Chapter 168: Battle at the Tower Top 8

This is the "Light Dragon"! If I'm not mistaken, although its name contains the word "light", its true form actually leans more towards the fire element - a special kind of magical beast.

The "Light Dragon" emits brilliant white light simply because its body is constantly generating intense heat. Each linear charge is accompanied by extremely high temperatures and thermal energy, giving it another value - becoming one of the powerful attack moves for a beast tamer. 

Although it's actually not that easy to tame...

Typically, based on the beast tamer's level, different "Light Dragons" possess varying degrees of heat and attack power. The "Light Dragons" I've seen before were all summoned by Brennan, but this one attacking Adrian is clearly far more extraordinary.

First, it's much faster! 

The white light flashed by like lightning. Seeing that Adrian had no time to react, I had no choice but to recklessly rush forward and push him down. However, I was still a step too late.

I suddenly felt a slight heat on the right side of my back wings, followed immediately by an excruciating, bone-piercing pain that was really hard to bear.

"Feliciana!" Adrian saw me and shouted with wide eyes. But I felt the strength drain from my body instantly, and I lay motionless on the ground for a long time unable to move.

Suddenly, I realized my wings were likely injured!

I turned my head slightly to take a look...man! Two of the three feathers on my right wing were completely severed at the roots, with the cut ends entirely charred, though there wasn't much bleeding. The remaining feather only had half left, with feathers scattered everywhere.

This is bad, I've completely lost my ability to fly! Meaning I've suffered an injury about as serious as Mia's back then. Perhaps a bit better since I can use water magic to slowly heal, but in this situation, it's hard to say if I'll make it in time.

Even worse, I don't know why, but that heavy blow actually knocked me out of my blue-winged state back to my original form! All my wings have reverted to white again. Although the light element can slow the worsening of the injury to some extent, the effect of using water healing magic is greatly diminished.

Just relying on those low-level healing spells I can cast in my normal state, when will these couple of wings ever recover?

To make matters worse, the culprit has now slowly emerged from the smoke - of course, it's not Brennan, but Fernando!

It seems the saying "no smoke without fire" rings true. This guy actually survived the consecutive brutal assaults of the Divine Punishment! Although his current condition isn't great either.

"You bastard! I knew you were unreliable from the start. But I let my guard down just that one time, and you seized the opportunity. Too bad about Mirium..."

This remark was clearly directed at Adrian. It seems the dragon was truly killed, while Fernando is still alive but heavily injured and bloody! The arrogant look on his face is now completely gone, and he's panting heavily.

Even having barely survived the Divine Punishment, his condition can only be described as disastrously horrible. Luckily, that "Light Dragon" attack hit its mark, but it also consumed a lot of his strength - he likely can't launch another assault anytime soon.

"Who is he exactly? Why is he using so many beast taming techniques!"

The intense pain has numbed over time, I don't know if it's the effect of the healing magic. I finally mustered all my strength to slowly stand up, but I couldn't help feeling regretful.

The enemy is already this debilitated, yet I got injured at the critical moment. If only I had reacted sooner, what does it matter if this guy lives? We would still have the upper hand!

"He is Fernando, but in human history he also had another rather special identity..."

Adrian supported me, seeing that I didn't seem seriously injured for now, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and answered gravely,

"He was actually one of the founders of the Sage Council, and the earliest pioneer of beast taming techniques!"

"What? How is that possible?"

I was really shocked to hear this!

It's understandable that as the earliest pioneer of beast taming, he can command so many weird monsters. And I can vaguely accept that he is human. But being one of the founders of the Sage Council is the unbelievable part - aren't they from hundreds of years ago? He's even more ancient than Judith, so why does he look so young?

Okay, he doesn't really look that young. From his appearance, he seems to be in his mid-forties or fifties at most, in his prime middle-aged years. But still, that doesn't match up with being hundreds of years old.

Unless he also entered the trial space for that long before just coming out. Otherwise, for a human without constructing a body from light elements like the Pope, it's generally impossible to reach this extent.

"I'm not very clear on it either. I only know that he probably used some special technique to successfully extend his lifespan. In fact, I also found out that the members of the Dark Council usually have rather special identities. Pure dark beings like the demon Arick are actually the minority."

Adrian shook his head and continued explaining. Seeing Fernando slowly flying closer while suspended in mid-air, I felt a sudden realization yet lingering doubts.

"Never mind the others, but his background as a Sage Council founder, does that mean the Council was also secretly dealing with monsters behind the scenes?"

This is harder to accept, because from Adonis' previous attitude, it didn't seem to be the case. But the Sage Council was indeed unnaturally unwilling to intervene in this Parristol conflict from the start, which is rather suspicious.

"It has nothing to do with the Council! I went my separate way from them over 300 years ago. Because they ignored my objections and chose to establish friendly relations with the angel race!" 

Perhaps overhearing my question, Fernando was very frank in clarifying this point first. It seems this guy really dislikes the angel race! He then went on to explain.

"But later on, I met Lady Michelle! Although she has the form of an angel, she is clearly different from those useless angels. As one of the Wills of this world, Lady Michelle naturally deserves my full devotion. As for you..."

At this point, he looked at me and his expression suddenly turned strange. 

"Earlier I thought you might possibly be another legendary great one, but after your performance, I'm so disappointed...The water element encompasses all attributes! As a researcher in water magic theory, I naturally know this. But you couldn't even withstand my 'Light Dragon', so you absolutely cannot be her!"

Alright! Hearing this, I finally get it a bit. He probably saw my blue-winged state and thought I might be the Water Angel, but then decided I wasn't as powerful as he imagined, so he outright dismissed that possibility.

"So I'm really sorry for being weak!" 

I couldn't help but sarcastically retort. But even so, I will eventually catch up to this Michelle! I'm much more confident now than before.

"But why aren't you fleeing in your current state? Do you really think you can still defeat Feliciana and me like this?"

Adrian didn't waver despite Fernando's words. Aiming his bow and arrow at him, but seeing my condition, he finally couldn't help but sigh.

"Alright, even if it's just me alone, you may not necessarily have the advantage!"

No matter what, Adrian is a human who has awakened his Battle Qi. Although Fernando is formidable, in such a severely injured state, his power is likely diminished by at least half, so the outcome is still uncertain. 

"Hahah...Indeed, with just my current abilities, dealing with both of you would be quite difficult. But don't forget, I'm not an idiot either. I prepared a backup plan in advance to prevent this very situation!"

Fernando is indeed crafty. We saw him summon another small creature, a round glowing orange-red one that flickered on and off, practically screaming "DANGER" loud and clear. 

"Isn't that just an 'Exploding Bug'?"

Adrian was puzzled seeing this.

"You think a monster of this level can intimidate us?"

"Of course not on its own. But the Exploding Bugs I can utilize are different - this is a Twin Exploding Bug that lives near the doomsday volcano in the Dark Continent! Not only is its explosive power far greater than a regular Exploding Bug, but more importantly, from birth to death it always exists as a pair. If one explodes, the other will simultaneously explode as well!"

Revealing a rare cruel smile, Fernando raised the Exploding Bug high and deliberately asked, "So do you know where the other one is right now?"

"Don't tell me...your purpose for sneaking over to the Central Lab earlier was for this?" 

Adrian's expression changed instantly upon hearing this, as if realizing some terrible possibility.

"For what?" 

Meanwhile, I stood by clueless, completely unaware of the riddle they were trading.

"Of course, it was to set up this backup plan on the central power core!" Fernando answered first.

"It wasn't the specific reason I went over there, but did you think we wouldn't have a contingency plan when you pretended to cooperate with us? Indeed, only you can control this city of Lantine Oasis. For the short term, we have no choice but to rely on your abilities. But just to be safe, taking some precautionary measures was absolutely necessary!"

It turns out, to prevent a fallout like the current situation, when Fernando went to the Central Lab, he had purposely released an Exploding Bug near the city's main power core room - essentially a remote-controlled bomb!

All he needs to do is detonate the Twin Exploding Bug in his hand, and the one secretly planted in the new power core room will explode together. The consequences would be simply unimaginable!