[Hand over! The dragon!]

The Bone Drake lunged with a shriek.

Walfred kicked off the icy floor that shattered as if exploding and shot out like a cannonball.

In that instant, a thrill ran through his whole body.

’My body is incredibly light!’

It wasn’t just a feeling of having lost weight. It was a buoyancy, as if wings had sprouted from his back.

Every muscle in his body screamed, giving off a vitality that felt ready to burst. Surely it was because the Blessing of the Frost Dragon and the physical enhancement of the Frost Domain were stacked together.

’With this...!’

He could fight just fine.

Having gained confidence, Walfred arrived above the Bone Drake’s head in an instant. He then swung his axe and brought it down hard on the crown of its skull.

Kraboom!

With the stacked physical enhancements, his strength had grown immensely too. Just swinging the axe alone sent a considerable shockwave swirling out.

Meanwhile, the drake twisted its body violently to shake Walfred off. With that, the ice walls all crumbled and the passage itself collapsed.

Krrrrrumble! Thud! Boom!

Chunks of ice rained down from every direction.

If he stayed like this, he’d be crushed, so Walfred quickly broke away from the Bone Drake.

Then, as if it had been waiting for Walfred to come down, the thing swung its tail.

Fwoom! Krakakaka!

The Bone Drake’s tail came flying, tearing through the air. A speed his eyes would normally have struggled to follow. But it was different now.

’I can see it!’

The angle at which each joint of bone making up the tail moved.

The direction the tail’s tip was aiming, right down to its trajectory.

Everything looked as vivid as slow motion, so he dodged the attack easily.

Kraboom!

Having failed to hit Walfred, the tail flew on and smacked into a nearby ice wall. And its force was quite different from what he’d seen at Prospect Park Station.

’Way weaker than what I saw before.’

There was only one reason.

It was because the baby dragon in his arms had landed a debuff with the Frost Dragon’s roar, cutting all of the Bone Drake’s stats in half.

"Burst!"

Seizing the moment while the tail was lodged in the ice wall, Walfred used [Instant Burst] to close in right under the thing’s nose.

Then he spun his body, loaded his strength into the ice axe, and once again struck the head hard.

Thwack! Kraboom!

A powerful blow, and the shockwave it raised.

The force was so strong that a heavy recoil traveled up through his wrists. But the thing’s skeleton was far harder than he’d expected.

For all that he’d hit it so hard, all it amounted to was a small scratch.

’Is it because its freezing resistance is high?’

When he first faced the Bone Drake.

Jonah, the leader of the Silicon Alley Shelter, had said it. That the Bone Drake had an 80% resistance to every attribute except light and life.

At that level, attacks barely worked at all, but Walfred had a solution.

’The Ice Shatter mark.’

The special skill granted by the Blessing of the Frost Dragon.

If he could leave an Ice Shatter mark on the Bone Drake, he could neutralize its freezing resistance.

A target that had been given the Ice Shatter mark would take damage that ignored its freezing/cold resistance.

’The chance of leaving a mark is 10 percent.’

Since it left a mark with a 10% chance on each attack, attacking as often as possible was better than landing one strong blow.

Walfred eased up a little on the hand gripping the axe. Had the drake realized in the meantime that swinging its tail wasn’t going to bring Walfred down?

[I’ll give you! Your end!]

The Bone Drake suddenly backed away.

What’s it trying to do? Walfred gripped his axe, wary of the thing’s movement. Just then, the Bone Drake’s maw split wide open.

Fwoosh!

What appeared next was a purple flame flickering beyond its empty throat. And in that moment, his vision flashed red.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Powerful mana detected.]

[A breath attack will activate soon.]

"...!?"

A breath. The one-hit-kill attack skill used by dragons and drakes. It was a skill famous as a wide-area destruction technique that laid waste to everything around it.

Walfred braced his legs.

Then, right before the breath attack activated.

"Burst!"

He activated [Instant Burst].

And.

Fwoosh! Krakakakaka!

From the Bone Drake’s mouth, a fireball shot out toward the spot where Walfred had been just a moment ago.

The scorching breath melted the surrounding ice walls in an instant. Not only that, it boasted heat so powerful that it even left scorch marks on some of the ice walls.

"That’s insane..."

It was tremendous power.

Even though he’d gotten quite far from the area the breath swept through, the lingering heat was enough to briefly deactivate the Frost Domain.

Feeling a shiver run down his spine.

Walfred reset his stance.

And before the Bone Drake that had fired the breath could regroup, he quickly ran along the wall and slipped into the thing’s blind spot.

"Haah!"

Leaping into the air, Walfred brought his axe down on the thing’s spine. He reduced the force and increased the speed, landing more hits than before.

This tactic worked perfectly.

[Blessing of the Frost Dragon: ’Ice Shatter’ mark applied]

[Ignoring the target’s freezing tolerance.]

[Duration: 30 seconds]

’Got it!’

The Ice Shatter mark had been applied.

The moment he realized it, he gripped the ice axe tight. And unlike just before, he delivered a powerful blow with all his strength.

Kraboom! Crack!

The Bone Drake’s spine was crushed.

A completely different result from before, when he’d barely managed a scratch. Meanwhile, struck by Walfred’s attack, the Bone Drake shrieked in pain and thrashed about.

[A mere monkey! Like you! Dares...!]

Realizing that Walfred could deal it damage, the thing spread its wings and tried to fly up into the air.

But Walfred had no intention of letting it go.

Bang! Kraboom! Bang bang!

Forcing his way into the broken spine, he poured out powerful blows in succession. Whether thanks to Ice Shatter’s effect, the thing’s skeleton crumbled fast, like icicles.

Soon the inside of the thing’s body was in plain view.

But there was nothing there. No organs or muscles making up the body, and no mana stone either.

’No mana stone?’

Walfred was bewildered.

Every Elite Monster’s weak point was the mana stone somewhere in its body. But nothing resembling a mana stone could be seen in the Bone Drake’s body.

’Doesn’t seem to be in the head area either...’

Normally, a mana stone existed near the head or the heart. Yet nowhere in the Bone Drake’s body could a mana stone be found.

As he was swallowing nothing but confusion.

[This is! Pointless!]

The drake spun its body as if in a desperate struggle.

The motion of it whirling in place like a top threw Walfred off balance and sent him flying. Catching himself in midair, he landed lightly on the ground.

And then.

Something unbelievable happened.

"...!"

The Bone Drake’s spine, half-destroyed by the fierce assault, began rapidly fusing back together.

He’d worked so hard to break it, and now it was regenerating, of all things.

Walfred’s face crumpled hard.

’This won’t do.’

There was no chance of winning with a simple slugfest.