Chapter 104

Did I get... outplayed...?

Leon asked himself.

He had expected the drake to open with a simple dive attack, but instead, it had unleashed Dark Breath. Charging up an attack while flying was an ambush unlike anything he’d ever seen.

This wasn’t some petty trick from an arrogant monster looking down on its prey. The drake had learned. It had lost an eye to creatures it once saw as weak, and filled the void left by pride with cunning.

The window to dodge had already passed. Leon tightened his grip on the Holy Sword’s hilt. Even without activating his Aura, just standing firm was enough to make radiance burst from the blade’s surface, pushing back against the darkness.

And that wasn’t all. As a faint glow emerged near his collarbone, a white flame surged across the Holy Sword’s surface: the Holy Flame, a power granted by the Stigma of the Purifier.

“You’re not the only one who grew...!” Leon shouted.

If the drake was going to get more vicious, Leon would simply respond with greater force.

The black storm—a vortex of consumption that reduced all matter to nothing—was right before his eyes. Facing that overwhelming power, Leon stepped forward without hesitation and swung.

Heavenly Core: First Form, Dubhe flashed in brilliant platinum as it split the heavens in two. With a deafening clash, waves of light collided with the storm of darkness. Like a wounded beast, the darkness recoiled several steps, roaring—but the light too, unable to press the advantage, halted in place.

It was a perfect stalemate. The perfectly balanced forces of light and dark collapsed into nothingness.

Good. The Grand Chariot can cancel out its Breath.

Satisfied at confirming this, Leon dashed sideways, diving beneath the canyon’s edge into terrain obscured by rocks and shrubs. The drake, blinded by the sudden radiance, was infuriated when the prey it thought was caught slipped away.

“

Kyeeeeeh

!”

Even in its frenzy, the monster’s devious mind worked quickly. Why had it failed? Why hadn’t it killed him?

There was only one reason. It lacked power. Just as one couldn’t take deep breaths while running, its Breath—gathered mid-flight—was undercharged.

It needed more. It needed to be stronger, faster, wider, and more overwhelming. Its next attack had to leave no escape.

“

Grrrrrrrr

...”

The drake’s roar abruptly ceased, replaced by a low growl rumbling from deep within. The vibration was like an incantation, manifesting the power inside its body in a new form.

Primal-Craft: a chaotic, unpredictable force more akin to psychic ability than magic—reserved for high-tier monsters.

“Damn,” muttered Leon, watching from the canyon floor, giving a bitter chuckle.

—Yeah. That’s not great.

El-Cid clicked his tongue as if sharing the sentiment. They’d known the drake was no easy opponent, but they hadn’t expected it to wield primal magic so freely.

It might not be on the level of the Dragons—masters of magic—but the drake was still a near-top monster of dragon-types. Its output alone rivaled even human archmages.

—Primal dark magic, huh? Haven’t seen that dusty relic in a while.

El-Cid muttered, gazing up at the blackening sky.

—If a human mage cast that, they’d be dead from mana depletion before covering a hundred-meter radius...

“But not the Drake?”

—Yeah. This deep in the Titan Mountains, we’re practically swimming in mana. Just breathing might be enough to restore it. If this drags on, you’ll tire faster than that lizard.

Leon nodded grimly and replied, “I wasn’t planning on a long fight anyway. We can’t afford to take our time with a monster that could just fly away at will.”

Even if they had history, life outweighed a lost eye. Not pressing on every single second meant giving it an option to flee.

While he discussed tactics with El-Cid, the drake, now done with its preparation, let out a booming cry from above.

“

KYAOOOOOH

!”

Dark rain began to fall from the unnatural night sky surrounding the monster, but these weren’t mere raindrops. They were “darkness” itself, imbued with its condensed magic.

Each droplet wasn’t overwhelming alone, but no one could be hit by just one in a storm. The rain that corroded armor upon contact was strong enough to pierce flesh down to the bone.

The darkness of the night sky poured down as raindrops. It sounded poetic, but only until one realized it erased anything it touched. What beauty was there in annihilation?

Leon crouched beneath a large tree, but when its leaves and branches vanished within seconds, he gave a bitter laugh. At this rate, cover meant nothing.

—It’s trying to flush you out.

“Clever snake bastard.”

Realizing the drake’s plan, Leon raised his blade. He burst out from behind the melting tree and unleashed his Holy Sword’s full radiance.

Light and darkness were natural opposites. Just as water doused flame and fire boiled water, the side with even the slightest edge was going to dominate.

As the light from the Holy Sword evaporated the dark rain around him, a fifteen-meter radius turned into a safe zone. Of course, that couldn’t go unnoticed.

Like a torch visible from miles away, the drake’s lone eye fixed on him through the night sky. The evil it had once suppressed now overflowed again at the sight of that hateful light.

“

KRAAAAR

!”

Primal magic fed on emotion. The darkness, fed by the murderous intent of the drake, squirmed.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

The dark raindrops twisted into long, sharp javelins, all aiming at Leon.

“Shit!”

A chill ran down his spine. Without a second thought, Leon sprinted at full speed. And at that moment, the storm of dark spears began to fall.

Where the spears struck, they left behind only perfectly round holes. To the untrained eye, it didn’t seem like a powerful attack, but what if each hole was over five meters deep?

Even castle walls rarely surpassed that thickness. And because the all-consuming property of the attack ignored physical defenses entirely, there was no cover that could stop it.

Leon dashed along the canyon wall in a blur of motion and swiped his sword just as the spears of rain closed in behind him. Even when struck by the Holy Sword’s radiance, the dark spears only dulled slightly, ricocheting off the slash rather than vanishing.

One hit isn’t dangerous, but...

Just in one second, dozens—maybe even hundreds—of them came flying. A mere scratch might not be fatal, but that many certainly would be.

Up-down, front-back, left-right, Leon swung three times to deflect attacks from all directions, then used a spear targeting his thigh as a springboard to leap into the air.

He couldn’t move in just two dimensions. Using the canyon walls, he had to position himself in three-dimensional space to intercept the least number of spears. His golden eyes darted rapidly, memorizing every feature of the terrain around him.

“I’d have gotten a nosebleed or dizzy from this before.”

Thanks to the Stigma of the Prayer, he could process an overwhelming amount of sensory input without the vertigo or headaches he used to suffer. Leon shot through the rain of spears, just barely avoiding them.

“

Tch

.”

However, there was no time to rest. Even after evading the first onslaught, the storm kept chasing him, trying again and again to finish him off.

To clear it all in one go would require immediate firepower on the level of the Grand Chariot, but if he used that, the drake would almost certainly respond with its breath attack.

Whoever committed to a decisive move first would lose. It was that kind of fight.

If this is what it’s like, even with the terrain advantage... I wouldn’t have stood a chance in open space.

The only saving grace was that the drake’s aim and control weren’t perfect. If the spear patterns were any more strategically irregular, even moving efficiently wouldn’t have been enough to avoid them.

At this rate, he could last about ten more minutes. Then, it happened.

As Leon pulled another evasive stunt to dodge the rain of spears, he suddenly felt a chill of dread and looked up. The drake was right above him, sneering.

“A driving hunt...!”

—Always scheming. Typical snake, that thing.

Behind him, the spears of darkness still chased him. Above, the drake hovered, maw wide open. And of course, it was right after a jump. He had no space to dodge.

No doubt the drake had planned this from the start. It was a perfect trap.

Ambush with a surprise breath, drive the prey with primal magic, wait until it adapts... then checkmate. Even Leon felt a shiver down his spine at the sheer cunning of it.

If he were alone, he’d have no choice but to bet everything—unleash all his stored power and try to break through both fronts.

However...

“Hey.”

He wasn’t alone.

“You forgot about me, didn’t you?”

Karen appeared like a ghost behind the charging drake, her voice cold and sharp.

Shadow was a lower class of Darkness, but because they were of the same family, certain tricks were possible—like riding the dark rain created by primal magic in reverse, climbing up through hundreds of meters of air to reach the drake’s back.

“

Krarak

?!”

Caught off guard, the drake jolted in alarm, but Karen had already thrust her technique deep. Shadow Spike, a deadly secret art, had injected a needle of condensed Aura into a vital point to destroy the drake from within.

With her Twilight Waltz enhancing its power, even the drake’s scales were no defense. The Shadow Spike pierced into the upper bone of the drake’s left wing, and then—

“Boom,” Karen muttered playfully.

Then, the Aura detonated deep within the wingbone. The force would’ve blown apart an ordinary wyvern, but the drake’s wing only fractured slightly. As expected of an S+ ranked monster, its durability was unmatched.

Losing a wing, however, meant only one thing. The monster, caught in its own trap, crashed straight toward the very human it had tried to corner.

The drake slammed into the canyon floor with a deafening impact. Even though it slowed its fall with its remaining wing, the sheer weight—dozens of tons—sent a shockwave through the ground. A landslide wouldn’t have been surprising.

Karen quickly returned to Leon’s side and asked, “Looks like everything’s going according to our plan,

huh

?”

This had been their plan all along. Force the drake to the ground, cripple its mobility, and then transition to close combat from that position.

“Yeah. We’re just getting started.”

Even without its wings, it still had its weight, its talons. The tide of battle was far from decided.

Just as Leon said that, a burst of dust exploded outward. No roar, no wind-up—the drake simply flapped its good wing once and scattered the dust in a countermeasure.

Had they rushed in too soon, it would’ve been a devastating ambush. To prepare a trap the moment it crashed—it showed how ruthless the drake really was.

“

Grrrrrrrr

...”

Primal magic began to stir again. Darkness slithered up like smoke, then glowing red eyes pierced through the haze.

Its presence was overwhelming, enough to make anyone hesitate to take a step. Even Karen froze for an instant.

Leon? He didn’t flinch. He moved forward. And because of that, Karen could shake off her hesitation and follow behind.

This was the role of a Hero—to stand where everyone else feared to tread. To lead others by standing at the front. Naturally stepping into that position, Leon pointed the blade of the Holy Sword El-Cid forward.

“Alright. Now it’s our turn.”

The attacker and defender had switched. With all his Stigmata activated, Leon shone in brilliant light.