"Which one of you Beast Kings is hiding in the corner right now? Since when did people of our status need to do such things?"
The words echoed through the surroundings for a few moments with no response, when suddenly, space began to ripple and a figure stepped out.
"Haha, it wasn't like I was hiding on purpose, I was just a bit curious about this boy."
A boisterous voice accompanied the figure as he slowly became clear. His hair was like a glowing white mane, his body was robust and filled with explosive power, and his eyes were silvery reptilian slits.
The Incarnate Snow Beast King's eyes narrowed at the sight of this man. "White Dragon King."
"Haha, it seems that I'm still somewhat famous, huh. And here I thought my name would be forgotten while I was in seclusion."
"How could that be? The White Dragon King has earned himself quite the reputation through his actions. Not only are you one of the strongest Kings on our mountain, but you also challenged the overlord and left unscathed. This kind of legend won't just be forgotten with time."
"You humor me, I'm not as great as you make it sound." The White Dragon King smiled. Suddenly, his brows perked up in interest.
Roar!
A fearsome roar shook the surroundings, causing the attention of those present to finally leave the two Beast Kings in the sky. When they did, they noticed that a massive 10-kilometer-wide radius of the area had become completely barren of snow and flora.
In the air there stood a familiar man covered in black scales with bone wings and a crown protruding from his body. His blood-red eyes were especially fierce, and even contained a hint of mania as they stared at the Incarnate Snow Beast King.
Roar!
With another roar, he raised his arm, drawing attention to the massive object floating above him. If there was one way to describe it, it would be a second sun.
A mountainous ball of crimson gold flames hung in the air, melting even the air around it. The atmosphere that the ball of fire gave off was suffocating to all those that weren't Beast Kings.
The billowing aura radiating from Damien intensified dramatically as with another roar, he threw his arm forward and released the ball of flames towards the Incarnate Snow Beast King.
The Beast King's eyes narrowed at the sight. Suddenly, the snow around him began to bend and twist, channeling into rivers of white that surrounded him.
"Go."
Those white rivers quickly formed order and charged towards the huge sun. When the two made contact, heated steam filled the atmosphere with temperature enough to boil the skin of those 3rd class beings if they hadn't used mana to protect themselves.
Roar!
The ferocious roars didn't end. While the collision between the sun and snow continued, Damien's figure flashed and appeared behind the Beast King, clapping his hands together loudly.
Space began to distort, looking on the verge of shattering. If this was the outside world, perhaps it would have collapsed entirely. But in this environment filled with spatial suppression, Damien's spatial collapse wasn't able to achieve its intended effect.
But he didn't need to mind that. Even if the original mechanism was faulty, he had ways around it. With space already distorting from his previous attack, Damien manipulated the vectors in the area to further sow chaos.
The chaotic movement of the vectors heightened and caused the air to tremble. And when coupled with Damien's previous attempt to collapse space, finally achieved its purpose.
A massive black hole was formed, swallowing the Incarnate Snow Beast King whole. In that instant, the previous sun was also extinguished, causing silence to blanket the atmosphere.
But this silence didn't last long.
"Boy, don't go too far!"
A furious roar was heard from within the black hole as billowing waves of mana exited it. In the next instant, the blackness was directly shattered as if it was fragile glass. The Incarnate Snow Beast King appeared once again, looking clearly enraged by Damien's earlier move.
"Good good good! See how I deal with you now!"
The air around Damien solidified, trapping him in place just like with Ruyue. Even within this entrapment, his figure continuously writhed and thrashed around, looking like a wild beast.
The White Dragon King watched this scene with interest before sighing.
'Sigh, it looks like I was right. Although his bloodline is mixed with many other things, it is still a dragon bloodline at the end of the day.'
Besides that, he also noticed that Damien was a human. Or rather, he used to be a human. This meant that his dragon bloodline wasn't something attained at birth, but earned through battle.
Although dragons were prideful from birth, there was another quality about them that not many were aware of, due to their reclusive nature.
They were true spirits of battle.
All dragons were creatures who craved battle and worshipped the strong. Their pride also stemmed from this dichotomy.
And so, when the dragon race came upon beings who acquired their bloodlines through battle, they didn't look down on them or form vendettas.
Instead, they felt respect. But this respect was only given to those who proved themselves worthy of their bloodlines.
The reason the White Dragon King arrived in the first place was because he had sensed a weak dragon aura while he was cultivating. Ever since then, he had been quietly watching Damien to test whether he was to be killed or groomed.
And from his observation, he chose the latter. Damien hadn't shown all his cards in this time, and he was lacking a bit in the brains department, but his strength and will had impressed the White Dragon King.
His killing intent and ruthlessness in battle were also something that an undeserving party wouldn't possess. As a dragon, while he understood the purpose of schemes and even used them himself sometimes, he still disdained them.
For a person like Damien, it was evident just from a few days' observation that he held a similar viewpoint. So there was no way he had used foul means to acquire his bloodline.
The White Dragon King was also clearly aware of what was happening with Damien right now. He was like a young dragon who had just been born, he didn't understand how to fully control his bloodline.
With a dragon's pride, and perhaps coupled with Damien's own inherent pride, there was no way he could accept the humiliation of the Incarnate Snow Beast King. Such unwillingness led his bloodline to rage and send him into a frenzy.
At this moment, the best way to describe Damien was as a berserker. There were most likely no thoughts behind those eyes.
Sighing once again, the White Dragon King turned to the Incarnate Snow Beast King who was preparing to attack for real.
"Say, can you give me some face and let the boy off this time?"
The Incarnate Snow Beast King furrowed his brows. To be honest, while he was angry he wasn't actually that mad.
And the White Dragon King wasn't an existence he could offend with his power. Although he didn't have a massive force behind him, the White Dragon Elite Troop that he raised was feared by all.
He felt that the matter would end a bit too quickly and quietly if he simply gave in at this moment, but there wasn't much else he could do. Besides, fighting a kid so much weaker than him would be a blow to his pride.
"Fine. Since the White Dragon King seems to have an interest in this boy, I'll let him off. However, he still caused harm to a tribe that has come under my banner, so I require at least some sort of compensation."
