Chapter 160: 160 Fire Dragon Swallows the Sky

Chapter 160: The Fiery Dragon Swallows the Heavens

The assassins numbered seven in total.

No, to be more precise, seven were positioned around the exclusive grandstand where Romon stood; the number of those remaining cloaked in the dense fog was unknown to him.

Their arrangement was flawlessly executed—

Three knights, spearheaded by a Bronze Knight, pinned down Missy, while another two advanced knights contained Maken, leaving the final pair to assassinate Blanche and Romon respectively.

From that brief exchange just now, Romon deduced that the two targeting him and Blanche must also possess the strength of advanced rank.

Coupled with the wind-blade magic tearing through the heavy mist, this assassination attempt was staged with grand and formidable display.

"Kill them quickly!"

The Wind Whisper spell dispersed the surrounding mist to expose the assailants, catching them in a fleeting moment of bewilderment.

Yet they were well-trained killers; they reacted almost instantly, seeking to conclude this assassination with even greater swiftness.

"Be careful."

Blanche whispered a warning from within his embrace; she had not expected Romon to possess such strength, much less that he was a mage in addition to harboring battle qi.

This was a secret unknown to the outside world.

Facing the onslaught of two assassins at once, Romon held his sword in one hand, utterly devoid of fear.

Before the fog could swell back to fill the void left by the faded Wind Whisper spell, Romon forced one assassin back with a vibrating strike of his blade, then took a great stride forward, using his Flowing Flame sword to parry the second assassin's strike and press down upon him.

"Your strength!"

The assassin panicked completely; he felt an unshakeable force radiating from his opponent's blade, yet according to the intelligence, shouldn't this man be a mere novice knight?

He would never have the chance to learn the truth.

Romon offered no explanation; a murderous glint flashed in his eyes as his longsword swept across the man's throat, drawing a ribbon of fresh blood.

As this assassin collapsed into a pool of blood, the two who had been besieging Maken had also fallen, never to rise again, their necks twisted by immense force—they were clearly dead.

The current Maken was a bona fide Silver-tier combatant, and his martial skills had never been lacking; sending two advanced knights to contain him was undoubtedly an act of seeking their own graves.

Having dealt with the two assassins, Maken dashed toward the nearby Missy, forcefully breaking the deadlock the moment he arrived on the scene.

Missy had initially been quite frantic, not out of fear from being surrounded, but out of concern for Blanche's safety.

Blanche was only an intermediate mage; once a knight closed the distance for an assassination, survival became exceedingly difficult.

Yet to her astonishment, Romon—reputed by the outside world to possess abysmal aptitude for cultivation—had displayed such shocking prowess!

Furthermore, Missy noticed that the guard by Romon's side possessed incredible combat power, forcing back the strongest of her three assailants with a single stroke; it seemed he, too, had concealed his true strength!

"Go save the princess, leave this side to me."

Missy shouted hastily; though she was at a disadvantage, she could barely hold her ground, and ensuring Princess Blanche's safety was the utmost priority.

Maken did not follow Knight Missy's direction, as it conflicted with Romon's orders. Noting that Romon's side was now free of pressure, he engaged the Bronze assassin in battle.

The clash between Bronze-tier knights was fiercely intense, requiring a vast space.

Though Missy and Maken avoided the area where Romon and Blanche stood, the exclusive grandstand was only so large, and before long, the battle spilled outward.

The colliding, spraying battle qi formed incredibly sharp blades of energy, carving into the spectators who, trapped in the dense fog, were entirely unable to retreat.

The mere aftershocks of the combat claimed numerous lives.

Some were even more unfortunate, blown off the grandstand by the shockwaves to plunge toward the performance stage below; from a height of over a dozen meters, an ordinary person would likely be dashed to death.

Instantly, agonized screams, curses, and weeping echoed throughout the colosseum, completely devoid of the excitement that had accompanied the gladiator match moments earlier.

Taking advantage of the opening, Romon had already finished off the other assassin targeting him and Blanche, pulling her back a few paces.

"Are you alright?" Romon inquired.

"I—I am fine!"

Blanche's heart thudded wildly.

Having been held in Romon's single embrace just now, watching him slay with an unperturbed countenance, she found herself seemingly captivated by that very scene; even now, her pulse quickened at the memory.

At the same time, she could not comprehend why someone as exceptional as Romon would be stripped of his inheritance.

She did not believe Marquess Rulance would commit such an absurd act; there must be some hidden reason behind it—could this be a stratagem jointly deployed by the grandfather and grandson?

"You..."

Blanche was just about to ask when she saw Romon staring intently ahead, where the mist surged and a tall silhouette slowly materialized.

"Interesting, I did not expect our intelligence to be false."

The voice carried a mocking amusement. "Romon, you actually possess such formidable strength, and your combat techniques are by no means low."

As he spoke, the man revealed his face—it was Mondo, the gladiator who had just taken the stage!

In Romon's perception just moments ago, this fellow had leapt directly onto the dozen-meter-high grandstand, which indicated that his strength was exceedingly powerful!

At the very least, a Bronze Knight was incapable of such a feat.

As expected, an assassination plot against a princess would never be a small-scale affair.

"Who are you people, the Skeleton Society?"

Romon demanded, "What is the purpose behind assassinating the princess?"

"You need not concern yourself with that; for now, you and Princess Blanche can prepare to wed in hell."

The man said, drawing a slender sword from his waist, intending to dispose of Romon first before killing Blanche.

But at that very moment, a sound like a dragon's roar dispersed the surrounding mist, revealing a scroll held in Romon's hand at some unknown point, with boundless fire elements converging upon it to form a visible red vortex.

Immediately following the dragon's cry, the massive illusion of a fiery dragon erupted from the spell scroll, lunging toward Mondo.

It opened its cavernous maw as endless flames poured forth like a bursting dam, instantly incinerating the grandstand ahead.

This was the tier-six spell scroll "Fiery Dragon Swallows the Heavens" prepared for Romon by Rulance, and Romon unleashed it now without a shred of hesitation.

The primary reason was that this Mondo instilled too great a sense of danger in him, and as a trump card arranged for the princess's assassination, his strength was bound to be extraordinary.

"You actually possess a tier-six spell scroll on your person!"

Mondo had clearly not anticipated such a scenario, instantly shifting his offensive mindset to a defensive stance.

His battle qi condensed into a brilliant golden armor across his body, while a massive blade aura erupted from his longsword, as if intending to sever the giant flame dragon in two.

"Boom!"

The impact and collision of the two forces erupted in a deafening roar that shook the entire grandstand, causing the area ahead to crack inch by inch, dissolving into stones of various sizes that tumbled downward.

Mondo's hurried strike had clearly failed to withstand the might of Romon's "Fiery Dragon Swallows the Heavens" scroll; his entire form was blasted by the immense fiery shockwave, hurtling toward the combat arena of the colosseum.

The green-skinned troll, who had been peering about aimlessly in the mist, served as a collateral victim, flattened instantly by the force of the impact.

The skyrocketing temperature and violent shockwave completely dispelled the dense fog blanketing the colosseum, allowing the spectators whose vision had been obscured to finally see clearly once more.

Yet when they took in the surrounding sights, some were scared out of their wits on the spot, freezing in place as if their souls had departed.

At this moment, countless bodies lay strewn across the grandstands.

Some had been wounded by the residual energy of the clash between Maken, Missy, and the others, while others were casualties of the shockwave born from the recent collision between Mondo and the fire dragon.

Those luckier ones suffered only injuries; the less fortunate died on the spot.

“My lord, how are you faring?”

“Your Highness, have you been wounded?”

McKen and Missy, having ended the battle, rushed over swiftly.

Blanche shook her head slightly. “Thanks to Ronin’s protection, I am unharmed.”

“I’m fine too.”

Ronin had not been injured, but the use of the sixth-level spell scroll had drained his mental energy severely; he was now utterly exhausted.

With great effort, he mustered his strength and asked, “Any survivors?”

McKen shook his head. “I had intended to capture one alive, but that man poisoned himself.”

Ronin frowned deeply—these assassins were unlike the Shadows; they were resolved to die rather than fail.

He glanced at the arena, where a massive crater had been torn open. Yet at its center lay only the corpse of the green-skinned ogre—no trace of Mondo’s body.

Clearly, the golden knight had escaped the battlefield unscathed.

(End of Chapter)