As the battle tinued, Heidens grew frustrated. Linley's skill and resilience were proving to be formidable obstacles, and the mage's inability to get close enough to deliver a decisive blow weighed heavily on him. He khat a single misstep could cost him his life, for Linley's bde was as deadly as it was graceful.

  Linley, oher hand, remained resolute. He pressed his advantage against the seven warriors, his Serenity Sword Art flowing like a calm river amidst the chaos of battle. Each strike resonated with the rippling energy of his [Rippling Stance], a profound teique that seemed to make him impervious to his enemies' attacks. His adversaries found their strikes dissipating like water upon a stoheir power scattered in futile attempts to harm him.

  Unbeknownst to them, Linley subtly maniputed the ebb and flow of the battle, ing ever closer to Heidens, who remained perched at a safe distance.

  The batants were so ed by the chaos of the skirmish that they failed to notice Linley's gradual approatil he was a mere hundred meters away from Heidens, a distance which was virtually nothing to experts at their level.

  Suddenly, a chilling realisation washed over the mage as he uood the perilous nature of his positioempted to retreat, but time was not on his side.

  In a fra of a moment, Linley unleashed his ultimate teique, [Frost Wave], at a level far superior to whe used it against Ace.

  The power of the teique surged through the air, creating an icy maelstrom that sought to freeze Heidens in mid-air. The mage struggled against the encroag frost, the cold tendrils ing around him like serpents.

  Desperation seized Heidens, and he unleashed an explosive burst of mageforce to break free of Linley's icy grasp. However, Linley's relentless advance tinued unabated. Ign the attacks of the remaining adversaries, Linley shot towards Heidens like a bullet.

  With his twin swords held aloft, Linley desded upon the mage, his azure dragon scales abs the blows from the other warriors as if they were mere gusts of wind. Heidens, his heart pounding with dread, khat his ces of esg Linley's grasp were dwindling rapidly.

  In a final, desperate bid to create some distance, Heidens raised his staff, intending to use its force to propel himself away from the encroag danger. But just as the staff was about to make tact with the young Dragonblood Warrior’s swords, Linley’s cold voitered his ears, “[Serenity Sword Art: Ten Layered Wave]!”

  Heidens didn’t even have time to react when a cataclysmic force surged through him, threatening to rupture his inner ans. Agony coursed through his body as he grappled with the excruciating pain, realising that his efforts to escape had been in vain.

  This was the sed ultimate teique Linley had created, but where his first was based on the Profound Mystery of Freezing of the Laws of Water, this was based on the Profound Mystery of the Throbbing Pulse of the World of the Laws of the Earth.

  This was the same Mystery that Killian had begun to prehend, but where Killia to bee oh the Earth, allowing him to draw upon its strength to bolster his own, Linley focused more on the pulsating aspect, folding and stag the vibrations atop of one another, allowing him to create stronger vibrational attacks.

  Though it was still in its embryonic stages, because of his own physical strength, the might of this attack couldn’t be uimated.

  Heidens hadn’t even suffered a direct hit, yet he was forced to cough a giant mouthful of blood as crimson tears began streaming from his eyes.

  His insides were in so much pain that all he wanted was for the grim reaper to e and cim his life now, but unfortunately, the vitality of a saint was to, causing him to suffer pain the likes of which he had never experienced in his long life.

  As though he could hear Heiden’s inner desires, Linley raised his sword, his eyes filled with hatred as he prepared to put the former Holy Emperor out of his misery, but before he could, a golden beam of light tore through the air, causing faint ripples in space as it moved.

  Linley’s eyes stricted into pinholes as he seamlessly transitioned from offeo defence, barely parrying the beam of light aiming to pierce the spot between his brows.

  “You…” Linley’s cold, draian eyes focused on Felicia, who slowly lowered her raised index finger. “You’re a prime saint.”

  “You didn’t think that you brats were the only ones allowed to make progress here in the Necropolis of the Gods, now did you?” Felicia replied lightly.

  Linley didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he looked down at his azure-scaled hands.

  That st strike, though it seemed effortless, the power behind it was astonishing.

  Although the [Rippling Tide Stance] of his [Serenity Sword Art] had impressive offensive might, where it really excelled was its defe allowed him to dissipate the force of his oppo’s attacks with incredible skill, a, despite successfully offloading most of the force behind Felicia’s st strike, the remainder of the force that he couldn’t disperse was so powerful that not only were his hands still numb, the scales proteg the web of his hands had been shattered.

  Linley khat although he had improved a lot over the st six months, there was still a rge differeween him and a genuine prime saint.

  If he had Bebe’s support, they might barely be able to fight the newly promoted prime saint to a standstill. Unfortunately, both Olivier and Bebe were still locked in arduous battles of their own, leaving the tall task up to him and him alone.

  Still, he wasn’t oo let the pressures of life hold him down. Taking a deep breath, Linley’s draian eyes regaiheir usual calm as he prepared for what would ultimately be the hardest fight of his life to date.

  Seeing that, Felicia merely smirked slightly. Still, she didn’t hurry to make her move, instead choosing to wait for Lio make his move.

  She had only retly broken through to the prime saint level. As such, she was yet to find a ce to go all out a her new limits, and although she doubted Linley would be able to force her to go all out. He would at least provide her with more of a challeha-type lifeforms she had faced till now.

  The moment he had finished exhaling, Linley’s body took off like a bullet, tearing through the air with a violent but undeniable momentum. Still, Felicia was no slouch.

  Though mages are typically slower than warriors, as a mage of the light element, Felicia’s speed was nothing short of mind-blowing.

  As fast as Linley was, he remained uo close the gap between them. In fact, the distaween them actually appeared to be faintly increasing as Felicia weaved through the jungle like a blur, golden blonde hair trailing behind her. Her glistening white robe g to her body, atuating her curves as she moved with grad precision.

  Try as he may, Linley remained uo close in, but that was just the beginning. Lihen watched as Felicia raised her dainty little hands, but what really caused his eyes to strict was the three thick, milky white spears of light that swiftly took shape above her.

  “[Forbidden Spell: Holy-Light Lance]!” Felicia uttered softly, causing the three spears to shoot towards Li a speed that dwarfed that of even her own movement speed.

  This wasn’t Linley’s first time fag a mage, so he was well aware that typically, when going up against saint-level warriors, mages would do their best to utilise their speed to keep away from warriors uanding that their bodies were a lot more fragile, whilst insta-casting lower level spells to bombard the warrior until their powerful bodies were uo hold on any longer.

  But Linley had always been lucky in that, not only was he a wind mage who could utilise his wind-style spells to bolster his speed to near-ridiculous levels, but he was also a Dragonblood Warrior whose scales allowed him to ighe attaost saints.

  Unfortunately, Felicia wasn’t like most saint-level mages. Not only was she slightly faster than Linley, but as someone who specialised in the Profound Mystery of the Essence of Light, her ability to manipute the shape and size of her element was nearing perfe. As such, whilst most saint-level mages would be forced to insta-cast spells of the ninth rank to bombard their oppos, she was able to do so with forbidden spells, and although the might of said spells took a slight hit, it only dropped from the level of a prime saint forbiddeo that of a mage at the peak of the saint realm.

  With his back against the proverbial wall, Linley was forced to employ the [Rippling Tide Stao its limits. Each defensive manoeuvre flowed seamlessly into the as if his entire body had bee aension of his azure dragon scales. He became like water, his movements fluid and uable, adeptly evading and parrying Felicia's onsught.

  Unfortunately, Despite his skilful defence, Linley found his azure dragon scales gradually giving way uhe relentless assault of Felicia's spells. With each attack, the scales shattered, revealing the vulnerable flesh beh. His injuries began to worsen, his body suffering the sequences of Felicia's relentless assault.

  His situation was rapidly going from bad to worse, but there was nothing he could do.

  In the distance, Bebe’s already crazed attacks became all the more frantic as he desperately wao help his boss, but how could his oppos just let him go?

  Olivier’s position wasn’t much different; although he was in a good position, able to slowly trol the flow of the battle, it wasn’t to the point where he could ighe attacks of so many peak saints to rush to Linley’s side, not without paying a rge price.

  Briefly gng over at Linley’s side and then down at the sword in his hands, a resolute light fshed in Olivier’s eyes as he called out to Bebe.

  “Bebe!” Olivier hollered. “Leave them to me - you go and help your boss!”

  Story plete!

  Currently 153 chapters ahead!

  Head over to the P atreon if you wish to read to the end uninterrupted!

  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon