Chapter 147: Single No More (2)

Kaboom! The mana blast was laden with the aura’s cutting power, splitting the air and space around it. And it finally pierced the dragon’s shoulder.

“Argh…!”

Solitas screamed in spite of himself as his shoulder was penetrated. It was about a 1.6-foot hole, and of course, it was small compared to his gigantic figure. And his life wasn’t in danger because the attack simply hit his shoulder. To analogize, it was as though a pencil or pen was rammed into a person’s shoulder. But since it was still an injury, Solitas was in pain. Very badly. Solitas never had any instance of this kind of injury after he was born into this land as one of the proud dragons. But right now, his mouth hung wide open by the unfamiliar pain that shook him. And it was far too painful to stay composed and endure.

“Arggggggh!!!!!!!”

He almost teared up and wretchedly yearned for his mother. Healing magic and whatnot, nothing mattered to him at all at this moment.

“Ack!! Ughh!!”

Flustered by the sudden blow, Solitas stomped as he retreated dozens of feet. He broke out in a cold sweat in between his scales.

What on earth is that?

He was flustered and couldn’t wrap his head around it. His gaze darted to Javier.

That thing is human, right?

Indeed he was. Solitas couldn’t find any trace of another dragon morphed into a human. But this human just penetrated his shoulder with a long sword that was the size of a toothpick.

If the attack pierced somewhere else like my head, neck, or chest, and dug a hole in my brain or lungs…

“…”

It wouldn’t end with pain. He would be in much worse trouble.

I don’t get it. How is this possible? He’s only a human, and I’m a dragon. How can a human pierce my shoulder in one blow?

If someone wrote a novel about this, dragon readers would scoff at how absurd it sounded. But such an absurd event just took place. A sense of dismay rushed through him, along with pain. And another emotion started to surge within him. Anger.

How dare he?!

Fwoosh! Solitas’s eyes changed, and his enormous body was wrapped in white light. The healing magic was at work. His shoulder was treated immediately, but the magic failed to heal his pride.

Don’t you dare think you’ll be safe after insulting me this much!

Solitas spread his ginormous wings wide, and he hurtled as he created a storm of wind enough to send the house away. He crushed the ground, and the whole dungeon rumbled with every step he took. Solitas wiped the space where Javier was standing with his mammoth head.

Crash!

Combined, the head and neck stretched well over 131 feet. The blow contained that much overpowering size and weight, and strength. The ground split, the walls crashed, and the ceiling collapsed. A portion of the dungeon was destroyed to dust by one blow. But Solitas didn’t stop his attack because this despicable human, who penetrated his shoulder and hurt his pride, was easily avoiding the attack.

“You flea!”

Fwish!

Like an eagle going after a fruit fly or a polar bear trying to catch snowflakes in her hands, Solitas wielded and brandished his wings and body all around. He whipped with his head and neck, leaped high with his hindlegs, scratched with his claws, and created a storm by fluttering his wings. The demolition was happening in real-time. The inside of the plaza was crushed and collapsed, but Javier evaded every single ferocious attack. He was like a mosquito hovering over someone’s head during summer or fine dust penetrating a mask filter. Javier managed to avoid and evade every attack and did so with great ease.

“…”

Javier was slightly disconcerted by this. To his surprise, he wasn’t going out of breath. The dragon’s attack was so obvious in his eyes, and as he avoided the dragon’s front leg coming down, Javier thought to himself…

Could it be that the dragon is weak? Or am I strong?

Javier couldn’t point out which one was which. But there was one thing that he was certain about. Dealing with the dragon wasn’t as hard as he had pegged it to be.

This fight was actually manageable.

Javier helplessly laughed though it was faint. Right now, the enraged dragon was going berserk with his ginormous body and weight and throwing every possible attack he could manage. But Javier wasn’t particularly scared or pressured. Sure, the dragon’s attack was fast and powerful, but he was faster. Even though the dragon closed in on Javier with his gargantuan attacks, Javier never failed to miss his chance to escape. All he needed to do was find the dragon’s blind spot and counterattack.

Jump! Javier leaped high in the air and narrowly dodged the dragon’s crushing tail. He heard the crashing noise down below, and shards of rocks flew up by the impact. But Javier succeeded in reading the trajectory of every single one of the hundreds of dangerous rock pieces at once. And his senses allowed him to react like a smooth flow of water. He stepped on seven rocks one after another as though he was climbing up a staircase in midair. He jumped, stepped, changed his direction seven times, and finally, he used the mana blast.

Boom! The repulsion power of the blast threw his body, and he was tossed to the ground. He came within a hair’s breadth of getting slashed by the dragon’s front leg.

Whoosh! Javier brought out his sword naturally as he saw the front leg pass him. He then summoned an aura.

Slay! Slash! He left a scratch on the dragon’s front leg, skinning five layers of his scales. Blood gushed out of it.

“Eek!”

Solitas flinched his front leg after being slashed in his baby toe finger. He teared up a little at the sting. But Javier was merciless.

Slash! Clash! Slash!

Javier jumped and sat on Solitas’s wrist, and he slayed him with his aura-charged sword, leaving three cut marks there.

“Ack! Ouch!”

Solitas quickly dusted off his leg and rubbed his wrist with the other leg. But Javier had already jumped and landed far away.

What the! Ack!

Solitas started to go bananas. He had heard of how humans frantically flailed about in the middle of the night in summer to catch an elusive fly during their sleep. And now, he understood what it felt like. But, no matter how many times he wielded his front legs and tried to swing his tails and wings and sweep the whole space clean, Solitas utterly failed to catch the little human.

Is he that infamous sword master? But he’s so different from what my mother told me. The sword master I know about isn’t this strong. He seems to be way stronger than those I’d heard of.

At the terrorizing realization, Solitas had to admit it. He can’t put up a fight against this man, both in the physical and magical fight. To that man over there, he was nothing but a large punching bag, the good kind that makes people happy when they jab. As such, there was only one conclusion.

I should run.

Solitas was determined. He wasn’t going to keep his pride as a dragon because he was sure that he’d die at this rate. No matter how hard he frantically tried, this human could not be caught. But, on the other hand, the man was doing clear damage to him. So, in the long run, he’d be defeated. It was the truth he didn’t want to admit but had to.

My life is more valuable than my pride. He had 9,000 years more to live. So, he didn’t wish to fight out of his pride and meet a meaningless death.

It’s not like my pride will give me money. So it’s wiser to live realistically!

So, it was decided. He had to escape before the situation got worse. Make a new dungeon in a more clandestine area. Train more and get stronger. Then, avenge.

50 years will be enough. That human brat will have weakened by then. So, I’m going to pester and harass him to the point he’ll want to die and pay him back for the shame I felt today.

Since a decision was made, it was time to act. Solitas executed his escape plan right away. The first step was to let out a breath.

“You impertinent brat! Die! Hmphhh!”

Swooosh! Solitas snarled intimidatingly and drew in a large amount of air. He then mixed the mana of the dragon heart to his breath filling in his lungs. Then, let out a fiery burst of energy.

Kaboom! Fiery breath as hot as hellfire rushed out of his mouth to strike the elusive silver-haired brat. But Solitas wasn’t happy. After all, the breath was just a decoy. Solitas proceeded to take the next step he had in mind.

Now!

Dash! He quickly moved his manaheart and covered the mana’s arrangement he had artificially devised. At the same time, his gigantic body changed shape quickly.

Swaa…

A mysterious light enveloped his body. By the time it was gone, Solitas was already a human. Solitas just used “polymorph,” which allowed him to morph into any race in the world.

Okay, time to get out!

The giant dragon was nowhere to be found now. There was only a tall red-haired young man. Solitas began to sprint toward the dungeon entrance.

Okay, faster now!

He had to get out of this dungeon before the impact of the breath he had just fired was lost and before the silver-haired man discovered his escape. He had to leave this area using teleportation as soon as he stepped out of the dungeon. That was the escape plan Solitas had in mind.

Dammit. I wish I could use teleportation magic right now, right here!

Solitas muttered to himself as he ran ahead. Teleportation allowed him to teleport anywhere in a flash, but he couldn’t use it in his dungeon because he had meticulously installed the magic circle that disrupted the magic.

I was so foolish 50 years ago!

Certainly, he never imagined an event like this would occur when he first built the dungeon. It never occurred to him that he would have to abandon his dungeon to escape. So he did what the other dragons did, which involved following the exemplary and go-to method shared with him by his mother. He only paid special attention to protecting the outside invaders by faithfully referring to them. That was the reason why he thoroughly installed a magic circle that disrupted teleportation.

Dammit. Dammit!

He couldn’t use teleportation because of the disruption, using it would only distort and jumble the coordinates. In the worst-case scenario, he’d be disintegrated into pieces and sent to all sorts of places. He knew that better than anyone and simply endeavored to run as far as he could. He ran toward the exit to survive, trusting his two solid legs. But just then, his eyes met the eyes of the man of his nightmare.

“Dragon?”

“…!”

The silver-haired knight appeared out of nowhere and had his sword pointed at Solitas. Even though he had asked a question to confirm the latter’s identity, the intruder’s eyes brimmed with confidence that the man standing in front of him was the red dragon.

“I’m not a dragon,” Solitas blurted in a hurry.

“…”

The silver-haired knight grimaced. Solitas regretted, feeling his sixth vertebrae shiver. What a buffoon! That response Solitas just gave him was totally a silly answer. And he regretted keeping his hair color red after polymorphing. But it was too late. The silver-haired knight held up his knife and brought his blade to Solitas’s neck as he walked over. Solitas could feel it.

I’m done for.

He was cornered. Now, there was no time to go back to his original shape. His head would be cut before changing back. He could resist using magic, but it won’t do. His neck would be slayed the moment he moved his mana. The same thing would happen if he opted to ambush this human.

I barely put up a fight even when I was a dragon, so now, it’d be worse…

There was zero chance of winning.

If only I was 1,000 years older.

This kind of treatment would have been avoided if he were older. Berating his predicament, Solitas realized that his time had come. So, he prepared for the last time to resist the silver-haired knight, who was coming near. I might as well self-explode, Solitas said to himself venomously. He started to move his dragon heart little by little, rearranging his mana. The plan was to make all the mana in him collide and lead to a destructive explosion. It would be enough to wipe out this whole place. At last, when the knight came close, just three steps far…

Now!

The young dragon clenched his teeth and tightened the final trigger for self-explosion. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.

It’s so unfair. I’m going to explode now with a boom.

And his last moment was with no other than this despicable human. And just like that, he would perish without ever walking the aisle or dating a female dragon even once. All sorts of things he wanted to do crossed his mind. Holding front legs, walking to her dungeon and giving a kiss, exchanging love letters through telepathy, wiping the cream off the lips with dragon breath, proposing on one knee, etc… Solitas would be deprived of such sweet experiences, and he’ll end up a forever-alone bachelor dragon ghost. The thought of it made him feel cheated by life. It seemed like he would burst into tears as his eyelashes fluttered. But right before streaks of tears flowed down…

“Excuse me, Mister Dragon. Are you interested in listening to my offer? Then you’ll be able to get married within 10 years for sure.”

Just then, Solitas heard a sweet, tempting voice out of the blue.