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. 

[You've been challenged by rank 91.]

The dragoness's golden eyes swiftly moved and locked onto her prey. Then, without a single moment of pause, she pounced. 

A few minutes ago, Huo Yang, the Patriarch of the tiger kins, was choosing who to challenge. 'I still have two challenge tickets. If I don't use one now, it will probably be impossible to rank in the top 50… I need to steal from someone at the top. But who?'

His eyes landed on Yasenia, and he squinted. 'When we met in the Tournament five years ago, she was someone I could pressure with just my aura. However, now, she is placed above me. What kind of growth is this?'

The Tiger Kin Patriarch was indeed the host of the tournament in which our girls participated. The one they got Luna and the two S.L.U.T members from. 

He had also seen Yasenia and Du Xian, and this made him frown. 'Those squirrel kins… Tch, I was about to place them firmly under me, but if they receive Yasenia's aid, it will be very difficult.' 

He kept looking at Yasenia's name, frowning. 'Even if she has increased her level, her foundation should be weak, no?' 

While speedy cultivation was possible for almost everyone, the foundation became extremely weak as they advanced, and it was entirely possible to have cultivation deviation and become crippled.

It was similar to someone trying to lift a heavy weight without training. First, that person needed to increase muscle and strength, and then you could train with heavy weights. 

Rising cultivation levels were similar to "increasing the weight you can lift." 

'Maybe if I can stall, I can defeat her? After all, if the person you challenged can't win within an hour, they will lose by default.' 

Thinking so, he focused on Yasenia's name and waited for the "rest" timer to end. 

[You've used <Challenge Ticket> to face the Rank 7th. If you win, you will be able to steal 10% of their earnings.]

His vision blurred, and he appeared in the arena.

Then, his entire body erupted in chills as he was enveloped in a fearsome aura. Without thinking much, he took out his spear and blocked to his right.

While turning to block, he finally saw his opponent, but when he locked eyes with beastly golden eyes that seemed to have nothing but bloodshed in mind, his body almost paralyzed like a weak animal before a powerful predator. 

BANG!

He tried blocking the attack, but a brutal attack that completely overpowered his bodily strength forced his feet to leave the ground and blasted him flying.

His spear gained a massive gash on the pole where the weapon landed, making his already horrified self even more scared. 

A burst of chills spread through his back, and a blur surrounded by fourteen stars overcame his flying body, appearing behind him. 'How is she so fast!?' 

Using his energy, he turned around and reinforced himself with a body-enhancing skill, further using his Epoch Core cultivation to use air as footing and clash against the incoming attack.

BOOM!

A golden wave of flames swallowed him while his spear gained another sizable notch. "AGH!" 

While he shouted and rolled on the ground, his senses caught several attacks flying his way. 

Refocusing, he locked onto the dozens of silver crescents and white stars rushing at him and wielded his spear.

"[Tiger Spear Rush]!" 

He waved his weapon quickly and started meeting against the attacks, but he soon learned that it wasn't a wise decision.

BANG!

The first collision with the attack had so much weight behind it that his arms trembled. However, dodging was already not an option as everything else was also arriving.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! 

He swung his spear while biting his molars, and his arms screamed in pain.

Of course, as a body cultivator, even if his bones broke, he could maintain them fixed with energy. However, this didn't mean that it didn't hurt.

Yet, a moment of rest was far from arriving for Huo Yang as the beastly breath of the dragon appeared behind him.

Instantly, he knew that he had to accept either being injured by the incoming ranged attacks or resist the attack that Yasenia was about to do.

He chose correctly to jump sideways and dodge while being slashed by the frozen crescents and burned by the white star explosions. However, choosing correctly didn't mean he had a chance.

ROAR!

Right after he dodged, the place where he previously stood was engulfed in a massive golden beam created by Yasenia's dragon breath.

Even before he could process his body injuries, a sword engulfed in a white spiral burst through the dust and appeared right before his chest. 

Yasenia had used [Star Dragon Charge], precisely aiming at his chest. 

"I SU-"

But it wasn't quick enough.

With a gruesome crunch of bones and flesh tearing, Yasenia's sword pierced through him, and the star energies exploded around his body, making his vision flicker while his brain was inundated by pain.

'I'm not done yet!'

Even with no eyesight, he pushed on since the enemy was right before him.

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.

************************************************************

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~.