Soul of Searing Steel

Suralno recognized the human warrior before his eyes.

Joshua van Radcliffe, Liege of Moldovia, the most powerful warrior of the Northern realms, dragon slayer, foe of daemons, the youngest Supreme tier in the Mycroft Continent. His reputation had already spread throughout the berserk dragons forming the blockade around the Sacred Mountain as well as amongst the Pentashade Dragons—his very name was taboo, a source of fear.

According to unconfirmed tallies during this time there were already more than thirty giant dragons that had died by his hand—including two Supreme-tier black dragons. There was no dragon slayer who could match his record in the last thousand years, but he was the one with the highest dragon kill-count.

For those giant dragons that had met him and escaped with their lives, the warrior had a grand presence that outclassed Dragon Might and even archdaemons. He had an extraordinary technique and could even engage in hand-to-hand combats against giant dragons. He was physically formidable and possessed incredible regeneration, while his anti-magic resistance was even more ridiculous.

He was virtually a war machine without weakness, a human in the shape of slaughter incarnate.

Suralno had suspected if those dragons were simply lacking in knowledge and were exaggerating after being scared out of their wits. But after being curiously pummeled, the blue dragon realized that the group of juvenile green dragons was not exaggerating.

They even missed out on his weapons. That man’s armaments were so powerful it could shatter any shields or spells—it was almost obstinate.

The sword and axe must have been sacred items, and perhaps it was because he had been facing ordinary dragons that he did not use them before. That was how Suralno took the brunt of the ignorance—it was almost defenseless, barely holding out for minutes before being knocked out of the air and onto the dirt.

Nonetheless, his opponent was clearly being merciful—which was why its head was still attached.

The other dragons in the vicinity had scattered and fled. Facing Joshua’s interrogation alone and an axe that could snip off its neck at any moment, Suralno naturally spilled everything.

After all, it already believed that the war had been an unreasonable one. Dragons had enjoyed a strong status on the continent, and most humans would tend to please them instead of fighting them—there was no need for a draconic plague or whatever in hell that was.

Thus, it had intended to look for a chance to flee the battlefield and continue its own journey. As for now, its escape had turned to surrender—indeed, death was acceptable.

Coincidentally, Joshua also knew the blue dragon.

[Windrider Suralno], the only Supreme-tier blue dragon who fled from the battlefield on the Sacred Mountain in the preexistence, living until the Abyssal invasion on Starfall 855.

Naturally, it had advanced into Legendary by 850 along with the progression of the Mana Tide and sent a mission to players. Collecting different varieties of Air Element Hearts or Mountain Wind Energy Core would help strengthen it, and the reward was a top-grade Air Elemental Protection Item, a low drop-rate legendary sacred item [Pendant of the Eternal Dusk].

This blue dragon may have the nickname Sura the deserter, but in reality, it just did not want to get into meaningless fights. Against the demons, it had contributed as well. In short, it was an acquaintance of Joshua’s he earned an amulet off, which was why the warrior chose to spare it for now for that fact—as long as it would quickly answer his questions.

Also, Suralno was no doubt a dragon that would go on to survive for another twenty years. Knowing that its life was in danger its answers were crisp, its elven common tongue accent fluent. Beyond the rubbish it spewed initially—seemingly as insurance—the blue dragon just needed three minutes to make it clear the general locations and abilities of most of the Supreme dragons.

Joshua noted everything down, grimacing for a moment.

“There are no red dragons?” He asked curtly. “My target is one Supreme Red, but you didn’t mention any… I suspect you’re hiding something.

The axe deepened, and blood started to stream out a lot quicker.

Hearing Joshua and feeling the icy blade in its flesh, Suralno’s neck jerked slightly as if gulping. However, its reply was confident and firm.

“No, there really isn’t any–”

Suddenly, it paused as if hesitating, but quickly admitted the fact anyway. “Wait. I don’t know the exact location, but I do know that there’s one that should be concealed at the swarm to the northwest. It rarely shows its face, and the most mysterious amongst the Supreme.”

Suralno was curious how Joshua know of the red dragon’s presence too. After all, the blue dragon had almost forgotten about that mysterious Supreme dragon. And the warrior was human—where did he get the information? Was there perhaps a mole amongst the dragons?

Naturally, it was a memory from the pre-existence.

Joshua nodded, and withdrew his Giant Axe, seemingly pleased with the answer.

“Stop the bleeding if you want to live,” he said dispassionately. Then, ignoring the giant dragon beside him, he looked up toward the northwest sky.

As one who had known and seen it all, Joshua was undoubtedly aware of the layout of this fight. He had already picked out some of the more important things and discussed with Pope Igor—moving the defensive mainstay to northeast was, in fact, the warrior’s doing to avoid meaningless casualties.

He also remembered some issues to be vigilant about—such as that mysterious red dragon.

It had been the same situation in the past life where the frenzied dragons encircled the Sacred Mountain and began a vicious tug of war that lasted for a week. There was only a breather when the Pope went off with the three Legendary Dragons in space.

The loses for the Sacred Mountain were not so serious right then. With a multitude of divine puppets acting as cannon fodder, most clergies were at most fatigued and did not lose combat capability. The death count was acceptable too—the moment they had that brief moment of respite, they would be able to keep up the chain of incessant skirmish again.

As for the frenzied dragons, they had already been shredded of forty thousand of their kind. If not for the loss of their rationale most would probably have fled in panic by now.

And while both sides hold off the battle for about an hour, a Supreme red dragon took the moment the Sacred Mountain had put down their guard to dash out. With an unknown magical tool that soon turned to ash and its own power, it made a single pass over the northern corner of the Central Temple Zone, wiping off thousands of clergies and two out of three altars, tearing a huge opening in the Sacred Mountain defenses.

That location, in turn, became a meat grinder when the battle restarted for it was the only option to prevent the enemy from entering the Sacred Mountain that was the hub of every divine spell formation. The Church had to replace the lost lives with more lives. Countless clergies bravely put their existence on the line, and in one day thousands more were left slaughtered while even more puppets were destroyed.

Mothers losing sons, wives losing husbands, daughters losing fathers—wars are that cruel to any side. No man is an island, and every clergy’s death was a torment to more people.

Even that did not count in things such as village churches losing their healers and orphanages losing their counselors. Despite shady dealings behind the scenes, the Church of Seven Gods was still an agent of compassion and justice.

Hence, Joshua would not want to see that happen if he could do anything about it. As such, he would get rid of that red dragon before it launches its attack.

That was a warrior’s duty and responsibility.

Joshua was still keeping his eyes on the northwest sky.

–With the bearings confirmed, it’s as good as done. He thought and inhaled deeply.

The air, filled with the pungent smell of blood, was sucked into his lungs. An infinite number of messages could be observed.

The smell of flying dragons’ blood, divine puppet lubricant, burning metals, acidic vapor, powder of frenzied dragon sickness.

Temperatures, humidity, wind direction, the odor of seawater.

The fragrance of altars, the fresh miasma of plants, the reek of black dragons of unshakable negative energy, white dragon breath that carried a shred of Abyssal Energy—and the scorched smell of sulfur in red dragons!

Joshua’s eyes glinted as he caught the scent of the red dragon from the thousand types of miasma in the air. Looking sideways, his eyes narrowed as he began to ascertain the enemy’s location.

In his sight were the energy lines that floated. Because of the millions of dragon breath unleashed, fire elements and earth elements were floating around the lithosphere, while the firm lifeforce of the frenzied dragons streaked around the air like a bunch of fires.

However, just as they smelled different, their energy traces and characteristics varied. In a flash, Joshua noted quite a few Golden and Supreme level dragons amongst the swarm. Although there was just a little discrepancy from Suralno’s information, it was within acceptable difference.

As if a supercomputer, the warrior’s brain processed all sorts of observation, compiling them and locking on a position behind three waves and thousands of dragons.

It was meaningless concealment, for the warrior had found his mark and the hunt was on.

Bang!

His feet flashing in crimson, the earth shattered as Joshua used aura to push himself into the air at supersonic speeds just like an arrow hurrying urgently at its target.

In the blink of an eye, he has dived into the first wave, turning every pair of Gold and Supreme dragon eye to his location.

Joshua and Suralno’s fight had lasted for minutes but was rather discreet.

Compared to the sight of innumerable dragons charging at the altars and unleashing liquid fire and acidic vapor, the blue dragon’s defeat was too plain, too fast, and almost soundless.

It was an error on part of the dragons too that they never noticed that their Supreme ranks were rare and that they must be constantly aware of their zonal suppression.

Nevertheless, it was until Joshua reached the sky against the draconic tide that the other Supreme dragons noticed that Suralno who was supposed to guard the area has vanished.

“That dragon slayer is here!”

“Of course he won’t stay his hand!”

Cries of shock and alarm echoed in the sky above at the warrior’s sheer might. The mob of frenzied dragons was somehow able to suddenly forget their masters’ directive and escape in all directions in panic.

But given how saturated the Gray Island was with dragons now, where could they run? As every variety of those winged beasts hovered around trying to move into safer positions, their sharp, ear-shattering cries rang, spreading bedlam across the airspace.

Due to fear, many of the fliers started to throw dragon breaths and corrosive vapors at the general direction of the warrior signaled by his red combat aura. the spellcasting ones behind also generously throw all sorts of hex and curses to stop his dashing to delay him until other Extreme dragons came. Magical radiance shrouded the battlefield while masses of elemental vapors and acidic fog floated to the air. Still, there were many flying dragons dropping from the sky like an outlandish rain, but most of them were downed by friendly-fire instead of the warrior’s axe and sword.

“Quick, stop him!”

The Gold-tier white dragon who was overseeing the area cautioned likely towards any of its comrades in the immediate vicinity with Dragon Tongue and Spirit Sense. “Don’t let that monster crumble the formation!” It shrieked at the top of its lungs.

But the dragons were screaming out too, causing pandemonium in the skies.

“High levels of energy compression signature—dead ahead!”

“Detalna, dodge! He’s right in front of you!”

“Fourth Squadron! Shift and dive, evasive maneuvers!”

“Watch it, he’s here!”

Shrouded in a concentrated red-black aura, Joshua’s pure lifeforce was converted into a half-physical barrier that nullifies all magic. Flying silently at supersonic speed, he cut down any dragon within a ten-meter diameter circle through one score of those reptiles after another. Both giant and flying dragons were in mayhem; their attacks and obstruction not doing any meaningful damage to him.

When Joshua alone was about split apart two dragon platoons and approach his target, a long bellow rang as a giant white dragon tore across the clouds and rocketed towards the warrior at extremely cold temperatures.

It was almost sixty-meters—far larger than any run-of-the-mill white dragon. Flapping its wings, it blanketed the heavens and strode forward like a plummeting meteor carrying the energy to shatter everything.

A breath lower than a hundred and fifty degrees Celsius ejected out of its mouth, and under its spiritual compelling a large number of the panicking dragons changed directions, screaming as they flew towards the red bunch of lights.

“Kill him!”

Towards the human warrior with unfathomable power and talent, every giant dragon was of the same mindset—kill first, anything else comes later. Such was the reputation of Joshua the dragon slayer, whose very name brings terror into even adult dragons.

Early on, the dragon kind had dedicated a special ambush team to try to assassinate him.

Still, it ended in failure, and that madman now was rushing forward into the swarm alone as if seeking death.

On the surface, the clergy deeply entrenched within the temples found that the pressure had alleviated and the incessant black dragon storm had vanished in seconds.

Then, one of the priests who knew Joshua then looked up to find that rather eye-catching ball of red-black light. “The count has moved!” he cried. “Let’s carve a path for him!”

Although unsure of Joshua’s intentions, they understood that it was most likely to take the initiative to take an Extreme dragon’s head and level the combat abilities. And so with that cry, the entire northwestern squadron of clergies switched from defense to attack, reversing their shield’s energy to attack the dragons above.

“For the Seven!”

“For mankind!”

Warcries raged while the compact formation of divine light patterns formed above the temples. It was the gathering energies of the Sacred Light, loaded to the brim in no time at all. At the crisp order from a commander, a cluster projectile was fired, spreading faint golden lines into the air that was so saturated it was as if there was a rising golden yellow cloud.

And where that cloud passed countless dragons were vaporized as if struck by a magma wall. Whatever was left of them that got past the seams between the light patterns rained down with the pungent smell of blood

At the crater where Suralno was, a frail blue-haired ‘elf’ who looked like a bard climbed out and looked on in astonishment at the carnage Joshua left in his wake.

It may have been a special ability from the warrior’s weapons that the blue dragon’s gaping wound could not be cured. Suralno tried everything futilely and almost fainted from the loss of blood, before helplessly changing into human form as a final act out of desperation.

And the moment he climbed out of the crater he saw the warrior’s assault into the swarm as if he had reached a threshold that was above human. Thousands of dragons wailed due to his attack while corpses and insides dropped like falling rain.

Suralno’s pressed his right palm on his chest and gulped again.

It seems that the warrior did hold back against him.

Because of Joshua’s movements, the entire Gray Island’s fortifications changed significantly. Countless people, dragons as well as discreet spectators turned their eyes to the warrior, and where he was turned into the heart of the battlefield.

Still, the warrior did not care.

The greatsword in his hand danced and squarely struck the white dragon that wanted to throw its weight on him. It was a bowling ball to the warrior, flung towards the corner where most of the other dragons were gathered—and thus the white dragon as well as the other dragons it collided with dropped from the air to the dirt.

Without bothering whether his opponents were now mushed meat or ground meat, Joshua accelerated and pushed on—the world around him turning into a blur. All attacks and spells simply could not keep up with his speed, and he even felt as if he had blown a hole inside any dragons that could not dodge in time. Vapors of blood splattered, while the sturdy dragon scales and bones were as tough as cookies at the concentrated aura strikes.

But the warrior did not care.

The red eyes only saw one target, and it was the panicking red dragon dead ahead.