Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: Scars Left on the World (2)
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Lightning silhouettes danced in the air. They were dazzling and beautiful enough to mesmerize at a glance, yet perilous existences that could incinerate life with mere proximity.
‘Familiars!’
They were the dragon’s familiars. Just as the Earth Dragon’s familiars were formed from earth and stone, the Thunder Dragon’s familiars were monsters composed entirely of lightning itself.
“So this is where the real fight begins.”
These familiars were incredibly tricky opponents. True to the Thunder Dragon’s attacks being the fastest among dragons, its familiars struck at enemies with speeds incomparable to those of other dragons’ familiars!
Kwa-gwang! Kwang-gwang!
They were lightning bolts in their own right. When flying through the sky, they blinked along the threads of lightning that the Thunder Dragon had spread out across a wide area, but the moment they locked onto a target and struck, they became a single streak of thunderbolt.
No matter how fast Azel was, it was impossible to spot a bolt after it was fired and dodge it with his eyes. Though Azel could move faster than sound for an instant, the speed of lightning far surpassed even that.
Azel desperately captured the flows of mana force and the moments when lightning energy concentrated. To block the Thunder Dragon’s familiars, which freely surrounded and assailed him from all sides, he had to read their attacks in advance.
Pajijik! Kwa-gwang!
Flowers of lightning bloomed in all directions. Amid the diagonal and vertical bolts from the dragon, its aftershocks birthed familiars that targeted Azel from every angle.
“Urk!”
Azel dodged the onslaught with flashy movements, but even that had its limits. He insulated through unavoidable ones, but even that wasn’t perfect. Bolts arriving moments later after insulation had to be blocked with a barrier, and each time, he felt shocks that threatened to tear his organs apart.
The gap in their inherent powers was too vast. Dragons wielded lightning as naturally as breathing, and the fundamental strength behind it was incomparably immense compared to any other lifeform.
Moreover, a dragon needed only land one solid hit from afar. In contrast, even approaching to strike back was a challenge for Azel.
The one thing in which humans surpassed dragons was technique alone.
Among the countless lifeforms in the world, humans were far from the strongest. An unarmed human couldn’t even defeat a domesticated dog, and against herbivores, they’d be utterly crushed.
Yet humans became the world’s dominators. Why?
Because humans possessed wisdom.
They created tools to compensate for their deficiencies. They honed methods to use those tools more efficiently, shared that know-how, and gradually refined it into superior techniques.
Martial arts were born from this very process. The pinnacle of irrational madness piled up by the weak to overcome the strong.
Humans were the only path to victory against dragons—born the strongest yet too foolish without wisdom.
“Haat!”
Azel let out a spirited shout as he absorbed a bolt he couldn’t fully evade with his sword and released it.
But resorting to such a method meant Azel had been cornered completely. His precarious dodges and blocks had reached their limit, leaving him fully surrounded by both the Thunder Dragon’s lightning barrier and its familiars.
Kwa-gwang!
Unable to dodge in the end, Azel deployed a barrier to block and was flung back. Failing to fully offset the impact, he spat blood as he soared through the sky.
In that instant, the Thunder Dragon widened its eyes and gaped its maw. Certain its prey was weakened, it unhesitatingly chose its ultimate weapon.
At the same time, Azel’s eyes gleamed.
‘Dragon’s Roar! I knew you’d go for that!’
The Thunder Dragon was a violent, aggressive beast. For a dragon that annihilated foes in an instant by leaping through space with lightning, could the word “patience” even apply?
It never hesitated against incomprehensible foes. It pressed on fiercely, more fiercely, unleashing attacks relentlessly.
No matter how much combat experience yielded rich techniques, its essence remained unchanged. Azel had confirmed this while battling the Thunder Dragon.
Kyaaaaaaa!
The Dragon’s Roar exploded.
The lightning barrier the Thunder Dragon had spread converged to a single point, and from the roaring dragon’s maw erupted an immense thunderbolt. In an instant, hundreds of meters blazed white, followed a beat later by a colossal plume of dust.
Unlike the Earth Dragon fought in the Valan Forest, this Thunder Dragon wielded its power masterfully.
Thus, it acted exactly as Azel intended.
‘I’ve been waiting!’
Even being cornered was part of his tactics. He had to exploit even situations where a single mistake meant death to defeat a dragon!
Whooooosh!
Amid the exploding, scattering thunderbolts, Azel’s body spun, generating fierce air currents.
No mere insulation could block this lightning. No matter how much training had strengthened Azel, he should have been obliterated.
If Kairen hadn’t lent him the Dragon Sword, that would have been his fate.
“Thunder Dragon’s…!”
The Dragon Sword emitted intense waves of dragon mana force. The power to dominate phenomena through will—dragon mana force—granted Azel strength beyond limits.
Dazzling lightning gathered and blazed on the Dragon Sword in Azel’s grip. It was unmistakably part of the Thunder Dragon’s mighty bolt.
“…horn!”
Kwa-gwang-gwang-gwang!
By the time the explosive roar echoed, the thunderbolt had already sliced through the Thunder Dragon.
The thunderbolt detonated, setting heaven and earth ablaze in white. Though Azel’s mana force fell short of when he slew the Earth Dragon in Valan Forest, this amplified counterstrike surpassed it.
But Azel didn’t stop. He plunged straight into the exploding thunderbolts.
Pahak!
A sound of rending flesh rang out, and blood gushed like a fountain. The dragon howled in agony.
Kyaaaaaaa!
Astonishingly, the Thunder Dragon survived the strike that finished the Earth Dragon. Far from merely surviving, it was virtually unscathed.
It had no choice but to be. A Thunder Dragon fed even on lightning from storm-swept skies. No strike could harm it if it was lightning, no matter how mountain-cleaving.
Azel knew this well. He used the technique deliberately to throw the Thunder Dragon into panic.
“This gamble… I win!”
Right after unleashing its Dragon’s Roar, it took an unimaginable counterblow. Not only was its protective power weakened, but it was struck at a vital point in a mentally defenseless state.
“Haaaaah!”
Before the dragon’s mind recovered from the agony, Azel unleashed everything he had.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Explosions rang in succession as blood sprayed from the dragon’s body.
The dragon couldn’t escape its confusion. Something was wrong. What should have happened didn’t.
The bleeding wouldn’t stop.
Unless constantly torn at the same spot, the initial wounds should have clotted via regeneration. Yet they reopened as soon as they healed, blood gushing endlessly.
“Blame the Duke. Without this sword, I would have lost!”
The Bleeding Curse, effective even on dragons, required ample dragon mana force for Azel to wield. Kairen’s Dragon Sword made it possible.
But the anomalies bewildering the Thunder Dragon didn’t end there.
Pahak! Pa-haak!
The sword striking it wasn’t just one.
Sword strikes slashed its body from multiple points simultaneously.
It felt as if several humans were charging at it. But it knew that couldn’t be. It was in the midst of the Dragon Slaying Ritual with the human before it!
‘Dance of Shadows!’
In this moment, Azel had created dozens of solid clones to assail the Thunder Dragon.
Only Azel’s strikes carried the Bleeding Curse. But with ceaseless wounds blooming everywhere and agony flooding in, it could do nothing.
Kaaaaaaa!
The Thunder Dragon unleashed lightning in desperation. But to no avail. The instant it did, Azel attacked with devilish timing. Pain scattered its focus, sending weakened bolts astray.
Using the Dragon’s Roar prematurely was a fatal mistake. Death approached before it could recharge its spent power.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Azel’s heart pounded madly, producing terrifying mana force.
In this instant, Azel assailed the Thunder Dragon with soul-scorching momentum. This was the decisive moment. He had to end it before the Thunder Dragon recovered from its Dragon’s Roar, or Azel would die!
“Flame Dragon’s…!”
Before the Thunder Dragon, dazed by massive blood loss, Azel soared up. Its eerie blue eyes glared down as its body spewed volcano-like flames.
“…horn!”
And the blazing sword smashed down on the dragon’s crown.
5
“…My god. That easily against a dragon?”
The Prophecy Guardians watching Azel’s Dragon Slaying Ritual with the Thunder Dragon were aghast.
They knew well how fearsome dragons were. Didn’t the surrounding terrain change just from the Thunder Dragon battling Azel?
Yet Azel felled such a dragon all too simply. Peering into the details, he had staked his life on a gamble and won. But to those unaware, it seemed absurdly effortless.
Was this truly the same man who’d been helplessly defeated by Zeta just four months ago?
“He might really be the one from the prophecy.”
One of the Prophecy Guardians said.
Lennon was astonished too. This battle wasn’t in their plans. Nor was deploying the Frost Dragon at this time. It had merely been a card prepared for any moment, forced into play by the Dragon Demon Worshippers’ actions.
Lennon asked,
“What do you think would happen if we fought him now, Zeta?”
[Who knows. I can’t be sure.]
“You could beat a dragon, right, Zeta?”
[Possible. But…]
He had no confidence in matching Azel’s feat. Zeta, hailed as a genius and master Spirit Order practitioner in life, had been technically overwhelmed by Azel before. Even now, vastly stronger and able to fell a dragon one-on-one, could he prevail?
Lennon said,
“Zares, your sleazy schemes are useful once in a while.”
Zares writhed at Lennon’s feet like a worm.
“Urk, damn it. If you’re gonna praise me, at least… use a fitting tone?”
Zares grinned through cold sweat. The pain Azel inflicted lingered torturously.
Lennon frowned.
“Either suffer or smirk like a creep. Pick one. It’s annoying.”
“Heh heh heh, that Azel guy… sharper than I thought, but in the end… he’s a righteous fool. Can’t be helped with his type.”
“That sounds like a line straight out of a villain’s mouth. Then again, you’re worse than any villain—pure trash.”
“We’re all the same.”
“Infuriating, but I can’t deny it. And anyway, I’m starting to think he really might be the one the prophecy points to.”
“Heh heh heh…”
Zares chuckled darkly, still sprawled on the ground.
Lennon, eyeing him with utter disdain, said,
“Theta and Delta seem to be doing well.”