Rebecca commanded her dragon puppets telepathically to ignore the young dragons, sparing them as she had promised Drakonix.

    With a single thought, the puppet dragons resumed their massacre, their numbers multiplying exponentially, while the dragons'' numbers dwindled just as fast—until all who had a hand in her race''s destruction were dead. All except the young ones—those two hundred years old and below. They had not taken part in the genocide, and so Rebecca chose to spare them.

    After the battlefield had been cleaned, the surviving young dragons wailed in grief, mourning their slain loved ones and clan members. They glared at Rebecca with a mixture of anguish and hatred, but none dared to move, none dared to attack. They all understood what would become of them if they acted on emotion. She had made that clear enough.

    With the battle concluded, Rebecca stood calmly, her dragon puppets lined up neatly behind her. She turned her attention to her next opponent: the dragon king. Having no further use for her puppets at the moment, she willed them to dissolve into shadows. They vanished into darkness, returning to the inner dimension where her other puppets were stored.

    With a graceful, unhurried flight, Rebecca soared toward the dragon''s lair. Each step she took upon landing radiated confidence and composure.

    The dragon king slowly opened his golden, predatory eyes. They locked onto Rebecca like a predator sizing up its prey—but Rebecca didn''t flinch. She was no longer the helpless little girl who had been thrown through a rift. She wasn''t afraid this time.

    ---

    ???

    The dragon king''s fury ignited the air around him. Rebecca''s mention of his clan''s demise filled him with rage.

    With a roar, he opened his jaws and unleashed a torrent of dragon flame. The blast was so intense, it melted parts of the lair walls on impact. Yet Rebecca stood still, utterly composed. There wasn''t the faintest flicker of fear on her face. Instead, a sphere of darkness formed before her, expanding quickly.

    The dragon king''s breath was absorbed into the black orb, his devastating flames completely nullified.

    He raised an eyebrow—not in fear, but mild surprise. Still, he was half-impressed. He expected nothing less from someone who had defeated the Titan King.

    "Say," Rebecca began calmly, "I think this place is a bit cramped. You likely won''t be able to exert your full strength here, Dragon King. Allow me to help with that."

    Darkness began to drip from her body like thick ink, spreading across the lair like liquid shadow. It slithered into the walls, floor, and ceiling, consuming everything in sight.

    The dragon king watched her with cool eyes, showing no concern. A glint of interest flickered in his gaze, but he remained unmoved. Her ''petty tricks'' didn''t worry him. Like many leaders of great clans, arrogance clouded his judgment. And in a world where no one punished them for it, such arrogance often went unchecked.

    Rebecca saw through it clearly. She smiled to herself. She would play along—let him believe he had the upper hand. Then, only after breaking his pride and confidence, would she deliver the fatal blow. Only then would her vengeance feel complete.

    The lair disappeared, engulfed in pulsating darkness, like the heartbeat of some living void. With each pulse, the cave expanded until it became a seemingly infinite space of absolute darkness. There was no light, no sound—only Rebecca and the dragon king.

    But the darkness posed no problem. Both beings could see clearly within it.

    The dragon king shifted into his humanoid form. His massive body shrank until he stood about one and a half times Rebecca''s height. Muscles tightened beneath obsidian-black scales, two dark wings stretched behind him, and a tail curled like a whip.

    Rebecca didn''t move, waiting patiently as he transformed. She had no interest in striking before he was ready.

    When his transformation was complete, the dragon king launched the first attack. His speed was so great that afterimages of his original stance still lingered in the air as he appeared right in front of her. He threw a powerful punch aimed at her abdomen.

    Rebecca calmly deflected it.

    Countering, she threw a punch of her own. The dragon king crossed his arms in front of his chest to absorb the blow. He was pushed back a few inches, slightly staggered.

    Regaining his footing, the dragon king lashed out with his tail, aiming to sweep Rebecca off her feet. She jumped gracefully, twisting her body mid-air into a spinning roundhouse kick. He caught her leg mid-spin and slammed her downwards with force, intending to smash her into the ground.

    But Rebecca reacted quickly, using her free leg to strike his chin and break loose from his grip.

    She flipped backward, landing in a controlled crouch. But before she could fully stabilize, he pressed in again, unleashing a rapid barrage of strikes.

    Rebecca blocked each attack with precision, her movements fluid and relaxed, dispersing the force like a master of Tai Chi. She countered when openings appeared, but for now, she was mostly on the defensive.

    The dragon king grinned, sensing he had the upper hand. His attacks came harder, faster.

    But then Rebecca''s eyes began to glow—a luminous blue—and intricate markings spun wildly within her irises.

    The battle changed.

    Suddenly, the dragon king found himself being pressed. Rebecca met his attacks before they even landed, disrupting his momentum. The confidence in his strikes faded as she forced him onto the defensive.

    His frustration mounted. Her blows were strange—bizarre and unpredictable—but undeniably effective. It felt as though each odd movement had purpose, as if she could see what was coming before it happened.

    He tried to block one of her punches by extending his palm. At the last moment, Rebecca subtly shifted her angle, bypassed his hand entirely, and landed a clean blow. Sёarch* The ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    The dragon king staggered backward, burning with rage—but his mind remained sharp. Even as he fought, he was analyzing, breaking down her patterns.

    "Your eyes," he muttered, lips curled. "So they''re not just for decoration."

    Rebecca didn''t reply. She saw the flicker in his expression—the mistaken assumption that he had figured her out.

    Let him think that. Let him believe he understood.

    Because the truth was, she hadn''t even begun to use the full power of her eyes—not during her first fight with the universe indigenes, not now. She wasn''t even using one-tenth of their potential.

    Had she done so, the battle would''ve ended in an instant.

    But that wasn''t what she wanted.