THE MARTIAL KING - Season 7 Episode 44

‘From here you jump, and head to the Dragon Soar Arena gates as fast as possible. I’ll handle the rest!’ the cyan dragon commanded, smoothly.

A feeling of relief washed over Zen. Till now, the cyan dragon hadn’t done anything that served no purpose. Since the dragon seemed to know exactly what to do here, Zen decided to do as suggested.

One after another, he watched the nature level warriors as they were tossed from the mountain. Then it was Zen’s turn. The two warriors at the Internal Elixir Realm took hold of Zen’s limbs and hurled him at the mountain stream, where the winged dragon waited.

As Zen dropped from the slope, he watched the winged dragon gobbling up the other warriors that landed before him. It finished them as Zen fell, and turned its attention to Zen. Suddenly, the winged dragon craned its neck and snapped at Zen.

‘Now, cyan dragon!’

screamed Zen in his mind as he wrestled free of his bonds. He realized he was outmatched, and would have to rely solely on the cyan dragon to escape with his life!

“Huh!” uttered the young man in purple thoughtfully with a trace of surprise as he watched Zen break free. His surprise changed quickly, and a wicked grin spread across his face because he felt Zen’s struggles were in vain. Whatever Zen did, there was no escaping the winged dragon.

Unknown to the young master watching, just as the winged dragon’s jaws snapped shut over Zen, within Zen’s mind, the cyan dragon sounded a mighty roar!

“Raawwrr!” echoed the roar through the mountain stream.

The reverberating roar filled the ferocious winged dragon with fear, and its head shot back. The winged dragon huddled in a ball in the Dragon Soar Arena, with wide eyes filled with uncertainty and alarm.

Its fear to the dragon roar was reasonable, for winged dragons had evolved from flood dragons, who were born with an innate fear of true dragons, whereas the latter were naturally powerful, legendary beasts, if not the most frightening of all.

Jaws dropped as the master warriors watched. Shock etched in the face of the young master as he stepped forward. Considering the winged dragon was beyond his capabilities, he didn’t dare get any closer than that!

“He…How! How did he manage to create a dragon roar that powerful? Does he have a secret weapon that I’m not aware of?” mumbled the young master quietly, as he studied Zen top to bottom as he sprinted. Suddenly he remembered something and his devious smile returned, giving his face an evil look as he muttered, “Well, even if he escapes the winged dragon’s attack, he wouldn’t be able to get into the Dragon Soar Arena!” As he clutched the jade dragon-shaped pendant tightly, the young master’s expression darkened. The medallion he held was the most valuable treasure his clan had, passed from one generation to the next for as long as anyone could remember. It was the key to the Dragon Soar Arena, and without it, the arena couldn’t be opened.

Kicking at the mountainside to attempt to slow himself, Zen dropped quickly. In a blink of an eye, he touched the ground and his feet sunk deeply into the soft earth. Immediately, he sprang up from the dirt and rushed at the Dragon Soar Arena.

He knew he couldn’t lower his guard even though he’d intimidated the winged dragon with the cyan dragon’s roar, because it would attack without hesitation once it realized the cyan dragon was merely a spirit.

‘The gates are locked!’ shouted Zen mentally as he rushed at the arena gates.

‘Have faith! Keep going!’ said the cyan dragon calmly.

As soon as Zen got near the gate, the cyan dragon spirit reached out with his claw and touched the gates. Suddenly, the etched ring-shaped seal gleamed as it mimicked the dragon. There was a clicking sound and the gates sprung open.

‘Now! Enter!’ ordered the cyan dragon loudly within Zen.

Zen reacted instantly, jumping through the gateway. The gates slammed shut behind him.

All the master warriors watching, including the young master were dumbfounded, and their mouths dropped open.

“How?! How on earth did he open the gates!?” shrieked the puzzled young master. He couldn’t fathom how Zen got in the arena without the jade pendant. He glanced down at his treasured jade pendant, and thought of how ironic the situation was.

Originally, the plan was for him to wait until the winged dragon was full from devouring the warriors flung to it, and then take that opportunity to walk into the arena. How could anyone anticipate that one of the nature creatures could escape the winged dragon and enter the arena before him! They were supposed to be so much weaker and unable to escape with their lives! Indignant and disturbed, the young master ordered, “Hurry! Toss the rest of these idiots off the mountain!”

When the gates closed behind Zen, he was teleported to a strange place. He assumed he was still in the Dragon Soar Arena, but there was a faint white glow in the spacious area surrounding him, and in the middle stood a spiral staircase.

“Why’s there a staircase here, cyan dragon? Is the arena a tower?” wondered Zen aloud, as he stood in front of the stairs on the first floor of a tower.

The cyan dragon chuckled heartily, and stated, ‘Just climb the stairs, and you will find out! I wouldn’t have told you to come in here if it wasn’t to your advantage!’ Zen bit his lip, and the bullet. Now that he was there, he walked up to the second floor.

Unlike the bare walls on the first floor, dragon reliefs adorned every wall of the second floor. The dragon-shaped patterns were lifelike, and as Zen stared at the images, they changed!

In the next moment, Zen was standing atop a large piece of ice surface, looking down at his reflection in the shimmering glass-like ice. He nearly doubted his eyes, but, everything felt so real.

“Are these reliefs magical? Am I experiencing an illusion?” asked Zen as his face scrunched into a scowl.

“Keep going! You need to reach the top floor! If you fail to, you will be rejected, and will never get to try again!” shouted the cyan dragon impatiently. He ignored Zen’s question. He seemed to care a great deal about this, as he urged Zen to continue.

Zen felt the urgency and kept silent as he obediently climbed higher. If he was rejected by the arena, he would be teleported out to where the winged dragon and the master warriors waited. If he were trapped by them, his fate would be worse than death.

Just as Zen nodded in agreement, the ice beneath his feet shattered, exposing huge cracks, as if something huge was beating from under the ice! Soon, the lines expanded!

“Cra-acck!”

When the ice broke away, countless in number, thirty to forty-foot tall creatures lunged up from the depths, snarling and bearing sharp tusks.

He recognized that the monsters were ferocious polar beasts, which made Zen’s heart race fearfully, but, he regained himself quickly and remained still and silent as he quickly devised a plan.

Moments after the enormous creatures emerged from under the ice growling at Zen sinisterly, they launched at him, attacking!

“Sh-wish!”

The sound of Zen’s Blood Drinking Sword as he unsheathed it mixed in with the snarling beasts’ howl. Zen poised for combat, facing the beasts fearlessly.

Though the fierce beasts had nearly limitless power, they were somewhat slow to react. Targeting one beast, Zen took the chance. He jumped, lunging Blood Drinking Sword at the beast!

“Stab!” Zen shouted as he prepared to use a basic swordsmanship move. Belatedly, the beast tried to escape.

Searing pain ripped through the monster as the sword sliced into it, and it howled long and loud.

Zen didn’t stop, or give the wounded beast a thought as he easily slit its stomach wide open, and rushed toward the next victim.

‘Huh? What?’ he wondered, noticing something weird suddenly. He had thought the polar beast would vanish, transforming into spots of sparkling light in the magic array when he killed it, but it didn’t. The creature lay there, bleeding, and howling as it died slowly. Finally, it fell silent, in a pool of its blood on the ground.

‘It can’t be a magic array if the beast isn’t disappearing! Is all this real? No, no that isn’t possible!’ thought Zen, with a look of surprise. At first, he thought he was trapped in a magic array, and that the beasts were illusions. But, he quickly rejected that idea when he saw the bloody corpse. Where was he, then? Was he transported to some weird place? Wasn’t he in the Dragon Soar Arena?

The cyan dragon heard his questions, and chortled before he replied, “Of course it isn’t a magic array. It’s far superior to any magic array. It’s an array that was arranged with divine textures.

Your mortal mind cannot comprehend it. All you have to do is climb to the top!” After he finished explaining it to Zen, the cyan dragon’s laughter reverberated through Zen’s soul.

Just then, something weird happened, again. A mass of malicious aura rose from the polar beast’s corpse, and charged at Zen. A malicious aura was pure curse power that could only be generated by living creatures when they died holding a grudge. Seeing it appear, Zen was sure that the beasts were not shadows, but instead they were real.

A small dot yellow light shot from the polar monster’s body, too, and flew at Zen. Before he could react it ploughed into his abdomen.

‘What on earth? What’s happening?’ Feeling the light as it merged with his energy, Zen had a look of doubt on his face. But, there was no time to think.

There more polar monsters were standing by Zen ready to pounce on him.
Zen moved at full speed, weaving between the monsters. Whenever he could, he took a chance, and thrust his sword through another beast, slicing through as many as he could. In a flash, the corpses were piled like a mountain of red, wet ice.

As the death toll increased, the malicious aura masses’ count rose on the ice, and more spots of yellow lights shot into Zen’s body.

When the light points accumulated to a certain extent, Zen felt a feeling of fullness in his belly, precisely where his energy was stored. ‘What in the hell is happening!?’ Zen asked himself.