The Real Monster

Mor arrived in front of the Dragon Emperor and was already attacking. The Dragon Emperor received his punch and found out that accepting this punch was a bad idea. He was taken aback but then hurriedly distributed mana all over his body to reinforce his position. He took several steps back as the figure of Mor was getting step by step farther away. Suddenly, Mor disappeared and what appeared next was a blue blinding light that speedily went for him.

It was Jon"s Destruction Wave that Mor covered up with his body.

[Argh!] The Dragon Emperor felt frustrated by the fact that he was being pushed back by these seemingly small fries. That shout woke his inner warrior and finally got rid of Clay"s intimidation from his system. Seeing clearly now what was happening, he couldn"t help but get angry for being humiliated like this. So he stepped up and covered his arms with mana to deflect the wave away from him and aimed to make it fly towards Clay.

It was an obvious thing to other people so conversations again started up. Meanwhile, the wave that was going towards Clay dissipated when he received it with his hands as if a ball of rubber that can be grasped in one hand.

Only the audience had the time to watch what happened to that wave as the Dragon Emperor was already getting bombarded by the four people in succession. He still wasn"t able to throw his own punch as an attack. Frustration kept building up in his guts and the fury he felt only grew so much more than he already felt.

[You G.o.dd.a.m.n pests! Ha!] The Dragon Emperor started to lash out as if a baby throwing a tantrum and throwing punches in every direction. However, even though the four of them saw this as somewhat odd and could be an opportunity, their guts told them that those shots were all calculated to look as if him losing temper and instead was an attack that aimed right at their weaknesses.

All four of them stopped moving and waited for the Dragon Emperor to stop moving, then they heard, [You d.a.m.n stupid insects! I, Kaiser Gale will personally make you disappear into nothingness!] A shout as loud as a large bell ringing beside the ears of the retainers, resounded and lingered for a few seconds before dissipating. It was actually a mental a.s.sault and the Dragon Emperor utilized it quite effectively. Rendering the four of them to feel as if their movements were bound by invisible strings

Unable to move, Isaac and the rest tried their best to break free from such a spell.

That was the opportunity that the Dragon Emperor was waiting for; he immediately pounced towards the youngest and the weakest looking one among the rest, Mor. However, he miscalculated yet again. Mor was the youngest but he was the most talented when it came to close-quarter-combat and so when the Dragon Emperor chose to target hi m first, it was a specially brutal mistake.

Mor was above anything else a close-quarter-combat fighter from the way that Clay made him practice. He was never introduced to long range attacks except the signature Turtle Destruction Wave which was a staple technique. Clay wanted him to dominate using his fists alone. With that in mind, Clay trained him to resist almost all status effects that any opponent may utilize to beat him, including the most obvious one, since Clay really likes using it, intimidate and fear. Attacks to the mind of a fighter is rather deadly, but luckily for all of them, the Dragon Emperor aimed for the one with the strongest resistance to things like this, Mor, and thus…

[Take this!] Kaiser, the Dragon Emperor shouted as he attacked and went with a wound roundhouse kick. Mor predicted the timing and obviously have already been masking his preparation via the same method they used to appear behind Clay earlier. His attack was that of the enhanced version of his Turtle Destruction Fists, . He made this move in accordance to his aim and goal, to destroy a dragon with a punch. If one is not enough then a flurry of punches will follow until the Dragon is busted up and beaten. That was the idea behind his simple technique.

So Mor received Kaiser"s attack but at the peak of the Dragon Emperor"s leg being lifted up, Mmor entered super slow motion and actually countered and made a move towards the Dragon Emperor, Kaiser"s torso, all ready and primed for action.

BOOM!

The initial sound of the hit was heard very audibly and then there followed, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Six consecutive hits resounded as the body of Kaiser visibly arched from the force of all those punches while each punch brought with it the force of a tiny boulder hitting the ground from way above five thousand meters above sea surface. The tough skin of the Dragon Emperor became as if paper when faced with these series of punches. Six consecutive plus the damage brought by this attack being a counterattack then the momentum of using his fastest speeds; Mor"s attack brought with it a life threatening blow.

[Blurgh!] The Dragon Emperor puked a lot of blood from his internals being damaged by the attack. It was too unexpected and he really was unguarded against counterattacks at that time because he grew complacent that no one other than him can move after using that skill he used earlier.

This was a brutal mistake indeed. He was right then, facing the floor of the arena while puking a lot of blood and panting. He was running out of breath because his ribs punctured his lungs, however, damage like this was nothing for a dragonkin, it would heal in just about a few minutes of rest. This means that their vitality is really at a level almost G.o.dly.

With him on the floor, Kaiser was feeling even more frustrated. To have been taken down by the most weak-looking person in the line-up was the greatest humiliation. With gritted teeth, he stood up and his aura changed accordingly. The four of them stood at alert even before he changed, and so was ready anytime.

"It"s coming."

That one sentence from Clay surprised and made the rest of those who could hear exceptionally pale as they also felt the slowly rising power of the Dragon Emperor. Caltec and the rest were practically living mana detectors as Clay trained them to always be sensitive to the mana fluctuations in the surroundings. They knew what was going on, but they could not back away. It was a test after all, and they trusted Clay to make a move if they really were under threat of death. He"d not move until death is not certain, so they could fight without worry.

This kind of trust is not without basis since Clay himself has told them that even if they died, he"d bring them back and beat them up to death and revive them again. Just that sentence made them trust that even if they died, true death is away from them. It wasn"t complacency or arrogance, it was trust gained by being who he Clay is.

Kaiser finished his powering up and finally the look on the dragonkin audience came back to them even while they felt so drained. They did not know why, but it still did not diminish their trust towards the Dragon Emperor. It was a sight that really touched Clay as well as made him shake his head.

[Fight!]

Kaiser shouted and suddenly disappeared from the sight of the four of them and this startled them, immediately they entered super slow motion and found Kaiser moving towards them at a speed that looked normal on their super slow motion. Clay was able to witness everything that happened since he could keep up with their speeds with only his eyes.

Kaiser must not have known that he had entered the realm of super slow motion since the ones he was facing were moving normally as if a match to him at his fullest power. Caltec and Isaac nodded their heads and lured the Dragon Emperor to come at them while Mor and Jon casted an illusion to reduce their fighting strength. A good thing that that illusion magic was what Clay actually really had an interest in, in the past year. He studied on how to utilize s.p.a.ce magic and what-not but bore no fruit so he focused more on the aspect of manipulating mana directly and molding it according to the user"s will. This was the birth of non-attributed magic which unlike the name; is able to take on any attribute of any affinity. It was a cheat, so much so that when used to cast an illusion, it really heavily relies on the caster"s imagery.

With the illusion working on Kaiser, Isaac and Caltec who lured the Dragon Emperor into their trap had already entered the zone as he was charging, Seeing this, Isaac nodded his head towards Caltec who in turn raised his hands as if making a stance, instead that was the signal to the attack that would abruptly afterwards appear and may devastate the Dragon Emperor"s defense.

The attack came in and the Dragon Emperor who made a move earlier had now entered the trap"s zone and so, with the earlier signal, Caltec suddenly moved even faster and dashed towards Kaiser"s Fists fully ready. When the clash was about the happen, Kaiser, who was already attacking Caltec found that the image of Caltec was dissipating after being hit once, and that spelled trouble for him, so he immediately used his defensive skills at a fast rate.

He knew that he has entered a trap and his senses told him to defend. His tough skin has no use in front of the strikes full of mana by these people. He could perceive mana being used but how exactly was out of the question. He just did not have the method that Caltec and group knew from Clay. So he knows that they are using mana to strengthen themselves but to what extent and how, he could not figure out.

PAK! PAK! PAK!

Another series of crisp sounds resounded as. .h.i.t after hit rained down on Kaiser, however this time, every time he felt the danger, even the slightest of it, he defended himself accordingly, not neglecting that feeling and trusting it even more.

Each shot sent to him was throbbing and the pain kept acc.u.mulating until his arms swelled.

This formation that the four of them utilized would have been very devastating if not for the fact that after siphoning the entire race"s power for him. If he had not then he would certainly be beaten to a pulp by these men. He now questions how it could be that the difference in individual strength was vast but their team work and confidence in actually going in were so solid.

What Kaiser did not know was that the four of them were practicing with Clay for a good year always trying to find ways to outwit and land a single decent hit on Clay, to no avail! This frustration has now been given an outlet and voila! The Dragon Emperor became their guinea pig, to see if this or that method was effective on beings other than Clay. As they have heard from him personally, "You have used something rather unique and devastating, just that it would not work on me. Try to use that on others and see its effects directly." Clay also knew that they were eager to find out if their methods would work on other people aside from Clay.

After standing around being hit for a while, Kaiser, on the verge of tears finally let out a roar and used his ultimate AOE attack which utilized his whole energy"s exhaustion in return for annihilating those around him. It was a forbidden attack that would render those with him on a 5 mile radius to become ashes.

Clay saw this and immediately talked to the Dragon Emperor using his mind directly and said, "[]" When Kaiser heard this, he knew.. just then that this man he was looking down on earlier really did have power to be so confident even in front of him. He then nodded his head and released the technique.

Beforehand, Clay had already casted an Isolate on the arena and erected a force field to protect every single person from the blast. So he was confident he would be able to defend against such a primitive attack.