Xige turned around and stood shoulder to shoulder with her, facing the Dragon lizard.
“Elsa,” Xige said.
“Here!” Elsa’s flames surged instantly. She had been waiting for this command for too long.
“Triple blaze burst! In front of its left eye, in front of its right ear, and above its head. You decide the intervals yourself.”
“Understood!” Elsa’s flames had already been unleashed. The first fireball exploded in front of the Dragon lizard’s left eye. The orange-red flame detonated at extremely close range, forcing the Dragon lizard’s single eye to instinctively close.
Not even half a second later, the second fireball exploded near its right ear. The high-frequency blast pierced its eardrum, causing its head to jerk violently.
The third exploded above the left side of its head. Though the three flames landed at different points, the intervals were so short that the Dragon lizard, to avoid unnecessary injury, squeezed its eyes tightly shut.
The moment it closed its eyes, Xuanxi moved.
She circled around to the Dragon lizard’s right side—her right hand still hurt, and every breath sent a jolt of pain through her broken ribs, but her steps were unaffected.
Twin water blades formed in her hands, held in a forward grip on the left and a reverse grip on the right.
The colorless, transparent water vibrated at a high frequency along the blade edges, emitting an extremely faint hum.
“Reginald.” Xige didn’t look at Reginald; her eyes were fixed on the Dragon lizard’s left foreleg—the wound torn open by her lightning light still oozing blood, the scales flipped up to reveal the blue-gray soft tissue underneath.
“When its tail sweeps to the left, hit the gap between its left toes with an earth cone. As for Xuanxi, don’t worry about her—I’ll protect her.”
“Got it.” Reginald spat out a mouthful of bloody foam and pressed both hands to the ground. His earth affinity spiritual energy seeped into the underground through the rock layers. He could sense every shift in the Dragon lizard’s center of gravity.
As expected, the Dragon lizard’s tail swept over, heading straight for Xuanxi. But Reginald didn’t move—after all, Xige had said not to intercept if it swept to the right.
Sure enough, Xuanxi dodged the attack on her own. She ducked down and slid under the tail, the tail grazing the top of her head as it passed, the gust of wind blowing her hair back. The moment the tail missed, the Dragon lizard’s center of gravity shifted.
It tried to adjust but discovered something wrong with its left foreleg—Valeris’s ice mist had been covering that wound, continuously dealing frost damage.
Taking advantage of the moment, Xuanxi slipped under its left foreleg. Crossing the two water blades, she simultaneously slashed into the wound torn open by the lightning light.
The two water blades intersected like scissors, cutting through the scales from the middle and tearing the wound twice as wide. The Dragon lizard let out a deep, muffled roar, and its entire left foreleg collapsed beneath it.
It began to panic because it realized it could no longer handle everyone’s attacks simultaneously as before.
Elsa’s flames kept interfering with its vision, Reginald’s earth cones kept blocking its movement, Valeris’s ice mist kept slowing the healing of its wounds, and above it all, Xige’s lightning light still hung overhead, yet to fall—like a sword of Damocles.
It knew what that lightning light was waiting for: it was waiting for it to expose a weakness, and then deliver a fatal blow.
Therefore, the Dragon lizard pressed its body very low, its jaw against the ground, shielding its weakness tightly beneath itself. It waited, waiting for an opportunity to turn the tables.
Unfortunately, that opportunity never came. Instead, the Goddess of Death in the form of Xuanxi arrived first.
She passed under the Dragon lizard’s left foreleg and used a water blade to slash at the knee joint of its right hind leg.
The water blade followed the gap between the scales and cut through the ligament on the outside of the joint. The Dragon lizard’s hind leg went weak, and its body collapsed to the right by half, exposing its weakness for a brief moment.
Just that one moment, Xige’s lightning light came down. A thunder spear shot from her fingertip. Though it was only a thin beam, it precisely pierced the softest keratin on the Dragon lizard’s throat.
It had just collapsed half its body and hadn’t had time to press its head back down before the thunder spear penetrated the keratin layer, burning a scorched black mark on the soft tissue outside the trachea.
Blood continuously flowed from the wound. Even though it quickly pressed its head back down to protect itself, it was already dead.
The Dragon lizard knelt on the ground. Its left foreleg wound bled, the ligament of its right hind leg was severed, half a shard of ice that Valeris had injected remained in its eye socket, and a scorched black lightning strike mark adorned its throat—that was Xige’s handiwork.
A third of its scales were shattered, and its spiritual energy had burned down to less than twenty percent. It lifted its head and looked at the five people standing before it with its remaining good left eye.
Elsa’s flames still burned at her fingertips. Reginald’s earth affinity spiritual energy condensed into dark yellow earth spikes on the ground.
Valeris’s ice crystals floated in her palm, already reformed into ice spikes. Xige’s lightning light danced at her fingertips, ready to fire another spear at any moment.
And Xuanxi stood at the very front of the group. The sleeve of her right arm was soaked through with blood, clinging to her skin. A thin scab had formed over the wound on her face.
Dark cyan scales still covered both her hands. The water blades were still in her hands, and her eyes were fixed on the Dragon lizard. In her amber-gold pupils, there was no anger—only a pure killing intent.
This scene reminded the Dragon lizard of a hundred years ago, on that same scorched black land. That woman had stood before it just like this, looking at it with the same not-strong-yet-pure killing intent. Then she said, “Go.”
And so it had fled, running for three days and three nights, escaping to Echo Valley, and cowering at the bottom of this valley for nearly a hundred years. From then on, no dragon race came to disturb it, no one dared to approach it—it was the most powerful existence in this valley, until today.
“W-wait.” The Dragon lizard spoke. But this time, there was no threat, no mockery—only a plea so low and almost inaudible, like dust falling to the ground. Its single eye looked at Xuanxi.
“Your mother… that woman…” A gurgling sound came from the Dragon lizard’s throat. “She let me go back then. She didn’t kill me. She said I wasn’t a beast of evil, just had chosen the wrong place.”
Its left foreleg trembled constantly from the fear of death. “C-can you also—”
Xuanxi looked at it. Her amber-gold eyes did not move. The Dragon lizard’s words went unfinished, because it saw the answer in Xuanxi’s face. That calm, water-like expression was exactly the same as the woman from a hundred years ago.
Xuanxi lowered her head and glanced at the jade pendant hanging below her collar. Her mother had spared that Dragon lizard’s life back then.
The reason she hadn’t killed it wasn’t that she couldn’t, but that she didn’t want to kill indiscriminately.
After all, she could never have imagined back then that this Dragon lizard would one day become a threat to the region, and even nearly bring harm to her own daughter.
“I cannot make decisions on behalf of my mother.” Xuanxi’s voice was not loud, but every word was steady. She raised her right hand, and a water blade condensed above her fist.
The colorless, transparent water vibrated at a high frequency, emitting a faint, fragmented hum that glowed cold in the twilight.
“She gave you a life back then, but you didn’t cherish it. I have no right to forgive you, and no reason to let you live. The only thing I can do is send you to see my mother.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Xuanxi’s water blade descended.