Emerging out of the huge hole through which it dug out itself, an enormous earthen scaled lizard head could be seen taking a look left and right.
Its yellowish eyes that had slits for pupils perceived everything in its surroundings.
Moving slowly, the beast lifted one of its large forelimbs with which it pushed its heavy body out of the hole.
After crawling to the surface, the Earthen Lizard's huge form was revealed.
It was towering above Jason and Jennifer, who were staring at the beast in dumbfoundment.
Jason believed he knew what he was looking at, which caused his entire body to involuntary shudder as he mumbled,
"Is…that an Earth Dragon?"
Even though the beast didn't have any wings, it was certainly not just an Earthen Lizard or something similar.
The Primordial energy and Mana that coursed through the beast's body were overwhelmingly strong, and completely different to a normal being at the Specta stage.
Interestingly, it was the cultivation stage the Wingless Earth Dragon in front of him had reached.
Being at the Specta stage denoted high strength which was evident from the fact the beast seemed to inhabit an area close to the Shadow walker alliance's town.
It was rather unbothered by the fact and seemed to live without any worries of a possible attack.
This should be extremely dangerous for such a strong beast. It was even more so because it was a Dragon, and a beast of the Ninad beast realm, which further strengthened the soul amplification one would receive.
Being a Mythical beasts, Dragons were known for sharing a strong bond with their binder. Meanwhile, their energy, physical strength, affinity, and other unique traits they may possess were much stronger than their cultivation base.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Because of that, they were rather popular for Cultivators with a soul world to bind.
There were even some races that would try taming these beasts while they were very young, however, that didn't work most of the time.
Looking at the Earth Dragon, and its huge earthen scales that were larger than his head, Jason swallowed his saliva before he stepped back.
Jennifer was pulled back with him because he had grasped her hand out of instinct. But, that was not necessarily helpful because the Earth Dragon turned towards them once they took the first step.
Having attracted its attention, the two of them were forced to lock eyes with the ginormous eyes of the Earth Dragon that gazed at them with interest.
Both beings in front of it were different to the other humans it had seen.
Jason's scent was giving it mixed signals.
The human half of his bloodline caused it to feel an innate hostility towards him, while the other part of his scent was doing the exact opposite. It was dispelling the hostility and causing amity without doing too much.
This further increased when Jason released his Celestia aura a little bit, strengthening the amity of the Earth Dragon towards him.
Meanwhile, Jennifer mostly received a neutral gaze that was sprinkled with mild interest owing to the fact that she was the first bipedal being that could make use of all three cultivation paths.
At least, she was the first of such beings the Earth Dragon had seen since its days inside the Ninad beast realm.
Despite the interest, the Earth Dragon could have attacked them, but fortunately, they hadn't entered its territory, indicating that they respected its boundaries.
Owing to this, the Earth Dragon could only continue to look at them with interest gleaming in its large bulbous eyes that were eager to find out more about them.
However, this seemed to be impossible because the Dragon could not cross the borders of its territory to inspect the two unusual humans.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Doing so would be deemed as an attempt to claim its neighboring lands, even if that was not something the Earth Dragon wanted to do.
As such, even its energy fluctuations shouldn't be sensed at the borders.
This was unfortunate because it would have loved to find out more about the two beings in front of it.
Yet, the neighbor it had, was an existence which even the Earth Dragon at the Specta stage didn't dare cross paths with!
Jason had noticed something similar because he had already perceived the territorial markings of the surrounding beasts.
Because of the said markings, he shouldn't have been so astonished to see the Earth Dragon as the energy fluctuations of the territorial markings were distinct.
Yet, when he realized this, Jason couldn't help but look towards his left, wondering what kind of existence controlled this part of lands.
If the Earth Dragon's territorial markings were already distinct, and a light warning to other beings that might want to enter the lands, the ones on his left side could be considered as a formidable wall.
This was truly unexpected, and something Jason had to be extremely careful about because a single step in the wrong direction might kill them.
It was akin to courting death if they were to even think of entering the territory without energy enveloping them.
This was truly fearsome, but it was not like Jason or Jenifer had planned to stay there, either way.
As such, they wanted to be as far as possible from both the unknown existence and the Earth Dragon. But that was easier said than done because many many unexpected things were occurring at the same time.
Amongst these happenings was the fact that ginormous energy currents were suddenly unveiled to their left, and were approaching them at a rapid pace.
At the same time, the Earth Dragon let out a terrifying roar that shook Jason and Jennifer to their bones, freezing them on the spot for several seconds.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Yet, the moment they were able to move once again, the ground below them tore open, forcing them to move ahead or to turn around.
Unfortunately, just as they looked back to see if the distance towards a safe spot to their backside was shorter, Jason's eyes widened.
"There are more than three hundred mana fluctuations…they're from the settlement of the Shadow walker alliance!"
Knowing that, the only way they could head to was the front.
However, the ground in front of them was tearing open owing to the sheer energies that were released by the unknown existence and the Earth Dragon, whose appearance was transforming.
While its scales had been tightly placed on its body, the tapering ends were being pushed outside, revealing its flesh by a small margin.
Following that it released a tremendous heat from its entire ginormous body, which caused it to slim down.
As the heat inside its body was released, it made more than enough space for the surrounding primordial energy and mana, which it absorbed greedily.
With that, it filled its body with as much energy as possible, while Jason and Jennifer were running for their life as they realized what was going on.
"A territorial fight!" Jennifer just exclaimed, not sure whether she should be excited to be caught amidst an ensuing battle or not.
It had already been weird for the Earth Dragon to emerge near them, but before they had assumed that the beast respected the borders with its neighbor, preventing it from attacking and killing her and Jason.
Yet, this didn't seem to have been the case.
Instead, it had started to prepare itself for a life-and-death battle with a formidable force that wanted to take over its territory.
Territories were amongst the most important in the Ninad beast realm as one could reap a huge number of benefits with them.
Controlling weaker beasts by allowing them to stay inside their territory was also possible, but not something that would make any sense right now.
After all, two gigantic powerhouses were bound to fight soon enough.
