SWNOVELXO Chapter 416
“What…!!”
“Fatherrrrr!!”
In the basement of the mansion.
Once a prison for humans who defied them, now a ruin with only traces left, two dragons screamed in the desolation.
.
.
.
Unaware of the two people shouting in the basement, the battle between the Lizardman and the White Dragon continued to soar into the sky.
At first, the White Dragon, Eclair, spat blood as he flew, but soon he spread his large wings as if to prove they weren’t just decorations and regained his posture.
Along with him, the Lizardman, Kurt, also shook his body in mid-air and regained his posture.
“Grrr…! This primitive creature…!”
Both had regained their posture in the air. In that situation, Eclair was the first to seize the initiative.
If the battlefield were on the ground, it might be different, but in the air, Eclair, who could fly and had long-range attack methods like magic and breath, held an overwhelming advantage.
“I’ll kill you before you even touch the ground!!”
Dozens of magic circles instantly drawn behind him.
A feat that ordinary mages couldn’t even mimic, and even the wizards, descendants of the Ancient Empire, couldn’t replicate the output.
Each magic circle contained dangerous spells that even Kurt couldn’t easily ignore, and it seemed like they would pierce through Kurt, who was defenselessly exposed in mid-air.
“Activate!!”
“I won’t allow it!!”
But it wasn’t just Kurt who had come to his mansion.
Eclair’s magic circles were pierced by sharp, small stakes flying from the ground, and like a mirage, they dispersed without activating.
“You wench!! The witch of the Holy Kingdom!!”
It was Daria, the saint of the Holy Kingdom, who dispelled Eclair’s magic.
Each counter-spell’s power was insignificant compared to the output of a dragon, but its precision was no less than Eclair’s, penetrating the vulnerabilities of the magic circles Eclair had built and stopping the magic from completing faster than it could form.
That counter-spell was a secret weapon developed by the Holy Kingdom to deal with wizards and dragons using magic passed down from the Ancient Empire.
But Duke Eclair didn’t even have enough time to be angry that his magic had been dispelled.
The moment Daria created with her counter-spell was enough for Kurt to reverse the disadvantage of aerial combat.
Kurt, who had shown the miraculous feat of regaining his posture in mid-air, used the debris of the mansion that had soared with him as stepping stones, narrowing the distance to Eclair in an instant as if crossing a bridge.
As if floating in the air was no problem at all.
Eclair desperately flapped his wings to gain altitude, but Kurt was faster.
“Go down.”
“What…!!”
Boom!!
Kurt swung his spear, imbued with a bluish aura, and in an instant, Eclair felt the shock of heaven and earth turning upside down.
Have you ever seen a dragon soaring towards the ground?
In the chaos of heaven and earth turning upside down, Eclair flew towards the ground.
Kooong!!!
As Eclair fell, a small earthquake-like tremor shook the ground, and dust rose into the air. A beat later, fragments of the mansion began to crash to the ground like hail.
And just as Kurt, who had fallen last, was about to plunge his spear down in a steep dive, a massive forepaw of the White Dragon emerged from the dust, making a threatening sound like a vicious siege weapon.
“Graaaah!!”
Kurt quickly shifted his posture, using his spear to protect himself.
Ting!!
“Pathetic primitive creature!! I won’t forgive you!!”
Eclair, who had struck Kurt with his forepaw and sent him flying, soon let out a roar and flew up from the dust.
Eclair’s wings, now dirtied by the dust, no longer looked as sacred and noble as before.
“Try blocking this too!”
Eclair flapped his wings once and flew to a higher altitude.
“Mr. Kurt!! That’s…!”
Daria, who had sensed something from Eclair’s attitude, warned Kurt, but Kurt had no way to chase Eclair, who had quickly gained altitude.
The only reason Kurt had been able to strike Eclair in mid-air earlier was because of the debris from the shattered mansion scattered in the sky.
Eclair, knowing this, continued to gain altitude and began to suck in the atmosphere.
And with that, the mana within his body began to concentrate with terrifying force, as if causing nuclear fusion.
Just as the Holy Kingdom had developed counter-spells to hunt magic-wielding races, dragons also had weapons honed to counter the Holy Kingdom’s counter-spells.
As Eclair’s breath caused heat haze to rise, light began to refract around his mouth.
Many races in this world are skilled in magic, but this is a power granted only to dragons.
Dragon Breath.
That was the precursor.
Dragon Breath, though grand in name, is simply a crude method of compressing pure, unrefined mana within the body and releasing it with tremendous force, without the need for complex magic formulas.
Even a novice mage might mimic the act of shooting unrefined mana.
But the amplified torrent of pure mana, created by overloading the dragon’s heart—an organ existing solely to accumulate, compress, and amplify mana—to its limit in an instant, is incomparable to that of any other humanoid race.
As Duke Eclair absorbed the atmosphere, or more precisely, the mana scattered within it, the pressure on his dragon heart, located in the center of his body, increased to the point of bursting.
Being an inefficient technique that simply compresses and spews out an enormous amount of mana, rather than a meticulously constructed magic formula, using it once puts a strain on the dragon heart, making proper flight impossible for a while. A dragon’s flight isn’t just powered by its wings but also by the mana control of its dragon heart, which grants buoyancy to the surrounding atmosphere.
But despite the weakness that arises, the power unleashed in that moment is the strongest.
A simple torrent of power, immune to counter-spells that exploit the weaknesses of magic structures, and unmatched in destructive power by any grand magic.
“I’ll wipe you all out from this land in one go.”
And then, a white light burst from his mouth, covering the ruins where Duke Eclair’s mansion once stood, like a divine judgment.
For a moment, the world turned pure white.
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.
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Albus and Eclecia couldn’t believe what they were seeing as they watched the battle between Yuri’s party and Eclair from afar.
An adventurer party fighting almost equally with Duke Eclair.
They had heard stories of the Holy Kingdom’s punitive forces hunting dragons in the ancient times before the Dragon Kingdom took shape, but those were tales from a distant past, recorded only in history books, even for dragons.
Eclecia had even believed that the dragons of the past, who were hunted, were much weaker than modern dragons. She had never imagined that modern dragons could fight on equal terms with other humanoid races.
But that dragon, and not just any dragon, but the Grand Duke of the Dragon Kingdom!
No matter how much Eclair was born in a peaceful era and lacked proper combat experience, he was still a duke of the Dragon Kingdom.
The title of duke wasn’t something one obtained simply by being born in a good place.
He was a mighty dragon, possessing power sufficient to claim the position of duke and leader of the Return Faction within the Dragon Kingdom, where countless dragons lived.
But Eclair’s appearance, fighting in the ruins, was too pitiful for a leader of dragons.
The breath he unleashed with all his might, expected to annihilate Yuri’s party, was blocked by a barrier conjured by Yuri’s party.
Of course, it wasn’t easy for Yuri’s party either, as the mages among them were exhausted and incapacitated, but the fact that a few mages could block a dragon’s breath by combining their powers was unbelievable.
With his dragon heart overloaded and flight no longer possible, Eclair had no choice but to descend to the ground and fight the remaining members of Yuri’s party.
Eclair fought desperately, swinging his claws and slamming his tail like a hammer, but he no longer looked like a sacred and noble dragon.
Eclair, throwing away even his dragon pride, engaged in a desperate melee.
Albus, unable to believe the sight, was dumbfoundedly watching Yuri’s party’s battle, but Eclecia, who had regained her senses first, quickly assessed the situation.
‘If this continues, the plan will be completely ruined!’
The fact that Duke Eclair, a dragon, would lose to mere adventurers was hard to believe, but regardless of emotional judgment, Eclecia’s reason coldly analyzed the current situation.
Clank
“…Ugh!?”
“Follow me!”
“Eclecia…!?”
Having quickly reached a conclusion, Eclecia grabbed the chain connected to Albus’s restraints and pulled him along. Albus tried to resist as much as he could, but with his strength limited, he couldn’t withstand Eclecia’s power.
Though she appeared to be an ordinary woman, Eclecia’s true nature was that of a dragon, and even in her polymorphed state, releasing just a part of her true strength made it easy to drag Albus, who appeared to be an ordinary adult male.
“Grr…! Where are you taking me!?”
“I don’t know! But since the plan has gone awry, I need to secure you at least! Whether I kill you later to start a war with the Holy Kingdom or use you as a bargaining chip with the queen, I need to hide you somewhere safe for now!”
“L-Let go of me!”
But for Albus, this situation was a golden opportunity, and he desperately held onto a bent iron pillar that no longer served as a bar, resisting being dragged away.
Sensing that it wouldn’t be easy to hide him in a quiet place with such desperate resistance, Eclecia changed her mind.
“Tch…! If you’re going to resist this much, I might as well kill you here…!”
With that, Eclecia began to chant a spell, pointing her trembling hand at Albus.
“Now! Give up and come quietly! Otherwise, I’ll really shoot!!”
That was the moment.
“Stop it!”
A woman’s voice interrupted Eclecia’s actions.
“Yuri!!”
It was Yuri.
Her appearance was the same as the Yuri Albus knew, but at the same time, there was something different about her.
Shocked by Yuri’s unexpected appearance, Eclecia shouted.
“How did you know about this place…!?”
“Your father mentioned it before the fight! He told us about the plan you were plotting, that Albus was unconscious in the underground prison, and that his daughter was watching over Albus! He probably thought he could kill us quickly, so there was no need to keep it a secret.”
“Father!!”
At her words, Eclecia, without realizing it, resented Duke Eclair, who was currently desperately fighting the monstrous Lizardman party.
But the current situation was far too unfavorable for Eclecia to nurture a rebellious sprout against her father.
Eclecia temporarily set aside her irritation towards her father and quickly prepared for battle.
“But even so, coming here alone!! How arrogant!! I may not be as strong as my father, but I am still a noble dragon! If you think you can handle me alone, you’re greatly mistaken!”
With those words, Eclecia secretly and swiftly prepared a spell without chanting.
Though not as fast as Eclair, who could complete dozens of spells in an instant without chanting, Eclecia, being a dragon, still possessed skills far beyond those of an average mage.
Having completed her no-chant casting in an instant, she was about to shout the activation word towards Yuri.
“Gregory’s Black and White…!”
“Crushing Fist!!”
Thud!!
“Guhweck!!”
But Yuri’s fist was faster.
Eclecia let out an undignified sound, rolling on the ground like a skipping stone.
“Guh, guh…! I-I’ve never been hit by my father, how dare you…….”
“Fierce Tiger Flurry Strike!!”
Thud!
Thud!!
Thud!!!
“Kyaaaah…!”
Before Eclecia could regain her senses, Yuri relentlessly pursued her, unleashing a flowing barrage of strikes.
“Don’t let your guard down! Continuous Kicks!!”
Yuri’s attacks kept pouring.
“W-Wait!!”
“Not yet!! Next, Lion’s Heart Fist!! Exploding Palm!!”
The relentless onslaught continued.
“S-Stop…….”
Eclecia tried to resist Yuri’s one-sided violence and chant a spell, but in a situation she had never experienced before, she couldn’t focus her mind.
Finally, as her consciousness gradually faded, Eclecia managed to squeeze out one question in her fading mind.
‘But…….
why does she shout out strange technique names every time she throws a punch…….
It’s not even magic……..’