Chapter 119: Unexpected Rewards
“You picked up an old man? Why didn’t you try asking whether he is able to forge pills? Or whether he possesses several decades of internal strength and is currently looking for a successor? At the very least, you have to ask whether he has godly weapons or if he has a rich, beautiful and young daughter who he left behind.”
After defeating Marsolit, the first thing I did was to send Harloys out in her bat form along with the ‘Sidunwar’s Ocean Bottle’ to shelter her from the rain so that she could become our air reconnaissance.
Since Marsolit is able to find us, it is possible for the other assassins to track us down as well. However, even if it is the spies of the royal family following behind us, I do not think that they are able to avoid Harloys’s detection.
After all, in such a heavy rain and flood, even if a high-tier Shadower is able to remain invisible, it is impossible for his physical body to disappear. If he is concealing himself in the water, there would probably be a bizarre giant hole appearing in the water. The same goes for the Mage’s Invisibility Spell. All kinds of concealing and transformation techniques are rendered significantly less effective in water.
“Disappearing under my sight? What is that, your wet footprints are still there. Color concealment? I’m sorry, the dye on your body has already faded. Next time, remember to purchase high-class waterproof paint. That one using Conceal Magic… Water is already splashing on you, do you intend to cosplay a Water Elemental?”
However, what is gratifying is that Harloys did not spot any other scouts. This means that there are probably none of them left.
But when she reports that there is a white-bearded old man on a tree not too far away, I can’t help but recall the classical lines in the knight novels. Thus, I said those words on top right away.
After all, in knight novels, if one were to find a white-bearded old man out of a blue, half of the time, it is the start of the protagonist’s road to achieving great heights. They would always turn out to be some elder, some god or some great expert.
“…Such destiny. He even has an incredibly rich child who is interested in you.”
“What?”
“Darsos.Menon! This old man is Crowe.Menon, the previous emperor of the Auland Empire as well as the brother of your cute junior. Why? Hurry up and pay respect to your father-in-law!”
“…Your tidbits for tomorrow are confiscated. If you don’t shut up, I will turn you into a dog who salivates everywhere it goes. Or perhaps, I should turn all your little fish tidbits into dog biscuit, un, all of those would be expired!”
This threat which is very likely to be carried out causes Harloys to instantly fall silent.
Even though I said such words, I am actually very delighted. Finding the previous emperor, Crowe, is a big reward. Looks like Marsolit had originally intended to take away this previous emperor. As long as we are able to escape from Kagersi, just the news of this old Emperor being alive would allow us to carry out many different kinds of schemes.
“This is really just like a knight novel, dropping treasures upon killing the monster. For a SemiGod to end like this, it could be considered a tragedy.”
I have already thrown the SemiGod Blood Mage Emperor Marsolit to the Knights following us to keep an eye on. Under the verification of the System, he doesn’t possess even a single SemiGod Equipment. Also, the several powerful looking equipment on him aren’t of Epic-tier. Other than those, the Blood Dragon Head Token he was carrying looks familiar.
【The Blood Dragon Insignia of the Royal Family, the Seal of Authority of the Emperor: Although it represents the utmost authority of the Auland Empire, it is a useless tool in your hands. However, a certain Emperor would definitely look forward to regaining it. Other than serving as an evidence, this token made of special metal contains many undiscovered secrets.】
While lamenting how poor the boss is, I turn my attention to the entrance of our escape route which is firmly blocked by the Nine-headed Dragon not too far away. That should be our main goal at the moment.
“Darn it, of the entire stretch of the coast, why must he come to shore here?”
However, I know that this isn’t a coincidence. Perhaps, my horrible luck is working its wonders again or the overlapping of certain reasons resulted in this inevitability.
A month ago, the Auland Empire had a large amount of garrison forces here along with a SemiGod. However, due to those unlucky fellows posing a great threat to the Seafolk, the Nine-headed Dragon Emperor chose this location as his primary target.
Although they are both SemiGod, the Nine-headed Dragon who has evolved into a SemiGod Nine-headed Dragon Emperor isn’t a being whom a human SemiGod is capable of handling. Back then, the human SemiGod was slayed in an instant. Following which, the Nine-headed Dragon Emperor went back and roamed about freely in the river.
Now that he is required for the battle, he naturally chose this location to come to shore at. Yet, the moment he climbs up, Bastlar blocked his advance. Thus, after a series of inevitables, he blocks our path like a mountain, leaving us helpless and frustrated.
That battle is still being fought intensely and Bastlar still holds the upper hand. All kinds of Dragon Slaying and Dragon Sealing godly weapons appear, slicing the heads of the immobile Nine-headed Dragon Emperor, spraying blood all over his head.
However, the problem is this Nine-headed Snake is known for its resilient life force and its regenerative capabilities. It is said that even with a single head left, the Nine-headed Snake is able to fully recover within three days. If its body is torn into two, it is able to split into two smaller individuals. An existence at the level of the Nine-headed Dragon Emperor is able to regenerate indefinitely when in contact with water. It is difficult for him to die even if he is willing to.
Bastlar is a Heroic Spirit who doesn’t know the meaning of fatigue. He intends to continuously destroy the enemy’s Dragon heads and drain it of its regenerative abilities to fight an attrition fight. He does have the time to spare and ability to drag the battle on, but we don’t.
I know that once the Great Judgement ends, the Nine-headed Dragon would immediately flip the tables around. At that point, we would be goners.
There is no difference from charging to the Hydra from committing suicide. However, is there no solution for us to achieve a victory without having to fight the Hydra face on? After squeezing my brain juice dry, I found a very unorthodox solution to the problem.
“Dragon Slayer Bastlar, I am the God Envoy of the God of Law. The caster of the Forbidden Spell is someone on our side. I have to tell you an unfortunate news. The duration of the Forbidden Spell is coming to an end and in five minutes, the chains will disappear. If I’m not wrong, the Nine-headed Dragon Emperor will regenerate and the battle would go back to a standstill. Very quickly, this entire city will fall and the Seafolk will all come to shore. You probably don’t have much time left to squander on it.”
The bat-form Harloys flies to a location not too far away from Bastlar. Under my coercion, she fulfills the basic role of a Magic Pet, transmission of messages.
“I have a plan here, though it is an obvious breaking of the rules, so it would depend on your decision. If you are willing to carry it out, nod your head. The plan goes like this. We will help you store that dumb snake for a short period of time, during which, you will…”
After explaining the plan, Bastlar hesitates for a moment. However, he is unwilling to let go of the prey before him. Thus, he nods his fierce furiously, agreeing to my plan.
The next moment, with both of his hands raised up, he gathers lightning on his hands. After which, the Dragon Spear behind him expands to the size of a small boat. Then, enchanting lightning on it, it turns into an indestructible lightning spear.
Then, summoning with his full strength, the clouds scatter and a sliver of moonlight falls.
As a Heroic Spirit of the Goddess of Moonlight, Bastlar is only able to exert his full strength under the moonlight. A pale white energy is infused on top of the lightning spear. The layer of silver light on the spear tip may seem inconspicuous, but it is the power granted from a true God.
After enchanting Moonlight Blade on the spear and obtaining the blessing of the Goddess of Hunting, the might of the lightning spear surges.
“Ain Spear of Destruction!”
The Nine-headed Dragon struggles furiously, creating gigantic waves from the river water. At the moment, waves after waves of tsunamis billows as flashes of lightning appears here and there. It really looks like the sight of the end of the world. However, no matter how much the Hydra struggles, the Anti-Dragon enchantments which Bastlar keeps recasting on the chains leaves him unable to move in the least.
“AOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Even when his roar fills the heavens and shakes the ground, that seemingly slow but fast Dragon Slaying Spear strikes the Nine-headed Dragon brutally.
“AOOOOOOOOOO! I curse you, I curse that you will never obtain redemption and release, that you will always be plagued with nightmares of your loved ones, that you will never sleep soundly! Darn you, Dragon Slayer!”
Under the furious roars and curse of the Dragon Emperor, two of his Dragon heads immediately severs and a massive amount of venomous green blood spurts out, turning the surrounding water body into a lethal venom that corrodes one’s body and soul.
“Heh, your screams of agony and curses would become my lullaby at night.”
Following which, without even looking at the results of his attack, Bastlar floats towards us. On the other hand, I prompt Erebella to charge forward to replace the position of the Heroic Spirit.
“Sigh, 19 seconds is sufficient for it to regrow its Dragon head. This Nine-headed Dragon is really difficult to deal with.”
The moment I step into the Nine-headed Dragon’s area of vigilance, lightning, flames, venom and ice awls all come shooting towards me.
Even as the Nine-headed Dragon screams agonisingly in pain and two of its Dragon heads are still spurting venomous blood as he curses the Dragon Slayer to meet with misfortune, the other seven heads had already regained their combat ability.
“…This is the benefit from possessing multiple heads. Should I go and modify Ah Bas when I return? The times are changing and a Three-headed Cerberus seems to be outdated. Twelve heads shouldn’t be too much for a hellhound. However, it is a pity that Ah Bas is in his rebellious phase and probably won’t agree to my modifications. The last time, not only did he reject the beloved nickname I came up for him, he even declared that ‘even if the world ends, I won’t let you modify me ever again’. However, the upgrades I did for him the last time was obviously great.”
“Hmph, he even forced me to cancel the automated function to crow at six in the morning everyday. As a captain, it is important for him to supervise his subordinates to go for morning trainings punctually. Have you never heard of the saying ‘dancing with the chickens’? You actually backed down after hearing someone call you ‘Demonic Spatial Rooster’? Don’t I also suffer from being labelled as having a screw loose by others as well? Useless. Right, should I implement some wheels on him? It seems that Transformers is quite popular nowadays.”
TL: Dancing with the chickens -> Originally, it is referring to people who train in swordsmanship early in the morning. Then, it became used to refer to people who are motivated to improve themselves for a good cause.
Four destructive Dragon breath is already right before me, yet I am still thinking about other matters.
This isn’t because I am belittling my opponent. The Nine-headed Dragon Emperor who has undergone countless battlefields is experienced, so the locations he chose for his Dragon Breaths are not bad. The four Dragon Breaths strikes accurately from my front, back, left and right simultaneously and intersects towards me. If nothing goes wrong, I would have died no matter how I choose to dodge it.
However, since I didn’t die, something still went wrong.
The charging ice war horse suddenly disappears and turns into the young Snow Woman who then sits on my shoulder. Golden wings sprout from my back and with a leap, I turn the momentum into a driving force upwards. In my War Angel Form, I soar into the skies.
As a War Angel, my Race Talent consists of controlling the sacred inferno of Order. At this moment, the sacred inferno has boils countless falling raindrops. The rain doesn’t really affect me much. However, I don’t dare to stop and continue to soar upwards so as to dodge the Nine-headed Dragon’s consecutive attacks in advance.
My decision is proven to be the right one. A few seconds later, the position where I was previously at is overlaid by storm and a sudden tsunami.
This is one of the basic knowledge in a top-tier battle. To deal with an agile opponent who is adept at concealment and hard to hit, the easiest is to not get tangled up with him and instead, use large AOE spells to destroy him and wherever he could possibly hide.
If Reyne was here, she would have probably died even if she possesses my skills. Outstanding battle experience is a requirement to predict the enemy’s moves in advance. While turning around in midair to dodge all kinds of breaths, I send Ice Magic attacks on the Nine-headed Dragon.
Yes, Ice Magic. Furthermore, they are Bronze-rank magic spells which are below 3-circles, Ice Magic which the Nine-headed Dragon is able to disregard. Of course, with my temporary Silver-rank, I am capable of using 5-circle magic spells as well. However, as I am not willing to waste my skill points on them, I don’t know a single Silver-rank (4-circle, 5-circle) magic spell.
Since the quality is insufficient, I choose to make it up with my quantity. The ice residue which I casually create can also be used to create a manmade hail when falling down from the sky. However, what stands below the hail isn’t some weak windscreen of a car or some tearful car owners who are regretting their choice to not get insurance.
That Water Magic of the ancient Sea Monster below is not inferior in any ways to a top-class Water Mage. Water Magic and Ice Magic is connected in many minute ways. Not to mention, the Nine-headed Dragon’s Ice Dragon Head specialises in rapid freezing magic. That little ice residues of mine pales too much in comparison.
However, the Ice Dragon Head simply disregards my attacks and a scornful look appears on his face. However, the main body of the Nine-headed Dragon meets with a little trouble.
His body permeates a crystal blue color as a thin layer of ice start to form on the Dragon’s body. He has been afflicted with a Frozen status.
“His skin really thick. Even though the System never said that it is impossible to resist the Frozen Air, to think he resisted more than half of its effect for it to take effect only now.”
I never do meaningless tasks. From the very start, the seemingly meaningless attack is actually an attempt to propagate the effects of Frozen Air.
【Frozen Air: A kind of deadly cold air that is without sound or presence. It can be enchanted onto one’s physical body and weapon, as well as paired together with Ice Magic as an attack. Those who are touched by the Frozen Air will have all movements slowed by 1% and suffer 1 point of frost damage per second. This debuff can be stacked. If the target’s movement speed is reduced by more than 20%, a frozen effect will be inflicted. Many negative statuses will be inflicted, such as the freezing of one’s thought. If the target’s movement speed is reduced by more than 50%, then there is a chance that the target might die at any moment due to massive loss of heat.】
The strength of this ability isn’t exceptionally strong but it has the advantage of that no living things can be completely immune to it. Of course, I wouldn’t dream to trying to freeze this terminal lifeform, a Nine-headed Dragon, to death. However, the disgusting negative effects of slowed thinking process and reaction speed would help me in accomplishing the dangerous mission of drawing his aggression.
On the other side, they have already reached the final stages of it as well.
“Are you willing to follow by the will of the God of Law and fight for law and justice…”
Krose’s voice trembles with agitation as he conducts the Job Change Ritual for the SemiGod Heroic Spirit. This isn’t something an ordinary Archbishop could meet with.
Yes, from the very start, my goal is clear. Since the only being on our side who could pose a threat to the Nine-headed Dragon is Bastlar, then pulling up Bastlar’s strength would be the most ideal decision at the moment.
As long as we add a halo of a Law Job on top of him, his power rank would be pulled up a level by the ‘Great Judgement’ and the rank higher than a SemiGod is… Alright, it is impossible for him to attain the strength of a true God. However, he would still gain the strength to easily subdue the Nine-headed Dragon.
However, I estimate his overwhelming power will cause the Great Judgement to end earlier. Also, the strength he would possess is most probably not something his body of a Heroic Spirit would be able to withstand. In the best possible scenario, he would go down after the Hydra with a single blow. However, Bastlar is already a dead person, so how could he be bothered over this? What he is worried about is whether he is able to get the Dragon down with him in that single blow.
At this moment, even with the assistance of the SemiGod Equipment Scattered Page, procedures still have to be followed to grant Bastlar a Law Job. Krose has to finish chanting the long prayer. Furthermore, the ritual is sacred, so they are unable to move in the midst of it.
The Nine-headed Dragon isn’t a fool either. The ice master in the sky who, astonishingly, was able to freeze him is obviously stalling for time. While he doesn’t know what the Dragon Slayer is doing, it definitely isn’t a good thing for him.
Thus, he lifts all nine of his heads without hesitation and starts charging up his Dragon Breath on every single one of his heads. If he were to release it, not mentioning how Krose and the others would die for certain, the entire pier would disappear from existence.
“No matter what the situation is, no matter what schemes they are up to, first shoot a blast at them before thinking about it? I like that thought process, because I am the same as well. Harloys, plan C! Give him a big one!”