Dragon Heart: Land of The Enemy. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 8

by Kirill Klevanski

  He was flung through the air and slammed into a wall. After clinging to it for a couple of seconds, he finally fell, followed by massive fragments of granite, each of which weighed a couple of tons. Shaking his head to clear his vision, Hadjar immediately got up and kicked away one of the fragments, changing its trajectory.

  The slab landed with a booming crash, kicking up dust and snow. By the time it settled, Hadjar had joined the others on the opposite side of the room. Blood trickled down his back and he could feel a huge bruise spreading across his chest. At least he was still alive. Had the fragment fallen on him, he would’ve become a pancake.

  “Another Spirit-golem?” Tom shouted. Behind him, his blade was now shrouded in crimson lightning. “Thunder God’s Sword!”

  He slashed the air with such speed that it was impossible to discern where the bolt ended and the blade began. The sword whipped through the air, forming a shining crescent that cut through the pillars and melted the ice.

  The Spirit stared at the incoming attack and raised its hand again. The world seemed to come to a halt. The crescent slowed down and eventually stopped completely. The sparks froze, hovering in the air like stars. Just like Hadjar’s recent attack, this one, too, was now stuck in the icy veil.

  “How is this possible?” Tom exclaimed in disbelief.

  When the Spirit struck the frozen ‘Thunder God’s Sword’, Tom collapsed to his knees, coughing up blood. Wiping his lips clean, he took an old throwing dagger out of his spatial ring.

  “Don’t be hasty, brother.” Anise put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. “We don’t have so many artifacts that we can afford to waste them.”

  Einen and Dora joined her, and they all stepped forward.

  “It’s time for us to put our differences aside and join forces,” Einen said and struck the floor with his staff. This simple act released an energy wave that knocked the creature back a couple dozen feet. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to buy them some time to counterattack.

  Dora and Anise, now fully armored, approached the Spirit from opposite sides. The ‘Forest’ hieroglyph was floating behind the elf, following her every move. Raising her warhammer, she unleashed a Technique that Hadjar hadn’t seen before.

  “Forest’s Awakening!” She shouted, bringing the warhammer down. Even though she hadn’t yet mastered the Weapon’s Heart, the power of her blows was still outstanding.

  The ancient floor shuddered. A web of cracks spread across the ice-covered granite, giving it the look of a shattered mirror. Saplings sprang from the cracks. Stretching into the air, they turned into sturdy oaks. Filled with the mysteries of the Hammer Spirit, they blew through the masonry, knocking over pillars and statues.

  Had she used this attack in a war, she could’ve easily brought down an entire mortal fort on her own. However, the Spirit seemed unbothered by her efforts. Unlike with the previous two attacks, it didn’t raise its hand this time. Instead, it spread its legs (or rather, the mist that served as its legs) out and swung its sword in a wide arc, conjuring a gigantic wave of snow. The avalanche crashed into the forest and turned it into a bunch of ice statues. With a low, ringing hum, they cracked and shattered into a myriad of emerald crystals.

  The Spirit swung a second time, but was interrupted by Anise who jumped out from behind the curtain of ice and snow. Not wishing to risk her life once again by summoning her Spirit, she opted to use her clan’s Techniques instead.

  “Bloody Charge!”

  Streaks of crimson shot out of the walls and falling debris. Using them like stairs, Anise ran up and swung at the creature. The Spirit raised up a block of ice from the ground, blocking her attack. Anise’s blade had almost touched the icy surface when she disappeared. A moment later, she was back on the ground.

  Hadjar had seen her use both the ‘Bloody Charge’ and ‘Bloody Hunt’ Techniques several times before, and they’d always left him speechless. Both were very versatile and could be used against a wide variety of opponents. More often than not, however, she’d used them when’d she fought against several foes at once, so she’d never really gotten a chance to show off the Techniques’ full potential.

  Until now.

  Focusing the streaks into a single whole, she could make them appear at any point of the Spirit’s trajectory and then move them both ways. Lying on the ground with a grin on her bloodied lips, she watched as the unified crimson streak sunk into the creature’s back.

  By the time her attack landed, Einen had already used a number of his own Techniques. Enclosed within the iridescent armor of his Call, both he and his Call’s ape swung their weapons.

  “Boulder Storm!” He shouted, unleashing an onslaught of sharp rocks and powerful waves.

  Hadjar had expected Anise’s attack to at least injure their foe, but the Spirit-golem seemed unbothered by the fact that it had just been struck head on by a powerful Technique and that there was now a crimson needle sticking out of its back. Talented as Anise was, even she seemed like a beginner compared to this thing.

  However, they weren’t out of the fight just yet. Her attack had managed to leave a dent in its armor. A metallic clang echoed throughout the room. Sparks filled the air, leaving frost behind on the walls and ground.

  Its armor was still mostly intact, but the Spirit was nonetheless sent flying through the air because Einen’s attack had managed to hit its vulnerable spot. Hadjar doubted that any armor, even an Imperial level one, could’ve saved the life of a person struck by such a powerful Technique.

  But the Spirit had survived. Even after crashing through four pillars and bringing one of the walls down on itself, the only real damage it had suffered was a broken horn on its helmet.

  Anise, Dora, and Einen returned to Hadjar and Tom’s side. Standing next to one another, they watched as the Spirit slowly rose to its feet.

  If the combined attack of three elite disciples at the Spirit Knight level had only managed to leave a dent in its armor and break one of its helmet’s horns, then what hope did they have of getting out of here alive?

  “Maybe-”

  “No!” Anise said sharply. “We can do this. We just need to work together... I could-”

  “No,” Tom interrupted her. “Dora won’t be able to bring you back this time. You’re not using your Spirit. End of discussion.”

  “He’s right,” Dora said, shifting her grip on her warhammer’s hilt. “You need to recover first or you’ll die if you try to use it again.”

  “Then we have no choice but to try and take it down together,” Anise said. She was the strongest one among them, so no one dared argue with her whenever she decided to take the lead. “Hadjar, you and Tom need to keep it busy. The three of us will try to combine our attacks again.”

  Tom and Hadjar exchanged glances. They weren’t particularly happy about the fact that they’d have to work together, but they didn’t really have much of a choice.

  “Try to keep up, commoner,” Tom sneered. “Bloody Charge!”

  Chapter 679

  T om disappeared in a flash of red lightning and reappeared to the left of the creature. His attack was as fast as Anise’s, but not as powerful.

  The scarlet streak hit the Spirit’s side, but the creature didn’t so much as look at Tom. Instead, it raised its forearm and assumed a stance similar to something a person would use to defend themselves in hand-to-hand combat. But this was a sword fight… What the hell is it doing? Hadjar wondered.

  The Spirit either didn’t know or didn’t care about the rules of the mortal world. After assuming the stance, it froze the scarlet streak in place before it could even touch its armor, encasing it in ice. Swinging its arm, it grabbed the Technique to try and crush it.

  “Now!” Tom shouted.

  Breaking his connection to his Technique, he received an energy backlash and fell to the floor. Blood flowed from his ears and eyes. Wheezing and coughing, his hand trembling, he popped several greenish pills into his mouth.

  The Spirit’s fi
ngers closed around a swirl of melting snowflakes. For a moment, they completely enveloped the monster, hiding it from view.

  Hadjar, who’d been waiting for this moment, channeled half the energy contained within his Core. His own coat of arms shone on his cloak: the symbol for ‘Stairway’ written in clouds. Energy seeped into his body, damaging it despite the fact it had been enhanced by the Wolf Broth.

  The sheer power he unleashed made the ground beneath his feet cave in. Black energy emerged from his solar plexus and enveloped him. Using the sixth stance of the ‘Light Breeze’ sword Technique, he launched his attack.

  Normally, when he used this Technique, he would take the form of a plume of darkness within which the silhouette of a dragon could occasionally be seen, but this time, he went with a different approach. After all, he was at the peak stage of the Heaven Soldier level and had even forged dragon armor made from Celestial Metal, thus transforming his Call and strengthening both his physical and energy bodies.

  He could now absorb and control a fair bit more energy than before. This allowed him to imitate his friend’s Technique, albeit on a much smaller scale.

  Einen and his ape stared at their friend as he whizzed around the room, leaving traces of black smoke behind. It would be hard to call the trail anything other than the tail of a dragon. Hadjar, zigzagging as he charged, stood in the center of this shifting fog, acting as the dragon’s head.

  “Seventh stance: Azure Cloud!”

  Remembering to lunge instead of slash, Hadjar turned toward his opponent. The dragon’s mouth opened wide, revealing sharp fangs. Its breath turned into a glowing thundercloud, and a more solid dragon surrounded by sparks and lightning emerged from it.

  Twisting its bladelike body, it performed the basic attack of this stance and lunged at the Spirit with incredible speed. It lost some power along the way, but gained much-needed momentum.

  The Spirit, unable to shield itself with its free hand, was forced to raise its blade to block the attack. Hadjar had no idea where it had learned to fight using swords, but its block seemed easy enough to break through.

  That is, it would’ve been, had it planned to block in the first place.

  Instead, it twisted its wrist, parrying the blow. Or rather, it slightly changed its trajectory. It went without saying that one had to be a master swordsman to be able to deflect such a powerful and fast strike. Whoever had created this thing had had to be as skilled as Anise, at least.

  “Damn!” Hadjar swore and jumped back.

  He was moving as quickly as his body would allow. The obsidian dragon twisted and rushed toward the wall, but it wasn’t quick enough. The moment it broke through the wall, bringing down both it and a couple of pillars, and exiting the monastery, the Spirit launched its first attack. Raising its blade above its head, it dropped it in one quick slash, lowering the temperature as it did so. The walls were suddenly covered with large patches of frost that grew bigger and thicker the lower the sword sank. At some point, the frost transformed into ice and formed long needles that looked like replicas of the Spirit’s sword.

  All of this happened within the span of a couple of seconds. Had Hadjar been moving any slower, he would’ve joined his forefathers way before his time.

  Gritting his teeth in pain, he lost his momentum and fell to the ground. He skidded across the ice a good few feet before slamming into the wall and stopping. A blade sprung from the wall, slicing through his left calf. The ice immediately turned scarlet. The frozen droplets of blood were reminiscent of rubies adorning the pale neck of a young noblewoman.

  He was in a lot of pain and wounded, but he’d achieved his goal.

  Both of the creature’s arms were lowered, leaving it completely exposed.

  “Forest’s Awakening!” Dora shouted, followed by her Sprit. The hieroglyph imbued her with immense power, which she instantly channeled into her Technique.

  With another swing of her warhammer, she cracked both the granite and the ice. Translucent shards flew through the air, slicing through the rock even though they were nothing more than needles made of frozen water.

  Mighty oaks grew around the Spirit, which hadn’t yet managed to raise its arms and assume a defensive stance. Creaking and groaning, the trunks twisted themselves around the creature, trapping it. Filled with the mysteries of the Hammer, they attacked the beast with their branches, dealing heavy damage. Breaking through its armor, they hit its crystalline body directly.

  “Bloody Charge!” Anise, proving once again that she was full of surprises, suddenly moved even faster than before.

  Disappearing in a red flash, a spot of brilliant color in the gloom, she appeared behind the creature. Raising her blade, she held it in a reverse grip and slashed diagonally.

  “Boulder storm!”

  Waves and rocks landed on the tops of the mighty oaks and the prison of trees. Each drop of the azure water was filled with the mysteries of the Spear-Staff Spirit and strong enough to reduce the granite to sand and bring down the mighty oaks. The forest was turned into mere splinters and lumber. The ice that the creature had conjured was simply washed away.

  Simultaneously with Anise’s strike, Einen hit the creature in the chest. Caught between two powerful attacks, it had no chance of survival. Not even a cultivator at the Lord level would’ve survived such an onslaught.

  “Invaders...”

  It was only then that Hadjar realized that the creature had been communicating with them without moving its lips or mouth. With a crack, it opened its mouth wide and let out a ray of blue light.

  Chapter 680

  T he ray froze even the air itself. Chunks of ice, falling to the floor, shattered into a myriad of tiny, razor-sharp pieces.

  Anise, who’d been standing behind the Spirit, was more fortunate than the others. Moving away from the creature, she drew complex shapes around herself with her blade. Scarlet crescents of energy shot out in all directions, turning the ice into harmless dust. The entirety of the wall behind her, save for the spot where she was standing, was riddled with ice needles. Lowering her blade, she wiped the blood off her cheek with her wrist. The ice had managed to cut through not just her Imperial level armor, but also her hardened skin.

  Still, she was far better off than the others. Dora, who’d been closest to the ray, was standing still, her warhammer held out in front of her. The light struck it, hurling the elf back through the air as if she weighed no more than a feather. The attack kept going even after she fell to the ground, crushing the wall several feet behind her. Blood spurted from Dora’s mouth and the frost-covered hilt of her weapon slipped from her hands. The ice, like a tumor, continued to spread across the warhammer until it covered it completely. Dora, too hurt to even move, was also gradually disappearing under a blanket of frost.

  Einen rushed toward her just in time to dodge the second ray.

  As it passed through the trees, it turned them into icicles. The pillars disappeared beneath an avalanche of snow. The once beautiful hall turned into a quarry during winter. The wind was ruffling his hair and scratching his cheeks. Steam rolled off his lips. Hadjar’s hands trembled.

  “River Serpent’s Scales!”

  Einen stood in front of the freezing Dora. She was gradually turning blue and stiff. The light was beginning to fade from her eyes. Like a fish on land, she twitched and writhed about ineffectually.

  The islander spun his spear-staff above his head and drove it into the ground. Ribbons of iridescent light swirled around him. The ape followed his example. The iridescent light soon coalesced into scales that spread out in the air like a broad sail.

  The blue ray struck its target. Einen screamed and leaned his entire weight against his weapon. His feet were sliding across the ice, but he had no intention of quitting. Despite being covered in frost, the barrier continued standing. The same couldn’t be said for Dora, however. With each passing moment, she came closer to meeting her forefathers.

  “Die, you wretched beast!” Tom shouted and flu
ng the throwing dagger at the Spirit. The blade was so old that it was covered with rust, but the energy behind the throw launched it like a cannonball. It even let out an explosion so loud that Hadjar had to cover his ears.

  Tearing through the air, the blade grew so hot that it melted the ice all around it, vaporizing it. Where the elite Spirit Knights had failed, a rusty blade triumphed. Flying a couple of feet above the ground, it sliced through the granite, leaving behind a deep furrow and a trail of fire.

  Only then did Hadjar realize that what Tom had thrown wasn’t a dagger at all, but an arrowhead. Enveloped in bright flames, it sunk into the Spirit’s chest, causing it to fly through the air and multiple pillars before collapsing to the floor. The explosion that followed left a circle about thirty feet in diameter on the wall behind the monster. The snow and ice that had until recently filled the room turned into clouds of dense, choking steam.

  Dora was now breathing more evenly. Both she and her warhammer lay in a pool of hot, clear water.

  “What the fuck was that?” Hadjar asked as he struggled to his feet. He had to hold on to the wall so that his wounded leg wouldn’t give out on him. The skin around the cut was turning black. Hadjar knew that if he didn’t do something soon, he’d end up using crutches and limping again...

  “Stay... Alert... Barbarian,” Anise coughed, holding her sword out in front of her and assuming a defensive stance.

  Hadjar turned slowly to look at the raging flames. There was no chance that the Spirit had survived that. There simply wasn’t. But as the fire died down, his heart began beating faster.

  “What...?”

  Had the explosion not broken the wall, letting in the cold air and snow, the Spirit would’ve definitely died. It was by pure luck that it was now getting back to its feet. Covered in cracks and pieces of broken armor, it stared at them with mad fury. Spreading its arms out wide, it sucked in the snow brought by the mountain wind, forming another blue beam.