Chapter 23: Helion Core [8]
The academy grounds above were not having a good time.
Roselle’s sword cut through another mana beast mid-lunge, the body dissolving before it hit the ground. She didn’t stop moving.
"Don’t panic!" she shouted toward the students behind her. "Keep treating the wounded! leave the beasts to us!"
A second-year sprinted over, breathing hard. "Roselle! More of them are climbing up from below, from the underground tunnels where Vice-President Seris and the others went!"
’From below?’ Her grip tightened around her sword.
’Senior Seris. Leon.’ She pushed the worry somewhere it wouldn’t interfere with her hands. ’Be safe.’
"Defensive lines around Lecture Hall C!" she called out. "Healers stay inside. Nobody lets the wounded get caught in this!"
"Yes!" Students rushed into position as the next wave hit the perimeter.
_____
Deep underground, Alden swung his arm.
Slash!
SKRRRRAAAKK.
Three invisible claw marks tore across the dragon’s torso. The beast staggered backward, roaring, its remaining eye burning with something past fury.
Alden dropped his arm and breathed.
Blood from the cut at his temple reached his jaw and dripped onto the stone.
"Good work!" Leon slammed both palms forward. A golden mana circle expanded beneath the dragon and the condensed blast hit its chest like a battering ram, forcing the enormous body to skid several meters across the chamber floor.
Meanwhile Legion closed the gap in a burst of speed, launched himself upward, and drove a kick straight into the dragon’s jaw.
CRAAASH!
Its head whipped sideways.
"Your plan’s working!" Legion landed and grinned. "Making it waste breath attacks and mana. That was a smart call!"
Alden gave a small smile.
’Not entirely.’
His eyes stayed on the dragon.
’Daniel nearly passed out after I accidentally extracted just a fraction of his soul. The same thing’s been happening to this dragon the whole fight. Which means it should have been running at a fraction of its actual strength for a while now.’
He watched the dragon try to push itself upright.
’And it was still this hard to put down.’ His grin widened despite himself.
’This thing is way stronger than I thought.’
The dragon forced itself back onto its feet. Its breathing had turned ragged, smoke leaking from its nostrils with every exhale. Its whole frame shuddered with the effort of staying upright.
And yet. It didn’t fall.
"This is it!" Leon surged mana into his sword, golden light running up the blade. "Finish it!"
Legion readied himself. "Together!"
Alden cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah. Let’s put it down."
All three kicked off the ground simultaneously, coming from different angles, converging on the dragon’s head.
They closed the distance.
The dragon lifted its head slowly. Its crimson eye opened.
Leon stopped mid-air. Legion’s expression locked up. Even Alden’s smile went somewhere it couldn’t be found.
The dragon’s wounds were closing.
The massive gashes across its chest knitting shut before their eyes, burnt scales regrowing, broken flesh rebuilding.
"...It regenerated?" Legion said it quietly, like the words didn’t quite fit in his mouth.
Seris watched from below.
’As expected of an S-Rank.’
The dragon inhaled.
Mana gathered in its throat, and this time it wasn’t the weakened version, this was in full power. The tunnel walls started cracking from the pressure of it alone, hairline fractures spreading through stone.
"Move! all three of you!" Seris called out.
’We’re in the air,’ Alden thought. ’Prediction won’t help us dodge this—’
ROOOAAARRR.
The fire came out like the mountain was erupting.
The entire chamber turned white.
Alden got swallowed in it before he could do anything about it.
The blast picked him up and threw him across the chamber. He had enough time to register that he was moving very fast and that the wall was very close before he hit it.
BOOOOM!
Cracks spread outward from the impact in every direction. He fell from it and hit the floor and didn’t get back up.
"ALDEN!" Leon’s voice came from somewhere far away. The roaring, the crumbling stone, Leon shouting, all of it arriving at him like sound through water.
Before Leon or Legion could reach him, the dragon appeared in front of them both.
’So fast—’
Its claw came down.
BOOM!
Leon threw up a barrier on pure reflex. It shattered immediately, the force behind it too much, and both he and Legion went across the floor the same way Alden had. Bouncing. Sliding.
"Cough—" Leon spat blood and pressed a hand to his side. "My ribs..."
Legion forced himself onto one knee. His legs shook under him. "I can’t..."
The dragon walked toward them.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Its earlier wounds were almost entirely gone. Its breathing had steadied. Its eye was clear and burning and focused.
It looked like the fight had never happened.
Legion’s hand found his sword but couldn’t quite grip it properly. "...We hit it with everything."
"And it healed all of it," Leon said, quiet.
For the first time since they’d entered this chamber, Seris stepped forward.
Her scythe appeared in her hand with a shimmer of crimson. Her eyes stayed on the dragon.
’I thought three of them would push it harder than this,’ she thought. ’But S-Rank is S-Rank.’
She glanced at Leon and Legion, both struggling to get upright.
Then her gaze moved to the pile of rubble where Alden had hit the wall.
’If my snack dies down here I’m going to be annoyed.’
She twirled the scythe once and rested it on her shoulder.
’And Headmaster Thorne will lecture me for a week if these three don’t make it. I’d rather not deal with that.’ She took another step. ’Break time’s over, I suppose.’
Under the rubble, Alden didn’t move.
Blood ran from his temple down his cheek and dripped off his chin. His breathing was shallow and uneven. One arm had twitched once and gone still again.
The dragon’s roar, collapsing stone, Leon’s voice. All of it at a distance.
’...It’s getting worse.’ His fingers pressed weakly against the floor.
’Can’t move yet.’
Then—
[DING!]
[Continuous Concept Usage Bonus: +50 EXP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level: 14 → 15 — EXP: 9,040 / 10,000]
Another notification appeared immediately after it.
Golden light rippled across the screen in front of him.
[Third Act Unlocked!]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Soul Rendering [37.5%]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Soul Extraction [Active]
◆ Soul Library [Active]
◆ Soul Forge [NEW — Unlocked]
◆ ??? [Locked]
◆ ??? [Locked]
◆ ??? [Locked]
◆ ??? [Locked]
◆ ??? [Locked]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━