Before Hank’s words had even finished echoing through the cavern, the slumbering behemoth stirred. From its nostrils burst two streams of searing fire, scorching the ground black. Then its tightly shut eyelids snapped open, revealing vertical pupils of earthen yellow that locked directly onto their hiding place.
“Damn it!” Hank’s heart sank.
“Earth drakes are naturally attuned to the earth element. They can sense their surroundings through the ground—we’ve been spotted!” Nolan fired off his words like a rapid volley. “Get to its flanks! The farther you are from it, the more dangerous it gets!”
Before his sentence had even finished, his body had already turned into a streak of golden light. Abandoning all maneuvering, he charged straight toward the drake’s mountain-like head.
Radiant Sun Charge.
The skill, freshly off cooldown, became the opening note of the battle. He had to seize the initiative before Hank was locked on, using himself as bait to forcibly draw the drake’s attention and create an opening for Hank to circle to its side.
Boom!
Nolan’s charge slammed solidly into the drake’s skull. It didn’t feel like striking flesh and blood, but like colliding with a mountain. A terrifying recoil surged from blade to arm and through his entire body in an instant. It felt as though his organs had shifted out of place, his bones groaning under the strain.
Though both were Silver rank, there were vast differences within that tier. The level 45 drake utterly overwhelmed Nolan, who was only level 27. Without the advantage of a boss-class template, he wouldn’t even qualify to engage it head-on.
The stun from Radiant Sun Charge lasted only the briefest flicker on such a creature, like a pebble striking a giant’s brow.
But half a second was enough.
Nolan had anticipated this. His goal was never to control the monster, but to seize the rhythm of the fight.
The drake might appear sluggish, but its reactions were terrifyingly fast. Its massive head whipped around, and that gaping maw—large enough to swallow a horse—snapped toward Nolan with a gale that tore through the air.
Bang!
The jaws closed on empty space. The impact of upper and lower fangs colliding sent a thunderous shock through the cavern.
At the instant of impact, Nolan had already used the recoil to spring backward, narrowly avoiding the fatal bite. The pressure from that monstrous force lashed against his face, making him feel like an insect barely dodging a descending swatter.
Having missed, the drake, already enraged from being disturbed in its sleep, erupted in fury. Its rock-like limbs drove into the ground, and its massive body began to pivot.
“Watch the charge!” Nolan shouted. At the same time, the hooks of his Arcane Lock Boots snapped out, anchoring him firmly to the ground so he wouldn’t be blown away by the sheer force of the creature’s movement.
Hank needed no reminder. The veteran’s combat instincts had long surpassed the need for words. The moment the drake began to turn, he had already lowered his body and sped along the cavern wall, flanking toward the opposite side.
The drake’s slit pupils flicked between the two of them. Clearly, it was momentarily thrown off by these two persistent “insects.” But instinct drove it to choose the closer target—Nolan.
ROAR!
With a thunderous bellow, it moved. Its limbs coiled, and then its enormous body shot forward like a solid cannonball, charging straight at Nolan.
The cavern was already narrow. This charge nearly sealed off every path of retreat. Nolan knew that stepping back meant certain death.
The drake’s charge had a slow start, but once underway, its straight-line speed was unmatched. The only path to survival was to the side. Summoning every ounce of strength, he hurled himself toward the rock wall on his left.
At the very instant he left his position, the drake’s massive form tore through the space he had occupied, carrying unstoppable momentum.
Boom!
The drake slammed violently into the rock wall at the end of the cavern. Stones shattered and rained down as the entire underground space trembled. Before Nolan could even catch his breath, three black streaks lashed out from the dust cloud, slicing through the air with piercing whistles and covering every possible direction he could dodge.
Its three tails, bristling with bone spurs. This was its true killing move. The charge created chaos, and the wide-reaching tail strikes finished the job.
Clang! Clang!
Nolan swung Darkpiercer with all his strength, deflecting two of the tails. The sheer force numbed his hands and nearly robbed his arms of all sensation. But the third, he had no strength left to block it.
At that critical moment, a dense arc of crimson sword energy cut across dozens of meters and struck precisely at the base of the third tail.
“Blood Lion’s Fang!”
Slash! Scales shattered, flesh tore apart. The drake howled in pain, and the third tail veered off course, slamming heavily into the rock wall and carving a deep trench into it.
Hank had successfully circled behind the drake and seized the fleeting opportunity.
“Nice one!” Nolan shouted.
The drake’s attention snapped toward Hank, fury burning as it turned to deal with the one who had wounded it.
It was exactly what Nolan wanted. He surged forward in a single step, slipping into position behind and to the side of the drake’s front leg, where its defenses were weakest as it turned.
Right here.
In all the strategies he had studied countless times in his previous life, this was the most fatal weak point. Pouring all the strength of his Silver rank into it, he drove the tip of Darkpiercer straight in. It didn’t feel like stabbing into stone at all. The blade slid in without resistance, the sensation eerily like piercing tough leather.
ROAR—!
The drake let out a completely different cry this time, one laced with both terror and agony. Its massive body thrashed violently, trying to shake off the “nail” driven into its vital point. Nolan gripped the hilt tightly as he was flung into the air, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he locked his legs around the drake’s forelimb and forced the blade even deeper.
“Hank! Now! Strike where I hit!”
Hank’s eyes burned red as the ferocity of a seasoned veteran surged through him. Without hesitation, he shot forward like a cannonball, the crimson glow of his blade intensifying as he unleashed another Blood Lion’s Fang, cleaving toward the exact point Nolan had marked.
The drake sensed true death approaching. It abandoned its struggle and snapped its jaws wide open. Deep in its throat, a sulfur-colored, destructive radiance began to gather. The hallmark of draconic bloodlines—fire breath. It intended to engulf everything in a single indiscriminate blast, incinerating both intruders along with itself at the center.
“Area breath!”
Relying on its immense durability, the drake chose to attack with itself as the focal point, forcing Nolan back.
He tried to pull away, but his body was still being dragged by the drake’s movement. There was no leverage to escape. Hank’s sword energy was already descending. There was no way to avoid it.
Gritting his teeth, Nolan made a split-second, desperate decision just as the flames were about to erupt and the blade was about to strike. He released the hilt. Twisting his body midair, he deliberately moved into the path of Hank’s sword energy. At the same time, he kicked against the hilt of Darkpiercer, using it as leverage to fling himself toward the corner of the cavern.
Boom! The crimson arc of sword energy drove straight into the wound Nolan had opened, detonating inside the drake’s body.
At the same moment, the devastating dragon breath surged forth like a collapsing dam, swallowing the entire cavern in an instant.
Nolan felt an overwhelming wave of heat slam him against the wall. His armor turned scorching hot, and searing pain spread across his skin. His vision blurred for a moment. In his field of view, his health plummeted wildly, dropping below the critical threshold in an instant. Scorching air flooded his lungs, forcing him into violent coughing.
The flames subsided.
The drake’s enormous body crashed to the ground, its internal organs shredded by the sword energy. Dust billowed into the air as its life came to an end.
“Cough… cough…”
Nolan braced himself against the wall and staggered to his feet. He looked at the drake’s corpse, then at Hank, who stood nearby in a similarly battered state, though less severely injured. A bloodstained grin spread across his face.
A narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless.
He dragged his injured body up onto the still-warm, hill-like back of the drake, raising his torch and carefully searching for something.
“What are you looking for?” Hank asked, breathing heavily. One of his arms had been scorched black by the flames.
Nolan didn’t answer. His gaze swept across every rock-like scale.
Then suddenly, he froze.
In the flickering firelight, his eyes shone with intensity. “Found it!” His voice rang with excitement, “This—this is it! This trip was worth it!”
Hank followed the direction of his finger and saw Nolan gripping what looked like a metal handle protruding from the drake’s spine.
A handle? On a drake’s back?
Looking closer, he realized it wasn’t a handle at all. It was the hilt of a sword. A sword had been embedded in the drake’s back this whole time. So that was why it had been injured, forced into hiding.
Nolan gripped the hilt with both hands, his face flushed red, veins bulging along his arms. “Come… out…!” With a roar, he poured every ounce of strength into it, wrenching the blade free inch by inch from flesh and bone.
Rip—! Warm dragon blood burst forth like a spring as the sword was drawn.
Nolan raised it high.
It was a heavy, ancient-looking greatsword, its blade broad as a palm and as long as an arm and a half. Its surface carried the deep gray hue of earth itself, etched with intricate and mysterious runes. Though it had been embedded in the drake for years, its edge remained razor-sharp, and it radiated a weighty, overwhelming presence.
Nolan stared at the weapon in his hands, his voice trembling with excitement, “This is it! The lost national treasure of the Dwarven Kingdom—the earth-element holy sword, Mountain’s Resonance!”
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