Chapter 204: 109. The Dragon Slayer (Part One)

Raiden’s expression froze up.

For the first time in his life, he got to drink human blood and devour human flesh. Even in the midst of enjoying himself, he still didn’t forget about his task and led the undead army numbering past ten thousand over to the royal palace along with Count Guibert’s help.

But, but… just what had happened here?

A spectacle laid out before their eyes, it…

…It truly resembled hell.

Hell for Vampires, that was.

One thousand-plus spears were stabbed into the ground, while severed heads of the Vampire nobles alongside numerous undead creatures were impaled on top of these make-shift stakes to create a gruesome display.

They weren’t dead yet as their lips limply flapped about. Meanwhile, their surroundings were filled with the remains of the undead that hadn’t gotten fully purified and had yet to extinguish from this world.

Marquis Kirum definitely did say this, didn’t he? That this plan was all about the Vampires murdering the scions of the Imperial Family.

However…

‘Is that even possible at this stage?’

Marquis Raiden raised his head and looked up at the bone dragon ten metres high and twenty-five metres long. He had never heard about such a monster being present in this location!

When Raiden just stood there frozen in shock, the bone dragon decided to make a move first.

The undead creature’s pair of wings began flapping. These wings, made out of bones, continued to beat and sent out immense ripples of divinity waves everywhere.

The undead army was sent flying away from the winds generated by divinity. The dragon’s bony maw split open wide and flames of golden hue began amassing there.

That was…

“…Breath!”

It was the legendary dragon’s breath.

Raiden urgently turned around and fled without saying anything else.

“M-Marquis Raiden?!”

Count Guibert’s voice came to him from behind, but it didn’t carry on for long. That was because the white-coloured bone dragon had spewed out its flames by then.

The golden-hued flames swept across the grounds before the creature and quickly spread out to the surroundings while emitting eye-searing bright light.

The army of undead also turned around and tried to flee from there, which naturally included Count Guibert, who was rapidly pushing his somewhat-round body of his to quickly run away.

But then, the flames mercilessly swallowed all of them up.

“Marquis Raiden! Please, save me…!”

Count Guibert extended his hand out.

His arm stretched out like a whip and was about to grab Marquis Raiden’s shoulder, but the latter unhesitantly swung his sword and chopped down the former’s arm.

The golden flames pounced on Count Guibert and turned him into a pile of ashes in the blink of an eye.

The flames continued on and completely swallowed up the surrounding topography. Choking dust clouds and blinding light blanketed everything.

And as the rain pummelled down from above, the bone dragon flew out from the smokes rising up from the destruction with its wide-open maw to pounce on Marquis Raiden.

“…!”

Clamp!

He barely managed to dodge the dragon’s clamping maw.

The dragon’s skull with sharp jutting bones and fangs brushed past his position. Raiden quickly loaded demonic energy into his sword and swung it, managing to just barely deflect the bone dragon’s huge skull.

“Dammit!”

The bone dragon flew up again. Golden-coloured rune letters suddenly materialised all around it.

Right after that, a bombardment began – blocks of ice and balls of flames began raining down indiscriminately as if they had no set target.

The magical bombs rained down on the city of Lomania, utterly pulverising and destroying the wandering undead on the streets below.

Raiden hurriedly slammed his sword on the ground and roared out powerfully, “Oooooooh!”

Shadows made out of demonic energy stretched out and quickly enveloped him to create a barrier. However, cracks began developing on the shadow barrier as it continued to defend against the bombardment of magic projectiles.

The bone dragon descended rapidly from the air and slammed its front claws at that crack.

BANG-!

Shatter-!

The barrier cleanly shattered and Raiden inside raised his sword to block the incoming claws. The ground he stood on caved in and crumbled from the weight.

He exerted so much physical strength that veins began bulging on his throat, forehead, arms, and legs, but even then, the dragon’s front limb still gradually pressed him down.

‘Just what is this bastard…?!’

Divinity was oozing out from the bone dragon’s front limb.

Raiden’s lungs burned away every time he tried to take a breath.

The bone dragon’s eyes arched up in the crescent moon shapes, clearly making a smile that mocked how laughably pathetic the Vampire’s resistance was.

The undead monster suddenly raised itself up before slamming its whole body down once more with powerful flaps of its wings.

Its considerable weight was fully transmitted to Raiden below.

“Wu-wuuuk-!”

The Vampire Marquis’s physical body began breaking down.

The bones in his legs broke apart and tore through his skin to jut out in the open. Even his spine near his lower back area began getting crushed into powder.

His arms wielding the sword also began breaking down as the dragon’s attacking claws gradually closed in.

If this continued… Raiden would die for sure!

“You think I’ll die here?!”

He chose to become a Vampire so that he could keep on living.

It took all of his being to slay that dragon and to earn the noble title of the dragon slayer, yet…

Yet, the only things gifted to him at the end of all of his struggles was a broken body, and a bunch of nobles looking for a way to use him despite his natural demise creeping ever closer. Even the gazes of the royal family that looked over him remained cold, frigid.

-The one and only dragon slayer.

Some even began to ridicule that title, opening wondering if it had been made-up or not.

“Alright, fine. I shall prove it to you all.” Raiden sucked in his breath. “I shall show you that I’m indeed the real dragon slayer.”

He’d show them all.

He’d show his true power to the royal family and the nobles of Lome who were nothing more than livestock now.

“Ooooooooh-!”

‘Rouse up my demonic energy…!’

His sword was quickly filled up with demonic energy.

‘And focus all of my being.’

He concentrated demonic energy throughout his entire body.

‘Finally, fight with everything on the line. Even if I have to sacrifice my soul, I must…!’

Kill this dragon!

His whole body swelled up. He was a Progenitor Vampire, and therefore, he had exceeded the limitations of a human’s body.

Demonic energy enveloped him; thick scales covered his back.

Claws grew lengthier on his hands which were gripping the sword.

His jaw split open and scales covered the rest of his face, making him look monstrously bizarre. He gritted his teeth and struggled mightily before finally deflecting the dragon’s claws away.

“I shall kill this dragon!”

With this act, he’d prove the worth of his existence.

Raiden’s glare rose up towards the dragon’s head.

He flung himself up and flew towards his target. When he got close enough, he quickly swung the sword and sliced at the dragon’s cheekbone area.

A crack ran through the dragon’s skull.

-Ku-oooooh!

The bone dragon opened its maw wide and tried to chomp down on Marquis Raiden in the air.

CLANG-!

His blade stopped the fangs from closing in. He stepped on the spaces between the creature’s teeth and continued pushing back against the sharp fangs with his sword.

Meanwhile, the bone dragon’s heart powerfully pounded away; divinity was boiling up and the licks of golden flames travelled up the dragon’s bony throat to gather inside its open mouth.

“…!”

The dragon’s breath set Raiden ablaze in an instant.

“Uwaaaaaahk!”

Both his body and soul were being burned away. His monstrous-looking body literally began melting down.

CRUNCH!

And finally, the dragon clamped its maw shut, trapping Raiden and crushing him inside. His arm and leg were instantly severed by the sharp fangs.

“I would no doubt perish at this rate. However…”

…However, he’d at least destroy this dragon before that happened.

Raiden used his remaining arm and leg to crawl deeper inside the dragon’s mouth. By relying on the Vampire’s special trait, he was able to ignore gravity; he travelled along by grabbing onto the dragon’s spine and ‘flew’ towards where the undead’s heart was.

‘As long as I destroy that thing…!’

That ‘thing’ being the dragon’s beating heart.

As long as he managed to attack and blow up the heart that contained a massive amount of divinity and maintained the dragon’s body…

‘I can prove to everyone that I am indeed the dragon slayer!’

“Ku-oooooooooh!”

Raiden opened his mouth wide. With his arm and leg gone, there was only one thing he could do – bite into the dragon’s heart with his own teeth, which were strong enough to crush metal.

“With this…”

He should prove that he…

“That I’m the dragon slayer…!”

It was at that exact moment Raiden’s eyes shifted to his side. More correctly, at the boy wearing a mountain goat’s skull while sitting on the throne, relaxedly spectating at the unfolding situation.

Raiden saw the boy breathe into a musket rifle.

And then, he also saw the boy’s lips move.

-Thanks for the show, mister dragon slayer. Your legend was real, after all.

It was as if those words had been delivered directly to his head – he could instantly understand what the boy was saying.

-However…

The boy took aim with his musket, his eyes clearly smiling away.

-I can’t afford to lose this dragon that I acquired after going through so much crap, you see?

Then he pulled the trigger.

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