The end of the canyon was another open area.
Xuan Xi was the first to stop. Her perception caught a sound that shouldn’t be here—not the growl of a magical beast, but human cries for help.
Someone was shouting, “Watch out!” “Hold on!” “Send a distress signal!” The sound was far away, refracted countless times by the canyon walls, becoming fragmented and muffled, but that sharp, strained tone—she couldn’t be mistaken. Someone was in trouble and calling for help.
“There’s someone ahead,” Xuan Xi said.
“Could it be another assessment team?” Elsa stood on tiptoe to look ahead, but the canyon was too narrow; she couldn’t see anything.
“Unlikely.” Veralis closed her notebook, her ice-blue eyes narrowing slightly.
“Each assessment team’s route should be independent. Even if they reached the supply point, it shouldn’t be here.”
Reggie didn’t speak, but his Earth Wall had already risen silently around the team.
Sigrdrífa stood to Xuan Xi’s right, Thunder Light flickering at her fingertips.
She didn’t speak, but her body leaned forward slightly, like a taut bowstring.
Xuan Xi and the others quickened their pace.
The narrow canyon suddenly widened ahead, as if something had exploded from within. Radial cracks covered the rock walls on both sides.
The air smelled of burning, of blood, of a pungent scorched odor.
Then she saw a magical beast. A massive crawling creature covered in dark red scale armor.
Its body was twice the size of a Marsh Dragon Python, its limbs thick as stone pillars, its claws deeply embedded in the ground.
Every step left half-foot-deep cracks in the rock.
“Rock-armored Dragon Lizard.” Veralis’s voice squeezed through her teeth.
“And it’s already a half-step top-tier magical beast.”
Elsa’s face turned pale.
“Top-tier? Didn’t the Academy say the highest in Echo Valley was only high-tier?”
“Damn, the Academy’s intel was wrong.” Reggie’s voice was heavy.
The five people on the field clearly couldn’t hold on any longer.
Three were standing, two were lying down. The three standing formed a triangle formation back-to-back, protecting the two lying down in the middle.
Their uniforms were covered in blood—their own and the beast’s.
One girl’s arm hung at an impossible angle at her side, obviously broken, but she hadn’t fallen.
In her other hand, she still held a sword, though the blade was full of cracks.
The leader was a familiar man—short silver-gray hair, his dark blue uniform torn open with a gash, revealing a wound that extended from shoulder to waist. Blood had stained half his body dark red. The sword in his hand trembled.
A member of the Wolf Family.
“It’s a Wolf Family assessment team.” Sigrdrífa’s voice came from beside her, devoid of any emotion.
The Rock-armored Dragon Lizard opened its mouth. A dark red light condensed deep in its throat. The high temperature distorted the air.
“It’s going to breathe!” the girl with the broken arm shouted from the field.
“Can’t let it breathe!” One of Wolf Family’s male members charged forward.
His sword struck the Dragon Lizard’s front claw.
The blade shattered, fragments flying. But the Dragon Lizard’s claw didn’t budge.
The long sword left only a white scratch.
It lowered its head, its dark red eyes fixed on that male student, like a cat watching a mouse.
“Run!” he wanted to shout, but it was too late.
Just as that male student was about to die, Xuan Xi’s Water Curtain instantly rose in front of the Dragon Lizard’s mouth.
The water element in the air, under the pull of her will, instantly liquefied, converging into a three-meter-high curved barrier, blocking between the Dragon Lizard and that male student.
The high-temperature breath hit the Water Curtain. Steam rose.
White mist filled the air. The back of Xuan Xi’s hand was instantly scalded. The sharp pain spread along her arm to her shoulder, but she didn’t let go.
Because if she let go, the student in front of the Dragon Lizard would be utterly annihilated.
“Sige! Reggie! Give me a hand!” she shouted.
Sigrdrífa’s Thunder Light struck from the side. Silver-white arcs hit the Dragon Lizard’s right eye.
The Dragon Lizard, in pain, let out a roar, its head jerking away, thus interrupting its breath.
Reggie’s Earth Wall rose between the Dragon Lizard and the Wolf Family team, layer upon layer, completely shielding the two injured people behind.
Elsa’s Flame covered from the front. The fire hit the Dragon Lizard’s scales.
Although it didn’t cause substantial damage, the smoke still blocked its vision.
Veralis’s Ice Spikes continuously shot at the ground, spreading a thin layer of ice. The Dragon Lizard’s claws slipped on it, its body swaying.
Xuan Xi rushed into the field. Her feet stepped on gravel and blood, making a sticky sound.
“Fall back!” she shouted to the Wolf Family team.
The leading male student glanced at her. He recognized Xuan Xi, or rather, he recognized Sigrdrífa beside Xuan Xi. “Edelstein—” his voice was hoarse.
“Fall back. Do as Xuan Xi says!” Sigrdrífa didn’t look at him.
The three Wolf Family team members dragged their two injured teammates backward.
The Rock-armored Dragon Lizard stabilized itself. Its right eye was injured by Sige’s Thunder Light. Dark red blood dripped down its scales, hitting the ground with a hissing corrosive sound.
But it didn’t flee. Instead, it turned toward Xuan Xi. Its dark red eyes fixed on her, its pupils contracted into thin slits.
It recognized her.
No, not recognized her—recognized that special aura on her.
That aura that didn’t belong to the Western Dragon race, and was the aura that had beaten it to a pulp two hundred years ago.
The Dragon Lizard’s throat emitted a low gurgle. At first, it was instinctive fear of this aura, but after a while, it transformed into anger toward the person before it.
After fear came stronger anger.
“You.” It spoke. Its voice was hoarse, broken, like the sound of a rusty iron door being forced open.
“You are that woman’s descendant? That aura on you—it’s exactly the same as hers.”
Xuan Xi’s body paused.
‘That woman probably means her mother.’
“Two hundred years ago, she drove me out of my territory.” The Dragon Lizard’s voice grew lower and heavier.
“I fled for three days and three nights, finally escaping to this valley. And she chased me for three days and three nights. Every time she caught up, she just drove me away but never killed me. She even said to me with great righteousness: ‘You are not an evil beast, you just chose the wrong place.’ Wrong place? This is Echo Valley, the territory of magical beasts. This place should have been my territory!” The Dragon Lizard’s dark red eyes lit up like two lit lamps.
“On what grounds did she say I was wrong? On what grounds? Just because she is a noble Dragon race? And I am just a Dragon Lizard? I couldn’t kill her before, but now, I can kill her daughter. That counts as revenge!”
After saying this, the Dragon Lizard opened its mouth to use its breath for revenge.
The light deep in its throat was not the usual dark red, but a higher-temperature blazing white.
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