Chapter 331
Just as they had agreed before the battle began, the three women threw everything they had at the enormous boss before them.
Flames, freezing air, hurricanes...
Freezing Rays, pillars of fire, and every other technique they had developed over the past six months filled the battlefield.
Violent energies collided again and again, generating shockwaves powerful enough to tear the small island apart.
Vast sections of the frozen sea were annihilated outright, while billions of tons of seawater surged back and forth around them, only to be shredded apart by one energy storm after another.
After months of body tempering and relentless training, Jeanne, Ryuu, and Esdeath had all firmly reached the physical level of a Level 6 adventurer.
Combined with their many powerful skills and magical abilities, each of them could unleash combat power approaching Level 7.
If they returned to Orario with strength like this, there were very few Familias they could not overwhelm.
Yet against this monstrous three-headed flood dragon, it still was not enough.
Its immense strength and steel-like body were already troublesome, but its regeneration was what truly made it absurd.
Wounds that took tremendous effort to inflict would nearly disappear after only a few breaths.
On top of that, it could control the surrounding seawater while freely combining its powers of wind, fire, and poison.
Any combination of those abilities could produce devastating results.
If this were some cultivation fantasy, the creature would unquestionably be classified as an ancient primordial beast—one of those monsters born to dominate the wilderness.
Fighting an opponent this far above their own level demanded an unimaginable amount of stamina and concentration.
After only an hour, all three women were already beginning to run out of strength.
"Is this... as far as we can go?"
Ryuu murmured softly, unwillingness clear in her voice.
"So we’re still not quite there yet."
Jeanne sighed.
Esdeath, however, stared furiously at the flood dragon’s three necks.
Then she made a decision.
"It still isn’t completely perfected."
Her grin returned.
"But at this point, there’s no reason to hesitate."
She fixed her eyes on the monster.
"Take this properly."
"The absolute moment of freezing."
"Mahapadma."
In an instant—the surging waves stopped.
The endlessly raging hurricane froze in place.
The concern on Jeanne and Ryuu’s faces became motionless.
Akame and Kurome were caught with matching expressions of blank surprise.
Everything within Esdeath’s domain had stopped.
"Huh."
Esdeath looked around.
"This really is interesting."
Then her gaze settled on Kiriya.
"Kiriya, I originally prepared this for you."
A dangerous smile appeared on her lips.
"But I suppose using it here once won’t hurt."
Her expression cooled as she looked toward the flood dragon.
"After all... that thing is really starting to piss me off."
The thought came and went in an instant.
Esdeath launched herself forward with everything she had left, charging straight toward the nearest head—the one on the left.
Her slender sword plunged directly into its enormous lantern-sized eye.
Then freezing power erupted through the blade.
"ROOOOOAAAR—!"
The eye was destroyed.
At the same time, the entire brain inside that head was frozen into shards of ice.
When time began moving again, unimaginable pain drove the flood dragon nearly insane.
Its central head immediately smashed toward Esdeath with overwhelming force.
Unfortunately, she had already exhausted almost all of her stamina and no longer had the strength to escape.
"Haaah..."
The Ice Queen gave a helpless sigh.
"So it still isn’t enough."
Mahapadma consumed an enormous amount of stamina and could only be used once per day.
Worse, Esdeath had already spent the previous hour fighting an unprecedented battle of attrition. Her reserves were nearly empty even before using the technique.
After Mahapadma, she had practically nothing left.
Using another major technique such as Freezing Ray or Absolute Freezing Air was completely out of the question.
If she had possessed a little more stamina...
If her offensive techniques had been slightly stronger...
Perhaps she could have severed all three heads herself.
Unfortunately, the battlefield was cruel.
If you could not do something, then you simply could not do it.
There were no convenient "what ifs."
BOOM—!
The central head crashed into the frozen left head and shattered it completely.
But the flood dragon did not feel the sensation of Esdeath’s body being crushed beneath the impact.
Because Kiriya had already used the Flying Thunder God Technique to move her somewhere safe.
Jeanne and Ryuu had been transferred away as well.
"So in the end, you still have to step in?"
Esdeath leaned against Kiriya’s chest and looked up at him.
"Heh."
Kiriya raised an eyebrow.
"If you’re not strong enough, train harder."
"You’re not going to fall apart just because you lost once, are you?"
"Childish provocation."
Esdeath snorted.
"But until I defeat you, I have no intention of stopping."
"That’s the Esdeath I know."
Kiriya sounded genuinely proud.
"ROAR! ROAR! ROAR—!"
The flood dragon quickly detected Esdeath’s new position.
Its remaining heads roared before unleashing a scorching pillar of energy toward them.
BOOOOM—!
The ground instantly melted into magma.
Stone and earth evaporated beneath the terrifying heat.
But Kiriya and the others were already gone.
With Flying Thunder God, he transported everyone to the top of a nearby hill.
"All right."
Kiriya rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms.
"My turn to warm up."
The next instant, Flying Thunder God activated again.
He vanished.
When Kiriya reappeared, he was already standing on the flood dragon’s back.
The mark had been placed there earlier when he rescued Ryuu and the others.
The creature clearly had not expected Kiriya to vanish and then suddenly appear directly on top of it.
Even so, its reactions were extremely fast.
The central head immediately released a violent cloud of poison toward him.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Trail."
Kiriya formed hand seals.
A spiraling tornado formed around his body and swept the poisonous mist away, hurling it straight toward the flood dragon’s right head.
The monster had clearly never imagined that one day it would be forced to inhale its own secondhand smoke.
It choked violently.
Kiriya immediately seized the opportunity.
"Blade Storm: Hundred Slashes in an Instant."
A storm of razor-sharp sword strikes erupted.
Shhk—!
A massive wound several meters long opened across the flood dragon’s neck.
Poisonous blood burst outward like a fountain, threatening to completely engulf Kiriya.
He had already anticipated that.
Wind Release gathered around him, forming a violent barrier of air.
Every drop of toxic blood was blasted away before it could touch him.
The flood dragon roared in agony.
Its enormous body twisted wildly, rolling across the battlefield like a collapsing mountain.
The surrounding terrain instantly turned chaotic.
Rock formations that had stood for countless years were smashed apart and reduced to rubble beneath its body.
Yet despite the dramatic reaction, the wound itself meant very little.
For a creature more than a hundred meters long, an injury several meters across was barely more significant than scraped skin.
"Oh?"
Kiriya grinned.
"Not bad."
His smile grew wider.
A target this durable was perfect for sharpening his swordsmanship.
And so the two sides began an extended battle across the half-destroyed island and the nearby seabed.
The three-headed flood dragon possessed monstrous durability and an absurdly resilient body. Every attack it launched was powerful enough to shake heaven and earth.
Kiriya, however, had no shortage of tricks either.
He freely tested one technique after another against the monster and enjoyed himself immensely.
And with Flying Thunder God at his disposal, he was practically impossible to pin down.
The battle continued for an extremely long time.
The sun crossed the sky and disappeared beyond the horizon.
Stars filled the darkness.
The moon rose, descended, and was replaced once again by the light of dawn.
Kiriya and the flood dragon fought for an entire day and night.
Even with their extraordinary vitality, neither side could maintain that level of intensity forever.
Damage steadily accumulated.
Exhaustion became impossible to ignore.
Eventually, even the three-headed flood dragon began to feel fear.
It finally decided that escaping this terrifying human was more important than defending its territory.
Human beings were horrible.
It wanted to go home and never come out again.
Unfortunately, Kiriya had no intention of letting it leave.
They had agreed to fight.
Running away halfway through was completely unbecoming of an overlord of the sea.
Fortunately for Kiriya, the flood dragon could not speak.
Otherwise, it probably would have cursed him until he died of shame.
Seeing that the monster had completely lost interest in continuing the battle and was preparing to flee thousands of miles away, Kiriya knew he could no longer drag things out.
It was time to finish this.
"Seventh Gate: Gate of Wonder—Open!"
Violent chakra erupted from Kiriya’s body and churned through the surrounding atmosphere.
The sudden increase in pressure drove the flood dragon into an even greater frenzy, and its attacks became more desperate and savage.
Kiriya answered with only his sword.
In that single instant—he swung more than a thousand times.
"Thousand Strikes in an Instant—Secret Art: Annihilating White Tiger!"
A heaven-shaking roar tore across the sea.
The storm of sword strikes descended.
And the flood dragon’s remaining two heads were completely shredded apart.