Chapter 158: The Strength of the Komodo Dragon

Unedited*

Malakor looked at the Komodo Dragon circling Edward and froze.

"One of those little dragons? Where on earth did he get it?" he wondered in shock.

It wasn’t just where he’d gotten it from—how on earth had he managed to tame one of those proud beasts?

Although it wasn’t a dragon, it had dragon blood. They’re so proud that they never let anyone tame them. He’d only ever seen a couple kept as pets by the Cardinals, forced into submission with iron.

But for it to follow him obediently without needing to be enslaved? This was the first time he’d ever seen that.

’Who are these humans? It looks like I’ll have to ask Lord Groking.’ Malakor watched him carefully, not wanting to miss a thing.

Edward, for his part, was too busy to worry about Malakor’s thoughts.

When his Komodo Dragon appeared and struck fear into the spirits around him, he, too, prepared himself. With his sword in hand, he kept his eyes fixed on the three spirits, even though they were far apart.

The Headless Horseman seemed to have no time to waste. After recovering from the initial fear caused by the strange feeling that had struck him, he swung his lance from bottom to top and made his horse charge frantically forward.

The horse’s hollow eyes glowed with a deadly reddish hue. It wasn’t blood; it was madness. The madness of the dead.

The ten-meter gap was covered in an instant. The Headless Horseman’s mighty spear lunged forward, seeking Edward’s head.

Even though he couldn’t see, his senses told him where his enemy was and indicated that it was he who had summoned that strange beast that made every pore of his body shudder.

The Komodo Dragon opened its mouth, and fire shot out from its mouth toward the front. It wasn’t an attack; it was simply its breath as it prepared for combat.

It took two steps forward and lashed its tail forward. The tail burst into crimson flames with strange dark fragments and lunged toward the spear.

[Komodo Fire Dragon Ability: Sunset Whip has been activated.]

[Beware of the thermal shockwave.]

The tail struck the spear with great force, generating a thermal shockwave that cracked the ground and instantly charred the horse’s hooves.

At the same time, the powerful impact sent the Headless Horseman flying backward several meters. He tumbled across the ground as the Komodo Dragon’s overwhelming force shook him to his core.

The Komodo Dragon advanced without looking back at a speed that something so massive shouldn’t possess. As soon as it reached the wounded undead horse, it wrapped its tail around its neck and "strangled" it; though perhaps the correct word would be that it shattered its neck and destroyed its core, reducing it to a pile of ash-colored bones.

But it didn’t stop.

It continued on its way swiftly until it caught up to the Headless Horseman. A powerful and peculiar spirit, whom the dragon itself recognized as a worthy rival after seeing that it had withstood its first attack without too much damage.

The moment it reached him, it opened its mouth with a loud roar.

"ROOOAR!"

[Komodo Fire Dragon Ability: Breath of the Dead’s Combustion has been activated.]

[Life-consuming fire emerges...]

No fire came out of its mouth as usual, but rather a dense, gray, heavy flame that struck the Headless Rider, who was trying to get back up.

The blow landed on his legs due to the attacker’s limited size, causing the Headless Rider to lose his balance. But the damage... was lacking.

Even the Komodo Dragon himself was perplexed by how little damage he had dealt. He saw himself as stronger than he had just demonstrated.

The Headless Horseman sensed an opening in that instant. His body was enveloped in cursed energy, and his spear—still in his hand—struck the Komodo dragon’s right side.

It was a dangerous and powerful attack. He had caught it completely off guard.

Its tail was in the middle of a movement, but its body couldn’t move again, as it had just arrived and come to a sudden halt.

The attack was destined to strike.

CLANK!

With a powerful impact that echoed throughout the surroundings, the Headless Rider was knocked backward. A shower of crimson sparks erupted from the impact and rained down on the Headless Rider.

[Skin of Eternal Embers: passive ability.]

[Beware the Crimson Dragon Blood Sparks...]

Even though he had caught his opponent off guard, the Rider was powerless against that defensive ability. Moreover, the crimson sparks that rained down on him dealt him heavy damage.

The spear was corroded in an instant. And his legs were riddled with holes.

The Komodo Dragon suddenly flew into a rage. To be caught off guard like that... in front of his master! Unforgivable!

His thoughts became chaotic, and fury coursed through his body. From his paws to the tip of his tail and his head, he would use everything to kill his opponent...

Edward watched the battle unfolding before him in complete shock. But he had concerns on the other side.

The Weeping Mother constantly tried to help the Headless Rider, but because of Edward, she couldn’t reach him.

Meanwhile, the Ritualist Spirit tried to prevent it at all costs, using various rituals and peculiar spells.

Just by watching them fight, Edward could tell that they hadn’t been Sanguines in life, but humans.

’Although I don’t understand what they’re doing here, if I manage to get a piece of them, maybe I’ll understand a little better.’

But he was having trouble.

That Weeping Mother wasn’t like the other female spirits, who only had one attack; if you could figure out their pattern, that was enough to defeat them.

This woman was... a spiritual necromancer!

She attacked using spirits and had near-perfect control over cursed energy. Fighting her was so difficult that Edward had to be extra careful to protect himself.

The Weeping Mother was fighting with four spirits surrounding her, while using cursed energy as if it were spiritual energy to attack him from a distance, employing magic from a completely unknown branch.

The only thing Edward could make out about that strange spirit was that all its attacks took the form of sharp javelins. Therefore, he was able to brace himself for them.

His sword sliced through every javelin thrown and decapitated the spirits assisting it for the third time in a row. Just then, a ritual spell formed beneath his feet.

He quickly swung his sword and stabbed it into the spell at that very moment, shattering it before it could activate.

Then he leaped backward once to dodge a sharp javelin that plunged into the ground as if it were tofu, and swung his sword horizontally once more, this time to feint an attack.

Several shards of death shot out from different parts of his body at high speed, traveling the distance toward the two spirits that were giving him trouble.

It was the first time he had attacked using shards.

She used four of them in the attack.

The Weeping Mother scoffed at this attack with a snort that escaped from her sealed mouth.

She immediately created the javelins needed to shatter them all—those heading toward her and those heading toward her companion.

The javelins were precise. They struck each of the fragments, shattering them.

"Nice shot," said Edward, appearing behind her. "Too bad, too slow."

His voice made the spirit tremble. It tried to create an attack, but it didn’t have time.

It braced itself for the impact and prepared to use its body as a mine to detonate a part of itself, but... it didn’t happen.

Instead, to its right, a short distance away, the ritualist spirit was struck by a barrage of attacks.

The spirit was sent flying dozens of meters through the air, and as it fell, it rolled another ten meters before coming to a stop, nearly dead.

Just then, a shard struck the Weeping Mother.

She froze instantly, overwhelmed by the shard’s effects.

Her strange, lifeless eyes seemed filled with confusion. She couldn’t understand when this human had attacked with shards again... Where had they come from? How had he launched them?

Perhaps her mind was filled with questions.

Edward seized that moment to close in on her and attack with all his might, aiming to decapitate her. Although he had failed to decapitate the ritualist spirit because it had a magic barrier around its neck, he wasn’t going to fail with this one.

"Arghh!"

Suddenly, a cry of pain and a sharp stab in his chest made Edward tremble. He stopped dead in his tracks just before he struck her...

His Komodo Dragon was sent flying toward him, its body riddled with wounds.

Edward intercepted it with precision and looked, in shock, at the Headless Rider.

Both were wounded, but his Komodo Dragon had suffered the most.

It had wounds in various parts of its body, and though it was furious, it seemed to recognize the Headless Rider as a worthy opponent—something unusual.