Glow-in-the-Dark Dragon: Annihilation Mode
"Elia...?"
BOOM!
Armor shattered as Arkhis collapsed to the floor.
She stared blankly at the saintess hanging limp in the giant's grip, her head caught in his massive hand.
"Female. Weak."
"Kuh..."
Elia answered in a resentful tone, held helplessly in his grasp.
To get straight to the point, Tarkan was simply too strong for them.
After Ryushia, their most powerful asset, had broken away from Redanis and taken out one of the executives, the organization responded by dispatching two Fingers—including Tarkan—to clean up the losses.
The result was a major divergence from the original plot.
Even though Arhan had also been eliminated by Ryushia, leaving Redanis with catastrophic losses...
"Just now. Grandfather. Disappeared."
Tarkan spoke with a rare look of sorrow on his face.
"So. Eliminate all."
CRUUUUSH!!!
"Kyaa?!"
He tightened his grip on the saintess's head as he spoke. His comrade had fallen in battle, but if he wiped out everyone here, the organization would claim victory by decision.
"I knew it would come to this... so I kept this!!!"
"What is that?!"
Yet even in this hopeless situation, Jinwoo refused to give up. He pulled something from his pocket.
It sparkled.
"...?"
It was a cheap, ridiculous-looking glow-in-the-dark dragon toy.
"Lord Apostle! Run away now! I'll hold him back...!!"
Seeing Jinwoo doing something bizarre even at the very end, Elia shouted in desperation.
"No. Just stay quiet and watch."
Iflata, slumped on the ground after exhausting her mana, Arkhis, who had fallen into despair because none of her attacks worked, and Elia, who had been utterly defeated in a contest of strength, all stared at the object in his hand with blank expressions as they listened to his confident words.
"Glow-in-the-Dark Dragon Toy, Annihilation Mode activated."
The toy Ryushia had given him was no ordinary item. It was a secret weapon meant to be used in emergencies...!!
> To use this function, Strategic Resource Management Knight-class certification is required.
"?!"
Jinwoo's eyes shook violently as the unexpected voice came from the toy. Ryushia had never mentioned anything like this.
Wait, was he supposed to authenticate right now? They were all going to die at this rate!
> Authorized user Ryushia data confirmed. Beginning Annihilation Mode release. Estimated time required: 1 minute.
"Phew..."
Fortunately, it seemed she had already anticipated this situation.
"Good! I can hold out for one minute!"
VVVVVRRRRR!!!
As the glow-in-the-dark dragon activated, Jinwoo shouted with renewed resolve.
"Ten seconds. More than enough."
THUD.
THUMP.
The giant, overflowing with overwhelming power, strode forward as if he would crush Jinwoo at any moment.
Their situation was hanging by a thread.
WHAM!!
"Ugh?! No!"
Elia, thrown aside like a rag doll, barely managed to speak, but Jinwoo had already drawn his weapon and stepped forward boldly.
"There's no way..."
Arkhis thought it was nothing but reckless bravado.
Even Elia, the second strongest after Ryushia, had been defeated helplessly. Neither Iflata's nor her own attacks had any effect.
So what confidence did the weakest failure among them have to stand and fight?
"J-just... run away..."
Tears flowed from her eyes at the pitiful sight of him.
"Ryushia asked me to."
Jinwoo. If I'm not here, please lead them. You are the hero. And... you're the person I trust most in this other world.
Why?
They had shared that conversation once while sleeping in the same room.
Because we're friends.
...
You're no longer a powerless newbie. I'll leave my back to you.
"She believed in me! That's why this moment is my answer!!"
CLANG!
Jinwoo leveled his sword at the powerful enemy before him with sharp eyes.
"That faith. Meaningless."
WHOOOOSH!!!!
Tarkan's devastating punch flew toward him.
A blow that would instantly kill an ordinary soldier bore down on Jinwoo...
"Roll."
SWISH!!
"...!?"
Yet the fist never touched him.
"He... dodged?"
Jinwoo's light forward roll slipped past Tarkan's punch with ease.
Arkhis stared in blank confusion, unable to process what she had just seen.
"Once... more!!"
KWAAAAAAAANG!!!
Tarkan had witnessed him dodging with a forward roll.
It must have been a fluke.
But there would be no second time. This attack with both hands would be impossible to avoid.
"Roll."
SWISH!!
"..?!"
Yet the impossible happened again.
Right before the fist connected, he had clearly seen it graze him. Nevertheless, Jinwoo rolled away as if nothing had happened.
"You. What are you."
Only then did Tarkan glare at him with genuine alarm.
Once could be luck.
The second time... was skill.
That frail man had dodged his fists twice.
"Me? Well, I guess I'm..."
Jinwoo answered with a slightly dazed yet mysterious expression.
"A ghost?"
THUD!!
Everyone froze at those words.
"What is that. Demon Realm origin. Are you."
"You wouldn't know. Maybe... Ryushia would, but I don't plan on telling her for a while."
Tarkan muttered in confusion, but Jinwoo spoke with a somewhat bitter smile.
The console games I used to play and these modern mobile ones are too different. It took me a while to get used to it.
Jinwoo quietly recalled the past.
He had spent day and night on classic console games before, out of curiosity, trying a mobile open-world game...
At first the controls felt completely alien and he struggled.
He thought it would be enough to just parry, dodge, and attack, but there were unique skills, ultimate gauges, buff combos, character synergy...
Since he was a complete outsider to those otaku games, he would have been even more lost without Ryushia.
Of course, she had given up on playing the mobile version midway and switched to PC instead.
His situation was the complete opposite of hers, but...
"I've got the feel for it now."
He would show Tarkan what a real ghost was.
Because his rolling had perfectly synced with the senses from his past.
> 30 seconds remaining.
"It's over!!"
WHOOOOOOSH!!!
Tarkan instinctively sensed that once that time ran out it would become dangerous, so he moved to finish things quickly.
"Roll."
SWIIIIISH!!
Once again, Jinwoo lightly dodged the enraged punch.
"...Destruction Fist."
KWAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
Realizing he could not waste any more time, Tarkan immediately unleashed his strongest technique.
Its power was enough to topple a castle and inflict fatal wounds even on a high-ranking dragon.
"Roll."
SWISH!
"...!?"
Yet Jinwoo's roll was the most broken law in this world.
Breaking it on the spot was nearly impossible.
"Isn't it amazing? Just by rolling you can avoid every attack. At this rate, maybe it could even survive a meteor strike?"
"No. That was the last one."
However, Tarkan had already noticed the technique's weakness.
"You. Are tired."
"...!!"
Just as he said, Jinwoo was breathing heavily.
"Huff... huff..."
In truth, every roll consumed a massive amount of stamina.
He would recover with time, but the monster had already figured out the flaw.
This wouldn't last much longer.
"Destruction Fist - Chain Strike."
KWAGWAGWAGWA!!!!
Tarkan poured out a barrage of fists in succession.
"...!?"
Unlike before, there was no way to dodge them at all.
Countless punches filled with killing intent surrounded him from every direction.
This... even rolling would be hard to avoid.
"Oh God."
"...!?"
But then.
Something hard and reliable suddenly wrapped around his body.
GRAB!
"Protect us, oh Lord."
The saintess, already beaten to a pulp, smiled brightly at him despite the blindfold covering her eyes.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
"Elia!"
"Kuuugh...?!"
Countless strikes of murderous intent mercilessly hammered the saintess's body.
The back of her head, her back, waist, shoulder blades, hips, legs...
Her skin tore and bones shattered, yet Elia protected Jinwoo to the very end.
"Do not let them harm us."
Shaaaa.
Even as terrible pain wracked her body, the saintess healed herself and stubbornly stood in Tarkan's way.
> 15 seconds remaining.
"Uwooo!!! That thing! Dangerous!!"
"Khaaa?!"
KUUUUUUU!!!
Tarkan tried to break through the saintess and desperately destroy the glow-in-the-dark dragon, but Elia blocked him with all her might.
"Then die!"
WHOOSH!!!
The iron fist aiming for the saintess's head came flying, but—
SWIIIIISH!!!
STAB!!
A rapier flying from somewhere pierced his hand and stopped it cold.
"...?!"
"What's wrong? Aren't you getting scared?"
When her sword finally pierced his skin, Arkhis smiled ferociously with a look of pure joy.
> 5 seconds remaining.
"You... bastards...!!"
WHAAAAAM!!!
"Ugh...!"
Infuriated at being constantly interrupted by these small fries, Tarkan sent Elia flying into the distance with a brutal blow and charged forward.
"I've been waiting for this moment!!"
But an enthusiastic young mage girl was already waiting for him there.
"Laying traps in advance is something I can do too!!!"
KWAAAAAAAAANG!
Iflata had spread a minefield of trap magic that required no timing calculations whatsoever and simply waited for him to step on them.
"KUWOOOOOOOR?!!"
"Skill name: Spider Mine - Triple!!"
"...I wonder if the copyright on that is okay."
FWOOOOOOOSH!!!
Flames far hotter than before engulfed his body.
Hellish inferno burned endlessly, rising with the momentum to incinerate everything, yet...
"Still... not enough."
THUD!!!
Tarkan had suffered severe burns across his entire body, but his eyes still burned with murderous intent.
"Huuueee... I'm completely out of mana..."
"W-what do we do?!"
There was truly no way to stop him now.
Just when it seemed they would really lose like this...
Weapon Number: 67-210-2910. Annihilation Mode liberated.
KUGUGUGUGUGU!!!
At last, their final bastion opened its eyes.
Target name: Tarkan. Estimated elimination time... 9.75 seconds.
The glow-in-the-dark dragon had transformed into an overwhelmingly massive form.
Despite its cheap and weak-looking exterior, the pressure emitted by the twenty-meter steel war machine was immense.
"?!"
The giant looking up at it from below felt a chill run down his spine at the emotionless mechanical voice.
It was clearly just a normal toy. So why was he feeling fear?
Suppressing target.
KWAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
The war machine finally moved to annihilate the enemy before its eyes.
KUUUUNG!
"K...ugh!!"
The thick armored sole crushed Tarkan where he stood.
He tried desperately to push it away with both arms.
CRRRRRRRRRK!!!
"Kuuuuurgh?!"
The emotionless steel colossus trampled him like an ant.
Ground-to-ground photon laser cannon charging...
57%... 81%... 100% loaded. Firing.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAA!
"KUUUUUUUURRRRR!!!"
The glow-in-the-dark dragon's maw split open and a terrifying laser battery emerged.
A flash of light erupted from its barrel, incinerating everything beneath it.
"This is insane."
The stone floor disintegrated at the particle level, too loud for Arkhis's dumbfounded words to be heard. The beam erased every object as if determined to leave nothing behind...
"Huff... huff..."
THUD!!
All that remained was Tarkan in a horrific state—skin burned away, internal organs and muscle exposed.
Target destruction rate 63%... commencing complete destruction.
CRUNCH.
"?!"
Still not satisfied, the glow-in-the-dark dragon's ominous red eyes glowed as its alloy claws seized Tarkan's torso.
WHOOOOOOOSH!!!
It shot straight into the sky.
KWAAANG!!
CRACK!!
KUUUUUNG!!
CRRRRRRRK!!!
"UWOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
It slammed him into the ground, ground him up, and hurled him around violently.
As if the victim's dying screams were beneath its notice.
Final attack.
KWAAAAAAAA!!!
"...Gwoooor."
It forcibly grabbed the half-dead Tarkan and soared into the sky once more.
Descending.
WHOOOOOOOOOO!!
It then plummeted toward the ground at Mach speed comparable to a fighter jet.
KUUUUUUUUUUUNG!!!!
In the end, as Tarkan—still clutched in its claws—crashed into the earth, a single quiet word flowed from the glow-in-the-dark dragon's voice.
Self-destruct.
BEEP.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
A blinding flash dyed the sky red.
It was a massive explosion.
Enormous energy raged across the impact site, destroying everything, as a mushroom cloud billowed upward.
"Sia... just what did you give us..."
Jinwoo stared at the distant explosion with a stunned, speechless expression.
Bonus.