There was a loud screech, like metal being crunched. The small dragon and the blood colored monster were clashing against each other. They had closed the distance and were locked in hand to hand… err, fang to claw combat. The dragon’s teeth sunk into the bloody monster’s neck while the monster slashed its claws against the dragon’s back. The dragon was wrapped around the monster’s waist, protecting its vitals in the process. The crunching sound stopped and the monster’s throat seemed to be ripped open. A torrent of the oily red liquid spilled out.

The dragon let out a roar and darted away, avoiding the majority of the spilling red oil. Of course, that was only the majority, it still had the stuff all over its mouth and neck, the bite doing a considerable amount of damage to itself. Its blood colored foe was only impaired for a few moments before the flow of the red oil stopped and it began to move again just as fast as it was before. The small dragon spun in place and its tail became a sword, the underside of it a three foot blade, whipped out towards the monster’s ankles. Or at least, the joints closest to the ground on its reverse bent legs.

There was another sound like that of tearing metal and more of the bloody oil was sheared off. It also stuck to the dragon’s tail and small wisps of steam rose up from the sheer heat of that liquid adhered to the dragon’s body. The monster lost its footing and fell to the ground, during which time the dragon followed up. It leapt into the air and did a forward flip, using its whole body as a whip. The whole of its spine and tail combined to act as a huge sword coming down upon the fallen creature.

It sounded like a large rock getting dropped into the mud. The red monster was split in half, sliced in twain from the power of the dragon’s spinal blade falling down upon it. As before with the black oil, this red oil creature also seemed to lose cohesion. It was like its skin was a thin membrane, holding it all together like having a balloon for an exoskeleton. When it suffered too much damage it popped and the corrosively hot liquid spilled onto the ground like a puddle of magma.

At that point a huge cloud of steam rose into the air, making that loud hissing and sizzling noise when water meets high heat. The small dragon rolling away from the hot mess and dashing a dozen yards before stopping to shake its body. Like a dog after a bath, it shook rapidly to try and throw off as much of the burning red oil as it could. At the same time, a huge puddle of water began to form under it. Not just that red oil, but actual water was pouring off its scales. Steam continued to rise, as more and more water just bubbled up from between the dragon’s scales. Eventually, the sizzling stopped and all of the tar-like red substance was completely gone. Unfortunately, the red monster slowly reformed itself and also rose back to its feet.

Even with the help of Foresight, the battle was not without problems. He could only see a few seconds into the future, and so he couldn’t see the resurrection of his foe until he was already halfway through the battle. Even so, he could have stopped and retreated part way through, but he thought he saw something interesting. Now that it had happened in reality, he saw his conjecture was true. The creature was a bit slower than before. It was also slightly smaller, but he already had seen it stepping over the shed materials and reabsorbing them. He was also pretty sure that Hei Bai could enhance it again once she had recovered a bit.

A battle of attrition is definitely not the solution! There has to be more than one way.

Just then, it looked like the little dragon smiled and barreled forward towards the bloody monster once more. The crimson devil seemed far more confident this time, brandishing its claws to catch the dragon’s sweeping tail. A fan of knives colliding against a flexible sword. The red creature hopped over a low slash and then stabbed its right hand forward like a five pointed spear. Then the dragon bit towards the creature’s wrist, twisting its head rapidly to brush aside the stabbing claws with the spikes armoring its face. The red monster twisted its arm and pulled back its elbow, the sharp claws scratching across the forest of spikes before it found purchase, closing its clawed fingers around the dragon’s throat.

The red monster’s other hand darted forward and grasped the dragon’s tail before it could finish winding back for a swing. Catching the tail near the base to deprive it of most of its power. The dragon’s tail whipped a few times, but they only caused small scratches on the monster’s arm and side. Controlled at both ends and lifted upwards, the dragon could only writhe like a snake, unable to push off the ground to get strength.

At least, that’s what the monster thought. It was actually quite intelligent, but it wasn’t smart enough to have deciphered the full meaning behind Sage’s earlier usage of Cosmic Traction after seeing it once. It also wasn’t around when Hei Bai was fighting, so that blood red ghost that was controlling this monster couldn’t predict the sudden sharp blade that fell across its forearms.

Two huge blades of Blue Icesilver chopped clean through the monster’s forearms. Severing both its hands at the same time. Ignoring the heat from the dissolving hand on his throat and rear end, he was already using Cosmic Traction to shuttle through the air towards Hei Bai. She immediately reacted by releasing another one of her spiritual attacks, screaming to keep him at bay.

He already knew that was coming, and his path was not directly towards her, it was instead carrying him nearly straight upwards. Slithering up the empty air like it was a sand dune, he was just barely far enough away from her that he only suffered a slight amount of damage. The crimson monster was far from dead, rapidly reforming a new set of hands while it ran to chase after the small dragon. It struck out with its clawed toes, scoring a bloody line across the scales on the dragon’s back. Only one strike landed before the dragon ascended out of its reach.

Hei Bai was still screaming, using it like a shield even though it exhausted her greatly. She of course knew that it was impossible to escape from her Blood Ghost Golem that easily, so she stayed quite calm. Too bad for her, she thought her scream was impenetrable. It could stop spiritual and Qi attacks, so of course she was quite confident. The little dragon suddenly summoned up a large four barreled cannon and fired it towards her. Four shiny spearheads didn’t rush towards her, but spread outwards like a blossoming flower. Normally, she cared little for physical attacks since her oil could stop it… only then did she remember she couldn’t use any other oil when Blood Ghost Golem was active.

The nearly invisible net of Steelsilk fell over her, something she could barely see, but definitely feel. She watched the little dragon squiggle its way up into the air above her, her mobility severely hampered by the net, she could only scramble away slowly, while fighting the entangling threads. There was no way she could have predicted what was coming next, when a massive rock appeared in the air above her. It was about twenty feet wide, and only a dozen feet off the ground.

“Oh, go to your mother.”

Boom!

Her last words weren’t very poetic. Sage spun in the air and smacked the rock downwards, flattening Hei Bai like a pancake. He imagined she’d be turned into paste, but he had underestimated the strength of a Core Formation cultivator. She definitely died, but it was more like a person being pinned against the side of a building by a slow moving car. She was slowly crushed, her internal organs being damaged one by one. Of course, in the fifth rank, as long as the core existed, a cultivator could slowly heal nearly any damage they took to their body. Too bad for her, her core was one of the objects smashed by the falling rock. The ground and the rock also didn’t come out the collision unscathed, the large rock and the ground beneath showing a few large cracks and depressions.

Sage felt her aura abruptly cut off, feeling some relief over the end of the ‘necromancer’. Then he noticed that the blood colored monster was still standing and lifted his middle claw towards it, using a gesture to express the same intent as Hei Bai’s words had.