Chapter 98 – Red Dragon’s Lair (4)

The awakened Khal Gal slowly sat up. Once it opened its wings, it was roughly twice as large as when it was lying down.

The hunters were thoroughly intimidated by the sight, but they couldn’t slow down their pace. There was no way out now. If they didn’t kill it, they would die.

The Immortal who stood at the vanguard lifted up his hammer and shouted

“God’s Blessing!”

A bright light enveloped the man.

“Fireflies… how fun!”

Khal Gal showed interest in the light for now. Meanwhile, the hunters split up into groups as they had planned earlier.

The two tanks stood directly in front of the Dragon, and the melee DPS ran to the either side with Sungjin and the Barbarian to the right. The archers and the mages stayed behind in the back. The battle had begun for real.

Khal Gal used his right hands to strike the tanks who were in the front.

‘Woosh’

The Immortal who was closer to the attack than the ‘Ironwall’ turned to block it. He then intentionally dashed forward to dodge the sharp claws.

But he couldn’t dodge the log-like arms. He had his shield at the ready, but the moment he was hit, the light of protection dissipated and he flew away.

Unbelievable power.

The Ironwall ran forward and swung his axe towards the Dragon’s stomach. Still, he was unable to hurt the dragon through its scales which were harder than steel.

‘Tss tss tsst!’

His axe did no more than leaving a few scratch marks on the surface of the scales.

“Annoying little flies, how ticklish”

Khal Gal used his left hand to swat the Ironwall down to the ground. The Ironwall picked up his shield to defend against it, but his back bent half way back due to the attack which carried the Dragon’s body weight.

“Ahhh!”

Khal Gal opened his mouth. He had aimed to devour the immobilized hunter, but

‘Ping!’

‘Pa pa pa!’

Bolts and arrows flew towards his open mouth. On noticing the incoming strikes, the dragon quickly closed his mouth. The bolts and arrows merely bounced off the dragon’s snout, but it had saved the Ironwall for now.

Meanwhile

“Ice Shield”

The ‘Blue Magician’ provided him with a shield

“Heal”

And the Friar healed the Ironwall’s injuries. The Immortal who had been knocked away was back into the fray. Sungjin who had run towards the side was looking at them nervously.

He remembered that in the previous round, all the tanks had died and only the three DPS had survived to finish the chapter. But now, if he were to fight using his full strength, he could disrupt his team’s plan.

Something like a tank keeping the mob’s aggro and attention on him was only possible when the hunters had similar levels of strength. The dragon was no fool. If everyone was doing 1 damage, and someone suddenly dealt 5 damage, he would naturally focus his attention on the one doing the most.

Sungjin did follow the tank’s strategy of going to the right, but he intentionally stood as close to the tanks as he could, next to Khal Gal’s left arm.

‘Since… I might have to…’

Sungjin swung his swords into the Red Dragon’s side. But his swords made an entirely different kind of sound.

‘Pazzzzt’

Artemio knocked away several scales before coming to a stop,

‘Paaa’

And the Moon Specter cut deep into the body of the dragon. And then

“Kraghh!”

The Red Dragon Khal Gal let out a cry of agony. That much was fine. But the dragon immediately turned towards Sungjin to the surprise of everyone else.

The Tanks were okay, but the melee DPS standing to the left of the Dragon were hit with the full force of the tail

“Aack!”

They were flung off into the distance and were embedded into the ground. One of them collapsed where he landed. But the most shocked was the halberd-wielding Barbarian next to him.

He froze in his place when he saw the Dragon glare in his direction.

‘So it has come to this…’

Sungjin decided to draw its attention to himself. The Khal Gal shouted in rage when he saw Sungjin

“You dare injure my body!”

It swung its right arm towards Sungjin. Sungjin jumped up high to dodge it, but the dragon’s wrathful strike did not end there. It breathed in.

‘Breath?’

Sungjin carefully watched its mouth. Taking a breath attack head on would be dangerous even for him. But he then heard the guardian spirit of Moon Specter say

‘Master, please mentally prepare for his shout,’

‘Huh?’

Sungjin didn’t even have time to respond. The Dragon who looked like he was about to launch a breath attack suddenly

“I WILL KILL YOUUUUUU!”

Let out an ear-splitting bellow. All the other hunters became fear stricken due to the earth-shaking roar. Sungjin was also affected, but he was able to regain focus with an unnatural recovery speed.

The Operator gave an announcement.

[Iron will used. Remaining count: 0]

The Barbarian began to shout

“I wanna live! I want to live!”

He began sprinting towards the cavern wall. Sungjin refocused his attention and swung his two swords towards the Dragon’s throat.

“Kragh!!”

The Dragon took a step back, shouting in pain as an X shaped cut was made in his neck. Sungjin wanted to run in for additional strikes, but Khal Gal began swinging his hands wildly, so Sungjin had to back off and wait for an opportunity.

But the dragon did not stop there. He unfurled his wings and began to fly away.

“What the fuck”

The tanks who recovered faster than the others tried to run up to him, but they were unable to get close due to the immense gust of wind kicked up by the wings. The bolts and arrows were likewise useless.

After flapping his wings, the dragon took to the air. Khal gal began to fly around the spacious cavern. The hunters all shouted

“Ice bolt”

“Wind cutter”

“Holy Missile”

Firing spells

‘Shh shh shht’

‘Pew~’

And launching bolts and arrows from a distance. Sungjin also

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe!”

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe!”

“Chain lightning!”

“Chain lightning!”

Used Besgoro to launch two lightning spells at the enemy. The dragon wriggled and cried out in pain when the spells landed upon the dragon. It must have done some damage.

Sungjin was about to chant another spell when

‘Master, dragon’s breath is coming.’

Moon Specter gave another warning.

Sungjin focused his attention on the Dragon. A large amount of steam was forming at his snout.

‘That one is real’

Sungjin shouted loud enough for all the hunters to hear

“Breath!”

The hunters were surprised to hear his words and focused on the dragon’s mouth as well. Then the Dragon began to grimace. Once the hunters saw that, they instinctively escaped the area the dragon was pointing his mouth to.

“Fwooooooooosh”

An incredible amount of fire came spewing forth.

Khal Gal’s breath divided the field into two halves. The ground continued to burn intensely as if it was made of oil.

The interior of the cave heated up rapidly and became as bright as day. But because of that, it became difficult to tell what was what. It became impossible to tell if anyone was hit by the breath or what was going on on the other side. No one was screaming, but if anyone was hit by that breath attack, they would have melted before they even had a chance to scream.

Khal Gal chanted a spell.

“Incinerate everything in your path”

Two large balls of fire appeared in its hands. The size of the flames was massive. Soldamyr had once said that ‘Magic originated from Dragons.’

And the five colors of magic were taken from the five colors of dragons, and that their color corresponds with the magic that they use. In other words, this dragon was the source of Red magic. The effect of any red magic that the dragon would choose to use would be incredibly powerful.

Sungjin watched the ball of fire grow larger and larger in Khal Gal’s hands and thought to himself.

‘What should I do?’

Sungjin decided to use Artemio to reflect the spell rather than nullify with the anti magic shield. Attacking the Dragon while it is in the air would be difficult.

To finish it off, he would need to force it back down to the ground.

“Magic reflect.”

Artemio began to glow a bright purple.

“Fireball”

The giant ball of flames came flying from the dragon. Sungjin watched the path of the spell and then reflected the spell towards the direction he saw the dragon flying towards.

The fireball changed directions when it came into contact with the Artemio and flew back to the dragon. Meanwhile, on the other side of the fire wall

‘Boom!’

The fireball exploded with a loud noise. Sungjin was worried for hunters on the other side.

‘… did they survive?’

But he couldn’t help what he had no control over. If they died from that attack, that was as far as they were fated to go. The fireball Sungjin had reflected back flew accurately towards the direction Sungjin had picked

Khal Gal did not change directions and continued to fly counter-clockwise. And soon, the fireball landed on one of the Dragon’s wings.

“Boom!”

With the great explosion

“Kragh!”

The dragon tilted midair for a moment. The red scales did not catch on fire, but at least it seemed to have taken damage from the blast.

The dragon flapped its wing to regain balance, but he was already tilted too far. The Dragon ran into the wall and slid to the ground.

Sungjin wanted to rush towards the dragon immediately, but the wall of fire was blocking his path. It was far too strong and tall to attempt to jump through.

Sungjin tried to look beyond the flames. The hunters were huddled up behind the Ice wall the ‘Blue Magician’ had erected. They had managed to make themselves an emergency shelter to hide behind. Sungjin shouted at them.

“It’s our chance! Focus your attacks on it!”

The Hunters rushed out from behind the wall and ran towards Khal Gal. The Dragon stood up from the wall and asked for assistance.

“Your master is in danger. Help me.”

At his command,

“Grrr Woof woof!”

The sound of barking dogs could be heard from behind the Dragon.

‘This guy, after pretending to be strong…’

Sungjin remembered this part of the Dragon as well. When the Dragon felt endangered, it would request assistance from nearby monsters.

Sungjin checked the hunters on the other side of the fire. The tank Ironwall, as well as the other Hunters, were unable to snap out of it and focus on the fight. If this continued, the hunters would start dying one by one.

Not to mention that right now was the best opportunity to finish off the dragon.

‘I guess I can’t help it.’

Sungjin threw the figure of Cain into the air.

“Come out, Cain.”

A wolf taller than a man appeared. Cain saw the Red Dragon and

“Grrr”

Bared his teeth, but Sungjin pointed towards the mob of spear clad Dragon Demihumans and Hellhounds and said

“Cain, take that side.”

“Arf.”

Cain answered with a short bark, followed by a long howl.

“Awwoooooooo”

Suddenly, smoke appeared around Cain and wolves materialized with ‘poof’ sounds. It was a familiar sight of Dire and Gray Wolves.

‘Is this the effect of growth…?’

Sungjin watched for a moment before telling Cain

“I’ll leave it to you then.”

“Awoo~”

Cain replied before leading his pack towards the monsters. Sungjin looked towards the Dragon. The fire wall created by the breath attack was starting to get low.

Sungjin watched it for a bit more before he jumped in and ran across the fire, towards the injured Red Dragon.