A rock like fence exploded up from the ground to block Black Saber’s view. Strong as he was, there was no way something like that could actually trap or stop him. Sage only used it to buy some time. Whitestaff regained her footing from the hurricane winds and started to rush towards Sage from behind. Their earlier collisions had shown him that Whitestaff had already formed her core and broken through into the fifth rank. He had no idea when she’d done it, but it meant she was at the same level as Sage. Thankfully, his beast body was much stronger than a normal human one, so he still had an advantage. Unfortunately, after the earlier conflict she’d run off and only now did Sage realize why.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

In the distance he heard the familiar sound of the Jade Horde on the march. They even trained so that their armor and weapons would clank together on the march to create a more imposing presence when they arrived. They could also move quietly, but the standard march was meant to be impressive and intimidating. The sound came from all directions, and scared as he was, the irony of the situation was not lost on him. He couldn’t see them yet, but he knew he was being surrounded by at least one legion of the Jade Horde, if not all of them.

Whitestaff had never made a ranged attack on Sage, so he only had to keep away from her. He’d bought himself some distance and he wasn’t about to lose it. Instead he used Foresight to dodge the invisible cuts coming from Black Saber, using the rock walls to show their cutting paths. Black Saber was slicing the rocks and kicking them out of the way at a fast rate and Whitestaff was catching up to him from behind. His injuries had slowed him down too much. He wasn’t going to make it to Black Saber before the rocks were completely cleared and making more would stop him in place.

Then, a hundred giant insects appeared. Huge bladed centipedes, black worms a yard wide, horned red beetles the size of a garage, eight foot tall mantids, and brilliant green dragonflies with twelve foot wingspans suddenly mobbed around the green dragon. A scent that humans couldn’t detect was released into the air and the horde of bugs seemed to lose their mind. They started chittering loudly and charging away in every direction. A dozen of them went toward Whitestaff and she deftly spun her staff. She kicked to her left side and sheared off a Mantis blade at the wrist while at the same time sweeping her staff to the right side and smacking back a huge centipede. Then she rolled away to avoid the spray of acid and a line of webbing.

The three Strongfist Brothers saw the sudden horde of insects and took off at high speed. Black Saber was not quite as lucky, the remaining rocks had obscured his vision until it was too late to flee. Both he and Whitestaff were rapidly being surrounded. Sage had lost the Universe Ring, but he still had his Inner World. It was just too bad that he kept all of his important things within the Universe Ring. The Inner World only had insects, Hoplites, and King’s family.

The ground rumbled and shuffled around. Parts of it lifted, while others dropped. What had once been a flat clearing in a forest had been changed into broken and uneven terrain with caves, canyons, and large rock structures. The green dragon darted into one of those caves and slithered through it, twisting and turning. Sage coiled up into a corner and then a cloudy blue liquid flowed over his body.

Black Saber was surprised by the horde of giant insects, but they didn’t have any intellect. He just used the giant bugs as shields against the others, his blade carved out a cavity in one of the Charming Lance Beetles. He killed a couple more of the giant insects to form a makeshift fence of insect carcasses. The giant bugs weren’t being controlled or directed so the majority of them just dispersed without doing anything. Even with thousands of them suddenly appearing, Black Saber only had to take on a few dozen at a time, which he then reduced to only a half-dozen with his quick thinking.

Well done, how very experienced, but that isn’t going to save you!

Just as the anger within him built, boiling and bubbling so did the Blue Icesilver. Seeping through the ground, guided by the Sovereign Stone to tunnel through the ground. Black Saber slashed off the head of a dragonfly, but at the same time a blue spike shot out of the ground behind him. The tip of the spike was a cloudy white crystal, and the sharpened point stabbed into Black Saber’s back. He spun around to cut through the weapon, treating it like a spear. If he didn’t break it or pull it out, he’d lose his mobility. Unfortunately for him, the ‘spear’ flowed like a liquid. When he spun around it twisted and followed behind him like a rope. He cut through it, but it responded as if alive. It separated in the middle, but each end of it started to extend and tried to reconnect. Black Saber hopped away from where the Blue Icesilver was poking up out of the ground, but that exposed him to more insect attacks.

He started to run off to join up with the Jade Horde like Whitestaff was doing, but Sage wasn’t about to let that happen. There was no way he could escape without taking Black Saber down. He sent out more spikes of Blue Icesilver, taking advantage of Black Saber’s battle with the giant insects. Waiting till he was in the middle of a slash, or right when he hopped back to avoid an attack. Unfortunately, Black Saber was now on guard against these attacks and after a dozen attacks he only hit him three more times. The former Bandit Captain’s blood was leaking onto the ground, but it didn’t stop him. Sage redoubled his efforts and the blue tendrils shot out of the ground at twice the rate.

Roar!

Sage spilled more blood of his own. Black Saber stabbed his blade into the ground and right into Sage’s chest. He had been using the frequency of attacks to determine Sage’s position and he even used the blade itself to pierce the ground instead of slashing and attacking with his signature move. He was going to slay a dragon up close and personal! Both of them brushed away the rocks like they were nothing more than dirt, clearing the way so they could lock eyes.

Sage used his right arm to reach across and grasp the saber stabbed into his chest. His claws and scaled fingers grasped it tightly, ignoring the pain while his blood trickled down the metal. Black Saber took hold of the hilt with both hands, shaking it to try and free it from the monster’s grasp. At that instant, the dragon’s long neck swayed and its head darted towards Black Saber. He released the handle of his blade and reached out to grasp the large jaws opening up in front of him. If he’d dropped the saber earlier he could have escaped, but it was too late now.

Sage’s dragon body was only about eight feet long, which wasn’t all that large for a snake, but he was a good bit thicker in proportion, about six inches. His head was far more dragon-like than it had been in the past, but his jaws could still articulate. Black Saber caught the upper and lower jaw, ignoring the pain of the sharp teeth just like Sage did when he caught the blade. Black Saber tried to pull the two jaws apart, stretching them away from each other. There was a creaking and stretching noise, but the dragon’s jaws spread far wider than Black Saber had expected and most of his force was lost. He gathered his strength to try again, but then he dove backwards, slicing up his fingers to pull them away from the monster’s mouth. Black Saber was bathed in white flames as he dove away, rolling across the ground to try and put them out.

Before the flames were even fully smothered, the dragon had leapt onto him, this time covered in a layer of blue and white. Black Saber grabbed it by the neck, holding back the snapping jaws and pointing its mouth away from him. Then he felt something cold at his side and he looked down. His own saber was being stabbed into his side, held in the bleeding claw of the dragon, torn out of its own chest and stuck into his. Black Saber stared into the dragon’s eyes, looking into its pupil and seeing the void of space. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.