Chapter 226: Battling Against the Flames

Hearing the words of Xiu Luo Yang, the faces of everyone on the ship turned dark and grim. Condemned to death by a dragon, perhaps a satisfying way to die for others but for them, this was the worst situation it could happen in.

To die right after collecting everything that they needed.

Even if they wanted to avoid such a fate, an encounter with this dragon could only end with losses

They stared at this so called "Dragon of the Sun", clutching their weapons tightly.

Xiu Luo Yang's golden eyes narrowed as he walked closer to them. The dragon was just as big if not larger than the white dragon corpse. His whiskers quivered with silent anger as he bared his teeth. There were two fangs that outgrew the rest of his teeth, reaching below his chin. Everything about him was beyond what they had ever seen.

Everyone prepared themselves.

"Now!" Long Wang yelled out.

The ship suddenly roared with life as the rudder activated, pushing the ship along. At the same time, every Roaring Thunder Cannon shot at the dragon, a storm of golden lightning thundered and crashed into the beast.

Those who had harpoon guns used them immediately as the barrels glowed, each harpoon that was shot out seemed to unify. They lined up and projected the image of a powerful silver colored dragon, it roared with power before entangling with the enemy.

The ship quickly moved away as everything was put in a constant barrage of attacks. Wave after wave of lightning came as multiple silver dragons continued to wrap around Xiu Luo Yang's body.

"What is this? This paltry imitation of yours is pathetic."

From the explosions, a scaled claw emerged as it grabbed one of the silver projections. Tightening his grip on it, Xiu Luo Yang ripped it off of is body and crushed its body. Compared to him, these projections were like children both in size and strength. He towered over everything, the glowing rays of the sun showered over him.

"You will not leave so easily"

He brought his left claw forward, grabbing at the ship as the outer barrier tried its best to protect them. Cracks covered the entire barrier as the dragon's claws dug into it.

"Strengthen the barriers, Tian Zhui! Xin Kuo! Everyone else, continue attacking the dragon!"

Long Wang shot another harpoon before going below deck to grab something. The two that she called moved immediately towards the barrier formation. Tian Zhui took out more shields and replaced the cracked ones while Xin Kuo began to redraw the formation and replace the flags. The complex symbols and layers in each formation glowed as the two barriers mended and strengthened.

They moved as quickly as they could, managing to finish in time as the others aimed for the dragon.

Ming Yue joined as well, shooting off multiple wind lances at the beast but it had little effect. Xiu Luo Yang barely slowed his advance as he opened his jaws to breath another blast of fire. This time, he was nearly on top of the ship, those flames would cover the vessel.

His throat slowly glowed red as he prepared to attack when he felt something enter his mouth. He nearly choked on it and closed his jaws instinctively before it exploded inside his body. Purple smoke seethed from his mouth as his head thrashed about in pain.

"Gah, what is this gas? Poison?"

He looked down and searched for the source of that attack.

On the ship deck, Long Wang stood upright, carrying small cannon on her shoulders. Smoke came from the barrel as she quickly loaded a paper shell inside.

"A sedative made from Purple Dream Grass and Golden Lavender Flower. Both are rare rank 5 herbs that come from a batch that has been cultiating for a hundred years. Just one shell is enough to put hundreds to sleep."

Long Wang aimed and shot once more. The ball left a purple smoke trail as it flew towards Xiu Luo Yang's face and exploded on his face. The dragon pulled his head back, trying not to breathe in any of the purple fog.

"You will not stop me! This poison of yours does nothing!"

The fiery dragon opened his jaws and let out a bellowing flame that covered the outer barrier. It only lasted seconds before cracking and breaking under the dragon's might. The shields that Tian Zhui painstakingly created shattered, leaving only the barrier that Xin Kuo maintained.

Narrowing his eyes, he continued the breathe fire onto the ship, not letting up. The flames were intense, the metal harpoons melted upon touching it and the Roaring Thunder Cannons could not pierce this thick wave of fire.

"Agh, its too hot. The inner barrier is going to melt."

"What is this power?!"

"The ship cannot hold on for much longer."

Xiu Luo Yang wrapped his body around the ship, slowly crushing it as he gained momentum. Everyone scrambled, using whatever they had to push him off but he walk practically unfazed. All that they've done were mere scratches.

"The barrier is going to break!" Xin Kuo yelled out as she frantically tried to keep it alive, powering the formation with her own Quintessence Energy.

"Tch! Long Wei, how is the ship!"

Long Wang looked for her brother who had been inside the captain's cabin the entire time, manning the ship.

"Not good! We might have to make some sacrifices!"

At that moment, the inner barrier could no longer hold and splintered into pieces. Xin Kuo yelped, thrown against the side and knocked unconscious from the backlash.

"Hmph, weak, too weak and you dare defile the corpse of my beloved. More than that, you dare defile the bodies of my kin! I will not let you die so easily. I will be giving you the most horrendous of deaths."

Xiu Luo Yang growled as he scanned the boat, he spotted the unconcious body of Xin Kuo and extended his other claw to grab her. Closest to her was Tian Zhui but he only jumped away, not wanting to get caught by the dragon's grasp. If he tried to pull her away, he would gain the attention of Xiu Luo Yang.

Everyone was too preoccupied with attacking, none of them had a chance to attempt to save their comrade. Everyone but Ming Yue who dashed and wrapped her arm around Xin Kuo's waist. With her other hand, she directed a wind lance into the dragon's palm.

Feeding it her energy, she pushed it against claws, managing to slow it down by just a fraction. She quickly ran and placed Xin Kuo within the captain's cabin, where Long Wei stared at the controls, trying to think of what he could do.

As she left the room, she felt a dangerous pair of eyes, looking down upon her.

"You, the source of those winds. Perhaps, you will die first."

Having caught his attention, Ming Yue tried her best to avoid his grasp but his own claws nearly covered a quarter of the ship. There only so much she could do.

In fact, there wasn't much anyone could do. All that they had did nothing to this dragon and they were beginning to lose hope. Escape wasn't even possible for the dragons had already surrounded them.

Was there a weakness that this dragon had?

None of them knew quite for sure but there was one final trump card that they had. If this did not work, then death is inevitable.

"Everyone, prepare the ballista!"

Long Wang yelled out to the others, as they looked to her in surprise. Nonetheless, they dropped everything and went below deck.

"Where are you all going? Hiding now that you know that everything you do is futile? You pathetic humans."

As he spoke, steam and wind blasted from the seams of the hull as the plates of armor jettisoned from the ship, revealing the wooden hull. As the ship turned to face the dragon, the front hull split open, revealing a platform where a massive ballista stood.