"You dirty beast! Give us your blood essence and we'll show you mercy by at least giving you a decent death!" The eight men shouted ferociously in response to the skeleton dragon's ear-splitting roar. Even though they were all at the ninth grade of Bone Reinforcement, that fight was no easy job for them. They all had to steel their resolve as they called out their battle cries.
Boom!
The blasts from the collision of the two sides' attacks continued. The blows were producing deafening sounds. When the last wave of explosions backfired, both sides were thrown back and onto the ground. The eight warriors vomited mouthfuls of blood as they were struggling to get up onto their knees. For a moment, the wind was knocked out of them and their ears were ringing.
Their injuries were not really serious though. After a while, they managed to catch their breath and stood back up. Soon, they had adjusted themselves and were confident that they could fight at 90 percent of their potential if the skeleton dragon was still not defeated. The energy they used in the head-on collision just then was from eight demi-immortal orbs instead of themselves after all. The backfire was no big deal for them as long as they made sure to preserved enough strength to fight back.
Things sadly looked different for the Skeleton Dragon, however.
Its huge body was flung into the air before being slammed back onto the floor. A crater was formed in the ground where its body struck. Neither the ground nor the crater could stop its suffering. It was forced to roll across the ground by the force of the blast. It broke one thick tree trunks and another as it rolled over them on its way down before its tumbling ceased.
No one moved for a few seconds. When the dragon finally gathered the strength to moan and tried to move, the eight men noticed that it was already covered all over in wounds. Its two relatively small fore-paws were broken off, and one of its hind legs was broken. Worse still, nearly all of the sword-like bony plates on its back and tail were shattered, leaving horrible scars that went all the way down to its bones.
Its once powerful maw that had dagger-like teeth was now twisted and unable to snap at its enemies like before.
Of course, the most fatal wound was an unseen one. After dozens of years, its internal injury had eventually mounted in severity and was killing it. Once re-opened by the strike, the old injury was what finally killed it.
By then, it might already be too late, even if it was willing to refine the Great Dragon's blood essence.
"It seems like it's all over now. I could only expect that the competition between those eight would be as fierce as possible," Ricky grumbled from inside the Chaotic Fire Zone, clearly a bit unsatisfied with what had happened.
If things didn't work out later, he would have to take the risk and exposed his two powerful zones.
Just then, loud whines came from out in the distance.
Seeing that the fearsome Skeleton Dragon had been brought down, the other fierce beasts in the area were terrified that they would be next. So one by one, they fled into the depth of the mountains without even looking back.
The Great Dragon's blood
k the way he'd come using the Chaotic Fire Zone. His mind was back on the bronze object. He had to catch up with the eight warriors as soon as possible and watch for his chance to get the bronze thing.
"Come on, I think that the Great Dragon's blood essence went and dropped into this huge canyon!" It was no sooner that Ricky had left the canyon that the men from the eight Forces arrived. They rushed into the canyon like a swarm of bees, jostling against one another without the slightest idea that they were actually looking for nothing. .
Another two hours had passed and Ricky went back to where the body of the Skeleton Dragon lay. With no hesitation, he drew its body into his Devourer Zone as well.
For him, even though it was dead, the body of a demi-immortal beast contained great dragon blood and was no less precious than whatever treasures it produced.
Then, wasting no more time, he headed in the direction which the bronze object had previously gone. Meanwhile, he searched for the eight Bone Reinforcement warriors using both of his zones.
After about two hours, he found them. He had not only found the eight warriors, but had also seen the bronze thing for what it really was. It was a bronze key that was as long as one yard!
As a casting master, Ricky could feel how intricate and delicate its patterns were when he set eyes on the Bronze Key. He could sense the superb technique that had made it. He even could tell what philosophy had been cast into it. He knew instantly that the thing was much more significant than it looked.
Vaguely, he somehow perceived the power it released. He could tell that the Bronze Key was in fact a kind of spiritual weapon. Whatever it was, its level was definitely not low.
It seemed that the price of the high level weapon had been partly paid already. Of the eight advanced Bone Reinforcement warriors, four had been killed by the others, while the remaining four were all covered in blood. They were lying on the ground, barely alive. The Bronze Key was placed quietly in the middle of the four dying men, with no one having the strength to crawl over to it and seize it.