Chapter 147
Crash!
The cutting force of aura rode along the [Confined Blasting].
It burned through the air and space, surging forward—
and pierced the dragon’s shoulder in a single strike.
“……Gaaahhh!”
The Red Dragon, Solitas, screamed before he even realized it.
His shoulder had been pierced in an instant.
A hole about fifty centimeters wide had opened there.
Of course, compared to his massive body, it was small. And since the wound was in his shoulder, it wasn’t life-threatening either.
For a human, it was like having a pencil or pen jabbed into your shoulder—just that much.
But just because it wasn’t fatal didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
It hurt.
It hurt like hell.
As a proud dragon born of this land, Solitas had never been injured like this before.
This was his first time feeling such an unknown kind of pain.
His mouth opened wide in shock.
There was no time to endure it or act dignified.
“G-Grrraaaahhh!”
Tears almost welled up from the pain.
He suddenly missed his mother dearly.
Healing magic didn’t even cross his mind.
“Gaaah! Aaaagh!”
He stumbled back several dozen meters in a panic.
Cold sweat poured from between his scales.
‘What kind of human is that?!’
He was flustered.
He couldn’t comprehend it.
Solitas’s gaze fixed on Javier.
‘That’s a human, right?’
It was.
He could find no trace of polymorph magic on him.
So yes, it was a pure human—
and yet, that tiny stick of a sword had pierced his shoulder in a single blow.
‘If that attack had hit somewhere else instead of my shoulder…’
If it had struck his head, neck, or chest?
If that blade had pierced his forehead or his windpipe?
“……”
It wouldn’t have just ended with pain.
He would’ve been in far deeper trouble.
‘I don’t get it. How’s this even possible? He’s human. I’m a dragon. And yet a human pierced my shoulder with one strike?’
If someone wrote this in a novel, readers would mock it as pure nonsense.
But this nonsense had become reality.
Pain, confusion, disbelief—
and soon, another emotion crept in.
Anger.
‘How dare he.’
Fwoooosh—!
The Red Dragon Solitas’s eyes changed.
At the same time, his enormous body glowed white.
A powerful healing spell activated.
The hole in his shoulder closed in an instant.
But his pride didn’t heal.
‘You think you can humiliate me like that and live?!’
He spread his massive wings wide.
A gust strong enough to send houses flying swept across the dungeon as he charged forward.
Every step crushed the ground and made the entire dungeon quake.
His gigantic head—like a battering ram a hundred times over—swung down, sweeping across the area where Javier stood.
Kwooooom—!
His neck and head together stretched over forty meters long.
It was an overwhelming mass, a strike imbued with monstrous power.
The floor cracked apart.
The walls crumbled.
The ceiling collapsed.
With a single blow, part of the dungeon’s central chamber vanished without a trace.
Yet Solitas didn’t stop.
He couldn’t.
Because the human who pierced his shoulder—
the human who shoved his pride into the mud—
was still dodging his attacks effortlessly.
“You little flea!”
Whooosh!
Like an eagle chasing a gnat.
Like a polar bear trying to grab a snowflake.
Solitas flailed wildly, lashing his wings and limbs.
He swung his head and neck, stomped with his hind legs, clawed the air, and whipped up hurricanes with his wings.
It was destruction incarnate.
The dungeon’s great hall crumbled and shattered in real time.
But Javier couldn’t be caught.
He dodged every furious strike from the Red Dragon.
Like a mosquito hovering over a pillow in the summer night.
Like fine dust slipping through a winter mask filter.
He evaded every attack.
Effortlessly.
“……”
Javier felt a tinge of confusion.
He wasn’t out of breath.
He could read every move of the dragon.
As he dodged another massive claw strike, he thought,
‘Is this dragon weak?’
Or was he just strong?
He wasn’t sure which.
But one thing was clear—
fighting this dragon wasn’t nearly as difficult as he had feared.
‘Yeah… this is doable.’
A faint smile tugged at Javier’s lips.
The dragon was rampaging in fury, attacking with destructive force.
But somehow, it wasn’t scary.
It wasn’t even burdensome.
The dragon’s attacks were fast and devastating—
but Javier was faster.
Even the dragon’s massive size and reach couldn’t suppress him.
There was always an opening.
He simply had to dodge through it—
and counter when he saw a chance.
Tap tap tap!
He kicked off the ground and soared into the air.
The dragon’s massive tail crashed down behind him.
He dodged by a hair’s breadth.
A deafening boom erupted below.
The floor shattered, spraying debris.
Hundreds of deadly stone fragments hurtled through the air.
Javier read every trajectory and speed in an instant.
His senses and reactions flowed together seamlessly.
He stepped on seven flying shards in a row,
springing upward as if climbing stairs in midair—
kicking, landing, redirecting,
and dashing through the sky.
Then he unleashed [Confined Blasting].
Thwack!
The recoil hurled his body forward.
He suddenly halted in midair—then dropped.
A dragon’s claw swept right past his face.
Whooosh!
The gigantic foreleg grazed him.
Javier instinctively thrust his sword forward.
Aura flared.
Slash! Crack!
Claw scales split open.
Five massive scales were cut away.
A gush of blood sprayed like water from a toppled kettle.
“Ouch!”
Solitas yelped, clutching his front claw—his pinky had been nicked.
The sting almost brought tears to his eyes.
But Javier showed no mercy.
Slash! Slash slash!
He landed right atop Solitas’s wrist.
His aura-infused blade slashed down mercilessly.
Three deep red lines carved across the dragon’s wrist.
“Graaah!”
Solitas flailed, shaking his injured claw.
He reached with the other paw to clutch it.
But Javier had already leapt away, landing safely in the distance.
‘What kind of—Argh!’
Solitas was on the verge of madness.
He finally understood the frustration of humans swatting at mosquitoes in the middle of the night.
No matter how he swung his claws.
No matter how he whipped his tail or beat his wings.
Even as he destroyed the entire area around him—
he couldn’t catch that tiny human.
‘Is that what they call a Sword Master? But that’s not what Mom told me! Those Sword Masters weren’t like this! He’s way stronger than the ones in the stories!’
Shocked, Solitas had to admit it.
In close combat, he stood no chance.
Not even with magic.
Against that silver-haired human, he was nothing but a giant punching bag.
And worse, he had enough endurance to make every hit feel satisfying to the attacker.
That left only one conclusion.
‘I need to run.’
Solitas decided.
A dragon’s pride?
If he stayed, he’d die.
No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t catch this human.
Meanwhile, that human was steadily damaging him.
If this dragged on, he would lose.
He hated to admit it, but—
‘I’d rather live than protect my pride!’
He still had nine thousand years left to live.
He wasn’t about to die here for pride’s sake.
‘You can’t eat pride. Living smart is better!’
So he’d flee.
Before he made things worse.
He’d hide somewhere else, build a new dungeon, and grow stronger—
then one day, get his revenge.
‘Fifty years should be enough. By then, that human will be old and weak. I’ll torment him slowly, make him regret ever touching me.’
Once decided, he acted fast.
The first step was his Breath.
“You arrogant human! Die! Hrrrrgh!”
Fwoooosh!
He shouted dramatically, inhaling deeply.
He filled his lungs, mixing his breath with mana from his Dragon Heart.
The heat within flared like wildfire.
Then he exhaled with all his might.
Kwoaaaaaa—!
A hellish blaze burst forth, engulfing the silver-haired human.
But Solitas wasn’t celebrating.
That breath was just a distraction.
He quickly moved to the next step of his escape plan.
‘Now!’
Flash!
He shifted his Mana Heart, rewriting his mana array.
His massive body began to change rapidly.
Shiiiiiing—
A mystical light enveloped him.
When it faded—
Solitas had taken human form.
The special magic that let dragons transform into any race—[Polymorph].
‘Good. Time to run for it.’
The once-massive dragon was gone.
In his place stood a tall young man with red hair.
Transformed, Solitas moved stealthily.
He sprinted toward the dungeon’s exit.
‘Faster! Just a little more!’
Before the aftermath of his Breath faded—
before that silver-haired human found him—
he had to get out.
Once outside, he’d use teleportation magic to escape completely.
That was his plan.
‘Damn it. If only I could use teleportation inside here…!’
As he ran toward the exit, Solitas grumbled.
Teleportation magic—
a wondrous spell that let one leap across great distances instantly.
But not here.
He couldn’t use it inside this dungeon.
He had personally installed anti-teleportation magic circles all throughout.
‘Stupid past me from fifty years ago!’
When he built this dungeon, he never thought he’d need to flee from someone.
He had simply followed standard dragon dungeon design.
The ones his mother had taught him.
A model dragon’s defensive dungeon.
He had carefully placed the anti-teleportation wards to keep intruders out.
‘Damn it! Damn it!’
Now those very wards stopped him.
If he tried teleporting, the coordinates would distort and twist—
and in the worst case, his body could be ripped apart and scattered.
Knowing that, Solitas ran even harder.
Toward the exit.
Toward survival.
Relying solely on his two legs.
And then—he met the nightmare again.
“Dragon?”
“……!”
Right ahead stood the silver-haired knight, appearing without a sound.
He was already pointing his sword straight at him, tilting his head in mild curiosity.
But his eyes—his eyes said it all.
You’re that red dragon from before, aren’t you?
And where do you think you’re running off to?
Solitas stammered, blurting out instinctively,
“I-I’m not a dragon.”
“……”
The knight’s expression hardened.
Solitas felt a chill run down his spine.
Even he knew how stupid that sounded.
He regretted using bright red hair for his polymorph disguise.
But it was too late.
The silver-haired knight raised his sword.
He stepped closer, blade aimed at Solitas’s neck.
Solitas knew.
‘I’m done for.’
He was cornered.
No time to revert to his true form.
If he tried, he’d be decapitated mid-change.
No chance with magic either—
the moment he gathered mana, he’d be cut down.
A surprise physical attack?
That wouldn’t work either.
‘If I couldn’t win in dragon form, I definitely can’t now.’
No chance of victory.
‘If only I were a thousand years older…’
He wouldn’t be losing to a mere human.
Solitas gritted his teeth, sensing his end.
As the silver-haired knight approached, he prepared one last desperate move.
If he was going to die—he’d take that human with him.
He steeled himself.
He stirred his Dragon Heart.
He rearranged the mana inside—
forcing every ounce of it to collide.
To detonate.
To unleash a catastrophic explosion that would annihilate the entire area.
He was ready.
And when the knight was three steps away—
‘Now!’
The young dragon clenched his teeth.
He pulled the trigger of self-destruction.
A tear gathered at the corner of his eye.
‘So unfair.’
He’d blow up in a moment—
die alongside that cursed human.
Without ever getting married.
Without ever dating anyone.
No hand-holding walks. No romantic dungeon drop-offs. No telepathic love letters.
No gently wiping whipped cream off someone’s lips with his breath.
No kneeling to propose, then smashing a mountaintop in embarrassment.
None of it.
He’d die a virgin, a ghostly bachelor dragon for eternity.
The thought filled him with deep regret.
Tears welled up, trembling at his lashes—
and just as they were about to fall—
“Hey there, Dragon? Mind hearing out my proposal for a second? I can guarantee you’ll be married within ten years.”
Out of nowhere, a honeyed voice of temptation reached his ears.