Two-Headed Venom Dragon (3)
Two-Headed Venom Dragon (3)
-Grind
The poison dragon's lips twisted. Its jagged, protruding fangs interlocked. Along with the rough sound of grinding teeth, the poison dragon let out a low growl.
Twin-headed Poison Dragon. Subjugated decades ago by over a dozen top-grade heroes, the poison dragon brimmed with hostility.
A 3rd Rank monster would ordinarily possess intelligence, but the poison dragon had lived only by primal instinct.
The poison dragon seethed with hostility and killing intent toward that unpleasant light which sought to purify and harm it.
'What is this?'
Gyeol-won, the head of the Death God Cult who had fused with it, felt perplexed.
Gyeol-won had made up for the insufficient sacrifices with the cultists and himself. The cultists died instantly on the spot, and Gyeol-won lost his body, transferring his consciousness into the poison dragon's form.
He had become a terminal case. The poison dragon's residual thoughts were too powerful for Gyeol-won to control. Though he had the god's blessing, the best he could do was roughly guide and manipulate its actions.
Ultimately, his consciousness blended into the monster's body. This half-formed undead would not live long before collapsing.
He was devouring every human and monster in sight to replenish sacrifices in real time and buy a little more time, but annihilation was certain.
Gyeol-won didn't care. Instead, he felt ecstasy.
The necromantic ritual achieved through the god's blessing. At this very moment, he felt a sense of unity, as though he had become one with the god.
Thanks to this, he could faintly sense what might be called the god's will. He felt as if his very soul would be crushed by its overwhelming magnitude, but he could definitely sense it.
'Hostility.'
A subtle hue settled over the darkened land and sky where the sun had sunk.
For an instant, the world, which had been pervaded with black and dank green, was dyed with brightness.
The source was high above.
Three pairs of brilliantly multicolored wings fluttered.
With each wingbeat, aurora-like afterimages streaked across the dry sky.
A beautiful aurora unfurled across the heavens.
The god harbored hostility toward those wings—wings that even Gyeol-won might have found beautiful for a moment.
'Hostility?'
Was it truly hostility? The question flickered through Gyeol-won's mind.
The god harbored hostility toward those wings. It wanted to tear them apart. So they would never dare fly again. Rip them out by the roots so they could not trespass upon the sky.
And then...
'Jeal—'
- Shaaaaaaaaaa─!
Gyeol-won's consciousness faded.
In its place, the poison dragon's consciousness surged to the surface. The poison dragon made no effort to conceal its hostility. With a savage roar, it unleashed its venomous energy.
Immense mana gathered at its jaws.
The poison dragon's mana was not defined by toxicity alone. Befitting its rank, it wielded formidable power.
Simply releasing this mana was enough to overturn the surrounding area, an attack that spread potent toxicity far and wide.
Such mana emission was the primary method of attack for large monsters.
The poison dragon opened its maw. An attack intended not for poisoning through venom but for destruction through mana.
- Kwaaaaa!
An enormous torrent of mana poured forth.
A black-green line pierced the void.
The mana cannon shot forward in a straight line, hurtling toward Lee Ha-yul, whose wings were outspread.
Lee Ha-yul beat his wings.
Crack! Lightning flared.
That was how it appeared to the poison dragon. The tail of the lightning was visible. The head could not be seen.
In an instant, the target vanished.
The mana cannon, having missed its mark, pierced the void and carved into the hapless earth below.
A long line was seared across the ground and detonated. Half-melted mounds of soil surged upward.
Guided by its senses, the poison dragon swiftly whipped its head around.
Its vision shifted, and there it saw wings whose yellow and yellow-green portions had grown more prominent.
Bewilderment clouded the poison dragon's mind. Such speed? It shouldn't have been so fast as to be imperceptible.
Fwoooosh! In an instant, a fierce storm raged. The gale hurled from the front stripped away part of the poisonous mire that coated it like armor.
The poisonous mire was torn away, revealing the head scales etched with wounds beneath.
Crackle! Lightning flared continuously around the wings.
Lee Ha-yul's body accelerated. He clenched his right fist.
From his tightly clenched fist, golden light flashed.
'Homogenization, White Night.'
- Kwaaang!!
The poison dragon's head was violently knocked back. The mana that had protected its head was shattered. Fragments of broken scales scattered, and more blood poison and poisonous mire than before gushed forth.
He was about to strike again with White Night.
His intuition sounded a warning.
Lee Ha-yul immediately beat his wings. The lightning spirit imbued in the wings stirred. His body accelerated in a flash of lightning.
The tail lashed like a whip through the spot where he had just been.
Crunch! Following the tail's trajectory, the void and the earth were savagely torn asunder.
Having gained distance, Lee Ha-yul furrowed his brow and beat his wings.
The very tip of the wing, which had been lightly grazed, rotted and crumbled away.
Before the toxicity could enter his body, he swiftly cut away that portion and poured mana into restoring it.
He'd expected the pain, but it was real.
It felt as though a blade were gouging out his skin and a heated iron were searing the tender flesh beneath.
The Sky Wing Feather was an artifact.
Damage to it shouldn't cause pain under normal circumstances, but when 'connected' as now, sensation could travel to some degree.
At present, Lee Ha-yul was linked to the Sky Wing Feather.
It was a method he had devised before, but this was his first time attempting it.
He hadn't been able to attempt it previously. He hadn't been able to grasp how to establish the connection.
He had grasped it just moments ago. He had observed in meticulous detail the process by which the Proof of Protection connected to his circuits.
He simply needed to replicate that. He connected his own circuits to the Sky Wing Feather.
- Shaaaa!
The poison dragon, enraged, let out a roar.
Blood trickled from the wound on its head. The poison dragon emitted a guttural rumble and drew up its mana.
Once more, mana thickly coated the surface of its scales.
Poisonous mire squelched out from between the scales and clung to its entire body.
Lee Ha-yul grimaced.
The armor of mana and poison that he had barely managed to strip away was donned once more.
He had intended to hammer it repeatedly while it was exposed, but no such opportunity had arisen.
'It got faster than before.'
Whether it had been concealing its reserve strength or not, the poison dragon's movements were continuously growing swifter.
Even that tail swing just now had nearly grazed his body.
'Should I strip it away with wind again?'
He had already shown that once, so there was a chance it would be countered next time.
He had to be cautious.
That side could afford to take multiple hits, but if he was grazed even once by mistake, it was over for him.
Fwaaash! He beat his wings. The wings' colors returned to five hues once more.
Acceleration at an unfamiliar level placed a burden on his body. He couldn't overuse acceleration through the lightning spirit.
His body also felt numb and hazy. His fingertips and toes tingled, as though afflicted with cramps.
'Tsk.'
He hurled a fierce storm. It stripped away the poisonous mire coating the poison dragon and swept aside the poison gas that pervaded the vicinity.
And before the poison could fill the space again, he charged in and struck.
He was poisoned nonetheless. Was it the minutely lingering poison? Or the venomous energy that had flooded back in after being swept away?
Whichever it was, he was affected by an extremely minute amount.
He could treat it.
It wasn't enough to kill him.
'Close combat isn't ideal.'
But poison was always scattered near the poison dragon.
If he approached carelessly and was properly doused, he would die beyond any doubt.
Even if that didn't happen, if he kept lingering nearby, the minute poison would accumulate and inflict fatal harm.
'Ranged attacks...'
He beat his wings. Along with auroral trails, red and yellow wing feathers fluttered and shot forward.
He manifested magic. He crammed mana into easily spammable attack spells and fired them all at once.
The wing feathers that savagely tore through the void and dozens of spells pounded the poison dragon's body.
Explosions erupted.
Flames spread across the poisonous mire, and the body struck by lightning flashed.
- Sssss...
There was no significant injury. Both the flames and the lightning were swallowed by the poisonous mire.
The dozens of attack spells failed to breach the mana wrapped around its body.
The poison dragon shifted its massive body to close the distance.
Its speed was by no means slow.
Simultaneously, its maw opened.
As if retaliating, mana cannons erupted from the gaping jaws in rapid bursts.
I hurled myself backward, unleashing my own counterattack.
Hundreds of wing feathers and spells poured out.
The attacks collided in midair. I had the numbers, but the power difference was stark.
I observed the trajectories. A deluge of information flooded in—far beyond what anyone could call mere surroundings.
Trajectories like this are easy enough to predict.
I moved my body along the trajectories. Attacks that wouldn't hit me from the start, I simply ignored.
Attacks that posed real danger, I slightly twisted their trajectory.
Those I couldn't twist, I evaded with small adjustments of my body.
The wind spirit harmonized my overall movements, while the lightning spirit handled instantaneous acceleration.
As if performing an acrobatic flight, I threaded through the countless barrages.
Three pairs of wings fluttered. In their wake, auroral trails of light unfurled.
At the sight—a spectacle almost like a dance—the poison dragon's ferocity only sharpened.
- Shaaaaaa...!
The distance closed.
For some reason, the dragon's physical ability had risen. Widening the gap was no simple task.
Unless I accelerated with the lightning spirit, the distance would only keep shrinking.
'And if it gets too wide, that's a problem for me too.'
I extended a hand. The air rippled, and my hand sank into it.
Subspace. A kind of storage created by applying the Authority of Space.
The first technique I'd ever realized with the Authority of Space—and I'd stashed quite a lot inside.
After a moment of rummaging through the subspace, my hand emerged. In it, I held a bow.
A body of solid black, utterly devoid of ornamentation.
A great bow, easily two or three times the size of Lee Ha-yul.
Nothing special as an artifact. Just a well-made, sturdy bow.
While maintaining flight, I gripped the bow in my left hand and drew the string with my right.
Creaaak... Accompanied by a sound I hadn't heard in a while, an arrow of mana nocked itself onto the string.
An arrow formed by consuming mana.
Before, it had been blue. Now, it was white.
The quality of my mana had improved considerably—it would pack a punch—but not enough to deal meaningful damage to the poison dragon.
'Homogenization, Calamity Flame.'
Fwooosh! The arrow's form collapsed. From my right hand, Calamity Flame surged and reshaped itself into a new arrow.
An attack I'd unleashed almost by accident in the Tower of Growth.
Back then, the situation had been so tangled that I'd just thrown it out haphazardly. But now, I could add extra steps to the process.
I kindled the Calamity Flame again and again.
This was different. The quality of the mana serving as kindling, my mana manipulation ability, even my fundamental understanding of Calamity Flame—all of it had changed.
I didn't choke it down out of fear. Instead, I devoured mana as if daring it all to burn, feeding the blaze into a roaring crescendo.
I coated it with Aura. Pure white Aura bled red under Calamity Flame's influence.
I beat my wings and scattered wing feathers.
Red and pale-green feathers clung to the Calamity Flame.
The new flames served as both kindling and fuel, and the wind fanned the blaze higher.
I brought in spells and elemental arts too, forcing the power even further upward.
- Shaaaaaaaa!
The poison dragon roared. It stopped its scattered attacks and drew in an enormous mass of mana.
Its firmly shut jaws swelled grotesquely. It looked as if it were holding something vast inside.
The same precursor as the mana cannon from before.
But the intensity was incomparable to last time.
The ground around us shuddered. The surrounding air was sucked into its maw.
The distance had narrowed considerably.
If it fired from this range, there'd be no escaping the blast radius.
Facing that, I observed my left arm—my prosthetic arm.
Proof of Protection. Synchronization complete. In that instant, a kind of information etched itself into my mind.
Judgment made, I didn't dodge. I drew the bowstring further back.
The bow, unable to fully contain the Calamity Flame, began to melt away.
Before it could break, the poison dragon's jaws opened.
In an instant, the world flashed. A murky color stained the sky. A mana cannon as thick as a massive building surged forth.
No sound rang out. Instead, along the beam's trajectory, poisonous mire and earth alike burst apart.
One thing was certain: even before poison became a concern, getting caught in that meant you wouldn't leave a corpse behind.
I faced it. I didn't release the bowstring.
'Authority manifestation, Space.'
Just like before.
Ripples spread through space.
As if a boulder had plunged into a lake's surface, the air shuddered.
A screeching noise rang out.
A sound no ordinary hearing could ever perceive—the noise of space warping as it shifted.
Immediately after, a spatial barrier erected itself in front of me.
- KWAGAGAGAGAK!
The mana cannon slammed to a halt right before my nose.
It couldn't break through.
The dark-green beam couldn't pierce the spatial wall. It spread outward along the barrier's surface in a circular bloom.
The poison dragon pushed the mana cannon's output even higher to break through the barrier wall, but it couldn't shatter the wall of space.
Monster or not, it couldn't sustain a mana cannon of this output forever.
Gradually, the beam's thickness began to thin.
An attack that had failed.
And what always follows is the enemy's counterattack.
I withdrew the barrier, curled my body, and wrapped my wings around myself.
Only then did I release the bowstring. The string, trembling as if about to snap at any second, sprang forward.
The arrow shot out.
A torrent of wind rose like a storm, battering against my wings.
A line of red streaked across the sky.
The beam, already weakened past its limit, couldn't block the arrow.
The red line pierced through the very center of the dark-green mana cannon and surged backward against the current.
The poison dragon's eyes flew wide. Cleaving through its own attack, the flaming arrow hurtled toward it.
The arrow was faster than the poison dragon's response.
In a heartbeat, the arrow slammed into its skull.
- KWAAAAAAAH—!
The Calamity Flame packed inside the arrow detonated.
The dark night sky blazed crimson.
A storm of fire raged across the world.
A blistering heat swept over me, as if it meant to sear the skin from my body.
.
.
.
A moment later, I spread the wings that had been wrapped around me wide open.
I took in the surroundings.
The churned-up earth shimmered with vivid red flames.
The poisonous mire had been vaporized entirely.
Where the flames hadn't clung, scorched-black ground lay exposed.
The sky was red too. The poison gas must have been blown away as well—embers and sparks rode the wind everywhere, rippling across the scene.
But my expression didn't ease.
If anything, my face twisted into a grimace.
The place where the flame explosion had erupted.
A serpent lay coiled there. Ash fluttered from its badly scorched scales, and Calamity Flame still gnawed at the poison dragon's surface, refusing to die out.
Then, from within its coils, the buried head lifted.
The poison dragon's murderous glare flashed.
'Ah, shit...'
I swallowed a curse and wracked my brain.
White Night. If I slammed it in repeatedly, I could destroy the head altogether. But there was a high chance I'd be poisoned and dead before I could pull that off.
Calamity Flame. If I kept searing it, I could kill it. But if I dragged this out, the damage from the undead still running rampant would only grow.
Other options... I had plenty. If I used everything, I could toy with the poison dragon and buy time without getting caught.
'No.'
I'd told Lee Ji-yeon I'd run away, but I had no intention of doing so.
I... wanted to kill the Twin-headed Poison Dragon before the damage grew any worse.
But right now, I had no technique with greater output than this.
'...Taesan.'
I didn't have it yet.
But I could meet the conditions for a viable technique.
The Taesan that Lee Ji-yeon had manifested.
I'd accumulated a fair amount of data on it. The unique abilities of the Three Great Families were notoriously difficult to imitate, but it wasn't impossible.
If I could replicate Taesan, a possibility would open.
The 3rd Iteration's Three Ends.
The iteration that wielded Calamity Flame, Azure Sea, and Taesan together.
It carried the instability typical of the early iterations, but in pure output, it could rival some of the later ones.
With Three Ends, even that Twin-headed Poison Dragon could be... killed in a single strike, leaving no margin for survival.