"This is going nowhere, Zodiak."

Sol'khin swung Anduril at Zodiak, sending him flying for the nth time but the latter would just charge again, regardless of the injuries he suffered. It was a one-sided beating, no matter how much Zodiak strengthened himself, he wasn't able to inflict any damage to Leiu's armor.

On the other side, the undead girl finally started showing signs of weakness as Forne's destruction magic was becoming more violent. The sparks which exploded upon contact were cracking the bone longsword and slowly rendering here incapable of moving as fast as a few minutes ago.

…

"Tell me again, how is this supposed to work?"

Maxine was questioning the plan told by the lightning spirit. All the contestants present on the 49th floor were holding hands in a circle with Raad in the middle.

Apparently, he'll use them as fuel and strike Sigradzomr, who was close to being freed. More than half of the moon was gone and the frightening and massive body of the Elder Dragon could be seen high up in the sky. Its sheer size brought shame even to the Titan Race of the past, who boasted of size similar to planets, though not all of them preferred being big.

The Elder Dragon had a yellow body with some parts seemingly transparent with a bit of a red shade. His eyes were not open yet but his enormous wings were twitching and affecting the prison-like moon, which caused a meteor that transformed the 49th into a chaotic place utterly void of a steady ground. The sight of this place was even worse than Hell itself, the sky was filled with falling meteors and the ground no longer existed, it was just a bottomless dark abyss.

"This is ridiculous."

None of the contestants wanted to actually hold hands like little kids but from what Raad said, this method has a high probability of working. They just need to pour their unique magic into the spirit in their center, which will combine their energies and unleash a powerful joint attack.

Unfortunately, they neither had the time to think about it or hesitate as the dragon was almost free and wasting any more time will only complicate things. Arthur held Lucy and 'X's hands, Lucy held Losha's hand, who, in her turn, held Maxine hands, et cetera..

It was a comical thing to witness but after a few seconds, all kinds of colorful energies emanated from the 13 contestants and were sucked into a lightning vortex created by Raad. There was Dark Magic, Yin Power, Fire Magic, pure and sharp Sword Essence, Space and Time Magic, Wind, and Dark Matter… they all went through the center of the vortex, disappearing within.

After one minute passed, Raad, who had the appearance of a head made of blue lightning, merged with the vortex, which expanded in size and pushed away all the contestants, forcing their hands apart.

At the very same time, an ear-piercing reverberated across the floor, causing everyone to hold their bleeding ears and kneel down, unable to handle the pressure or the wild sound waves.

Following the loud dragon cry were unstoppable gales produced by the moving wings. They moved once yet they released wind waves that could even injure an Overgod. Fortunately, Raad was finally done, the lightning head opened its mouth and fired a multi-colored beam which became larger in size the more distance it crossed.

After it crossed half the distance, the colors separated and each took a form. There was a flame snake that spit freezing ice, a black dragon covered in Dark Magic, a spinning sword which periodically turned invisible, and an arrow covered in Raad's blue lightning. They simultaneously hit the humongous Elder Dragon, resulting in multiple loud explosions. The massive target was even pushed a little bit and the rest of the moon shattered, sending its large debris all over the place.

The lightning spirit tried to use its magic to take the others to the slightly visible portal above the dragon but the moment they got close, Sigradzomr's wings started flapping again. Wind blades that were a kilometer in length covered the sky, they were innumerable and unstoppable as they hit the thirteen contestants.

Although they did defend themselves, the wind blades were too sharp and only Ber Von Xin was able to fully block them using his sword, though he was still pushed back.

Right after doing that, the Elder Dragon spit a literal black hole which surprisingly didn't affect its surroundings and, instead, pulled the people on the 50th floor to this ravaged world.

…

Zodiak, Sol'khin, and the rest were busy fighting only for a miniature black hole to appear out of nowhere and pull them towards it. Regardless of their power, none, including the Joker, were able to resist the suction force and in a few seconds, they ended up being taken to the 49th floor. Despite what happened, The Trickster didn't seem surprised as he backed away the moment he appeared in the middle of the crimson sky, he played with his cards while eyeing the ginormous and dreadful dragon.

Some contestants were confused and others were surprised. Most were far from the awakened dragon but could still its overwhelming aura. The first one who acted was Sol'khin, who didn't seem afraid of Sigradzomr.

"Did you seriously think we'll fight? We were frie-"

Before he could finish, the dragon's large mouth struck him, literally sending him dozens of kilometers away. Leiu's jet black armor wasn't damaged but Sol'khin, the one controlling him, didn't seem completely fine as he held his chest and coughed some blood.

Just from that one attack, he appeared quite angered as he glared at the vengeful dragon.

"So, you were saying?"

The Joker smirked and pointed at the dragon, which seemed to disregard everything and attack Leiu, for some reason. Seeing the incoming dangerous beast, Sol'khin held Anduril and flew at Sigradzomr… their clash was on a different scale to anything that ever happened in the Red Tower.

The two were just too strong, whether it's the Darkness wielded by Leiu or the Elder Dragon's Wind and Fire Magic. The sky was no longer scarlet as it was split into two sides, one was an inky black night while the other was a literal sea of fire that dominated both the non-existent ground and the blinded canopy.

Despite its absurd size, the dragon was able to move with a fast speed, it clashed with Anduril dozens of times but the black sword was able to inflict serious damage. Each time Sol'khin swung his sword, a huge chunk of the dragon was cut. Things got even more flashy when Sol'khin used one of Leiu's skills, he held the sword with both hands and slashed horizontally, resulting in a black arc to cover the sky and hit the dragon from the neck all the way to its stomach.

Sigradzomr's body was sent flying to the bottomless abyss as a bloody sword scar appeared on his body. He released loud shouts as he flapped his wings and stabilized his body only for Sol'khin to strike again, this time throwing Anduril, which transformed into a small but fast black dragon that spun around as it descended upon its target. Without any resistance whatsoever, the sword went through the Elder Dragon, leaving a gigantic hole from which a lot of blood gushed out.

While smirking, Sol'khin raised his hand, signaling Anduril, which obediently flew back to his owner. He watched the struggling dragon, which wasn't able to attack anymore before turning his head and staring at the small group of contestants watching the unfolding events from far away.

The pair of inky black eyes focused especially on Arthur, who couldn't feel fear but still felt mildly uncomfortable.

******

BONUS LORE : The system to rank the weapon users is universal and applies for most of the commonly used weapons in the multiverse.

If one is in possession of the System and has maxed the Level of the sword mastery, then that person is considered a Sword Apprentice.

If you can wield Sword Essence then you're a Sword Master. (Sword Master=> Sword Grandmaster)

If you can develop your own unique Sword Essence then you're a Sword King. (Sword King=> Sword Emperor)

If you can coat your whole body with your own unique Sword Essence, and also cut down God spirits, then you're a Sword Saint.

The last rank is known as Sword God and only a few people have reached it. Apparently, you need to enter a special kind of enlightenment to reach that stage.

So far, only one person managed to reach a stage beyond Sword God but said stage still remains nameless.