Dark red blood vapor churned around me, swirling in rhythm with my breathing which felt like swallowing broken glass. In front of me, the Emerald Root Wyrm roared, displaying rows of fangs that radiated a glowing green miasma.
The Forbidden Forest trembled as the ancient monster moved.
This demonic dance would not be won by a clash of muscle power. Faced with a breathing natural disaster, the only way to survive was to become more elusive than death itself.
The dragon rotated its giant body. Its spiked tail, as thick as a temple pillar, swept the arena in a deadly horizontal attack, crushing trees like weeds.
In my past life, the basic instinct of an amateur soldier would be to jump to evade. However, being in the air meant losing footing and becoming an easy target. Instead of jumping, I dropped my body to the thorny ground. I let the giant tail miss just inches above my back.
A tail sweep of that magnitude at extraordinary speed created a simple law of physics: an air vacuum.
The pull of the empty wind pressure behind that tail sucked in everything around it. I did not fight it. I used that vacuum pull to slide rapidly across the ground, shooting forward through the dragon's defense until I arrived right beneath its giant belly.
This was a blind zone, but the ancient wood scales on this dragon's belly remained as hard as steel plates. Stabbing straight up would only break my sword.
While continuing to run parallel to the creeping dragon's body, I tilted the Blood-Iron blade. I pressed its sharp tip into the narrow gap between the scale arrangement, embedding it shallowly, then ran slicing across its belly line like someone striking a giant matchstick.
SKRRRRT!
The friction of steel and ancient scales produced a blinding shower of sparks. Boiling green sap spurted from the dragon's torn peripheral nerves.
The pain from that friction made the Wyrm howl in fury. The monster's attention was now entirely focused on me.
However, every one of these extreme maneuvers demanded a horrific physiological toll. As I stomped my right foot into the ground to make a sharp turn at high speed, the momentum strained my internal organs.
Microscopic tearing sounds echoed from beneath my skin. The pores on my calves and arms could not withstand the pressure, spurting a mist of blood every time I changed direction. This eighteen-year-old physical body was destroying itself to keep up with the speed of my veteran brain.
"Kael!"
A voice broke into my head. Not a shout, but close-range telepathy from Selena, who was hiding behind the stone ruins.
"Keep it busy! Hold its attention on you for a moment longer!" Selena's voice sounded tense yet full of calculation. "I have one final plan. Do not let it turn its head!"
Placing my life entirely in the hands of a mysterious psychopathic girl whose identity I did not know was a soldier's greatest taboo. On the battlefield, you only trust your sword and the comrade who has bled beside you. Yet, I was a gambler faced with an impossible chessboard.
I swallowed the blood in my mouth, suppressed all my suspicious instincts, and chose to bet.
"Your plan had better be worth it, Selena!" I roared, darting again to dodge the bite of the dragon's jaws that crushed the ground where I had stood a second ago.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Selena discard her already cracked wooden staff. The girl did not attempt to run. She knelt on the blood-soaked ground, clasping both her hands in front of her chest in a deeply solemn and ancient prayer pose.
What kind of holy magic could possibly work on a dragon this strong? I thought in frustration. Even an Archbishop's prayer required hours to summon a small miracle.
However, Selena's chanted prayer shattered all logic.
"O Goddess of the Night, Guardian of the Silver Veil..." whispered Selena, her voice echoing strangely through the roar of battle.
Goddess of the Night. An entity from a minority belief often considered deviant by the main light-loving temples. Yet, the miracle that happened next violated every natural law of Aethelgard.
The dark clouds hanging heavily over the Forbidden Forest suddenly parted, forming a giant vortex. Incredibly bright and pure moonlight cascaded down, enveloping Selena's body like a pillar of silver.
That wave of silver light swept across the battle arena at the speed of light.
The moment that silvery energy touched my skin, the sensation was like being drenched by holy spring water. Half of the torn wounds in my muscles closed instantly. The fatigue gripping my bones evaporated without a trace. My Sanguine Core, which had previously been on the verge of exploding, was now stable again. Direct divine intervention was something nearly impossible, yet this anomaly named Selena had just accomplished it.
"Give me time, Kael!" Selena opened her eyes, which now glowed pure silver. "I am going to cast a High-Tier Sleep Spell!"
A sleep spell for an ancient dragon?! That was magic that only existed in bedtime stories.
However, the Emerald Root Wyrm possessed a primal intelligence that could not be underestimated. The monster sensed the absolute mana fluctuation gathering above Selena. Its predator instinct screamed that the glowing girl was an existential threat.
The dragon ignored me completely. It turned its giant neck to face Selena. Its jaws opened wide, a vortex of green miasma far denser and deadlier gathering once again at the base of its throat. The dragon intended to unleash Dragon Breath to melt everything within a ten-meter radius!
"Don't even think about it!"
I darted from the blind spot, swinging the Blood-Iron straight toward the dragon's throat to interrupt. However, its giant body size overwhelmed my agility. Its front leg, as large as a stone pillar, swatted my body in mid-air. I was flung hard, rolling on the muddy ground.
I failed.
The green vortex in the dragon's mouth reached its peak. Selena's death was mere milliseconds away.
Yet, the silver light from the Goddess of the Night apparently harbored one more miracle. The healing wave earlier did not only save me, but also swept through the darkness in the corner of the arena.
"Do not forget me, Rotten Lizard!"
A savage roar that shook the forest exploded from behind the shadows. A massive figure that had previously laid shattered now leaped into the air with its last blazing remnant of strength.
Ragnar Holt.
The street fighter did not attempt to slash the neck or stab the eyes. Utilizing all his remaining golden Aura, he gripped the greatsword from below. With the momentum of his leap, Ragnar delivered a devastating uppercut using the flat side of his large sword right against the dragon's lower jaw.
BAM!
Ragnar's strike was so brutal it forced the dragon's jaws shut at the exact same second it released its miasma breath.
The poisonous gas detonated internally within the dragon's mouth. Green smoke spurted from between its teeth and nostrils. The fatal attack was canceled. The dragon roared in agony, its head thrown upward, while Ragnar fell back sitting, his sword slipping from his numb grasp.
The dragon's fury had now reached its peak.
Failing to spew its poison and feeling threatened by Selena's almost completed magic casting, the monster discarded all its magical tactics. It resorted to its ultimate weapon: the weight of its own twenty-ton body.
The dragon charged forward. Its giant body moved like an unstoppable iron train, crushing the rocks in its path, intending to pulverize Selena and Ragnar simultaneously.
Ragnar tried to rise to hold it back with his bare hands, but the wind of its charge alone sent his large body tumbling to the side.
Time seemed to slow down.
If I held back the dragon's body from the front, I would be crushed into meat paste. The glass cup inside my body would shatter. So I had to manipulate its direction.
I mobilized everything. I forced the Sanguine Core to burn my life reserves. My speed breached the sound barrier, creating a small sonic boom that blasted the dust around me.
I did not run in front of the dragon, but darted cutting from the right side angle.
At the last second before the dragon's snout destroyed the position of Selena, who was keeping her eyes closed, I leaped high. I hovered right beside the giant face that was hurtling forward.
The momentum of the dragon's charge added to my penetrating power; I drove the Blood-Iron sword with both hands, plunging it straight and deep through the dragon's left eye which glowed emerald.
"GRAAAARGGGH!"
A blinding roar of agony exploded. However, I was not finished.
As soon as my black sword was embedded to the hilt, I did not release the grip. At that deadly speed, I let my entire body weight dangle from the sword hilt in the dragon's eye.
The laws of physics and anatomy took over. The excruciating pain on the left side of its eye, coupled with the weight of my body pulling forcefully, created a reflex that no dragon muscle could resist. The giant neck jerked violently to the left.
That reflex neck jerk shifted the center of gravity of the speeding twenty-ton monster. Its charge veered sharply by force. The giant snout deviated from its original path, missing Selena's body by mere meters, and smashed hard into the rocky cliff on the left side of the gorge.
An explosion of rock and dust soared high. The horrific impact threw my body loose from the dragon's face. I flew through the air, hitting the rocky ground, rolling dozens of times until my internal organs felt battered and bruised.
At the exact second the dragon crashed into the cliff, Selena's eyelids snapped open. Her casting was complete.
"Sleep," whispered the girl, her voice echoing like a divine decree.
The moonlight pooling over the arena solidified in an instant. Invisible yet brightly glowing silver chains wrapped around the entire body of the Emerald Root Wyrm. The chains did not press upon its physical form, but pressed directly into the ancient soul of the monster.
The thrashing dragon, with my sword still embedded in its eye, suddenly froze. Its ragged breathing gradually slowed, becoming long and heavy. Its remaining right eye blinked slowly, fighting an absolute, unbearable drowsiness, before finally closing tightly. Its head slumped onto the rock debris.
The ruler of the Forbidden Forest fell into a deep slumber under the influence of absolute magic.
The world around me began to spin slowly. The sound of the sleeping dragon's breath felt like an echo from another world.
I lay staring at the night sky where dark clouds began to cover the moon again. My body had surpassed all limits of destruction. My pillar of strength crumbled, and the pain that had been held back by adrenaline all this time now came crashing down like a tidal wave. I did not even have the energy to move a single finger.
My vision began to darken from the edges. Black dots swallowed my sight.
The last thing I saw before my consciousness was completely snatched away by the vortex of darkness was a pair of black leather boots stepping closer. The edge of Selena's academy robe fluttered gently in the night wind, standing silently right beside my face.
Then, everything went pitch black.