Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Chapter 17: Hall of Harmony (4)
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As Martin and Christian charged in, the wyvern spread its wings wide.
And leaped down from the World Tree.
“Kraaaah!”
The beast soared powerfully into the sky, flapping its wings repeatedly.
Shwaaak!
Blade winds composed of air poured out indiscriminately in time with its wingbeats.
Anything they touched would be obliterated without even leaving a shape behind.
Yet even knowing this, neither Martin nor Christian showed the slightest hint of fear.
“Please leave it to me, Young Master!”
“I’ve got it!”
Swoosh.
No sooner had he replied than Martin thrust out his left hand toward the sky.
He then activated Distortion of All Things to manipulate the atmosphere.
Kwa-kwa-kwa!
As fierce winds whipped up, the blade winds lost their direction entirely, smashing harmlessly into the ground.
With its attack foiled, the wyvern’s eyes flashed intensely.
It flapped its wings even more violently, and a tremendous amount of mana churned through the air.
The result was a massive whirlwind manifesting on the ground.
Koo-koo-koong!
The whirlwind clawed mercilessly at the earth as it advanced, trying to swallow Martin and Christian whole.
Martin, watching this, curled his lips in a sneer.
“As expected of a dumb monster—can’t learn from one try.”
Whiiiing!
Winds gathered at Martin’s will, swirling fiercely around his left arm.
Once they formed a small whirlwind, he thrust his palm forward with all his might.
The wyvern’s whirlwind collided directly with Martin’s strike, but the aftermath wasn’t all that great.
‘Never planned to smash it with brute force to begin with.’
Thanks to the Dragon’s Curse, he could see mana flows clearly.
So he spotted it right away.
The core of mana forming the whirlwind.
Grab.
As Martin seized the core, the whirlwind thrashed even more wildly, trying to devour him.
But he temporarily amplified the winds around his left arm, perfectly neutralizing the wyvern’s attack and emerging unscathed.
“Kya aaaah!”
With its assault thwarted once more, the wyvern bellowed in rage.
“Yelling won’t change a thing. I learned plenty from my excellent ancestor—enough to interfere with attacks like this easily. Completely seizing control is another story, though.”
Martin felt grateful toward Arellia.
Mastering the Chapter of Flames had taught him about the ‘eruption’ of power, which he’d replicated with wind.
That was how he’d managed to interfere with the wyvern’s attacks even while being outmatched in raw strength.
Naturally—or perhaps not—the wyvern couldn’t accept what had just happened.
The wyvern opened its massive maw wide.
An enormous amount of mana flooded into its mouth, and crimson embers sparked out at ferocious speed.
“Kwaaaaaah!”
With a roar, the wyvern unleashed all the power it had gathered.
Kwa-kwa-kwa!
The draconic authority: Breath.
That immense force surged straight toward Martin.
As if he’d been waiting, he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“Christian!”
“Leave it to me!”
Christian shouted confidently.
Above him floated a coiling dragon made of blue flames.
Christian’s Flame Dragon had revealed itself.
No sooner had the flaming true dragon been summoned than it opened its jaws wide, firing a beam of heat that blocked the wyvern’s Breath.
Boom! Kwa-kwa-boom!
The atmosphere expanded from the extreme heat, whipping up a storm, and flames erupted across the World Tree.
The ground, unable to withstand the heat, melted into bubbling lava, and the surrounding temperature skyrocketed.
But the true dragon’s heat beam was gradually being pushed back.
“Ta-hat!”
That was when Christian charged through the rampaging flames.
Fwoosh!
Aura Blade clad in blue flames enveloped the blade of his firmly gripped greatsword.
He kicked off the ground and swung the greatsword toward the wyvern’s Breath.
Kwaaaang!
An explosion rang out, and the entire space around the World Tree shook.
“Urgh!”
Unable to endure the fierce heat, Christian instinctively groaned.
Yet he didn’t retreat. He drew up more mana, and the Aura Blade covering his blade shone even brighter.
‘Called the Flame Dragon Sword for a reason—can’t lose to flames!’
Christian gritted his teeth.
In response to its master’s will, the blue-flamed true dragon bit into the Breath, trying to absorb as much of the fire within as possible.
Matching this, Christian pressed forward, finally succeeding in cleaving the massive energy mass in two.
Kwaang!
The split flames crashed into the ground, triggering a huge explosion.
Seeing this, Christian managed a strained smile.
“Huff…… huff…… I’d say that’s my part done.”
“Good work. Worth bringing you along.”
Martin praised Christian before looking up at the wyvern in the sky.
He acknowledged the beast’s strength.
In terms of sheer power, it overwhelmed both him and Christian with room to spare.
The problem was the type of power it wielded.
Wind and flame.
Martin had perfectly mastered Chapters 1 and 2 of Arellia’s swordsmanship, and no one knew better how to counter them.
On top of that, he’d brought Christian, who excelled at handling flames.
In the end, it had been the perfect choice.
The Breath was the wyvern’s strongest attack, and Christian had nullified it.
It was safe to say the wyvern had expended most of its power now.
“Kya aaak!”
Proving the point, the wyvern dove toward Martin.
With mana-based attacks now difficult, it planned to crush him in one go using its overwhelming physical prowess.
‘Predictable.’
Thankfully, the enemy moved exactly as he’d anticipated.
Martin immediately wagged his left index finger.
Almost simultaneously, enhanced gravity crushed down on the wyvern.
It had already been diving rapidly downward, and now gravity accelerated it even further.
The beast lost control of its body.
Kwaaaang!
A massive boom shook the surroundings.
The wyvern had slammed into the ground.
But its ironclad scales minimized the damage.
“Grrr.”
Emitting a murderous growl, it whipped its long tail.
Kwaang!
It swung as if to tear the air apart—but it only struck the ground.
Martin had evaded with spatial leap.
Confused, the wyvern shook its head, searching for him.
When it finally looked up, Martin entered its vision.
“Time to end this.”
Shweeek!
A slash blending gold and red rained down.
No fewer than twelve of them.
Moreover, the blades of light incorporated spatial slash techniques and the high-heat cutting method Christian had taught him, maximizing their destructive power.
“Kya aaak!”
Sensing mortal danger, the wyvern.
It spewed small fireballs repeatedly, desperately trying to intercept the slashes.
But its efforts were in vain.
Wooong.
All the slashes vanished into spatial rifts.
Then reappeared around the wyvern and detonated.
Kwa-jik!
Kwa-druk!
Its sturdy scales and bones offered no protection against the assault.
They were all crushed or shattered by the slashes, with flesh and blood scattering everywhere.
Its two wings were severed clean off, crashing to the ground.
“Kieeek!”
Unable to bear the excruciating pain, the wyvern wailed pitifully.
Yet true to its draconic vitality, it was tenacious.
Proving as much, even with its body in tatters, it kicked off the ground.
To smother Martin with its massive bulk.
But that lasted only a moment. The wyvern clearly saw it.
A single slash flying toward it.
Slice!
The golden blade severed the wyvern’s neck in one stroke.
Thud!
Its head and massive body hit the ground.
The short, brutal fight had finally reached its conclusion.
* * *
“Whew.”
Martin steadied his ragged breathing.
The battle itself had been brief, but claiming victory in one go had required unleashing all his power at once.
The backlash left his clothes soaked in sweat.
His limbs trembled, and the mana circuits in his body screamed.
At least reaching 8th Circle had kept it to this extent.
“You’ve worked hard, Young Master. Should I start calling you Dragon Slayer now?”
“Dragon Slayer? No way. This doesn’t even qualify.”
To earn the Dragon Slayer title, one needed to slay a true dragon or defeat a lord-class draconic monster from floor 60 onward.
This foe didn’t measure up to either.
Claiming the title for killing something like this would only draw ridicule.
‘Still, it helped.’
Idle chatter aside, it was good for catching his breath.
Martin immediately examined the wyvern’s corpse.
Unlike other strikes, he’d used only Aura Blade for the neck.
So blood gushed from the clean cross-section.
The reward he’d sought from this fight: dragon blood.
Wyvern blood couldn’t be consumed, but that didn’t matter.
Applying it externally was enough.
“You’re not…… planning to rub that on, are you?”
“Of course. Dragon blood is hard to come by. Gotta stock up whenever I can.”
“I’m really, truly gonna get killed by Lady Igrit. For not stopping you from using dragon blood.”
“I’ll explain properly, so don’t worry too mu…… Huh?”
As Martin went to collect the blood, he tilted his head.
A single leaf from the World Tree fell into the pooling dragon blood.
Of course, that alone wasn’t surprising.
The fierce battle had scattered large World Tree leaves everywhere.
What was strange was that the leaf touching the dragon blood began emitting a soft glow.
And in tandem, the murky blood’s color gradually lightened.
Caught off guard, he hurriedly smeared the dragon blood from his right hand onto his left arm.
“Young Master!”
Christian cried out in alarm, but it was too late.
Sssrr.
The dragon blood seeped straight into Martin’s body.
“Gasp!”
“Whoa.”
Christian gaped in shock, while Martin clicked his tongue.
The reason was simple.
Even after applying the dragon blood, he felt no pain at all.
‘Absorbing the World Tree’s mana made it like this?’
Or would all dragon blood react the same when touching a World Tree leaf?
‘Gotta grab a few leaves on the way back.’
He felt the need to test it himself.
And that was that—this was something else he had to do now.
“Make some flames to hide me, Christian.”
“You won’t listen even if I try to stop you all the way to the end, will you?”
“Naturally.”
“Sigh. Understood.”
Christian shook his head in resignation and summoned flames, which enveloped Martin and the wyvern’s corpse.
Martin then stripped off his upper and lower garments before using Distortion of All Things to draw in every drop of the wyvern’s dragon blood.
There was so much that his entire body was soon coated in it.
Kwa-druk!
Eerie sounds emanated from every corner of his body, but Martin paid them no mind.
The noises were loud, but there was no pain at all.
Thus, the dragon blood made his muscles tougher and more elastic, reinforced his bones, and ceaselessly enhanced his physical abilities.
“How’s it feel?”
“Perfect.”
Having finished the process, Martin grinned and answered Christian’s question.
‘With this level of physical ability, I’ve reached about half my prime.’
It had already been over half a year since his regression.
Yet his circle count already matched his peak, and his physical prowess had recovered substantially.
The day he surpassed his swordmaster prime wasn’t far off.
Just imagining it was thrilling, but what pleased him most was the extension of his lifespan.
He couldn’t say exactly how much, but at least five years for sure.
Once he restored his physical abilities to their original level, he could aim for ten.
He was satisfied all around.
“Oh, right.”
“What is it?”
“One more thing to grab.”
Martin promptly sliced open the wyvern’s chest with the holy sword Kaizen.
He reached into the gash and extracted its heart.
Christian asked curiously.
“You don’t need more mana capacity, Young Master.”
“Not for me. It’s for Sien.”
“Bribe for forgiveness, huh.”
“Sien’s worked hard for me all this time. It’s a gift. Not a bribe.”
“Sure, sure.”
Christian grinned cheekily.
Martin debated smacking him but held back.
He then fully restored the distorted barrier before stepping out.
“Martin Adalbert!”
At that moment, a fierce shout pierced his ears.
Sien appeared in his view, her face murderous.
‘As expected.’
He was in for a serious scolding, and Martin’s premonition proved correct.