Chapter 41

Dragon Rage Explosion

Kai’s deep-blue eyes tracked the fleeing monsters. Gripped by terror, they were trembling, their steps faltering as if from fear.

He did not slow down, pursuing them faster and faster. He could not let them escape like this. There was no telling when they might return to threaten the county again.

Of course, Adrian’s incredible performance had wiped out roughly half their number—a feat almost impossible to believe one man had accomplished alone. But that also meant roughly half still remained.

Normally, monsters did not form “legions.” They might gather in swarms to survive, but never legions. This was a bizarre phenomenon Kai had never once encountered during his time in Whitewolf county. Indeed, it was unheard of anywhere on the continent.

He did not know how it was possible, but...

‘Someone is controlling the monsters.’

Someone was directing them with clear purpose and intent. Creatures that should have competed with one another to survive in the wild were moving in submission to a hive mind.

That meant they would reproduce very quickly. Whoever commanded the legion needed only to force them to breed. The monster legion before him was proof enough. The snowy mountains did not support this many monsters. Predation within the food chain naturally kept their numbers in check.

In other words, this was the result of someone forcibly breeding them. Any monsters allowed to escape today would multiply in no time, and another legion attack like today’s was inevitable.

He could not let them live. He had to kill every last one. In just a few months, the monsters fleeing now would swell to enormous numbers and trample the entire county into ruin.

Kai’s sword, charged with vivid blue aura, tore through the back of a fleeing Dermexus.

SHLAAASH!

The Dermexus collapsed with a scream of pain. Kai did not stop. He lunged at another monster and swung without hesitation. There was no mercy in his strikes, no wavering. The harder the monsters tried to flee, the more relentlessly he charged after them and slaughtered them.

Some turned their claws and teeth on him. He twisted nimbly aside, then swiftly swung his sword to rip through hearts and shatter skulls. Blood stained his silver armor, only to be scoured away by the swirling snow, over and over. A cacophony rang in his ears.

Adrian’s strength had been unbelievable, but in the end, his achievement did not stop at destroying roughly half the monster legion. No matter how strong a man was, he could be overwhelmed by numbers. One person could not face a monster legion alone.

Only one person could accomplish such an impossible feat.

Seraphia.

She alone could do it. At least, she was the only one among those Kai knew.

What made it possible was the bitter cold within her body. It was both a curse and a power. But a curse was still a curse, and she must not use it. It was not that she could not.

She must not.

Thanks to Adrian, they had barely scraped through this time. But he could not assume things would go the same way next time. And so...

‘I’ll kill them all here.’

His sword struck ever faster and more fiercely, destroying the monsters’ hearts. Just as it pierced yet another heart, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

... Something was wrong.

He seized up. Suddenly, his body refused to obey him. It had gone rigid, as though he had turned to stone. The aura circulating throughout his body was abruptly blocked. It would not move.

He was not the only one. Every monster in the fleeing legion had frozen solid like an ice sculpture. Only then did Kai recognize the “something” that had invaded both his mind and theirs.

‘This is...’

Dragon Fear. Just like when he had faced the Gelu Drake...

No. No, it wasn’t.

This was like...

A dragon—the supreme being that reigned over all creation. It felt as though he stood before a real dragon. He had never actually faced one, but that was unmistakably the overwhelming pressure he felt.

Of course, there was no dragon here. Nor was there a Gelu Drake. Kai slowly turned his head. Standing there was none other than Adrian.

Adrian stood motionless where he had been from the start, looking no different than when Kai had last seen him. Yet somehow, he no longer felt human. His outward appearance was unmistakably human, but Kai saw a dragon in him—a savage dragon restrained to its very limit.

And at last, it reached its terrible release.

“No, wait—!”

Just as Kai cried out in alarm...

ROOOOOOOOAR!!!

An immense blaze erupted from Adrian. The bitter cold turned searing hot. The chill that had cut into flesh vanished in an instant. The scorching air flooding Kai’s lungs felt as though it would burn his whole body away.

He hastily unleashed his aura, erecting a barrier even more powerful than the one he had used to stop the avalanche in the snowy mountains. Peering ahead through his dimming vision, he saw it.

GROOOOOOOAR!!

A dragon’s blazing rage. An enormous, ferocious dragon awakening from Adrian’s arms.

The dragon raised its massive body and swept forward. It opened its enormous, savage jaws wide to swallow every living thing upon the ground—and the first thing to burn was sound.

Then the snow and ice piled throughout the county burned in the dragon’s heat, evaporating entirely. Pale steam shrouded everything. The meltwater turned instantly to vapor and dispersed into the air. Stripped of moisture, the snowfields split like rice paddies parched by an early drought, spiderweb cracks spreading in every direction.

An inferno of endless ages, as though the very landscape of the snowy mountains were collapsing. A landscape of bitter cold set ablaze.

... This was power beyond humanity.

That could never be called human. How could anything that burned away not merely the cold, but the very season of bitter cold, be called human? One could dare call it a dragon and not be overstating it.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!

All Kai could do was be swallowed alongside the monster legion by that ferocious dragon’s wrath.

* * *

The seemingly eternal inferno that had consumed the frozen landscape subsided with time, revealing an enormous red wound. Ash now blanketed the once-snow-covered fields. The icy valleys of the snowy mountains had melted, and hazy steam rose from them.

Snow melted in an instant flowed downhill like lava, laying bare the scars left by the flames. The fleeing monsters had burned black, reduced to scorched ash that scattered on the wind.

Cracks scored the ground of the snowfields as though it had dried out in an early drought. Red light flickered within them, still radiating heat. The mountain air, once cold enough to freeze the lungs, was now hot enough to burn them. Billowing clouds of steam obscured vision and made even breathing difficult.

“!!!!!”

“!!!!!”

“!!!!!”

The shocked cries of soldiers and knights erupted throughout the county. Soldiers descending from the walls, knights directing them, soldiers opening the gates—not one was spared that astonishment. Before them lay a burned wasteland that seemed to reject all living, breathing things.

“W-what did I just see...?”

“Uuugh...!!!”

Everyone who had witnessed the dragon’s wrath was paralyzed with horror. It gave the illusion that even time itself had burned away.

Then it happened.

“Cough...!!”

A groan of excruciating pain suddenly reached their ears. They looked toward it and saw Kai, the golden wolf who had pursued the monster legion. He was down on one knee, his sword planted in the ground.

“Khaagh...!”

Bright-red blood gushed from his mouth like a waterfall. His sun-gold hair was scorched black, as was the armor that had once shone silver.

“Khagh...!”

Anyone could see he was in bad shape. Naturally—he had taken the dragon’s wrath head-on. That only made the soldiers’ shock greater.

“H-he’s alive...”

“Even after taking that head-on...?!”

Kai had faced the dragon’s wrath and was still alive and well. Not well, of course. But the fact that he had endured it with nothing worse than coughing up blood was astonishing, even awe-inspiring.

For that very reason, however, someone else inspired the greatest shock and wonder in the soldiers: the one other man still alive in the wasteland alongside Kai. The black wolf who had roamed among the sheep. Adrian, who had seemed like a dragon... and turned the snowy mountains into a wasteland.

Adrian stood in his original spot, but his condition was far worse than Kai’s. His entire body was a wreck, and he was swaying on his feet. As for his arms, who knew where he’d pawned them off? Neither was anywhere to be seen.

THUD.

Adrian staggered and collapsed, then lay utterly still. Only then did Seraphia snap back to her senses.

“Brother!!!”

She raced toward him like a madwoman. The closer she got, the paler she became. He was a blackened heap of ash, as though he had crawled out of a blazing pit. Worst of all were his missing arms—wherever he’d pawned those off—with the wounds gouged deep into his shoulders, creating a grotesque sight. No matter how she looked at him... he did not look alive.

Profound shock filled Seraphia’s red eyes. Her lips trembled. She wanted to say something, but no words would come.

“Ah, aaagh...!”

Her throat closed up, and it felt as though her heart were being torn apart. The pain left her barely able to breathe. Adrian had sacrificed himself to save the residents... to save everyone.

If she had known—if she had known it would come to this—she would never have hesitated to use her power. She would have sacrificed herself instead. Her legs gave out, and she sank to the ground. Trembling all over, she could no longer hold herself up; her shoulders slumped. Just as heavy tears began to fall...

“Hey...”

A faint voice reached her ears. Seraphia’s head jerked up. Her tear-streaked face turned toward the voice.

And she saw it.

“Shove a monster into my mouth. Any monster.”

... The corpse was talking. An armless corpse, at that, wriggling frantically. It was such a bizarre sight.

THUMP.

Seraphia fainted on the spot.

* * *

... It had been far more powerful than I’d expected. I had extracted dragon genetic material to reproduce a dragon’s power, but even so, I hadn’t expected this.

‘That’s just insane.’

And it really was insane. There was a reason it was a dragon’s power.

Of course, since it was only something I had “extracted,” it could not compare to the genuine power of Dragon Breath. But compared to the Ice Breath the Gelu Drake had used? Dragon Rage Explosion[E] was far superior.

The damage I’d taken as a result was no joke. The arms that had fired Dragon Rage Explosion[E] had not merely burst—they had been obliterated. The recoil had ruptured every internal organ I had. Fortunately, the flames had cauterized the wounds, so I wasn’t bleeding.

With Regeneration, which had just evolved to rank [B+], I could regenerate anything as long as my heart and brain remained intact. But I had a feeling I needed to regenerate sooner rather than later.

Except I was out of calories. My arms were gone, so I couldn’t do anything. And my Inventory was completely empty.

“Hey... Shove a monster into my mouth. Any monster.”

I couldn’t do a thing on my own.

At least my vocal cords hadn’t burned away, so I could still speak. But I really didn’t have time to lie around like this. I had to find the creature commanding the monster legion—the being that might just be the Sovereign of Beasts.

I had just become certain of two things.

‘The quest hasn’t cleared.’

The Sudden Quest remained incomplete. That meant there were more monsters in the legion. What we had just faced was only the first wave, and it also meant someone was commanding the legion. Someone who might be the Sovereign of Beasts.

The other thing I was certain of was that I could fight the Sovereign of Beasts using combination skills. Even the Sovereign of Beasts would not shrug off the power Dragon Rage Explosion[E] had just unleashed. I needed to regenerate and track down the Sovereign of Beasts as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, Seraphia came running over. But what the hell?

THUMP.

She suddenly crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut, and now she showed absolutely no intention of getting up.