The end of the canyon was another open area.
Xuanxi was the first to stop. Her senses caught a sound that shouldn’t have been there—not the roar of a magical beast, but a human voice crying for help. Someone was shouting.
“Watch out!”
“Hold the line!”
“Send a distress signal!”
The sound was very far away. After refracting countless times off the canyon walls, it became fragmented and fuzzy, but she couldn’t mistake that sharp, strained tone. Someone was in trouble and calling for help.
“Someone’s up ahead,” Xuanxi said.
“Could it be another assessment team?”
Elsa stood on tiptoes to look ahead, but the canyon was too narrow, and she couldn’t see anything.
“Unlikely.”
Valeris closed her notebook. Her ice-blue eyes narrowed slightly. “Each assessment team’s route should be independent. Even if they reached a supply point, it shouldn’t be here.”
Reginald didn’t speak, but his earth wall had already risen silently around the group. Hildegrifa stood to Xuanxi’s right. Lightning danced at her fingertips. She didn’t speak either, but her body leaned forward slightly, like a taut string.
Xuanxi and the others quickened their pace. The narrow canyon suddenly widened before them, as if something had exploded from within. The rock walls on both sides were covered in radial cracks. The air smelled of scorching, blood, and a pungent burning odor.
Then she saw a magical beast. A giant crawling beast covered in dark red scales. Its body was twice the size of a Lake Swamp Dragon Python. Its limbs were as thick as stone pillars. Its claws dug deep into the ground, leaving half-foot-deep cracks in the rock with every step.
“Rock-armored Dragon Lizard,” Valeris said through gritted teeth. “And it’s already a half-step top-tier magical beast.”
Elsa’s face turned pale. “Top-tier? Didn’t the Academy say the highest in Echo Valley was only high-tier?”
“Damn it, the Academy’s intel was wrong.” Reginald’s voice was deep.
The five people on the field were clearly at their limit. Three were standing, two were lying down. The three standing were back-to-back in a triangle formation, protecting the two lying down in the center. Their uniforms were stained with blood—some their own, some from the beast.
One girl’s arm hung at an impossible angle, clearly broken, but she hadn’t fallen. She still held a sword in her other hand, though the blade was full of cracks.
The leader was a familiar man. Silver-gray short hair, a dark blue uniform torn open to reveal a wound stretching from shoulder to waist. Blood had dyed half his body dark red. The sword in his hand was trembling.
A member of the Wolf Family.
“It’s the Wolf Family’s assessment team,” came Hildegrifa’s voice from beside her, devoid of emotion.
The Rock-armored Dragon Lizard opened its mouth. Deep in its throat, a dark red light gathered. The heat distorted the air.
“It’s going to breathe!” shouted the girl with the broken arm from the field.
“Don’t let it breathe!” A male student from the Wolf Family charged forward. His sword struck the Dragon Lizard’s foreclaw. The blade shattered, fragments flying.
But the Dragon Lizard’s foreclaw didn’t budge; the longsword only left a white scratch on it. It lowered its head, dark red eyes staring at the student like a cat watching a mouse.
‘Run!’ he wanted to shout, but it was too late.
Just as that boy was about to die, Xuanxi’s water screen rose in front of the Dragon Lizard’s mouth. The water element in the air liquefied instantly under her will, gathering into a three-meter-tall arc barrier, blocking the Dragon Lizard and the boy.
The high-temperature breath struck the water screen. Steam rose, white mist filled the air. Xuanxi’s hand was instantly burned.
Severe pain spread from her arm to her shoulder, but she didn’t let go, because if she did, the student in front of the Dragon Lizard would be completely obliterated.
“Xige! Reginald! Help me!” she shouted.
Hildegrifa’s lightning blasted from the side. Silver-white arcs struck the Dragon Lizard’s right eye. The Dragon Lizard, in pain, let out a roar and jerked its head away, cutting off the breath.
Reginald’s earth wall rose between the Dragon Lizard and the Wolf Family team, layer upon layer, completely shielding the two injured behind it.
Elsa’s flame covered the front. The flame struck the Dragon Lizard’s scales. Although it didn’t cause substantial damage, the smoke obscured its vision.
Valeris’s ice spikes shot continuously at the ground, spreading to form a thin layer of ice. The Dragon Lizard’s claws slipped on it, and its body wobbled.
Xuanxi charged into the field. Her feet landed on rubble and pools of blood, making sticky sounds.
“Fall back!” she shouted to the Wolf Family team.
The leading boy glanced at her. He recognized Xuanxi, or rather, he recognized Hildegrifa beside Xuanxi.
“Edelstein…”
His voice was hoarse. “Fall back. Do as Xuanxi says!” Hildegrifa didn’t look at him.
The three members of the Wolf Family team dragged their two injured comrades back.
The Rock-armored Dragon Lizard steadied itself. Its right eye had been injured by Xige’s lightning.
Dark red blood dripped down its scales and hit the ground with a sizzling corrosive sound. But it didn’t flee. Instead, it turned to Xuanxi, its dark red eyes fixed on her, pupils narrowing to slits.
It recognized her.
No, not her—it recognized the special aura on her. That aura didn’t belong to the Western Dragon clan, and it was the same aura that had beaten it to a pulp two hundred years ago.
A low gurgle came from the Dragon Lizard’s throat. At first, it was instinctive fear of this aura, but after a while, it turned into anger at the person before it. After fear came even stronger anger.
“You.” It spoke, its voice hoarse and broken, like a rusty iron door forced open. “Are you that woman’s descendant? The aura on you is exactly the same as hers.”
‘That woman. It must be referring to her mother.’
“Two hundred years ago, she drove me out of my territory,” the Dragon Lizard said, its voice getting lower and heavier. “I fled for three days and three nights, finally reaching this valley.
And she chased me for three days and three nights. Every time she caught up, she just beat me away, but never killed me.
She even said to me with great righteousness: ‘You are not an evil beast. You just chose the wrong place.’ Wrong place? This is Echo Valley. It’s magical beast territory. This should have been my land!”
The Dragon Lizard’s dark red eyes lit up like two burning lamps.
“What right did she have to say I was wrong? What right? Just because she was a noble dragon? And I’m just a Dragon Lizard? In the past, I couldn’t kill her, but now, killing her daughter counts as revenge!”
With that, the Dragon Lizard opened its mouth to breathe revenge. The light deep in its throat was not the usual dark red, but a higher-temperature blazing white.