Chapter 121: Ruin awakening
The Ironwing Drake lowered its body and charged again.
Xingluo tightened both hands around Heavenfall and waited until its right wing shifted. She stepped outside the first claw, turned with the Drake's movement and cut beneath the wing before it could fold back against its body.
Several scales split.
The Drake twisted immediately, protecting the same side with its shoulder while its tail swept across the stone behind it.
Xingluo did not block this time. She caught the tail against the flat of Heavenfall and guided it past her, letting its own momentum carry the strike into the uneven ground beside her.
The tail shattered a section of rock.
Xingluo moved in before the Drake could recover and drove Heavenfall toward the exposed joint.
The blade opened another narrow wound.
The Drake pulled away with one wingbeat and landed several metres higher along the slope.
Xingluo followed.
It charged downhill.
She moved toward the rougher side of the basin, forcing the Drake between several broken stone ridges where its wings could not open fully without striking the rock.
The first claw missed.
Xingluo cut across its foreleg.
The Drake snapped toward her, but she slipped beneath the jaw and struck the wounded wing again.
This time the blade entered deeper.
The Drake roared and slammed its shoulder sideways.
Xingluo caught the movement early and jumped back before the impact reached her.
For the first time since the fight began, she had forced it through several exchanges without being thrown across the basin.
Xingluo changed direction again and tried to repeat the same entry from the opposite side.
The Drake had already learned.
Its injured wing folded tighter against the ribs while the opposite claw reached across its own body, cutting off the angle before Xingluo could step through. She turned Heavenfall sideways and let the claw slide along the blade, then used the contact to push herself toward the beast's rear leg.
Her sword struck there instead.
The Drake jumped before she could follow, using both wings to clear the ridge and land in open ground.
Xingluo stopped chasing.
It had taken only a few exchanges for the beast to stop giving her the same opening.
Wuxia watched from near Ruan Mei and Xiaorou.
He said nothing.
The Drake stopped following her into the narrow space.
Instead, it spread its wings and jumped onto the ridge above.
Xingluo frowned.
The beast pushed off immediately.
It cleared the broken terrain completely and dropped behind her, landing hard enough to shake loose stone down the slope.
Xingluo turned.
The tail was already coming.
She redirected the first sweep, but the Drake followed with a claw from the opposite side.
Heavenfall came up in time.
The impact drove her backward.
The Drake pressed forward before she could reset her footing.
A second claw struck Heavenfall, followed by a wing that opened halfway and smashed into her shoulder.
Xingluo slid across the stone and stopped beside one of the broken ridges.
The Drake had stopped entering the spaces where she could control its movement.
It was forcing her back into the open.
Xingluo pushed herself forward again.
Star Energy moved more heavily through her body, gathering along Heavenfall in thin silver-gold lines.
The Drake charged.
Xingluo stepped inside the first claw and cut across its foreleg with more force than before.
Three scales broke.
The Drake's leg buckled slightly.
Xingluo turned Heavenfall immediately toward the shoulder.
The second strike drove the beast sideways for the first time.
Xiaorou leaned forward. "That actually moved it."
Ruan Mei kept watching. "Not enough."
Xingluo pressed the opening.
She struck the same foreleg again, then cut toward the base of the wing before the Drake could fully turn.
The beast accepted the shallow cut.
Its shoulder crashed directly into Xingluo.
Her feet left the ground.
Before she could land, the Drake opened one wing and struck her across the side.
Xingluo blocked part of it with Heavenfall, but the impact still threw her into the rocky slope.
She hit hard and dropped onto one knee.
Wuxia's attention sharpened.
Your left side is slowing.
Xingluo pushed herself upright.
I noticed.
The Drake came down the slope toward her.
Xingluo moved before it reached her and avoided the first bite, but the follow-up tail clipped her ribs.
Her armor cracked across one side.
She stumbled, recovered, and cut beneath the Drake's neck before it could turn.
The blade broke another scale and drew blood.
The Drake answered with a wing-assisted pivot that forced Xingluo to block instead of continue attacking.
Another claw followed.
Then another.
Each impact pushed her farther across the basin.
She stopped trying to return every attack and focused on staying inside the sequence.
A claw came high.
She turned it aside.
The jaws followed.
She stepped toward the Drake's chest.
Its wing shifted.
Xingluo moved early, but the tail came from the opposite side this time.
She barely pulled Heavenfall across her body.
The strike caught the blade and sent both her and the weapon skidding several metres.
Wuxia moved one step forward.
If this gets worse, I'm interfering.
Xingluo grabbed Heavenfall and stood.
Then wait until it actually gets worse.
That was not reassuring.
She did not answer.
The Drake spread its wings and rushed again.
Xingluo drew more Star Energy into Heavenfall.
The silver-gold light brightened along the blade as she met the charge from an angle rather than retreating.
The first claw missed.
Xingluo turned with the Drake and drove Heavenfall through the damaged scales along its shoulder.
The Ruin-enhanced strike broke through several layers.
Blood sprayed across the stone.
The Drake was forced sideways.
Xingluo followed immediately and struck again before it could fully recover.
Another scale broke.
The wound widened.
For half a second, the Drake gave ground.
Then its head snapped toward her.
Xingluo avoided the jaws and moved toward the wounded wing again.
The Drake twisted away deliberately.
She realized what it was doing too late.
Its tail came from her blind side.
Behind you.
Wuxia's warning reached her just before the impact.
Xingluo turned Heavenfall across her body.
The tail hit the blade hard enough to collapse her guard.
She was thrown through the air and struck the ground twice before crashing into a low stone outcrop.
A section of her armor flickered across the ribs and shoulder.
Heavenfall landed several metres away.
Xingluo coughed and pushed herself onto one knee.
The Drake was already charging.
Ruan Mei moved first.
"Enough."
Xiaorou drew her sword and stepped forward beside her.
Wuxia's hand lowered as soul power gathered around his fingers.
The Drake crossed half the basin.
Then light appeared across Xingluo's armor.
Ruan Mei stopped.
Thin silver-gold lines spread from Xingluo's chest across the existing structure of the armor, moving over her shoulders, arms and legs like connected stars.
Xingluo looked down once.
"What—"
The light brightened.
[Star of Ruin activated.]
A second notification appeared immediately afterward.
[Star Avatar Descending.]
Xingluo's purple hair began losing its colour.
White spread from the roots through every strand until her hair shone almost completely beneath the gathering Star Energy.
The mark upon her forehead brightened with it.
Wuxia stared.
He had been ready to summon Varkhiel.
Now he did nothing.
The Drake reached her.
One massive claw came down toward Xingluo before she had time to understand what had happened.
She moved.
Instead of raising Heavenfall, Xingluo stepped forward and drove one glowing leg into the Drake's forelimb.
The collision struck hard enough to crack the stone beneath her foot.
Xingluo did not move backward.
The Drake did.
Its claw was knocked aside and the entire front of its body shifted several metres across the basin.
Ruan Mei stopped beside Xiaorou.
Neither continued forward.
Xingluo looked at her own hand while dense Star Energy moved across her fingers and through the glowing lines of her armor.
The Drake recovered quickly.
It spread one wing and pushed itself toward her again.
"We can figure this out later."
Wuxia answered immediately through the Anchor Link.
For once, I completely agree.
Xingluo reached Heavenfall before the Drake arrived.
Her fingers closed around the handle.
The blade brightened the moment she lifted it.
The Drake struck with one claw.
Xingluo met it directly.
Heavenfall stopped the limb without throwing her away.
The Drake immediately followed with its opposite wing.
Xingluo stepped inside the movement and struck the base of the wing before it could fully open.
The blade tore through several scales that had resisted her earlier attacks.
The Drake twisted away and snapped toward her shoulder.
Xingluo moved beneath its jaw and drove one hand against the side of its neck.
The beast staggered.
She stared at it for half a second.
"So that's different."
The Drake answered with a roar and opened both wings.3
Xingluo raised Heavenfall.
This time she did not retreat.
The Drake rushed across the basin while Star Energy gathered more densely along her blade.
Ruan Mei and Xiaorou remained at the edge.
Wuxia watched without moving.
The Drake's claw came down.
Heavenfall rose to meet it.
Then they collided.