The formation had completed its fourth form. All hundred dragons revived, they were now Soul Refining stage beasts. Each dragon was over seventy meters long and radiated an aura of pure destruction.
Everything looked extremely realistic even though it was all just created from a formation. The vast aura from the hundred dragons pressed against Lailah to the point where she even struggled to breathe as if she was dying from asphyxiation.
Another dragon's roar resounded as several dozen dragons charged at Lailah. Their auras were like a huge mountain, brutally pressing against Lailah's soft body.
Lailah was pale, she had already given up resisting. When she broke through the third form of the formation, she had already lost a great amount of lifeblood. She was so weak that she would not even have the power to face the third form again right now, much less the fourth.
Several dozen huge Soul Refining dragons aggressively charged at Lailah, wanting to break her into pieces. The distance between them was decreasing rapidly.
Lailah slowly closed her eyes, falling to the ground while slowly losing her consciousness. Her heart was filled with an unwillingness to give in, but she had no power to resist the fourth form.
Just when she was about to accept her fate, a golden bolt of lightning flashed in the hazy space when the dragons were a hundred meters away from her.
Michael directly charged into the formation's space, with one goal in his mind, save Lailah. As soon as he entered, the scene before him changed drastically, he saw the might of the killing formation clearly. He appeared right beside Lailah, so everything he saw was exactly what Lailah was experiencing. A few dragons had already flown over, swinging their huge dragon claws filled with a force capable of shattering the void at him. The claws were already less than ten meters from their heads.
Time was of the essence, if he wanted to save her and escape this formation, he had to find the formation's source. He did not have the time to say anything as he lifted her from the ground.
"Lightning Dash"
All of his hair suddenly stood up like he was zapped. He sensed the great danger rapidly drawing closer and closer with each passing second. While carrying her in his arms, he activated the Lightning Dash before swallowing the remaining perception pills he had. When Lailah was surrounded by the death-kissed aura, the hundred dragons in the formation lost their target as they suddenly looked confused.
A small sigh of relief escaped his mouth when he saw the confused look on the gigantic creatures. However, he did not waste any seconds as he paid closer attention to every nook and cranny in the formation to find the source. After losing their initial target, the hundred dragons turned their attention towards the mindless mutated beings who had rushed into the formation. While the mutated beings were being disintegrated by the dragon's breaths, Michael was searching for the source.
"There it is" Lady luck was with him this time as he found out the source sooner than he expected. The source was a small stone that was laying on the ground in plain sight. Thanks to his heightened senses due to the perception pills, he identified the stone as the source before sending a bolt of lightning at the stone. The moment the bolt of lightning hit the stone, the scenery around him changed in a blink of an eye, and without him knowing, he was teleported away from where he was.
Realizing he escaped the formation and somewhat understood that he was teleported, he sucked in a deep breath, slowly calming himself. Just as he sucked in that breath, he smelt a vague fragrance. His attention, which had been focused on the experience in the formation from before, was directed toward Lailah.
Currently, Lailah had collapsed on Michael's body powerlessly. Her slightly warm body pressed closely to Michael's toned chest, her face pale and her eyes dull. She was extremely weak. Breaking the third form of the formation before had cost her dearly, to the point where she did not even have the power to move. The Angel's veena that she always carried had disappeared too, returning inside her body.
Feeling Lailah's soft body and the fragrance, his heartbeat increased a little which was not surprising because any man would tremble or at least slightly if they saw a gorgeous woman like Lailah. She had always been a dignified, saintly, and divine woman to Michael. Never had he thought that they would be so physically close.
However, he was not one of those guys who would drool and turn into an absolute beta in front of beauty like her. After all, only because he was an alpha male, he got the badass system.
"Lady Alden, are you awake?" He gently placed Lailah's back against a huge tree after he looked around to see if any mutated beings were approaching them.
Lailah slowly opened her eyes to see Michael staring at her. A red flush immediately appeared on her concealed face when she realized that he carried her in his arms here. However, she recovered very quickly, "you're alive" Lailah's voice carried a sliver of surprise but it was extremely indifferent.
He lightly chuckled, "Sorry to disappoint you, Lady Alden" for a second, he saw her smile before she put an indifferent expression on her face.
"How did you escape the formation back there?" She asked, a sliver of shock was hidden within her eyes.
"It was because of this baby dragon's aura, Lady Alden" Michael gently tapped the baby dragon on his chest.
"Surprisingly those dragons in the formation couldn't sense you after I picked you up. After that, I just kept running before something teleported us here " he did not reveal the fact that he could find a formation's power source because he wasn't sure whether it's an ancient secret part or not. He believed it's safe not to say anything until he himself confirms this with Gaya, his most trusted advisor.
"You must have triggered something," Lailah said after staring at him doubtfully for a few seconds. She couldn't find any explanations for how he escaped as she thought that he was just lucky.
A beast-like roar suddenly appeared from the distance as Lailah wanted to continue her questions. Her eyes narrowed abruptly when heard the roars.
Her face became grim once again. She said softly, "I've already used a large portion of my lifeblood battling those dragons. I can't fight another battle until I regain at least some of my lost energy and lifeblood"
"It's okay Lady Alden, can you at least move?"
As he expected, he slowly shook her head, trying not to look embarrassed.
"So Lady Alden..." he didn't finish the sentence but she knew what he was implying and even though she understood that she had to be carried, she couldn't help but hesitate.
The roars in the distance became louder and louder,
"Lady Alden, we cannot waste any more time, please let me" his smile disappeared from his face as a stern occupied his face.he then directly lifted her up before she could even nod because this was not the time for her to play shy princess.
Her body slightly trembled in his arms while a tint of redness appeared on her rosy cheeks. He did not notice the changes on her face, he was busy running away from the mutated beings while hoping not to trigger any more formations.
Along the way, Lailah witnessed the terrifying power of the movement spell he's using. It really surprised her and made her wonder if this is an Epic or Legendary spell. Even with his Body Strengthening stage cultivation, the spell exhibited a shocking level of potential.
After he began to lose sight of the mutated beings that were following them, he stopped occasionally to collect as many precious herbs as he could.
It must be mentioned that there really were many rare resources in The Treacherous Ocean. Herbs with a maturity of Thousand years were basically everywhere.
Only after running for several hours did he stop. Lailah essentially spent the entire time meditating in his arms, eyes closed to regain some of her energy. She was the person most at leisure.
At dusk, Michael found another cave to settle down in. The pitch-black cave only had a single luminous pearl as a light source. The weakened Lailah sat in a slightly dark corner, still recovering silently with her eyes closed.
"Take these Lady Alden, although it won't help you regain your lifeblood, it will heal your body" Lailah heard a warm voice. Michael squatted beside her with a few healing potions in his hand. She could not help but think of the scene where he carried her as they fled from the mutated beings earlier in the day right now.
Lailah slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the healing potions in Michael's hand calmly and gently shook her head. "I'm not injured. I've just expended too much of my lifeblood. I need rare herbs to recover"
"The fuck?" Her words stunned him, he collected all those herbs to expand his herbal garden as well as use them to make potions and pills for him, Gaya, and the baby dragon. He was also planning to auction some of those herbs to make a shitload of gold coins. After seeing her current condition, he sighed and took out three thousand years old blood leaf from his Space Ring without showing the reluctance on his face.
He then passed them to Lailah, "I don't know if this is enough. If it's not enough, I still have a few more" he said but hoped it would be enough for her to recover her strength. To cure the baby dragon and successfully get the Demon dragon's heart, he needed her more than she needed him. He was willing to lose a few herbs to save his baby dragon.
A sliver of surprise flashed across her face. She looked at Michael with mixed emotions, before extending her soft hand to receive the blood leaves.
"Thank you."
…
Michael did not choose to advance into the depths of The Treacherous Ocean the next day as Lailah was still recovering. Instead, he carved out a new cave as a temporary dwelling and stayed there, waiting for Lailah to regain at least some of her strength back.
The wait lasted for two days. During that time, Lailah recovered some of her lifeblood and Celestial Energy with the help of the three blood leaves. Unlike her, he recovered all of his Arch energy, returning to his peak strength. Afterward, she left the cave with Michael.
Outside the cave, he retrieved his flying sword and tossed it into the air before turning to look at the veiled Lailah, "Lady Alden, we should travel together so you can save your strength, we still don't know what danger lies ahead of us"
She looked at him for a few moments, thinking about this but after a while of deliberation, she accepted his suggestion. She stepped on the floating flying sword without uttering a single word and maintained a certain distance from Michael.