The moment Kael moved, time fractured.

To anyone watching, it looked like a frozen clash—dragon jaws locked inches from an EX-ranker's skull, muscles screaming, space warping.

But inside Kael's mind, thoughts accelerated to a razor's edge.

'It won't close.'

The realization was instant and merciless.

No matter how hard he pushed, no matter how violently his muscles screamed, his jaw would never fully clasp.

The man's strength wasn't just superior—it was absolute. Once the shock wore off and once the surprise faded, Kael was sure that he would be peeled away, restrained, and finished.

'This only worked because they hesitated,' Kael thought.

They, who had thought that Kael was broken and would never get up, as none of them knew that a dragon would lay down his pride just to fool them.

However, surprise was never permanent.

If Kael had to guess, he had one second at most.

He felt it already—the man adjusting his footing, beginning to understand. And worse—

The woman.

She would realize it, too. That she never needed a barrier against that pillar of light. That Kael had bluffed her with noise and pressure. The moment that clicked—

'I'll lose.'

The worst problem here was that Kael was sure that once the man got out of his mouth, Kael would never get another chance.

The only reason he chose the man to be his target was that, unlike the woman, whose magic would automatically shield her, the man could, at most, instinctively protect himself, which he was doing right now.

So, right now, all Kael needed to do was somehow attack the man when he couldn't use his hands.

Kael's thoughts sharpened into something cold and lethal.

'There's only one way.'

Dragon breath.

Normally, his breath didn't begin in his throat.

Mana gathered there, yes—but the ignition, the annihilation, happened outside his jaws. Like a fire breather using fuel, the mana was expelled first—then transformed.

But now—

'I don't have space.'

His throat constricted.

Of course, the mana that came out of his throat when he used dragon breath was also hot, more than any fire could be, but it would never be as strong as a dragon's breath.

After all, a dragon's breath needed that much heat plus the fire energy to become a real dragon breath.

So, there was only one way left.

The ball of black energy Kael always made outside of his mouth needed to be made inside.

'If I do this… my jaw will be destroyed.'

There was a chance that his whole head might be blown to smithereens, but he had no other choice.

He knew the risk the moment he began this attack.

So, he continued without hesitation.

Inside his mouth, where teeth were locked around an EX-ranker's arms—

Mana ignited.

Not outside.

Inside.

A black sun bloomed behind Kael's fangs.

For a fraction of a second, the man's eyes widened—not in fear, but in confusion. He felt it. The impossible heat. The density. The wrongness of it happening there.

"What—"

BOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!

The explosion was catastrophic.

Kael's jaw detonated, bone and scale blown apart from the inside as golden blood sprayed outward in a violent arc. The dragon's breath erupted point-blank, a torrent of black annihilation that swallowed the man entirely.

The world vanished into fire.

The ground liquefied. Stone vaporized. Shockwaves ripped outward, flattening what little remained of the battlefield. Smoke, dust, and debris were hurled skyward like the aftermath of a falling star.

Everything else paused as if it were too insignificant before this breath, and even the magic circle beside Kael, attacking the woman, was shattered.

The woman, taking the chance, screamed and fled upward, instinct overpowering reason.

"What—What just happened?!" She shouted, her heart pounding as she threw layers of defense around herself, eyes scanning the inferno below.

'Did Krustov survive that?'

But as she recalled the flash of golden blood she saw in the last second and how Kael's jaw had exploded, a dangerous thought crept through her mind.

'...He didn't accidentally kill the dragon, right?'

That would be a death sentence for both of them, as they would be tortured and killed by their own people.

Still, she didn't move forward.

The explosion subsided into roiling smoke.

Silence followed.

She could still see Kael's silhouette inside the smoke, his huge body still.

But then—

It vanished.

Before she could even realize that, space folded beside her.

Her eyes snapped wide.

Because Kael appeared right beside her.

Not broken.

Not dying.

His jaw—blasted apart a second ago—was already reforming.

Bone was knitting, flesh sealing, and scales crawling back into place at a pace much faster than they had seen before.

Golden blood still steamed in the air, but the structure was whole.

And his eyes—

They were locked on her.

Predatory.

Cold.

She felt it then.

'I will die if he gets me...'

She didn't feel it before, but right now, she could feel it.

For some reason, she felt like Kael had grown stronger, which shouldn't even be possible.

How could she have known that Kael had killed the man, and because of that, he was now an SSS-ranker?

She didn't even know that she was going to be the first person to face an SSS-ranked Kael.

"NO—!" She screamed, throwing herself backward as wind screamed around her. A barrier of compressed gales wrapped her body, dense enough to shred steel.

She turned to flee because she trusted her instincts.

But she was too slow, or more like, Kael was too fast.

The world blurred as he moved, his jaws clamped down on the barrier like a titanic beast crushing a toy—just like a T. rex biting into the spherical car from Jurassic World.

CRRRAAAACK—!

The barrier buckled.

"STOP! WAIT—!" the woman screamed, firing blades of wind, torrents of pressure, anything—everything.

Kael ignored it all because, although those attacks hit and caused chunks of his flesh to fly off, he had already experienced them before.

The whole time they tortured him, he built up his endurance.

Then, his teeth punctured the barrier.

Once.

Twice.

Then—

SHATTER.

The wind barrier collapsed.

Her scream cut off as Kael's jaws closed completely—and swallowed her whole.

The sky went silent.

Below, smoke still churned where the explosion had occurred.

Kael hovered there, massive chest heaving, golden blood dripping from his ruined—but healing—jaw. His eyes flicked downward, scanning the destruction.

He looked at his chest.

The wound from the man was gone, as was the guy.

Then he stared at his hands, clenching them as he felt the power in his body.

If he were to compare himself to someone, then he would say that his strength after killing the woman was as high as that of the EX-ranked man.

But that wasn't all, because he could already see a new barrier around his body, and realizing that it must be the natural barrier one awakened when they reached SSS-rank, he smiled.

"I gained a lot today," he muttered.

It was then that a low chuckle rolled across the ruined battlefield.

"You really did gain a lot."

The voice did not come from any one direction.

It echoed from the smoke, the sky, and the broken ground itself—calm, amused, and utterly unhurried.

Kael stiffened.

The voice continued, almost conversational. "I'll admit, even I was surprised. The moment you ate Astra… your power surged far more cleanly than expected. No instability. No backlash. Remarkable."

Kael's head snapped upward as he recalled that the portal was still there.

There—standing in the air as if gravity had politely stepped aside—was a man.

Broad-shouldered. Thick-necked. A deep scar ran diagonally across his face, pulling one side of his mouth into a permanent half-smile.

He looked to be in his forties, dressed plainly, yet he carried himself with a weight that bent the world around him.

Kael couldn't feel any mana.

Not a trace.

And yet—

[DANGER!]

[RUN!]

[HOSTILE ENTITY: UNESCAPABLE!]

His instincts, which had been silent for a month now, exploded back to life like shattered glass reforming in midair.

Warnings flooded his mind, overlapping, screaming, and far more violent than any message he had ever felt.

'Run.'

'Now.'

Kael didn't hesitate.

Space twisted as he tried to teleport—

But nothing happened.

His heart sank.

Mana was there. Vast. Overflowing. But teleportation refused to respond, as if the space around him had been sealed shut like a coffin.

"…Spatial lock," Kael growled.

The man smiled faintly and began to descend.

Slowly.

Casually.

Each step downward felt heavier than the last, not because of pressure—but because reality itself seemed to acknowledge his presence. Compared to Kael's colossal body—one hundred and fifty meters of draconic muscle and rage—the man was laughably small.

Yet he spoke as though Kael were a child throwing a tantrum.

"Struggling already?" the man said gently. "That won't do. You've just reached SSS-rank. You should savor it."

Kael bared his teeth, his golden eyes blazing.

The man stopped midair, directly in front of Kael's face.

"So much potential," he murmured. "Do you know how many years we've spent trying to replicate true draconic growth? Chimera projects fail because they lack authenticity. But you…" His eyes gleamed. "Your growth is unlike anything we have seen. We could make entire legions of draconic chimeras from you."

Kael's killing intent surged.

The man met his gaze—and sighed.

"You're still thinking about running. Or fighting." He shook his head. "If that's what you believe… then you're dreaming."

He leaned forward slightly. "I'm keeping my mana restrained because I don't want your mind to break too early and because someone had asked me to be polite. But don't misunderstand—magic isn't required."

His eyes hardened.

"I could kill you with mana alone."

Kael snarled, muscles coiling despite the terror flooding his instincts.

The man chuckled softly. "Hm. Looks like my words weren't convincing enough."

He snapped his fingers.

"How about this?"

Invisible force screamed.

Kael roared as one of his massive wings was torn clean off, shredded by raw, formless mana. Golden blood poured through the air as the severed limb vanished into nothingness.

Kael groaned, body shuddering in agony.

The man tilted his head. "Does that help you believe me?" He asked calmly. "Because I can do the same to your head."

The smoke drifted.

The battlefield fell silent.

Kael, who had felt helpless against the EX-rankers before, realized that it was nothing compared to what he was feeling now.

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