The Rich Cultivator-Chapter 328. Battle Against Raptor

Raptor’s eyes pulsed crimson, and in an instant, a terrifying field of thunder and lightning expanded around him. The very air twisted with energy, sparks dancing like angry fireflies, crackling as bolts of lightning licked the clouds above.

"He’s using his domain!" one of the Grandmasters shouted, his voice echoing like a war drum.

In response, the Grandmaster slammed his palm onto the ground—lava burst forth, molten rivers spiraling beneath his feet. A massive dome of radiant heat and flowing magma emerged, clashing violently against the stormy domain of Raptor.

Tyler and the others instinctively backed away, creating distance as the titanic clash of energy crackled in the air.

Another Grandmaster raised both arms to the sky, his domain blooming like a blooming flower of stone. Massive rocks descended from above, each as large as a house, falling like divine meteors aiming to crush the golden-armored invader.

Raptor didn’t flinch.

His whip cracked upward, and with one clean motion, he sliced a boulder in half, the impact sending fragments ricocheting in all directions.

Tyler watched in awe. "Is that birdie thingy a Divine Seeker?"

Divine Seeker—the elusive realm above Grandmaster, a realm whispered about even in the most elite cultivation circles.

"No," one of the Grandmasters beside him replied while shielding them. "But he’s half a step into that realm."

Tyler raised a brow. "But he seems so powerful."

The Grandmaster didn’t reply just nodded—his focus was fully on the battlefield. Beside him, the other two grandmaster stayed close to Mana, Astrid and Mathilda, maintaining their barrier in case Raptor’s attack reached them.

The sky had turned into a hellscape of energy.

Hundreds of ball lightnings now orbited Raptor’s domain, spinning like chaotic moons. They whizzed and zapped through the air with lethal precision.

Tyler’s mouth twitched. "Ball lightning is real? One of the childhood mystery has been solved."

Far off in the distance, a secondary chaos was unfolding.

Abyss Scorpions, monstrous creatures with chitinous shells and venomous stingers, had crawled out from the ground—drawn to the unstable energy, but now completely panicked by the battle.

Some of them turned tail and tried to flee in different direction. Others, in their confused frenzy, charged blindly toward Tyler’s group.

"Scorpions incoming!" one of the defending Grandmasters warned.

Before they could even reach the group, the remaining Grandmasters moved.

One raised a hand, conjuring a wall of compressed air that flattened two scorpions mid-charge, their bodies splattering like broken pottery.

Another Grandmaster stepped forward, summoning spikes of condensed light, which pierced the skulls of a trio of the larger scorpions in rapid succession.

Their corpses twitched and melted under the residual energy.

Tyler waved some dust away from his face and said "Get me some chitinous shells."

One of the Grandmaster didn’t ask anything and activated his water domain. Some whirlpool appeared below the dead scorpion and absorbed the shells.

Another small whirlpool appeared near that Grandmaster and chitinous shells were spit out.

Meanwhile, the clash between domains intensified. Lava geysers erupted, turning parts of the terrain into scorched craters. Giant falling rocks continued crashing down, but Raptor twisted and dodged them with elegant precision. Every whip-crack from him summoned arcs of chain lightning, grounding themselves in the Grandmasters’ domains.

One of the Grandmasters grunted, his domain shielding cracking under the strain. "His whip isn’t just lightning—it’s abyssal-encoded. It’s eroding our spiritual defenses!"

Raptor finally descended to the ground, wings spreading wide. His hybrid aura—divine and abyssal—expanded, twisting the natural energy of the area. Stones cracked. Even the lava began to hiss unnaturally, reacting to his corrupted presence.

Raptor raised a hand, and a ball lightning the size of a boulder condensed above his head, vibrating so intensely that the sound alone made Tyler’s teeth ache.

"Evade!" a Grandmaster yelled.

The Grandmasters jumped to the side as the ball lightning struck down like divine judgment. The earth exploded, and a massive crater formed where it landed, smoke billowing from the impact site. Even the Lava got evaporated.

"Keep him grounded!" the Lava Domain Grandmaster shouted. "If he takes to the sky again, we’ll lose control of the battlefield!"

"I’ll anchor him!" Rock Domain Grandmaster shouted, slamming both hands to the ground.

Instantly, dozens of jagged stone pillars erupted from the earth, spiraling upwards like the fangs of a slumbering beast awakened. They crashed together in a brutal cadence, forming a cage of unbreakable terrain meant to trap the intruder. Dust and debris flew, veiling the battlefield in a haze of trembling earth and sharp stone.

But the air changed.

A sudden pressure descended, heavy and electric. The sky dimmed. A low hum reverberated through the ground—like thunder waiting to roar.

From within the cage, a sharp glint flared, and then a blast exploded outward. A sonic boom erupted from within the prison, followed by a blinding flash of golden light. The stone pillars shattered—half of the cage reduced to rubble in an instant, debris scattering like ash in a storm.

Through the cloud of dust emerged a figure—tall, radiant, and terrifying. And his eyes—twin burning rubies, cold, merciless, unblinking—locked on his prey.

It’s the Raptor.

Without warning, he vanished in a flash of lightning.

Before the Grandmasters could react, he was already upon them. A crackle of lightning echoed through the air as a whip that is shining with pure thunder passed through air - snaking like a serpent possessed.

It lashed forward and wrapped around the neck of the Grandmaster who trapped him, jerking him off the ground like a ragdoll.

The whip sparked violently as arcs of lightning surged through it. The Grandmaster’s body convulsed midair, bolts of divine energy piercing through his veins, illuminating his skeleton beneath flesh. He screamed—a guttural, harrowing cry—as smoke rose from his body, his robes burning, eyes wide with agony.

Raptor hovered in the air, his Abyss wings spreading behind him. Below him a grandmaster is getting tortured by lighting.

"He’s going to die..." Tyler said to the Grandmaster beside him while watching the brutal spectacle unfold from afar.

A moment later, the wind stirred unnaturally. A Grandmaster near Tyler took a deep breath and summoned his domain—a circular veil of rushing gales that shimmered in the air. In a blink, he disappeared, becoming one with the wind itself.

Suddenly, the battlefield howled.

The winds converged violently, coiling around Raptor like a furious tempest. A tornado surged upward, trapping him within its spiral, distorting the air and cutting off visibility. The vortex hissed like a living beast, swallowing the screams, the lightning, and even the light.

But before anyone could claim victory, the air burned.

A tremor followed, not from the sky, but from deep within the earth.

A massive hand of molten lava burst from the ground, erupting through the tornado, its fingers stretching toward the heavens. It slammed into Raptor mid-spin, crashing against his body with raw, elemental force. Flames exploded across his golden armor, cracking the plates and searing his feathers.

Raptor grunted, thrown sideways through the air.

But even before he hit the ground, his wings flared outward, and he caught himself mid-flight—black feathers scattering like cinders. His eyes, glowing red with fury, narrowed as his whip sparked again with unstable lightning.

Yet the strike had done its job. The second elemental hand—this one shaped of gale-force winds—snatched the captured Grandmaster from Raptor’s grip, pulling him away from the predator’s wrath. The wounded man was dropped gently near the others, his body twitching from the lingering shocks, but alive.

Raptor hovered silently, shoulders rising and falling with measured breath. He was bruised, but not broken. Enraged, but eerily calm. His crimson eyes scanned the group with renewed interest.

"Awak cuba sangkar saya," the golden bird-man said at last, his voice like thunder wrapped in silk. "Saya akan maafkan anda semua, jika anda memberikan saya gadis itu."

"You caged me... I will forgive you all, if you give me the girl." Tyler’s watch translated the words with a mechanical chime.

"The girl is probably Astrid," Tyler muttered.

"Why do you say that?" Mathilda asked, frowning.

"Because Kairon said Abyss Hunters are hunting him down. That guy came for him—but then he suddenly noticed us and started attacking." Tyler turned toward Astrid. "Remember you said you saved a perverted Abyss Hunter? Maybe that one is this birdie’s superior."

"So... he’s a subordinate of that golden-armored man?" Astrid looked up at the winged figure hovering in the sky, her expression tense.

The battle below was locked in a tense stalemate. Smoke drifted from shattered terrain, and elemental energy still pulsed in the air. Neither side had made a decisive move since Raptor’s last assault.

"Hmmm... we should end this quickly," Tyler said, scanning the battlefield. "If his companions show up, we’re finished."

"Don’t jinx it!" Mana snapped from the side, glaring at him.

But just as the words left her mouth, the sky cracked.

A low hum vibrated through the air as a dark spatial rift tore open behind Raptor—like a wound in reality itself. A distorted limb, clawed and shadowy, began crawling out from the breach, followed by another. Something was coming.

Everyone turned toward Tyler at once.

He blinked. "Stop looking at me... it was just coincidence."