“Yes, my Lord!” Responded, the wounded orc, after a brief shudder, and raised his club again to lash out at Kilian like a berserker.

  He managed to force the young calligrapher into a long battle because whenever the human had the chance to counter, the necromancer's puppet would attack from various angles.

  At the same time, the puppeteer sat on a large stone and laughed raucously: "Dance my puppets! Dance! Damned offspring of the accursed Arian family! Your corpse will make a fine toy one day! Hahaha!"

  Several minutes passed, and the two warriors continued to fight each other, already covered in sweat, but due to the interference of the remote-controlled puppet, the human warrior was never able to take advantage of the opportunities that arose.

  He found himself in a stalemate, and Kilian's not yet fully recovered Qi reserves began to drain quickly.

  Ignoring the orc's next blow, he turned to the doll with a determined expression, dipped his finger into the last, yet unused ink bottle, and saw in his mind's eye a conversation replay that he had had before entering the ruins...

  “Why is the last metal bottle empty, Professor Irwin?” He heard his own voice ask as he poured different colored liquids into the metal flasks.

  "In the ruins, there are many places contaminated by putrid Yin-Qi. If you encounter them, a simple fire spell is enough to purify the evil energy in the case of a minor infestation, but that won't be enough for the deeper levels! Only pure Yang-Qi can penetrate dense Yin-Qi, but this type of energy has unfortunately almost disappeared from our world, along with the Dragonlords." The bearded Qi-Master began to explain in a firm voice, "But the Kong Clan possesses a Yang enchantment that has been gathering dust in our books for years! If you encounter a powerful reptile in the ruins, there's a good chance that some of the blood of the Dragonlords, even if diluted a million times, still flows through its veins!"

  “How can I use it?” The student asked curiously, pricking up his ears.

  "It's a complicated enchantment that can normally only be used by Qi-Condensators, but the circumstances in the ruins can be special..." The master of calligraphy continued unperturbed, writing two sweeping words on a tablet floating in the room, "Should you be lucky enough to find a beast whose blood contains a spark of Yang-Qi, you can combine it with your normal fire enchantment and ignite it! But be warned! You won't be able to control it at your level, and if there isn't enough Yin-Qi to neutralize the summoned energy, you'll burn yourself to death! Therefore, unfortunately, you can't simply test it beforehand; instead, it has to work when you need it!"

  With a steady gaze, Kilian briefly thought of the gigantic snake that had almost cost him his life as he entered the ruins, smiled slightly at the twists and turns of fate, and when the orc warrior's club crashed violently against his left shoulder, two glowing words were already written in the air.

  The first letter was fiery red, but each subsequent letter transformed a little bit, until the last one shone bright golden!

  “AED AUR!!” He roared, his finger still raised while his knees cushioned the orc's blow with all their strength, “I will never kneel before you! The will of the dragonlords lives on!”

  A golden blaze shot toward the half-rotten doll and the necromancer, while Kilian, ignoring the broken bones in his shoulder, spun around with his staff and slammed into the orc, shattering his skull, and stumbled onto the ground.

  “NO!!” Screamed the hoarse voice, engulfed in Yang flames, as the necromancer's puppet burned with a hiss, leaving only bones.

  Just as a golden spark was about to jump onto Kilian's body, he stepped back and stumbled over the black remains of the cursed dragonman.

  Immediately, the Yang-Qi disappeared into the dark skull, like a drop of water in the warm desert.

  Each golden flame rushed toward the head, now suspended in the air, and one could see with the naked eye how the bones were being cleansed.

  "Not only did you destroy my toy, but now you've even destroyed the Yin artifact as well!" Roared the hoarse voice of a pale young man, now shirtless and hunched over, with another lifeless doll seemingly asleep on his back, "You'll pay for this! You may have won against a Qi-Gatherer level doll, but let's see how you fare against my darling! She was a Qi-Condensator in her prime and was created by my master! Hahaha! You shall die now, and be reborn as my servant!"

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  The lifeless figure began to unwrap the arms wrapped around him and opened its sparkling red eyes.

  “What is your desire, Master?” Asked a gentle, female voice, and when Kilian met her gaze, it was as if he was staring into the eyes of a living woman, but he found only despair, torment, and sorrow in them.

  “Kill him!!” The necromancer shouted, his face twisted with anger, and pointed his finger at the Qi-Gatherer lying on the ground.

  In the next second, Kilian threw himself to the side and narrowly dodged a whizzing blade that slashed his cheek.

  “Too fast!” Kilian marveled, looking again at the tragic, yet beautiful figure and murmured, “I want to help you…”

  For a moment, he thought he saw a tear running down the deathly pale face of the beauty as he raised his staff to ward off the next attack.

  It was as if a shadow danced around him, to the music of the necromancer's insane laughter, while more and more wounds burned through Kilian's flesh.

  The massive armor had already been cut into thousands of pieces, and his staff was now adorned with deep furrows, indicating that every parry could be the last before his weapon shattered.

  The next blow split it in two; the ice-cold blade filled with Yin-Qi cut across Kilian's chest and contaminated his blood with the evil energy.

  "I have no chance! The body of a Qi-Condenser alone is already so much more powerful than a Qi-Gatherer could ever be..." He groaned with a sad smile, thinking of all the people he would leave behind alone, and collapsed to the ground once more.

  “The time of the necromancers has come yet again, and there is no one on Terrapin who can stop us! We will collect all ancient Yin artifacts of our ancestors from the ruins and then openly face the world! Hahaha!” Laughed the mad Qi-Gatherer and slowly approached the immobilized body of his opponent, “You will never come close to my power, and all those who dare to stand in our way shall die!”

  Desperately, the nearly unconscious warrior tried to raise his hand and write one last enchantment, but his fingers failed.

  His vision blurred, and blood dripped from all his wounds.

  Slowly, it was collected in the deep pit where the dragonman's cursed skull had lain, which was still floating in the air, and the hot bodily fluid soaked the silvery scales red.

  Meanwhile, the last golden flame finally disappeared into the now brightly shining skull, and it fell into the small pool of Kilians' blood with a quiet, almost inaudible splash.

  The inconspicuous sound echoed in the almost unconscious boy's ears with an indescribable loudness and transformed into the mighty call of an ancient dragon.

  Just before he fainted, he felt as if someone was speaking to him, "A little puppy wanders into our old dragon's den and faces the dark demons instead of us? What arrogance! But is there more to it? Who knows? Since our time is already over and you have cleansed my remains of the necromancers' influence, I will give you a small gift as a token of my gratitude!"

  "Hahaha! Now I'm going to slowly squeeze the last spark of life out of you and then turn you into my new toy!" The pale necromancer laughed loudly as he stepped with his boot onto the bleeding, freshly cut chest of the fallen warrior, not noticing how the small red pond behind him began to boil.

  Slowly, the bubbling grew louder, and a blood-red dragon with a golden head and three shimmering silver scales rose majestically from the hole.

  The Qi-Gatherer of the Enclave of the Shadows felt a powerful energy behind him, turned around with wide eyes, and saw a gigantic beast approaching him.

  “You are just a relic of the past!” He screamed and ordered his puppet to fend off the attack by jumping in front of him.

  The brightly shining skull crashed loudly against the cold, lifeless body, and the two energies began to erode each other.

  With a loud hiss, the agony gradually faded from the Qi-Condensator's dull eyes, and a beautiful figure with a radiant face turned, smiling gently, to Kilian's still-lying body and murmured just before she shattered into a thousand tiny pieces: "Thank you! Finally, I am free!"

  The still flying, but now half-shattered skull of the dragonman struck the puppeteer's unprotected body with full force, and knocked him away.

  Then the now headless dragon flew with its last strength towards the boy lying motionless on the ground and, through the cut in his chest, refilled his almost dried out veins with boiling blood.

  The bubbling red liquid shot through his body and burned away the negative influence of the rotten Yin-Qi bit by bit.

  Slowly, the Qi around Kilian began to throb in the resonance of his now ever-increasingly strong heart, and the three silver scales sealed the deep, life-threatening wound like a fresh suture.

  Seconds passed, and nothing moved except his rising and falling chest.

  Nothing could be heard except the frantically working heart, filling the air with drumbeats.

  Small golden sparks began to glitter in the air, and Kilian opened his tightly closed eyes as he leaped to his feet.

  His now deep silver pupils focused on the necromancer crawling on the ground not far from him, and the shimmering stars around him transformed into a golden inferno with a snip of Kilians fingers.

  “NO!! THIS POWER CANNOT EXIST ANYMORE!!” Roared the once again set ablaze pale Qi-Gatherer, writhing in pain and glaring at Kilian, “THE SHADOWS WILL SOON DEVOUR YOU! YOU HAVE NOT WON YET, EVEN IF MY LIFE IS LOST!”

  Only a pile of ash remained of the enclave's once powerful Qi-Gatherer, and with a blink of Kilian's eye, the flying Yang-Qi disappeared into the nothingness again.

  His right hand moved to his chest, and he stroked the three scales that were now a part of him.

  "A true offspring of the house of Arian!" The voice of the dragonman, who had died thousands of years ago, sounded one last time, like a distant echo, quietly in Kilian's head, "To claim your true inheritance, you must reach the lair of the dragonlords! We have waited for a suitable heir for far too long..."

  “My goal has not changed!” The young warrior swore and closed his eyes again, “Every necromancer who crosses my path has to die!”

  He felt a new, wild energy pumping through his blood, which started to rapidly fill his dantian.

  It was the strong Qi of a fifth-level Qi-Gatherer that now slowly traveled through his blood towards his muscles, bones, and organs to strengthen them bit by bit.

  What he didn't notice, however, was the slight golden glow his blood took on as it touched the silver scales embedded in his chest, slowly but surely reforming his body.