Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

While the battle between Creten and Adlean heated up with the two now trading blows back and forth, Melinda's battle with Reyna was in full swing.

The blast from Creten that had been targeted at Adlean and had thrown people around him away in various directions had also affected Reyna who had been beside Adlean but she quickly regained her balance.

As the battle between Harons and Dystopians wore on, Reyna and Melinda stared at one another as though gauging each other from a distance... Emily wasted no time though

She summoned her large War hammer cosmic Armament and dashed into action where she was quickly engaged in battle with Dystopians.

Meanwhile, after their seconds of assessment, Reyna was the first to dash forward toward Melinda while relishing the black and gold gauntlets she was wearing on both her arms.

Melinda noticed the glow of the gauntlets and could tell from their auras that the gauntlets were Artifacts.

Melinda took one step back and solidified her stance as she swung her sword at Reyna who was now in reach of the weapon but Reyna predictably raised one of her gauntlets wrapped arms to deflect the blow,

*Bang!*

The contact gave off a loud bang sound before Reyna pushed Melinda back only to follow up with a stronger attack on account of the appearance of her dragon scales.

Melinda smirked and her golden eyes flashed as an aura of golden light shrouded her and then the aura bursts into the bright golden flames of her Dane bloodline barely a second later abs she used that to repel Reyna's attack.

The repelling was successful with Melinda moving in fur a sword stab but despite being unbalanced, Reyna still managed to strike the sword away but as she did, her gauntlet gave off an energy that seemed... Foreign... The energy felt like it wasn't hers.

The energy of that Gauntlet seemed to surpass their current cultivation and that was worrying.

Speaking of which, as they fought and she felt the cultivation pressure that Melinda was giving off, Reyna could not help but raise a brow.

The last time she had met Melinda, the golden-eyed lady had only been at the Cosmic phenomenon, and just over a year later, she was already at the Cosmic Aurora realm...

... That was an impressive and insane cultivation speed that she could not help but acknowledge while it left a bad taste in her mouth that the only significant increase she could showcase within the same time frame was the completion of her attempt to advance to the peak of the Aurora beast realm.

All in all, Reyna felt the situation was a bit unfair but then again, that is the way of the cultivation world. Fairness was bit exactly a popular notion.

... Only one thing matters in the cultivation world and that is strength... It was the only thing that truly deserves respect.

Anyway, Reyna and Melinda exchanged more moves; all of which resulted in a stalemate that did not cement one as better than the other, and the longer it went on, the less inhabited the ladies' attacks were.

The Ladies to were finally making use of trump cards with Melinda implementing her Flame Ordinance along with her dominant Dao while Reyna finally let the energy within her gauntlet show.

The energy trapped within the gauntlets belonged to a Cosmic Semi-saint expert from her clan and there was even that expert's ordinance mixed in.

As it was not her Ordinance to command, Reyna could not use the Ordinance as she pleased and it was also a finite resource and she had to be careful in its usage.

Back and forth the two ladies went with their battle...

*Bam!*

*Whoosh!*

*Bang!*

Melinda slammed Reyna aside with a vicious backhand before swinging her sword to strike her down but Reyna twisted out of the way before she slammed her body against Melinda, who was caught off-guard, with a loud bang!

The impact of that slam knocked the wind out of Melinda who looked practically powerless against her opponent's physical might but there was no need to panic...

If anything, the fact that Reyna had slammed into her was actually quite good as Melinda heated them both with the flames of her Ordinance as she shrouded them both within a flaming white inferno.

However, Reyna hardly looked worried as more scales appeared as she took on her hybrid form (horns, claws, beast hind limbs, and all) that was the mix of litheness and agility of a human form and the incredible majesty of a complete dragon form.

With the hybrid form came even better protection before her gauntlets glowed and she used the aura of the Semi-Transcendent energy trapped within and spread it out like a projective layer to further protect her from Melinda's flames.

That said, despite Reyna not looking too worried and having so much extra protection, the longer she remained within the white flame inferno, the more her insides felt like they were getting cooked and she felt like she was edging ever close to death.

Anyway, Before she could be killed by Melinda's flames, Reyna's mustered rye strength to do what she had been planning to do in such close contact.

*Bam!*

Reyna delivered a blow to Melinda's midsection and while physicality was to be expected from the Gord lady and Melinda could more than take a hit from this opponent of hers, there was something about the hug that went past just being physical and just being painful.

The blow had been backed yeh energy from the gauntlet and within the energy was the darkness Ordinance of Addilyn Gord, the Dystopian general.

Reyna could not control the ordinance but she did not have to and only needed to direct it into Melinda's body where the darkness ordinance's natural inclination to devour would take care of the rest.

Eating away at any energy Melinda had within her and temporarily blocking her ability to make use of her Ordinance.

And so, for the few seconds after which Melinda was rendered incapable of making us of her Ordinance, Reyna wasted no time taking advantage and delivering barrages of attacks to her opponent.

*Bam!*

*Bam!*

*Bam!*

Each hit connected and knocked a vulnerable Melinda back a few steps.

Melinda was not completely defenseless though and despite looking to be at a disadvantage, she was still doing well by relying on just her strength and her Dao but Reyna was better overall... For now.

Once she regained a bit of her footing, Melinda was able to block quite a few of Reyna's strikes while the dominance of her Dao was becoming much more obvious and prevalent.

That said, Reyna was still less susceptible to the effects of the Dao on account of her already discovering her Dao and being sure of her identity.

She was a proud lady of dragon-blood and no matter what attacks she used, underhanded or direct, that Dragon pride shone through nonetheless.

Anyway, Melinda was still unable to truly take the upper hand in her battle with the dragon lady and was still not yet able to use her Ordinance but she was still holding her own.

Reyna was enjoying herself though... A few punches to Melinda and then a swift kick... All of which hit harder on account of the dragon lady's hybrid form that had her physical stats booster even more than ever.

Reyna did not even allow Melinda the privilege of using her sword Cosmic armament which was uselessly by her side and the longer it went on, the less resistance Melinda showed which Reyna took as evidence is the success of her plan.

Reyna's plan having been to completely overwhelm Melinda so that she was incapable of mounting an offense... Even if she were to regain use of her Ordinance, she should not be able to find space to use it.

However, just then, Melinda, whose eyes had been closed as she seemingly surrendered to the successive attacks of her opponent, suddenly opened the said eyes with a grin just as she activated runes she had stamped all around her opponent's body.

The Runes all reacted simultaneously and froze the dragon lady in place while driving electrical currents through her body to even further incapacitate her.

*Bzzzzrrrr*

This had been Melinda's contingency plan...

She was sure she could and would eventually break out of Reyna's barrage of attacks through sheer force but the stealthy use of Hal's runes in a way that she had not done in a long time was more satisfying.

Charging forward, Melinda thrust her sword, which was coated with the white flames of the regained of her Ordinance through Reyna's thigh right at the moment the dragon lady used Semi-transcendent energy within her gauntlet to free herself from the runes and to protect parts of her body that Melinda could strike and instantly kill her.

"Arrrgggghhhhh" Reyna yelled in pain.

She had not expected such a change in pace as well as the tone of the battle in Melinda's favor and as she grabbed her injury in pain, she knew what was going to follow and she was right...

A heavy uppercut to Reyna's jaw with a fist coated in white Ordinance flames that charred the protecting dragon scales was how Melinda followed up her sword stab attack...