Chapter 73

"Heh." Snickering softly, Vorgron conjured a hurricane of flames with a flap of his wings that rushed forth towards Zuyuan. 

In a heartbeat, Zuyuan avoided the hurricane, while jumping at the flying figure of Vorgron in the air, ready to cut the latter with his invisible blade. 

"Trying to fight me in the sky, Swordsman? Not a chance!" Quipped Vorgron while he took another higher altitude and breathed a giant pillar of flames from his mouth. 

Using his invisible blade, Zuyuan slashed at the pillar of fire and utilized the momentum to bring him back to the ground. Swirling his body and landing gracefully, Zuyuan observed Vorgron high above as he spoke, "How about this?"

Swinging his ordinary sword on his other hand, Zuyuan created a shock wave of piercing screams from the sword in no time, affecting anyone within the radius no matter if it was foes or friends. Still, his area of effect attack dealt little to Vorgron, even though the dragonkin had exceptional hearing skills. 

"It's tickling my ears." Said Vorgron while he dived towards Zuyuan as he wrapped his body in flames, the fire began emerging out from both of his hands as a propeller to move at an accelerated speed. 

'He's seriously charging at me just like that?' Pondered Zuyuan while he watched the humanoid comet that was Vorgron's incoming blow to him. 

Getting away from the explosion radius, Zuyuan saw an eruption caused by Vorgron strike as he punched to where Zuyuan was standing before. He used his right fist to punch the ground, with flames covering his entire body and letting out a hundred meters blast, as his flames swirled like sentient beings. 

"Run fast to wherever you can, swordsman! My flames will still reach you!" Vorgron bellowed in a frenzy, launching himself towards Zuyuan with fire thrusters at both his hands and feet.

'Cr*p!' Zuyuan barely had time to curse in his head, as his opponent quickly appeared before him with two wound up fists. Even though Zuyuan was able to materialize some of his doppelgangers at the same time and send them attacking towards Vorgron from all sides, the latter simply dispersed the transparent copies of Zuyuan with a sweep of his scorching flames. 

Vorgron used the acceleration from his flames to send both his hands at Zuyuan, emanating intense heat from both as they clashed into the two swords which Zuyuan held.

A loud clang sounded across the battlefield as Vorgron's gauntlet hit Zuyuan's invisible blade and his unarmored claw crashed into the swordsman's ordinary one. 

The strike had enough strength to send a shockwave that pushed the two nearby fighting forces to the ground, while also sending out a blast of fire that encompassed a five meter wide, thirty meter long radius.

Zuyuan was sent flying across the battlefield with his ordinary sword melted to molten steel, leaving only the handle, while his body was burnt and bruised.

He crashed into the ground and burrowed in for another few meters before he finally stopped, hardly able to move a muscle after the devastating blow.

"Urgh…" Grunting in pain, he tried to stand up, "What the f*ck was that? Are you supposed to be Iron man now?"

Vorgron flew over, a dozen meters above Zuyuan, looking over him arrogantly, "I don't know what this 'Iron man' is, but I am a dragon man." He snickered, "How'd you like my new move? I came up with it overnight to counter that insane speed of yours."      

Guiding his Qigong to lessen the pain and heal his burnt cells slowly, Zuyuan took a deep breath as he gazed at his opponent in wariness. Thinking silently as how he would defeat the enemy before him. 

'Not good.. Although I had emitted a barrier of Qigong in that split second before that blast wrecked me further, it still hurts like hell…'

Wandering his gaze towards the particular direction in the sky, Zuyuan could see that XB11 was still fighting against other missionaries and wouldn't be able to help him in a short time. Yet, with only his attention taken away just for a second, Vorgron already dashed at Zuyuan with his fire propellers while he swung with his gauntlet once more. 

"Daydreaming in the middle of a fight?! With me on top of that!? You sure underestimate me too much!" Shouted Vorgron as he was on his way to throw another assault.

"Tsk!" Clicking his tongue, Zuyuan entered a stance and promptly blocked the incoming blow with his invisible blade, this time parrying it to the side where he would be unharmed from the force.

Vorgron could tell that whatever his opponent was using was dangerous, his instinct told him so, thus he only ever swung the hand that had a gauntlet on towards Zuyuan in effort to both burn and smash him.

The flames raged on around the two, Zuyuan mostly used his Qigong for defense as he relied on the sword by itself, dodging and blocking whatever he could.

In one moment, Vorgron used the gauntlet to grab Zuyuan's invisible blade, pulling him in for a punch in the gut with his other hand.

Zuyuan puked out blood while Vorgron moved his claws up the cultivator's head, grabbing him by the skull and accelerating him towards the ground with full force.

An explosion sounded as Zuyuan's head collided with the earth, a small crater formed with Vorgron standing over the swordsman with a malicious grin, "I win, swordsman, you should pick your fights better next time." Vorgron snorted in disdain, "To think you fought me one versus one when three of you barely managed to push me over the limit. I'm surprised at your stupidity."

"..." Zuyuan gave no reply, the concussion he'd received had sprung him in and out of consciousness rapidly.

The only thing he could do was regret overestimating his new ability, it was surely a powerful skill however in the beginning stages it was simply better than most swords.

'Damn it…' Zuyuan thought, his head bleeding profusely while Vorgron held it.

The dragonkin chuckled loudly, raising up Zuyuan by simply holding his head and holding him up above the ground, "You're too weak to face me, boy, learn your place in the next life." Fire began bursting out of Vorgron's eyes as he spoke, "Sadly, your soul will never know the pleasure of such a fate." 

"Only damnation remains for us missionaries."