The wind howled violently around the crater.
Solaris stood beneath the dragon's mountainous skeletal palm, his bare hand still holding it in place.
For a brief second—
Everything felt suspended.
Then—
He slowly withdrew his right hand.
The massive palm, freed from his grip, hovered for a fraction of a moment as gravity reclaimed it.
Solaris clenched his fist.
Tight.
The air around his knuckles compressed unnaturally, faint ripples distorting space itself. No mana aura flared. No magic circle formed.
Just pure strength, silent pressure.
And then—
Without warning—
He punched.
BOOOOOM—
The impact didn't sound like metal clashing or magic exploding.
It sounded like the sky cracking.
The dragon's mountain-sized palm shattered instantly upon contact. Not cracked.
Not broken.
Shattered.
Bone fragments exploded outward in every direction, turning into thousands of splintered pieces mid-air. Shockwaves burst from the impact point, ripping through the clouds of dust and scattering debris across the ruined forest.
The colossal body lurched violently to the side.
The entire right half of the undead salamander dragon was forced upward from the sheer pressure of that single punch, its skeletal torso twisting unnaturally as if struck by an invisible hammer from below.
Hayami's jaw dropped.
"What the—?!"
Leonhart's eyes widened.
For once—
He had no words.
Reina could only stare, frozen in disbelief.
No spell.
No chant.
No visible mana.
Just a punch.
The dragon reacted instantly.
Its hollow eye sockets flared brighter, black flames erupting violently across its skeletal body. Dark thunder crackled along its ribs and spine, crawling like veins of corruption.
The air grew heavy.
Oppressive.
All the surrounding black flames began withdrawing toward one point—
Its throat.
Mana compressed violently inside its skeletal chest. Lightning spiraled inward, merging with the infernal flames. The ground trembled as the dragon lowered its massive head, jaw creaking open.
Inside—
Darkness gathered.
A sphere of concentrated black energy began forming between its fangs.
Dense.
Rotating.
Condensing further with every second.
The energy ball pulsed like a dying star, swallowing light around it. The surrounding forest dimmed as if night had suddenly fallen.
Hayami felt it first.
"That's not just a breath attack…" she whispered.
Leonhart's instincts screamed danger.
"If that fires—"
They didn't finish the sentence.
Because they knew.
That blast would erase everything within kilometers.
The dragon's jaws opened wider.
The black sphere inside the dragon's throat swelled to its limit.
The black sphere grew larger—
Unstable.
Violent.
Ready to erase everything.
And then—
Solaris moved.
He lowered his body slightly.
One foot pressed into the cracked earth beneath him.
For the smallest fraction of a second—
The world went quiet.
Then—
CRAAACK—
The ground beneath his foot shattered like fragile glass.
Rocks exploded outward.
The crater deepened.
And he vanished.
Not blurred.
Not dashed.
Gone.
A shockwave trailed behind him as the air split apart from the sheer force of his jump.
In less than a blink—
He appeared directly in front of the dragon's skull.
Face to face.
The colossal undead barely had time to react.
Solaris twisted mid-air—
And drove his leg upward.
A clean, brutal kick—
Right beneath its chin.
The impact snapped the dragon's head violently upward.
The concentrated black energy sphere—
Still forming—
Lost its containment.
It detonated inside its own mouth.
BOOOOOOM—
A catastrophic internal explosion tore through its skull from within. Black flames burst outward from cracks in its bones. Dark lightning scattered in chaotic arcs.
The dragon's lower jaw shattered completely, fragments of bone raining down like debris from a collapsing fortress.
The upper skull fractured in multiple places.
It crashed down to the ground heavily—
But something was different.
The cracks—
Didn't immediately heal.
The shattered jaw—
Didn't regenerate.
The black flames flickered erratically.
For the first time—
The undead boss staggered.
Hayami stared upward, breath caught in her throat.
"…It's not healing."
Leonhart's fists tightened unconsciously.
Solaris landed lightly on the dragon's skull.
His expression had changed.
The earlier calm—
Gone.
His cyan-blue eyes sharpened.
Colder.
More focused.
He pulled his right arm back slowly.
This time—
There was weight behind the motion.
The air around his fist began compressing unnaturally. The surrounding atmosphere bent inward, as if gravity itself were being dragged toward a single point.
Still—
No mana.
No magic circle.
Just pressure.
Pure physical force condensed beyond reason.
The dragon tried to move.
Tried to gather flames again.
Too late.
Solaris punched.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM—
The impact was devastating.
Not just a hit—
A statement.
The dragon's skull imploded under the force. Shockwaves erupted outward in layered rings, splitting clouds and flattening what remained of the forest.
Its entire mountainous body was lifted off the ground.
Like it weighed nothing.
Then launched.
The colossal undead salamander dragon flew through the air, crashing through distant mountain ridges. Peaks shattered upon impact. Stone exploded into dust as the dragon's body tore through them like paper.
One mountain.
Two.
Three.
Until finally—
Miles away—
It smashed down into the earth with a cataclysmic explosion that echoed across the horizon.
---
But the destruction didn't end with the dragon.
The shockwave from Solaris's punch continued forward—
Unstoppable.
A compressed wall of air and pressure surged outward like a tidal wave made of force alone.
And the three adventurers—
Were directly in its path.
They didn't even have time to brace.
No magic.
No stance.
No warning.
The wave hit them like a tsunami.
BOOOOM—
Their bodies were launched backward instantly, lifted off the ground and hurled through the shattered battlefield like leaves caught in a hurricane.
"Princess Reina—!" Hayami shouted mid-air, her voice ripped apart by the roaring wind.
Reina's body spun uncontrollably, armor scraping against debris as she was flung away.
Leonhart reacted.
Even while flying backward, his mind snapped into clarity.
Think.
He twisted mid-air, forcing his body to stabilize. In one fluid motion, he drew his sword.
Golden lines along the blade flickered faintly.
Then—
He slammed it downward.
The tip of the sword struck the broken earth beneath him as he passed over it.
CRACK—
The impact sent a burst of sparks and resistance through his arms, but it worked.
The blade carved a deep trench into the ground, creating drag.
Momentum shifted.
His trajectory altered sharply toward Reina.
The force nearly dislocated his shoulder—but he endured it.
Reina's eyes widened as she saw him approaching.
"Leon—?!"
He reached her in mid-flight and wrapped one arm firmly around her, pulling her against his chest and turning his back toward the remaining shockwave.
He shielded her completely.
The pressure hit them again, carrying them farther across the ruins.
They slammed into a collapsed ridge of broken stone and shattered trees, rolling several meters before finally coming to a halt.
---
Dust settled slowly around them.
Leonhart remained on one knee, one arm still around Reina, the other gripping his sword which was embedded into the ground to stop their slide.
Reina blinked in shock.
"…You're heavy," she muttered weakly.
Leonhart exhaled sharply, annoyed but relieved.
"Don't flatter yourself."
A few meters away, Hayami skidded across the ground, flipping once before landing in a crouch, boots digging into the soil to halt her momentum.
She looked up instantly.
"Princess?!"
Seeing Reina in Leonhart's arms, she moved.
In a blink, she dashed toward Leonhart and Reina.
Without hesitation, she snatched Reina straight out of Leonhart's arms and pulled her tightly into her own embrace.
She squeezed her.
Hard.
Tears shimmered in her eyes.
"Princess Reina—are you alright?!" she asked, voice trembling with emotion.
Reina, currently being compressed like a stuffed doll, wheezed faintly inside her arms.
"I guess… yes… I'm alright…" she managed to say, visibly struggling for air. "Don't worry… you can let go of me…"
Hayami ignored her completely.
Her grip tightened.
"I'm out of strength and mana… I couldn't catch you first…" she whispered, guilt cracking her composure.
Her voice shook.
"I'm… sorry, Princess Reina… I will never let you go again. I promise…"
Reina's face slowly turned red.
Her hands weakly pushed against Hayami's armor.
"Please… let me go… I can't… breathe…"
But Hayami didn't loosen her hold.
Not even a little.
Beside them, Leonhart stood up and adjusted his cracked shoulder plate.
He looked at the scene in front of him and clicked his tongue.
Then, with a teasing smirk, he said,
"What kind of follower are you… who can't even protect her master?"
Hayami's teeth clenched.
Her jaw tightened visibly.
For a second, it looked like she might stab him.
But she didn't argue.
Instead, she took a long breath.
Inhale.
Exhale.
She forced herself to calm down.
Then her eyes slowly shifted upward.
She raised a hand and pointed toward the sky.
High above them—
Solaris was descending slowly, silver hair drifting in the wind, body relaxed as if he had merely stepped off a ledge instead of launching a dragon across mountains.
His cyan-blue eyes glowed faintly.
Hayami's voice lowered.
"…So, Is he really a human…?"
Her gaze hardened slightly.
"…Or something else?"
---
⭐Explain
Oblivion: "Without mana, Solaris's current physical strength equals that of an A-rank."