{Present, Estate of the Carmilla Royal Faction's Eastern Gate}
An Ultimate Class dragon—one that looked undead.
"Burn this darned bastard, Faluzure!"
I had no idea what this dragon was, nor how strong it could be. The grade being Ultimate Class meant it could be targeted by my skills, but as an Ultimate Class dragon, it would definitely have an attack reaching Satan Class.
"Kill him!"
This was troublesome.
And sure enough, the dragon released a greenish-black flame while Shalba tried to regain his posture.
[Pendant of Resistance]
I wasn't stupid enough to take that flame head-on. The pendant was my best bet against it.
[Immune Against Poison]
[Immune Against Burn]
[Immune Against Paralysis]
[Immune Against Slowness]
Madness!
The fire had four effects? Even Bova's Demonic Dragon Flames only had the burn effect!
"Don't play around, Faluzure!" Shalba shouted. "Kill him now!"
He didn't know that the pendant gave me absolute immunity. But it wasn't permanent—and half a minute had already passed.
<Bind>
The chains shot out from both sides, but as expected, Shalba's annihilation magic resisted.
But… something else did get binded.
<Sever>
I put my entire strength into that sever, unsure if I'd ever get another chance.
And—
"T-The dragon!" someone in the crowd shouted. "It's been sliced in half!"
The dragon's body split cleanly down the middle—from head to tail—and everything inside spilled out.
I was lucky. So damn lucky the dragon didn't have anything like annihilation magic.
"Damned swine!" Shalba roared after seeing the sliced dragon. "You will not live!"
The attack he released was powerful—too much for my soldiers to handle. If it landed, a large portion of them would be erased.
<Dragon Flames>
Using the bracelet, I shielded the hit—letting the annihilation magic erase the flames, and the shock strike the barrier created by the bracelet. The shield absorbed the blast and reverted to its original form, but the soldiers were saved.
"Don't be scared!" I yelled to my army. "Push back!"
"The dragon's been defeated! The devil has lost a hand!" the vampires on my side shouted. "Forward!"
<Dragon Flames>
The bracelet couldn't create two disconnected pieces. Even to form armor, it had to stay continuous and flowing.
Keeping that in mind, I formed two swords connected by a thin metallic thread from their handles. With both blades engulfed in flames, I charged at the devil.
<Blink>
His annihilation magic was strong—but not enough to stop both the flames and the bracelet. The two powers canceled each other out, leaving an opening for my blade to connect. And it did exactly that, it tore through his flesh.
"Gah!" he groaned, kicking back.
I had to blink back too. Getting hit by annihilation magic at point-blank range would've been suicide.
However—
As I blinked away, I noticed something.
"Push forward!" Marius Tepes shouted. "Don't be intimidated!"
That guy... he didn't seem shocked at all by the dragon's death.
Shit.
"Everyone!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "Move back! Get away from the dragon's body!"
It was too late. Almost a thousand soldiers had already crossed the corpse, many standing dangerously close to it.
And seeing Shalba's expression, it finally clicked. Shalba wasn't the one leading this fight. He was just the support—a shield sent by Rizevim.
The one who had everything planned under Rizevim… was Marius.
"The dragon!" a soldier shouted. "I-It's releasing a green gas!"
The dragon's body began to give off a smoke-like gas, swallowing a huge chunk of my soldiers—more than a thousand. And the ones it touched...
"W-What is happening!" some cried. "M-My skin!"
Their skin started to burn and melt.
"GAHHH!"
Some began to vomit blood.
"N-No—"
Some froze on the spot.
System!
It always responds when things go to hell. It needs to respond now!
What the fuck is happening!?
"Eyes here, brat!" Shalba shouted. Even without an arm and just as confused as me, he didn't waste the moment—he attacked.
With a fist covered in annihilation magic, he rushed at me. I blinked back, and he had expected that.
The fist wasn't meant for me. It slammed into the ground. The punch cracked the earth and poured annihilation magic into it.
"Annihilation Field!"
I wasn't an expert in annihilation magic, but from the way the ground looked, it wasn't a place I could stand on.
I shot into the sky, grateful that the anti-flight runes had been lifted along with the teleportation ones.
"Damned vampire!" Shalba barked. "You hid the dragon's ability from me!"
The dragon had something fucked up going on. The blood that hit the ground turned to gas and started hurting my soldiers. As for the flesh—
[Faluzure is a dragon known for his dark and twisted magic. He doesn't have the physical capabilities other dragons are known for, but makes up for it with status-ailment abilities and near-perfect regeneration.]
Near-perfect, huh...
[Faluzure's blood, when exposed to air, can turn into a gas capable of causing burn, poison, slowness, and even paralysis.]
The dragon I'd sliced in half began to revive.
'Revive' sounded too clean. It forced itself back together, ripping and stitching with its own veins and arteries. Flesh molded like clay and the gaps were sewn shut by its blood vessels.
It was worse than any horror I'd seen.
"I apologize, Lord Shalba," Marius said coldly. "But Lord Rizevim ordered Faluzure's ability not be revealed until it showed itself first."
<Bind>
I couldn't just let it stitch itself back!
<Sever>
This time I cut it into more than ten pieces. As the blood started turning into gas, I used—
<Disperse>
[Disperse cannot cancel this effect because Faluzure's blood is not considered an attack nor a status effect.]
Because the blood is a medium, not a direct status effect, disperse was useless.
"Run!" I yelled to the soldiers. Even at their best, a few still fell to the gas.
I had to command, kill the dragon, handle Shalba, and think strategy all at once.
This wasn't just troublesome. This was harrowing.
[Faluzure is capable of adapting to attacks. The more you destroy its body with an attack, the faster it revives next time.]
"Die!"
I dodged Shalba, and seeing the dragon reviving itself again, I knew I couldn't handle both at once.
One had to take priority.
<Bind>
Bind the enemies.
<Absorb>
Refill the demonic power.
[Bracelet of Imagination]
Create the blade most suited for me.
<Dragon Flames>
And with every bit of strength and power, target the damned devil of the Old Satan Faction.
<Blink>
"You cannot win against me, brat!"
Releasing an enormous spherical wave of annihilation magic, Shalba spread his wings and shot straight at me. The wave was meant to wipe out my dragon flames, and he was ready to strike once they vanished.
Thankfully, as unlucky as I was with Valefar abilities against him, the Barbatos ones worked just fine.
<Blink>
I blinked past the shockwave, appearing just a few inches from him—just in time to notice the dragon had already recovered.
"Lord Shalba!" Marius shouted, realizing too late that the devil had charged in recklessly.
But—
It was already too late.
"Fucking—!" Shalba's eyes widened. The sword was an inch away from his face. He poured every ounce of energy into defending himself. "Son of a bitch!"
Multiple layers of annihilation magic flared around him, forming a full-body shield as he tried to push me back with pure demonic power.
Fuck that!
<Dragon Flames>
All the energy I had absorbed from the vampire soldiers roared into my blade as raging flames.
<Penetrate>
The flames fanned wildly, and the penetration effect helped me punch through the first few thin layers.
Then came the final three.
The bracelet's blade wasn't strong enough to slice through them all—but it could manage a few.
Three!
It broke through the first and clipped instantly.
Two!
On the second, it cracked hard.
One!
And on the third and final layer, it shattered completely—leaving Shalba's head exposed, and the bracelet reverting to its original form.
The recoil hit me hard. There wasn't enough time to reform the blade. Not enough power left to bind him.
And he knew it.
"I—win."
His grin reached his eyes, just barely holding enough strength to smirk.
But… he missed something.
Something huge.
And that made my lips twist into a grin—one even uglier than his.
"That's physical contact!" I slammed my forehead against his. "Sever, motherfucker!"
<Sever>
The idiot had been so focused on my Valefar abilities that he ignored the core rule of Sever.
I didn't 'need' Bind to use it. Bind was just a medium.
Sever worked with contact.
"L-Lord Shalba!" someone screamed.
[Your energy output has surpassed your internal threshold!]
Ah, that familiar warmth—burning out completely.
Shalba's blood splattered across my face as his sliced body fell to the ground—helpless, cold, and dead.
[Output reached to unlock Stage Five of Valefar.]
I felt my body give out. My wings faltered.
[Ability Acquired: Cognition]
This ability…
It didn't feel like anything I'd ever seen before.
<Cognition>
It activated on its own. My heart stopped for a second—pierced by the dragon's tail.
A blinding pain tore through my body, through my mind.
And then—my mind snapped.
It snapped back.
"Fuck!"
Groaning, I forced my wings open again, using every bit of strength I had left.
And sure enough, I barely dodged the dragon's tail from ripping a hole straight through me.
[Cognition: Cognition is the fifth ability of Valefar. It allows you to predict enemy movements a few seconds in advance. Cognition has a fifty percent chance of activating on its own when it detects a threat. However, it rapidly drains demonic energy and can almost deplete your reserves if overused. There's also a very small chance it may activate on its own to show distant future events.]
As long as this Deus Ex Machina–sounding skill activated when I needed it, I wasn't going to complain.
But right now, I had a bigger problem.
"Attack with everything you've got!" Marius shouted, clearly shocked by Shalba's death. Even he hadn't expected that bastard to die.
<Bind>
Biting my lip hard enough to draw blood, I forced my mind to stay awake—just enough to pull some energy from my enemies.
I had to absorb whatever I could.
"S-Soldiers!" I hissed through the pain. "Go through! Target the army!"
They could never hope to win against this dragon.
"Leave the ugly dragon to me!"
Marius had to die here if the Tepes family was going to take a real hit. If he survived, there'd just be another revolt later.
"Y-You heard the general!" my commander yelled. "Focus on the troops!"
As I recovered a bit, I caught the dragon staring at me with its hollow eyes—almost amused.
And then my quest notification rang in my ears again.
[Quest: The Dragon Slayer!
Objective: Kill at least one dragon!]
"ThAt WaS aN iMpReSsIvE dIsPlAy, DeViL."
So, this bastard can talk, huh?
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{A/N: Got a pat reon named RedLamp01 with 30+ chapters.
Yes, Faluzure is from Dungeons and Dragons, but obviously far less powerful. }
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