Chapter 306: Still Alive?

"My turn, you beast!" the voice yelled, choked with smoldering fury, the dragon’s tail swinging mid-air suddenly going stiff, not by choice, but by force.

Seth’s draconic frame appeared behind the dragon, eyes reddened and emotions raging with both hunger and fury relayed from the glyph dragon.

His fingers dug into a corner of the massive tail, taking a solid grip of something far beyond his mass.

The dragon couldn’t react; it was still too busy charging a raging torrent of flames to swallow the humans below whole.

This wasn’t an action it could just stop like that, the backlash that would follow if it dared try would shave too much of its vitality.

It hesitated, it couldn’t see the newcomer but it could guess who.

Why wasn’t the human dead?

How come he survived? And why did his presence suddenly feel so... overwhelming?

Its primal instincts flared with fear, as the shadow of a hulking, demonic dragon cast over its soul.

The dragon’s mind was thrown into disarray, while Seth’s raging momentum never once halted.

His muscles bulged, his veins pressing visibly against his obsidian scaly skin, like long wiry strands.

Seth heaved, his wings giving him the grip he needed as he flapped backwards, channeling a strength far beyond what he should be able to muster.

Adrenaline raged wild in his system, his bronze cells interacting with the draconian genes, rippling with this effect.

His grip on the tail tightened further, his frame swaying as the dragon thrashed its tail like a whip, but Seth swung the dragon like a house cat caught by its tail.

The strength he mustered was far beyond what even the dragon, a titan-grade being, could resist.

Ash growled in panic, his flame raging wild, its torrent spraying, all over and out of control as the dragon’s vision flipped.

Its wings struggled against the current but failed to resist Seth’s motion, and the dragon was slammed straight into the earth far in the distance.

BOOM!

Its flame breath went out of control and combusted right in its throat, tearing the flesh apart and letting its blood rain.

But Seth wasn’t done, not until this oversized lizard was turned into a full meal, he wasn’t.

His torso turned, his grip still dug tight into the bleeding tail, he summoned more strength.

The wind raged wild, and the sky filled with explosions, none destabilizing Seth’s frame in the slightest.

With another flip...

BOOOM!

The earth rumbled with the collision as the dragon whipped down like a rag doll, all four limbs flailing in the air as it landed back-first into the ground.

A sickening crack rang out, unknown whether it came from the earth or the dragon’s spine.

The dragon growled weakly in pain, its mangled throat hissing as air leaked out of its vocal cords.

Seth finally calmed his surge of strength, settling into a brief cooldown period as his muscles ached from the sheer force he’d just wielded.

His wings flapped in the air, his frame steadily hovering above observing all below.

His eyes finally trailed to the charred bodies of his men.

The moment his vision honed on them, his heart skipped a beat.

"No, no, no, no." He muttered, frightened, his frame bursting into a blur, landing where their bodies lay sprawled, half sunken into the molten puddles.

Fear filled his heart as he rushed towards Doyle, or at least the charred frame of what was left of him...

With trembling hands, he reached for this unit captain that had served under his command.

A colleague from the alpha team... his wings folded behind his back as he knelt on a knee, his hands hovering and trembling above the soldier.

He couldn’t sense their lifeforce, but that didn’t mean they were dead — there was a chance they were so injured that sensing their vitality without physical contact was impossible.

But he was scared to confirm, these men had trusted in him... they followed his lead for so long.

He saw them as his own, especially since they ascended to the bronze human state with his own genes; the bond was even thicker, beyond what Seth could explain.

Staring at their charred frame, in the end he mustered the courage, stilling his hands as he brought them down onto the unit captain’s head...

Seth’s heartbeat slowed, almost on instinct, in fear that the sound of his own might overshadow theirs.

Breath held, his essence flowed into the unit captain’s charred body, slowly sinking through a system of nothing but char.

His organs were compromi-

Seth barely ended this conclusive thought when he sensed something.

... his eyes suddenly lit up with unexpected glee... a heartbeat weak, barely noticeable but it was there.

Exploring further, it became clear bronze cells were still active in this guy’s body... he was alive.

Seth’s eyes lit up, his hands, trembling in fear, moved up to Doyle’s brain, sensing for any activity up there.

If there wasn’t, all other vitality indications didn’t matter, Doyle would already be as good as dead.

Seth’s eyes flickered — indeed, there was activity. Sensing there was a chance, he didn’t waste time checking through the rest of the unit of 20.

They were all weak, beaten and battered, but the fact remained uncontested: they were still alive!

But if they were to be left like this for too long, that status would be quick to change; they were so close to death, a slightly heavy wind might just push them over the brink.

Seth didn’t even have to consider his next move, he didn’t care if it would strip him of all vital essence he still had in store.

Without batting an eye, his draconic frame glowed with a bright shade of emerald.

Just as he began to activate this gene skill, the earth suddenly began to rumble, as a certain foe finally recovered, slowly gathering itself from the ground.

This was the last chance Seth had to follow up on this dragon, bombarding it with attacks, giving it no room for recovery, and ending it in a single chain.

But if he took that chance, his soldiers would die no question about that...

After all, the shockwave from his earlier rage had already damaged them, more would only finish them.

That risk he wouldn’t take; he had promised himself to do all in his power to save these guys, and that was exactly what he was going to do...

With this conclusion, his frame glowed even brighter as tendrils of emerald, made up of pure vitality essence, stretched and coiled round all twenty soldiers.

The essence sank into the cells, giving the bronze cells the push they needed to initiate self-repair.

While he was performing this delicate exercise in the distance, a furious roar exploded in the distance like thunder.

Ash, the dark-scaled dragon, had recovered standing tall, his throat fully recovered, his wings flapped readily, and he was pissed, furious, and enraged...

That human was going to pay!