Ch.1175Dragon Slayer

Kill before being killed.

With that determination, I swung my blade.

As if responding to my resolve, Durandal, which had been dimly losing its light, emitted a brilliant radiance like a candle flaring before going out, tearing through space.

– Kwajijijik!

The blade of severance shattered the ancient dragon’s scales like glass, ripping through flesh and bone. The golden blade carved a canyon-like wound across its face.

【 KYAAAAARGH―! 】

Leviathan, having lost an eye, roared in pain and staggered.

A wound that crushed its lower jaw, tore its cheek, and even split its eyeball in half. Blood poured like waves each time the massive head writhed.

“…Ha, it dodged this.”

It wasn’t something to be happy about. Losing an eye wouldn’t be fatal anyway.

【 Krrrgh…how unfortunate. If you wanted to kill me, you should have aimed for the head…! 】

“…I did aim for it.”

I clearly aimed for its brain, but just before my blade could reach it, the beast quickly twisted its head, narrowly avoiding my sword tip.

It couldn’t dodge completely and lost one eye, but that was a small price compared to its life.

Leviathan lost an eye, and I could no longer fly. If we’re counting immediate losses, I was at a greater disadvantage.

– Seueuueueu.

With that final strike, Durandal seemed to have exhausted its power, losing its brilliant light and reverting to merely a sturdy silver sword.

Even the power of severance, unleashed by releasing the sword’s constraints, couldn’t be maintained indefinitely.

Normally it would have easily lasted until the end of battle, but it extinguished so quickly because of… probably because of Leviathan.

That ultimate technique puts tremendous strain on the entire blade just by attempting to manifest it. An ordinary silver sword would have shattered before even using it.

Having consumed massive power just to withstand without breaking or melting, it now lacked even the strength to maintain the power of severance.

…Damn, this has gone sideways. I should have finished it with that strike.

It was a disaster.

I’d lost my wings and claws. Both would eventually recover, but that was impossible right now.

The longsword in my grip was no longer a blade of destruction that could cut through anything, but merely an incredibly sturdy silver sword.

From now on, I’d have to crush the dragon’s scales with pure strength alone.

I wasn’t sure if my current body was capable of that.

【 Has your sword reached its limit first? 】

With blood tears flowing from its split eyelid, Leviathan thrust the small heads on its lower jaw toward me.

【 What an ironic end. Your chance is over…! 】

Those tentacles shaped like dragon heads, now only three remaining after two more were severed during battle.

Though called small, that was only relative—in reality, three heads larger than my height stared at me with gaping mouths.

“Kuk!”

I reflexively took a defensive stance.

– Kaaaang!

The next moment, a tearing metallic sound rang out.

With pain like my grip and side were being torn away, I was thrown back like a ball hit by a bat, hurled into the air.

“Augh…!”

A groan escaped me. A red stain spread like smoke across my water-soaked side.

‘Breath… no, this is more like a water beam?’

What struck and deflected me along with Durandal was a thin stream of water simultaneously spat by the small dragon heads.

A high-pressure water current, compressed like thread, adding lightning-fast speed to tremendous weight and fired like a beam.

– Chwaaaak!

The water stream continued relentlessly, growing fiercer, slashing in all directions like a sword as the heads that spewed it writhed.

– Kaang! Kaang! Kagagagak!

The slashes of high-pressure water returned endlessly no matter how many times I deflected them. Unable to fly away, I had no choice but to parry them all.

Each time, my body was thrown in the opposite direction, repeatedly falling and rising through the air.

【 Kr, hgh…! You can’t escape anymore. 】

Seeing this as a golden opportunity, Leviathan let out a pleasure-mixed groan and opened its hideous, scarred mouth wide.

【 Now, face your fate…! 】

– Gooooo…!

Streams of light converged into its gaping mouth like they were being sucked in.

As if staking everything on this move, it abandoned healing and gathered vast magical power that pulsated as a sphere of blazing light in its mouth.

A power of a different caliber from the water streams shot by the small dragon heads. The true breath of an ancient dragon. That vast crystallization of power aimed at me—

– Kwaduk!

It was never fired. Something like lightning rose up, piercing through the light mass.

“A spear…?”

A thin, long, sharp piece of metal. A pure white spear, needle-like in its smallness to the ancient dragon. Nigel’s beloved weapon, the Holy Spear of Eberond.

The blood-soaked holy spear burrowed into the wound my sword had torn, piercing through the mass of magical power Leviathan had created like a thorn.

– Kwarururung!

Then it explosively discharged dozens of lightning bolts, tearing the sphere of light to shreds.

And it wasn’t just the holy spear.

“Sursum trahere, debilitans, dispersio.”

A clear voice rang out from behind.

Dozens of magic circles appeared around the dragon’s mouth, absorbing and dispersing the magical power it had concentrated.

“Creatio vitae. natus. ascende. hirunde.”

From the lava-flowing ground, half-melted flesh monsters suddenly emerged, swarming like ants up the dragon’s legs, sinking their claws and teeth into it.

【 Krrrr…! You monkeys, how dare you…! 】

Support from Nigel and Ophelia. They had joined with unbelievably fast speed—I wondered how they had already dealt with all those fishmen.

No, not just those two. One more.

“Kuaaaap!”

With a battle cry bordering on ferocity rather than mere vigor, a stream of fire like a fire dragon’s breath extended fiercely, directly hitting Leviathan’s chest where healing had stopped.

The flames of Jeokrindo shot by Jahan.

Those flames melted the dragon’s flesh that hadn’t yet regrown scales during regeneration, burrowing inside and whirling violently within.

【 Kyaaaagh…! 】

Wow, that guy’s going to become a fire dragon. A fire dragon.

Flames that surged from within, flowing beyond the throat. Leviathan, trying to roar, exhaled flames not its own and groaned.

In doing so, it completely cut off the water streams aimed at me, and I fell helplessly again like before.

Of course, I didn’t need to worry about falling to my death.

“What’s this, you can’t fly now?”

“Not at the moment.”

Because a reliable mage who could naturally use levitation magic had approached my side.

“Then please cast levitation magic-“

“Say ‘please save me.'”

“Cut the crap!”

Ophelia chuckled and cast levitation magic, causing the air currents to condense like a cushion, gently catching and stopping my body.

“Barely survived. What about Leonore and Lena?”

“They pulled back because it was dangerous. The princess followed as an escort.”

“Seems everyone’s safe. Any injuries?”

After stopping in mid-air, I quickly asked the questions that came to mind.

“No problems. Jahan was seriously injured but recovered on his own. Lena healed all the minor injuries.”

“That’s good.”

So that’s why they only had tattered clothes but no wounds. Indeed, it was worth bringing Lena despite the risk.

“What happened to the fishmen? Did you already wipe out that many?”

“Half of them should be counted as your kills. They were swept away by that crazy explosion.”

“Oh, really? That was lucky.”

Were that many fishmen killed by Leviathan’s aftermath? They must have been fighting closer than I thought.

“Yeah, we were REALLY lucky. We almost got caught up in it too, you know?”

“…Sorry about that. It was just so urgent.”

I immediately apologized since this was clearly my fault. We could have died from friendly fire while fighting well.

“Anyway, half died that way, and the other half?”

“That’s a more complicated story… they’re all dead anyway. I’ll explain the details later.”

Ophelia changed the subject, saying there wasn’t enough time to explain everything.

From her tone, something must have happened, but it wasn’t brief enough to explain in the middle of battle.

“Right, that makes sense.”

Then we’d have to postpone it. Leviathan was still alive.

Just now it took all our attacks head-on because it was ambushed while preparing a major attack, but once it started counterattacking, we’d be in danger.

Nigel, Ophelia, and Jahan alone wouldn’t be enough. Adding me would give us a fighting chance.

The problem was that I could no longer fly, making both evasion and approach difficult…

“Ophelia. I need to approach it—can you support me with flight magic?”

“That’s suicide. You’d be shot down like a bug with that slow speed.”

So flight magic wouldn’t work. Can’t be helped. Then the next best option.

“Then, I don’t care if it’s rocks or ice, just float plenty of solid objects around it. Can you do that much?”

“You want to jump on them? That’s no problem.”

Even if I couldn’t fly at high speed, I could mimic something similar by kicking off numerous floating objects.

“Good, then that’s the plan!”

After this brief strategy meeting, I charged toward Leviathan, kicking off the ice chunks Ophelia created as a test.

“Nigel! Jahan! Fight while preserving yourselves as much as possible!”

“Yes!”

“Leave it to me, sir!”

I gave brief orders to Nigel and Jahan as I flew past them.

【 Krrrrr…! You monkeys…! 】

“Your speech is getting shorter. Honestly, are you getting worried? Afraid you might actually die!”

【 …That won’t happen! 】

A desperate battle of four against one began with a frantic roar.

The final confrontation, made possible because both I and Leviathan were in tatters, shook the dried and melted lake.

“Kyaaaaat!”

【 KRAAAAAAAGH-! 】

“Howl, Jeokrindo!”

“Lightning!”

The holy spear’s lightning, Jeokrindo’s flames, and Durandal without its power of severance.

Normally these would not have inflicted a single wound on an ancient dragon, but now that it was severely injured, each attack was threatening.

Enough to cause momentary stiffening if it took a direct hit without blocking.

“…Its magic resistance is indeed high. That’s one thing to envy.”

Ophelia’s magic was equally threatening.

Her attack magic couldn’t penetrate the beast’s magic resistance to great effect, but she couldn’t have been more excellent in support and defense roles.

She twisted the water blades with spatial distortion fields and neutralized the occasional miracle of Vimos with magic barriers.

She continuously floated countless rocks to create footholds for us and sent hordes of homunculi for physical defense whenever we were in danger.

Moreover, she sharply intervened to interfere and weaken Leviathan whenever it tried to cast any magic.

It was a great performance proving that a mage’s strength isn’t just firepower.

Thanks to that performance, we were able to fight on equal terms against a monster that could easily kill heroes with a mere swing of its arm.

But it didn’t take long for that balance to break.

—-

How many minutes had passed?

As Jahan and Nigel, embedded in the rock wall, convulsed and fainted, and Ophelia, having reached her limit, barely landed on her knees and coughed blood.

– Tuk.

I finally placed my foot on the beast’s head.

“Heu, heu…! Finally, I’ve reached it…!”

Instead of my two arms, crushed almost beyond recognition, I exhaled bloody steam through my teeth that gripped the sword hilt.

【 When did you…! 】

“You can’t see from this eye, can you…?”

The blind spot beyond its vision. The final opportunity gained at the cost of Jahan, Nigel, and even my arms.

The blood-soaked silver sword was wedged like a spike into the dragon’s eyeball, which had been split by the blade of severance.

Deep from tip to hilt. Fierce enough to reach the brain through the optic nerve and ravage its mind.

– Puk!

The squelching sound of flesh announced the dragon’s death.