Dragon Fight (4)

Ryu Han-bin and Effir first headed to Willart, the Fire Dragon. The situation over there was the direst.

The Templar Lords had been forced into a corner. They showed blatant relief at Han-bin’s appearance.

“Oh, Mr. Felard!”

“Are you here now?”

Although the aftereffects of the Valtara’s Fighting Spirit remained, he was fine enough to overpower even the level 118 Fire Dragon.

Soon after, Ryu Han-bin’s Gigant beat down Willart.

“Come on, let’s catch you first!”

Of course, the Fire Dragon didn’t surrender easily.

He resisted hard.

“Let me show you the true power of a Dragon!”

Puck, puck!

“The, the power of the Dragon…!”

Flutter!

“Dragon…”

Puck, puck, puck, puck, puck!

“Dra…”

He resisted very hard.

“… Save me! I surrender, ugh!”

Willart was beaten to a bloody mop until he became polite.

Ryu Han-bin immediately overpowered the Fire Dragon and handed it over to his allies.

Of course, no matter how weak he was, it wasn’t easy for soldiers to manage him. Hence, Han-bin wanted to change him to a human to make things easier.

The problem was that the Polymorph Necklace didn’t work for them.

“What does it matter?”

In the first place, why hadn’t the Top Three put much meaning into the Polymorph necklace?

They could solve it easily by mere intimidation.

“Do you want to turn into a human or die?”

Latna’s maxim that if sufficient violence accompanied one’s demands, one could do magic with one’s tongue was indeed right.

Before Ryu Han-bin’s threat was even over, Willart immediately took the form of a human being and was arrested.

After that, things got easier.

The ones in the most precarious situation were the five Templar Lords dealing with Willart, the Fire Dragon.

On the other hand, Han-bin’s party was quite relaxed.

Artis alone was fighting on equal grounds with Spianon.

Even without Ryu Han-bin, Leon Hart and Kibie were overpowering Kranolus and Kapinotia on their own.

Their level itself was similar, but didn’t they have a good relationship?

The situation ended neatly when Ryu Han-bin asked the same question to all fallen Dragons.

“Do you want to turn into a human or die?”

Once they changed to humans, one thing stood out.

They were all wearing the same silver necklace around their necks.

“Anti-Polymorph Necklace? This has prevented forced humanization.”

After taking away all the necklaces, Han-bin once again forced them to become humans with the Polymorph Necklace just in case.

Since then, the Ancient Dragons were taken to the Allendia army headquarters with their whole bodies tied up by magic tools.

Unlike Nakterion, Ryu Han-bin didn’t kill them.

Nakterion was a Mage over level 120, even in human form. If he were released, no one could deal with him unless it was Han-bin’s party, so Han-bin couldn’t dare capture Nakterion alive.

However, the others were manageable by the Allendia troops since their levels were in the 80s in human form.

“So what happens to them now, Leon Hart?”

“I’ll leave them to the Darkness Church. The room next to Saltus is empty, isn’t it?”

“… Saltus?”

A bit later, Ryu Han-bin remembered that he had captured the Ancient Dragons a long time ago.

“Right, there was such a captive, wasn’t there? I’ve already forgotten. How is he doing these days?”

“He is working hard to cooperate with the Church. Who the hell do you think created the spiritual art scroll you learned?”

“Was that his work?”

“The reconstruction of the spiritual formula is. The Mages were the ones that created the scrolls, though.”

“There must be a lot of Spiritists in the Darkness Church. Why would you do that?”

“It’s too tiring for a Church priest to do.”

What he ordered were low-level magic and spiritual scrolls, but the production itself was not easy.

They had to rearrange the formula one by one because Ryu Han-bin asked strange conditions.

It was less difficult and more annoying, taking a long time, and it was a repetitive task, so it was insanely boring.

“Dragons are part of a long-lived race, so he’s very resistant to boredom. He was good at overtime.”

In response to Leon Hart’s answer, Han-bin’s eyes shone at the distant prisoners.

“Well, won’t they be the same?”

“We can’t put them into battle, but it’s unfair to feed them for free. I’m going to lock them up and have them do cottage work. We need a lot of magic tools while we’re at war.”

Ryu Han-bin laughed.

“Magic tools ‘made by Dragons’ will be released to the Allendia troops soon.”

Regardless, that was the end of the battle.

The Kaldris-Mado alliance, of which all the trusted Ancient dragons had been defeated, was miserably pushed back to the gate of the Merent Karl.

As many as 8,000 casualties were also reported. Hence, the military power of the two sides was no longer much different.

Effir, watching the situation, asked, “Are we going to take the gate like this?”

Artis shook his head.

“That’s too much to do right now. Our soldiers must be exhausted.”

Despite the victory, the Allendia troops also needed time to reorganize.

Ryu Han-bin, who was watching his troops returning to the main camp, suddenly raised a question.

“… Are you still watching?”

It was a question without subject, but Leon Hart understood it easily.

“I don’t know where it’s going to be or how it’s going to be…”

His eyes turned over the fields and mountains around the gate of Merent Karl.

“I’m sure he had seen enough.”

* * *

A secret room in the Regent Palace of the Kaldris Kingdom.

In the middle of the space covered with darkness, a purple magic formation shone.

Garhan, who sat on the magic formation, suddenly opened his eyes.

“I’ve seen enough.”

He continued, looking back at the communication magic video next to him.

“He’s strong. Really strong.”

Genovia, reflected in the video, was also sitting on the same magic formation.

Her expression was similar to Garhan.

“Are you sure he isn’t an Alien? He looks to be in his mid-20s.”

To obtain information from the Incarnation group, especially the Sword King Felard, Genovia had scattered a special magic creature, Relixtier, all over the battlefield.

Only visual information could be obtained by simple far-sighted magic. However, using magic creatures, sensory information such as the flow of the four major forces could also be taken.

Thanks to that, she got information as accurate as a face-to-face meeting.

And the result was quite shocking.

“Baotolt was in his mid-60s when he reached that level. Even if he avoided trial and error that his teacher had gone through, it’s not the level he could reach in just over 20 years.”

Garhan affirmed the question of Genovia.

“He isn’t an Alien.”

Thanks to Nakterion, he gained the exact battle data of Felard Bean.

He had shown his weakness as he fought.

It was not surprising for Latnains, but for Aliens, it was a different story.

“He’s a man who learns and masters. Aliens, who got combat skills automatically, don’t get strong that way.”

“What if it’s a case where he has learned his swordsmanship without deliberately using Guideline skills?”

“I wonder if there’s any Alien who can do that…”

Garhan replied with a bitter smile.

“Even if that’s the case, the calculations don’t add up.”

How long would it take for a typical Alien to achieve level 140 solely by absorbing experience?

Genovia, who had counted for a while, smiled bitterly.

“… at least 80 years.”

“It’s a lifetime of being in and out of Dungeons, in and out of nothing but fighting.”

One could not usually live like that so thoroughly.

“And if he gets to level 140 at the most, he would only die at the end of his life, right? No matter how young of an Alien he is, he is over twenty.”

Genovia suddenly smirked.

Garhan asked, wondering.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Something popped up, but I thought that might be possible.”

What if monsters of the same level as an Alien lived in the Dungeon, waiting for the Alien’s physical strength and energy to recover, and only one of them would show up in front of him?

“It’s going to reduce the time by about 30 years.”

Garhan burst into laughter.

“There’s no such Dungeon in the world.”

“I mean, it’s just a theory.”

Genovia replied, feeling awkward.

Garhan changed the topic.

“Maybe the Sacred Heart of Darkness was much more effective than it was known.”

“No! I don’t know anything else, but I’ve already investigated the six goddesses’ sacred items. I would have aimed for those first if they were that great.”

“Genovia, you must have been wrong. Nothing else but that makes sense.”

“That’s true, but…”

Regardless, it was no doubt that the Sword King Felard was a powerful man, surpassing the level 145 Ancient Dragon, Nakterion.

“I don’t think he is over level 150 yet, but he is indeed close.”

If it was one-on-one, the two of them couldn’t guarantee victory either.

Still, Garhan had a rather relieved look on his face.

“This has cleared up the mess.”

What had made them uncomfortable all along was why Hollien wasn’t able to escape and was overpowered despite her absolute unique spiritual art, Transcendence.

So far, Garhan had started a war at the expense of sacrifices so he wouldn’t need to step up recklessly.

Thanks to that, everything was getting outlined.

“I am sure that Hollien let her guard down and lost.”

Who could think that a young man in his mid-20s would be comparable to the old Baotolt?

“The incarnation of darkness and the Spiritual Boxer was unexpectedly in high levels.”

“Did they call them Effir of Thunderstorms and the Mage of Incineration? Those two were pretty good too.”

The Sword King Felard didn’t deal with Hollien alone. Along with several colleagues, he had dawned upon her.

Through this war, they could identify their level.

They were all more powerful than expected, reaching level 120.

“If the two conditions of arrogance, which are unexpectedly powerful opponents, are met, there can be enough to be overpowered without even using Transcendence.”

Genovia laughed and agreed with Garhan.

“Isn’t it lucky? They’re strong enough to defeat Hollien.”

Simply saying that Hollien had been defeated because she deserved to be defeated also meant no they did not imagine.

“Of course, even if it were us alone, it would be dangerous…”

The Queen of the Mado Kingdom in the video smiled with an eerie expression.

“I have no intention of acting alone in the first place.”

Facing her, Garhan also replied with a smile.

“Let’s get moving.”

* * *

The next day, the Allendia troops eventually captured the gate of Merent Karl.

However, they couldn’t determine if it could even be called a capture.

The Kaldris-Mado Kingdom coalition, which had suffered huge losses the previous day, abandoned the gate and retreated before they came.

There was no battle and no damage.

The coalition forces made steady headway to the Kaldris Kingdom, maintaining more than 20,000 troops.

After taking over the gate, the Allendia military leaders were in agony.

The gate of Merent Karl was the most important point of the Kaldris Kingdom.

If they made this place their base, they would immediately put a knife into the throat of the Kaldris Kingdom.

They were nothing short of giving up a place that should never be taken away.

Looking at the map, Sabine Asil looked serious.

“There’s no way they don’t know the gravity of the matter, but if they did this…”

Lord Frederick affirmed.

“Finally, the Thunder King and the Archmage have moved.”

The existence of asymmetric forces sometimes transcended even the benefits of military hubs.

Wasn’t that why Han-bin’s party had been fighting an advantageous battle so far?

“The comfortable days of war are over.”

Folding the map, Leon Hart concluded.

“Let’s burn down the gates and back down to Fort Fieldrocks. We’ll have to get ready for our guests.”