1837 To Protect
A bolt of lightning appeared in Alex's direction so suddenly that he had no time to focus enough to produce a powerful attack that could help him survive.
'Shit!' Alex thought, realizing that his location had been found out by the Dragon Emperor. He reacted to the sudden attack from the Dragon Emperor by pulling out his Puppet to fight back. That was the only thing he could do to protect himself.
The Immortal puppet appeared out from his Soul Space, blocking that one attack. The Immortal Puppet was strong enough to defend against the attack, but it held absolutely no power to stop Alex from suffering from the shockwave from the clash.
The puppet itself had no way to protect itself from being blasted away as well and was flown far away from Alex. Thankfully, that gave Alex enough time to teleport away.
He appeared in a new location, only to realize that the entire area was filled with an aura of Wood Dao, whose slightest disturbance let the Emperor know where he had appeared.
Another bolt of lightning flashed toward Alex, and Alex swung Midnight to fight back this time around. He had been prepared for the attack and thus had enough time to do so.
The result ended up being his loss in the clash with a weaker, but still lethal, bolt of lightning flying toward him.
Alex teleported out of the way once more, dodging the attack.
The explosion had caused a big enough stir that the Dragon Emperor didn't know where Alex had teleported to, but it only took him a second to do what he had done before and find him once again.
As soon as the Dragon Emperor found him, roots grew out from all around Alex, trying to capture him.
Alex swung back against the root, cutting through them before teleporting away once again.
The Dragon Emperor recognized the location he had teleported to and attacked once more.
Not being able to hide his location suddenly made it far more difficult for Alex to fight the Emperor. He was already weakened due to losing Godslayer's help and the Array, and now even his tactic of attacking and running away was failing him.
The Dragon Emperor continued to find him.
Alex wondered what his choices were here. Could he stop hiding and fight normally? He was already losing after all. Maybe if he asked Yan Yating, he and the various other Oathbreakers could form their Dragon Array and help him.
But at this point, even that wouldn't be as useful to defeat the Dragon Emperor. And besides, he couldn't show himself now.
'He's spending a lot of Intent, a lot of Qi to try and locate me each time,' Alex thought. 'If I continue doing this, even though he has found me, he will have spent all of his Qi.'
The Dragon Emperor was already tired from the fight, Alex was certain of that. The only thing remaining now was to find that one chance, that one delay, that one mistake from Dragon Emperor which he could use to kill him.
However, no matter how much he tried to fight, the Dragon Emperor seemed to not be able to lose his focus on the battle at all.
Alex simply had no time to focus on the one attack.
* * * * * *
The Dragon Emperor was still quite confused by how Alex was surviving a battle against him. He could not imagine how a man who had only just entered the Saint Transformation realm was actually managing to survive in a fair fight against him.
There were no more people helping him and the forbidden technique or pill he had used before had long since ended.
And yet his attacks, which seemed to be an amalgamation of many types of aura, were actually capable of keeping his Immortal Qi from killing him.
'What secrets does he hold? What is it that makes him so strong? A pill? A technique?' the Dragon Emperor wondered. He was beginning to think that there were a lot more secrets to Alex than what he had been led on.
'I should finish this quickly,' he thought.
* * * * * *
"Can't we help him? He's there somewhere," Qiu Jianhong asked his fellow elders and the others beside him.
"I don't have my Immortal Qi now. It's all run out," Ren Guanting said.
"I do have some, but I do not know how much of a help I can be," Yan Yating said, frowning constantly. "If I could just see him, we could form an array to help him right now."
"You should have done so earlier," one of the beasts said.
Yan Yating said nothing. He did not believe Alex needed it earlier. He didn't think there was a need for the array earlier. But now…
Hannah's eyes snapped open. She had been cultivating the entire time, gaining back what little Qi she could. Her suddenly open eyes stared in the distance toward the Dragon Emperor.
Everyone turned toward him at the same time.
The Dragon Emperor was turned toward them with his spear pointed at them.
"He's trying to—"
Someone began speaking and before they could even finish it, the Dragon Emperor let out a bright bolt of lightning toward them, an attack that was stronger than any they had to deal with before.
If struck, most of them were going to die for certain.
* * * * * *
Alex fought the Dragon Emperor continuously and felt as though the emperor was starting to get more and more agitated in the fight.
He started becoming more reckless, and more aggressive. It wasn't like him at all.
'Is he running out of Qi?' Alex wondered. 'Is he trying to end it as fast as he can?'
Alex himself was on his last leg now, with only a fraction of his entire Qi remaining, and that was with the replenishment pill he had eaten.
The Dragon Emperor was certainly in a similar situation as well.
They were both beaten and tired, so it was understandable if the Dragon Emperor wanted to end the battle right then.
Only, the Dragon Emperor's spear wasn't pointed toward him when he teleported next. He prepared his attack to throw at the Dragon Emperor and noticed that the Dragon Emperor was going to attack the people far away.
His sister, his aunt, Pearl, the elders, and many other people were gathered there.
What was he to do?
Should he use this opportunity and kill him now that he had the chance, or should he go help?
'Sister can stop it, I'm certain,' Alex thought. He had to trust his sister, right?
But the last time she had fought, she had been beaten bloody. Was that even enough time for her to heal? Did she even have Immortal Qi ready?
Hers was the only Immortal Qi that could even hope to defend against the Dragon Emperor. Everyone else's Immortal Qi was just as strong as his current combined attacks.
They were powerful, but they were nothing against an Immortal.
Should he send the Immortal puppet perhaps? Or should he—
The Dragon Emperor shot a bolt of lightning.
"Fuck!" Alex cried out and teleported far away, appearing before the bolt of lightning and bringing out the puppet, ordering it to attack the bolt of lightning that was coming toward him.
The Puppet acted instantly, punching the incoming bolt of lightning. The puppet barely did anything. It was blasted away the moment it came into contact with the lightning bolt, with the remaining power still coming toward Alex, a far stronger power.
Alex swung Midnight, attacking what was left after the puppet's attack.
Fighting something that powerful that close caused a gigantic backlash that Alex could not handle at all.
Immediately upon impact, Alex's blood armor was completely cracked open, all the blood aura in it disappearing as the crimson flakes fell off of it onto the ground.
The force slammed onto Alex's body, doing more damage which the armor couldn't protect him from. The slam caused his skin to break open in many places, and his bones to snap in half.
Alex felt the blow hit his head and saw flecks of black light swim in his vision for a second, the entire world turning colorless for a moment.
Even as Alex lost his mind for a moment, his Undying Physique acted immediately. He began healing using what remaining Qi he had to deal with the wounds and broken bones.
Even as it healed, something else struck him once again.
The backlash from his clash with the attack had wounded him at first, but he hadn't managed to destroy the incoming lightning bolt at all. A part of it had still remained, a non-lethal, but strong one, which struck him even as he healed.
The pill to resist lightning attacks did quite a lot to protect him when he was struck, leaving Alex would less wound than he would've had without it.
He could heal from it easily, he just needed some time.
Unfortunately, he had no time.
Alex's mind had only come back to him for a second when realized what was happening before him.
The Dragon Emperor came behind the bolt of lightning, piercing with his spear toward him.
Alex moved to fight back, parrying him at the last moment with Midnight, only for the Dragon Emperor to easily be parried and slash him with the Ivory Sword.
Alex used the Teleportation Dao to run away, but even as he did, the sword cut into the affected space of the teleportation dao and slashed through it.
Alex still teleported away, but where he arrived, his body slid down from shoulder to waist.
