The most powerful of the traitors, Wu Chang, was being delayed by King. Even so, there were others that were determined to stop Sage from escaping. They knew that now that they’d made their choice they were committed to carrying it out. Both Whitestaff and Black Saber had formerly led bandit groups before joining the Jade Horde. Neither of them were what you would call the most trustworthy of people. Sage had taken them to be ‘honorable thieves’, the sort that weren’t kind, but once they gave their word they stuck to it.

Unfortunately, he’d taken that faith a little too far. Obviously, a pair of bandits would be best at following benefits. It had been in their favor to gain great resources and become the heads of a larger organization. Now that they had their backs up against the wall, of course they’d be conducive to becoming turncoats.

Turncoats… hah. With all of them working together they aren’t traitors anymore, now it's mutiny and I’m the criminal!

If you were the only one that thought you were sane, and everyone else called you crazy… that meant you were insane! The opinion of the majority became the truth. If there wasn’t a great parity between the two sides, it would create debate, spur derision, and even cause violence. On the other hand, if something was universally accepted, it became the truth! The few who opposed that idea would become the pariahs, outlaws, the weird and unusual.

Sage was now on the receiving end of this concept. The generals he’d gathered and given position to had turned against him. As the highest power in the Jade Horde, he had become the sacrificial lamb. A CEO resigning due to a scandal, only in this case he wouldn’t just be retiring to a vacation home somewhere to live off his multi-million dollar bonus checks. They expected to bring his head to their new boss.

He couldn’t really tell who exactly had caused the heads of the Jade Horde to turn against him, as there were quite a few enemies he’d made in the past. Of course, he’d covered his tracks pretty well so it was most likely that this was all related to the County Prefects they’d upset by killing off those Slavers. Especially since that was what Whitestaff had alluded to.

Boom!

Sage was startled from his contemplation by tiny fragments of rock. Whitestaff had smashed a house sized boulder into small shards, launching them towards him at extreme speed. A few shards of the rock shrapnel passed through his body, though most of them bounced off his scales, dislodging dozens of his scales and creating chinks in his armor. As he was surrounded by them a second time, time had seemed to slow down for him. He could feel his death approaching and he seemed to process things in slow motion, running through how he had come to this point. He hadn’t yet started to think of those he was leaving behind when Whitestaff’s attack shocked him out of it.

What’s with this fatalism? I’m not dead yet! I can’t let these scoundrels prevail.

His flesh healed quickly, but mending bone and growing new scales took a bit more time. Right now, he was caught in a triangular formation between Black Saber, Whitestaff, and the Strongfist Brothers. With Foresight active now he was able to avoid Black Saber’s attacks much easier, but it also meant he had to keep most of his attention focused upon Black Saber. That meant Whitestaff and the Strongfist Brothers were able to land a hit on him every one or two exchanges. Sage avoided the most dangerous part of Black Saber’s attacks, but he was still sliced open dozens of times in just a few minutes of combat. His body quickly sealed up the wounds, but the impacts were harder to heal. Whitestaff and the trio of Strongfist Brothers used blunt weapons and their great power cracked Sage’s scales, bruised muscles, shocked his organs, and chipped at his bones.

Sage always tried to keep a bag full of tricks. The so called ‘trump card’, that he could pull out to surprise his enemies and squeak out a victory. Too bad, most of those tricks were literal objects he kept in a bag: the Universe Ring. Now that he’d lost it, he was down to his most important secrets and if he wanted to survive, he'd have to pull out every stop. There was no time for worrying about secrecy. He’d already turned into a green dragon and spoiled his cover identity. It no longer mattered what else he had to show, he had to survive this.

The green scaled beast, eight feet long with only three limbs turned its head down and seemed to snort. Dust rose into the air, rapidly covering the clearing they were in with a dust cloud. Already hidden from Spirit Sense with the Cerulean Mist, they were all blinded for a few moments. Just enough time for Sage to release a cloud of paralyzing mist into the smoke. It added a slight tint of color to the dust, Subduing Spores was far from an all powerful weapon, it merely slightly weakened enemies. Those of lower rank would become sleepy and gradually paralyzed. Higher ranked foes would only become slightly relaxed like a strong incense. At the same tier, like in this battle, they would have their senses dulled and reactions slowed. Of course, this only worked if his enemy breathed them in.

One of the three Strongfist Brothers was slow to react and fell to a knee before he stopped his breathing and blocked his airways with Qi. The dragon darted towards the three brothers, but Whitestaff had expected as much. She intercepted the beast with a swing of her white staff, which Sage caught with a swing of his tail. His bladed spine ridge smashed against the piece of unusual white wood. Sage felt a shock not only in his bones, but his Spiritual Sea, the woman’s weapon truly had a powerful effect on souls.

Two of the Strongfist Brothers helped up their affected brother, pulling him back away from the fight to recover. At the same time, Black Saber took advantage of Sage’s clash with Whitestaff and attacked him from the side, releasing a trio of lightning fast cuts with his blade. Someone watching from behind would have even seen that Black Saber’s attacks were extremely ruthless. The first twisted vertically, changing from a horizontal slash to a vertical one. The second swung out wide to the right, approaching Sage directly from behind, and the third actually flew directly towards Whitestaff. It was aimed to fall right over her shoulder just to where Sage’s tail and that white staff were clashing. If they were slow not only would Whitestaff need a new weapon, Sage’s tail would be severed.

It’s just too bad that Sage had already activated Foresight. Before assaulting the Strongfist Brothers he’d already seen Black Saber’s intentions and he was ready for them. Right after his tail blade touched against the white staff, he immediately pushed off of it and opened his mouth. The Divine Breath technique was released at full force with the help of Stormbreath, knocking back Whitestaff while also propelling him backwards. That avoided the cut towards his tail and the vertical slash, but not the one at his back. He could only see where he had been struck in the future and not their path of travel. That’s why he had to be extra cautious and used Cosmic Traction to swoop downwards. He skimmed across the ground and banked in the air back towards Black Saber. He felt his scales and a layer of flesh sheared off on his back, just below the bladed spine ridge. It clashed with the spine plates and made a sound like metal scraping metal.

At least I know the plates are strong enough to survive his hits.

The Strongfist Brothers had pulled back, and he’d just broken away from Whitestaff. He was moving at high speed, passing through the knee high grass and darting directly towards Black Saber. The dust cloud and Subduing Spores had just cleared, just in time for the two to lock eyes. There was a sudden flicker in Black Saber’s eyes like he’d understood something, but Sage didn’t have time to worry about that. His one arm reached down and a yellow light emerged, passing into the ground. It rippled through the ground towards Black Saber like a beam of light.

That blade flicked out a few times and the ground was torn into shreds, but the yellow light wasn’t stopped. It just spread out and there was a loud rumble. The Sovereign Stone was a Heavenly Jewel, the Heavenly Materials that correlated to the Earth element. At their base level Heavenly Materials converted Qi into energy. Heavenly Jewel’s affected the ground, creating some sort of seismic energy that made it seem like they created rocks and soil, but instead they altered and moved what was already there. The yellow light dispersed and with a rumble rocks rose up like a rough fence, jutting a few yards into the air to block Black Saber’s view.