Merin swings his sword.
Hundreds of sword lights burst outward in every direction, streaking across sky and water like a rain of violet-gold meteors.
The six tribe leaders immediately defend.
Blood qi erupts around their bodies, forming dense armour layered with totem markings.
The sword lights strike,
But do not pierce.
That was never his intention.
Instead, the impact forces them backwards through the air, pushing them away from him in widening arcs.
The sword lights do not dissipate.
They hover.
They circle.
Then under his will, they begin to gather.
Streams of violet-gold light converge beneath him.
They coil.
They weave.
They lengthen.
A western-shaped dragon forms in the sky.
Its body stretches across the cloud layer, massive and elegant, composed entirely of condensed sword light.
Merin steps forward and stands upon the dragon's head.
His qi flows downward into it.
The dragon's scales shift,
Violet and gold with a faint bronze sheen.
Its wings unfurl, bronze membranes cutting through the air.
Claws sharpen.
Teeth gleam.
Its violet eyes shine with cold intelligence.
It flaps its wings once.
The shockwave ripples across the lake below, sending towering waves outward.
The wind pressure forces the six tribe leaders to steady themselves mid-air.
The dragon roars.
Clouds split apart.
From above the cloud layer, Merin looks down calmly.
"If this is your limit," he says evenly, "then you all should surrender."
The leaders exchange glances.
Their pride will not allow it.
The leader of the Dusk Wolf Tribe rises higher, qi wings flaring behind him, until he stands at eye level with Merin.
The others follow, forming a unified line.
The wolf leader meets Merin's gaze.
"The battle is not finished."
He throws his head back and howls.
The sound pierces the sky.
Behind him, a colossal phantom of a dusk wolf manifests, vast, shadowed, eyes burning like twin dying suns.
The projection fuses into his body.
He invokes the power of the totem.
Warriors at the Outer Qi realm, when willing to sacrifice vitality, can call upon the deeper will of their tribal totem.
His muscles expand.
Dark fur spreads across his limbs.
Claws extend from his hands.
Fangs lengthen.
He becomes a humanoid wolf, bestial and towering.
His aura surges.
Peak Outer Qi realm.
Mosa roars next.
A mammoth phantom appears behind him, tusks like crescent moons.
The projection merges into him.
His body enlarges, skin thickening like stone, bone armour forming across shoulders and chest.
A massive mammoth-humanoid stands in the air.
The Giant Rat leader invokes his totem.
Whiskers extend from his face.
Teeth sharpen.
His limbs become lean and sinewy, movement turning twitch-fast.
The Ice Leopard leader's body glistens as frost spreads over her skin, eyes turning glacial blue.
The Blue Spot Leopard leader's markings flare with electric lines.
Lightning coils around his spear-arm.
The Snow Crow leader spreads spectral wings of white-black feathers, eyes narrowing into avian sharpness.
Six humanoid beasts hover in the sky.
Their auras flare.
Their cultivation stabilises at the peak of the Outer Qi realm.
Merin's violet eyes shine.
He has been waiting for this.
Now,
The totem power is no longer concealed.
It flows openly.
His Virtual Domain expands silently.
It records everything.
The structure of wolf ferocity.
The sharp hunger of rat cunning.
The freezing clarity of ice leopard precision.
The mirage-lightning distortion of blue spot leopard speed.
The cold, blade-like intent of snow crow death.
Each fluctuation imprints within him.
They attack.
All at once.
Afterimages streak through the sky.
Claws, tusks, lightning, frost, dark fire,
Merin does not move.
The dragon beneath him moves.
It twists, its long body coiling through the air.
A mammoth charge collides with its flank.
The dragon rotates, its tail slamming into the wolf leader mid-air.
Lightning spear pierces toward its wing.
The dragon folds its wing, deflecting the strike with bronze scales.
Ice cleaves across its neck.
The dragon opens its jaws and bites through the frost blade.
Dark fire crashes downward.
The dragon spirals upward, dragging Merin through the attack.
Its claws rake across the giant rat leader, sending him spinning.
Snow Crow phantom strikes descend from blind angles.
The dragon's body arches, intersecting with scaled coils.
Merin remains steady atop its head.
His qi continues flowing.
The dragon grows more solid.
More real.
Each clash sends shockwaves rippling across sky and water.
Below, the lake churns violently.
Above, clouds scatter in expanding rings.
The six transformed leaders press forward relentlessly, their bestial roars echoing across the mountains.
The dragon counters with its entire body,
Wings slicing.
Tail whipping.
Claws tearing.
Jaws snapping.
The battle has ascended beyond simple technique.
It is totems against a dragon.
Beast against the manifestation of law.
And Merin watches,
Calm.
Recording.
Waiting for the decisive moment.
The Virtual Sword Dragon surges forward.
Its bronze wings beat once,
The air splits like cloth.
A shockwave slams into the Dusk Wolf leader, sending him spiraling backward through the sky.
Before he stabilises, the dragon's tail whips across the Giant Rat leader's chest, cracking his blood qi armour and hurling him downward like a falling stone.
He crashes through the ice and vanishes beneath the lake.
Mosa roars and charges again.
Axe raised.
Mammoth phantom roaring behind him.
The dragon does not retreat.
It dives.
Claw meets axe.
The impact detonates a ring of force across the sky.
The ice below shatters further.
Merin channels more qi.
The dragon's scales glow deeper violet-gold.
It twists, coils around Mosa's massive frame, and with a sudden contraction,
Throws him downward.
Mosa smashes into the lake, carving a deep crater into the water before disappearing beneath the surface.
The Ice Leopard leader streaks in from the flank.
Ice Cleave arcs across the dragon's neck.
The dragon's jaw snaps shut, biting through the blade, then slams its forehead into her chest.
She is blasted away, tumbling through the air before plunging into the lake.
Lightning flashes.
The Blue Spot Leopard leader appears above, Mirage Strike multiplying his form.
Lightning Spear descends like a bolt from heaven.
The dragon folds its wings inward, spins,
And the lightning strike glances off bronze scales.
The dragon's tail lashes upward, striking all three afterimages.
The real body is hit.
He crashes into the water beside the others.
Snow Crow's phantom wings slice downward with Winter Sword Strike.
The dragon inhales.
Then roars.
A visible shockwave tears apart the frost and sends the Snow Crow leader spiraling backward.
Dark fire from the wolf leader erupts again.
This time, the dragon charges directly through it.
Flames lick across its scales but do not pierce.
It rams into the wolf leader's chest.
They both plunge into the lake in an explosion of steam.
But,
They rise again.
One by one.
Breaking through water.
Reclaiming the sky.
Blood seeps from their mouths.
Totem energy flickers.
Yet they coordinate.
They cover one another.
When the dragon presses the wolf leader,
Mosa intercepts with Axe Rush.
When the dragon claws at the rat leader,
Lightning Spear disrupts the angle.
When the dragon dives toward the Ice Leopard,
Snow Crow phantom strikes from behind.
They defend each other flawlessly.
Merin watches.
Analyzes.
Records.
Their coordination is instinctive.
Tribal warfare honed over generations.
He cannot focus on one,
Because the others immediately intervene.
The dragon coils mid-air, wings beating slowly.
Then,
Merin moves.
The dragon splits.
Not physically,
But through sword light differentiation.
Six streams of dragon-shaped sword light detach from the main body.
Each streaks toward one leader.
Simultaneously.
No time to defend.
No time to coordinate.
Each dragon-stream strikes a target at the same instant.
The wolf leader is pierced through the chest.
Mosa's mammoth projection shatters.
The rat leader convulses mid-air.
Ice Leopard's frost aura fractures.
Lightning spear disintegrates.
Snow Crow phantom dissolves.
The impact does not aim at their bodies,
It strikes deeper.
It strikes the connection.
The link between flesh and totem.
The internal resonance channel that binds vitality to projection.
The six leaders scream as that link fractures.
Their bestial forms flicker.
Totem phantoms vanish.
Fur recedes.
Claws shorten.
Wings dissolve.
They revert to human form mid-air.
Power is collapsing rapidly.
They fall.
One by one.
Splashing back into the broken lake.
Silence follows.
Steam drifts upward.
Moments later,
They surface.
Breathing heavily.
Swimming toward shattered ice edges.
They do not rise again.
The battle,
Is over.
Merin stands atop the dragon's head.
Satisfied.
His Virtual Domain has recorded everything.
He has what he needs.
He prepares to dissolve the dragon,
Then,
He senses danger.
His violet eyes narrow.
He steps back on the dragon's head,
A blade pierces exactly where he had stood a heartbeat earlier.
A man emerges from thin air.
Face obscured.
Presence unstable.
He vanishes.
Appears again at Merin's flank.
Blade slashing.
Merin pivots, sword deflecting.
The man disappears once more.
Appears behind him.
Another strike.
Merin slides along the dragon's body, defending.
The assassin flickers,
Vanishing and reappearing repeatedly.
Each strike is precise.
Each aimed for vital points.
Merin deflects or narrowly evades.
The dragon twists to assist,
But the attacker ignores it entirely.
His target is Merin alone.
The assassin stops mid-air.
His voice is cold.
"Stars Kill."
The sky darkens.
Even though it is daytime,
Stars appear.
Pinpricks of light scattered across unnatural darkness.
Around Merin,
Space shifts.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Blades of starlight manifest in every direction.
Encircling him.
Encircling the dragon.
They shoot forward simultaneously.
Like a celestial hedgehog.
Piercing from all angles.
Outside,
On the lake below,
The six tribe leaders, standing on broken ice, look up in shock.
A blinding explosion erupts in the sky.
Light and darkness collide.
For a moment,
Merin and the dragon vanish within the detonation.