Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 147: The only way is forward.

The tidal wave lifted Ikerth off his feet, tossing him like a ragdoll in the maelstrom. Despite his resistance, the Dragon King was carried away by the torrent, disappearing within the roaring waters that continued their destructive path across the battlefield.

The immense power of the water magic left a trail of devastation in its wake, carving out new rivers and lakes as it flowed, reshaping the very geography of the land.

Watching this, Jamie sighed and spoke.

"Well, I expected this. No matter how much I make fun of him, Ikerth’s not really an idiot, after all."

"Indeed."

Miranda replied to him as her gaze locked onto the figure of the dragon king who despite breathing heavily, appeared relatively unharmed by the attack that had just created a new inland ocean in the middle of the continent.

He felt Jamie’s appraising gaze on him and looked up at the Hybrid before speaking.

"Water’s my obvious weakness. Did you think I’m dumb enough not to do something about it?"

The man was referring to the reason why all of Jamie’s water attacks so far had dealt less than half as much damage as they were supposed to.

Water Damage Reduction.

It was a skill Ikerth possessed that reduced Water Elemental Damage from beings below the user’s Existence Realm by 75%. For those on the same Realm, it did so by 50% and for those higher, it did so by 25%.

Since all three of them were ’Transcendent’, 50% of Jamie’s attacks had already been nullified by the skill, and then there was Ikerth’s durability and his law energy which reduced it even further.

Jamie did not offer an answer to Ikerth’s question, instead, he roused his magic power and decided to attack with a different element.

He vanished and reappeared behind Ikerth, his fist pulled back and poised for a strike, but the dragon king had already anticipated this and was countering with his claws.

However, his claws seamlessly phased through Jamie’s body as if he were intangible, and what’s more, the man didn’t attack Ikerth but instead struck the ground below.

"Earthquake Strike."

Jamie’s fist sent shockwaves rippling through the earth towards Ikerth, throwing him off balance.

Seizing the opportunity, Miranda conjured a massive ten-metre-long spear of earth and hurled it at Ikerth. Despite his imbalance, he managed to react as his hands reflexively raised and caught the spear by its tip.

The force knocked him back and he nearly stumbled to the ground, but unfurled his wings at his lower back and stabbed their tips into the ground to anchor himself.

Just as he was about to push the spear away, the world around him turned purple as a streak of light flashed straight towards the butt of the spear.

Miranda soared through the air, building momentum with her spins, and drove her hammer downward at the spear’s base, much like hammering a nail.

***BAAAMMMMM!!!!!

Her hammer’s energy transferred into the spear as it burst into violet flames. The force of the strike then forced the spear out of Ikerth’s grasp and it collided with his chest, the purple flames igniting with his body’s destructive energy coat in a massive explosion.

The combination of the spear’s kinetic energy and the raging flames sent Ikerth hurtling backwards, crashing through a cluster of trees in the distance.

As Ikerth was careening uncontrollably, Jamie materialized beside him in a blink, wielding his Galaxy sword as he blitzed past the dragon, and slashed him with the blade in the process.

A second later, he blitzed in the opposite direction, slashing at him again, before coming in from a different direction with another slash.

Crimson blood sprayed through the air as Jamie warped through space and slashed at Ikerth with his sword, the spatial energy cleaving through Ikerth’s scales like tofu and rending the Dragons flesh over and over.

Just when Ikerth tried to regain his balance and attack, Miranda’s sledgehammer crashed into his back and sent him reeling forward into the path of Jamie’s oncoming blade, which carved a deep wound across his chest.

Without pause, Miranda’s hammer bashed him from the side and once again, it was followed by Jamie’s blade that came in from another angle.

The two Hybrids continued bashing and slashing at Ikerth for over a minute, their chain of attacks not giving the Dragon the time to even think.

Ikerth tried to fly away but all that decision cost him two of his wings as Jamie’s Galaxy Sword cut through space in a graceful yet deadly arc and cleaved through them with relative ease, leaving him with four pairs left.

They continued their barrage, attacking in sync without even a second’s delay and Ikerth’s wounds accumulated to the point where he was soon covered in his dark blood.

The wave of attacks made the dragon feel dizzy, but he maintained his consciousness and activated a powerful technique.

’Pseudo-Authority of Destruction: Annihilation Sphere.’

A glowing orb of crimson energy formed within his body, instantly spreading out and creating a bubble of destruction energy that obliterated everything caught within its range.

Miranda, sensing the imminent danger, cancelled her attack mid-swing. Manipulating gravity law energy, she generated a repulsion force that pushed her and Ikerth apart and created enough distance between them.

The next second, the Annihilation Sphere expanded to a maximum five-kilometre distance and everything within that expanse was turned to dust in an instant.

While Jamie and Miranda could withstand the damage, doing so would leave them vulnerable to follow-ups so they instantaneously warped out of its maximum range instead.

This gave Ikerth the time to use another technique.

’Flames of Life!’

Ikerth’s body erupted into flames, this self-immolation burning away his wounds, healing all of his shallow cuts and broken bones.

The Dragon roared out loud, a thunderous sound that echoed across the battlefield as flames erupted around him, coalescing into a swirling inferno that expanded rapidly and surged towards the two Hybrids.

However, Ikerth’s flames didn’t go very far as Jamie held up his hand, drawing in the Law of Gravity’s power and activating a skill of his.

"Black Starfall: Gravity Surge."

Power condensed into an orb in his palm, creating a localized gravity well that pulled in Ikerth’s flames. Accompanying this well was a Wormhole which sucked the flames and vomited them at a random point in the battlefield thousands of kilometres away from them.

"Graviton Crush."

Clenching his fist, he increased the gravitational force around Ikerth’s body to crush him under the immense pressure.

With a deafening roar, Ikerth unleashed a burst of eerie dark red magic power, sending tendrils of dark energy snaking towards Jamie and Miranda at supersonic speed.

The tendrils wrapped around their hands and Ikerth’s loud voice boomed out the name of his Curse Magic spell.

"Hex of Decay!!"

The Dragon roared and broke Jamie’s control over the gravitational forces around him, while the curse magic he had used on them quickly began causing the flesh around their hands to rot and wither away at an accelerated rate.

Jamie frowned when he saw the curse still working even despite his recently acquired curse resistance and he unhesitatingly sliced off his wrists with spatial energy before burning them to ashes with his azure flames.

Not even half a second later, he had regenerated a new pair and he used these to grab the Galaxy Sword and charged right at Ikerth.

’Why isn’t he using his Lavawalker skill?’

Jamie asked himself this as he unleashed a flurry of spatial slashes which Ikerth countered with his Ruindeum Claw strikes.

After shaking off the curse, Miranda synchronized her attacks with Jamie’s, launching a flurry of strikes with her sledgehammer in rapid succession.

"Tidal Wave Torrent."

Jamie tossed in a water magic spell, creating a massive wave of water that surged towards Ikerth and crashed into him with the force of a raging river.

While not enough to topple the dragon, it was a strategic move rather than an attempt to overpower him.

"Ice Magic: Ice Nova."

"?!"

A blinding light flashed in Ikerth’s eyes and in the next second he found his body encased in layers upon layers of powerful ice.

"Titan Blast!"

Miranda swirled her purple flames around her sledgehammer as she swung with her full might, shattering the ice to pieces and bashing Ikerth’s body into a nearby mountain.

As the dragon’s blood spattered in the air, Miranda raised her hand and caught some of it, her left blue eye glowing as she activated a Vampiric Technique.

"Haemorrhage."

A surge of her magic power was infused into the blood, establishing an intangible connection between the crimson liquid and its owner.

Immediately, all of Ikerth’s wounds started bleeding profusely, temporarily making the dragon feel anaemic as he staggered to his feet.

The two Hybrids charged at him and in the short moment it took them to cross the distance, numerous thoughts crossed Ikerth’s mind.

’Tsk...I should have purged the energy on another planet before coming here. That way I’d have had more time to acclimate to this avatar.

Oh well, what’s done is done and cannot be undone.

I can only move forward.’