Having roared to his heart’s content for the first time in ages, Katroi turned his massive head toward Damon.
A strange light had surfaced in his gleaming eyes.
-Seeing as you didn’t attack, you’re a fellow who keeps his promises. I don’t particularly want to kill you……
“……….”
-But it can’t be helped. I cannot leave alive one who dared to mock a dragon.
From within Katroi’s gaping maw, something like white mist began to rise in wisps.
He was preparing to unleash his breath.
The breath of a White Dragon, which lived in places of extreme cold, was an Ice Breath of frigid temperature.
The Ice Breath, spewed forth in an instant, froze everything it touched
as if it were liquid nitrogen. It turned an area of roughly thirty meters in radius completely into an icy hell.
Damon, who had been watching silently, abruptly spoke.
“What is your name?”
Katroi looked at Damon in bewilderment. He found it absurd that a human facing death would ask his name.
But he quickly regained his composure.
-Hmph, I suppose there’s no reason I can’t tell you. My name is Katroi. Why do you ask?
“No need for you to know.”
A smile spread across Damon’s lips as he dismissed him coldly. He was already thinking of hunting the White Dragon
and turning it into a secret weapon. Since he would need a name to call it by after making it, he had deliberately asked.
Just like Winslot.
Unable to imagine that far, Katroi instead asked Damon for his name.
-Tell me your name. I’ll need it if I’m to write it on your tombstone.
Damon gave a bitter smile. Katroi, acting so relaxed without even guessing how strong his opponent was,
seemed utterly ridiculous.
“My name is Damon. A proud member of the Kasim Mercenary Corps.”
-A mercenary corps?
“That’s right. A mercenary corps specializing solely in dragon hunting. Though circumstances forced us to accept
the task of escorting the princess of the Karsel Kingdom.”
As soon as Damon finished speaking, Kasim unconsciously squared his shoulders. With the name of the Kasim Mercenary Corps
mentioned before the assembled princesses, there was no way his emotions would not surge. Whether he knew Kasim’s inner feelings or not,
Katroi sneered.
-How unfortunate. To think your life as a mercenary will end before you even achieve your goal.
“Don’t worry. We’ve had a very smooth start. We’ve already hunted two dragons.
One of them was an Ancient-class Black Dragon.”
At Damon’s leisurely reply, Katroi shook his huge head back and forth as if dumbfounded.
-You are no ordinary braggart. Hey. Who would believe such a thing?
“Whether you believe it or not is none of my concern. But are you planning to do nothing but exchange words? Let’s get to the point……”
-Just what I wanted.
The princesses gathered there watched the fierce verbal battle between dragon and human with bated breath.
Of course, the most anxious among them was the princess of Terenbeti. She had already lost dozens of her knights
to the dragon. Because of that, her eyes kept darting about in unease.
‘That dragon isn’t something the knights gathered here could handle even if they all attacked at once.
I have to get away from here somehow.’
But escaping was not easy either. No matter how wildly one struggled in a dragon’s grasp, there was no way to break free.
On the way here, she had attempted to escape once. But they had not gotten far before they were caught.
Only after several loyal knights took the blame in her stead and were turned into blocks of ice while still alive
did the dragon’s anger subside, and after that, she did not dare even think of escaping. Thus she could not easily bring herself to leave this place.
Then a low conversation reached her ears. It came from those who seemed to be companions of the mad magician
currently speaking with the dragon.
“Captain. Wouldn’t it be better to move back a little? We might get unlucky and be caught in the breath.”
“Don’t worry. You all know what Damon’s abilities are like, don’t you? Judging by its size, that White Dragon has only just barely surpassed Wyrm class at best.
An opponent of that level shouldn’t be particularly difficult. Besides, generally speaking, White Dragons are comparatively weaker than Black Dragons.”
“Well, we did take down an Ancient-class, so if it’s only Wyrm class at best, it should be child’s play for Damon.
But, Captain. How can you be so sure that thing is Wyrm class without even seeing it properly?”
“You idiot…… Don’t you read books? The monster compendium clearly has information about dragons.
It said that if its body length is about twenty-five meters, it’s Wyrm class.”
“True.”
The princess of Terenbeti, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, gaped. This was the first time she had ever heard
of people who could think so lightly of a dragon. In the end, she concluded that the group had completely lost their minds and shook her head.
‘They’re completely insane. The result is obvious without even watching.’
-Then prepare to die.
Having given his final warning, Katroi readied himself to attack. His prepared strategy was to spew his breath and freeze Damon solid.
Of course, it would not have much effect on an undead Death Knight, but he thought it would be sufficient to eliminate the magician.
‘I can deal with the likes of a Death Knight after I get rid of the magician.’
After finishing that thought, Katroi inhaled with all his might. If he mixed it with the essence of cold energy stored within his body
and breathed it out, it would become Ice Breath. Since he had restricted the affected range and strengthened its power,
he believed the human magician would be unable to endure his breath.
-If I scattered it widely in a spray, he might block it with a shield, but not this time. I’ll use target restriction
to perfectly freeze only the spot where you are……
To prevent his opponent from using spatial movement, Katroi set up a spatial movement distortion field around the area.
Then, if he unleashed his breath, the slow-moving magician would be unable to dodge—such was his calculation.
But Damon saw through his intentions completely.
“What an idiot. He didn’t consider Blink at all.”
Spatial movement was a spell that distorted space by rearranging mana. Since it moved one to a place unseen,
it always required coordinates for the destination, and there was plenty of room for interference.
Because of that, it could be blocked sufficiently with a spatial movement distortion field.
But Blink was different. Since it warped instantaneously toward a visible location, there was little room for interference.
Of course, because it did not calculate coordinates, it could not be blocked by something like a spatial movement distortion field.
Its drawback was that it was a high-circle spell, so most magicians could not even cast it. Seeing the dragon’s response prove clumsier than expected,
Damon gave a sardonic smile.
“He must have lived peacefully in Arcadia, because he doesn’t know much about how to fight.
The dragons of Truvenia are well-versed in fighting humans.”
As his opponent’s breath showed signs of completion, Damon quickly called out the other Death Knights.
In any case, his opponent was a fully grown adult dragon, so he could never take it lightly.
“Everyone, come out. The time for dragon hunting has returned. It is time to savor the sweetness of victory once more.”
Before his words had even ended, three streaks of black shadow shot out of Incresia.
Having heard the conversation between the two, they had roughly guessed the situation. Since they were fully prepared,
their response was swift.
“It’s a dragon.”
Upon seeing Katroi, the eyes of the Death Knights began to blaze. The culprit who had taken their families and homeland from them
was right before their eyes. Though Katroi had not been involved in Truvenia’s downfall, he was unquestionably still a dragon.
Because of that, the Death Knights launched themselves forward without hesitation. They radiated the fierce momentum of cutting the dragon’s body in two without mercy.
-Wh-what is this?
Katroi, just about to release his breath, was scared out of his wits. He could not help being shocked by the fact that there were three more Death Knights
when he had thought there was only one. But he soon regained his composure. He did not think such shabby undead could possibly pose a threat
to dragons, the greatest of all races.
-I should eliminate the magician first.
Having decided, Katroi unleashed his breath like a thunderbolt.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa.
A pure white pillar shot out in a straight line like a lightning bolt. It was the White Dragon’s unique Ice Breath,
its range restricted to explosively increase its destructive power. The Ice Breath, flying at tremendous speed,
completely engulfed the exact spot where Damon had been standing.
Crack.
That place froze over in an instant. Cracks split through the stone slabs covering the ground, and they began to crumble where they lay.
The molecular structure of the slabs could not withstand the extreme temperature difference.
If solid stone had ended up in such a state, there was no need to even consider what would happen to a human body.
Since he had confirmed that the magician had not dodged when the breath struck, Katroi concluded that the situation would soon come to an end.
All that remained was dealing with the Death Knights.
-As expected, he was all talk. Seeing him sent straight to his grave in one blow…… Hrk.
Katroi’s enormous eyes opened so wide they seemed about to tear. It was because he saw the magician standing perfectly unharmed
in the place where his Ice Breath had swept through. Astonishingly, his opponent was fine.
He appeared entirely unaffected by the Ice Breath that boasted such extreme cold. Not even his hair or the hem of his clothes
had been damaged in the slightest. It was so unbelievable that Katroi had to doubt his own eyes.
-Wh-what is going on?
The answer came from a short distance away.
“Because that is an illusion. Unlike Mirror Image, it has no substance, so it wasn’t affected at all by your breath.”
Katroi’s massive head whipped around as if he had been slapped. When he discovered the magician standing perfectly fine there,
Katroi could not help being even more shocked.
-H-how……
“It seems you’ve never fought a human before. You didn’t even notice the signs of me casting Blink.”
-Y-you used Blink?
Katroi felt a chill run down his spine. Of course, he had been watching the illusion and had no time to observe,
but the fact that his opponent had successfully used Blink without him noticing at all proved that his skill was no trifling matter.
The magician’s infuriating mockery continued to reach his ears.
“That’s why real combat experience is important. To be honest, you’re incomparably weaker than the dragons of Truvenia.
They have fought many battles, so they know exactly how to deal with humans.”
-You bastard.
His eyes rolling in rage, Katroi threw himself forward without thought. Since he needed some time before he could spew his breath again,
he was attempting a physical charge, trusting in his gigantic body. But before he had advanced even a few steps,
a severe pain surged up from the lower part of his body. It was such an unfamiliar pain that Katroi let out a violent scream.
-Kyaaak!
Unsightly lines had appeared all over Katroi’s pure white body. They were the marks left by the Death Knights who had approached and hacked at him mercilessly.
The dragon scales he had trusted in were utterly powerless before the Death Knights’ Aura Blades.
They had lightly sliced through the scales as if cutting boiled radish. Because of his great height, the wounds were limited to his lower body,
but to Katroi, who had never experienced pain before, it was an unparalleled shock.
-You bastards. How dare you……
Fury rising to the top of his head, Katroi completely forgot about the magician.
He had shifted his target to the hateful Death Knights who had wounded his body. Katroi charged mercilessly at the Death Knights.
His four legs and long tail struck again and again at the places where the Death Knights stood.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
But it was wasted effort. Only the innocent stone slabs split apart, while the Death Knights had already vanished from that place.