As befitted those who had once been the absolute rulers of Truvenia, the Death Knights’ movements were so swift they were almost invisible. They were accurately predicting Katroi’s attack paths and evading them in the most appropriate manner. At the same time, they would dart in every so often and leave sword wounds on Katroi’s body. They were not serious wounds, but the pain was no small matter.
-Kyaaaak!
Katroi was on the verge of losing his mind. In all the years he had lived, how many times had his body ever been wounded? Katroi had nearly lost all reason to his rage. To dare slash at a dragon, the strongest being on earth, without fear… Katroi vented his fury on the Death Knights again and again—with lashes of his tail and kicks of his feet.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
The stone slabs were being pulverized by the ceaseless attacks. Katroi, unleashing assault after assault without pause, showed no sign of tiring at all. It was a sight that seemed to display a dragon’s tremendous stamina. But the Death Knights he faced were beings who likewise had no reason to grow tired. They continued to counterattack, slipping past blows that shook the very earth.
-This won’t do.
Realizing that his attacks were not working, Katroi stopped moving and opened his jaws wide. He intended to spew his breath and freeze the Death Knights solid. A dense breath poured from his gaping maw. It was breath condensed with the full chill of the northern lands where Katroi lived. It was released over a relatively wide area so the Death Knights would be unable to avoid it.
Jjeojeojeong!
The stone slabs froze mercilessly and cracked. If a human took such an extreme cold breath head-on, he would never survive. He would simply freeze in place and meet his end. The same would be true even if it only grazed him. His flesh would stick to his iron armor and tear apart, or the cold would seep into his respiratory tract, leaving him unable to breathe.
Unfortunately, however, his opponents were not human. As undead, they were not particularly affected by cold. Having been tempered thoroughly in the extreme low temperatures within Inclesia, the Death Knights suffered almost no damage even after being engulfed in the ice breath. Their armor, too, was without exception made of dragon bone or mithril, so it did not freeze. They advanced without hesitation and once again hacked apart Katroi’s lower body.
Pa-pa-pak!
Trying to dodge was useless. The Death Knights moved with the agility of orcas hunting a sperm whale, mercilessly slicing open the dragon’s tough hide. In the end, Katroi had to give up on physical attacks. He realized that unless he used magic, nothing would work.
-Fearsome bastards.
Though his mind was growing hazy from the continued bleeding, Katroi desperately began casting. Without his specialty, magic, it seemed difficult to break through this crisis. As soon as the spell was ready, Katroi attacked without delay.
-You bastards. Eat this.
Taking into account that his opponents were undead with resistance to magical attacks, he fired Hell Fire, an attack spell of the highest circle. No matter how formidable the Death Knights were, if they were struck by Hell Fire, they would burn away without leaving a trace.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Two blue fireballs flew at high speed, emitting a brilliant glare. It was Hell Fire, the flame of destruction that turned everything it touched to ash. Katroi was confident that with one blast, he could annihilate those cursed Death Knights down to their very souls. But he had still failed to accurately grasp the Death Knights’ abilities. The power of Hell Fire was indeed sufficient to annihilate a Death Knight—but that was strictly assuming it hit.
“Not even close.”
The Death Knights lightly dodged the two incoming Hell Fires, and Katroi’s attacks merely burned the unfortunate stone slabs.
Hwareureuk!
“Damn it.”
Greatly alarmed, Katroi lowered the power of his magic significantly. The Death Knights’ movements were astonishingly fast. He realized that to land a hit, he would have to fire numerous weaker spells in a barrage. As befitted a master of magic, several attack spells were cast in an instant.
Pa-pa-pa-pak!
Clusters of Flame Strikes and Lightning Bursts, rearranged to roughly the fifth or sixth circle, were fired wildly in all directions. It was a wide-area assault that blocked off every direction they could dodge. But unfortunately, the Death Knights were not opponents who would be affected even by mid-level attack spells. With nimble movements, they slipped past the spells being fired at them, and when evasion was difficult, they used the angle of their shields to deflect them without fail.
They were truly astonishingly skilled fighters. In the end, Katroi realized that if he wanted to catch the Death Knights, he would first have to restrict their movements. If he continued firing magic wildly as he was now, there was a risk that all the mana in the area would be depleted.
-If that happens, it’s over.
Katroi hurriedly cast a movement-slowing spell on the Death Knights.
-Slow.
The movements of the Death Knights, who had been darting across the battlefield at speeds invisible to the eye, abruptly slowed. Slow, which possessed the exact opposite property of Haste, was like the hand of an invisible giant, constricting the Death Knights so they could not move properly. Katroi did not miss the opportunity and cast Binding.
Sseu-sseu-sseu-sseu.
Something like vines stretched up from the floor and bound the Death Knights to the ground. Only then was Katroi able to regain his composure. Seeing his opponents rendered immobile, rage surged up in him like a spring.
-I’ll grind you into powder.
Katroi once again cast the most powerful anti-personnel attack spell he could deploy. At the same time, regret washed over him as he wondered why he had not done this from the start. If he had, he would not have needed to suffer stinging wounds all over his body.
Just as Damon had predicted, Katroi had almost no experience fighting humans. No, to be precise, there had been no need for him to. The humans who faced him were terrified without exception, and the occasional fool who attacked would be frozen solid by even a simple ice-type spell. Until now, to him, humans had been nothing more than insignificant creatures not worth paying attention to.
But the Death Knights were different. Not only did they show not the slightest intimidation before a dragon, they even revealed fierce hostility and rushed at him as if to devour him. On top of that, their skill could not even be compared to that of ordinary human knights. After all, he had launched countless magical attacks so far, yet not a single one had struck.
“But this time is different.”
Having created four Hell Fires, Katroi wore a smile of triumph. The Death Knights were still bound by Slow and Binding, unable to move a muscle. As if there were no need to think, Katroi fired the Hell Fires. He intended to present one to each of them.
-First I’ll get rid of you lot, and then I’ll finish off the mage… Hm?
Katroi, who had been speaking with great confidence, was startled. As expected, the Hell Fires shot precisely toward the Death Knights. But just before they struck, the Death Knights were released from the magic. Freed from their restraints, the Death Knights agilely rolled away and avoided the Hell Fires. Watching this, Katroi shook his head in disbelief.
-How can this be…? There’s no way the Slow and Binding I cast would naturally come undone…
“Of course they didn’t come undone naturally. They wouldn’t have been released if I hadn’t dispelled them.”
At the sudden words of the mage, Katroi whipped his head around. The face of the sly human mage entered his view. Damon was looking at Katroi and clicking his tongue.
“You fool. Once you’ve subdued an opponent, you should think of finishing them off without mercy, not taking your time. What an absurdly stupid dragon.”
-Y-you dispelled the Binding?
“Of course. That’s my role when hunting dragons. I, too, am a master of the 9th circle. I can dispel most ordinary magic, so don’t you worry…”
-Grrr!
With rage surging to the very top of his head, Katroi attacked blindly with magic. The various mid-level attack spells that had been aimed at the Death Knights moments earlier now converged on Damon.
Pa-pa-pat!
But they were just as ineffective. Damon used Blink and Shield appropriately, either avoiding or blocking the magical attacks. And he did so leisurely, with plenty of composure.
“You’re absurdly weak compared to the Ancient-class Black Dragon I faced before.”
The other party’s sneering continued to spill out. Now Katroi no longer even had the composure left to get angry. He had realized that his opponent was a powerful foe beyond his ability to handle. He had never dreamed that he would be toyed with like this by a human he had always considered insignificant.
-It was a mistake. What that fellow said was true.
He bitterly regretted having looked down on his opponent a moment ago. Judging by the situation, there seemed to be almost no chance of him winning. His mind was growing hazy from repeated blood loss. He could not even imagine subduing the Death Knights with their monstrous strength. Even if he caught them with magic, the human mage would dispel it completely, leaving him no means to do anything. In the end, Katroi gave up the fight.
-There’s no chance of victory. If I stay like this, I may end up meeting my end here.
His thoughts were lengthy, but his actions took place in an instant. Katroi kicked off the ground hard with all four feet, spread his wings wide, and beat them fiercely. He had abandoned his amusement and decided to flee. By then, his anger toward his opponents had vanished from his mind as if washed clean.
Whiiiing!
In the blink of an eye, Katroi’s body soared into the sky. Perhaps because he was a slender White Dragon, he was able to take flight in an instant even without using magic. Beating his wings desperately, Katroi was soon able to rise into the high sky beyond the Death Knights’ reach.
-T-terrifying bastards.
Looking at the Death Knights staring blankly up at the sky, Katroi trembled. It was truly a horrifyingly powerful combination. He had never dreamed that mere humans could be so frightening. He considered pouring a few attack spells down from the air to vent his anger, but Katroi changed his mind. More urgent than that was treating his body. Thoughts of amusement had already vanished completely from his head, and his mind was filled only with the thought that he had to hurry back to his lair.
Katroi quickly tried to turn his body. But at that moment, he never imagined that something enormous would come charging at him from directly above.
-Huk!
When a pitch-black shadow attacked from right behind him, Katroi let out a cry of shock. He had not gotten a detailed look at what it was, but it was a monster nearly as enormous as himself. Feeling that he could not possibly come out unscathed if they collided, Katroi desperately tried to turn. But as if it had been aiming for him from the start, the black shadow persistently changed direction and clung to him. Realizing that he could not avoid it, Katroi’s face stiffened.
Kwa-kwang!
With a tremendous impact, Katroi lost his balance completely. As severe pain shot through his flank, Katroi screamed in terror.
-Kyaaaak!
Unable to control his huge body, Katroi began to fall just like that. His body had already been battered to pieces by the Death Knights, so there was no longer any way for him to resist. As he fell, Katroi was barely able to make out the appearance of the being that had attacked him.
-Th-this can’t be. A Bone Dragon?
In that instant, his eyes opened as wide as if they would tear. The thing that had attacked him moments earlier was a Bone Dragon, a monster in the shape of a dragon with only its bones remaining.
A Bone Dragon was an undead monster made of bones, like a skeleton. Because it was created from the corpse of a dragon, a supreme being, it was not a monster commonly seen. It could spew frost-type breath, but it could not use magic, and just as skeletons were generally weaker than human soldiers, it could not be considered stronger than a living dragon.
However, the unique advantages of the undead—feeling no pain and being capable of bodily regeneration—remained fully intact, making it the only undead monster capable of opposing a dragon. It possessed the dragon’s powerful strength in full, and had magic resistance that rendered most magical attacks ineffective. A powerful being that even dragons could not help but be wary of had revealed itself here.