Chapter 99
Before Haruto could adjust to the sudden dizziness, the Red Dragon reacted.
Sensing his weakness, it abandoned the idea of using its fiery breath and raised one enormous foreleg instead.
With a violent rush of wind, its claw came crashing down toward him.
Haruto sensed the attack and tried to evade, but his body refused to cooperate.
The dizziness made it impossible to focus, leaving him only enough control to gather Nen around himself in defense.
The claw struck him head-on with a deafening impact.
Haruto was launched through the air like a broken kite and slammed heavily into a stone wall.
The entire section collapsed around him, scattering broken masonry in every direction. He crashed to the ground amid the rubble, his stomach churning violently from the impact.
Haruto struggled to rise and fight back, but the dizziness only intensified.
The kaleidoscope of colors filling his vision grew worse until he could no longer see where the Red Dragon was.
In desperation, he forced himself to activate En.
Through his aura, Haruto clearly sensed the dragon’s massive tail sweeping toward him with tremendous force.
He knew it was coming, yet his body still would not obey.
Another thunderous blow struck him.
The Red Dragon’s tail sent Haruto flying once more, smashing him into another wall.
Stone shattered around him, and a faint crack from somewhere in his body was followed by a sharp burst of pain.
Haruto was just about to use his final option and leave the world entirely when he suddenly felt a pair of arms grab him.
A moment later, someone hauled him over their shoulder and began running.
After some time, the dizziness eased slightly. The dazzling colors clouding his vision faded enough for Haruto to force his eyes open.
Laios was carrying him.
Senshi and Chilchuck ran beside them, all three wearing panicked expressions as they fled down the street.
Haruto looked back.
The Red Dragon was pursuing them with heavy, pounding strides.
Its colossal body tore through the ruins, bringing down buildings and filling the streets with smoke and dust wherever it passed.
"Put me down," Haruto said, his voice still slightly weak.
He had never imagined Laios would end up rescuing him.
Even without Laios’s intervention, Haruto would not have been in mortal danger.
Still, being forced to flee this world because he had been beaten by a single Red Dragon would have been unbearably humiliating.
"Are you all right now?" Laios asked without slowing down.
He had never personally witnessed Haruto fight, but anyone capable of reaching the fifth floor alone should have been highly skilled.
Seeing him stand there like a wooden post and take the dragon’s attacks without dodging had been completely unexpected.
"I’m fine now."
Haruto pushed himself off Laios’s shoulder and landed on his feet.
His body still ached, and the dizziness had not completely disappeared, but he could at least control his movements again.
Once he steadied himself, Haruto fixed his gaze on the pursuing Red Dragon. A cold light entered his eyes.
It had attacked while he was suffering from mana sickness and reduced him to such a sorry state.
There was no chance he would let it live.
When Laios saw that Haruto intended to fight, he immediately decided to help.
It was different from the plan his party had originally prepared, but there was no time to worry about that now.
Besides, Haruto might have looked embarrassingly helpless moments earlier, but he had taken two direct blows from the Red Dragon and was still standing.
That kind of durability already exceeded what many monsters possessed.
With Haruto’s help, they might actually be able to defeat the Red Dragon in a direct confrontation.
Senshi drew his axe and remained beside them as well.
Chilchuck, on the other hand, quickly ran to a safe distance. He was not a combatant.
The Red Dragon slowed when it saw that they had stopped fleeing.
A violent crimson gleam filled its enormous slit pupils. It twisted its thick neck, opened its jaws, and began clicking its tongue once again.
It was preparing another fiery breath.
Haruto could avoid the attack himself, but Laios and Senshi would have a much harder time.
Without hesitation, he clenched his right fist and drove it into the wall beside him.
The solid stone exploded beneath the blow, sending debris and dust flying everywhere.
Haruto bent down, seized an enormous slab of broken wall, and spun with all his strength before hurling it toward the Red Dragon’s open mouth.
"You still want to breathe fire? Eat this instead!"
The slab roared through the air and struck precisely inside the dragon’s jaws, lodging deep in its throat.
The flames it had been preparing abruptly stalled.
A muffled choking sound came from the Red Dragon as the fire was forced back down its throat, leaving only scattered sparks and waves of scorching air leaking from the corners of its mouth.
"Now!"
Haruto’s eyes sharpened.
He kicked off the ground and became a blurred shadow, closing the distance in an instant.
The Red Dragon thrashed its head back and forth, trying to dislodge the stone jammed in its throat.
Even so, it still noticed Haruto approaching.
It raised a foreleg and brought it down with enough force to crush him into paste.
Such a straightforward attack had no chance of hitting him now.
Haruto twisted aside at the last moment, narrowly avoiding the descending claw.
The Red Dragon’s foreleg struck the ground and tore several jagged fissures through the street, scattering stone in every direction.
Haruto did not pause.
He landed on the dragon’s thick foreleg and used it as a platform, driving power through his waist before leaping high toward the reverse scale beneath its head.
The Red Dragon reacted just as quickly.
Its eyes blazed with fury as it lowered its massive head, shielding the vulnerable spot.
At the same time, it opened its jaws and snapped at Haruto with its razor-sharp fangs. Its throat continued convulsing as it struggled to spit out the stone.
Haruto twisted in midair and slipped past the snapping jaws.
He drew most of his Nen into his right fist and drove it down against the dragon’s skull.
The impact produced a deep, concussive boom.
Haruto’s fist smashed into the Red Dragon’s head, shattering a large patch of scales.
The dragon released a deafening roar of pain.
Its head was violently knocked backward, throwing its body off balance. It staggered several steps before crashing heavily into the building behind it.
Using the recoil, Haruto flipped backward through the air and landed steadily on the ground.
His breathing had grown slightly heavier as he watched the fallen dragon without blinking.
Laios and Senshi arrived moments later.
The instant he reached it, Senshi swung his axe into the Red Dragon’s neck.
The axe shattered on impact.
Laios tried to attack the reverse scale, but before he could strike, the sword in his hand suddenly wrenched itself free and fell nearby.
Haruto immediately tossed him the longsword he had been carrying.
"Use this."
Laios caught it without hesitation and drove the blade straight through the Red Dragon’s reverse scale.
The monster had been struggling to rise, but the moment the blade pierced that vulnerable point, every trace of strength left its body.
It collapsed and stopped moving.
Haruto stared at the dead Red Dragon, unsure what to make of it.
With its vitality, it could probably have continued struggling even after having its brain or heart pierced.
Yet a single strike through the reverse scale had killed it instantly.
Haruto could not imagine what Thistle had been thinking when he designed the dragons with such an absurd weakness.