Steady, even footsteps resonated in everyone's ears as Kai continued to walk forward. His eyes had fully turned red, giving him a demonic appearance, complemented by the fact that his facial structure continued to adjust as if his bone structure couldn't work out where it wanted to be.

"What the hell are you?" roared Ron, the desire to flee almost overpowering him as his large, red-scaled body shuddered.

Is wasn't only him, including Rein who had put up a strong front and tried to look like she wasn't intimidated by the monstrosity before her, everyone else couldn't help but take a hesitant step back.

Even Elder Han, who was about to leap into the arena, retreated a few steps as a cold sweat appeared on his brow.

Excluding the fact that other creatures couldn't partially transform, and would be bathed in white light when they changed, even those that could manipulate their body structures, like slimes, could not replicate what they saw before them.

The process was horrific, brutal and looked incredibly painful but Kai ignored all of this, his gaze locked onto Rein.

While to an outsider it could be said that the drakes were overreacting, that would because other monsters and beasts would not be as drastically affected by Kai's presence.

Drake ancestry, similar to wyverns, shared close ties with the dragons as their bodies, cores and souls mutated to emulate their characteristics to enhance their chances of survival. As such, when faced with a real, pureblood dragon, instinctual fear penetrated their bones.

This fear was only increased by Kai's rage, making it seem to them as if a demonic god had ascended from the depths of hells to claim their souls.

However, not only were drakes prideful, but they were extremely loyal and so, even though they wanted to flee, the seven drakes in their natural form, including Ron, moved in a protective manner around Rein as she was the target of Kai's ire.

Momentarily, Kai thought their behaviour strange, but the idea was immediately silenced when he remembered that a lot of species were like that. Infighting would be brutal, often leading to severe injuries as they fought for a higher position yet, that hostility would disappear the moment an outside threat was detected.

Kai snorted, their actions further irritating him as their internal conflict was the cause of the situation.

Deciding that waiting for them to be ready, especially as he was outnumbered and stuck in his humanoid form, Kai decided to attack before they surrounded his target.

Stomping on the floor, causing a small hole to appear due to the force, Kai's body turned into a black streak as it flickered towards Rein, his pupils narrowing with focus.

No one, excluding the person who had maltreated him in the frozen forest, had ever struck Kai and lived, at least to his knowledge.

The fact Rein had launched a sneak attack, one that he was unable to dodge or defend against, combined with the build-up of frustrations since he had arrived in Netherspire City, had driven Kai almost to the point of losing all reason.

Seeing Kai's body rapidly approaching, much faster than a stage four core monster should be capable of, Rein's face turned white as she started to raise her arms to defend herself.

However, due to Kai's surprising speed, Rein was dismayed to find that her movements looked and felt as if she was trying to power through thick mud.

While this was happening, observers noticed that Kai's features no longer looked human. His face had become sharp and slightly elongated, which a smile that almost reached his now receding ears. Combined with the sharp, needle-like teeth that were pointing out from his curled lips, the only word to describe his appearance was horrific.

"Demon."

A single word was murdered or echoed in the minds of those with enough strength to see Kai's movements. However, there was a much more chilling fact that they recognised.

This was no longer a simple match that had turned into a scuffle.

The guest, the variant drake that had stuck is nose where it didn't belong, only to be struck in a sneak attack due to a misunderstanding, was intending to kill.

Once again smashing his right foot into the ground, Kai soared into the air, pulling his left leg back and preparing to launch a kick directly at Rien's unprotected face.

Kai had never fought without the intent to kill, let alone in his human form, so the logic for his tactics was incredibly simple.

He decided that his legs held the most power, so would use them to attack. His target, with the lack of piercing weapons like his teeth, spikes or tail, of course, would be the weak spot that all of his opponents have had so far, their head.

Unlike the six drakes that were startled by Kai's sudden movement and unable to track his position, Ron had encountered many life and death struggles in the name of his clan and quickly reacted.

Opening his mouth, two tiny jets of liquid erupted from small holes in Ron's jaws, mixing together and turning into a faint mist that continued towards Kai.

Moments later, by clicking a hard nuptial on the tip of his serpent-like tongue on his teeth, a spark appeared and ignited the mist, causing an explosion in the drake's mouth.

Due to the shape of his mouth, and a small flap that closed access to the throat, the flames generated by the explosion were forced out of his mouth, combining with the mist outside to create a fireball that shot towards Kai at an unbelievable speed.

Kai frowned, feeling slightly insulted that he, a dragon, would be attacked by their core element, fire, yet as his focus shifted to the fireball, he realised an extremely troubling fact.

He was mid-jump and did not have his wings to create lift or momentum so, as he hurtled towards Rein, he could not adjust his trajectory and thus, was unable to dodge.

The ball of fire was aimed at his chest with incredible accuracy, a killing blow for any creature that wasn't resistant to fire or the kinetic force generated when it hit and so, with

a thunderous explosion, Kai's body was sent spinning towards the ground with incredible strength.

Rein, Kaida and the rest quickly made use of this to gain more distance, rapidly backing away towards where they knew the elders of their clan were, however, once again, they were stunned by what they saw and ended up freezing on the spot.

While they didn't believe their foe would be defeated with this attack, his speed, strength and aura indicating that he was much stronger than any of them, they expected him to be wounded.

However, as Kai stood, slightly dizzy due to being flipped so violently, the only indication that he had been injured by the attack was a small wisp of smoke rising from his hair.

This was a shocking contrast to the injury he had suffered when he had been flung into the wall, yet if they knew that Kai had a much higher affinity for fire, as well as the fact that he had slammed into the sand floor especially created to reduce injuries, it wouldn't be too surprising.

The only thing that could be said to be damaged was the robe that Kai was wearing. It had caught fire and was currently burning away, entirely ignored by Kai who's gaze was moving between Rein and Ron.

The fire crackled with intensity as it quickly devoured the shoulders of Kai's robe, allowing it to fall to the ground and revealing Kai's naked form.

Black scales had covered most of his body, due to the partial transformation, but there were patches of white skin that appeared sporadically around his body because this was the first time Kai had ever attempted to do this.

While some looked at Kai's body, their minds going blank once again from the fact of the seemingly impossible standing before them, others were terrified by the fact that Kai was standing amongst the flames as if it was an everyday occurrence.

These weren't normal flames, but fire created by the chemical mixture of a drake's secretion, increasing the temperature to a terrifying level.

"This isn't resistance! This is complete immunity! What the hell is this?" cursed one of the other drakes.

While they were prideful, they were still monsters at heart, and when faced with a terrifying foe, that seemed to break the realm of common sense, the six original drakes quickly transformed into their human forms and fled the arena.

The reason they transformed, even though it reduced their bodies defences, was that drakes could only use their wings to jump and glide, and all the entrances to the arena were human-sized making it impossible to escape in their natural forms.

Even though they fled with their fastest possible speed, ignoring their belongings or the fact they were completely naked, Kai did not chase and instead, seemed to ignore them completely, as if there were nothing more than background noise.

In his eyes, there were only two beings worthy of his attention. The two standing before him.

Ron and Rein.

Kai was semi-impressed that they had stood, while their allies had fled. His low opinion of the two rose slightly, but it was still far below the level where he could consider respecting them.

Rein has launched a sneak attack on him for, to him, no reason and Ron had irritated him needlessly on the journey here.

However, little did he know that the reason they had stayed, when all they wanted to do was run with the others, was that deep down, they knew that Kai's target was them. If they tried to turn their back on him, or run, a gut feeling told them that it would only stimulate Kai's predatory instincts and they would die.

Not that Kai really cared.

Suddenly, the flames surrounding his body snaked across it as if greeting a long lost lover, and, to the horror of all, was rapidly absorbed into his skin.

As this happened, an orange glow appeared where a human's stomach should be, illuminating the bones, and tendons behind the patches of white skin.

Initially, Kai had no intention of using his draconic flame.

Not only had it not fully recovered from the Frozen Forest, but it was a young dragon's trump card, an almost cheat-like ability that could overcome core realms and ranks with ease.

Yet, when he had been hit by Ron's flame, it felt like an insult to his pride and draconic heritage.

Or at least that was the excuse he used as justification.

The orange glow emanating from his skin and between his scales intensified, seemingly make the surroundings dim as if fearing drawing its attention.

"You want to compete with me regarding fire?" Kai's eyes were ablaze as he roared before opening his mouth, impossibly wide for a human, and releasing a stream of flame that made Ron's previous attack look as powerful as a flickering candle.

The jet of flame exploded forth as if it had a conscious of its own, quickly liquefying the sand beneath it as it rapidly approached Ron, Rein and Kadia.

The brightness of the flame was so bright that it cast the surroundings into shadow. Yet when it was no more than half the distance from the group, several balls of flame appeared from the balconies and entrances of the arena and flew towards it.

Those watching felt the bone-chilling power of the strike, and knowing that their own was in danger, quickly released their personal attacks to try and hinder its progress.

However, in comparison to Kai's draconic flames, created by his essence and not through refined manner, these balls of fire looked pathetically weak and underpowered.

A few moments later, too short to even be considered a second, a dozen or so walls of flame appeared in the jet's path, seemingly wanting to block it from reaching its target yet, each of the fireballs was quickly blasted apart as the draconic fire continued forward.

The balls of flame, exploding upon contact, met the same fate as the firewalls. Nevertheless, they were somewhat successful as after the eighth ball exploded, it was clear that the draconic flames had weakened significantly.

While some might attribute this to the power of those hidden in the shadows, Kai knew that it was because he had not fully recovered since his battle with the woads and his escape from the Frozen Forest.

Internally, he cursed his wasteful nature, especially seeing as he released his flames to vent his frustration. What made it worse was that during his confinement, he did not have access to beast or monster cores to refine.

This forced him to focus on absorbing the world energy naturally found in the environment and to painstakingly convert it his own, a process most called mediation. After that, to create his draconic essence, he would then need to further refine it in what most would consider an incredibly wasteful process.

What made it worse, was that in the concrete jungle that was called Netherspire City, even if you ignored the humans, beasts and monsters that were competing, the natural world energy was so poor saying that the process was painfully slow would have been an understatement.

Despite this, even with Kai's current state, it was still more than enough to incinerate the most potent spells the Flaming Scale clan could throw at him and his intended targets.

Realising that they could not stop the attack, three elders appeared next to Rein and the others and quickly pulled them out of the way without a moment to spare.

The six, who still had not retreated too far from the path of the flame, were engulfed in suffocating heat as it passed by.

Yet, instead of relief, everyone watching the devastation as the draconic flame smashed into the arena's wall, felt like they had been dunked into a frozen river in the middle of winter.

The arena wall, even though it had been enchanted against damage, exploded into fragments as the jet of fire passed through it and into the building behind before exhausting itself due to the lack of energy.

Kai had cut his connection to the flame the moment he realised it would not connect with the trio, attempting to save as much essence as possible.

Gasps of horror and disbelief could be heard from various mouths, be it from the youths that had fled earlier, to the oldest and wisest elders of the Flaming Scale Clan.

A river of molten glass had been created, the enchanged wall destroyed, and the marble building behind it had been shattered beyond recognition.

Such a powerful flame attack was only referenced in legends, long thought to be nothing more than myth and creative storytelling.

After a few breaths of time, the sound of cracking glass, the liquid rapidly cooling, echoed in the arena, however, even with this noise, and the murmings of spectators, a sharp, metal snap drew the focus of everyone to where Kai stood.

Initially, he had been disappointed that his attack missed, yet now he was staring at a semi-melted, metallic ring that lay smouldering at his feet.

With a dumbfounded look, Kai, along with everyone else, stared at the ring.

Moments later, he started to giggle.

The giggle turned into a chuckle which quickly morphed into a maniacal laugh as he raised his hands to the sky, feeling the cooling wind being sucked in by the sudden change in temperature, upon his flesh and scales.

A considerable weight, a magnitude heavier than he thought it was, had finally be lifted from his heart.

The collar that he had been unable to take off with physical force had been melted by the temperature that originated from his throat.

With a sigh of relief, a terrifying sound resonated in the ears of all present as Kai returned to his natural form.

In the centre of an arena, in front of the devastation, he had caused while in his weak, human form, proudly stood a creature with black scales and blood, red eyes.

A being only those, like Elder Han, only those who had read the clans most secret, ancient records knew of.

An existence that couldn't be conveyed through second-hand reports and sketches.

Records called it an ancient evil, a being that had stood against nature, gods and mortals alike. An entity that the Flaming Scale Clan had long since believed to be extinct.

A dragon.