A powerful enemy stood before them, and the Lord they feared most was at their side. It was, in its own way, a strange experience.
But compared with resisting the terrifying Lord, the Flying Dragons would rather challenge that arrogant kin of theirs.
And so a strange scene unfolded. Fear was plain on the cowards' faces, yet they still surrounded Borealis.
The Flying Dragons formed a sphere of interwoven black and white, enclosing Nolan and Borealis within it, while the dragonfire from their mouths melted the drifting ice crystals one by one.
"Good. Very good! You fearless fools. Since you wag your tails before a human, you can die alongside him."
Borealis bared his teeth in an exaggerated sneer. "Lord? Ridiculous. A weak human dares call himself a Lord, yet he doesn't know he'll be torn apart by fangs and claws sooner or later."
"Then allow me to introduce myself again." Six pairs of great wings spread from Nolan's back, their pure white color drawing the eyes of the Flying Dragons.
"By the Goddess's request, I am now the Lord of this city. So I'm sorry, but I can't let you keep running wild."
"So you are a dragon!" Borealis narrowed his eyes. "It seems these things aren't quite as disgraceful as I thought. No wonder they follow you. Did you kill Bayle?"
"But a moment ago, you had no dragon scent on you. Only the lingering smell of blood. And that strange form... what exactly are you?"
Borealis instead grew somewhat calmer. He had thought the man before him was a dragon slayer, but the moment those dragon wings unfurled, the other party carried the scent of a dragon.
Yet that scent was strange. It was like an Ancient Dragon, and also like a Flying Dragon. Then there was that form he had never seen before. The number of dragon wings was even one pair more than an Ancient Dragon's.
"Nolan grew wings!" someone on the ground cried out in shock.
Wings were the dream of countless lives upon the earth. Among humans who could grow wings, the most famous were the Crucible Knights, who relied on the power of the Aspects of the Crucible and Incantations.
From the distant Storm Dynasty that took dragons as its symbol, to the Ancient Dragon worshipers of Leyndell's church in more recent times, reverence for dragons had never ceased throughout the long history of the Lands Between.
"Come to think of it, Florissax also said I was a dragon. Is that a special way you dragons describe people?" Nolan's armor slowly fell away.
Not a single piece of clothing or armor remained on him, yet he had already been covered by another set of armor.
Unlike the earth dragon forms that dragon slayers eventually degenerated into, that shade of white seemed beautiful even to Borealis. He struggled to control himself, but could not stop staring.
Rock-like Scale Armor closed together. A long, powerful body grew into shape. The white Lord was slowly born, and six great wings suddenly spread wide, stirring up a violent surge of air.
Nolan occupied the sky like a true dragon, his human form completely transformed. The boundless heavens seemed to bow before him as he looked down from above upon the proud Flying Dragon.
Around the Dragonlord and the Flying Dragon, beneath the howling wind, rain, and snow, the dragons stood side by side like a wall of black and white.
All at once, a killing chill swept over everything. The storm had opened wide.
One moment, Borealis still saw the white figure standing high within the storm. The next, the other's fangs were already howling before his face.
Was this the new Lord? Violence and speed pushed to the extreme, a savagery and wildness more dragon-like than any dragon. Was that truly the human from just now?
Borealis was enraged as well. It felt provoked. A creature that seemed almost human had made it feel fear while wearing the identity of a dragon.
It was a dragon's champion and overlord, once the master of the Consecrated Snowfield, the legendary dragon that had extinguished countless Giant flames, Borealis's Mist.
Borealis's massive body swiftly retreated, yet it moved with astonishing agility, gathering freezing breath in its mouth at the same time.
The Flying Dragon opened its fanged maw wide, and frigid mist gathered into a vast sheet, like an endless sea of clouds.
Hiss!
Frost swept over like a great wave. Nolan, who had been charging forward, blurred into nothing. His six wings beat, lifting him upward into the sky, and then he felt a chill that sank into his bones.
Sssss.
The freezing mist left a translucent wall high in the sky. Bone-piercing vapor surged outward like storm-tossed waves, clinging to Nolan's Scale Armor and blooming into frost.
The extreme cold sharpened Nolan's mind. When he looked down again, the Flying Dragon was charging at him like an iceberg.
"So dragons really are obsessed with close combat when facing their own kind?" Nolan chuckled softly.
Borealis's breath was no weaker than Ranni's icy Sorceries. Only a dragon like this was qualified to be an overlord of the Consecrated Snowfield.
"No wonder it fought endlessly with the Giants. This is a Flying Dragon comparable to a Demigod." Nolan did not dodge or retreat. His white dragon body dove down, moving so fast he was like an illusion.
He swept forward at terrifying speed. The cold breath drew closer and closer overhead. Horn struck horn, and the impact exploded in midair like a pure white flower, scattering ice and snow everywhere.
Borealis's head immediately felt as if it were splitting apart. Its body sank sharply, and it could feel the Scale Armor atop its head shattering, though it could not see it.
This human dragon was too fast, and its strength was too heavy. Borealis had been suppressed.
Borealis's body began to fall, but the white dragon had no intention of letting it go. Clearly, it was another collision, the kind dragons loved most.
This time, Nolan rammed into Borealis's chest. The savage impact made the latter feel as if all its organs had shifted inside its body.
The Flying Dragon and the white dragon tangled together as they tore at each other. The white dragon stretched out its neck and forelimbs, and fangs and claws followed, ripping the Flying Dragon's flesh open.
Nolan's dragon body was like an Ancient Dragon with an extra pair of great wings. That was his advantage.
Compared with a two-legged Flying Dragon, an additional pair of forelimbs meant an additional pair of weapons, and his long neck allowed him to attack from even sharper angles.
Borealis let out a piercing dragon cry. Sturdy Scale Armor, sharp teeth and claws, and a monstrous way of fighting. This thing was more dragon-like than any dragon it had ever seen.
It felt as if its body had become a rolling boulder, and in truth, that was exactly what it was. The two dragons crashed together toward the sea below.
The soft seawater did nothing to lessen the impact, because before the two dragons had even fallen from the sky, the cold radiating from Borealis's body had already frozen the sea into an ice field.
Roar!
Borealis roared in pain, feeling as if its entire body was about to come apart. It rolled wildly.
That collision finally separated the two dragons. Borealis turned its head and stared at Nolan.
The white dragon looked at the Flying Dragon's bloody maw and opened his own mouth as well.
"Roar!"
A calm roar met an enraged one, and Borealis froze for an instant. Then Nolan drove strength through all four limbs and slammed into Borealis with his body, sending it flying.
Ice shards scattered. Great pits were smashed across the ice field as Nolan drove Borealis back again and again, his movements savage and crude.
Borealis finally understood why the Flying Dragons were so afraid. Bayle had not died at his hands simply because he had been crippled. This creature was a monster.
"Did you come here to see Bayle?"
As it rolled, Borealis seemed to hear the white dragon asking it that question. In that moment, death felt far too close.
"No!"
It collapsed to the ground and raised its head, but the white dragon had already bitten into its neck, stopping it from making a sound.
Borealis was terrified. It struggled, trying to lift its head and roar, but then a great claw pressed its head down against the ground.
In that moment, all it could feel was...
Humiliation, and fear.