More time passed, and Lara returned to the fight, this time taking care to avoid getting too close to the wounded Elder Dragon.

The disparity between a 1 Star and an 8 Star cultivator was too great, without mentioning the latter was also a Dragon.

Only the White Tiger could withstand the star--shattering strikes of the Elder Dragon with his nigh-unbreakable body, and even Kalima had to avoid getting hit directly by the furious wounded Dragon.

Jets of Dragonfire had to be blocked with Water or Ice shields, or avoided before they made contact, or else the flesh of its target would burn without stop.

The General herself had to chop off her legs to stop the Dragonfire from spreading to her upper body.

A hundred Tier 7 Captains kept throwing their Skills at the Elder Dragon with nearly no effect, and only the Serghoul with his Death Qi spells could actually damage the Dragon in any significant way.

Lady Yue also failed to ensnare the Dragon in her time-painting, not that it was much a surprise for Pef. He could resist that as well, merely by burning the time strings with Icefire, or flaring his Sword Qi in a protective bubble.

Lia fired beams of focused Light into the face of the Dragon, but it only heated the outer layers of his scales, while Dark beams vanished in contact with the scales with no damage.

'Is he immune to all elements?' Pef wondered as he began constructing a better target profile in his mind.

'Resistant I think. Over 99 percent.' the glove said after a minute of deep calculations.

'Is it the scales?' Pef asked while taking out a few scales to examine them more profoundly with his coresense.

The glove waited for Pef to see for himself.

'I see. They are a focus, like the Blue Jade Armor I had. They would also block Tribulation, right?' Pef hummed inward as his free selves began assembling a Dragon Scale Armor from the bits he had collected from the battlefield.

'I think there is more to it, especially if the Dragon is alive. Their bloodline empowers the scales somehow.' the glove explained as it also conducted tests on the scales in its inventory.

Pef nodded as he began adding a circulatory system to his armor suit, powered by a Dragon Heart. Under a time acceleration field and with advice from his glove, in less than a minute he assembled a Power Armor suit with 70 percent resistance to all elemental and psychical damage, including Lightning.

He fiddled some more, adding protective Formations and recovery arrays, then a couple of Gravity arrays in the gloves, for close combat.

'Lara, come here!' he ordered in a qi transmission, and simply took out the suit as Lara came close.

"For me?" his blue-haired wife asked a bit impressed.

"The suit needs live testing, and you're the most fragile wife around." Pef explained with a tiny shrug.

Lara glared at him for a second, then took the suit and flared her qi, molding it around herself.

Pef poked her forehead to transmit all the suit commands and abilities to his wife, then glanced towards the struggling Dragon.

"Roger that, hubby!" she replied cheerfully and flashed into melee, her fist striking the Elder Dragon in the knee and blowing it away.

"Yupee! My Dragon Suit rocks!" she yelled as she parried the Dragon's tail with her forearm, and didn't get mauled one bit.

A dozen eyes turned their gaze towards Pef, silently begging for a suit of their own.

Pef's free selves were already working on the next suit, while data from the first suit trickled in to provide real time parameters.

As Lara punched straight through a jet of Dragonfire, more data streamed in, giving Pef a clue how to increase the resistance once more.

The Icefire flew out from his dantian and began shaping the next suit as well, increasing the overall resistance to 75 percent.

A row of Preservation runes were added on the chest plate, and two Devour runes on the palms, then a circlet of Icefire-forged adamantium with Mind Shield runes went on the helmet.

The Dragons seemed nigh immune to mind attacks anyways, but humans were not.

"Kalima, next is yours." he offered in a soft voice.

In a moment, the Fairy Godmother disengaged from the fight and arrived to receive her own suit.

"Compared to the armor I made for you, this is outstanding..." she whispered in a grateful voice to her new husband.

Pef nodded in agreement. While Kalima had given him an armored suit made from the hide of the Desolate Beast, the materials were only in Tier 7. It couldn't compare with a suit made from Tier 8 Dragon bits, not to his mention higher level Formations.

"Have fun, pretty fairy!" he urged her as he transmitted the suit's controls via a mental transmission.

Kalima flashed him a universe-bending smile, then wore her suit and jumped back in the melee, and crushed the Elder Dragon's head between her palms in a simple-looking move.

The Taotie appeared beside Pef and offered him another Dragon Heart, still beating. "Little Yue needs her own Dragon Skin. Seems quite useful"

the beast pleaded in a reluctant voice.

Pef stared into the monster's ghostly eyes. "And?"

The Taotie gritted his teeth audibly. "A favor, from me. Anything you need."

Pef nodded generously. "We have a good chance to beat the next guy, but just in case." he demanded with an easy voice, just as a wave of qi announced Kalima advancing her cultivation once more, reaching the 9th and final Star of Tier 8.

It seemed the Devour runes worked just as intended, helping Kalima drain some of the Dragon's essence and increase her own cultivation.

The Taotie turned towards Kalima to examine her, eyes doubtful. "Even a top-ranked Tier 8 is still only Tier 8. I wouldn't count your chances as good...anyways. A promise was made. I will help, if you ask."

Pef smiled wryly, and began working on the next suit, and began to include the latest data incoming from the first two suits and even more functions and arrays inscribed in the next Dragon Skin suit, including a drop of Taotie blood at the end.

A flare of potent energy erupted from the newly crafted suit, and then a bolt of blue Tribulation Lightning crashed on Pef's head, shaking his teeth loose.

'You made a Divine Artifact...again.' the glove noted amused, as it drained the extra lighting energy for its own use.

Pef measured the new suit with his senses, then offered it silently to his indigo-haired wife.

Yue had just reached her 6th Star during this fight, but the suit would likely keep her safe, even from a Tier 9 enemy. Divine Artifacts were resilient like that, even without being made as a dedicated armor.

The Taotie glanced at the warded sky above, then at his lovely disciple getting armored just now. The boy had outdone himself again, crafting a Divine Artifact like it was nothing, and not in a Chaos Cycle of painstaking and laborious work.

'A good chance, he said? Pef may be right after all. The monster might not even need me.' he thought a bit worried, then glanced at Pef as he began crafting yet another suit.

"Pef! The Dragon Skin has 90 percent all-round resistance!" Yue exclaimed a bit too loud.

Pef smiled widely. No wonder the Heavens rewarded him with a headshot lightning. That suit was a miracle just by itself.

Taking care not to fumble, Pef drew in more Dragon bits from the battlefield, especially intact scales and assembled another armor suit, then connected the Dragon's Heart to the circulatory system, and added yet another drop of Taotie blood to the final Formation.

The Formation Array wobbled in confusion, then began to shrink, leaving behind a Dragon Scale Vest, glowing in a blood-red hue.

'The hell?' Pef cursed inward as he took out the vest and examined it in his gloved hand.

'Well, it does have 95 percent resistance.' the glove comforted its user after a long minute.

Before anyone else had the chance to comment on the weird accident, the pocket universe cracked open, as a gigantic claw reached inside.

"Let's kill the bastard!" Pef shouted while drawing the vest over his head.

The claw tried to crush the tiny enemies in the universe all at once, but a green-glowing Preservation Array sprang out from a billion nodes and resisted with screeching sounds. However, using the Tier 1 and 2 Ants as formation stones depended on the Ants staying alive. Things didn't look that good on that front.

Pef held his hand out, and the Heart Ruler flew to his hand. Somehow, that good chance the glove mentioned seemed a bit smaller now.