Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The Dragon Princess didn't seem to have any intention of turning into a human. She didn't speak a single word, but her actions said all that needed to be said.

If a human could take a Beast Heir Title by pretending to be a beast, she would naturally be able to take a Human Title while very much being a beast. She was superior in every way, after all.

Sometimes, in a world like this one, silence and action were all that was required.

Sarriel looked over to the Dragon Princess, finding herself irrationally angry.

Maybe it was because she had repressed her feelings for Ryu for so long, but in her mind, it didn't matter how unruly or unreasonable Ryu was being. Whatever he wanted, the world owed him. Who was this Dragon Princess to appear here and try to make a statement about her husband?

A sword howl came from Sarriel's katana, sharp blade winds cutting across the skies with savage momentum. Her sword hardly quivered, and yet the world bowed into obedience.

Aurelia only elegantly pointed, and her silk-laced sword fluttered down from her back, landing in her palm as though it had always been there.

The Dragon Princess looked to Sarriel, her lavender slit eyes flickering with blade lights. She raised a claw and pointed toward Sarriel.

CHI.

Fast.

That was the only way it could be described. It was like it ignored time and space, blinking out of existence and then back into it. In one moment, the Dragon Princess had raised her claw, and in the next, the blade light was already at Sarriel's throat.

No one even saw Sarriel move, however.

The blade light shattered, a rain of fragmented glass falling down as her cascade of black, shimmering hair danced amidst the wind. Her long ears trembled only the slightest bit, as though in acknowledgment that she had, indeed, moved.

Sarriel's eyes were a much deeper shade of purple, and when she looked at the Dragon Princess, it was as though she was trying to decide exactly how to slice and dice her up.

Her white gown fluttered in the air, and she took a step forward.

In that moment, the two women seemed to have completely forgotten that they had a third opponent in the first place. But Aurelia didn't seem to care either. She just stood there, her eyes half-closed, silky ribbons fluttering around her delicate body.

Sarriel and the Dragon Princess vanished.

Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi.

It was impossible to see their bodies. Streaks of purple and lavender filled the skies, and in brief instances, it would be possible to see a silvery arc of a katana or a piercing strike of a claw.

There wasn't even the slightest hint of qi used, the truest display of swordsmanship dancing across the skies.

With the backdrop of darkness, it felt like they were watching shooting stars connect star maps—the start and end of the universe all at once.

Until…

PUCHI.

Blood spurted, and a roar filled the skies.

The spectators watched as a scaled finger fell through the skies.

The Dragon Prince stirred, a deep, rumbling growl coming from the depths of his soul.

But as soon as it appeared, so too did a second rumbling.

Ryu didn't even open his eyes, but a guttural growl came from the depths of his chest. The vibrations were so violent that his pillar swayed from side to side.

A clash of two men echoed across the skies, bouncing against the barrier protecting the Title contestants and causing it to quake nonetheless.

Neither of them opened their eyes, and yet they both knew exactly which of them was acting, and exactly why that was.

The Dragon Princess appeared in the skies, and the world finally saw the sight they had been hidden from.

Her gorgeous, lavender-scaled body was covered in streaks of sword marks, and now, one of her claws was missing, dripping with what was probably some of the most precious blood in the world.

"If you want to show others up, you should probably check to make sure you have the strength to do so," Sarriel said coldly. "A beast will always be a beast. Don't overestimate yourself."

The Dragon Princess' eyes bulged, fury billowing off of her in waves.

Her aura was slowly growing, and then, before everyone's eyes, she began to shrink.

Slowly but surely, a woman with beauty beyond words appeared in a lavender dress. On her head, a pair of horns curled as though she refused to give up the last bit of dragonkin in her.

Blood dripped from one of her hands, but as the droplets accumulated, something shocking happened. They slowly began to form the edge of a blade, then its body, and then its hilt.

Soon, the Dragon Princess stood in silence, an enormous, curved greatsword the length of her body resting in her palm.

It was true, she had been quite stubborn trying to stay in her dragon form to win this battle. If this wasn't a Title battle, it would have been just fine. That was because she would have access to her full range of abilities.

But just like Sarriel and Aurelia, she was suppressed. She could use nothing but the sword. Trying to use a human weapon in beast form while her other abilities were suppressed had handicapped her to less than 10% of the strength she should have otherwise been able to display.

And now her stubbornness had gotten her injured. Whether she could even still participate in this battle as an equal or not was in the air.

But she would surely try.

She raised her blade.

"Do you think this will make a difference?" Sarriel asked.

The words had hardly left her lips when they both moved.

The clash of swords filled the skies, but without having to deal with such a large target, Sarriel's blade became smoother, faster.

She hadn't been used to fighting such a large opponent with only her sword available to her. While the Dragon Princess thought the bump in strength would make a large difference, to Sarriel, the shrinking in size was practically like putting her head on a platter for her…

Especially since the Dragon Princess' raw strength plummeted off a cliff.

Their blades intersected, reflecting off one another. Both blades were exceptionally long, but one of them was thick and unruly while the other seemed to vanish in certain lights.

To her credit, the Dragon Princess wielded the heavy greatsword as though it was nothing more than a feather, and her speed was no less dexterous.

Sarriel's wrist suddenly twisted during a particularly heavy clash. The Dragon Princess couldn't react in time to the sudden shift in angle. Or rather, she would have been able to… had she not been missing a finger.

The Dragon Princess tried to apply pressure on the region to stop Sarriel's blade from sliding up her own, only to hit nothing but air.

When she realized that Sarriel was targeting her missing finger, her expression changed, but it was already too late.

Her arm flew into the air.

The Dragon Princess' eyes bulged not with pain, but fury. She had never felt so humiliated in her life. Unfortunately, Sarriel's blade never stopped and was already coming for her neck.

Raising her only remaining hand, the Dragon Princess burst back into her draconic form.

CHI.

Another arm flew into the skies, but the size change was enough for the Dragon Princess to escape.

She retreated wildly, the wounds Sarriel left on her body being so clean that it wasn't until several moments later that blood began to pool at all.

The Dragon Princess' hot breath filled the space as her body pressed against the barrier. Another step back and she would be giving up on the Title. But her heart was entirely unwilling.
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It was all her fault. If she had just entered her human form immediately, there was no way this battle would have ended so pitifully. Her pride had gotten the best of her.

"Return."

The deep rumbling voice of her husband shook the Dragon Princess awake. She lowered her head in shame and left the barrier before Sarriel could attack again.

"Come here," the Dragon Prince spoke again.

The Dragon Princess obediently flew over.

The two beasts intertwined their bodies, and the Dragon Prince began to lovingly lick at her wounds. The Dragon Princess practically purred, curling into her husband's body. The deep shame she felt only grew deeper under his care. She felt like she had let down their entire kind because of her pride.

The Dragon Prince didn't say anything else, but his fury caused the space to tremble. Cracks began to appear in the pillar they intertwined their bodies on, causing several pupils to constrict into pinholes. Just how much power did it take to do such a thing? Just how dense was a material formed by the Title Stele?

There was no doubt that the Dragon Prince was truly infuriated this time.