Chapter 20 Dragon Slayer’s Ritual (5).
Chapter 20 - Dragon Slayer’s Ritual (5)
In the meantime, Jackal dashed out from between the trees like a gale, and he attacked Azell.
Ka-ah-ah-ahng! (TLN: sound of sword ringing)
Azell put Rick down and he faced the sword head-on.
It was a strike where he didn’t have time to think. Jackal’s sword strike was so fierce that Azell’s body started sliding backwards. Jackal spoke in a chaotic manner.
“I’ll kill you.”
“I don’t really want to return those words.”
Azell answered indifferently. The ambush collapsed his stance, but he didn’t show any signs of panic.
Jackal felt a sense of danger from his expression.
Soo-paht! (TLN: slicing sfx)
The next moment something pa.s.sed by and it cut his hood. The veil of darkness became turbulent, and the upper portion of the hood was thinly sliced.
“What did you do….!”
Jackal was horrified as he retreated hurriedly. He was sure Azell was being forced back when their swords were locked together. However, a sword attack came from his blind spot.
Azell smiled.
“Well, what do you think I did?”
“Impudent b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You are merely a human!”
“How many times in the human history has that line been said? Why don’t you use some creativity? Has your head hardened from having a stupid dragon’s blood?:
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d….!”
Jackal burst into a fit of rage at Azell’s provocation yet he couldn’t carelessly rush forward. He had no idea what methods Azell had used.
Azell stared at him indifferently, but he was kicking himself inside.
‘This is bad.’
It was a shame that he wasn’t able to critically injure Jackal a moment ago with a decisive blow. Jackal’s wariness had gotten too strong, so he wasn’t going to rush forward.
Azell had used a simple method. He used his Concealment technique to hide the other sword and at a decisive moment, he used it to attack from a blind spot. Azell’s one-handed use of the sword was so natural that Jackal couldn’t fathom Azell had using two swords.
Koo-goo-goo-goo-goo-goo…! (TLN: ground shaking noise)
It was at that moment. The ground shook, and eventually it swelled like wave.
Azell looked towards the Earth Dragon with desperate eyes. Eventually, the Earth Dragon lifted its head.
‘Roar of a Dragon!’
It was an attack method akin to a calamity where the dragon poured out all of its strength at once.
Koo-gwa-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah! (TLN: earth destruction noise)
The earth was overturned and an explosive sound rang out.
The roar centered around the dragon, and the shock wave spread out while being transmitted across the surface of the ground. It killed everything above the ground.
The surface of the earth was peeled off as a whole, and all the gra.s.ses and trees on the surface was blown away. The ma.s.sive amount of earth dropped like hail after exploding, and it covered everything.
Koo-goo-goo-goo-goo…..(TLN: earth shaking sfx)
A radius of couple hundred meters shook, and the cloud of dust that had magnificently risen started to settle down.
7
The dragon was basically an existence akin to a walking disaster.
The physical rampage of such a large existence would cause enormous damage yet it also had mastery over the natural phenomena of the same element. It had the power to freely control the earth.
Fortunately, the dragons rarely b.u.mped against the humans.
If one looked at their habits, they set their territory and reigned over it like tyrants. They were similar to wild animals. Moreover, they were reluctant to approach human territories to an abnormal degree.
Despite this fact, the humans gathered a lot of information on the dragons. Once in awhile, the human population had collided with a dragon. The damage caused by one of them was so vast that it was almost unbelievable.
Even if she had learned about them…. Arrieta realized the truth. She really didn’t know anything about a dragon.
‘I’m no match against it.’
In the past two years, she had faced evil black magicians and even a crazed Dragon Demon. The fact that she had such experiences enabled her to stay calm when confronting the members of the Dragon’s Shadow.
However, the Earth dragon in front of her eyes was on a different level. Her hands were full just from running and escaping the large body that was attacking her.
‘Enora….’
Moreover, Arrieta had someone she had to protect. Enora had a pale complexion and she had fainted, while being held by Arrieta. A normal young girl couldn’t cope with such a situation. Also, there was a lot of physical burden being applied to her…..
‘It’ll be dangerous if I continue to use the Instantaneous Movement method.’
The Instantaneous Movement method allowed one to move a distance of several dozen meters in an instant, but it puts a huge load on the body.
As a Dragon Demon, Arrieta was endowed with a body that couldn’t be compared to a normal person. She was unrivalled in her strength and st.u.r.diness. The Dragon Demon Magic protected her.
However, Enora had fainted under the pressure of just one Instantaneous Movement.
Koong! Koo-oong…..! (TLN: dragon footstep sfx)
The Earth Dragon pushed through the dust storm in front of her, and its approaching footsteps rang out.
Could she evade while not using the Instantaneous Movement method? Every time the Earth Dragon moved the surrounding became widely devastated. Moreover, the members of the Dragon’s shadow kept holding onto her ankles.
‘It won’t work….’
Arrieta felt a dark despair. Had she ever been in a situation in her life where there wasn’t an answer to a solution?
It was at that moment.
“I have no choice.”
She heard Azell’s voice.
Arrieta was surprised so she turned to look at the direction where the voice came from. Azell was walking toward her with Rick draped around him, and he was flicking blood off of his sword.
Arrieta muttered to herself absent-mindedly.
“Azell Zestringer….”
“It isn’t my style to flip a card without seeing what’s behind it…. Carlos is perverse even in his death.” (TLN: Azell thinks Carlos is involved somehow)
Azell smirked then he put down Rick beside Arrieta. At that moment, a voice filled with hatred was heard.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d….!”
“You are still alive after being hit by that? You are very st.u.r.dy.”
Azell already knew about this yet he spoke shamelessly. Beyond the dust cloud, Jackal’s stumbling figure was revealed. However, there was a large cut across his chest and he was losing a lot of blood.
A moment ago when the Earth Dragon let out its Roar of the Dragon, Jackal was taken aback so he was completely defenseless. Instead of evading the approaching catastrophe, he prioritized attacking Jackal.
This resulted in Jackal being critically injured. Even if he was a Dragon Demon with a st.u.r.dy physique, he was in danger if he didn’t get immediate healing.
Azell snorted.
“Hoong.(TLN: noise made by nose, hmmph) I wanted to end your life… Now I don’t have the time to deal with someone like you.”
“What did you say? Bastarrrrrrd…..!”
“Jackal! Stop!”
Regina was too late in understanding the situation. She yelled desperately. However, it was after Jackal had exploded. The Dragon Demon Magic responded to his anger, and a storm-like wave poured out. Jackal attacked Azell, while surrounded by blue flames.
Poo-ook! (TLN: sound of blade piercing flesh)
A horrifying sound of destruction rang out.
“Uh….?”
Jackal, who had just used the Instantaneous Movement method to attack Azell, suddenly came to a stop, and an idiotic moan leaked out.
The two swords were pierced through his body like skewers.
“Where in the h.e.l.l did this…”
“Didn’t I tell you? I have no time to deal with someone like you.”
Azell laughed coldly. Then he stared at Jackal with eyes filled with contempt.
“I can manipulate the Sight and read the flow of thought. Someone who doesn’t even have the eyes to observe one’s opponent dares to fight against me…. Apologize to the strong power you possess. Are all the Dragon Demons these days of low quality?”
Azell hadn’t lost Jackal’s location for even a moment. He predicted which direction he’ll come from after he had inflicted the critical wound. He used the two hidden swords to set up a trap. He had injected his magical force beforehand, and its flight was controlled remotely. It was easy for Azell to perform this skill.
“You.. Stupid….”
Jackal died immediately after his lung and heart was pierced.
Regina and her companion shuddered. Instead of feeling angry about their companion dying in front of them, the fear they felt for Azell, who was staring at them with cold eyes, was larger.
‘What is this guy?’
They could only feel a fistful of magical energy from him. Until now, she had killed countless number of humans with stronger magical energy than him.
However… She couldn’t see the floor. (TLN: it’s a metaphor)
Objectively, the difference between their power was absolutely immense, but he used ridiculous methods to defeat his opponents every time. What kinds of a magic was he using?
Koong.. Koong… Koo-oong…..! (TLN:footstep sfx)
While he was in a confrontation, the Earth Dragon came closer during that time. Azell spoke.
“Princess. Escape with Rick and Miss Enora.”
“…what?”
“I’ll block the dragon.”
“What, what are you talking about?”
Arrieta was taken aback.
She knew Azell was strong. One couldn’t a.s.sess his true strength just by looking at his outer appearance. At the very least, Arrieta couldn’t even reach the tip of his toes in terms of mastery over battle techniques.
However… It was an entirely different matter when facing a dragon. Even if he was extremely skilled, if he didn’t have overwhelming strength then how could he face a dragon?
Azell laughed bitterly.
“To tell you the truth, I… I have a really perverse friend.”
“……?”
“This person always wants to see a person at their worst. Even though he could help immediately, he wants to see a person cornered so he could evaluate the worth of a person. Well. Occasionally, you might not believe this, but sometimes he waits for the exact moment where he could could take credit for everything.”
“…he doesn’t sound like a human I want to a.s.sociate with.”
“You’re right. However, if he acknowledges your worth then he’ll treat you very well. He’ll even put his life on the line for you.”
Carlos was such a man in Azell’s memories. Everyone avoided him yet he was so talented that people had no choice, but to rely on him. He was an eccentric magician.
“That is why I trust him.” (TLN: I think he is a.s.suming Carlos put some contingency plan in place)
“What does that have to do with this situation?”
“It’s relevant.”
After speaking those words, Azell stepped in front of the Earth Dragon. The Earth Dragon stopped and turned its head questioningly as if it had responded to Azell’s gaze.
“Dragon.”
Azell spoke.
“My name is Azell Zestringer.”
Then the name of an absolute trial that was buried within his memories leaked out of his mouth.
“I’ll challenge you to the Dragon Slayer’s Ritual.”
8
Kirion, a member of Dragon’s Shadow, was inside the underground building, which was a.s.sumed to be Carlos’ ruin.
He was ordered to look over the ruins with the backup that had arrived, because he had been injured the day before by Azell. He was dissatisfied, but it was an order from Regina, who held a higher position than him.
“Every time we approach anything it gets wasted.”
Kirion’s voice revealed a trace of anger, and the back up from the a.s.sociation grumbled.
“It can’t be helped. Initially, it must have been decided that whatever inside wouldn’t be turned over to an outsider.”
There was a limit to how many reinforcement that could be dispatched in one day to an isolated location. Another Dragon Demon magician like Kirion had come here.
He was a dark magician that gave off a dark energy. Kirion also treated human lives as if it was worth no more than that of a fly, but he didn’t use the death itself as a tool like this black magician. He shuddered at the energy emitted by the black magician.
However, his skill was undeniable. Kirion used every method at his disposal yet he couldn’t open the ruin’s defensive barrier. The black magician opened it in just 12 hours.
However, the trouble came afterwards.