Chapter 22: Helion Core [7]
ROOOAAARRR!
The dragon’s body lurched beneath Alden’s hands and suddenly he was not on a dead dragon anymore.
"Agh—!" He scrambled to keep his footing, palm still pressed flat against the scales. Black smoke kept flowing into his hand, but slower now.
’Come on. Just a few more seconds—’
The dragon beat its wings.
The ground disappeared beneath his feet. Wind hit from every direction.
The whole underground space shook as the beast launched itself upward, and Alden was suddenly holding onto the back of a flying creature in an underground tunnel while trying not to let go and also trying to complete a soul extraction that the creature in question was actively making difficult.
Below, Seris watched.
Her crimson eyes tracked the dragon without moving. One hand rested at her side.
’So it wasn’t dead after all.’ Her gaze shifted to Alden clinging to its back.
’What are you going to do with this, I wonder.’
Up above, Alden’s thoughts were considerably less composed.
’Why is this taking so long?’ The smoke kept coming but the extraction wasn’t finishing. ’Is it because it’s powerful creature? Or because it’s alive and fighting it?’
The dragon answered by rolling.
Its entire massive body inverted in one powerful motion. Suddenly the ceiling was below him and the floor was above and Alden had about a half second to do something about it.
THWIP.
Thread shot from his free hand and anchored against the scales before he dropped. He held, dangling upside down, palm still on the dragon’s back.
’Safe... That should—’
The dragon’s neck twisted. One remaining crimson eye found him.
’Oh no.’
The throat glowed.
’Wait — wait wait wait—’
Point-blank dragon fire hit him and the web snapped and suddenly Alden flew very fast. He crossed the chamber in about one second.
BOOM!
The wall stopped him.
Cracks spread outward in every direction from the impact point. He slid down it and landed in a pile of rubble that used to be the wall’s surface.
"Alden!" Leon’s voice came from somewhere that felt far away. "Are you—"
A massive shadow fell across the chamber.
The dragon’s remaining eye was fixed on the golden sphere at the far end of the chamber, the Core bearer. The thing it had been protecting this whole time.
Its chest expanded.
"It’s going to fire!" Leon spun toward it with his defense spell for flames. "Legion, get behind—"
The dragon swung its wing.
Not a breath attack. A wing.
BOOOOM.
The flat of the enormous wing swept across the chamber. Leon crossed his arms and took it head-on. The impact still launched him backward, boots scraping stone until he hit the far wall.
Legion had nothing left in his mana reserves. The force just picked him up and threw him. He bounced twice across the stone floor before sliding to a stop, sword spinning away from his fingers.
The dragon settled back in front of the Core bearer. Still between them and the objective.
Seris looked at the screen that had materialized in her vision.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SYSTEM INFORMATION
Species: Dragon
Rank: S
Level: 58
Attribute: Fire
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
She dismissed it quietly.
’Level fifty-eight and S rank? No wonder it’s this strong’ Her eyes moved to the wound across its chest.
’If they can’t end this decisively, everyone here runs dry before the dragon does.’
Across the chamber, rubble shifted.
Alden pulled himself out of the wall. Stone pieces fell off him as he staggered forward and put his hands on his knees.
"...Damn." He straightened up carefully. "My back."
Then he coughed, and blood hit the floor in front of him.
He looked at it for a second. Wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Right. Great." Then his vision lit up.
[DING!]
[Thread Used — Spider Blueprint: +1%]
[Spider Blueprint: 49% → 50%]
[New Concept Unlocked!]
[Concept: Prediction]
[Description: Through instinctive analysis, the user can predict an opponent’s immediate next action, allowing reactions before the attack is executed.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Species: Spider
Known Concepts
✔ Thread
✔ Prediction [NEW]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[+70 EXP]
[Level: 14 — EXP: 8,990 / 9,000]
[Power Combat: 37 → 39]
’Prediction?’ He looked at the dragon. It was watching the Core bearer, not them. It never looked away from the Core bearer. ’Is it like sensing when prey is about to move?’
The dragon’s chest started glowing again.
"It’s charging another breath!" Leon had already reset, sword up, mana gathering. "We can’t let it reach the Core bearer—"
[DING.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Prediction Activated]
Predicted Action: Breath attack cancelled.
Follow-up Attack: Right Wing Sweep.
Prediction Accuracy: 93%
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Alden’s eyes sharpened.
’It’s faking the breath again.’
"LEON!" His voice hit the chamber walls. "Don’t focus on the breath! It’s a feint!"
"What?" Leon looked at the dragon. The glow in its throat was building. Made no sense to call it a feint.
The glow vanished.
The wing came in from the right instead, exactly where Leon had been standing.
"You think that works twice?!" Leon was already moving. His palm slammed forward, golden mana erupting around him. "Guardian Bind!"
The magic circle appeared under the wing and chains of condensed mana wrapped around it mid-swing, locking it down.
Leon wrenched it toward the ground.
The dragon’s bellow shook loose stone from the ceiling.
[DING.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Prediction Activated]
Predicted Action: Left Wing Counterattack.
Prediction Accuracy: 96%
━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Leon! left wing, NOW!"
Both Leon and Legion took action before the dragon’s body finished rotating. They kicked off together and cleared the space in one jump. The free wing came in from the opposite side and hit nothing but floor.
BOOOOM.
Stone shattered where they’d been.
Dust billowed outward across the chamber in every direction.
Legion landed and stood there for a second just breathing.
"...That was close." He looked at Alden. "You just called two attacks before they happened. Back to back."
Leon was still catching his breath. "Your vision. It’s not just finding people through walls." He looked at Alden with something that wasn’t quite disbelief anymore. "You’re reading this thing in real time."
Alden smiled.
’Not my eyes. My skill.’
From the edge of the chamber, Seris had been watching all of it. The extraction attempt on the dragon’s back, the wall impact, the blood, the two consecutive calls that had kept Leon and Legion from getting crushed.
Most people in his position would have been done after the dragon overpowered them after all of their attacks.
But he just got back up and started winning with it.
Her eyes settled on him.
’You really are something else.’
Alden rolled his neck. Then his shoulders. Then cracked his knuckles, one hand and then the other.
Crack!
He looked at the dragon, still between them and the Core bearer.
A grin crossed his face.
"Alright." He looked at Leon and Legion. "I’ve got a plan."
He raised his chin toward the dragon.
"Let’s cook this oversized lizard."