The veil of milky white fog shrouding us was forcibly parted by a sweeping wind carrying the stench of eternal death. From behind the darkness of the Forbidden Forest, the ruler stepped out, crushing ancient pine trees as if they were merely dry weeds.
It was the Emerald Root Wyrm. This creature was a remnant of a dark era, a wingless dragon that evolved by absorbing the forest's toxins and miasma. Its body length reached twenty meters, covered by thick scales resembling hard tree bark adorned with poisonous moss. Its pair of lantern-sized eyes radiated an emerald green glow, staring at us with a primal and cruel predator's intelligence.
Thud.
The sound of a canvas sack hitting the ground broke the silence. Ragnar, the street fighter who never flinched facing dozens of Mutant Wolves, now unconsciously took a step back. His face was deathly pale. The hand holding his greatsword trembled violently.
Inside my head, the general's instincts honed over ten years spun at lightning speed, calculating our chances of victory.
In my past life, to bring down one adult Wyrm, the central military had to deploy a full platoon led by a Swordmaster. Here, we were just three cadets who hadn't even passed our first year.
Run? Impossible. In its natural habitat full of root obstacles and giant trees, this Wyrm could catch up to us in just three breaths.
Our only chance was to survive.
"Selena!" I shouted, my voice slicing through the terror freezing the air. "How bright a light magic can you create?!"
Selena, standing behind me, swallowed hard. Her pale face was no longer adorned with a relaxed psychopathic smile, but with real tension. "I can shoot a Pillar of Holy Light. Bright enough to pierce the forest canopy and be clearly visible from the Second Post."
"Do it!"
"My main class is not pure light, Kael!" Selena snapped back quickly. "I need time to chant the spell uninterrupted. Ten full seconds! During that time, I cannot move or use any defensive magic!"
Ten seconds standing still before a Wyrm was tantamount to placing your head on an executioner's block. I drew the Blood-Iron from my back. The Sanguine Core in my chest pulsed wildly, as if responding to the deadly danger ahead.
I turned to Ragnar who was still frozen. "Ragnar! Wake up from your dream, Old Bear! We have to give her ten seconds!"
Hearing my voice, Ragnar's eyes regained focus. He gritted his teeth, banishing the terror paralyzing him, and raised his greatsword high. The veins in his neck bulged as he forced all his remaining Aura to blaze brightly, turning his sword into a golden beacon.
"Do not try to kill it!" I ordered sharply. "Just ensure its jaws do not swallow that girl! Start, Selena!"
Selena immediately closed her eyes. She planted the tip of her wooden staff into the muddy ground and began chanting a spell in an ancient language. Pale white light began to gather, swirling around her body.
The massive mana glow from Selena instantly attracted the Wyrm's attention. The monster narrowed its green eyes, opened its jaws wide, and lunged forward. Its steel-hard snout shot like a locomotive of death, aiming straight for Selena's body.
One. Two.
Ragnar jumped into the path of the lunge. The large fighter planted both feet into the ground, holding his giant sword horizontally like a shield.
"Come on, you rotten lizard!" roared Ragnar.
Three.
CLANG!
The collision occurred. The sound of metal meeting ancient scales was deafening. The kinetic energy from the impact was too immense. The Aura on Ragnar's sword shattered into pieces.
The street fighter's large body was thrown into the air like a straw doll, crashing into a pine tree trunk ten meters away. The sound of cracking ribs was heard, and Ragnar vomited fresh blood onto the ground. He collapsed.
The Wyrm only paused for a moment, shaking its slightly scratched head, then prepared to spew poisonous miasma toward Selena who still kept her eyes closed.
Four. Five.
I darted from the monster's blind spot. I pumped my Sanguine Core to its maximum limit. The muscles in both my legs expanded until they tore my uniform pants.
With that explosive power, I leaped high, using the nearest tree trunk as a foothold to shoot toward the Wyrm's head.
Six.
A slash of any strength on its scales would only make my sword bounce off. I swung the Blood-Iron straight toward the monster's glowing green right eye.
Realizing the threat to its vital organ, the Wyrm was forced to cancel its poison breath and violently turn its head. The tip of my black blade failed to pierce its pupil, but managed to tear its thick eyelid. Hot green blood spurted, slightly burning my sleeve.
Seven.
The wound was not fatal, yet the pain made the Wyrm roar in fury. Now, all the ancient monster's aggression shifted to me.
Its giant spiked tail swept the forest floor, destroying rocks and trees with ease. I used the weight of my sword to drop my body to the muddy ground, dodging the deadly sweep just centimeters above me.
Eight. Nine.
I rolled, got up, and resumed running in a zig-zag, baiting the monster so its jaws kept moving away from Selena's position. My lungs burned. Every maneuver I performed forced my muscles to tear and be instantly stitched back together by blood magic, an internal torture far more painful than a sword thrust.
Ten.
"Close your eyes!" shouted Selena.
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly while diving for cover behind a giant root.
An incredibly blinding explosion of white light erupted from Selena's position. The pillar of holy light shot vertically, burning away the remaining fog and darkness, tearing through the Forbidden Forest canopy, and piercing straight into the night sky.
The light was so bright that the area around us looked like scorching midday for a few seconds.
The Wyrm, whose eyes were highly sensitive to light after living for centuries in the dark zone, roared in pain. The monster raised its head high, thrashing its body blindly.
Several miles from our location, at the Second Academy Post, the night atmosphere was boring. Several instructors were sipping black coffee on the watchtower terrace, while the guard knights played cards.
Suddenly, the night sky above the Inner Zone of the Forbidden Forest exploded with a blinding pillar of white light.
The Head Instructor, a hard-faced man with a scar on his forehead, dropped his coffee cup. His eyes widened staring at the giant beacon.
"Sky-Cleaving Holy Beam?! Damn it, that is a high-level distress signal!" he shouted with a booming voice that instantly woke the entire post. "Someone has awakened the ruler of the Inner Zone! Ring the emergency bell! Mobilize all senior instructors and knights! We move now!"
The deafening sound of a brass bell immediately shattered the silence of the night. Hundreds of iron boots began to rumble.
However, in his heart, the Head Instructor knew one horrifying mathematical fact. Even running through the dense forest terrain at maximum speed, they needed at least five minutes to reach the light's location.
Five minutes facing a high-tier monster meant certain death.
On the forest floor, the holy light finally faded, leaving behind a darkness that felt even denser.
Selena fell to her knees. Her face was deathly pale, her mana completely drained. She was panting heavily, unable to stand anymore.
A dozen meters away, Ragnar moaned in pain, coughing up blood, trying to use his sword as a crutch, but his legs no longer had the strength to support his shattered body.
The distress signal was successfully fired. Help was on the way.
However, on the battlefield, the only thing crueler than an enemy's sword was time. My military instincts calculated the distance and evacuation speed of the academy post. At the earliest, help would arrive in five to seven minutes.
Seven minutes.
Before an ancient dragon now running amok, seven minutes was an eternity.
The Emerald Root Wyrm stopped thrashing. Its vision began to return. It lowered its giant head, glaring down at the three of us who were already helpless with overflowing hatred.
The monster opened its jaws, not to bite, but to gather a vortex of energy at the base of its throat. Dense green light began to swirl, sucking in the surrounding air.
It was preparing to unleash the Breath of Death Miasma, an area attack that would melt our flesh and bones into sludge in an instant.
Retreating meant instant death. Hiding would not save us from that corrosive gas. If I parried it with the current power level of the Sanguine Core, I would only burn along with my sword.
I stood alone in front. The cold night wind blew, carrying the unavoidable stench of death.
I stared at the Blood-Iron blade in my hand. This black sword felt heavy, as if realizing its master was standing at the edge of the abyss. Slowly, I lowered my gaze.
This eighteen-year-old physical vessel is a glass cup, I thought, recalling my own logic when I first used blood magic in this second life.
Unsealing my true power would shatter this glass from the inside. My bones would crack, my internal organs would burn, and I might never be able to hold a sword again.
However, seeing the dragon's glowing green jaws in front of me, as well as Selena and Ragnar sprawling behind me, I realized one thing.
Let this glass shatter. As long as its shards can tear this monster's throat.
I closed my eyes. I delved into my subconscious, heading to the center of my chest, where the dark Sanguine Core resided. There, invisible shackles held back my true power to prevent it from destroying my adolescent body.
One by one, I pulled and shattered those shackles.
Open.
Instantly, an endless magical lava exploded from the center of my chest, flooding my entire vascular network with absolute brutality.
Horrifying tearing sounds echoed from my own body. The skin on both my arms exploded, rupturing hundreds of small veins, spurting my own blood into the night air.
Yet, that blood did not fall to the ground. It evaporated, creating an incredibly dense dark red mist, swirling to envelop my body like the cloak of a demon just risen from the deepest hell.
The pain surpassed any definition of torture I had ever felt. Every cell in my body screamed, scorched by uncontainable pure mana.
I opened my eyes. My eyes now burned with the color of thick blood red, radiating a killing aura so dense it made the energy vortex in the Wyrm's throat stutter slightly.
I raised the Blood-Iron with one hand. My red blood vapor crept onto the black sword blade, turning it into a butcher's sword radiating a deadly ruby glow.
Behind me, the half-conscious Selena stared at me with wide eyes, showing true fear for the first time.
"Come here, you rotten lizard," my voice echoed, sounding like a pile of sword blades grinding against each other.
With a body shattered from the inside, The Iron Tracking Hound stepped forward, meeting the roar of the ancient dragon. Ten minutes would be a very, very long time for the Forbidden Forest.