BXBX NOVEL Chapter 136 136: Ashes
Everything went slow as his perception was hugely accelerated by dozens of thousands of time. His aim, the dragon's throat, has been set for his sword to cleave.
But as his sword was about to reach its designed destination, at the very perfect timing, an extremely sturdy translucent membrane suddenly and instantly conjured itself between him and the black dragon.
Clank!
A sharp sound echoed throughout the desert as the ultra-fast sword clashed with the invincible shield. Due to the velocity of the blade, the carmine sword bounced off of the barrier along with the wielder.
"Shit!" Raphael lost his composure and yelled. He can't hold back his dismay at that miss; his only hope of killing the dragon has been wasted to nothing.
In the spur of his confidence in his move, Raphael had forgotten that the black dragon has the proficiency of eight in Pure Magic. Thus, raising the possibility of the dragon's accessibility to barrier magic, which Raphael has not expected the dragon to do.
Before the acquisition of the Godspeed unique skill, Raphael would have never had a chance of breaking the dragon's Anti-Physical Barrier. He has the Godspeed now, so breaking those barriers would do with a little difficulty.
But the barrier that the dragon has deployed right now was not just an ordinary Anti-Physical Barrier, it was greatly strengthened by a racial skill of its, the Elder Dragon Scales.
The Elder Dragon Scales do not only apply to the dragon's physical scales; they could also be used to enhance the defensive abilities the dragon had cast.
Though not as durable as the barrier of the mysterious caster, it is still utterly capable of blocking Raphael's hypersonic swing of his blade.
(I should have used the Absolute Severance instead.) He regretted this, then recomposed himself and adjusted his strategy to these unexpected circumstances.
The Sure as Death, his surefire and perfect move against the dragon's Immortal, has been spilled. There are still twenty-four hours before the cooldown resets, and Raphael has to find a new way to overcome the dragon.
"WHAT KIND OF POWER IS THAT, HUMAN?!" Still hovering in midair, surrounded by its spherical barrier, the dragon shouted on top of its lungs.
The dragon was as sure as death and truly terrified by the essence of Raphael's impending move. The dragon could not comprehend what really was happening at that time and didn't want to believe it at first.
But its internal alarms are annoyingly ringing in its mind so much more than what it felt when the dragon fought a supreme being. Instinctively, the dragon managed to deploy a full-powered barrier and miraculously blocked its absolute demise.
"HMPH. THAT WAS A CLOSE CALL, NOT GONNA LIE. BUT IT SEEMS THAT IT HAD GONE."
And after the interruption, that deadly essence suddenly vanished from Raphael. Once the threat was gone, the dragon undid the barrier and started to open its mouth wide.
"What?!"
Suddenly, Raphael felt like something unseen was pulling him all the way to the dragon's mouth, which was charging energy for a blast. But he recognized the spell the dragon had cast and its plan.
Raphael let his body be pulled by the dragon's Force Magic Level 6: Pull and led himself into the trajectory of its Dragon Blast, which the dragon just finished charging.
"DIE, YOU FLY!"
A heartbeat later, the Dragon Blast has been shot straight toward Raphael. But he actually had a plan against that. Right before the obliterating Dragon Blast hit his body, Raphael smirked and cast a spell in front of him.
"AAAHHH!!!" Shouted the black dragon in agony and reflexively shifted its attention to its back.
What the dragon found was something enigmatic but actually not. On its back, a round and noticeably deep and wide wound seemed to be burning.
The dragon had no idea how it actually happened, but it was certain of something. Its very own attack hit its back and inflicted much damage on it.
Once the dragon took a look at the human, all it could see was a wide, circular mirror reflection of its burning and gradually healing black back.
The dragon did not know what it was, but its Dragon Blast had been reflected towards its blind spot.
"How does it feel to be damaged by your own attack?" Raphael sneered and gazed at the dragon after peeking out from behind the spell.
The spell that Raphael cast was one of his convenient Space-Time Magic spells, along with the Warp, Portal.
By deploying a wide Portal in front of him, the Dragon Blast of the dragon that was supposed to hit its target, Raphael, has been swallowed by the Portal and transported to the other Portal, which was right behind the dragon, where he was able to throw it back.
It was just a whimsical decision, but it actually worked. And even if Raphael could not block it, he still had a magic spell that could leave him unscathed.
"I SEE. SO THAT IS WHY IT HURTS. AS EXPECTED OF MY ATTA—?!"
Before the dragon could finish its sentence, Raphael sent it a Dimension Slash. The dragon knew its danger and reflexively turned its massive body to barely evade it in time.
"YOU PUNY CREATURE! YOU DARE INTERRUPT ME?!"
The dragon went furious and chased the flying Raphael, sending a series of Dragon Blasts along with it.
"Take this! Light Cannons!" Flying, Raphael briefly glanced back and shot forth dozens of Level 8: Light Cannons.
Operating that much quantity of high-level spells requires complex calculation and concentration and an enormous amount of mana to take effect.
But it is not a problem for Raphael, for him to have dozens of parallel minds, a larger mana reservoir, and better magic usage because of his Ancient Dragon veins.
All of the beams dealt direct hits to the pursuing dragon, but it didn't seem to mind the beams and maintained its furious pace.
Raphael shot spells after spells, but the dragon couldn't stop chasing him. Minutes had passed, and Raphael could not let the chase go forever. He had consumed much mana and decided to change his plan and play it with closer gaps.
Raphael stopped himself from flying and turned around to face the dragon. He activated the Infernal Flame then Thermal Blade, setting his carmine blade ablaze in an extremely hot purple.
Knowing his next move might end in utter failure, Raphael gripped the hilt with his right hand and lunged his body towards his opponent.
Now that he had a super-fast skill on hand, he did not have to waste his precious mana by using it to activate a certain mana-sucking Level 10 spell.
With the assistance of his Mother's gift (which he secretly copied from her), Raphael had achieved high hypersonic speed, the minimum speed required in order to execute a certain move.
The toll of the air resistance has been damaging his body, but his Invincible One has taken care of that and focused his mind on his target, the rushing black dragon.
He is a few kilometers away from the dragon, but he was able to shrink their gap by several meters in just a matter of milliseconds, quick as a flash.
Once reaching a certain distance, Raphael immediately executed a technique that had put him in awe when performed by his Mother and Sister; the name of the technique is—
"Thousand Slice!"
In a flash, Raphael swung his sword a thousand times at the dragon at imperceivable speed, chopping a piece of flesh with every slash.
"WWAAAAHHH!!!"
Each of his slashes delivered lethal damage to the dragon due to its soul-scorching flames, so the dragon definitely felt so much physical and spiritual pain due to the interception of its resistances.
The purple flames engulfing the blade contain extremely high temperatures, capable enough to char the dragon's tough and highly defensive flesh in a flash.
"Hundred Slice!"
The Thousand Slice that he executed before was intended for the dragon's body. Once the head remained, he performed the Hundred Slice to shred it to pieces. But Raphael has yet to finish his attack.
When the burnt chunks of the dragon fell off, Raphael activated the trigger of the spell that he had laid out at the predicted landing spot of the dragonic pieces.
"Reduce to ashes! Flames of Hell!"
As soon as the charred pieces touched the sand, a three hundred meter wide psychedelic purple fire called forth, engulfing the thousand and hundred coals in intense heat.
The cylindrically shaped purple fire lit up to five hundred meters high, which was half the height compared to when Raphael unleashed the same spell against the Indestructible Lizard.
Level 10 Flames of Hell is actually a large-scale spell; its potential is capable of burning an entire city. But the temperature of the flames varied with the area of the hell. The wider the spell, the lower the fire's heat, and vice versa.
Against the dreadful lizard, Raphael narrowed its area to its minimum in order to achieve the loftiest heat and completely obliterate the lizard.
For the dragon, the parts were scattered quite far from each other. Thus, he widened the area of the Flames of Hell to bathe the dragon parts in one shot.
"How persistent!"
But as expected, the dragon still refused to die.