"Oh, the Flaming Shell..." Lance muttered suddenly, his face changing expression.
"Father, what's the matter? What are you talking about?" Isis quickly came to her father's side,
concerned as she noticed the emotions flashing across his face. She wondered what he was thinking
of and why that caused such changes.
"From what we're seeing here, the new morphology that Rocky's spirit-manipulated beast has changed
into bears a striking resemblance to the Flaming-shell Tiger!" Lance replied, unable to conceal his
surprise at the spectacle.
"Wait, do you mean the Flaming-shell Tiger, the one at the seventh grade on the ranking list of spiritual
beasts?" Isis asked in surprise.
"Although they both differ in appearance from one another, I'm pretty sure that the new morphology that
Rocky's spirit-manipulated beast has transformed into is the Flaming-shell Tiger. I've only seen it once
before, impressive," Lance remarked, his tone flat and noncommittal. Yet he was still unable to prevent
the expression of surprise on his face.
"Oh, I see. Could it be possible that Rocky's spirit-manipulated beast is a descendant of the spiritual
beast and the war beast?" Isis surmised out loud. And there was a distinct possibility of it: under normal
circumstances, the most of the powerful war beasts were born from the spiritual beasts and the war
beasts. And such an offspring would almost certainly have inherited some abilities and characteristics
from its spiritual beast parent. Because of that, they could be much more powerful compared to other
beasts.
"Well, probably," Lance nodded contemplatively, his expression still noncommittal.
"However, even if Uriah, Rocky's the spirit-manipulated beast, has upgraded itself, it might still be
unable to help Rocky to win the competition. It's been hurt badly as far as I can see. Once Dunn orders
his spirit-manipulated beast to attack Uriah again, and he himself takes the opportunity to attack Rocky,
then there will be little chance of winning for our favored fighter. It's certainly an unfortunate situation,"
Lance murmured as he looked at Rocky through the Illusory Mirror. From the look on his face, he was
clearly concerned.
"Commander in Chief, competition time is running out." The officer who was in charge of timing the
competition reported to Lance. He had paid strict attention to the limited time frame of the contest all
this time.
Seeing that Uriah had now transformed into another powerful morphology, Rocky took out the bottle of
magical saliva from his silken bag in a hurry. He swallowed two drops of the magical saliva as quickly
as he could. Before Dunn could notice and be startled by the sudden change from Uriah, Rocky took
that moment to process the spiritual power within his body and put the magical saliva to use
immediately.
"Go! Razor-claw Wolf Bear!" Dunn commanded as he finally noticed Uriah's upgrade. At the sight of its
highly strengthened morphology, he could not help but feel a twinge of doubt and hesitation. But he
kept it all to himself, remaining confident and steeled outwardly, as all his focus went to defeating
Rocky in this contest. He decided to hold Uriah through his Razor-claw Wolf Bear, which should stop it
from assisting Rocky in fighting back. Then, he could take the chance to pool all his strength to give
Rocky one last blow, thus finally defeating him. Everyone carefully watching could clearly see that
Rocky was in great danger as he was already badly hurt and seemed unable to fight further.
Meanwhile, Razor-claw Wolf Bear had heard its master's order and immediately threw his weight into
Uriah, giving off a whizzing sound in the air. Its sharp claws sliced through the air in a speedy and
powerful attack towards Uriah, preparing to deal a critical blow. Uriah's eyes opened wide and the
upgraded spiritual beast sensed the attack. The flame which surrounded its entire body flared up in a
flashing prominence. Uriah looked like it was enveloped with rippling, eternal flame. And the fires that
surrounded its whole body kept expanding, growing like a brushfire. At the sight of that beast galloping
right to it, Uriah fearlessly met it head on. Wherever Uriah passed, the trail smoldered and blackened
under its feet.
A terrifying, merciless battle immediately began between Razor-claw Wolf Bear and Uriah. As soon as
the two of them engaged in combat, the difference between them became evident. Razor-claw Wolf
Bear's razor claws used to attack and hurt Uriah badly just moments earlier now seemed completely
ineffective against Uriah now. And at Uriah's end, the flames surrounding his body kept Razor-claw
Wolf Bear at bay and unable to come closer. Although Razor-claw Wolf Bear was still looking at Uriah
menacingly, pouring its strength into fighting him, it was evident that it was unable to move closer to
Uriah's position. Soon, Razor-claw Wolf Bear was losing ground, with the smell of its burnt fur wafting
in the air. It was simply too difficult for the beast to continue enduring this fight. And it was simply
unable to beat Uriah.
Unlike Razor-claw Wolf Bear, Uriah was now completely different from what it used to be, with far
stronger powers than ever before.
Seeing that Razor-claw Wolf Bear was about to lose the fight, Dunn's face colored a vicious purple in
rage. However, he pulled himself together and determined that he would still be the winner if he
managed to defeat Rocky.
Keeping his head in the game, Dunn glared at Rocky with his ferocious eyes and immediately targeted
an opportune moment to attack. Rocky still hadn't moved, giving off the appearance that he'd been
seriously injured. And for Dunn, this was the perfect moment to strike Rocky with a finishing blow.
With a truly murderous expression on his face, Dunn instantly vanished from where he was standing
just one second ago. Meanwhile, Rocky had felt a strong energy trace heading towards him, with a true
killing aura. Furrowing his brows, he braced himself to counter-attack.
Suddenly, Dunn materialized in front of Rocky as a ghost, with one of his arms enveloped in spiritual
light. The spiritual power emitting from him had transformed into endless swords, surging all around his
arm. With this razor weapon, Dunn swung his arm straight at Rocky's chest.
"Go to hell!" Dunn roared with his bloodshot eyes focused on the kill like the devil himself.
At the sight of Dunn getting closer, a smile cracked on Rocky's face. Eyes narrowing, spiritual power
surrounded his whole body as he rose to the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage. And furthermore, the
spiritual power simply got higher and higher.
It kept going until he mounted the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage.
Several days earlier, before the competition, Rocky's power had upgraded to the ninth grade of the
Earthly Stage. Barely three months earlier, he was close to the sixth grade. Three months was
considered too short to go up three grades for anyone. Ever since Rainbow Glow Unicorn had moved
to where Rocky stayed, it had brought Rocky rare treasures many times in order to get the magical
saliva from him in exchange. Rocky only found two rare treasures with the same power level as the
middle grade Dark Heaven Egg. And each of them was the equivalent of one grade power in the
Earthly Stage. Thus, given all the rare treasures he found in these three months, his power rose up to
the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage rapidly.
However, Rocky did not want to show his true power at the Earthly Stage's ninth grade to others just
yet. It was well known that the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage was only one step beyond to the
Heavenly Stage, a level previously considered an unreachable realm for countless ordinary spirit
manipulators. He didn't want the undue attention of jealousy or make too many enemies.
But push had come to shove and he felt that he wouldn't be able to beat Dunn with the power of the
eighth grade of the Earthly Stage.
At such a moment, there were only two choices left for Rocky: to admit defeat or to finally show his true
strength. But he'd decided he was here to win the competition. Defeat was never an option in this
critical moment.
And so right before Dunn's arm struck him at full force to the chest, a star shaped light surged before
Rocky, replete with the power of the Earthly Stage's ninth grade. Rocky had waited for precisely this
moment to time his release and fight head-on against Dunn.
At the next instant, with powerful bolts of energy crackling from either side, the combatants hit impact
and dust imploded around them. The reserve energy of strong spiritual power created a dustbowl. And
the two of them were enveloped by bright and dazzling light.
Boom!
With another huge crash that sent sparks flying, one of them was sent sprawling down on one knee.
And in the end, he collapsed heavily onto the ground with anguish.
The other figure emerged out from the bright light as it faded away. It was a broken body of an injured
fighter. And the expression on his face was one of determination and confidence in spite of his
condition.
Lance and the others who were standing on the high platform watched in anticipation on who would
emerge the victor. A ripple of shock and surprise flooded over the platform when they recognized the
man stepping out.
It was Rocky who had won.
"I really can't believe it! He won the competition!" Isis exclaimed in pure shock.
The fighting had been so fast, so complex, and so intense that not all of them were able to see that
Rocky beat Dunn by using the power of the Earthly Stage's ninth grade. Due to the confusion, they
found it hard to accept the fact that Rocky suddenly turned the tide and won the final victory. All they
had seen was that Rocky was at the disadvantage and almost lost the game just a few seconds ago.
And with that, the third round of the competition finally came to an end in a thrilling fashion.
It didn't take long before the news of Rocky's final victory spread throughout the headquarters. The
reality rocked the whole Crimson Dragon Group. Once again, he had somehow become the day's hot
topic.
Both Rocky and Dunn had been sent to a quiet place so they would be able to rest and recover from
the staggering injuries accrued in combat. As for the one who got the final promotion, that piece of
news had been also postponed until the next day.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda