Rebirth of the Prime Dragon Master novel Chapter 256

'This has to work!' Rocky said to himself as he exerted his spiritual power to connect with the Dragon Flame Pearl in his chest.

But, the Dragon Flame Pearl was not activated even after he almost completely drained his spiritual power from exertion.

'Can I make this work? Or am I doomed here?' Rocky's will started to slip. Thoughts of hopelessness and defeat plagued him. He started to think about giving up and surrendering to the Goddess of Fate as the minutes passed by. He thought about the times when he escaped the grip of death relatively unscathed before. But, alas, this time, it seemed that luck had deserted him completely.

As the thoughts of defeat hovered ever closer, the image of Lena forced itself into his mind. A powerful emotion suddenly filled his entire being. His heart thumped with renewed energy. He realized that he could not allow himself to perish. He knew that he needed to survive for the one who cared deeply about him.

Rocky braced himself with renewed determination. He took a deep breath and slowly, carefully drew forth his last reserve of spiritual power to once again attempt to activate the Dragon Flame Pearl. He steeled his mind for only one acceptable possibility -- he would succeed! At this point, he prepared himself for both absolute defeat and absolute success and held nothing back!

Beads of sweat trickled down from his forehead. His body reverberated from the intensity of his concentration. At length, Rocky's strength started to ebb and give in to the enormous strain. And just as he was about to collapse, a magnificent flame burst forth from his chest. The scorching heat almost melted his skin! The flesh threads that bounded his chest gave out, unable to contain the power of the Dragon Flame Pearl. The pearl then flew into the air as several smaller streaks of fire surrounded it. The entire area looked as if dragons with bodies made of pure flame flashed in fiery waves of orange, yellow and red and played around with the pearl.

"Go!" Rocky exclaimed as he moved his head upward and urged the flames forward. He was surprised that the Dragon Flame Pearl followed his instruction. It flew directly into the flesh pillar. The shroud of fire grew magnificently to engulf the flesh pillar in its searing flames.

A thundering sound filled the area as the flesh pillar disintegrated under the blazing assault of the fire streaks of the Dragon Flame Pearl.

Loud groaning sounds filled the air that came from the spirit-manipulated beast as the flesh wall shuddered violently from the assault.

The white flesh threads stopped feeding on his spiritual power. Its grip loosened which allowed Rocky to move more freely. He reached for his Frozen Wind Dagger to completely free himself of the white flesh threads by cutting them off. Without warning, as if it read his mind, a powerful surge of spiritual power flowed through the white flesh threads and into his exhausted body.

In an instant, Rocky felt the spiritual power from the white flesh threads as it slammed into his body like the waves of the ocean during a storm. But Rocky's body did not have the strength nor the sturdiness of stones that stood stoically by the shore even on the direst of storms. And that last attack almost brought unconsciousness to Rocky's weakened self. Rocky knew that he could not endure more of this kind of attack.

"Fuck! Do you really believe you can beat me this way? I will not let that happen!" Rocky cursed under the tension of the situation. He knew that he was helpless from the attacks of the spiritual power. He simply had no way to stop its attacks on him.

He knew he had to do something. He realized that the surge of spiritual power assaulting him would soon overload his weakened state. He imagined that his body would be like a balloon with too much air blown into it, bursting when it could hold no more.

He never liked that thought. A regular person under these circumstances would have given up a long time ago. Yet, Rocky was never a regular person. He was always so stubborn that he never gave up no matter how hopeless the situation was.

Rocky needed a way to stop the strong spiritual power that assaulted him. He soon deduced that the only chance he had was to somehow control the alien spiritual power and then convert it into a form that benefited him. He knew that if he failed at this objective, then he would be truly and undoubtedly doomed. The power of the Holy Dragon Bead was lost to him. He no longer had the option to use it to tame the alien spiritual power.

Only one option was left to him. A single choice that increased the danger that he was in or saved him. He had to use his will to tame the alien spiritual power that assaulted him. Rocky knew that a plan that took time and prolonged exposure to this strong spiritual power brought with it the danger of damaging his body too much. He knew that if his body became too injured while he executed his plan, then it was over for him. It was like he fought a giant with but a single needle.

If his plan succeeded, then he would live. If it failed, then he'd die.