Chapter 695

Boom!

The moment Zeon heard the Dragon Tongue, his heart received a tremendous shock.

As if he had been struck directly by thousands, tens of thousands of volts of electricity, his heart hardened in an instant.

“Urgh!”

The color drained from Zeon’s face.

Because his heart had stopped beating, his blood flow stopped, and no oxygen was supplied to his brain.

With his body stiffened, Zeon fell like a leaf.

Raikas prepared his breath to finish Zeon off for good.

He already knew from fighting him once before.

He knew about Zeon’s mysterious potential.

Zeon was the type who became stronger the longer he fought.

At first, it might not be clear how large the gap would be, but once he adapted, he analyzed his opponent’s weaknesses and instantly exploited them to deal a critical blow.

That was why Raikas had suffered a painful defeat at Zeon’s hands.

Of course, Raikas had also been careless at the time.

His mistake had been looking down on Zeon because he was human.

So this time, he would not give Zeon even the slightest chance to counterattack. He had activated Dragon Tongue to deal a critical blow, and now he intended to finish him off completely with his breath.

Just then.

Zeon, who had been falling helplessly, opened his eyes.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

His stopped heart began pounding violently as though nothing had happened, pumping blood throughout his entire body.

The moment the oxygen carried in the blood reached him, Zeon regained consciousness.

As Zeon came to his senses, the ground rapidly expanded in his field of vision.

Realizing that he was falling, Zeon immediately moved the sand.

Whoooong!

An enormous amount of sand rose like a cloud and gently caught Zeon’s body.

Thanks to that, Zeon was able to remain unharmed.

But the crisis was not over yet.

Kuaaah!

An enormous flow of mana was detected by his senses.

He hurriedly raised his head and looked.

An enormous amount of mana was gathering in Raikas’s mouth.

Zeon instinctively realized that it was a sign that he was about to use his breath.

“Damn it!”

It was already too late to dodge.

But taking that terrifying breath head-on with such a tremendous amount of mana condensed within it was suicide.

There was no time to think for long.

Flash!

At that moment, Raikas fired his breath.

Zeon first created a Diamond Wall.

A wall of diamond created with the authorities of sand and flame surrounded Zeon in a circle.

At that moment, the breath struck the Diamond Wall head-on.

Boom!

The Diamond Wall, which had stopped countless monsters, seemed to hold for a moment before shattering and disappearing without a trace.

Its power was truly terrifying.

But thanks to the instant of time the Diamond Wall had bought him, Zeon was able to avoid the breath.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

Heavy breaths escaped Zeon’s mouth.

He had not even begun fighting in earnest, yet he already felt extreme fatigue.

That was how one crisis after another had come from the very beginning.

But he had no intention of remaining on the defensive like this.

Zeon flew high into the sky while raising his dominance.

Kuaaah!

A gigantic pillar of sand rose along with him.

He had gathered all the sand in the surrounding area.

It was thirty meters thick and hundreds of meters long.

Naturally, it possessed an unimaginable amount of mass.

The moment Zeon waved his hand, the gigantic pillar of sand struck Raikas’s entire body.

Boom!

Raikas staggered with a deafening boom.

No matter how well his enormous body was protected by a barrier, there was no way he could avoid receiving a tremendous shock from an attack carrying mass beyond imagination.

He was a dragon who stood at the pinnacle of magic.

Tesserina alone was enough to know just how incredible a dragon’s magic was.

Even though she possessed a chimera body rather than her true body, she could effortlessly use advanced magic.

Ordinary magic or authority was simply ineffective against a dragon.

The method Zeon chose was to inflict physical impact.

Fortunately, Zeon possessed the cheat-like weapon known as sand.

As long as the desert’s sand did not completely disappear, there was no chance of Zeon running out of weapons.

Zeon waved his hand again, and a gigantic pillar of sand rose behind him.

It was another attack using the same mass.

But Raikas was not foolish enough to be hit by the same attack twice.

―Freeze.

Crack!

The gigantic pillar of sand froze in an instant.

The pillar of sand, now turned into ice, hardened motionless as though it were supporting the sky.

Crack!

When Zeon tried to force it to move, the gigantic pillar of sand shattered into pieces and fell to the ground.

Zeon had conducted extensive research to bring down Raikas.

But Raikas had done the same.

Having already experienced Zeon’s abilities once, he had thought about how to neutralize the Sand Mage.

The result was freezing magic.

His judgment was that he could neutralize Zeon by freezing all the sand he could use.

It would have been impossible for an ordinary creature or monster, but for the dragon Raikas, it was not particularly difficult.

Dark storm clouds gathered and covered the sun.

The surrounding area grew dark as though night had fallen, and the temperature dropped sharply.

Crack!

The ground within a radius of dozens of kilometers around Raikas froze as though it had returned to the Ice Age.

Even the desert sand that had been heated by the sunlight turned to ice.

That did not mean Zeon could not use sand at all.

Even if it was frozen, the essence of sand had not disappeared.

The problem was that using frozen sand consumed that much more mana.

Large beads of sweat trickled down Zeon’s forehead.

Raikas, who was facing Zeon seriously, was truly frightening.

But that did not mean Zeon had no trump card.

“Hoo!”

The moment Zeon inhaled deeply, Exion was released through his pores.

The moment he released Exion, Zeon’s dominance became several times stronger.

Of course, it consumed that much more mana, but now was not the time to be picky about such things.

“Chaah!”

With his shout, Exion scattered in all directions like black mist.

Exion burrowed into the frozen ground.

It dug deep into the sand as though putting down roots.

A ferocious light appeared in Raikas’s eyes at the sight.

He instinctively realized that Zeon was using some extraordinary move.

―Do you think I’ll let you run wild as you please?

Kuaaah!

Countless ice crystals formed behind Raikas.

He gathered moisture from the air and created ice spears.

Shushushu!

Thousands of ice spears flew toward Zeon.

Zeon hurriedly flew evasively, trying to dodge the ice spears.

But the ice spears followed Zeon like guided missiles.

Sensing that he could not shake them off by ordinary means, Zeon immediately used the authority of flame to create a wall of fire.

Boom boom boom!

Countless ice spears viciously struck the wall of fire, causing explosions.

The ice spears melted into steam the instant they touched the wall of fire.

Because of this, Zeon’s body was instantly enveloped in thick steam.

Although he avoided the direct impact of the ice spears, Zeon was not completely unharmed.

Just as Raikas had staggered from the mass attack, Zeon’s body was also violently shaken by the repeated impacts like a doll hanging from a string.

Drip!

Black blood trickled from between Zeon’s lips.

His insides had been shaken, and his head was ringing, making it difficult to remain conscious.

Even so, Zeon endured Raikas’s ice spear attack with superhuman willpower.

As Zeon stubbornly endured, a strange light appeared in his eyes.

‘Done.’

Exion had finally broken through the thick layer of ice and burrowed deep into the earth.

The moment it came into contact with pure sand, Exion displayed tremendous dominance.

Boom!

The sand beneath the ground burst through the ice layer like an active volcano.

The sand particles scattered like mist and filled the sky, infused with Zeon’s authority of flame.

As the sand particles heated up, Raikas’s freezing magic no longer worked.

Zeon created a storm with the scorching sand.

It was the so-called Flame Sandstorm.

Kuaaah!

The Flame Sandstorm swallowed Raikas’s enormous body whole.

Raikas tried to freeze the sand particles with his freezing magic, but this time it did not work.

Kwagagak!

The scorching sandstorm dug into Raikas’s barrier.

The sandstorm, its power amplified by Exion, created holes throughout the barrier like ants and directly struck Raikas.

An annoyed expression appeared on Raikas’s face.

He had thought he had sealed Zeon’s ability, yet Zeon had solved the problem in a way he had never expected.

Raikas spread his four wings wide.

The effect was certain.

The sandstorm that had swallowed Raikas’s body was blown away by the wind and pushed far into the distance.

But Zeon did not remain idle.

“Summon! Sand Soldiers.”

Countless Sand Soldiers appeared within the sandstorm.

Hundreds of Sand Soldiers broke through the barrier, which had been reduced to tatters by the Flame Sandstorm, and landed on Raikas’s body.

Even hundreds of them were nothing more than insignificant beings that could be blown away with a single flap of Raikas’s wings.

Bang! Boom!

The Sand Soldiers slammed their fists down, trying to break through Raikas’s scales.

But Raikas could not feel even the slightest impact from it.

A dragon’s scales were harder than any metal.

By ordinary means, it was absolutely impossible to leave even a scratch on a dragon’s scales.

Therefore, Raikas ignored the Sand Soldiers clinging to his body.

What mattered was not the Sand Soldiers, which were less significant than ants, but Zeon.

The Sand Mage who used the entire Earth as a weapon.

His opponent was Zeon.

If he became distracted by the Sand Soldiers and took his eyes off the situation, he had no idea what Zeon might do.

That was why he did not take his eyes off Zeon for even a single moment.

His premonition soon became reality.

Boom boom boom!

Something shot up through the layer of ice once again.

It was the Diamond Spears.

Dozens of diamond spears flew toward Raikas’s abdomen.

―It’s useless.

Raikas shouted and swung his long tail.

The enormous Diamond Spears struck his tail and shattered.

After that, Zeon launched several more threatening attacks.

But even with his abilities, it was not easy to inflict a fatal wound on Raikas.

The sheer size of his three-hundred-meter body was itself a cheat.

Overcoming this tremendous difference in size was not easy even for Zeon.

But he had succeeded in getting on Raikas’s nerves.

While all of Raikas’s attention was focused on Zeon, Levin secretly approached.

Zeon had asked Levin to do only one thing.

Rescue Nigel from Raikas’s claws.

‘Now.’

Levin seized the perfect opportunity and quietly approached Nigel.

All he had to do now was take Nigel’s hand and activate incorporeality.

Then Nigel would also become incorporeal like Levin and naturally escape from Raikas’s claws.

It was just as he was about to take Nigel’s hand.

―What a cute little trick.

Raikas’s voice echoed in Levin’s ears like thunder.

Levin raised his head and looked.

Raikas was already looking down at him.

Raikas passed a death sentence on Levin.

―Die!

“Urgh!”

At once, Levin’s heart stopped and his body stiffened.

His incorporeality was canceled, and Levin’s body began falling helplessly.

“Levin!”

Zeon immediately moved to rescue Levin.

At that moment, Raikas fired his breath toward Zeon.

Kuaaah!

Boom!

Zeon was struck directly by the breath and sent flying.

Zeon flew dozens of kilometers before plunging into the sand.

And then he did not move.

―Heh heh! I’ve dealt with the most troublesome one.

Raikas chuckled and looked at Nigel caught in his claws.

Now it was time to extract the crystal from Nigel’s body.

Shaaak!

His claws pierced into Nigel’s torso.

“Gaaaaah!”

Nigel’s desperate scream echoed across the desert.