Dark blood kept flowing into Liora's lighter blood, and soon even small pieces of flesh could be seen mixing into the liquid, with a wet, slapping sound, falling to the ground in wet, heavy drops that spattered into the pooled blood.

Sevrak's body was literally inside a grinder, making his flesh shred like going through a blender, making everyone's faces watch in elation and satisfaction as ribbons of tissue and clots turned to pulp.

But there was one among them who wasn't yet satisfied.

Zephan sprang up from where he had been crouching, and his body vanished for a moment, then appeared beside the pooled blood on the ground, the sudden displacement stirring the hot and smelly air.

"I'm not leaving this to chance," he muttered as a long silver sword appeared in his hand, its polished edge catching the faint light coming from the flames back.

He raised the sword as it started to burn with silver flames, then swung it at the pool of blood, setting the entire ground ablaze in intense fire, a rippling sheet of heat that raced outward and swallowed all the blood pooled on the ground.

Now, as even the leftover remains were consumed by the flames, bone flecks blackening, fibers curling, and the last tattered scraps crackling into ash, he could finally relax, knowing nothing remained for Sevrak to revive himself. "Now the only problem left is this dragon." Turning his gaze again to the Blood Dragon, still pinned inside the crater full of silver flames that had begun to fade, his face hardened again, the reflected firelight drawing hard lines across his cheekbones.

Every second, the dragon seemed to melt and die, but it still wasn't enough. Soulforge was at his limit; if he faltered, the binds on the Rank 4 Spark would lift, and it could escape.

Zephan turned to the 4 Rank 4 Practitioners and said, "Go help him hold the dragon. Every second is precious for us."

At his instruction, 2 Lunari moved without delay and cast bright chains to bind the dragon's massive head and body. The Gorathims followed, taking position behind their leader and readying their skills. They braced their stances as invisible energies from their Spark skills flared around their arms.

Silverlight then turned to Liora while still holding his sword, which continued to burn with silver flames. "He should be turned to minced meat now. Let me burn all the remains."

Liora nodded to him, also quite sure Sevrak's body should be smashed to pieces now, and started to deactivate her skills and opened her massive palm, the fingers uncurling like iron gates.

Her palm looked all bloody with deep scars, and the whole skin and even flesh looked grated, bloody, and meaty-looking, with grooves packed with clotted red and shredded fibers.

Apart from her own flesh and blood, the center of her palm also held scattered fragments of body parts and torn pieces of black clothing-remnants of Sevrak's body: a broken knuckle, a strip of sleeve, and bits of flesh lodged deep in the ridges of her hand.

"This will hurt a little. Endure it," Zephan said, eyeing the torn, meaty expanse of her palm. Then he swung his sword, sending silver flames over the entire surface in a careful sweep that layered fire into every crease.

As the fire took hold, Liora winced and let out a low groan, but she didn't try to close her palm or smother the flames; she let them burn everything. Heat shimmered, fat sizzled, and smoke curled in thin gray threads.

But at that moment, a movement began from the Blood Dragon, as its melting body started to move, trying to free itself from its bonds with force; scales slid wetly, and the chains scraped over softened plates.

"What's going on?" Zephan, turning his gaze from the burning palm to Throgar, asked tensely.

"I don't know, it became agitated suddenly," Throgar said as he looked more stressed now, his whole body trembling as if under a heavy weight, breath hissing between his clenched teeth.

Even the 2 other newly joined Gorathims behind him looked like they were already ready to give up, not able to hold longer, their knees dipping as the strain bled the color from their faces.

The Blood Dragon kept resisting more and more. As time passed, its head began to regain movement. Low, angry growls leaked from under the bindings, a rumble that vibrated through the ground.

And at last it once again managed to open its mouth, as if ready to unleash its skill, the jaws parting with strings of molten saliva.

"Be careful, it will use that red beam skill again."

Seeing that familiar move, Zephan warned quickly, and he himself also moved to try to stop it, his feet skimming over scorched ground as his blade lifted.

But unfortunately, contrary to his guess, the Blood Dragon wasn't using its red electric beam skill but a completely different one.

While everyone waited for the attack skill to form inside the dragon's mouth, instead nothing formed; on the contrary, the air started to be sucked inside it, a deep pull that tugged at hair and cloth.

"What skill is it using?" Liora, feeling the strong suction getting stronger and stronger with each breath, asked worriedly.

Soon, apart from air, even the dust and soil, and then the ground, began

breaking apart and being pulled toward the Blood Dragon's stomach.

And then Liora realized something else. It wasn't the ground that was the target

of this suction, but something different.

She looked down at her palm, where the silver flames still burned, and saw the suction pulling both the fire and Sevrak's burning remains toward the dragon's

stomach.

Even the blood from the open wounds on her palm, as if driven by an unseen force, began to drain from her veins-changing from a steady drip to a thin,

continuous stream.

"It's sucking blood," she at last said, sharing what the others had also noticed.

She clenched her palm into a fist and tried to pull back, but the blood still poured from inside, with large chunks riding it as it flowed through the air like a red stream. Torn bits rotated as they were dragged toward the maw. "Stop trying to hold it and attack. Just close that mouth quickly," Zephan told the others, as he also rushed with his burning sword to close the blood-sucking mouth with an attack.

They didn't know why the dragon was sucking blood now or what would

happen after it sucked enough blood, but they knew that it wouldn't be

something they would want to see anyway.

But it was no longer their choice to make. The Blood Dragon soon began to show the effects of its suction.

Its melting scales stilled, then hardened again, shrugging off the heat of the flames as if the fire were nothing more than warm rain.

Its body heaved and bucked, the struggling growing wilder until the suction ended and the bonds snapped one after another.

Then it lifted its head to the sky and unleashed a roar that rolled over the ruin, as if offering thanks to the gods for the revitalizing feast they had granted it.