Chapter 146
Dragon Breath.
Also known as the Breath of a Dragon.
Kwoaaaaaa—!
The massive jaws of the Red Dragon Solitas opened wide.
A dreadful torrent of heat poured from its throat.
Wildly.
Like a raging storm.
It burned, destroyed, and surged through space.
“……!”
Javier’s eyes widened.
That’s dangerous.
He had to evade immediately.
Instinct before thought.
Perception before instinct.
The moment he sensed it, Javier was already moving.
Swoosh!
He reached out his right hand.
He didn’t draw his sword.
Instead, he grabbed Lloyd’s shoulder.
He bent his waist low, thrust his left hand inward between Lloyd’s inner thigh and groin, and lifted.
Naturally, his shoulder supported Lloyd’s torso.
Just like that, he hoisted him up as if lifting a sack of rice.
It was almost identical to the casualty-carrying method taught in the modern Republic of Korea Army.
“Urgh?”
Lloyd gasped beside his ear.
There was no time to respond.
Javier kicked off the ground.
Thud—!
He leapt.
With Lloyd slung over his shoulder.
The next instant, the space where they had stood was engulfed by the breath.
Kwooooom—!
The torrent swept past them, consuming everything nearby.
A chill ran down his spine at the overwhelming sight.
At the same time, Javier noticed something strange.
‘It’s not hot.’
The breath was sweeping by right beside them.
He was about to draw his sword, ready to form an aura barrier.
He would need it to block at least some of the deadly heat.
His hand gripped the hilt tightly out of reflex.
‘Why isn’t it hot?’
There was no heat at all.
Even though the stream of breath passed barely three meters away,
he felt nothing more than a faint warmth.
‘Why?’
It was odd.
Even a small campfire would feel hotter than this.
Even standing before a grill would sometimes make one’s face flush.
But there was no time to ponder.
Tap! Whish!
He landed and immediately kicked off the ground again,
widening the distance from the falling breath.
Then a memory flashed in his mind—about two hours ago.
‘Could it be because of that cream Lloyd gave me earlier?’
It was right before they entered the Flame Cavern.
He hadn’t expected to actually find a dragon’s dungeon.
When the massive dungeon appeared before his eyes, he had been shocked beyond words.
And at that moment, Lloyd handed him a large bottle.
‘Apply it all over your body. If you don’t want to burn to death, be thorough.’
He had wondered what that meant.
When he uncorked it, a pleasant fragrance spread.
It was Elensia sap, brought from the Elven Forest.
‘You sure this isn’t mixed with soybean oil? Pure concentrate?’
Lloyd had said it casually, as if doing him a favor.
He told him to strip and coat himself thoroughly,
his clothes, armor, even his sword, leaving no gaps.
‘Don’t be stingy. It’s precious, but it’s still cheaper than your life. So slather it on—thick. Enough to block not just heat, but maybe human interaction too.’
So he did.
Not even a strand of hair was left untouched.
Not a single crack of dry skin was left bare.
‘So that’s what it was for.’
Javier realized it now.
He understood.
The Elensia sap had a much greater insulation effect than he had imagined.
‘That’s why he looked so confident.’
He had wondered what gave Lloyd the courage to enter a dragon’s dungeon so calmly.
What gave him the guts to face a dragon without flinching.
“Did you seriously calculate that coating ourselves in Elensia sap would let us survive a dragon’s breath?”
“Well, yeah.”
As soon as they landed, Javier set Lloyd down.
He shoved him into a crevice between rocks and hid with him.
Lloyd chuckled faintly at being treated like baggage.
It was true—he’d trusted in the Elensia sap.
“I heard about it, you know.”
“Heard what?”
“That the Iron Blooded Knight used this method.”
“The Iron Blooded… Knight?”
“Yeah.”
That was true as well.
In the novel *Iron Blooded Knight*, Javier had used the same method.
He coated himself in Elensia sap and wore armor hardened from it.
Then he fought this very Red Dragon—Solitas.
And what happened?
Even when hit directly by its breath, he was unharmed.
He fought for three days and nights,
and in the end, he cut off Solitas’s horn.
The Red Dragon, realizing defeat, fled.
So coating one’s body with pure Elensia sap was a proven countermeasure against Red Dragons.
“But there’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
Javier’s eyes gleamed.
“You mentioned this before, but who exactly is this Iron Blooded Knight?”
“The Iron Blooded Knight?”
“Yes.”
Who else could it be?
It was him.
Lloyd smirked and replied shamelessly,
“Someone way more handsome, stronger, and popular than you.”
“……Really?”
“Wow. Look at that instant doubt.”
“Even if such a knight existed, this is still reckless.”
“Reckless? In what way?”
“Facing a dragon, of course.”
Javier’s gaze turned serious.
He glanced toward the dragon’s breath, which was finally subsiding.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve by meeting a dragon, but a dragon is no trivial opponent. It’s a being you face only if you’re prepared to die. Did you not consider that risk at all?”
“Oh, I did.”
“Then why—”
“Because I calculated that with you here, it’ll be fine.”
“Pardon?”
Javier frowned, his brows twitching.
What kind of reasoning was that?
As the last stream of breath died down, his expression turned urgent.
Lloyd looked at him and said,
“I get that facing a dragon for the first time is nerve-racking, but don’t be scared.”
“What do you—”
“Go fight it.”
“Huh?”
Lloyd gave him a gentle push.
Caught off guard, Javier stumbled out of the rock crevice.
“Lloyd?”
Javier’s eyes widened.
Lloyd clenched his fist toward him and shouted cheerfully,
“Fighting.”
“……!”
That insane young master!
But Javier couldn’t yell back.
Even if he wanted to, there was no time.
He had locked eyes with the Red Dragon Solitas.
Whooong—!
Without hesitation,
as if swatting a fly that had entered its den,
Solitas’s massive tail lashed out like a whip.
“Hup!”
Javier drew his sword.
But he didn’t intend to block that tail head-on.
‘First, I need to get Lloyd to safety.’
Flash!
He kicked off the ground,
moving as far away as possible from where Lloyd was hiding.
Fortunately, the dragon’s tail followed him instead.
It fell like a mountain collapsing from above.
Kwooooom—!
The earth shook violently.
The entire dungeon trembled.
Javier barely avoided the debris and the shockwave as he sprinted.
‘It’s faster than I thought.’
Cold sweat ran down his back.
That tail strike had come half a beat faster than he anticipated.
‘If I’d been a little slower, I’d have been crushed instead of luring it away.’
A chill crawled up his spine.
One hit from that, and it would all be over.
Even a Sword Master wouldn’t survive.
So he made up his mind.
‘Then I’ll be faster.’
Whirrr—!
Three mana circles roared to life.
His movements grew sharper.
Tap tap tap!
He launched himself,
dashing like the wind,
running along the walls against gravity.
From above, Solitas unleashed a storm of attacks.
Crash!
It whipped its tail,
stomped with its forelegs,
and spread its wings to create violent gusts.
Flames froze, ice exploded, and whirlwinds tore the air apart.
Yet Javier narrowly dodged every blow.
He lured Solitas farther and farther from Lloyd’s position.
Watching from a distance, Lloyd was convinced.
‘As expected.’
Javier was strong.
Even stronger than his counterpart from the novel.
Even compared to the time when he fought Solitas in the story.
So today, there was no way Javier would lose to that Red Dragon.
‘That’s why I brought you. Besides, that dragon’s not as scary as it looks.’
The master of this Flame Cavern—
the Red Dragon Solitas—
was powerful, yes,
but not among the strongest of dragons.
‘Sure, all dragons are powerful. No creature can match them. But among dragons, he’s practically at the bottom. Why? Because he’s young—barely an adult.’
The story of *Iron Blooded Knight* came to mind.
It was during Javier’s adventure in the Elven Forest.
At the end of that arc, he had fought Solitas.
That was when Solitas’s details were revealed.
‘He’s young. Around 1,050 years old. Barely fifty years past hatching. In human terms, about the age of a recent high school graduate.’
A dragon’s strength grows with age.
The older they get, the stronger they become.
‘It’s like a person’s financial power. Assuming a stable career, the older they get, the more wealth they accumulate. So if you convert Solitas’s combat power into economic terms, he’s about as wealthy as someone who’s been working for a month after graduation.’
That was the true measure of the Red Dragon Solitas’s strength.
‘So, Javier—you can win. Don’t flinch. Overwhelm him. Show your superiority.’
To show the difference in power.
To prove their difference in class.
That was what Javier needed to do today.
It was essential for Lloyd’s next plan.
‘Whether human or dragon, when they meet someone stronger, their anger and pride shrink. That’s why—you have to crush his spirit. Then he’ll be ready to hear my proposal. That’s where negotiation begins.’
The grand aqueduct he planned to build.
The sludge that would be discharged from it.
To handle it efficiently, he needed the dragon’s help.
And to gain that help, he had to persuade him.
‘Javier, don’t just dodge—hit him!’
Lloyd watched eagerly, as though waving a glow stick at a concert.
From the distance, Javier danced between spaces, narrowly evading Solitas’s relentless attacks.
A glint of resolve flashed in his eyes.
‘Dragging this out will only make things worse. Lloyd will be in danger. I’ll strike hard and fast—create an opening and retreat.’
He couldn’t just keep running.
Fighting a dragon head-on was reckless, yes,
but stalling endlessly was even dumber.
So he would unleash everything in one blow.
A full-powered strike to break the dragon’s assault.
When Solitas faltered, he’d grab Lloyd and escape.
‘I can do it.’
Retreat over confrontation.
His decision was made.
His gaze turned icy.
Without hesitation—
without holding back—
he acted.
Crack!
His grip tightened around the hilt.
It was time for the counterattack.
Whirrr—!
Three mana circles spun fiercely.
They drew in mana.
Amplified it.
Pushed it into his Mana Heart.
Boom! Boom!
The Mana Heart pulsed violently,
absorbing the amplified energy.
With each heartbeat,
it compressed, refined, and intensified the flow—
pure mana, stripped of all excess, packed to the limit.
Boom! Another surge.
Screeeech—!
From Javier’s blade, two opposing auras erupted.
One sharp and clear, like frost.
The other gentle and heavy, like flowing flame.
They intertwined,
pushing and pulling,
merging and clashing—
until, finally, they collided.
Thwooom—!
A massive explosion radiated from the sword’s center.
At the same time, a similar blast flared around Javier’s heart.
It was [Confined Blasting].
Kwooooom—!
Two mana circles collided around his heart.
The shockwave of mana surged through his veins,
racing to his hand, engulfing the blade.
The two forces—
the clash of auras, the blast of mana—
merged together.
Amplifying one another.
Becoming a torrent of destruction that swept everything away.
It shot forward—
toward the Red Dragon’s shoulder—
fierce and unstoppable.
Crash!
Javier’s [Confined Blasting] strike pierced through the dragon’s shoulder in one blow.