The dragon raised its giant feet and stomped down on Zich and his companions. Booom! The sheer power and speed that came from the dragon’s mass size alone and the hard scales that were surrounding all of its body could crush a sturdy building just by stomping its feet. Fortunately, Zich and his companions quickly evaded the attacks and tried to dive into the dragon’s weak spots. Yet, the dragon was more powerful than they expected.
The dragon rotated its body like flowing water and instead of whipping its tail vertically like last time, it slammed its tail horizontally onto the ground toward Zich’s party. Whoosh! Just the sound of the wind blowing showed the mighty force behind the movement.
“Hmph!” Til placed more pressure on his legs and planted them on the ground. Then, he raised his sword up. He couldn’t continue running away. Even if their opponent was a dragon, they couldn’t win if they didn’t attack. Furthermore, Til was confident. Although he didn’t possess any sophisticated techniques, he didn’t lag behind anyone else in strength. The dragon’s attack was also a simple, heavy thrust with its weight, and the Saintess could heal his injuries even if he was severely wounded.
“Haaaa!” Thus, Til rose to take on the insane challenge of catching the dragon’s tail head-on. Baaam! Til’s sword and the dragon’s tail collided. An enormous explosion rang out, and the result of the clash was immediately visible.
“Urghh!” Til’s body bounced off like a leaf swept by the wind.
“Snoc!”
At Zich’s command, Snoc moved the earth. The ground rose with his hand movements and safely caught Til. Lubella rushed forward and Snoc moved Til to where she was. Meanwhile, Zich checked Til’s condition. Although they were a bit of a distance away, it wasn’t hard for Zich to see what the impact of the collision was.
‘His arm is crushed.’ Til’s arm was in a grotesque state. His hands and elbows were twisted eerily while they were covered in blood. His crushed bones were piercing through his skin, and if they hadn’t had a holy priest with them, it would’ve been impossible to heal his arm to its original state. It was a wonder how Til hadn’t let go of his sword even in such a condition.
‘Compared to that, the damage the dragon received…’ Zich saw the dragon retract its tail. The part of its tail that collided with Til sent a splash of blood into the air, but its injury was very small compared to Til’s. Zich moved to Til’s side. Thanks to Lubella’s holy magic, Til’s injury was already noticeably better.
“How is it?” Zich asked.
While scrunching from the pain still bothering him, Til answered, “It is superior to me in strength, mana, and everything else. Above all, its outer coating is hard.”
“It does look hard…” The durability and hardness of dragon scales were comparable to metals like mithril or orichalcum. Zich searched the dragon’s body. Every inch was covered with red scales. Hwaaaa! The dragon spewed flames. It seemed angry about the injury it received on its tail.
The dragon moved its hand. It had thin arms and hands that didn’t seem to fit its large body and heavy hind legs, which made it a comical sight. Yet, the effect this movement caused wasn’t funny by any means. Wiiing! Mana fluctuated in the dragon’s body, flowed out, and organized itself.
‘Magic!’ They were finally able to witness the magic of a being called the Lord of Magic, but no one rejoiced over this fact.
“…You are joking, right?” Walwiss murmured. As the one who was most proficient in magic, he was the first one to notice, but everyone else had the same thoughts as him. It was the same for Zich.
Unable to hold it in simply by murmuring, Walwiss yelled, “A five-part incantation? Impossible…!”
Immense mana swirled around the dragon and it drew upon five different types of magic at the same time.
‘No, it’s not even an incantation,’ Walwiss thought. There was no need for the dragon to memorize long spells, and in this case, it would be more accurate to say that the dragon was doing a five-part non-incantation spell, but Walwiss didn’t have the ease to slowly explain this to his companions. Magic had many different elements such as fire, wind, water, earth, and lightning. When using several types of magic at once, using the same element type was the easiest, similar element types were easier, and opposing element types were the hardest. Yet, the dragon was implementing magic of five different properties on an extremely high level.
“I will handle two of them!” Walwiss shouted and swung his staff. He had already prepared two types of magic with incantations. Baam! Walwiss’ magic and the dragon’s magic collided, and Walwiss’ magic fiercely pressed on.
Pssh! Walwiss’ magic succeeded in destroying the dragon’s. But that was only two of them, and three were remaining. Snoc raised the earth and made a wall in front of the magic attack. Matching that, Elena also swerved her staff. Fully recovered now, Til infused mana into his sword and swung a mana air blade while Weig also poured out holy magic. Leona also placed her bow down this time and shot out a spell. Bam! Bam! Bam!
The dragon’s magic was intercepted by Zich and his companions’ collaboration, but there was no time for them to celebrate.
Shaa! Before its magic was offset, the dragon was forming new, high-temperature mana from its mouth.
‘Hmm,’ Zich thought while looking at it. ‘It seems like it won’t be over any time soon.’
Baaaaam! The dragon let out its breath again.
* * *
The battle was incredibly fierce and fearful. Boom! There was another explosion, and after the dragon lowered its body, it swung its front legs. It had an astonishingly small front leg compared to the rest of the size of its body, but the destruction it caused wasn’t different from any of its other body parts.
Thud! Hans and Weig aimed for the dragon’s legs, but the dragon swung its tail and blocked them. Its tail hindered their attacks. At the same time, mana gathered around the dragon again.
“Damn it!” Walwiss hurriedly tried to prepare another spell. Even though Walwiss was one of the best mages in the world, he was too busy offsetting a portion of the dragon’s magic.
‘I see.’ Zich recalled how an elf that he met before his regression had told him that he had the same amount of mana as a dragon’s. To be honest, he had been pleased to hear that the amount of mana he had was equivalent to that of a legendary creature. He had been proud of himself, thinking that he was on the same level as a dragon. However, he had been completely wrong.
‘Only the amount of our mana was the same.’ Dragons didn’t just have a large amount of mana. Their huge body was a weapon by itself. Dragons could crush people and make craters in the earth by merely moving. Only expert knights like Weig or Til could barely manage to damage the dragon’s tough scales after trying with all their might. Moreover, the dragon used magic so skillfully that Walwiss, who would later be known as the Demon Lord of Magic, was astonished beyond belief. It also shot out powerful breaths continuously without rest. Zich and his companions directly experienced why dragons were so revered and feared in legends.
Of course, if Zich had the power that he had during his prime, it might have been a completely different story. However, all of Zich’s mana hadn’t been released yet. Til and Walwiss were also very strong, but they weren't as strong as when they were called the Demon Lord of Destruction and the Demon Lord of Magic. It was also the same for Lubella and Leona. Weig was at least in his prime, but his skills were slightly weaker than the top Demon Person in the era of Demon People. In other words, it seemed much too difficult for them to defeat the dragon at their current power.
‘Damn it, if I had all of my mana, I could at least try to do something.’ The amount of mana he had was at least equal to a dragon’s. ‘Even if we mobilize all the soldiers, it won’t work.’
Trying to fight the dragon with more soldiers was equivalent to increasing the number of victims. The soldiers’ weapons wouldn’t be able to penetrate the dragon’s scales, and a dozen of soldiers would merely become meat jerky with a single step from the dragon.
‘I think we can get a bit of help from the Count’s elite knights though.’ However, it still seemed unlikely that they’d be able to beat the dragon.
Baaam! The dragon’s tail swept the ground, and Zich saw Hans and Weig avoid the tail in a hurry. They had been relieved when the dragon came down to the ground since they thought it would be easier to fight a monster with two legs on the ground than a flying monster. However, the situation was contrary to their expectations. The dragon’s overwhelming physical attacks were relentlessly pushing back Zich’s party. It was to the extent that they thought it had been easier to defend when the dragon was in the air and only attacked them with its breath and magic.
Bam! Once again, the dragon completed its spell and fired attacks at them. However, two of the attacks went in completely different directions.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” Glen’s horrendous scream rang out in the air again. Glen seemed to have failed to escape again. His attempt to escape drew a lot of the dragon’s attention away and was very helpful to Zich’s team.
‘It’s my first time feeling thankful to him.’ However, Glen’s distraction was not enough to lead them to victory.
Bammm! Zich dodged a huge chunk of ice that flew toward him. A ball of fire flew right into the place he escaped to, so Zich pushed his body away as if he was flinging his body into the air. However, he was unable to avoid the dragon’s tail that came right after.
Crash!
“Ugh!” Zich raised his sword to defend against the dragon’s tail and relaxed his body as much as possible. His body bounced back. The sword, which had accumulated damage, shattered and scattered debris into the air. At the same time, his arm was severely twisted.
Flash! The dragon took advantage of this opportunity and shot another breath to end Zich. However, even while his arms were messed up, Zich did not lose his concentration.
Thud! He fused a lot of mana into his feet and hit the ground. He used the momentum of his flight to change direction.
Baaaam! The breath brushed past Zich, and he felt its scorching heat barely miss him.
“You punk!”
“Haaaat!”
Weig and Til attacked the dragon. Even though their ferocious attacks didn’t work on the dragon, it seemed to have distracted the dragon, and the breath flying toward Zich stopped. Zich immediately ran to Lubella.
Wiiiing! Lubella healed Zich’s arm. Lubella didn’t make a worried expression or say any words of concern; she was completely immersed in completing her duties on the battlefield. After healing his arm, Zich pulled out a new sword and jumped into battle again. However, the battle showed no signs of victory.
‘We need someone who can take on the dragon’s attack!’ Zich and his companion’s attacks managed to injure the dragon’s body once they landed, but the main problem was that the dragon’s attacks were so ferocious and intense that they couldn’t manage to attack it. Thus, they needed someone to block the dragon’s attack while the others attacked the dragon. However, Zich couldn’t even attempt to take on the dragon’s attack because if he were hit even once with the dragon’s attack, his bones would vaporize immediately and not even a trace of his body would be left. Zich racked his brain to find a solution.
Baamm!
“Aggh!”
“Ugggh!”
The dragon’s breath brushed past Hans and Snoc. They had been trying to defend themselves while attacking the dragon.
“Mr. Hans!”
“Snoc!”
Lara and Elena called out their names. As expected of Zich’s disciples who had to endure his terrifying training, they immediately tried to pull themselves back while feeling intense pain. However, the dragon was one step faster than them. Despite its large size, the dragon jumped nimbly towards them; it was trying to crush them with its heavy weight.
“Damn it!” Zich immediately moved. He couldn’t think of a way to save them. While Zich coldly thought that he might have to give up on them and gritted his teeth—
Ziing! He suddenly felt a strange sensation at the tip of his index finger. At the same time, an explosive amount of mana soared from his body. There was no time for him to think about the reason for this phenomenon. He accelerated his speed and hit the dragon with his sword.
Baaaaaaam! With a loud explosion, the dragon’s enormous body faltered for the first time.