Chapter 99 – Red Dragon’s Lair (5)

Sungjin ran to the other side of the firewall created by the Breath attack. The Immortal and the other hunters were facing the Dragon, but they were in a precarious situation.

The Immortal had to take on the full brunt of Khal Gal’s attack alone. He was having trouble even while working together with another tank, so it goes without saying that it wasn’t so smooth sailing for him. Even a half-assed swing of Khal Gal pushed the Immortal back by more than a meter.

“Gah!”

Sungjin was afraid that the Immortal might die, so he cast a spell from afar.

“Close the wounds and erase the pain, Heal!”

Sungjin cast the heal on the Immortal as he hurried forward. Once Sungjin was standing next to the Immortal, Khal Gal shouted in anger

“You I will devour whole!”

Khal Gal’s large claws came flying towards him. Although they were named ‘claws’, they were the same lengths as spears. Sungjin tumbled backwards to dodge out of the way and then hopped into the air.

Boulders were gouged out where the claws passed through the ground. No matter how high Sungjin’s HP was, one or two direct hits would most likely prove fatal.

Sungjin put his life on the line and carefully observed the Dragon. It was then, when the Dragon swung its arm again, that Sungjin noticed liquid falling from its neck region.

‘Blood…?’

Even as he dodged to the side, he carefully observed his opponent. It was the place he had slashed the Dragon with his two swords in an X shape.

It was difficult to see due to its red scales, but the scales were missing where Sungjin had struck the Dragon earlier. It seemed to be slowly bleeding from there.

‘That’s it.’

Sungjin shouted out loud

“Everyone! Concentrate your attack on his neck! You can see an X mark if you focus!”

At his instructions, the bolts and arrows, and the spells became focused on that point. Even hunters from beyond the firewall launched attacks towards the neck.

Khal Gal became frustrated when the attacks began to be focused on his neck; he was a creature with a long neck and short arms.

He tried to cover his wound with his wings, but it was not a good solution due to one of the wings being wounded from the magical blast earlier.

The Dragon attacked out of annoyance at having to defend a weakness, but Sungjin nimbly dodged every attack. The Dragon became enraged and shouted

“Damn it! Where are my minions? I command you to help me!”

He looked over to the exit, but his minions were already halfway annihilated by Cain and his pack.

“Goodness!”

Khal Gal who had been arrogant until now finally realized that he was outnumbered and began to scream loudly.

“IT CAN’T BE!”

He began flapping his wings wildly like a chicken, running amok in the cavern. The hunters who had organized themselves into formation while attacking had to scatter to dodge its attack since being stepped on or being swept away by the tail would be lethal. But the battle continued smoothly.

The hunters who were scattered quickly reformed back into groups after the Dragon passed, resuming the prearranged formation and continuing to launch attacks.

Khal Gal continued to take on damage to its back and wings from them. Sungjin thought

‘Everything is going smoothly’

And he charged towards the Dragon. But it was then,

‘Master, brace for Terrorizing Roar.’

Moon Specter gave a warning. The Dragon wasn’t running for the exit; it had been hiding its face as it prepared to unleash a shout attack. Sungjin quickly called out

“Careful! He’s going to shout!”

He warned the other hunters.

‘What should I do?’

If it was just a simple shout, it would be easy to withstand the impact, but there was a subtle magical element to it. The moment the sound of the shout hit the ears, it would cause anyone to lose their mind and show their backs to the enemy.

And the number 1 priority target of the Dragon was none other than himself. If he was out of his mind with terror, the Dragon would use anything and everything in its disposal to try and kill him.

‘I was protected by the ‘Iron Will’ passive earlier, but I don’t have anything like that left…’

He then recalled something important. Sungjin checked the rings on his fingers. He could see the shape of the ‘Chimerao – Ring of Fused Beasts’. There were figures of four animals shaped into the ring. Man, Snake, Goat, and Lion.

‘Lion gave immunity to fear, right?’

Sungjin held the ring as he watched the Dragon’s mouth. Sungjin was aiming to use the active skill as soon as the Dragon cast the shout attack to launch his counter. But it was then

The Immortal walked up to Sungjin and said

“I’ll protect you from the shout. Please prepare to counter attack, Master Hunter.”

‘What?’

He didn’t have time to respond. The Dragon who had been facing the wall suddenly turned as if he had finished his preparations. His snout was flared as if he was about to shout.

But the Immortal took out a bell and said

“Bell of Silence.”

“Ring”

The ring gave off a tranquil sound. and Sungjin felt a strange sensation; The feeling of stuffy ears one would get after climbing back down from a mountain.

Khal Gal opened his mouth and shouted

“I will kill you all! You damn mortals!”

But Sungjin was unable to hear anything. The Immortal tried to say something to him, but he couldn’t hear him either.

It seemed as though the item he used would create a field of sound nullification. So Sungjin was unable to hear anything from the gigantic Dragon who had shouted his lungs out.

The other eight hunters, Cain and the other wolves standing a distance away, and even the hell hounds could be seen running away as fast as their legs could carry them.

Once Sungjin understood the situation, he quickly gathered himself and ran away as fast as he could.

“Ahhhh!”

Screaming at the top of his lungs.

*

The Immortal was surprised.

“Careful! He’s going to shout!”

Once he had heard the warning from the Master Hunter, he had acted to protect (since Sungjin was as strong as everyone else combined) and came running towards him. He used the Bell of Silence to protect him from all sounds.

The plan had worked. Once the bell rang, he could not hear a sound despite watching the Dragon mouthing some words. But the Master Hunter still turned to run away, screaming.

The Immortal was stunned.

“What happened?”

He had used the Bell of Silence (usually used on spell casters to prevent their incantations from completing) several times until now. The effects were ‘Create a small field of sound nullifications’. But now it seemed that it had no effect.

No, the item had worked. He himself had been protected by the item from the effects of the shout. He stared blankly at Sungjin who had been running away.

“Ke he he! Yes, run you little runt!”

He watched Khal Gal chase straight after the Master Hunter.

‘I don’t know what’s going on but’

The Immortal ran forward to protect him from Khal Gal, but Khal Gal paid no attention to him. The Dragon must have realized that killing Master Hunter was the top priority. So the Immortal was forced to yell

“Master Hunter!” But then he realized that the Master Hunter’s state was strange. He had switched out one of the swords; From a purple glowing Scimitar to a Katana with a Red Aura. The Immortal realized that he must have something planned.

“Die you little bug!”

Khal Gal must have not noticed the switch. He only focused on trying to catch Master Hunter who was still screaming

“AHHH!”

But Master Hunter, who had been running away, suddenly turned and hopped on top of Khal Gal’s paws, and jumped towards the Dragon.

The place he was aiming for was the X mark he had made earlier.

*

Sungjin stabbed both Blood Vengeance and Moon Specter into the Dragon’s neck. Thanks to the X mark he had made earlier, his wound had become like an archery target for him.

“Kaaa!”

Khal Gal who was stabbed in an open wound let out a cry like never before as he backed off. Sungjin who had successfully tricked the Dragon with his acting moved to finish him off.

But the Dragon wildly flapped his wings as he began to run away once more from him, much like a giant chicken. It was difficult to follow up and attack the Dragon while he was running amok.

Sungjin chased the dragon and continued to slice and stab at it at its tail and wings, but this wouldn’t ever amount to a fatal injury.

‘I just need… one more chance…’

The dragon was bleeding profusely from its neck. Sungjin looked for an opportunity while chasing him, but then he saw the dragon take a deep breath again.

‘What is it this time?’

Moon Specter answered the question for him.

‘Master, Please be careful of the Breath attack.’

This time it was a breath attack. Sungjin turned to the other hunters and shouted

“It’s a breath attack!”

The hunters scattered at his words. They knew how dangerous this attack was from before. Sungjin gazed back up at Khal Gal. He was flaring his nose with his mouth closed.

He really was planning on using Breath. Sungjin actually had the confidence that he had enough speed to dodge the breath attack since he could make a rough estimate of the trajectory by watching his neck.

He was just worried about Cain and the others behind him, since the Breath was something that could accidentally strike when randomly fired.

Even grazing against the breath attack was fatal. Sungjin felt pressed to make a decision.

‘What should I do?’

But a plan of action popped into his head, and he immediately moved to act upon it. He fed Blood Vengeance his blood.

“Baptism of Blood”

Using the reddened Blood Vengeance, he first cut Khal Gal’s tail. Khal Gal was unable to scream out due to gathering the air for his breath attack and glared at Sungjin instead. Sungjin decided to taunt him.

“How far will you run, lizard”

The Red Dragon’s eyes were filled with rage. Sungjin purposefully positioned himself close to a wall and gripped the Moon Specter.

‘Phmph’

A large amount of steam was let out from the nostrils. He was about to unleash the breath attack. Seeing that, Sungjin said

“I’ll leave it to you, Moon Specter.”

And drew the blade.

“Ghastly Wail.”

“Kyaaa!”

Moon Specter’s screech filled the air at the same time Khal Gal began to unleash his attack.

The Red Dragon who had been aiming towards Sungjin raised his head in terror and his attack burnt nothing but the ceiling.

His wound was easy to see now that his gaze was up facing the ceiling. Sungjin prepared his swords and dashed towards the enemy’s neck. But it was then

Khal Gal’s eyes returned to normal, and he lowered his gaze towards Sungjin once more.

‘Master, that creature has strong resistance to Fear.’