Hunting the Blue Dragon (2)
Kerdihak had already taken position high in the sky. He could guess when Crawford, who was falling toward him from an even greater height, had begun preparing his attack. It was the moment the swarm of lightning ice crystals Kerdihak had created met Cadistella’s coordinate explosion magic and formed a dense cloud of mist. Cadistella and Crawford’s figures had vanished for an instant, hidden by the mist, and in the moment Kerdihak’s attention was stolen by Cadistella charging through the cloud, he had forgotten Crawford’s existence. Before Cadistella pierced the mist and advanced on Kerdihak, she must have launched Crawford even higher into the sky. While Kerdihak’s vision was obstructed by his focus on the rapidly approaching Cadistella, Crawford had risen to an even loftier position. There, he prepared his slash, plummeting at tremendous speed while Cadistella shattered Kerdihak’s Absolute Shield and dealt him a fatal wound.
“Flash Mo—”
BOOOOOOM!!!
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Kerdihak attempted to escape with the 5th-tier movement magic Flash Move, but the shockwave of the explosion struck his eyes and severed the spell’s formula. His eyeballs, already once destroyed by Cadistella’s claws, were struck again by her coordinate explosion magic and ruined a second time. An intense pain, as though a blade had been driven deep into his skull, momentarily severed Kerdihak’s consciousness. A broken spell could not be restored without recasting it from the beginning.
“How dare you!!!”
CRRRRRRRACK!!!
With no time left to cast magic, Kerdihak invoked the authority granted to him. He believed that an endless barrage of ultra-high-pressure lightning would prove lethal to Crawford and could be unleashed instantly without any preparation. Kerdihak channeled electricity into his crown-shaped horns and released a ferocious storm of lightning at Crawford with all his might.
Crawford’s Mana Sword was certainly terrifying. A single slash could carve through a dragon’s sturdy scales and cleanly sever a massive draconic arm; if it connected, even a dragon’s thick neck would not survive. Yet a sword was ultimately a close-range weapon. Kerdihak reasoned that if he prevented Crawford from approaching, he could escape danger. Since he had already discharged the lightning before Crawford could close the distance, he believed Crawford would have to discard his Mana Sword and retreat to avoid a direct hit.
Kerdihak’s split-second judgment was perfectly reasonable and correct. However, his opponent was a Sword Master, and that lofty, radiant title was never bestowed upon those who relied on common sense.
“Hraaaaah!!!”
SHRIIIIIIIIIEEEEK!!!
Upon witnessing the lightning flash from Kerdihak’s horns, Crawford swung his sword without hesitation. He had originally intended to use the speed of his descent to bisect Kerdihak’s colossal body, but realizing the lightning would strike him as well, he chose a faster means of attack.
A considerable distance still remained between Crawford and Kerdihak—enough space for two massive spires to fit between them. A mere Cornium longsword, barely a hundred-odd mentols in length, was hopelessly inadequate. Nevertheless, Crawford swung his blade.
Kerdihak assumed Crawford’s attack could never reach him and was merely a technique meant to block the lightning. Yet the moment he saw the fierce black light of highly compressed Luina erupting from Crawford’s sword, an instinctive sense of crisis overtook him. Without thinking, he twisted his body sideways.
That reflexive evasion was one of the finest decisions Kerdihak had ever made in his life.
Slice!!
“Kuhk…!!!”
CRRRRRRRRRACK!!!
The black light unleashed from Crawford’s Mana Sword grazed Kerdihak’s flank at a speed too swift to perceive. Kerdihak witnessed his own ultra-high-pressure lightning being cleanly bisected and vanishing into the air, yet he had no time to dwell on the sight. It was a faint sound, yet no noise could be more chilling—the sound of cutting flesh.
Kerdihak turned his head, using the eye that had not been destroyed by Cadistella, to look at his side. The horrifying sight of one of his wings being cleanly severed and falling away from his body entered his vision. Because he was flying by the power of magic rather than his wings for the sake of the urgent battle, there was no danger of his body plummeting. Still, the reality that a portion of a great dragon’s body could be severed so effortlessly sent a wave of revulsion through him, and his massive frame trembled violently.
Then, from the distant ground below, a thunderous roar like splitting rock reached his ears. Forcing himself to ignore the searing pain of his ruptured eye and severed wing, Kerdihak had no choice but to assess the situation with desperate urgency.
“Krrgh!! Flash Move!!!”
The earth, some distance away from the Demon Lord Castle. When Kerdihak turned his gaze downward, he saw the barren land split open in a long, jagged fissure. The scar left by the slash was so long and massive that even Kerdihak, positioned far above, could see it at a glance. The rift was wide enough to have effortlessly bisected a small fortress built by humans, and because the strike had reached deep into the earth, its end was invisible to the naked eye.
The thought of what would have happened had he failed to dodge Crawford’s attack made Kerdihak’s head spin. In a panic, he attempted to activate a movement spell and escape the attack’s range. Crawford’s assault was not over, and Kerdihak was still within the trajectory of his descent.
Whoosh!!
“I said, where do you think you’re going?”
Slash!!
KYAAAAAAAARGH!!
Flash Move had only been a temporary measure to escape the immediate crisis. Once his safety was secured, Kerdihak intended to cast a proper teleportation spell. At the very least, he needed to distance himself from the rapidly approaching Mana Sword before he could find an opening to cast it. A true teleportation spell capable of moving him to an entirely different region required time to activate, so he had to secure his safety and buy time above all else—keeping distance from his enemies was his top priority.
Yet the instant Flash Move completed and his movement ended, Cadistella’s gentle voice reached Kerdihak’s ears, as though she had been waiting for him. Startled, Kerdihak frantically swung his arm in an attempt to fend off the impending attack, but the effort ended in a pathetic display of futility. The arm he tried to swing was severed, and with the loss of sensation came an intense wave of pain.
Cadistella had anticipated the arrival point of Kerdihak’s Flash Move and had been waiting there in advance.
The pain was so searing it felt as though his body were burning, and his mind grew hazy, yet Kerdihak refused to let out an ordinary scream. To create even the slightest opening against his opponent, the roar he unleashed was not a cry of agony but the authority of an apex predator—the Dragon Fear that instilled primal terror in all living beings.
ROOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!
A powerful vibration spread through the surrounding air. An ancient authority more majestic than thunder itself. The roar of the supreme predator was directed straight at Cadistella.
“How noisy.”
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!!
KYAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!
Cadistella merely swung her Blood Nail with a nonchalant expression, as though the sound merely irritated her ears. Her reaction was no different from someone annoyed by a slight ringing in their ears. The Blood Nail she swung in irritation inflicted upon Kerdihak a suffering so horrific he would never forget it for the rest of his life. An entire section of his upper body’s flank—skin and all—was peeled away in a single stroke. Like skinning a fish. Like peeling a fruit. With one attack, a vast expanse of hide was stripped from Kerdihak’s colossal body. The peeled hide was so cleanly removed that its surface remained perfectly intact, every scale undamaged and unblemished.
“T-Teleportation!!!”
Deciding he could endure no more, Kerdihak used his remaining arm and wing to shield his heart and head, desperately trying to complete the teleportation spell. He judged that even if he lost his limbs, he could finish the incantation as long as he avoided a fatal wound that would scatter his focus. Cadistella launched no further attacks, and Kerdihak, frantically activating the spell, finally succeeded in completing a single teleportation magic.
In the moment his body trembled with the joy of being freed from this agonizing ordeal, Kerdihak’s figure—having successfully cast the 8th-tier spatial teleportation magic Teleportation—was about to vanish.
“Oh no, the lizard has to leave its tail behind.”
Slash!!!
Thud… thud…
Cadistella offered her farewell by severing Kerdihak’s massive tail. The dragon’s tail, longer than even his enormous torso, remained on the battlefield. As Kerdihak’s figure disappeared, so too did his agonized scream, fading into silence. Yet his long, colossal tail stayed behind, spraying blood as it twitched and convulsed.
“You deliberately chose not to kill him.”
“Mm. Something like that.”
Despite its immense weight, the dragon’s tail did not fall to the ground. Like Crawford floating beside Cadistella, the tail hovered gently in the air. Not only the tail, but every severed piece of Kerdihak’s body floated in the sky. Cadistella had cast levitation magic on each fragment to prevent the precious draconic resources from crashing to the earth and being damaged.
The reason Cadistella had peeled away Kerdihak’s hide moments earlier was due to her impulsive desire to claim the dragon’s skin and scales. Of course, her wish to inflict cruel torture upon the enemy who had caused the Demon Lord such suffering played a significant role as well.
“Killing Kerdihak now would only draw the attention of the Twelve Gods. If this lizard returns alive, we can also spread false information that Neromeltia’s resurrection failed. More importantly, the fact that we failed to finish off a mere lizard like him could serve as evidence of the Demon Lord’s absence. If Neromeltia were truly present, she could have dismembered that lightning-spewing lizard piece by piece while it was still alive.”
“Isn’t that the same for you, Lady Cadistella?”
“That’s exactly why I let him go. The Demon Lord’s army executives are rebuilding the Demon Lord Castle, but none of them are strong enough to crush Kerdihak. It’s nothing serious, so keep pretending to be careless. That’s what it means. A lizard as prideful as him would never go around boasting that he was utterly humiliated, would he?”
Crawford felt a sense of awe toward Cadistella, who had acted with such meticulous calculation even in the midst of this urgent battle. He had been consumed with the desire to bisect his hateful enemy, yet Cadistella had merely toyed with her opponent according to her plan before letting him escape.
“We can even conceal our very existence. Something like Teleportation can be blocked by setting up a single mana barrier, yet we simply let him go. The arrogant Kerdihak will console himself by thinking he struggled because he faced two opponents alone, and comfort himself by blaming bad luck. He’ll believe he was only defeated because the timing was off against insignificant foes who couldn’t even interfere with his Teleportation. Even if we fight again, he’ll be convinced that as long as he succeeds in casting Teleportation, he can always escape the battlefield safely.”
“You’re saying he’ll grow complacent when he looks at us. And that complacency will lead to carelessness.”
Crawford understood Cadistella’s words perfectly. It was important to protect the Demon Lord Castle by winning the battle and to display overwhelming power to deter future attacks. However, it would be problematic if the enemy felt cornered and became desperate.
“Once he grows complacent, he’ll start having other thoughts. In the end, his pride won’t allow him to admit he couldn’t conquer the Demon Lord Castle with his own strength, so he’ll make sure to block any information from reaching the Twelve Gods to prevent their intervention.”
“Ah! If the Twelve Gods intervene and the Demon Lord Castle is destroyed, Kerdihak’s pride would be wounded!”
“Exactly. If he wants to tear me apart with his own hands, then information about the Demon Lord Castle’s reconstruction must never reach the Twelve Gods.”
Cadistella began slowly descending toward the ground, leading Crawford and the spoils she had harvested. Her smile was deep and rich, as though she were thoroughly enjoying herself. After spending a thousand long years imprisoned in an ancient castle, the various emotions she had finally tasted upon emerging into the world brought her a brilliant sense of joy. The satisfaction of seeing her plans unfold as intended also contributed to her pleasure, but what truly made the Empress of Fresh Blood smile was the exhilaration born from battle—the sadistic delight of tearing apart an opponent’s body and drinking their blood. Her body flushed with heat, Cadistella was already looking forward to what would come next.