Chapter 22

The Wastrel and the Head Knight (1)

Kai's sword, his aura-infused fang, sliced through the Gelu Drake's hide.

It would have stood no chance against a true dragon's scales. But the Gelu Drake's hide was not that hard.

SCREEECH!!

The Gelu Drake screamed in agony. The predatory instinct that had gleamed so brightly faltered. As it roared in every direction, the emotion in its eyes was...

K-KRRRK!

Confusion. I seized that opening.

THUD-THUD!

I tensed my thighs, launching myself forward like an arrow. The distance closed rapidly. And the Gelu Drake? It was still reeling in confusion.

I adjusted my stance and drove my fist forward.

THOOM!

The impact rang out, a heavy sensation traveling through my fingertips.

SCREEEECH!!

A hideous scream burst from the Gelu Drake's jaws as they gaped in agony.

I had landed a substantial blow, but unfortunately, I hadn't broken through its hide. Blunt force alone couldn't penetrate that tough skin. That didn't mean it couldn't hurt the creature, though.

THUD! THOOM! THUD-THUD!

Every time I struck the Gelu Drake, my fist shattered. My bones crumbled and my flesh was crushed... but I didn't stop.

I blocked my sensory nerves to suppress the pain and kept hammering its body.

BOOOM!!

The explosive impact sent the drake staggering backward, blood spilling from its mouth. Unidentifiable chunks of flesh mingled with the blood, as though its internal organs had burst.

The yellow gleam in its eyes had faded to a dull glimmer. Those were no longer the eyes of a predator.

Blood gushed from the clean cut Kai had inflicted. The blows I had dealt left it vomiting blood over and over.

Its wounds weren't fatal, but they were close. Just how much of an advantage would they give us?

No, I couldn't think that way. I immediately shook my head. I knew all too well that a wounded monster went on an even wilder rampage.

The instant we let our guard down, thinking we had the upper hand, the Gelu Drake would tear Kai and me to pieces with a single blow.

Kai knew that too. Rather than rush in recklessly, he held his breath, readjusting his grip on his sword as he watched the Gelu Drake's every move.

The Gelu Drake glared at us, breathing hard. Before long, though, its attention shifted away from me. Once it saw my mangled fists, it lost much of its interest.

Understandably enough. I currently had no source of nutrients. I had eaten all the monster meat stored in my Inventory, so I couldn't regenerate anymore.

In my present condition, I posed no threat to the Gelu Drake. It now recognized Kai as the greater danger and decided to kill him first instead of me.

Right now, I was a count's wastrel son, not the allied army's Predator. And Kai wasn't the Legion Commander of Bitter Cold either.

Even with Kai joining the fight, I honestly wasn't sure. I couldn't be certain we could defeat the Gelu Drake. Most likely, we would be the ones ending up as prey.

Rather than let that happen...

'Do I have any other choice?'

I pulled back at once.

* * *

Adrian suddenly turned and fled. He showed not the slightest hesitation or reluctance. Leaving Kai as bait for the Gelu Drake, he ran for his life with every ounce of strength he had. Already, he had vanished from sight.

Kai's teeth ground together involuntarily. ... So this had been his plan all along. Throw Kai to the monster as bait and save his own skin.

He should have realized something was wrong when Adrian suggested they face the Gelu Drake alone. The only saving grace was that Adrian had chosen to sacrifice Kai instead of the soldiers.

The Gelu Drake didn't pursue the fleeing Adrian. It had already identified Kai as the greatest threat. Adrian was merely something it could hunt down whenever it pleased.

KRRK!

The Gelu Drake grinned. Mockery lurked in the flashing yellow gleam of its eyes.

If only... he hadn't sent the soldiers away. Regret washed over him, but regret was always too late, no matter how soon it came. Besides, had he not ordered them back, they would have been the ones sacrificed instead.

Still, he had not the slightest intention of sitting back and becoming prey. His chances of victory were simply poor. His sword was more than capable of cutting through the Gelu Drake's hide.

Just as Kai tightened his grip on his sword—

BOOM!

The Gelu Drake kicked off the snow and shot toward him, closing the distance in an instant. Claws rushed at him, filling his vision. He hurriedly swung his sword to block—

CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!

Ominous sparks flew in every direction. And the one being driven back... was Kai.

The Gelu Drake fully understood the threat posed by his sword. Unlike its hide, its claws had inherited everything from a dragon. In other words, these were no different from a dragon's claws.

A mere aura sword couldn't overcome a dragon's claws. Even a knight who had reached the rank of Aura Master couldn't contend with them. And Kai wasn't even a Master.

BOOOM!

The aura coating his sword burst apart. Kai was hurled far backward. As he hastily refocused his vision, he saw the Gelu Drake crouched so low that its body nearly touched the ground.

A wounded monster. An even fiercer, more vicious light flashed in its eyes. The Gelu Drake shot toward Kai at terrifying speed.

'It's fast!'

It wasn't called the master of the snowy mountains for nothing. He couldn't block this. He couldn't dodge it either. That left him no choice. He would have to give up bone just to take a little flesh.

Kai clenched his teeth, bracing for the imminent impact. ... He had to endure it.

BOOM!

A tremendous blast rang out. But something was strange. It hadn't come from Kai. He hadn't felt any impact at all.

Suddenly, the Gelu Drake went flying through the air before his eyes. It crashed ignominiously into the mountain snow and struggled to get back up.

Just as he began to wonder who on earth had done that...

"Don't get the wrong idea."

A voice reached him faintly. Kai snapped to attention and hastily looked beside him. At some point, Adrian had appeared there.

"This alliance is a one-time thing."

He was chewing and swallowing monster flesh he had obtained from who knew where.

* * *

Since my Inventory had a weight limit, I'd had no choice but to abandon most of the carcasses of the monsters I hunted. Two weeks was more than enough time for them to rot. But the brutal cold of the snowy mountains drastically slowed decay. In fact, rather than slowing it, the cold effectively prevented it altogether.

'Not that it would've mattered if they had rotted.'

I'd chewed up the secretions mixed in with their innards. What was a little spoiled meat? As long as I could get calories out of it, I didn't care.

So while Kai bought me time against the Gelu Drake, I used Promote Metabolism[E+] to move quickly. I remembered where I had hunted. Finding the abandoned carcasses wasn't difficult. After quickly sweeping two or three locations, I had filled my Inventory to its maximum capacity of 880kg and returned.

Instead of rotting, the monster carcasses had frozen solid. The meat I'd stored in my Inventory had been fine, but the carcasses left exposed to the cold weren't.

CRUNCH! CRACK!

That explained why chewing them felt more like chewing rocks than flesh. Fortunately, the bite force granted by my Strength of 22 could pulverize even that. My teeth shattered in the process, but I didn't particularly care.

CRACK! CRUNCH-CRUNCH!

I could simply regenerate my broken teeth. All that mattered now was calories.

GULP.

I barely managed to swallow whatever it was—flesh or rock. When I turned my gaze, the look on Kai's face as he watched me from right beside me was quite a sight. He looked less like he was observing an unusual animal and more like he was staring at some utterly bizarre life-form. In a way, he seemed to find me stranger than the Gelu Drake.

"Weren't you running away?"

Kai's sudden question reached me. Apparently, he'd thought I had fled.

"Then why on earth...?"

And he seemed deeply puzzled that I'd helped him.

Running away aside, this had admittedly been an opportunity to get Kai killed. But his death right now would put me in quite a bind too.

'It would make hunting the Gelu Drake difficult.'

Hunting it alone was beyond me. But I couldn't give up its genetic material either. Naturally, I couldn't explain any of that. I had neither the reason nor the time—

"Don't get the wrong idea. This alliance is a one-time thing."

So I brushed it off with that vague answer.

But what I'd just said...

'Wasn't that Kai's Affinity Quest?'

I thought it probably was.

Well, whatever.

"Keep your head in the fight, Kai."

With my regeneration complete, I drew both fists up to my chest. Kai snapped out of it too and readjusted his grip on his sword. At the same time, the Gelu Drake was slowly getting to its feet.

The Gelu Drake growled. There was no trace of playfulness left. From here on, it would be a desperate struggle for survival. Kill or be killed.

"Here it comes."

The words had barely left my mouth when the Gelu Drake charged.

* * *

The Gelu Drake lunged the instant Adrian spoke. Its enormous body cut through the air, its sharp, extended claws tearing through the snow. Nothing in its movements suggested it was wounded.

The swirling wind pressure whipped up a blizzard that briefly obscured their vision—but Adrian was already at the Gelu Drake's flank.

His tightly clenched fists flew like flurries of snow.

WHAM!

Adrian's fist struck the Gelu Drake squarely, making it stagger. Had the impact been that powerful? The creature was struggling to regain its balance when—

"Kai!!"

Adrian's shout rang out like a thunderbolt. Kai's sword flashed.

His silver armor glinted in the mountain chill, and his aura-infused sword shone blue even amid the snow.

'It's entirely possible.'

With Adrian at his side—

'We can win.'

Before he knew it, Kai had become certain of that.