Chapter 59
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Earth Dragon Onslaught
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I huddled in some corner, coughing up a storm.
‘Damn it.’
The Earth Dragon had flung me far away with its massive body and thick cranial armor.
Normally, I could’ve dodged it easily, but this time, there was no room for that.
In return, I’d pierced its head armor and left a deep sword wound, but it wasn’t enough to kill the thing outright.
‘Going out of its way to enjoy this.’
They say even a snake keeps writhing after you cut off its head.
At that size, chopping its neck—or even its body—barely made a dent.
If I could’ve landed a solid hit, I might’ve ended it in one stroke...
Boom, boom, crash!
The noise made me turn my head.
The moment they pinpointed my location, the heretic mages unleashed a barrage around me.
Dirt erupted high into the air, showering the dusk with clouds of dust instead of rain.
The yellow-streaked sky stretched with a crimson glow between scarlet and deep red—a vivid blood-red line.
Scattered clouds tinged magenta made for a poetic scene, but picturing those monsters in it only brought curses to my lips.
‘They’re holding back a bit, at least.’
I exhaled a quiet breath after surveying the situation.
It wasn’t that I was in mortal danger or anything.
Numbers.
An overwhelming number of them were trying to slip past me.
Whenever their relentless bombardment paused, magical beasts filled the gap without fail.
The more beasts slipped behind me, the greater the risk to Isel and Radia.
Casualties would mount too.
If I could handle it all, it was right that I should.
My only gripe was they wouldn’t face me head-on, forcing me to chase them down one by one.
The grotesque beasts froze for an instant, then crumbled like collapsing statues, chunk by chunk.
Splat.
Flesh piled up in layers on the ground.
Aiden’s sword at extreme speed.
A swift blade technique that sliced through enemies from draw to sheathe without so much as a flutter of his coat.
A rapier’s essence lay in thrusting, but its double edges allowed for slashes like this.
‘Not that it compares to thrusting.’
In this chaotic melee, though, thrusts weren’t ideal.
I needed to cover the widest area as quickly as possible.
Lines over points, scattering widely over focusing on one spot.
This was a defensive sword.
One that ensured no enemies or attacks slipped behind me.
‘If only it suited me better.’
Thrusting weapons specialized in lunges—like rapiers—had a weakness unlike longswords or other blades: once extended, you had to recover.
With minimal prep and strikes that pierced intent, it might work elsewhere, but not here.
‘But if there’s even the slightest opening...’
The moment a gap appeared, my rapier would reach them.
It was a fang like a beast snatching prey’s nape—destined to shatter defenses and claim lives.
For that, Elin needed to buy me just a little time.
‘Guess I have to trust Isel.’
Clicking my tongue, I scattered radiant sword tips once more.
The linear sword trails vanished as if sketching space, only to reappear at the enemies’ doorstep.
Invisible, intricate sword ki butchered the horde.
They tried to stay alert, but if that worked, Aiden wouldn’t be a master.
Slash—!
Red threads arched gracefully across the beasts’ bodies.
The rapier blade whipped around, then danced in impossible directions, unrestrained.
No technique to name—just simultaneous slaughter of every visible beast.
As I slashed those crawling from tunnels onto the surface, the ground beneath me caved, and the Earth Dragon burst forth.
In the next instant, its rigid exoskeleton gleamed black, like armored plate.
The Earth Dragon erupted, jaws wide to swallow me whole.
The park—once a spot for lovers’ trysts—shattered pitifully.
I tried to push back but got launched skyward.
I jammed my rapier into its snout and held on, waiting for it to plummet back down.
That let me overlook the ground from above.
Uprooted trees lay sprawled below, sculptures buried in dirt mounds.
Relics of the academy’s history crumbled one by one.
Even the tunnel it had bored.
Beasts were crawling out one after another.
Witnessing it all from the height it hurled me to, I suddenly found it infuriating and locked eyes with the thing.
Narrow, vertically slit pupils.
A snake’s cold, harsh yellow gaze.
Meeting its savage warning glare, I pierced layers of clouds upward, then plummeted.
My coat collar flapped with deafening roars.
Gravity dulled my ears, but Aiden’s body wasn’t frail enough to complain at this.
It gaped to chew me, unleashing massive suction.
But with the rapier lodged in its snout refusing to budge, it seemed to abandon sucking and accelerate downward to smash into the ground.
I smirked at the Earth Dragon’s transparent ploy.
“Pathetic beast.”
Yanking the rapier free, I kicked its head with all my strength.
As I gained distance, its head charged at me with terrifying speed.
Thinking a collision at this velocity would hurt, the rapier glowed brighter than ever, trailing long white feathers.
Like snowflakes falling from the sky.
From high above downward, matching my descent to the ground.
My feathers drifted down from the sky, riding gravity neither too fast nor slow.
From afar, it looked like a bird missing one wing feather, fanning the rest wide.
The feathers raining from atop the Earth Dragon would disrupt the mages.
‘They look harmless, but a graze means death.’
The heretic mages, who’d seen me shred beasts with what seemed like fragile feathers underfoot, would overreact to keep even one from landing.
Sure enough, someone was already firing spells at the falling cluster.
While they dealt with the bullet hell of feathers, I could calmly carve through beasts and buy time.
The war of attrition seemed even due to beast numbers, but it only looked that way because I stubbornly slashed those slipping past.
If I’d ignored them from the start, the fight would’ve ended when the beast tamer closed in.
‘I was hoping to lop off an arm or two.’
The beast tamer had tunnels to keep opening.
Killing him here would deviate too far from the original story, so I’d let him live—but no need for intact limbs.
Ideally, I’d take one or two...
‘Demon.’
Clicking my tongue at that presence, I closed my eyes.
The ground rushed up.
Time to brace for landing—then I flipped, aiming my sword at the Earth Dragon.
“You did this stunt, so letting you off unscathed feels wrong.”
How dare it launch me for a sky view?
Aiden’s thrust pierced the plummeting Earth Dragon’s head at horrifying speed.
—Kieeeek!
One eye burst, its body tearing long.
Like scissors slicing fabric for clothes, its hide ripped sequentially, spraying blood.
In short, like stabbing a dagger a third into its torso thickness and slashing from head to mid-tail.
‘It still won’t die from this.’
A creature that lived headless wouldn’t perish from a torso gash.
But the shock would hit hard.
I landed lightly while it thrashed, screeching from the wound.
Dust billowed thickly.
I could finish it now, but while I’d been airborne, beasts from the tunnel had reached the far side of the academy.
To secure Isel’s safety even a bit, I had to kill those first.
‘An Earth Dragon’s easy to wrap up later.’
“Wish I had two bodies.”
If I could split, I’d be done and clocking out by now.
A real shame my 6 PM quittin’ time got ruined like this.
The heretics were busy with my feathers, the Earth Dragon rolling in pain, and I carved the strays.
Turning my head, I saw it furiously tunneling underground.
Buildings collapsed one by one.
No sinkholes, but its massive tunnel weakened the ground, unable to bear the structures’ weight.
Crashing bricks, exposed rebar like bare bones.
Students huddled inside, terrified.
Of course the building they’d rushed into was near my battlefield.
‘Picked the wrong fortress...’
Talk about bad luck.
I signaled the trembling students and jabbed at the Earth Dragon slinking below.
It tunneled shallowly, poised to pounce.
Fast enough to strike me, but that meant my sword reached it too.
Thrusting sword trails into the small hole hit a sore spot; it howled and surged up.
It flopped weakly, crashing to the ground.
On cue, students bolted away.
As the heretics scattered in panic and the Earth Dragon fell half-combat ineffective from accumulated damage...
“This won’t do.”
The beast tamer finished chanting his grand spell and aimed at me.
“Worm!”
A crimson magic circle glowed against the sunset, etched in world-red.
Like fluorescent paint, it blazed fiercely even in the darkening sky.
Geometric shapes, strokes, circuits aligned perfectly.
Like intricate gears meshing one by one.
Shapes linked shapes, strokes to strokes, tiny cogs around a central axis driving the colossal thing.
The magic circle belched.
Sucking in vast mana from the area, refining it, morphing into the ideal form for the spell.
Countless orbiting circles and sub-circles linked to the central one around the massive ring.
At the center.
No fire glyph, stroke, or letter—just something else.
A lizard.
Ignite.
A rune humanity could no longer use, newly refined for the modern age.
The most primal, pure fire power writhed in the magic circle as a flaming corolla.
I let out a sigh.