Douluo Dalu: Lucky Star

Credits: thedistraction

Although somewhat annoyed, Gu Yue maintained her composure. This was evident in her choice of the law she invoked.

The Law of Wind, while not as destructive as water or fire in her arsenal, was still an elemental law with decent offensive capabilities. Its application was measured—if Han Li couldn't withstand it and sustained injuries, they would be relatively easy to heal. Besides, he had his armor for protection.

The thin wind blades covering Han Li's body were shredded as soon as they pierced the surface of the pale green wind sphere. The gap between entry-level mastery and full control of a law was starkly evident.

The massive dragon claw, now surrounded by sharp wind blades unleashed by the sphere's rupture, descended viciously on Han Li.

Han Li, however, merely smiled. With a surge of divine power, he raised his fists.

Where their attacks met, a sharp screech echoed—the sound of wind blades scraping against Han Li's armor—before abruptly ceasing.

After the first clash, Han Li was slammed into the ground by the overwhelming force of the claw. Yet the dragon claw, struck by Han Li's fists, failed to follow through. Instead, the newly revealed dragon form of Gu Yue was sent flying backward by his counterattack.

Han Li hit the ground heavily, creating a crater nearly 100 meters in diameter. The ground around him fractured, and large rocks were sent flying into the air, only to crash back down moments later.

In mid-air, Gu Yue now knocked back over 100 meters, winced as she raised her dragon claw. At its center, two diamond-shaped scales were cracked and oozing blood.

She looked down at Han Li in disbelief. Yet there he stood, smiling up at her. His armor bore no trace of the wind blade's damage.

With just one blow, Han Li had demonstrated the terrifying strength of his body—a human's raw physical power had shattered her dragon scales.

Laws could be misleading; she could control the intensity of her attacks. She hadn't gone all out in that strike. But a physical body doesn't lie. This meant that her true form's defensive capabilities were inferior to his raw strength.

Although such an injury was trivial for her, the implications were significant. Han Li hadn't even fully unleashed his martial soul—no, his divine artifact now—so this wasn't even a measure of his full offensive capability.

This realization meant that even if she enhanced her defenses with the Earth element, Han Li could likely still break through her protection in a real fight.

A faint green glow enveloped her claw as the two cracked scales began to heal, and the blood receded. Gu Yue's excitement grew. This was the ally she had chosen. Suddenly, she felt more confident about the future.

"Continue," came her voice, echoing from the mouth of the Silver Dragon above. She had unilaterally decided to proceed with the test.

Han Li raised an eyebrow. He had expected this. Most soul beasts were temperamental fighters, losing sight of anything else once the battle began.

Though, if he was honest, humans had a stronger desire to fight overall. The difference lay in self-restraint, where humans typically fared better.

While Han Li was still inwardly complaining, Gu Yue launched her next attack.

This time, she used her other claw. As it curled slightly, the shattered ground around Han Li began to tremble. Massive earth spears, each larger than a person, erupted from the ground. As they rose, their tips gleamed coldly, further enhanced by wind elements. They rained down on Han Li in an overwhelming barrage.

From the scale of it, the Silver Dragon King was an exceptional mage.

Han Li's body was now enveloped in divine power, but he still refrained from using any laws. Gu Yue might be getting carried away, but he wasn't. He couldn't lose sight of his original intent.

Another dragon's roar echoed. In the sky, a bright hexagram-shaped magic array appeared.

Han Li, who had just shattered one of the earthen spears with a punch, looked up to see beams of holy light, saturated with purification energy, cascading toward him.

Substantial elemental attacks could be dodged, but this wide-area holy light attack was far harder to evade—especially since they had mutually agreed to set aside spatial laws.

To make matters worse, Gu Yue seemed to deliberately choose laws he hadn't yet mastered for her attacks.

Well, since he had to test himself anyway, he decided to oblige her.

Still, that didn't mean he'd let her actions slide. While testing himself was fine, Gu Yue initiating large-scale attacks without consulting him wasn't something he appreciated.

And since they were already fighting, it was only fair he tested his skills too.

"Divine Body."

After shattering another earth spear, Han Li stopped evading. His divine armor flared brilliantly as he activated a newly acquired ability.

He raised his right arm above his head. As his body suddenly expanded in size, his wings flapped powerfully, propelling him straight toward Gu Yue in the sky. He ignored the holy light falling on him entirely.

Gu Yue instinctively began to retreat, controlling the holy light to converge on him. At the same time, she opened her dragon mouth, releasing a breath attack infused with ice and fire aimed directly at the approaching Han Li.

Not stopping there, her silver-white wings stirred up violent gusts of wind, attempting to impede his advance.

But once Han Li committed to an attack, there was no stopping him.

Charging directly into Gu Yue's breath attack, Han Li showed no hesitation. Elemental attacks like ice and fire were ineffective against him.

In Gu Yue's wide-eyed astonishment, Han Li's colossal figure seemed to blur momentarily before melding into her breath attack. His aura surged, flowing in reverse along the path of her breath.

Elementalization—an ability Han Li rarely used and only recently began to explore.

After mastering other laws like Space and Darkness, he tried applying the same principles to elementalization, but the results were less than ideal. Likely due to his origins, only the Ice and Fire elements were compatible.

This wasn't surprising. If elementalization were a guaranteed perk of mastering laws, the Elemental Gods of the Divine Realm wouldn't hold much prestige.

While limited, the ability was sufficient—especially in this situation.

"Gotcha."

At the tail end of Gu Yue's breath attack, Han Li's enlarged form suddenly appeared, closing the distance and entering melee range once more.

He extended his arms to block the dragon claws, while his wings clashed against Gu Yue's silvery dragon wings, sparks flying from their repeated collisions.

Unlike Gu Yue, whose form adhered to biological constraints, Han Li's armor concealed a sinister weapon. The Evil God Hook extended suddenly, wrapping around Gu Yue's dragon tail and embedding its tip into her flesh to prevent her from escaping.

"Roar!"

A soul-infused dragon roar erupted near Han Li's ears, but it was neutralized by the invisible ripples emitted from the multicolored dragon horn atop his head.

In Gu Yue's slightly embarrassed and annoyed gaze, Han Li allowed her claws to strike his armor while his hands locked onto the base of her dragon head.

With a sudden burst of power, Han Li swung the massive, sleek, silvery-white dragon over his shoulder in an elegant arc, executing a stunning overhead throw.

"All done. I've got a good sense of my current limits."

Han Li clapped his hands in satisfaction as the Evil God Hook began to retract. He was pleased with the results. Even concentrated attacks formed by equivalent-level laws could only breach his defenses if focused heavily on a single spot.

The state of his partially damaged but self-repairing armor said it all.

While Han Li was content, Gu Yue was not.

Losing in a sparring match was one thing—it wasn't a real fight, after all. But being thrown over the shoulder? That was an unbearable humiliation.

She, the Silver Dragon King, could not accept this.

As soon as the Evil God Hook unwound from her tail, Gu Yue's tail lashed out, coiling around Han Li's legs along with the still-retracting hook.

Her silver-white right wing struck the ground, using the force to propel her massive body upward into a death roll.

Today, Han Li must become a rolling gourd, or she wouldn't let it go.

"Hey, you—!"

Before Han Li could finish his sentence, the force yanked him off the ground.

Fine, if this is how she wanted to play it.

As his body was about to crash into the ground, Han Li's wings struck the earth first, using the momentum to pivot back toward Gu Yue. His arms stretched wide and clamped down, pinning her dragon wings firmly against her body.

"If we're rolling, we're rolling together. I'm not one to suffer alone," Han Li muttered.

Gu Yue wasn't about to back down. If her wings were restrained, she still had her head.

With a resounding thud, her dragon head slammed into Han Li's forehead, creating a deafening impact that left both of them seeing stars.

Their massive forms tumbled heavily to the ground, rolling uncontrollably until they collided with a reinforced spatial barrier and finally came to a stop.

Han Li shook his head to clear the dizziness, then looked up at the silver-white dragon looming over him. Irritated, he asked, "Happy now?"

Though unharmed, Han Li hadn't expected Gu Yue's sneak attack, which left him in his current disheveled state.

Gu Yue snorted coldly, ignoring him as she reverted to her humanoid form and landed nearby. She began repairing the fractured ground and space that had been damaged during their fight.

Han Li sighed, dismissing his divine body and returning to his original size to mend his divine armor.

"What a crazy lady dragon," he grumbled.

"She can't even take a little loss without flipping out. All I did was an overhead throw, and I even took her attacks head-on!"

Though this was a test, it was also a sparring match. Who expects a fight to be graceful? Besides, it wasn't as if he'd thrown her on purpose. The lack of space made the move necessary.

If this had been a true battle, they'd likely have fought mid-air, where she'd at most be flung away. The only real difference was that it wouldn't look as undignified.

Still, seeing Gu Yue's true form had been worthwhile. Though it wasn't quite what he had imagined, it wasn't disappointing either.