"Entei?!" the dragon said as he stood tall and mighty above Ed. His Black scales absorbed the surrounding sunlight, giving the dragon a natural light protection shield, which looked like a black fog.
"Entei, it means Flame Emperor," Ed said. "I don't plan on calling you 'Calamity Black Dragon' every time I want to address you."
"I'm not your pet, human!" the dragon seemed as if he was insulted. The black fog surrounding his body thickened as he raised his front right limb. The dragon swiped it in the direction of Ed, leaving behind black burning marks on the ground. However, before he could even reach Ed, WarGreymon interfered and blocked the black claws with his Brave Shield.
The two struggled, trying to overpower one another, but to no avail. They were at a standstill.
"Move away, small Dragonoid!" the dragon said as he breathed flames towards Ed and WarGreymon, but, once again, the flames reached neither of them. Sieg interfered this time and trapped the flames in a barrier. He had done the same with Sarin's poison earlier.
"Grrr…" the black dragon was not happy at all, but he knew he was overbearing. He realized that he was trying to fight the people who had, to a certain degree saved his own life, when he should be focusing on getting revenge on the person that controlled him. He raised his head high, flapped his wings and sent sand and ground pieces flying all over as he roared to the sky.
Asem approached Ed from behind and said, "I told you that was a bad idea. Dragons are not to be trusted!"
"I know, I never said I trust him. But, there was no way of escaping that situation," Ed said with a hint of regret. "However, you needn't worry. With a soul contract, he won't dare to make a stupid move. Plus, I have my own way of controlling him in case he goes berserk. Although I'd like to avoid since I'll lose all of his trust if I were to do something like that."
With Ed's final words, Asem no longer had anything to say and retreated back. Ed gathered everyone around and passed potions and healing pills around. He had done so before, but since he held the greatest reserve out of everyone, he chose to let their healing items stay untouched.
"We need to follow after Sarin," he said. "I believe he went to meet up with the Blood sect master, and that means bad news for us since he'll tell him all about our abilities. However, even if we were to go now, we wouldn't be able to do much to them together. So, we'll have to, unfortunately, use up some time.
"Asem, I want you and the others to head back to Avalon," Ed's words came as a surprise to Asem, who believed he would be fighting until the end of this war, but, before the latter could voice his unhappiness, Ed continued, "You'll have to meet with anyone who finished their mission and tell them of our current situation. I'll come and pick everyone up in exactly one hour."
"What if no one was there?"
"There will be, trust me."
Silence took over once again as the sun's orange-red rays shone their last on them. The cold of the night took over, and the winds howled in the now empty battleground. Yet, Ed and the others were unaffected. The towering, mountain-like dragon proved to be quite the useful shield for them.
"Sieg, Suika, you two will stay right here with me," Ed turned around once Asem and the others teleported away. "I'll need your help. As for the others, I want to go and take all the valuables inside the Poison sect. I doubt any high-grade materials will be in the sect instead of Sarin's spatial ring, but since they were so sure of their victory, I'm certain they will have something there. You should also retrieve that filth's spatial ring."
Although Ed didn't use his name, everyone understood that the filth meant No-bō.
Everyone left immediately, and only Ed, Sieg, Suika, and the proud dragon remained.
"Sieg, I plan to train against Sarin's poison, the one you put away. We have one hour, so we'll be using a dimension, I need you to stay back and inform the others when they come back. As for you, Suika, you get to eat poison after a long time. Well, after I'm finished with it hahaha…"
Sieg and Suika stared at Ed as his eyes flashed red. The dragon seemed to notice something, as he raised his head which rested on the ground and peeked at Ed. A moment later, the human and the slime disappeared. The dragon squinted his eyes and soon noticed the skeleton-like monster. The Elder Lich had his hand raised in front of him, and his fingers were all gathered in his palm, except for one of them, which pointed at the sky.
The dragon didn't understand what it meant, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed at the gesture. Alas, he couldn't do anything, so he rested back one again.
Inside of the dimension Ed created, there were a couple of red cubes floating in the air. They were all filled with the poison smog created from Sarin's strongest attacks.
Ed stepped in front of the first one, opened it, and stepped inside. A layer of aura protected his whole body from the poison, but it was corroded as soon as it started interacting with the poison. Ed was not worried, however, as he had enough faith in his energy reserves. He created a pocket room with his Wind Magic, and let in a small amount of poison. He breathed it in.
Ed could feel the poison burn his insides as soon as he entered him. He had felt the pain many times while fighting Sarin, but it was still unbearable. His Poison Resistance skill kicked in soon after and started to neutralize the red fumes inside of his body. Ed chose to back it up by enhancing his immune system with his Hatsu. Soon after, he expelled dark-red fumes out of his mouth. He kept repeating the same thing until the poison in the first chamber had been exhausted, and only the lesser dark red version remained.
"Suika, you can gobble it up," Ed said as he exited the first cube. He made his way towards the second.
.
.
.
In Avalon, Asem and the rest of the Sword sect appeared in the castle's open yard. They walked inside as per Ed's orders and made their way into the throne room. There, they noticed a couple of familiar faces. It was Hayato, Ellie, and the others. However, they weren't looking exactly as they last saw them.
They were all covered in cuts, bruises, and most importantly, their own blood.
"That you, Asem?" Hayato said with a hoarse voice as he noticed someone approaching.
"You…? What happened to you guys?! Did a master do this to you? Was it Sarin?!" Asem quickly approached them as he felt his heart thump harder than ever.
"Sarin? So Ed didn't finish him off…This is bad, more things keep escaping Ed's predictions…"
"What are you muttering?! Tell me what happened! What happened to Eric, why is he unconscious?!" Asem shouted as he crouched down next to the bloodiest body out of those present, Eric's. Those behind him could only gasp in horror.
"He protected us while we prepared for our escape. You see, they ambushed us right after we killed the crimson woman. He was too strong, far stronger than anyone I've ever faced. He reminded me of Ed."
Hope you enjoy the chapter!