4 – The Seal of the Mar Dragon

‘Ugh…’

The Vampire barely regained consciousness.

The human shot lightning.

Unable to withstand its power, his body had no chance to regenerate and turned to ashes.

Using something like that is cheating.

How could a human body do that?

Could this be the Hero they talked about?

He believed that such fraudulent power was impossible unless it was the Hero.

The Vampire examined his body and was enraged to find that the only part remaining was a fist-sized lump of blood.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of years. He had stored blood in a human body for so long, and it had finally manifested!

Long ago, the Vampire was assigned to the village to manage the Sealed Land.

Abandoned for hundreds or thousands of years because it might be useful someday.

Over time, the Vampire learned why the Sealed Land needed management and found and tasted Dragon’s blood there.

Dragon’s blood contained uncontrollable power in just one sip, almost causing him to lose his identity.

But risking death, like a mosquito sucking human blood, the Vampire craved Dragon’s blood and sought a way.

Then, he met humans wandering in the forest and began trading them.

Let’s make humans our Familiars.

Use them as blood bags.

He had been collecting blood that way, accumulating power slowly but surely.

And finally, he succeeded in manifesting the Dragon’s traits!

But…

‘…It’s gone.’

The Vampire dragged his body along.

The lump of blood wriggled like a slime, heading towards the Sealed Land.

I can’t die like this.

The Vampire was barely alive but slowly dying. If there were any beasts, he could catch and eat them to recover his strength, but,

This is the Sealed Land.

There were no beasts.

He entered the Sealed Land.

There was a human, but,

He secretly crawled into the Dragon Blood Pool.

Blood formed a lake.

The Dragon was as big as the amount of blood suggested, bigger than the Evil Dragon he had seen in reality and incomparable to the Red Dragon he had met in the game.

That meant it had lived a long time.

Dragons are considered stronger the longer they live.

“Huh?”

Amel felt a presence entering the Sealed Land and only turned her eyes slightly.

The Vampire Chief was alive.

She had shot him as if not caring whether he lived or died, but he had somehow survived. She had shot with power she thought would surely kill him.

But maybe because his body was liquid, only a part had separated and survived.

[Lightning] is fickle in many ways if not controlled in detail. It becomes somewhat vulnerable to monsters like that swarm.

The lump of blood secretly crawled and submerged itself in the Dragon’s blood.

“….”

There was no immediate change.

She looked up at the Dragon again.

The stake embedded in the Dragon’s chest.

‘I guess I have to pull out that stake?’

‘(Fight?)’

‘I have to fight.’

That’s why I came here.

That’s true, but,

‘It doesn’t seem to be a Great Devil.’

The [Key] was unresponsive.

She pointed her index finger at the stake.

[Lightning].

She charged and shot.

The [Lightning] that started from the tip of her index finger touched the stake. It tried to burn through the inside of the stake, but strong resistance prevented its destruction.

She recharged [Lightning] and,

Added [Chill].

She extended her index finger again and shot, freezing the Magical Power inherent in the stake.

…She couldn’t freeze it.

Instead, it pushed away even the [Lightning] and scattered it around the stake.

“???”

‘(Ma, Mana Insulator.)’

‘Mana Insulator?’

‘(A mineral with the property of repelling Magical Power. There are no more deposits, so it’s only excavated from Dungeons, but that much of it!)’

‘Sounds valuable.’

‘(It’s not just valuable. With that much, you could even build a Floating Fortress!)’

Floating Fortress.

A castle that flies in the sky.

How romantic.

‘(Right?! Let’s pull it out and take it right away! And get rid of that lizard bastard while we’re at it!!)’

‘I was planning to do that anyway.’

Pure lightning.

She used [Lightning].

She couldn’t burn it because of the resistance, but the true value of [Lightning] was in its application.

The destruction of the stake was resisted, but making it magnetic was possible. She wove a chain of [Lightning] into the stake’s electrical properties.

Grasping tightly,

She pulled.

It didn’t come out easily.

So, she increased the output.

“…Hmph!”

With an aggressive output that partially escaped control, she strongly pulled the stake.

Amel’s hair floated against gravity, and electricity crackled around her body.

She had raised the output to a level that could inflict significant damage even to the Death Knight, but it was astonishing that it still didn’t budge.

To put such a Seal on something that wasn’t a Great Devil,

‘Does that mean it’s just below the Great Devil level?’

But,

The stake creaked and moved slightly.

That’s when it happened.

The pool of blood bulged.

A liquid monster that raised its liquid body.

The liquid monster shot a fist.

Amel, who was focusing all her strength on the stake, said, “Ah, damn it,” and took a step back.

She watched the fist of blood chasing her in front of her eyes, and the fist of blood lost its strength midway and landed on the floor.

“….”

Thud.

He propped himself up on the floor with his bloody arm.

Groooooan.

A blood monster that howled like a beast and rose from the pool. As he took his body out of the pool, he was absorbed into the scales hidden in the blood as if they were being absorbed.

Scales.

Reptilian.

Dragon.

The lump of blood that rose like a monster became a Dragon.

[Blood Dragon]

Ominous black letters.

Is it different from before?

I can’t tell from the information window alone.

But,

‘It’s still lingering.’

[Lightning] wrapped around her hand.

She shot [Lightning] with the output she had put so much force into to pull out the stake.

In a fleeting moment, [Lightning] struck the [Blood Dragon]’s forehead.

He slammed his head into the floor like a doll with a severed string.

“Did you come all the way here just to make a surprise attack?”

She spoke to the [Blood Dragon], but,

The already dead creature could not hear Amel’s words.

It was a trivial death.

“….”

At that moment of silence.

The sensory ability of [Lightning] felt a change in the flow of Dragon Blood.

The entire pool of blood writhed as if it had a will, then began to flow and climb the walls.

The walls became soaked with blood, and the [Blood Dragon] returned to a lump of blood and mixed in, trying to cover the Dragon embedded in the wall.

After covering everything, it was absorbed into the Dragon’s body and disappeared cleanly.

“….”

And she watched quietly, but,

Change? There was none.

‘(It must be because of the stake.)’

‘Really?’

‘(Because Mana Insulator is embedded in the Dragon Heart. Since the Dragon is practically a being with will in its Magical Power, it makes sense that it would fall into a state of suspended animation.)’

Is that so.

She roughly understood and created [Lightning] to pull out the stake again.

Perhaps because it had moved slightly earlier.

It took a little less effort,

Gurgle.

It moved.

The stake is pulled out.

The Dragon’s massive body is pulled out of the wall and falls following gravity.

Thud.

He stepped on the floor with both feet.

He stood tall on two legs.

He straightened his back as it was about to fall.

The hole in his chest is filled with blood.

The Dragon opened his mouth.

“Kuh…”

He laughed.

“Kuhahahahaha.”

The cave echoed.

Magical Power mixed with laughter.

When the Dragon glared, the Magical Power he emitted stuck to him thickly.

“I did it.”

Did what?

“I have become a Dragon. To think I would get my hands on a Dragon’s body!!”

Judging from the nuance, the Vampire Chief seemed to have taken over the Dragon’s body.

The Dragon looked down at Amel.

Looking down from a dizzyingly high height, the oppressive Magical Power was added.

“How dare you…”

Murderous intent bloomed in his eyes.

His foot is raised.

The Dragon’s foot covering her head.

Amel drew the [Black Sword].

She raised [Sword Aura] as she drew it.

[Sword Aura] formed.

A storm of [Sword Aura].

The cave that was the Sealed Land exploded.

A hurricane stretched high into the sky like a Dragon rising.

Amel spun rapidly within the hurricane and flew upwards, and the radius of the hurricane widened as she flew higher.

When she mixed fog into the hurricane, electricity crackled.

Inside the hurricane with a hole in the middle.

The eye of the storm overlooked by the full moon.

The Dragon flew heavily, unable to be blown away by the hurricane, with his heavy body.

The Vampire Chief was still not good at handling the Dragon’s body, and his flapping was awkward. It did not suit the dignity of a Dragon.

Terror? Far from such modifiers, he could only follow Amel, who was quickly passing through the hurricane’s flow, with his eyes in an awkward feeling.

“….”

Amel entrusted her body to the storm.

She covered her entire body with [Lightning].

‘Hmm…’

She looked at the Dragon with her head and legs reversed as if her body was being pushed by the storm.

He was looking at this side, but he seemed unsure of what to do with the Dragon’s body.

Such hesitation.

‘I’ll get rid of it.’

People tend to act before they think when they become desperate.

If you act, you will naturally learn how to handle your body.

Don’t disappoint me.

Crackle.

Sizzle.

[Lightning] is emitted.

The [Lightning] charged in the hurricane becomes her hands and feet according to Amel’s will.

Amel extended her index finger.

As if shooting a gun.

“Bang.”

Lightning strikes.

Lightning and thunder strike the Dragon along with the gunshot made with her voice. Amel’s [Lightning] attack did not stop there.

Every time she went bang bang with her hand,

[Lightning] boomed.

[Lightning] stretched out from all sides of the hurricane and burned the Dragon’s body.

Burning, burning, burning, burning, the Dragon’s strong body was not easily damaged even by [Lightning], but it gradually turned black.

Is that all?

Attack me.

At that time.

Magical Power is concentrated.

The location is the Dragon’s mouth.

Whoosh.

He holds his breath in his mouth.

As he opened his mouth, the breath that was spewed out like a flamethrower covered the place where Amel was.

The flames, which had been emitted as far as the distance, crashed into the side of the hurricane.

But,

‘…Weak.’

Amel borrowed the power of Win’s auxiliary magic.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

The sound echoed.

Amel’s voice echoed inside the hurricane.

Dragon Breath.

It was a powerful force, but because the Vampire Chief who controlled it was clumsy, the Dragon Breath could not penetrate the wind wall of the hurricane.

The Dragon breathed continuously, but,

It was only mixed into a part of the hurricane.

“If that’s all you can do, die.”

Full moon.

Amel’s figure is reflected.

Amel, who had jumped over the Dragon’s head, which had missed Amel because he was breathing.

Using the air as a stepping stone, she [Leap] and raised the [Black Sword] as if plunging vertically.

The blade of the [Black Sword] was darker than black and deeper than the abyss.

[Spatial Slash]

[Slash]

She struck the Dragon’s neck with the space itself.