The Laughing Swordsman

At this point, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that most people in the empire had woken up. Somewhere along the line, the intention to go undetected was forgotten. It was almost as if the goal was to be detected by as many people as possible.

A shockwave had emanated from the collision of both Hex's and the black dragon's attack. Once this shockwave passed through Apollo and Willow, they both woke up immediately.

Layla noticed this, then smiled.

"Wah! Friends are awake!"

Willow and Apollo sat up. They slowly turned to each other, with blank stares.

Then, a smile appeared on Apollo's face.

Both of their figures flashed. Their swords clashed, then trembled in place.

Apollo's eyes immediately widened before a giggle spilled out of his lips.

The injury on Apollo's back had healed while there was a scar from the top of Willow's right shoulder to the left side of her waist.

Willow's injury only had a minuscule effect on her strikes, but even that would make a significant difference in their fight.

Layla tilted her head to the side.

"Eh? Friends are playing already!"

She smiled.

"Me too!"

While Apollo and Willow rained down a flurry of blows on each other, Layla suddenly joined the fray.

She was almost like a cat diving towards a big pile of catnip.

Right when Apollo's and Willow's swords clashed, Layla grabbed onto them both.

Both Willow's and Apollo's head snapped towards Layla.

As for Layla, she seemed to be embarrassed by the attention, squirming and blushing. She purred.

"Fun with friends!"

Without warning, she threw both Apollo and Willow high into the sky. The ground below her cracked dangerously from how much force she put in.

While this was happening, the black dragon and Hex were still engaged in battle. The aftereffects of their attacks did not scratch the black dragon, however, Hex was thrown back. This was mostly due to the resulting shockwave.

Hex was able to stabilize himself after a few seconds, hovering in the air. His glowing blue eyes and smile flickered, contrasting greatly with his shadowy face.

A giggle seeped out of Hex.

"Bigger dragon is strong!"

Hex shot forward once more, gathering purple and dark green mist around him.

As for the black dragon, it wasn't in any hurry. It took its time to look at the fight happening nearby.

When he saw Apollo and Willow fighting, he guessed that one of them must've been on their side. However, when Layla picked both of their swords up and threw them high into the sky, he got confused.

...Who was his enemy and who was his ally?

Or was this some sort of huge free-for-all brawl?

As for Apollo and Willow, the tides of battle greatly shifted once they were in the air.

Although Willow was not used to flying, having the ability in the first place gave an enormous advantage when fighting in a place with no ground.

She made full use of her ability. Now, she was also attacking Apollo from above and below. However, she wasn't as dexterous as she wanted to be. She didn't realize the source, but the pressure from the dragon made her movements akin to trudging around in murky swamp water.

The same thing went for Apollo, his movements were not as swift. However, this change in pressure affected Willow much more, simply because Willow's fighting style required her to move around so much.

This shift in advantages and disadvantages made it so that Apollo was powerlessly defending, but not overwhelmed while doing so.

Apollo felt like he was in the middle of the ocean, attacked by various hostile marine life. The inconvenient movement bothered him at first, but he was able to get used to it almost immediately.

Almost like a fish in the water.

As this happened, Layla looked at everyone that had taken to the sky. She pouted.

"...I shouldn't have thrown friends so high! Now I can't reach them!"

She puffed her cheeks and flailed her arms around in annoyance.

"No fair! I want to play too!"

While Apollo and Willow were plummeting towards the ground and Layla was complaining, Hex had reached the black dragon.

The black dragon leisurely turned its head to face Hex. It could hardly care, Hex just wasn't a threat in its eyes.

A dark green claw that was one meter long formed above Hex's sleeve. Translucent purple energy wrapped around it, extending it further, making the claw a total of three meters long. Finally, a faint black shadow wrapped around the entire thing, making the claw a total of five meters long.

The claw had completely dwarfed Hex. In fact, some would miss the fact that Hex existed altogether, only seeing a giant claw.

The black dragon casually swiped with its claw, meeting with Hex's.

The sound of glass shattering rang out.

The black layer of Hex's claws had broken after a small period of resistance. However, he still had the purple layer along with the original dark green claw.

The black dragon's eyes narrowed.

"Needlessly complicated."

It used its other claw, grasping both the dark green and purple layers.

The sound of shattered glass rang out once more.

Hex's claw could hardly put up any form of resistance. It simply broke under the pressure, leaving Hex with no claw to work with.

The black dragon watched on curiously. Instead of taking advantage of Hex after his attack failed, it wanted to see what Hex would do next.

The black dragon chuckled.

"Are you afraid?"

A crash reverberated in the distance. Apollo had hit one badly cracked section of the floor, directly breaking through. Willow dived downwards while Apollo immediately stood back up.

They clashed once more, almost like robots programmed to do so.

At that moment, a tiny giggle seeped out of Hex.

"Afraid?"

Apollo and Willow's swords swung towards each other's necks.

Hex's blue eyes and smile grew brighter.

"Me should be asking you..."

The black dragon raised an eyebrow.

Hex giggled.

"Are you afraid?"