Each pulse of the artifact stripped away the transformation that Blue had done to appear a human. He had tried to hide his heritage so he could live with the humans without being driven away while he was still weak, and now that was being taken away from him.
His limbs turned to talons, his iris became slit. His mouth and nose came outward, forming a snout and wings sprouted from his back.
The only cloth, his pants that he was wearing was torn up as his muscular limbs became visible. Scales appeared all over them as they soon grew up to his torso and then his face.
Two horns appeared on his head and he landed on all four.
The three men looked with awe and greed as the Dragon finally revealed itself to them.
Blue struggled to push back his transformation, but he simply couldn't while this pulse was going on.
His eyes turned toward the device and he suddenly opened his mouth to shoot out some water. The three men moved immediately and created a barrier in front of them to stop the water.
When the water hit, the weakest of them struggled to keep his barrier active and couldn't help but be shocked at just how strong Blue actually was.
"How is he hiding his cultivation base?" he asked worriedly. The other two looked worried as well since no one was supposed to be able to hide their cultivation base while under the effect of the pulse.
"It can't be," the older man said. "That is his cultivation base. As expected of a dragon."
The other two looked with awe. "How strong will we be after we manage to tame it?" they asked.
"Tame the dragon? Is that why you are here?" Ning asked from right beside them.
The three of them moved aside immediately when they heard Ning. The older one looked worriedly as he didn't even sense Alex coming close.
"You can leave young man, you have nothing to do here," the older man said.
"Oh, but I told that man that I'm here for the champion too. Did he forget to pass along the information?" Ning asked. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You shouldn't let your mind be so broken with a single loss that you forget such critical information."
The older man's eyes narrowed.
"Behind you!" another man shouted as Blue attacked again. Shard water slices flew through the air as they came down towards all of them, including Ning.
"You bastards! You made me reveal myself. You will all die for it!" he shouted. Surprisingly, Blue had gotten stronger after his transformation was taken away.
Ning wondered if it worked similarly to how it was with Derel. She had become weaker after turning into a human too.
Blue's long, serpent-like body twisted as a water tornado appeared all around the stage. The stage was getting ripped up and pulled into the water as it was then sent out in every direction.
The audience started running away after seeing such a dangerous situation and within moments there would be no one else in the arena.
Blue started going even more wild, attacking with everything he had. He was getting angry now that he would no longer get to stay here and enjoy his life as he had for the past hundreds of years.
The three figures attacked back as well, destroying the water tornado as best they could. The two younger men were not as strong, but the older one was strong enough to fight Blue and even overwhelm him.
He struck with his sword, destroying every single one of Blue's attacks, and slowly started cornering him.
Blue fought back as hard as he could, but the 3 attackers were strong and prepared. He only had one way to win this fight, which would be to use his blood essence, but then, he would have to go for years without it, which was dangerous.
The 3 of them slowly cornered Blue, flanking him from all sides and forcing him with no room to fight.
Blue was getting desperate and he no longer felt like he had a choice. If he didn't fight back with everything he had now, he was either going to be killed or enslaved, and there was no way he was going to be either of those things, not unless…
"Hmm, why do you guys keep forgetting about me?" Ning asked from not far away again. "Am I that forgettable? Or are you just not bothering to be cautious around me?"
The older man turned around to see Ning standing there without looking like he had to fight anything. 'Did he dodge everything? Or did he fight them easily?' he wondered.
Blue's attacks had run wild, which was to say that there were only a few ways one could have gotten out of it unscathed.
The old man was worried that Ning had used the worst one of them all.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Me? I'm a nobody really," Ning said "what about yourself? You look mysterious enough to be from some organization. What's your origin?"
The old man kept quiet. He didn't believe Ning was a nobody, so he didn't answer either.
"Uhuh… the Beastmaster's faction. I would've thought you guys would be more honorable, given your job," Ning said.
The old man's eyes went wide. "Bastard! How do you know that?" he asked. He had gone to great lengths to hide their identity while coming here, so there was no way someone should have that info.
And yet, Ning had so casually found his origin. He couldn't help but think that someone from the organization had leaked their mission.
"Do all Beastmasters go around looking so shady? You could have come here in your actual clothes, but I suppose you were worried Blue was going to run away," Ning said. "Well, you are lucky then. Blue won't run away."
Suddenly, the entire world seemed to go dark as a massive barrier appeared all around them.
"Go on, fight to your heart's content," Ning said. "I want to see just how strong he's gotten."
