Chapter 66: Thunder Dragon Ultaminum
The crowd watched as Kaelen groveled before Lucien, his pride and arrogance crushed like a fragile bottle beneath an unstoppable force. The complete turnaround of the battle had shaken them to their core. Murmurs spread through the gathered onlookers as everyone began to grow curious about who this mysterious young man truly was.
Kaelen kept crawling backward, his hands scraping against the dirt, his eyes wide with desperation. There was no way he could watch his cultivation be wasted, his life’s work, his family’s legacy, everything he had built, reduced to nothing.
"Anyone who helps me will receive a million Mid-Grade Origin Stones!" he roared, his voice cracking with desperation as he tried to entice the crowd into saving him. He had noticed the spectators watching their battle, and now he clung to the hope that greed might move them where fear could not.
But even with his desperate offer, none of the crowd dared to make a move. They had seen what Lucien was capable of, the way he caught the spear, the way he commanded Kaelen to kneel, the way he subdued such a powerful armament with ease. They didn’t dare provoke him. They valued their lives more than a million stones.
Kaelen’s expression turned ugly when he saw that no one made a move. He looked at Lucien, who was coming closer, and desperately tried to keep his distance.
"100 million Mid-Grade Origin Stones!" Kaelen increased the price in an instant.
The crowd began to murmur. They could see how desperate Kaelen was, but still, no one dared to step forward.
Kaelen felt defeated by this. He gritted his teeth and said, "100 million High-Grade Origin Stones!"
This amount shook the crowd. He was truly desperate, willing to offer a fortune just to save his life. Some were genuinely moved by the sum, and a few individuals stepped out of the crowd, ready to defend Kaelen.
Lucien did not stop them. He watched as they moved forward, his expression calm and unreadable. He wanted to crush every shred of confidence Kaelen had left. If one were to ask him why, he didn’t really know, he just wanted to humble the man before him.
Meanwhile, in the sky above, Sylas watched this unfold and was surprised. He glanced at Seraphina. "Don’t you plan on stopping them?"
Seraphina gave him a cold glance. "Why should I?"
"They haven’t broken the rules of the assessment," she continued, her voice calm and dismissive. "And besides, my darling can take care of it."
Once again, Sylas was left stupified. He opened his mouth, then closed it, realizing there was no point in saying anything. He simply watched the scene below unfold with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.
---
Back on the battlefield, Lucien observed the greedy individuals who had stepped forward to defend Kaelen.
"Sorry, man. We have to protect this young man, even though he might be in the wrong..." a burly young man began, his voice carrying a hint of false sympathy.
But before he could finish his sentence, Lucien had already appeared before him. There was no warning, no shift in the air, just a sudden, violent movement. Lucien’s fist connected with the burly man’s stomach with devastating force.
The burly young man’s eyes bulged as a mouthful of blood spurted from his lips. He was sent flying backward, crashing through several trees with sickening cracks before finally collapsing in a heap of broken branches and dust.
The attack made everyone snap back to reality. They remembered that Lucien had literally crushed Kaelen, and their individual strengths didn’t even come close to matching his. Fear flickered across their faces, but greed was a powerful motivator.
They glanced at each other and nodded. If their individual strength couldn’t take care of Lucien, they would attack together. United, they might stand a chance.
They all moved at the same time, charging at Lucien from multiple directions, their weapons drawn, their intent clear.
Lucien shook his head slowly, almost pityingly. He stretched his hands toward them, and thunder and lightning began to flow from his body. Thunder roared, lightning crackled, and the air grew heavy with electric tension.
Those attacking Lucien felt the pressure and were briefly surprised, but sensing no immediate threat from the attack, they charged in regardless.
Lucien looked at them, not wanting to kill them, they were merely greedy, not evil. His lips curled into a smirk. This amount of Originat should be enough to take care of them without causing permanent harm.
Thunder Dragon Ultimatum.
A large, circular thunder rune appeared in front of him, slowly rotating with unknown characters glowing within its depths. From the center, a dragon made entirely of thunder and lightning emerged, its form crackling with raw power, its eyes burning with electric fury.
It roared, and the sound shook the forest to its very roots. Then it charged toward the men.
The charging men saw this and immediately attacked the Thunder Dragon, their weapons striking its shimmering form with all their might. But their efforts were to no avail. Their attacks passed through the dragon as if it were made of nothing but air and lightning, doing absolutely no damage.
In the moment of their shock, the Thunder Dragon opened its jaws wide and swallowed them whole.
Everyone who had charged was consumed. The spectators who hadn’t participated watched in dread, their faces pale, their bodies trembling.
After swallowing everyone, the Thunder Dragon exploded in a blinding flash of light. Those it had consumed were flung in all directions, some crashed into trees, others slammed into the ground, but all of them lay unconscious, their bodies smoking slightly.
CRACK!
A simultaneous sound echoed through the clearing as all of their tokens, hung on different parts of their bodies, turned to dust and scattered in the wind.
Lucien’s expression didn’t change. He simply shook his head, a faint, almost pitying smile on his lips.
"That’s what you get for being greedy," he said softly.
Lucien turned to Kaelen, who was staring at the scene in utter shock. They hadn’t even lasted up to a minute before they were defeated, crushed like insects beneath an unstoppable force. Kaelen felt Lucien’s gaze settle on him, and he slowly turned to meet those cold, unreadable eyes.
"Who are you?" Kaelen whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and disbelief.
Lucien shook his head slowly, a pitying tone creeping into his voice. "You’re finally asking the question you should have asked the very first moment we met. But unfortunately for you, it’s far too late."
Kaelen kept crawling backward, desperately turning to the crowd for help. But the spectators looked away, pretending they hadn’t seen him. They even maintained their distance, as if proximity to him might somehow draw Lucien’s wrath.
Who in their right mind would provoke Lucien unless they were stronger than him? And none of them were. Not even close.
Kaelen gritted his teeth, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached. The crowd had abandoned him. His pride was shattered, his armament was stolen, his dignity was crushed. And now, even his life hung in the balance.
Lucien walked toward him, his steps unhurried, each footfall a countdown to the inevitable. He had talked too much, that wasn’t like him. It was time to end this battle in an instant.
Kaelen kept crawling backward, his hands scraping against the dirt, until his back hit the stump of a fallen tree. He was trapped. Nowhere left to go.
When he saw Lucien standing just a step away, his fearful expression twisted. His eyes, once wide with terror, now burned with pure, unbridled hatred. His face contorted into something ferocious, the face of a cornered beast ready to strike.
He stretched his hand forward, throwing something toward Lucien. At first glance, it looked like dirt, a desperate, pathetic attempt to blind his opponent. But within the cloud of dust, there was a streak of lightning.
A talisman. A thunder talisman, and a high-level one at that.
"Go to hell!" Kaelen roared, his voice filled with venom.
CRACKLE!
The talisman detonated, releasing a devastating surge of lightning that erupted toward Lucien, aiming to consume him entirely.