Chapter 217: The Dragon King (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 217: The Dragon King (4)
Dragons, the supreme race, possessed the strength to tear apart most magical beasts even as hatchlings.
It was no exaggeration to say that a fully grown adult dragon had no equal, save for another dragon.
Though they now bowed their heads, they were once the undisputed rulers of the continent.
Therefore, the word 'flee' was foreign to the dragon race.
Perhaps in a fight against their own kind, or on the rare occasion they met a worthy rival...
But even then, after living for over 700 years and being recognized as an ancient dragon, the thought of fleeing had never crossed their minds.
Until today.
‘Damn it all. What is this humiliation?!’
Naturally, the blue dragon, Akailen, felt a profound sense of shame. Having lived for some 900 years, he had, of course, experienced fleeing before.
But that was only when he was outmatched in a fight against another dragon.
He swore he had never once fled from a lesser being like a human.
‘How can I possibly face the Lord when I return!’
His heart was in turmoil, but he didn't dare look back. The sight of Balakas not only dying in a single blow but her corpse shriveling up like a living mummy was too shocking.
‘But what is the true nature of that sword the Hero wields?’
That incredibly ominous sword that had greedily devoured Balakas's life force.
It was not a sword fit for someone called a Hero.
‘Could the Hero have made a pact with a demon?’
It was mere speculation, but Akailen found his own guess plausible.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for a mere human to stand against the Dragon Lord.
‘A demon...’
A mysterious immortal, a crystallization of pure evil that did not belong to the continent and stood against the celestial gods.
If the Hero had truly made a pact with such a being, this was no ordinary matter. If the Lord heard this story, he might not even reprimand Akailen for his disgraceful conduct.
Just as he was rationalizing his actions and about to increase his speed...
The authority of the Demonic Sword Erbute, [Prohibition], was invoked.
-One. All living beings within a 10km radius of the caster are forbidden from flight.-
A strange voice, neither male nor female, echoed in Akailen's mind.
Immediately after, Akailen began to fall.
‘What?!’
Panicked, he flapped his wings with all his might to fly again, but it only served to slow his descent.
As if he had forgotten how to fly, his wings were of no help.
CRASH!
The ancient dragon's massive body slammed into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust and a shockwave.
The shockwave didn't just happen once.
It occurred a total of thirteen times, each with a slight delay.
As Akailen tried to raise his stiff body from the dust-covered ground, the strange voice echoed in his mind once more.
-Two. Any being affected by the first prohibition cannot move more than 1km away from the caster.-
-Three. Those not in human form cannot attack the caster.-
-Four. Dragons cannot harm any being designated by the caster.-
-All prohibitions will be nullified upon the caster's death.-
Click.
The moment the voice faded, Akailen felt a sensation of his left ankle being bound. Looking down, he saw a translucent shackle was indeed fastened around his ankle.
Recalling the black chains that had wrapped around Balakas's neck, a tense Akailen touched the shackle with his claw.
His claw passed right through the chain.
Akailen furrowed his brow at the strange shackle, which seemed both physical and ethereal. He first beat his wings to clear the dust and find out where the shackle was connected.
His gaze followed the chain, and when he saw where it ended, he let out a hollow laugh.
‘So he has no intention of letting me go.’
The chain of the shackle was connected to Cloud's heart.
This Hero fellow uses all sorts of strange tricks.
As he thought this, Akailen's eyes narrowed.
A deathly pale complexion, a posture subtly leaning on his sword plunged into the ground, and breathing weaker than before.
Cloud looked much weaker than he had a moment ago.
Did he expend a great deal of energy to use this strange technique?
If that's true, I might be able to deal with this arrogant human far more easily than I expected!
It seemed Akailen wasn't the only one who thought so.
[You've made a foolish choice!]
The red-haired man's chest swelled, and a fierce torrent of flames erupted from his mouth.
The breath of a Red Dragon, said to be even hotter than the high-level magic, Hellfire.
The Red Dragon's breath attack was swift, and Cloud was visibly weakened. In that state, even if he tried to dodge at the last second, he wouldn't be able to avoid it completely. At least one of his limbs would be completely melted away.
The Red Dragon, and indeed the other dragons, all thought so.
Until, for a split second, they lost sight of Cloud's form.
Cloud leaped diagonally, narrowly dodging the breath.
He transformed the demonic sword into a spear and threw it without hesitation.
With a sharp sonic boom, Erbute flew toward the Red Dragon's heart, tracing a black arc through the air.
Seeing the black spear approach, the Red Dragon recalled the mummified Balakas and, horrified, began chanting a defensive spell.
Though he was hot-headed and foolish, a Red Dragon was still an ancient dragon.
Despite the instantaneous chant, dozens of protective barriers enveloped his massive body.
The spear collided with the first barrier.
CLANG!
The first barrier shattered.
CRACK!
The second and third barriers shattered.
CR-CR-CRACK!
The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh barriers shattered.
The barriers continued to shatter one after another until finally, after breaking the 27th one, the black spear pierced the Red Dragon's chest.
[Haaack..!]
With a sound like his lungs deflating, the red-haired man collapsed.
Less than five seconds after losing his life, all of his life force was drained away.
Cloud reached out a hand toward the Red Dragon's corpse, now nothing but skin and bones, and the spear that had been lodged in its heart returned to his grasp.
As he retrieved the spear, the deathly pallor on Cloud's face returned to its normal color.
[...So you were just pretending to be weak.]
Akailen and the other ancient dragons ground their teeth. The fact that they had been deceived by a human was a great insult to their pride.
Regardless of their feelings, Cloud transformed the demonic sword into a new form.
The long, sharp spear transformed into a bow of elegant curves.
As an indescribably ominous mana arrow was nocked on the bowstring, the Judge, who held great authority among the ancient dragons, realized the gravity of the situation and shouted.
[All of you, polymorph into human form! Then, spread out and attack the Hero simultaneously! Anyone who refuses to cooperate in this joint attack out of pride will be severely punished later in my capacity as the Lord's proxy!!]
By the time the Judge finished speaking, Cloud had already finished aiming.
He released the bowstring.
Unlike when he threw the spear, there was no sonic boom.
Silent and swift.
The arrow flew at the speed of sound, aimed between the Judge's eyes.
The Judge, who had been prepared for an attack, was fortunately able to react to the arrow.
Instead of blocking it with defensive magic like the Red Dragon, he chose to dodge using acceleration magic. And his choice proved to be the right one. Instead of being struck by the arrow and having his life force drained, he escaped with only a slight graze on his cheek from the arrowhead.
Fortunately, it seemed that just being wounded wasn't enough to drain his life force; aside from a stinging cheek, there was no major problem.
The Judge chanted a high-level spell.
[Gravity]
As Cloud nocked a new arrow to his bow, an immense gravitational force pressed down on him. Before he could flinch, stiffen, and then reverse-calculate the spell to break it, the other dragons unleashed a barrage of magic.
KABOOOM!!
With a destructive roar that shook the very earth, the battle began in earnest.
‘Why...? How...!’
Rusen, the Judge of the dragons and a white dragon, thought as he looked at the corpses scattered on the ground.
What appeared to be human corpses were actually polymorphed dragons, a mix of those who had their life force drained and were left withered, and those who had been instantly killed, their heads severed or bodies bisected.
And the number of corpses reached a staggering nine.
Excluding Balakas, who fell at the very beginning, this meant that out of the thirteen ancient dragons, only four, including himself, had survived.
Despite such devastating losses, Cloud was not dead; he was still fighting against the remaining ancient dragons.
He wasn't unscathed, but his injuries weren't severe enough to stop him from fighting.
‘I was so sure we had the advantage at the start...!’
When the battle began in earnest, the fight had been, contrary to what the ancient dragons had come to expect, one-sidedly in their favor.
In a way, it was only natural.
Thirteen dragons were desperately trying to keep their distance from a single human while relentlessly pouring down high-level magic.
As time passed and the fight went more smoothly than expected, the dragons began to feel relieved, and some of the more arrogant ones even grew careless.
<Pattern of the Ogre>
<Pattern of the Behemoth>
-Berserk
[All Bless] stacked.
Having explosively enhanced his physical abilities through every means possible, he surged toward three dragons whose paths had overlapped.
[Rapid Sword Dance]
A flurry of sword strikes, too fast for the eye to see, swept past the three dragons. Against the demonic sword's sharp blade, dragon scales were meaningless, and the three dragons were sliced to pieces.
It all happened in the span of a single breath.
The firepower of three dragons is greater than one might think. With that gone, Cloud's room to maneuver increased significantly, and the ancient dragons' movements became that much more restricted.
Even after mincing three dragons, Cloud did not let his guard down.
He calmly countered their attacks, steadily and surely reducing the number of dragons one by one. The result of that continued process was the current situation.
This situation, where the three dragons besides Rusen were coordinating their attacks on Cloud with their favored weapons.
Normally, he should have joined them in the fight, but the problem was that his body was in no condition to do so.
The Judge Rusen's skin, starting from the wound on his cheek grazed by the arrowhead, was rotting and festering.
‘That arrow... I knew it was ominous, but I never imagined it held such a virulent curse.’
A curse that can slowly kill a dragon with a mere graze...
If this isn't the work of a demon, what is?
Rusen was now certain that the Hero had made a pact with a demon.
But such certainty was now meaningless.
If all the ancient dragons died, he couldn't report the fact to the Lord, and if Cloud died, there would be no need to report it.
Rusen watched the fight, hoping for the latter outcome, but seeing Cloud remain wary of him even while fighting three other dragons, it seemed like nothing more than optimistic hope.
‘Damn it...’
How much had the curse eaten away at his body? Even his consciousness was beginning to fade.
Rusen realized death was approaching and reached a hand toward the ongoing battle.
[Gravity]
Using the last of his strength to cast the spell, he felt a deep sense of exhaustion and staggered.
Soon after, the ancient dragon who had lived for over 1000 years fell backward and closed his eyes.
Hoping his magic had been of some help.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“Y-You crazy old man...! Why would you cast that on me?!”
The Green Dragon, her movements slowed by [Gravity], cried out tearfully. She looked at Cloud with tear-filled eyes and said.
“W-Will you spare me, just this once...?”
The demonic sword mercilessly pierced her heart.
The remaining two dragons soon followed her, and thus, the battle that had raged for a grueling 14 hours finally came to an end.
However, the victor, Cloud, wore an expression full of irritation.
“Fucking bastards. All they did was spam cheap shots, seriously.”
Thanks to them, a fight that should have been over in an hour took a whole 14 hours.
Cloud grumbled as he plunged his sword into the hearts of the corpses that still had some life force left in them.