I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 743 : Ablaze In The Sky

Dredge grinned, unfazed by Erend's confidence.

"I've been waiting for you from the start, beast!" he sneered. "Why did you take so long to appear? Were you afraid?"

Erend threw his head back and laughed wildly.

"Afraid? Of you?" His crimson eyes gleamed with amusement. "I was just waiting for the right moment. If I wanted, I could kill you all in the blink of an eye."

Dredge's smirk vanished, replaced by a glare of pure fury. His teeth clenched. Then a deep mechanical whirring sound echoed from within his body.

The energy inside him surged, rising to a breaking point.

BOOM!

A crimson and black aura exploded outward from him, crackling with power that feels dangerous. The air around him twisted, distorting from the sheer force radiating from his body.

Erend felt the shift instantly. His instincts screamed at him — Dredge's strength had just increased severalfold.

Without hesitation, Erend flared his wings and shot backward, putting distance between them, but Dredge wasn't about to let him escape.

"HAAAAA!!!"

With a roar, Dredge launched toward him. His move faster than before. The sky cracked under the force of his movement, and in an instant he was arrived in front of Erend again.

Their battle erupted into a blur of brutal hand-to-hand combat in midair.

Dredge's right fist came in fast. He send a straight punch aimed at Erend's face.

Erend tilted his head at the last second, letting the strike graze past his cheek. He countered immediately, twisting his body and driving an elbow into Dredge's ribs.

THUD!

Dredge barely flinched. Instead, he grabbed Erend's arm with a powerful grip and yanked him forward, throwing a vicious knee toward his gut.

Erend reacted fast, tensing his core and twisting to the side. The knee barely missed, but before he could fully recover, Dredge followed up with a downward hammer fist.

"HYAAAAHH!"

BOOM!

Erend raised both arms just in time, blocking the strike, but the force sent him hurtling downward through the sky. The wind roared around him as he adjusted his wings to stop his descent.

But Dredge was already diving after him.

The moment Erend steadied himself, a spinning kick came from above. He barely dodged it and shifting his body to the side, but Dredge used the momentum to spin again, this time throwing a brutal backhand aimed at Erend's jaw.

CRACK!

The hit connected, hard.

Erend's head snapped to the side, but instead of retreating, he grinned.

His body twisted with the momentum, and in one fluid motion, he let the force carry him into a spinning roundhouse kick.

BUAGH!

His heel crashed into Dredge's shoulder, sending him reeling backward.

But the cyber-enhanced warrior recovered instantly, stabilizing himself midair. His eyes burned with rage.

Their power colliding in a fierce exchange of blows, but neither was willing to fall.

Dredge growled, his voice crackling with the raw energy inside him. "You're not as strong as you think, Dragonborn. I already become much stronger than before in short amount of time. How about you?"

Erend wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smirked. "I don't need to become stronger just to kill you. You're still just another bastard who's going to lose."

Dredge's fury burned hotter at Erend's words, his aura crackling with even greater intensity. His arm jerked to the side, and suddenly.

SHRRRK!

With a series of noisees from his forearm sleek black nanomachines slithered like living metal, crawling over his limb and shifting into shape.

Within seconds, two jagged swords formed in his hands, their edges lined with a pulsating red glow, vibrating with very clear destructive energy.

"You arrogant beast!" Dredge roared. "Let's see how long you can keep running that mouth after this!"

Without hesitation, he shot forward again, his swords humming with lethal intent as he swung them toward Erend in a deadly arc.

Erend's grin never faded. His own power surged in response.

His black-and-red Dragon Scales ignited across his body, encasing him in an armored hide of gleaming obsidian with streaks of fiery crimson glowing between the cracks. His muscles tensed and he was ready.

Instead of avoiding the attack, he let it come.

CLANG!

He raised his forearm to block the first strike, meeting the blade head-on. Sparks burst from the impact as the sword's energy edge scraped against his Dragon Scales, leaving a faint glowing cut across his arm.

Erend's eyes flickered as he examined the wound.

"Tch," he muttered. "So it does cut."

Dredge sneered, seeing the scratch. "Not so invincible now, are you?!"

But Erend just chuckled darkly. "Oh, this just makes it more fun."

And then they clashed again.

Dredge launched into a relentless flurry of slashes, his twin swords carving through the air with brutal speed.

The blades hummed with violent energy, leaving burning afterimages in their wake.

But Erend met every strike head-on, his scaled arms moving like shields, deflecting and redirecting the attacks.

SLASH!

CLANG!

A diagonal cut came from Dredge's right, Erend twisted his body, letting the blade graze his shoulder before retaliating with a downward strike from his clawed hand.

Dredge blocked, spinning with the impact to launch another counterattack.

WHOOSH!

A thrust aimed at Erend's chest, he pivoted and catching the blade between his hardened forearm and palm before kicking Dredge away.

BOOM!

Dredge flipped backward midair, his crimson eyes burning with rage. He hadn't expected Erend to adapt so quickly. Moreover, able to contend with his swords.

But Erend was just getting started.

With a flick of his wrist, a burst of flames surged from his claws, igniting the space between them.

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He lunged, fire roaring around his body.

Dredge lunged as well, his twin swords now blazing with crimson energy.

They met in the middle, their clash sending a powerful shockwave rippling through the air. Without wasting a second, Dredge swung his swords at high speed, his strikes relentless.

In rapid succession, he managed to land numerous slashes across Erend's Dragon Scales.

Now, Erend's body was covered in hundreds of glowing crimson scratches, each mark left by Dredge's vicious attacks.

Seeing this, Dredge grinned wildly before stepping back.

"How does that feel?" he asked.

Erend smirked, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off the attacks.

"I barely feel anything," he said. "These scales are stronger than your little toys, you know."

Dredge's grin only widened. "Is that so?" His crimson eyes glowed ominously. "Well, I've barely started as well."

Then, with a subtle flicker in his gaze, something activated.

Erend's eyes narrowed in suspicion just as the scratches across his body — those shallow, glowing crimson slashes — suddenly flared to life, their radiance intensifying in an instant.

A strange sensation ran through his body, a deep, unnatural heat crawling beneath his skin.

Something was wrong.

BOOM!

One of the glowing marks exploded without warning, the force behind it far greater than Erend expected.

The blast sent him flying sideways several meters, the sheer impact making the air tremble. His wings flared, trying to stabilize himself, but then…

BOOM!

BOOM!

Two more marks detonated in unison, rocking his body from side to side as the explosions erupted across his scales. The force of the blasts sent shockwaves through the air and distorting it around them.

For the first time since their fight began, Erend gritted his teeth—not in pain, but in annoyance.

Dredge let out a victorious laugh, watching as the Dragonborn was thrown around by his hidden technique.

"Oh? Not so cocky now, are you?" he taunted. "You didn't even notice, did you? Each of those cuts I landed wasn't just a scratch—they were marks waiting to explode!"

Erend steadied himself midair, his wings beating powerfully. Smoke and residual crimson energy curled around him as he exhaled, his gaze locking onto Dredge once more.

"You think that's enough?" Erend asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Dredge tilted his head. "Well, if that didn't do it, how about a few more?"

With another flicker in his eyes, more of the glowing marks ignited.

Erend clenched his fists.

He then flared his own flames and in an instant a massive explosion erupted from his body, engulfing him in a furious blaze of dark crimson fire.

The force of his Dragon Flame burned away the lingering energy of the nano-explosives still embedded in his scales, purging them before they could detonate again.

The night sky was set ablaze, his inferno roaring like a living beast, its intensity swallowing everything in its reach.

For a few moments, it was as if a second sun had ignited in the darkness.

Then, as suddenly as it had come, the flames began to subside but they did not vanish. They coiled around Erend's body, flickering dangerously, alive with his rage.

He exhaled slowly, his gaze locking onto Dredge.

The cyber-enhanced warrior had lost his grin. His confidence wavered, just slightly, as he watched the Dragonborn emerge unscathed.

Erend didn't give him time to react. Without a word, he launching his attack.

FWOOOSH!

A searing beam of concentrated flame shot forth. It streaked through the air in an instant and hitting Dredge directly at the neck.

The deadly heat burned through flesh, metal, and reinforced cybernetics alike, piercing clean through the nape of his neck and out the other side.

For a moment, silence fell between them. Then, the smell of scorched metal and burnt flesh filled the air.

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