Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Slaying the Blue Dragon
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I threw a punch targeting just one spot with everything I had, and it worked—the dragon lost its balance.
Tangled up with me, the dragon plummeted to the ground like a crashing plane, smashing through the frozen ogres.
Most people imagine a fight between a dragon and an S-Rank Hunter as something flashy and elegant, full of magic and aura. But I'd dragged this blue dragon into a dogfight. If I let a beast that could use dragon chants and breath attacks keep its distance, it would have the advantage over me, since I didn't have any good ranged options.
Even after the crash, I stayed glued to the dragon's torso, hammering short, sharp punches into the same spot.
It tried to pry me off by raking its claws across my back.
Even with my aura armor for defense, its claws gouged furrows into my back like plowed fields. But it wasn't enough to pierce my bones or reach my organs.
I hoped the blood from my back would melt its claws, but no such luck—this was a dragon, after all. Its talons were unscathed.
It clawed at my back, arms, and even my neck multiple times, but I regenerated the wounds without pause and kept punching.
[What... kind of monster are you! Freeze!]
Judging it couldn't shake me off any other way, the dragon unleashed a dragon chant, conjuring an ice storm around us.
The intense cold started freezing my body from the surface inward.
I fought back by radiating body heat. It wasn't enough to dispel the chill entirely, but it kept my body from fully icing over. My punches never stopped.
[You... freak! Die already!]
It whipped its tail at me. That vicious thing, like a chain of razor-sharp segments, tensed up and transformed into a gleaming sword.
I tried to dodge, but my body wouldn't move right—I'd been too focused on melting its arms and torso.
The tail, glowing with a piercing blue light like a blade, stabbed into my back and punched straight through my chest. My lungs were punctured, my heart scraped. Without my S-Rank Resilient Mind Skill, the agony would've knocked me out cold. Without my evolved body, that single strike would've killed me.
“Oppa!”
From afar, Nayoung unleashed her Corruption and fired mana orbs, but they did nothing to the dragon's scales. It must've shielded its weak spot—its eyes—with magic, since it ignored her completely. Killing me was all it cared about; Nayoung was no match for it anyway.
Seeing its tail jutting out from my chest fueled my rage alongside the pain, but my only option was to stupidly bash it with aura. My speed had dropped sharply, but I kept swinging.
I generated heat to resist the onslaught of cold, regenerated my wounds, and attacked with aura, draining my life force steadily. I was absorbing a trickle from its body to replenish, but it stopped letting me take any more. It protected its own life force, and the amount I could siphon plummeted.
A triumphant smirk gleamed in its eyes.
My biggest weakness has always been the lack of skills. In other words, direct aura strikes are my only form of attack. I'd realized this long ago and spent the past few months trying to find a workaround.
I once shaped aura into blades on my knuckles to use as weapons, but attacking with aura alone, without a proper base weapon, was far less effective. There's a huge difference between enveloping a weapon suited for aura and punching barehanded.
If pure aura on bare hands was that powerful, Hunter Jeong Min-gi would've fought with aura swords formed from his fists.
I tried various weapons after that, but without a class, there wasn't much difference between wielding an aura-coated weapon and the blades I made on my knuckles.
I eventually concluded I had to create one from my own body. That's why, whenever I had time, I'd do image training to morph my bones or armor into weapons—but I'd never succeeded.
But when else if not now? If this kept up, I'd die. Just me? Nayoung, desperately slinging spells from behind, would die too. And if this damned lizard melted all the ogres, recovered its strength, and escaped through the gate, everyone outside would die as well.
Staring at its tail protruding from my chest, I yearned for a weapon like its own—a power to kill it—like never before.
I wished my hand was a sword.
Slash!
[Gaaahhh!!!]
Pummeling its gut, my right hand felt different—not like hitting a solid wall anymore.
I glanced down and saw a blade protruding from my knuckles. It was made of multiple segments like the dragon's tail, but fused into a single solid sword.
About as wide as my hand and as long as my forearm, it extended in line with my arm. My body had grown to nearly eight meters, so in proportion, the blade was close to a meter long.
The thin layer of aura coating it had the power to pierce even the dragon's scales.
This was it. This would do.
I shoved it deeper into the writhing beast. It sank in bit by bit, burrowing toward its vitals.
[Grah! Die!]
It blasted breath right at me, point-blank. No matter how much heat I produced, taking the breath directly made my body freeze over in seconds.
Even the weapon I'd just forged, still lodged in its body, iced up and snapped off amid its thrashing.
This was a desperate attack—it knew it'd take damage too. The blue glow in its chest had nearly vanished, and even it was starting to freeze from its own breath, but it kept going, determined to end the fight.
I endured with what little life force remained, generating heat with grim tenacity, but I was almost tapped out. The ice crept into my brain.
[Gaaaaah!]
Its scream echoed as the breath finally stopped.
'What... the hell?'
Struggling to look up, I saw a black hole where its eye had been.
In that moment, Nayoung's improved Corruption had focused on the dragon's eye, burning a hole through it. The concentrated beam, like sunlight through a magnifying glass, necroticized and pierced everything in its path.
[I'll kill you first!]
One eye gone, the enraged dragon shifted targets, turning toward Nayoung.
Time seemed to slow. What now? Regenerate the sword on my wrist and pour every last bit of aura into stabbing it? No. It wouldn't kill it in one hit, and I'd be immobilized.
To turn this around, I needed to replenish my life force first. As it lifted its head to target Nayoung, its neck stretched out invitingly—like it was begging me to bite.
I'd shaped the helmet's mouth area into sharp fangs like a monster's, reinforced with aura, and sank them into its neck.
The first time is always hard. But having drawn a sword from my knuckles once, I replicated the sensation to form razor-sharp teeth.
[Gaaaack!]
Success—I'd pulled its attention off Nayoung. I drove the helmet's fangs deeper into its neck, absorbing the gushing life force. Its blood poured into my mouth too.
“Guh...”
Animal blood is warm. I'd never drunk any, but I knew that much from common sense. This dragon's blood, though, was cold—like condensed ice breath.
Drinking a dragon's yang essence once melted my guts from the inside. This time, the chill froze my mouth and innards.
But at the same time, I sucked in its life force unchecked, and my own surged back to full in an instant.
I converted the absorbed life force to heat, thawing my body and regenerating the necrotic frozen cells.
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Agility has increased by 1.]
...
Status windows popped up one after another, announcing stat gains.
[You leech!]
Unable to get a shot at Nayoung, it thrashed to shake me off.
[Absorbed life force exceeds the Awakener's life force capacity. Expanding capacity.]
It didn't stop at stat increases. Before, excess life force would've vented as heat, but my body greedily devoured its blood. My whole form repeatedly ruptured and regenerated under the overload, expanding my life force vessel.
In real time, as my body regenerated, muscles toughened, bones and armor hardened like dragon scales.
The dragon blood's chill and my resisting heat swirled chaotically inside me.
The vortex split, settling into both lungs—one gathering incoming cold, the other condensing generated heat.
[A-Rank Sturdy Physique Skill is replaced by S-Rank Dragonkin Physique.]
It's well-known that dragon blood can be refined into elixirs or potions. But no human had ever torn into a living dragon and drunk its blood straight like me. Even if I told others, they couldn't replicate it.
They lack the guts to bite a dragon's neck, the strength to pierce its scales, or the body to absorb its blood.
The tail still impaled in my chest hadn't melted in my toxic blood before, but now, losing chill and life force, it began to dissolve. Sensing this, it stanched the bleeding, but I coaxed more blood flow. As the tail melted, I filled the gap with my flesh, clamping it tight inside me.
[Gaaaack!! Let go! Release me!]
It shoved at me clinging to its belly, but its strength had visibly waned. Its claws couldn't even scratch my armor.
I kept draining life force and blood while Nayoung relentlessly bored into its eye socket with Corruption, aiming for the brain.
Weakened, it flailed and rolled across the ground.
Thud.
My body had fully melted its tail; the severed tip that had protruded from my chest dropped away.
[Gr... uh...]
The cold emanating from its body weakened completely, and its struggles ceased.
No letting my guard down—I kept siphoning life force and blood from its limp form. The cold mass in my lung grew steadily.
When its heartbeat slowed to near stopping, I lifted my face from its neck.
The once-majestic dragon was a wreck—tail severed, body shriveled from blood and life force loss.
I looked down at it gasping ragged breaths.
“Why won't you just leave us alone?”
[The flow... I cannot defy the flow.]
“Flow? What flow?”
It always rambled about the flow but never explained properly.
[...The universe turns. For a new universe to be born, the old one must perish...]
“Why does this 'god' thing need to kill us to destroy the universe?”
[The power of will is strong... A universe teeming with will cannot simply be erased.]
“So you'll slaughter every living thing on Earth to eliminate will and wipe out this universe too?”
[Fool. Death is not the end. Your bodies and souls will nourish the next universe—why can't you understand??]
“Of course I can't. Keep coming then. See if we go quietly.”
I raised my foot to crush its head.
[Yes... Thrash all you want...]
Crunch.
Its skull shattered, and its heart stopped.
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
“Oppa...”
Nayoung approached, her skin mottled with frostbite from the cold.
“Come here.”
I pulled her into a hug, thawing her with my heat and sharing life force.
No time to relax, though—not even a moment to catch my breath. Countless wyverns swarmed from the distant sky, and massive monsters on the ground kicked up dust as they closed in.
“Let's head back.”
I turned toward the gate.
“Nayoung, go first. I'll smash these and follow.”
Two towers were powering the gate, with more inactive ones lined up beside them. The dragon was dead, but surely it wasn't the only way to melt the ogres. Plus, those monsters behind could overrun us any second.
“You have to hurry.”
Nayoung placed her hand on the gate, but it didn't go through.
“Huh?”
She tried with both hands, but it was like hitting a wall—solid barrier.
“I can't get in?”
Her face paled.