You can heal yourself too?"

"Apparently."

"You are impossible!"

"I’ve heard."

Ao Longtian had gone silent, and it stared at Damian differently now.

That attack had been serious, very serious.

Yet the Human survived!

He blocked most of it with some golden summoned guardian, endured the remainder through strange armor, and then healed himself immediately afterward.

Ao Longtian’s expression finally lost all mockery.

"Human."

Damian wiped blood from his mouth. "Hm?"

"What... are you?"

Ning Ruomei’s eyes opened slightly wider.

That question... she understood it!

She had asked herself the same thing repeatedly since meeting him!

Damian smiled. "Complicated."

Then he pushed himself upright.

Mu Qingyao grabbed his arm. "Lord Damian!"

"I’m fine."

"You were coughing blood!"

"Technically, I’m coughing less blood now."

"That isn’t reassuring!"

Damian looked toward Ao Longtian, and his smile faded.

This was becoming expensive in terms of resources.

One attack had forced a Level 4 Divine Spell, his Grandmaster <Mage Armor>, and <Healing Word> afterward.

And Ao Longtian still looked far from exhausted.

Damian’s excitement remained, but another emotion now existed beside it.

Respect.

The Jiao was powerful, much more powerful than him in raw output.

Its body was tougher, its energy reserves were probably several times larger, and it possessed the famous home-field advantage.

On top of that, unlike Damian, Ao Longtian could move freely throughout its battlefield.

Damian’s advantage was variety, unpredictability, and systems layered upon systems.

Damian’s smile returned.

"Okay, it’s time to end this."

Ao Longtian’s eyes narrowed as Damian raised one hand, alarm bells ringing in its heart!

If the young man was allowed to make his next move... it would die!