Book 9: Chapter 12
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On the surface, it might look like an equal fight, but Kyle knew that they were slowly being pushed back. At this rate, he knew that things would end badly, so he got on Ghrud’s back.
‘Y-You bastard! Where are you climbing?!’
“Ghrud, I have an idea. He’s careful of me and my sword. Surely, this sword should be able to hurt him!” Kyle didn’t listen to Ghrud’s protest and continued.
‘So what?! We can’t get any close to him either way!’
“There’s a way. Just listen…” Kyle whispered something into Ghrud’s ear, who screamed in shock.
‘Say what?! Are you insane?!’
“What sane person would fight an Ancient Dragon? You don’t have to believe in me, but believe in yourself and Zeurus,” Kyle bumped his fist on his chest.
‘Don’t come back crying if you die!’ Ghrud said and jumped into the air.
Irumera was facing Juvars head-on, except she couldn’t stand a chance and was just getting thrown away.
‘Give it up already! You should know that winning this fight is impossible!’
Just as Juvars stated, the absolute difference between them was known to Irumera, but her eyes denied any notion of giving up.
‘You…You are wrong! And it is my duty as a dragon to correct you!’
‘Wha…What do you understand?!’
Juvars closed in on Irumera to finish her off, turbulent in rage.
‘Juvars! Over here!’ Ghrud screamed, trying to attract Juvars’ attention. ‘Eat this!’
Together with his scream, he fired off a breath of fire. It came out at his full force, covering Juvars. However, this attack that could wipe out a whole platoon didn’t do much against a dragon of Juvars’ level.
‘Hm, your flame could never—’
Juvars was certain he couldn’t be hurt, yet something felt off to him. Ghrud should know this attack wouldn’t work, yet he used it anyway. It was a wasteful act for a dragon. Yet, Juvars was only more cautious, thinking that he must have used it for a reason. Possibly that human wearing Zeurus’ armor—the moment he reached that thought, he realized that the pesky human had not shown himself for a while. Because of that, he felt a chill as he stared into Ghrud’s flame. Paired with that came an emotion he hadn’t felt in thousands of years—danger to himself and terror of what would happen.
‘Wait, it can’t be…’
Juvars doubted his eyes. But he could clearly see Kyle inside the flame. He hid inside Ghrud’s breath to leap at Juvars.
“Eat this!”
Kyle had Ghrud shoot him off like a cannonball, now swinging his sword directly at Juvars. Granted, he managed to avoid a fatal injury in the process, but the magic sword made from Zeurus’ fang easily sliced through Juvars’ thick skin.
‘Gaaaah!’
A long wound ran down Juvars’ neck to his chest, as he staggered backward. Confirming this, Kyle somewhat managed to land back on his feet again.
“This armor is a serious lifesaver…”
Kyle had suffered burns all over, his breathing rough from the exertion, but he still smiled through all that. The reason he could even take a hit from Juvars’ tail and make it this far was all thanks to the special armor gifted to him with Zeurus’ skin. If not for that, he probably would have died a long time ago.
“Still, not deep enough, huh?”
His grin quickly disappeared.
‘You…How dare you trick me like that!’
Juvars had put plenty of attention to Kyle and what he was up to, and yet he still got injured as a result of that, which definitely hurt his confidence. And at the same time, his frustration turned to anger, directed at Kyle. Undoubtedly, this attack harmed Juvars. However, Zeurus’ armor didn’t fully protect Kyle from Ghrud’s breath, so it was more like a trade-off than a clean strike. The fight was long from being done, of course.
“Kyle!” Shildonia screamed, waving her hand at Kyle.
This was a sign they had agreed upon before, telling him not to drag out the battle. Sure, this battle was long from being over, but Shildonia must have a reason for this, so Kyle judged continuing this fight while focusing only on it would probably be the best.
“But sadly, it won’t be that easy…”
Granted, the black-winged Demon Lord was not present at the moment, having run off somewhere, but Kyle could imagine what he must be up to. Kyle had faith in his allies, but shaking off any worry was simply impossible for him.
“Irumera! Ghrud! I’m preparing something huge, so buy me time!”
Kyle put his sword away, putting his palms together in front of his chest, and began what looked like praying.
“Y-You moron! Don’t do that, Kyle!” Shildonia screamed, seemingly having understood what Kyle was planning, but she knew it was too late to stop him.
It was a preparation for the same attack Kyle had used in the semi-final against Seran during the tournament held in the Galgan Empire. A type of magic that involved attacking the opponent with a raw lump of magic energy. Ever since then, he had been practicing it in secret. That said, it was an attack normally not in the repertoire…Or rather, it was impossible for someone from the humanfolk to use this attack, as it was limited to demons. And the reason for that was simple—it was extremely risky to use.
The advantage of such an attack was equally easy to understand, namely that there was no limit to how strong you could make it. Back at the tournament, Kyle had used it subconsciously, which is why it only packed a small portion of its full potential, and yet it wreaked havoc. Since Kyle’s soul traveled back with him in the past, it mixed with the soul already present in this time, aggressively raising his inherent mana. If he were to put all this into an attack like that, it would have an unprecedented impact. But at the same time, it brought a great risk with it.
The Ancient Language Magic Kyle usually used then was fired off by changing the magic energy inside of him into ice or fire using his innate regulating power. However, this pure lump of mana worked on different parameters entirely. You could say that it was the exact opposite. The more he practiced this attack, the more it dampened the regulating magic energy of his Ancient Language Magic, and so even just using simple fire magic bore the risk of his whole body turning into a lump of flame. And so, Kyle stopped using attack magic lately, focusing solely on physical strengthening spells.
Even so, keeping that in control is incredibly difficult, and the worst case could range from having his limbs torn off to basically blowing himself up. And assuming he pulled off creating this attack, managing to control his magic, it still left a great burden on the body. For most demons, this kind of burden was no problem, but a human’s body worked differently.
And yet, considering all the risks, Kyle attempted to use the magic energy lump. After all, it would prove as a fruitful ace in the hole in his eventual battle against the Black-winged Demon.
I was hoping to keep it under wraps until then, but we’re dealing with an Ancient Dragon here, after all.
The more he focused on the chant, the more his senses sharpened. It’s like he was using the combat-empowering drug Blood Eye. He realized he couldn’t get swallowed by this, putting more attention on his chant, when Shildonia called out to him.
“Kyle!”
She pointed in a certain direction. When Kyle saw what presented itself there, he moved a bit. Of course, Juvars could tell that Kyle was plotting something. At this point, he didn’t see Kyle as a regular human anymore. Instead, he had made him his top priority, already moving over to him. However, Ghrud got in his way, showing a profound expression.
‘Oh yeah, I heard that you became Mom’s godparent.’
Juvars looked at him in confusion, only to grasp the meaning behind his words.
‘Wha…Are you Meale’s child? But she died thousands of years ago!’
Juvars only became a godparent once, which was for Zeurus’ daughter Meale.
‘It took a bit longer for my egg to hatch…or so I heard. Of course, I don’t remember that.’
‘I wondered why you felt so familiar, but you are Zeurus’ grandchild…’ Juvars said, showing a pained expression. ‘I don’t want to harm Zeurus’ grandchild and Meale’s final connection to this world. Leave, this is my final warning.’
Even now, Ghrud shook his head.
‘Gramps often talked about you. Well, I couldn’t care less about old stories, so I mostly just let it pass from one ear out the other…But he looked like he was happy whenever he spoke of you.’
‘…’
‘And so, it’s quite a shame…that I’m only telling you about this to buy time!’
There, Ghrud flapped his large wings to soar into the air—revealing Kyle behind him in the process. In both his hands, he carried lumps of raw magic that not even Juvars had seen such a size before.
‘What?! Damn it all!’
Juvars’ mistake came from the fact that his attention drifted to something other than the battle. And here, this would prove fatal. When Kyle sent off those lumps of magic energy, his left arm let out an eerie crushing sound, as his bones appeared from within. Blood splattered everywhere and a horrible pain assaulted his brain, but he didn’t even flinch at that. The size of the raw magic energy was roughly equal to that of a human head, probably only comparable to a needle in Juvars’ dimension. However, he must have felt the danger it possessed, as he tried to evade. And he could have done so, but when he realized something, his body froze up and stopped moving.
‘Gaaaaaaah!’
It was an ear-splitting scream that followed. A dragon, acting as the apex of the world, and Juvars as an Ancient Dragon, was blasted off and slammed into the wall. Collapsing to the ground, Juvars didn’t get up again. This acted as the conclusion to their battle.