Ch. 9 — Dragon Slayer

Dragons are powerful creatures. They have incredibly tough scales, immense strength, and the ability to fly. Even high-level Awakened Ones need to form a raid party to have a chance of defeating a dragon.

But Cedric was single-handedly beating the crap out of a dragon.

‘This strategy is working well.’

The knight thought to himself.

As an Awakened One’s level increased, they gained the ability to stay in the air for a short period of time. However, this ability had a limited duration.

There was no easy way to fight a flying dragon unless you were just mindlessly spamming ranged attacks.

But the dragon’s own mobility was working in Cedric’s favor.

He clung to the dragon’s body like a leech.

The dragon’s scales were made of bone, but they were still heavy.

And when the dragon tried to shake Cedric off…

Fwip!

Cedric’s spear pierced the dragon’s scales.

‘Good job fighting up there.’

It was a breathtaking display of skill.

One wrong move and Cedric would have fallen to his death.

But he nimbly moved around the dragon’s body, stabbing it repeatedly.

As an undead, he was fearless.

The dragon tried to shake him off by flying higher and higher.

While the two undead and the dragon were fighting, the monsters that had been watching from behind the orcs started to move.

The kodos, known for their incredible charging power, charged towards the city gate.

Woooo!

Bang!

Bang!

The city gate shook violently in the distance.

The mages, including the liches, chanted spells, but their firepower was weaker than expected because they had already depleted their mana summoning orcs.

The giants were not idle either.

Their massive weapons crashed against the gate, which had already been weakened by the kodos’ charge.

Wyverns swooped down from the sky, snatching up spellcasting undead, while death witches chanted spells to bind the durahans and death knights.

‘This is bad.’

The orcs were manageable, but the high-level monsters were a different story.

Their stats were simply too high.

There was nothing they could do.

To make matters worse, the undead’s movements were becoming erratic since their commander, Cedric, had taken to the sky.

They seemed more flustered than before.

Even if they united and fought for time, it wouldn’t be enough.

‘We need to retreat.’

The gate was on the verge of collapse.

If it broke, the monsters would pour in like a swarm.

Staying on the walls meant certain death as they were attacked from above and below by the orc hordes.

But they couldn’t just abandon their own people. What could they do with just one lich and one death knight?

If they tried to escape alone, the orcs would likely overrun the entire wall.

“Hey! Hans!”

“Yes, commander.”

“Do you have a crystal ball? One of those things you use to communicate with the other commanders?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Take it out, quick!”

He took the crystal ball that Hans handed me.

The crystal glowed as he infused it with mana.

“This is the 16th commander! All commanders, except for a small contingent of skeletons, are to retreat from the walls and gather in the inner city! This is a direct order from the commander-in-chief!”

“……!”

Hans’ eyes widened in shock.

“But didn’t Sir Cedric fly away without saying a word?”

Hans couldn’t just ignore the commander’s orders.

After all, the human before him was now his temporary superior, and even in Hans’s own opinion, it was now or never to retreat.

He heard a commotion from the other end of the crystal ball.

One of the commanders spoke up.

“This is the 1st commander. Is that true? I didn’t receive any separate instructions from Sir Cedric.”

“It’s real. He mentioned it when he saved me from the dragon attack earlier!”

Ah, so the commander-in-chief had saved “him” personally.

Whether he had saved them out of special consideration for them, or because he didn’t want the dragon to crash into the walls, was anyone’s guess.

But in any case, times like this called for pretending to have some kind of connection with a superior.

“This is the 15th commander. When the dragon came, Sir Cedric protected me. It’s highly likely that he’s telling the truth.”

The commander had suddenly appeared like a deus ex machina.

And Cedric had personally protected him.

It seemed like he had a good relationship with the commander-in-chief.

And the order he had given was also reasonable. After all, the situation was just one step away from the walls being breached.

If Hans had been the commander-in-chief, he would have given the same order to retreat.

“Alright, I’ll follow your orders.”

‘Great!’

This would allow them to hold out for a little bit longer.

And so, the undead retreated from the walls, leaving behind a special forces unit.

Less than three minutes later, the city gate collapsed with a roar.

The wave of orcs that poured in looked around.

Click.

Clack.

There were only weak undead everywhere, and the strong enemies they had been hoping for were nowhere to be seen.

Caw!

The skulls of the skeletons guarding the entrance were shattered.

The orcs’ eyes turned to the small inner city in the distance.

***

He surveyed the undead who had clambered atop the inner city’s walls.

Ten liches, nine death knights, a hundred mid-level undead, and a thousand skeletons.

It was a paltry number compared to the initial force he had witnessed.

Even more unsettling was the fact that the enemy’s main force remained unmoved. The orc hero and his elite guard, along with the remaining high-level monsters, held their positions.

The inner city was significantly smaller than the outer city. Its walls were shorter and the gates less formidable.

‘If the orcs charge again like before, they might hold for thirty minutes…’

If the high-level monsters joined the fray, it would be ten minutes at best. And that seemed to be the enemy’s plan.

‘These bastards have been waiting to exploit our depleted mana reserves.’

Deploying the high-level monsters from the outset would have resulted in heavy casualties for the attackers. The defenders would have been at full mana capacity.

But now?

Only about twenty kodos and giants had perished during the capture of the outer city.

Practically no casualties.

They were completely surrounded.

The only silver lining, if it could be called that, was this:

“Prepare for battle! We’ll proceed according to the pre-discussed plan!”

Thanks to Cedric’s influence, he had been granted command of the death knight commanders.

A thunderous roar echoed as the kodos charged forward.

“Grease! Use Grease!”

The liches and skeleton mages pooled their mana.

[Lich ‘Edmund’ casts Grease(D)!]

[Lich ‘Hans’ casts Grease(D)!]

A basic spell that slickened the ground.

The kodos and giants were protected by defensive spells, rendering direct attack spells largely ineffective.

However, spells like Grease were a different story…

Slip!!

Ooooh!!

A kodo skidded to a stop, its momentum carrying it into a sprawling heap. The kodos and giants behind it followed suit, dominoing to the ground.

The monsters tumbled and crashed in a cacophony of roars and thuds.

“Intercept the wyverns! Protect the liches at all costs!”

He drew his sword and braced himself against the descending wyverns.

CRASH!

He felt his body fly through the air, propelled by the wyvern’s immense strength. He landed with a jarring impact, his wrist throbbing in pain.

He hurriedly fumbled for a potion, gulping it down as the orcs closed in.

Amidst the chaos, messages flashed across his vision.

[Skeleton 1 slays an orc warrior! Combat experience greatly increased…]

[Skeleton 223 slays an orc archer…]

The skeletons, who had previously only been able to cause casualties through falls, were now occasionally killing orcs outright. Fueled by the Death Lord’s effect, they were gaining experience and growing stronger in real time.

But the tide of battle was still against them.

Inch by inch, they were pushed back.

The inner city gate shattered.

The walls were overrun with orcs.

A death knight was effortlessly crushed in the grip of a giant.

The orcs’ encirclement tightened.

It was a hopeless situation.

And then it happened.

A dragon plummeted from the sky, smashing into the giants and kodos below.

The dragon gasped for breath, its body riddled with wounds.

It turned to face the undead.

With a resounding thud, the dragon landed like a mountain.

‘There he is! My love!’

“Cedric!”

In that instant, time froze.

[You have survived on the battlefield for the required amount of time!]

[You have met the basic escape condition!]

[You can now escape from the battlefield!]

[Would you like to escape now?]

[If you decline, the escape option will be disabled again.]

All he could see were the messages.

His initial guess had been correct.

It seemed that the structure of this battlefield was such that he could escape after surviving for a certain amount of time. Of course, even that had been a hellish difficulty, but it wasn’t impossible to clear.

‘But something about this message feels off.’

This battlefield was made up of Cedric’s regrets.

Could simply surviving for a certain amount of time really be the way to obtain his power, as the Death Lord had said?

‘That can’t be it.’

He didn’t even know what his regrets were.

And he hadn’t been able to resolve them.

There was no way that could be the complete clear condition.

‘If I leave now, it’ll be like getting a 30 out of 100.’

That was probably why he had only met the basic escape condition.

‘Judging from his regrets, it seems likely that the undead side lost this war.’

It made sense that Cedric would have regrets about that.

‘But I haven’t progressed far enough to know what those regrets are yet.’

He would need to continue playing to find out what Cedric regretted.

Staying was certainly dangerous.

But the rewards would be correspondingly greater.

Conclusion:

‘Nope, definitely not leaving.’

He would stay and see this through, even if it meant taking risks.

This wasn’t a stage where he was meant to die.

There was always a way to clear.

[Escape declined!]

[Time resumes!]

Cedric looked at him.

The battle with the dragon must have been fierce.

His golden bones were cracked and broken in several places.

“Why are you still here? You could have escaped.”

“I don’t know what you regret yet.”

“…You’re risking your life just to find out what I regret?”

“It’s not just that. It’s more than that.”

“…The Skill must have told you. Being trapped for eternity is no joke.”

“I’m not joking either.”

He beheaded an approaching orc.

Green blood splattered across his face.

“I’m always serious. When it comes to strategy.”

“…Fine. I respect your choice.”

With those words, Cedric and the bone dragon moved.

The orcs and high-level monsters were easily swept away by their attack.

Krrr!

Boom, boom!

The orc hero’s chest pounded like a drum.

Excitement began to fill his eyes as he looked at Cedric.

Orcs were an extremely warlike race. Their blood boiled the most when they faced a strong opponent.

The orc hero began to move towards Cedric in earnest.

‘Damn it.’

The problem was that the orc guards around him were also starting to move.

Krrr!

Two orc guards attacked one death knight. The death knight’s blades, which had been cutting through the regular orcs like butter, suddenly became dull.

The death knight was forced into a defensive position.

The problem was…

‘…Are they coming for me too?’

One of the orc guards snorted and charged towards him.

They typically targeted the strong. The orc guard must have been impressed by the way he sliced through the lower-level orcs.

[Orc Guard designates you as ‘prey’!]

[Orc Guard’s attack power against you increases by 20%!]

[You are hit directly by the Orc Guard’s war cry! All stats decrease by 10%!]

In his current state, victory seemed impossible. The death knights and liches around him were all locked in a desperate struggle.

‘Then he’ll have to charge too.’

He resolved to use his last resort.

[Consume Strength Enhancement Potion (Highest Rank)!]

[Strength increases by 50% for one hour!]

[Consume Agility Enhancement Potion (Highest Rank)!]

[Agility increases by 50% for one hour!]

[Consume Stamina Enhancement Potion (Highest Rank)!]

[Stamina increases by 50% for one hour!]

[Consume Mana Enhancement Potion (Highest Rank)!]

[Mana increases by 50% for one hour!]

[Consume Health Potion (Highest Rank)!]

[Wounds heal rapidly!]

[Consume Mana Potion (Highest Rank)!]

[Mana recovers rapidly!]

He downed the highest-rank potions, each worth hundreds of millions, like water.

[Warning!]

[You have consumed too many potions in a short period of time! You will become addicted to potions!]

[The effect of potions will be greatly reduced in the future!]

[You have acquired the title, ‘He Who Lives Only Today’!]

Potion addiction.

It was a phenomenon where the body couldn’t forget the recovery and doping effects of potions and suffered withdrawal symptoms. These withdrawal symptoms were quite severe.

‘It’s dangerous, but… .’

It was far better than not taking them and dying. And this wasn’t his real body anyway. It was a virtual body, so he could figure something out when he got back.

“Not yet!”

It was time to focus on survival.

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]