Soulbound: Dual Cultivation-Chapter 443: Not done yet

Lucas did not move.

Not immediately.

His body remained where it had fallen, his chest rising and falling slowly, unevenly, as though every breath had to be pulled from somewhere deeper than before, somewhere beyond the limits his body had already reached. To anyone watching, it looked like the end, like the aftermath of a battle that had already been decided, like a man who had nothing left to give.

But that was not the truth.

The energy he had spent… was only what he had drawn.

What he had used.

What he had allowed himself to use.

Deep within him, beyond the strain, beyond the damage, beyond even the creeping presence of the Dragon's Inferno, there was still more.

His reserves.

And for that brief moment as he lay there, staring faintly ahead, he allowed himself to breathe, to gather just enough clarity to keep going, because rushing now, rising too quickly, would only waste what little advantage he still held.

He needed a second.

From the distance, the battlefield told a very different story. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The soldiers of Valerion stood in silence, their earlier hope crushed under the sheer devastation they had just witnessed, their eyes fixed on the unmoving figures at the center of the scorched valley.

"…It's over," one of them muttered quietly.

Lira shook her head immediately, her voice tight but firm despite the fear in her eyes.

"No… no, it's not."

Selene's gaze remained locked on Lucas, her breathing still uneven, but there was something in her expression that had not faded.

"He's still there," she said softly. "I can feel him."

Commander Alexander frowned, glancing between them.

"What do you mean you can feel him?"

Princess Nyx answered instead, her voice calm but certain. Her eyes did not leave Lucas.

"He's not done."

There was no doubt in her tone.

No hesitation.

Because through the bond they shared, faint but undeniable, they could still sense him.

Still present.

Still fighting.

Even if he had not moved yet.At the center of the battlefield, Dravok stepped forward.

His expression was cold.

Decisive.

To him, there was no ambiguity in what he saw.

Two broken opponents.

One barely conscious.

The other no longer moving.

This was the end.

He lifted his hand once more, and the air responded instantly, the wind gathering again, but this time there was no gradual build, no testing, no hesitation. The power he summoned was immediate, overwhelming, as heat surged alongside it, twisting into something far more destructive.

Above him…began to form again.

Fire hailstones.

Larger.

Denser.

More violent than before.

Each one pulsed with concentrated energy, their surfaces burning brighter, the wind around them screaming as it held them in place, ready to be unleashed at his command.

The killing intent behind them was unmistakable.

It pressed down on the battlefield like a weight, suffocating, absolute, leaving no room for doubt about what would happen once they fell.

From the distance, fear spread again.

"He's going to finish it…" Henrietta muttered, her fists tightening.

Lira stepped forward instinctively.

"No… wait…"

Selene's breath caught slightly.

"…Get up Xavier…"

Princess Nyx's eyes narrowed, her gaze sharpening as she felt a subtle shift in Lucas's energy.

Back in the valley, Lucas remained still.

But inside, something stirred.

Dravok's hand began to descend.

The hailstorm above trembled in response, ready to fall, ready to erase everything beneath it.

And the attack screamed one thing louder than anything else.

Killing intent.

What had been holding Lucas back all this time was the Shadow Dragon's Inferno burning within him, restricting his output, eating away at his control, forcing him to hold back the very power that could have turned the tide of this battle. Every moment he had avoided using his fire, every hesitation, every limitation, all of it traced back to that unstable force coiled inside his dantian.

If he could get rid of it…

Even temporarily…

Then this fight would change completely.

But there was no time to solve that now.

Because Dravok moved.

His hands clenched.

And the sky answered.

The second wave of fire hailstones came crashing down with even greater force than before, the air screaming as they descended, each one carrying enough destructive power to erase everything beneath it. The killing intent behind the attack was absolute, leaving no doubt that this was meant to end them completely.

Lucas's eyes snapped open.

He reached inward, deeper than before, past the exhaustion, past the pain, into the vast reserve of Qi he had held back until now.

And he drew from it.

A surge of energy flooded through him instantly, sharp and overwhelming, filling his meridians with raw power that pushed back against the fatigue gripping his body. His arm lifted without delay, extending toward the Ice Belle who still lay beside him.

"Take it," he said, his voice low but firm.

The moment his hand reached her…The transfer began.

Qi flowed from him into her in a steady, powerful stream, far more than he had ever given before, and the reaction was immediate.

Her body jolted.

Her eyes widened slightly as the energy filled her, rushing through her like a flood breaking through a dam. She inhaled sharply, a deep, sudden gasp, as though she had been deprived of air for years and was finally able to breathe again.

The change was instant.

Her presence surged.

Without a word, she moved.

A small, condensed dome of ice formed around them, rising rapidly from the ground, compact and dense, far more refined than her earlier defenses. It did not expand outward unnecessarily, instead focusing entirely on durability, on compression, on resisting what was coming.

Lucas did not stop there.

He immediately reinforced it.

His Qi surged outward, wrapping around the ice dome, condensing into a secondary layer of protection, strengthening it from the outside and within, binding his energy with hers in a unified defense that neither of them could have achieved alone in their current state.

The timing was precise.

Because the hailstones hit.

They crashed down against the dome with devastating force, explosions erupting one after another, fire and wind tearing at the barrier, trying to break through, trying to crush everything inside.

The dome trembled violently.

Cracks formed.

The heat pressed in.

The pressure mounted.

But this time, It held.

Not perfectly.

Not without strain.

But it held.

For a few seconds.

Just enough.

Inside the dome, Lucas and the Ice Belle pushed themselves up, their bodies still damaged, still bleeding, but no longer lying helpless on the ground. The combined defense gave them what they needed most in that moment.

Time.

A brief window to recover.

To stand.

To fight again.

And as the hailstorm continued to crash against their barrier, unable to break it instantly as before, it became clear that something had changed.

They were not finished.

Not yet.