Chapter 740: Spire Ascension (X)
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Since he was facing significantly stronger creatures than before, it would make sense why Cedric was taking longer to clear the 30th floor and above.
Fighting multiple dragons at once was no joke, especially considering that they were True Dragons.
Mind you, none of his fellow participants have even reached the True Dragons. Only a few of them managed to reach the 20th floor and are now struggling with the Mechanoids.
Cedric hasn’t rested, not even once since he began his climb. He’s unlike others who had to pause in between floors just to recover some of their original energy and stamina.
Currently, Cedric was on the 39th floor. Once he clears this floor, he’d probably face yet another strong creature on the next floor.
That said, it’s getting more difficult now.
Cedric was facing 10 True Dragons, all at the same time.
Each one of these winged lizards wields the power of great laws and is incredibly good at using them.
Most of those who were watching couldn’t even make out what was happening on the screen anymore. The display was only showing streaks of light, explosions, and dizzying screen shakes.
Everything was moving too fast, and too much was happening all at once. So much sothat even Lisa and Paul had given up trying to commentate on what’s happening since they, too, couldn’t follow everything that’s happening.
One thing’s clear, though.
For the first time, they saw Dawnbringer actually having fun in the fight.
In some short moments when the display was able to catch up to Cedric’s figure, they could see him wearing a wide smile on his face.
His golden eyes gleamed resplendently as he responded to the threat of death. It’s like he’s playing with it and is having a genuinely good time while he’s at it.
They’ve never seen him move like this in the previous rounds.
He used to be passive or reactive for the most part. He doesn’t start anything unless he has to and would only return what he received from external stimuli. Even still, he got this far in this tournament with just that.
Had it not been for this increasing challenge of the spire, none of them would even catch a glimpse of just how much he was hiding.
At this point, no matter how bitter one could be, nobody could deny that Cedric was strong.
Any single stray of the explosions and attacks he was parrying or avoiding could easily kill an Immortal Warrior and could gravely injure Immortal Kings.
A single injury is all it would take for Cedric to be stopped and possibly die. So, the pressure was really on.
But you see, Cedric wasn’t just avoiding, evading, or just parrying. It couldn’t have been too fun to play a very dangerous game of dodgeball.
No, Cedric was fighting back. He’s dishing out as much as he was receiving.
He was skilled. Nobody could deny him that at this point. His attainments in sword arts have surpassed at least 90% of most swordsmen of the Primitive Universe.
He’s both a Sword Master and a Sword Immortal.
The audience could almost feel his sword intent leaking out of the screen whenever it showed him attacking.
He has rendered them speechless by summoning titanic swords to strike down his foes, slicing and piercing everything in the way of their advance.
They also watched as he pacified the troubled and chaotic elements of the world simply by performing his sword art. He invalidated the known and obvious gifts of the world to the True Dragons he’s facing as he sliced through the very structure of their attacks, making them harmless once they got past him.
At some point, the display calmed down.
The flashing lights dimmed, and everything became visible again. What it then showed was Cedric standing in the middle of a ruined and still smoking battlefield.
Across from him were the broken and bleeding bodies of the true dragons, with only a few able to remain standing, defiantly denying that they’re being defeated by this unknown and unnamed intruder.
If anybody could look through the thoughts of these dragons, they’d probably get overwhelmed by the sheer confusion they felt.
How was this creature so strong? Were their eyes and instincts lying to them? How could this be? How is this creature able to release such immense power despite his tiny and fragile frame?
The dragons didn’t understand how any of this was possible. There were ten of them against a single enemy, yet not even one of them was able to hurt this intruder.
It’s like their existence as predators standing on top of the food chain was nothing more than a cruel and funny joke to this creature.
Cedric, on the other hand, could’ve ended this at this point.
All he had to do was to plunge his sword at the hearts of the remaining dragons alive, and he could’ve moved on to the next stage to face new enemies.
But he didn’t.
He’s feeling a little reluctant. He didn’t want the fun to end just yet. Not yet. He wanted to stay a little more and give himself time to truly come down from this high, because it’s unknown to him if the next stage would be as fun as this one.
However, seeing just how bad the current state of the still-living dragons was, Cedric knew that it had to end.
And so, regretfully, he had to end it and hope that the next batch of enemies could make the fights just as fun as this one.
However, just as he was about to kill the rest of them, one dragon suddenly stilled.
Its body then glowed with phantasmal light. Then, with a surprising burst of energy, it ran towards its fallen kin, opening its mouth impossibly wide to swallow every single one of them whole, even the ones who were still alive.
Cedric could’ve stopped this, obviously. But he wanted to see where this will go, so he didn’t.
After swallowing its kin, the dragon’s body inflated dangerously as if it was about to blow at any given moment. Cedric’s eyes narrowed. But before anything could happen, a beam of light descended from the sky, landing squarely at the suffering dragon.
The light continued flowing down at the dragon’s figure like a waterfall, and it seems that whatever this light was, it’s helping to stabilize the dragon’s condition.
Cedric looked at where the light was coming from and had some suspicions. He didn’t say any of it out loud. Instead, he just waited for what’s coming next.
And he wasn’t disappointed.
The last dragon evolved after eating the rest of its kin and with the help of that light. Its size increased, its strength broke past the Immortal Emperor realm, and its origin evolved from its previous peak.
ROAR!
When the dragon’s evolution finally ended, it glared at Cedric and roared furiously at him, sending the world trembling before its might.
Cedric was now facing a true elder dragon, a patriarch of the clan and way, way stronger than the regular ones.
"Now that’s what I’m talking about!" Cedric exclaimed in glee as he drew out his sword and took the initiative.
The Elder Dragon before him had the combined strength of all the previous dragons he faced just a couple minutes ago. It inherited the concept laws of all of its kin and could use them just as skillfully as they could, perhaps even more.
Furthermore, the Elder Dragon was a tougher nut to crack. Cedric had to put more oomph into his titanic swords just to pierce through its tough scales.
While things didn’t become as hectic as when he was facing 10 dragons at the same time, this game was definitely more dangerous this time around because the Elder Dragon was no joke.
Their fight was so intense that the battlefield had to change to accommodate the intensity.
The world they’re on actually collapsed because of their fight, forcing the two to fight in the vacuum of space instead.
Their fight caused the destruction of asteroids and smaller planets. The very fabric of time and space threatened to collapse under the weight of their clash. But from the looks of it, neither Cedric nor the Elder Dragon cared enough to stop.
The only thing that could make them stop was the death of the other, and clearly, that wouldn’t come easily.
It took some time, but after five days of nonstop fighting, the result was finally out.
Cedric stood on top of the Elder Dragon’s corpse, sweaty and panting from exertion. He was surrounded by the titanic swords he created; some were still emitting powerful sword intent.
The Elder Dragon beneath him lost most of its scales and sported many cuts and wounds from the fight; blood still gushed out from these. Its hind legs had been sliced off, left at some distant broken world, maybe. Its horns were also sliced off, but unlike the legs, the horns were somewhere nearby; Cedric just didn’t care enough to locate them.
Through all of this, Cedric had a wide and satisfied smile on his face. The screen zoomed in to his face just in time to catch him saying:
"Well, that was fun. Hopefully the next enemy will be just as fun too."