Heaven, Earth, Me

Chapter 701: Beastly Instincts.

Yasenia's vision blurred, and she reappeared in her room.

She blinked and thought back on the last two days. 'They felt a bit of a blur.'

Even if she spent the last hours with her dears, the dragoness was still mulling over Sarah's fight.

'I lost.'

The dragoness sighed, feeling frustrated. 'Moreover, it wasn't a normal loss. If Mom weren't there, I would've died before I knew what happened.'

While Tatyana had told Yasenia that it wasn't her fault and that the strength used at the end was not something fair, Yasenia thought otherwise.

'There is no fairness in a fight to the death. Only who is alive and who is dead.'

The dragoness didn't care about what Sarah used, she didn't care about her strange power boost after her first beating, nor did she care about the abnormal increase in combat mastery.

While it was true that she was winning for a while, even after the strange increase in mastery, the moment whatever she was fighting against used its final trump card, she was instantly defeated.

'It wasn't even a fight. The shockwave of the attack after Mom and Mirrory blocked it almost killed me.'

Yasenia bit her lips. 'Do I need more potent finishers? But how? I'm already pushing my limits with my current skills. Sword mastery? It's not something that can be increased because I want to. I need time and diligent practice to increase it. Energy management? Again, I need time. Intents? Once more, time.'

A sweet taste spread in her mouth, and Yasenia realized that she was bleeding because of her bite. Not caring much, she licked her wound with her long tongue. 'What do I lack? How could I have at least prevented being instantly killed in that situation?'

Yasenia's memories of that time were a bit fuzzy. At one moment, she was about to finish Sarah off, and the next moment, she was spiraling through the air with her body cracked as if a mirror had been struck.

Honestly, she didn't even know what hit her.

[You've been challenged by rank 341.]

The dragoness appeared in the arena and remembered. 'Right, there is a round of challenges before we attack the waves.'

She turned to look at her opponent and saw a tall, muscular, handsome lion kin with a red mane.

"Prepare yourself!"

Yasenia didn't answer, looking at him closely. 'Peak-level Ethereal Soul.'

Her opponent charged at her, and Yasenia's muscles tensed, rushing straight at him.

The man was initially surprised at the beauty of his opponent, but he was quick to snap out of it, and he challenged her.

His opponent looked distracted, so he charged forward.

However, the figure of the tall and seductive dragon woman blurred and appeared beside him almost instantly.

'What?'

The slit eyes of his opponent were completely red, and a sword bigger than his body was descending on him with the weight of a mountain surrounded by cosmic lights.

BOOOM!

He managed to defend himself, but his entire body felt like several creatures had run him over. Looking at his arms, the left one was dangling in a direction that should not be possible, making his heart thump in fear.

Looking down, he saw a massive wound that had appeared without his knowledge that started electrifying his brain with pain after he looked at it.

'What kind of monster is she!?'

Hastily preparing for a successive attack, he looked upward but saw the woman staying still in her place, looking at him. Waiting. As if she expected something from him.

A chill of fear rushed up his spine. Even if she had said nothing during their fight, he could feel that the woman was using him for something.

He opened his mouth, but the woman spoke before he could. "You will surrender? Why? Are you this weak, with no trump cards?"

His eyes widened. "W-What do you mean?"

The dragon woman holding a massive sword spoke emotionlessly. "Use your strongest attacks. Try taking me by surprise. Use at least an attack that can heavily injure me. If you don't do so, what's the point? I can't train. I can't become stronger."

He took a step back and stuttered. "Y-You are crazy! I surrender!"

Yasenia's vision blurred, and she returned to her room, making an annoyed face. 'Did he hide his strength? I even held back to give him a sense of threat so that he could react, but my attack almost killed him. How can I test my reaction time to surprise attacks this way?'

The dragoness stood in silence, concentrating on her body, each cell, each vein, each meridian.

'My senses. I need to sharpen my senses to the point that I react before thinking.'

Yasenia's aura became more beastly.

'I need to become more animalistic.'

Her posture went from standing upright to slightly opening her legs and very lightly flexing her knees.

'I need to allow my instincts to guide me but avoid them from swallowing me.'

Yasenia released a breath, making a mist appear, and the heat of her blood pumping through her veins created an unnoticeable mist.

He used one of his life-saving skills, making his injured body stop bleeding for a few seconds with an otherworldly tensing of muscles. This also trapped the sword inserted inside him. Then, wanting to kill that person by taking her out of guard, he used one of his most powerful spear attacks.

Powerful energy swirled around it, and he thrust from a distance that normally would've been unavoidable.

However, his opponent's animalistic reflexes completely negated even this last effort.

CLANG!

His spear was smashed away by something as if a whip had landed on it. The brutal attack had even ripped the weapon from his hand, taking a finger with it.

That small moment was enough to return his eyesight. Yet, when his flickering eyesight returned to him, it was only to see two things.

The first one, a pair of red-colored dragon eyes, completely emotionless and still looking around his body for any extra action he might take.

The second was a spearhead-shaped, golden tail-tip, swirling with powerful Sun energies and slowly magnifying. The trail it left behind told Huo Yang that this was the thing that blocked his attack.

"Ah-."

CRUNCH!

Yasenia's tail tip pierced through his face, exiting from the other side.

Then, without even flinching, she twisted her sword and tail to throw away the corpse.

Something shiny caught her eye, and her tail quickly slashed the man's hand as his corpse slowly flew away. She then used her energy to attract what she noticed toward her hand.

She caught the ring at the same time as Huo Yang's corpse hit the sound with a wet sound.

Taking the Spatial Ring from him and pouring all the contents into hers, she silently waited to be transported back to her room, her mind constantly analyzing her movements.

From the outside, it felt as if an off-switch had been hit.

Far away, the soul plate holding the Patriarch's life status, broke, causing an uproar in the clan. Sadly, it was too low-level to reveal anything else other than the life and death of the person attached to it.

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Evelyn: W-Wow...

Author: Right? Some brutal deaths are incoming~. Yasenia is going full beast mode.

Tatyana: Exciting~.

Author: Hahaha, I summon you!

WPOmega: Hello~.

Andrea: Welcome.

WPOmega: Cough. I know a few of you might be a bit fed up with her, but I'm still curious. Can you summon Sarah, Author?

Author: Of course, dear. Don't be shy. Here is a section to call out the character, regardless of how the story develops, and answer your doubts!

Flash!

WPOmega: Um...

Author: Cough, I mean, I can't only summon the Undead General and give it the ability to search through Sarah's memories. So, ask away.

Undead Sarah: Hello-. *Sees Tatyana* Long Live the Death Empress!

WPOmega: This is hilarious. Cough, Undead Sarah, I have something I want you to answer.

Undead Sarah: *Looks at Tatyana*

Tatyana: *Nods*

Undead Sarah: Go ahead.

WPOmega: How were you navigating the war trials? You're almost entirely reliant on your system for your development, and your system requires other people's attachment to you to thrive. How did you cope when those in the trial who were so attached to you died? I am assuming that you went through a similar trial to Yasenia during that time period, so I've been struggling to understand your actions, and that's the most significant unknown period about you since you've appeared in this world of cultivation.

Undead Sarah: Oh, she didn't go through a War Trial. Her trial lasted for just a year, and according to her memories, it was about fighting beasts and increasing her skills.

Tatyana: If my memory doesn't fail me, I think it was mentioned during their conversation in the sect.

Undead Sarah: *Nods* The objective back then was killing a level two Unification Realm beast. There were many beasts of other levels, and as you said, without points, she could only rely on herself. That's why she was trapped for a year inside, unable to advance.

WPOmega: I see. So, the only thing she learned through that period was how to fight.

Undead Sarah: That's correct. Compared to Crown Princess Yasenia's trial, hers was laughable.

WPOmega: Thanks for answering.

Undead Sarah: It is my pleasure to serve those who are accepted by Her Majesty the Death Empress.

Author: And that's all for today! Have a good day, dears~.