“Everyone! Raise your weapons! Sir Quartz has struck a powerful blow, causing a weakness in the left defense! Bind the creature’s feet!”
Boom!
Calintz’s thunderous shout boosted the morale of the determined warriors even further. The warriors tightened their grip on their weapons and began marching towards the dragon.
Even though they came from different affiliations and had varying skills, the warriors were united in their goal to slay the dragon. They moved as one, without anyone needing to command them, taking steps toward the dragon’s left foreleg.
Their mission was to restrain the dragon’s feet as much as possible.
To minimize damage from the dragon, the warriors woke up with burning eyes, glaring at the dragon whose eye had burst.
“Target its legs!”
“It’s time to test if my axe works on dragons too!”
“Wicked dragon! We’ve come to slay you!”
“Die!”
The shouts of the warriors shook the volcano. The dragon, missing its left eye, took a while to locate the source of the warriors’ cries, even though it could hear them.
The dragon simply couldn’t pay attention to those pesky humans.
‘Pathetic humans…’
All of his senses were focused on the fly buzzing overhead.
The fools below him would just be causing scratches, but the attacks from the humans riding the phoenix above could inflict significant damage.
‘If only I could regenerate my eye…’
The pain of losing one eye left an echo in his head, but he kept his composure and plotted his next move. No matter how savage a dragon he was, he was still a rational being.
Having just broken a seal after hundreds of years, he knew all too well that he couldn’t fight properly with one eye missing.
The most reasonable choice would be to flee.
Though he was injured, it wasn’t impossible to escape. The smartest option was to retreat and hide until his eye regrew before facing them again.
But,
‘Am I going to run from these human pests? Absolutely not!’
His pride as a powerful being prevented him from retreating. He would rather die than run away from such insignificant humans.
As a dragon, his pride soared.
Though weakened from the seal, he was still a dragon—a formidable and terrifying one at that.
Flames began to gather in his mouth.
‘Let’s clear away these annoying pests first, then catch that fly and crush it.’
A simple and clean plan. As long as they remained vigilant, that pesky fly wouldn’t be able to attack easily.
Before that ridiculous attack could come flying at him again, he would tidy up the surroundings and finish the fly.
As long as he didn’t run away, this was the best course of action the dragon could take.
Ultimately, the dragon decided on his course of action, and his body began to rise, shaking the ground.
…And then, an unexpected variable emerged.
“Whoa, that’s ridiculously huge. Just one wing could cover the imperial palace!”
An astonished voice. And an overwhelming presence emanating from a creature no bigger than a grain of rice.
‘There’s another one like that?!’
The dragon immediately tried to shake off the ominous aura that hovered over him. But the being on his back seemed glued there, unwilling to let go.
‘Didn’t I tell you to cut the wings?’
Renny stood atop the vast expanse of the dragon’s back, gripping her sword. The solid mithril sword, painstakingly crafted by her companion Johann Quartz, fit perfectly in her hand.
With a satisfied smile, as if wielding a long-used favorite, she quickly transitioned to a fierce grin and began channeling her aura into the blade.
A violent usage method that normally wouldn’t cross her mind.
If it were an ordinary sword, it would have shattered long ago, but the sword made entirely of mithril withstood her fierce onslaught.
“True artisans don’t choose their tools, but good equipment is always the best, isn’t it?”
The sword, now infused with aura, started to swell.
One meter. Two meters. Three meters. Four meters… Seven meters.
Her arm muscles bulged. Such a brute-force method of channeling aura would normally be hard on the user; however, she had other things to worry about right now.
Her body, blessed by the saint, provided her with ample protection against her reckless acts.
Renny stretched both arms upwards, positioning the sword vertically.
It was a sight as if a red pillar had been erected in the sky. The angle of the pillar, built upon a lizard’s back, began to shift.
The target was the dragon’s ginormous wing.
“Well then, let’s give it a shot.”
The red pillar fell, tracing a circle as it did so. To the onlookers far away, the sight resembled that of a collapsing tower.
Could this be the amount of aura one could extract from a human body?
‘They said the strongest knight was frightening, but this is something else.’
The Second Prince, observing from a distance, felt moved watching the pillar of light resembling a guillotine descend toward the dragon’s wing. The peak of human violence.
Even hellish fiends would be unable to withstand that single strike.
And so, calamity struck the dragon once again.
“!@!(*#&!!”
“Ow, my ears.”
The dragon’s scream, nearly losing its left wing, shook people’s eardrums mercilessly. Warriors of lower ranks ruptured their eardrums from the shock.
In a ridiculous twist, two-thirds of the warriors fell into a state of combat ineffectiveness due to the dragon’s cry.
“Retreat with the fallen!”
Calintz’s shout led the warriors to rapidly evacuate with their injured comrades. While they needed to bind the creature, there was no need for unnecessary sacrifices.
As the frontlines began to stabilize quickly, Johann, who had been watching from above, muttered in disbelief.
“That’s unbelievable.”
Still, the dragon’s right eye remained fixated on the empty air. More precisely, it tracked the demon slayer Johann Quartz, who was narrowing its field of vision.
‘Is the final boss truly a final boss?’
Johann checked the mana almost full in his file bunker and deduced it was time for another attack. With one wing practically torn off, the dragon couldn’t fly properly now.
Having gained the upper hand from the beginning, there was no time to lose; he had to finish it as quickly as possible. That was the essence of hunting. Giving your prey a moment’s respite is the most foolish action possible.
“Phoenix, can you lower the altitude?”
[If we go any lower, we might get attacked.]
“We can strike first before they attack.”
[What a convenient thing to say.]
Charging rate—90%.
There was enough time to fill the rest within a minute.
Whoosh!
A searing heat brushed past him.
[That breath still packs a punch, huh.]
“Even with the Phoenix’s blessing, it’s still hot.”
[That dragon didn’t earn that title for nothing.]
The breath, weaving through the air, was as hot as hellfire, but since it was shot into the air, it didn’t cause any significant damage to the other troops.
It might have been better for the dragon to wipe out the surrounding troops and prepare to face Johann directly, but the dragon couldn’t bring himself to that idea.
Each time he tried to shift his gaze, Johann, perched atop the Phoenix, waved his weapon in a way that was clearly meant as a threat. The mere act of diverting his eyes would result in immediate consequences.
‘This is maddening.’
The first seal placed on him hundreds of years ago by the first saint and her party hadn’t pressured him like this; being hunted by just two humans felt absurd. He wished this was just a dream.
It was hard to accept that he was being humiliated like this moments after his release.
The first attack had been an unexpected strike, so he couldn’t help that, but to have lost almost an entire wing in less than ten minutes was unacceptable.
At this rate, he would be cornered without even an hour passing.
‘I have to take out that one above first!’
Fortunately, the Phoenix was gradually descending. Like a beast lowering itself to catch prey, the dragon pretended to be injured and bided his time. He feigned severe wounds, unable to even rise.
As the dragon’s resistance weakened, the warriors began to believe that the dragon had been wounded from their repeated assaults and started to reassemble their lines.
Even if the dragon was injured, the battle wasn’t over yet.
‘Just a bit more…’
Johann’s figure reflected in the dragon’s massive right eye. The dragon staggered deliberately, waiting for him to come closer. While there was another dangerous human behind him, right now, he had to focus on Johann.
It was more rational to target the enemy with the higher possibility of defeat.
‘Now’s my chance!’
He opened his mouth. Not to unleash a breath attack; it was impossible to inflict meaningful damage with the Phoenix in play. But the dragon possessed overwhelming physicality.
He could easily swallow down a mere human.
Johann’s vision was suddenly engulfed in red.
[Oh no!]
“Phoenix!”
[Kid, now is not the time for chit-chat!]
“I’ll pull it out in a moment!”
[What?!]
Before the unexpected words left his mouth, the dragon delivered a heavy blow to the Phoenix, causing it to suddenly lose altitude.
Shock filled the Phoenix’s eyes as it looked up, only to see Johann diving into the dragon’s nostril.
[I’ll never let that little pest ride my back again…]
As the Phoenix plummeted towards the dark abyss, it was utterly crushed like a potato salad in the dragon’s jaws.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.