As the Banshee Legion Commander had revealed, Wingian’s reverse scale was hidden atop its elongated tail feathers.
“So what about it…!”
Despite having his reverse scale exposed, Wingian was not at all perturbed.
“Do you think you could even dare to strike at my reverse scale?!”
“No, that, even your horns, eyes, beak, and wings have been shattered…”
Almost a complete destruction of his entire body and yet he still bluffs!
However, Wingian’s bluster was not entirely in vain. Indeed, our heroes struggled to get near his tail.
Especially the tail feathers, as long as those of a phoenix, which Wingian wielded freely.
He lashed it like a whip, spread it wide like a peacock, and feathers continued to fall from there.
‘So far, our attacks worked, thanks to good luck and timing.’
During the ‘Wave Breeze’ pattern, when he was immobilized in midair, we could continuously pummel his face.
We managed to cut off one of his wings with Verdandi’s critical strike and brought him down successively.
But he was a son of the Black Dragon. A real dragon.
We couldn’t kill him that easily. And Wingian rampaging on the ground would not allow a fatal blow to be dealt.
“Kiyaaaaah-!”
Even with his body half-destroyed, Wingian fiercely resisted, and our heroes began to suffer more injuries.
Seeing our heroes knocked down like bowling pins, I swallowed dryly.
‘At this rate…’
Checking the time, I clicked my tongue internally.
‘The next breath is coming soon.’
Until now, no one had died from his breath or feather barrage, but we were pushed to a dangerously precarious situation. I almost died myself.
Once the next breath was loaded, and another feather barrage prepared, the damage we might sustain was unimaginable. We had to make a move before then.
That was when it happened.
Tadadat-
Someone rushed past me towards Wingian.
I saw a flurry of long, white hair. Startled, I exclaimed.
“Nameless?!”
Nameless had been stationed elsewhere, along with Damien, with the magician party.
When did she run back here?
“Your subordinates were worried, so I came to support alone.”
Nameless turned around and gave me a slight smile.
“You can work me a bit harder, Ash.”
“…”
Every time I dealt with Nameless, my feelings grew complicated.
Her ill-fated destiny and… the anxiety that she might transform into something else someday.
But right now, we desperately needed her help. I nodded, and Nameless dashed forward.
On the battlefield, just then, the blind swordsman Nobody was drawing his blade from its sheath.
“Over here-!”
Flash!
Nobody’s strike, second to none except in accuracy, flew in brilliantly and—
Cherreak!
It cleanly bisected Wingian’s tail feather.
It had been a series of missed strikes throughout the battle, but this one hit was a home run!
Wingian released a roar filled with pain and rage, and Nobody laughed heartily.
“I’ve beheaded the enemy leader-!”
“It’s not the neck, man, that’s the tail!”
Nonetheless, a significant feat!
As Nameless passed by the blind swordsman, she also drew her long sword from her back. Her worn iron sword gathered a dazzling swirl of light.
“Nameless One…!”
Sensing Nameless’s presence, Wingian turned to attack her, but Dusk Bringar leaped in front of Wingian, wielding her chained greatsword.
“Dare you be distracted in my presence?!”
“Don’t get cocky, half-dragon!”
Wingian, with too many enemies to hate, was nearly driven mad. He remained in a state of frenzy.
He seemed to decide to face Dusk Bringar first. The evil dragon opened its massive beak wide and then snapped it shut, precisely capturing Dusk Bringar’s chained greatsword.
“Uh?!”
“Die-!”
Then, as Dusk Bringar’s movements halted for a moment, Wingian unleashed the magical power and sonic boom gathered in his mouth.
Kwang-!
A terrible explosion erupted from Wingian’s beak.
A single breath and Dragon Roar, a sonic attack combined into Wingian’s main restraining technique. In the game, it was a damn technique that had repeatedly ground my vanguards to death.
However-
“What…?”
As the smoke cleared, Dusk Bringar was already not there.
Dusk Bringar had already released her chained greatsword and was running across the massive head of Wingian.
The chained greatsword had quickly disassembled and was reforming as armor on her body.
As soon as the chained greatsword was caught in Wingian’s beak, Dusk Bringar transformed it into armor. She extracted herself from his beak, safely withstood his attack, and climbed upon his head.
“Isn’t the technology these days amazing?!”
Dusk Bringar, laughing heartily, saw her armor flow like waves before reshaping into a greatsword in her hand.
“I have lived for over a hundred and twenty years, yet every day is still new!”
From greatsword to armor. And back from armor to greatsword.
Effortlessly controlling the [Lord of the High Tower], Dusk Bringar stood above Wingian’s brow.
“What wonders might the future hold? Can you even imagine?”
Brilliant sunset-colored magic power gathered in the raised chained greatsword of Dusk Bringar.
“You couldn’t, with your impoverished imagination. That’s why you only plot to end the world.”
“How dare you climb on my head, a mere wretch of barely a hundred years old, insolently-!”
“What does it matter if I am a wretch, or a mere half-penny, you ancient relic.”
Whether it was the first time someone had climbed on his head or not, Wingian was utterly blinded by rage, paying attention to nothing else.
Swoosh-!
In the meantime, Nameless slid on the ground between Wingian’s legs, slowing her speed, and pointed her sword of light downward.
The reverse scale on the cleanly severed tail feather glistened openly. Without hesitation, Nameless swung her sword of light from below upwards.
Simultaneously, Dusk Bringar brought her chained greatsword down vertically with a roar.
“I have seen far more of this world’s beauty than you have-!”
The sword of light released by Nameless ripped through Wingian’s reverse scale from below, shooting upwards,
And Dusk Bringar’s sunset-hued greatsword smashed Wingian’s head horn, striking from above downwards.
The fierce trajectories of both lights met in the center of Wingian’s body,
Flash-!
The area lit up as brightly as the massive light that exploded.
In that immense light, the ancient evil dragon was cleanly obliterated.
***
As the dazzling light dissipated, Wingian lay torn to pieces.
“Ah…”
With his head severed, the evil dragon uttered a low testament.
While his raging hatred had burned fiercely, it now cooled off emptily, and with hollow eyes looking at the sky, he muttered,
“Father, I…”
The light in Wingian’s remaining eye faded.
Thus, the Wings of the Black Dragon were silenced.
As Nameless walked away from the fallen Wingian, she swiftly sheathed her long sword, shaking off the blood, and strapped it to her back.
Having confirmed Wingian’s death, Dusk Bringar transformed her greatsword back into coat-form armor and, with a snort, turned around.
The coat of chains clinked and fluttered at its hem.
Watching these two impressive figures, I muttered quietly.
“…somehow, I’ve just been narrating this whole time.”
While my comrades were fighting a mythical battle, I had only been watching from afar…
No, but I am the commander. It was a good show. A win-win situation, huh. Hmm.
As the two approached me, they suddenly looked at each other. Dusk Bringar grinned and gave Nameless a thumbs up.
“That was awesome, sister Nameless. Good kill!” (TL Note: Reminder that it’s polite and friendly to refer to an older girls Noona, a.k.a., older sister)
“…?”
Not just Nameless, but everyone listening turned baffled. It wasn’t the conversation but the addressing that was the issue.
Perplexed, Nameless pointed to herself.
“Sister…?”
“Haven’t you said before you were five hundred years old? Since I’m just a bit over a hundred and twenty, you’re the older sister, right!”
Well, that’s true… but it’s just the image…
It’s strangely awkward to see that dragon lady treating someone as a senior… It feels weird…
“…Sis, then.”
But after a slight smile, Nameless awkwardly returned the thumbs up to Dusk Bringar.
“Right. I am older than anyone here. Feel free to call me sister or whatever you prefer. It was a good kill for you too, little Dusk.” (TL note: That same for younger girls to be called Eonnie, a.k.a., younger sister. Sounds weird, so I’m temporarily tranlasting it as “Little Dusk”, instead of “Younger Sister Dusk” or just plain “Sister Dusk”)
…Little Dusk?
What kind of rootless title is that?
Listening to us, our faces grew even more distorted with distress, but the two women didn’t care and exchanged thumbs up, laughing heartily.
‘Well, if Dusk and Nameless are happy, that’s all that matters. Ash-ash cha-cha-cha…’
Anyway, we had safely dispatched Wingian.
There had been crises, moments when we almost died, and there were quite a few injuries. But, once again, we had managed to defeat the dragon without any deaths.
I surveyed the heroes around me, trying to assess the situation.
“Tend to the wounded first, gather the loot, and prepare for a slow retreat…”
Just then.
Sssss-
A chill ran down my neck.
I wasn’t the only one to notice something was off. Nearly all the heroes sensed something and urgently grabbed their weapons.
“What’s this?!”
I quickly turned around.
And then—there it was.
The dark sky of the Lake Kingdom. From afar, an anciently majestic creature flew toward us, spreading its evil energy beneath it like a cloud, like a carpet. It fluttered its long, two-pronged beard as it flew.
In its front paws, it held a giant orb each, observing us with keen, flashing golden eyes…
A long, massive Eastern-style dragon.
“Scalian…!”
Recognizing it at a glance, I shouted.
“It’s the ‘Pure Scale of the Black Dragon’! Everyone, prepare for battle-!”
At my command, the utterly exhausted heroes quickly reformed their ranks and began preparing for dragon combat.
‘Damn, I didn’t expect it to intervene so soon!’
This is why I had mentioned the possibility of consecutive battles before.
Not just because we had to fight these creatures one after the other in the game.
In the game, it was a rare event that when one of the dragon siblings died, another would appear immediately for revenge.
And in the worst-case scenario, we could literally face three consecutive battles…!
‘I prepared for it, but really, did it have to come now?!’
However, I also knew.
More often than not, the situation during battle wasn’t the worst. Circumstances always seemed to spiral even lower than my worst expectations.
So, it was inevitable, in a way… predictable that this dragon would appear here!
“My lord…!”
Suddenly at my side, Lucas gestured to a scroll he held.
It was a dungeon escape teleport scroll. He suggested we should not overextend ourselves and escape.
‘But we can’t do that!’
Why else would we hunt these dragon sons before fighting the true Black Dragon?
To craft a Dragon Slayer, a weapon capable of inflicting damage on that transcendental dragon king.
But using the dungeon escape teleport scroll means forfeiting all the loot.
Meaning the creation of a Dragon Slayer from Wingian would become impossible.
‘We only escape in the worst-case scenario; until then, we must fight!’
And we had kept our trump cards in reserve.
The mage party.
Not having exhausted this critical force and keeping them immaculately on standby was in anticipation of this possible series of battles.
Especially since the mage party needed to save as much magical power as possible for the battle against the Black Dragon’s eye.
Damien had used his ultimate move once but should be rested enough to fight. He could probably use [Black Queen] too.
‘Come on, dragon! Whether it’s one battle or several, it doesn’t matter. I’ll give you a taste of our power!’
And then.
Koogung…!
Gliding smoothly through the sky, the Pure Scale Scalian landed gently at a distance from us.
–TL Notes–
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