Strangely enough, the Dragon King suddenly stopped attacking them, putting an end to the torrents of devastating purple flames that had been pushing his race to the brink of extinction. The remaining Dragons also followed their King's example, giving the sky a long awaited break from magic.
However, Kigiisa did not feel the slightest bit happy. In fact he felt even more troubled.
In a minute or so, he and the remaining members of his race will be able to activate the Call of Death once again, it was the powerful sound technique that they had first used and was the specialty of his race that not many could resist. The whole plan had been to use this technique once and then use the resulting chaos to run back to the mainland where they could hide behind others. That was their entire mission, issued by the Phoenix of Envy himself. Hit and run.
It was certainly not within their plan to see most of the dragons actually keep the ability to maintain flight, and it was even further beyond their imagination to see the Dragon King be completely unaffected.
Before Kigiisa and the other Death Howlers could flee, they were submerged in purple flames and an avalanche of rocks that forced them to use their all to defend.
Initially it wasn't too critical. The lot of them could conjure shields of wind and combine them all to form an impenetrable defence, which was another specialty unique to their race. What could merely 2 attackers do against that? They even had enough leeway to let off attacks of their own and give the giant Dragon King some trouble in return.
But things took a turn for the worse when the other Dragons began to stabilise themselves sooner than expected and get involved. Holes in their defences formed and it only went downhill from there.
Now they were here.
*RUMBLE!* Thunder rolled across the clouds once more.
The purple lights of his eyes gradually dimmed to nothing as the creeping weight of despair settled on his back.
To be honest, up till now, he had harboured hopes that they could survive long enough to use another Call of Death and potentially turn things around. He wasn't hoping for the Death Howlers to win, that was impossible. But he desperately wanted his race to escape this fatal calamity.
But with an eerie change of events coming in the form of a wrathful water element Dragon, his hope gradually faded to ashes.
If only he could-
*Tss~*
'???' Kigiisa grunted in surprised discomfort as he felt something hot land his flesh, but before he could decide to investigate with his Spirit Sense, more kept dropping and he soon realised what it was. It was the rain, but not as it was before.
The temperature of the rain had drastically increased, and it was still rising!
'What is this? Hot rain?! It's… burning me?!' Kigiisa was baffled. He wasn't unfamiliar with the concept of hot liquids, but they usually came in the form of something like acid or supernaturally heated blood. Not… water. Was this still even water?
Trepidation filled his heart and his empty eye sockets suddenly refilled with a purple radiance as he looked up at the blue Dragon above.
'It must be that Dragon's doing! What has it done?!'
"ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The Dragon roared once more and the speed at which the rain's temperature increased spiked 2 seconds later. Immediately after, screams of agony and despair began to ring once more.
'They're done for.' Kigiisa realised at once with horror.
Unlike before, the 4th Realm members of his race (which weren't many to begin with) could no longer stand at the forefront of their weaker members to defend them. The area of effect of this blistering rain was too large and there was nowhere to escape in this open sky. Every Death Howler below the 4th Realm was doomed, just like that.
Kigiisa's heart dropped and his flesh twisted with anger, but he immediately made a vicious call out.
=We must abandon those before the 4th Realm. Run!=
He sent this telepathic message to the 4 other Death Howlers in the 4th Realm (7 had died) before turning to flee without looking back.
=Kigiisa, how can you do this?!= Came the voice of Rekt, another Elder Death Howler. Everyone else had already started to flee but him.
=Run you FOOL! RUN! THEY ARE FINISHED! DON'T YOU GET IT?!= Kigiisa replied with frustrated anger, but he didn't slow down for a second. In fact his speed was increasing.
For a moment Rekt didn't say anything and Kigiisa was getting progressively worried, but then the male did speak.
=...I cannot. I cannot abandon them. Kigiisa… You… must preserve our race. Don't let us go extinct.= The voice carried no emotion, as was typical with most telepathic messages, but there was a sense of finality to it that made Kigiisa's heart skip a beat.
"FOOL!" He cried out with despair, but there was nothing he could do. Many memories and thoughts flashed through his mind like a series of sparks, but presently they were all worthless. Rekt was-
"YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN?!" A deep and terrifying yet feminine voice tore through the sky, clearly amplified by mana.
Kigiisa didn't turn back, but through his Spirit Sense he could see that the blue Dragon had started descending towards them. He could even hear the whooshing sound of her wings beating against the sky, it was like a countdown to the end as it became louder and more frequent the closer she got.
The speed of flight powered by wind magic was generally inferior to the flight speed powered by real wings. There were exceptions, but this was certainly not one of them. It was very apparent that the blue Dragon would catch up to them sooner or later, and whoever she caught up to would not have a good time.
Kigiisa felt regret.
In truth, his being here was not of his own volition. He did not accept Envy's mission because he wanted merits or achievements. As for killing for the sake of cultivation, if he wanted targets to kill he would not have targeted something as prodigiously destructive as Dragons, creatures that Envy himself had made warnings about way before the creatures had ever shown their faces.
No, he was not here for any of that. He was here because Envy wanted him and his race to die.