Chapter 60: The End of the Ant Colony

Chris’s eyes lit up with delight upon seeing the system messages. A moment later, however, he remembered something.

"Azreon! Dive down!"

*ROOAR!*

Azreon folded his wings and dived towards the ground at full speed.

Just as they were approaching the ground, flames began enveloping the dragon as he slowed his descent.

"Shit!"

Chris knew what was about to happen. Azreon was about to evolve, and as every time before, he would be enveloped in a cocoon of fire for a short time, leaving him unable to move.

He knew he would have to jump from his back, but they were still high up in the air, and the fall could potentially injure him. Not to mention the armored ants that had noticed the change and were already swarming towards the ground below them.

Opening his attribute panel, he quickly allocated all his new points evenly among his attributes before doing the same for Azreon.

*WOOOSH!*

He felt a current of warm energy flowing through his whole body as every cell became stronger. It was as though a powerful fire was burning inside him.

But instead of pain, he felt warmth and delight at the change.

[Requirements met.]

[Sub-Class - Dragon Knight - evolving.]

[New Sub-Class - Dragon Commander - unlocked.]

[Abilities: Fire Dragon Heart, Dragon Vision, Dragon Scales, Fire Dragon Domain.]

His eyes lit up. He felt much stronger, and he had even gained another ability.

Before he could wonder about the new ability, Azreon’s descent suddenly stopped, and a cocoon of fire began enveloping him.

Chris looked at the ground below. The height was still much greater than he would have liked, but he had no choice. He could only pray that the fall wouldn’t injure him now that his strength had increased.

Without thinking any further, he jumped from Azreon’s back and began descending at great speed.

The ground was getting closer with each passing moment. Just before hitting it, he activated Dragon Scales throughout his whole body.

*BOOM!*

The impact was hard, sending a numbing sensation through his legs and creating a small pit in the ground.

A second later, however, the sensation disappeared as if it had never existed.

He smiled happily at the realization. It seemed his strength was greater than he had expected.

Raising his head to look at Azreon, who was now enveloped in a fiery cocoon, he worried that the enemies might attack him in that state, leaving him unable to do anything about it.

But to his delight, any flying ants that came even close to Azreon had their wings catch fire before screeching and flying away.

Noticing that they couldn’t approach, the ants turned their attention to Chris, who now stood alone on the ground.

*SCREEECH!* *SCREEECH!* *SCREEECH!*

The flying ants dived towards him at great speed, intending to tear him to pieces.

Looking around, he saw that the armored ants on the ground were closing in, moving at an incredible speed.

Their sheer numbers were astonishing. To Chris, who was facing them, it didn’t look like a tide of beasts. Instead, it seemed more like a massive wave approaching him from all directions.

Rather than feeling worried, a big smile appeared on his face as he activated his new ability.

He hadn’t had time to check the details of the ability, but its name alone was enough to give him a hint.

Activating the Dragon Domain, he felt enormous heat gathering in his right leg as it rose from the ground on its own.

In the next moment, his leg came crashing down.

*BOOOOM!*

A huge explosion spread in all directions, sending dust flying everywhere.

Chris looked around and was pleasantly surprised.

A translucent globe of fire had appeared around him, with a radius of about 20 meters. He could see sparks of fire floating in the air, completely filling the globe.

Next, he pulled out his sword and used Gwenor to coat the blade before enveloping it in fire mana.

Just as he had expected, his fire control had increased by leaps and bounds, allowing him to use the technique much more easily.

Seeing the tide of beasts closing in, he pushed his fire mana to its limit, coating his dragon scales in flames as well.

"COME ON!"

He raised his sword high into the air, waiting for the beasts to arrive.

The flying ants were slightly faster and dived into the Dragon Domain first.

*SCREEECH!* *SCREEECH!* *SCREEECH!*

As soon as they crossed the edge of the domain, their bodies caught fire instantly, making them release loud screeches.

Their wings burned away within seconds, and they fell to the ground one by one.

They struggled to stand due to the flames surrounding their bodies, but Chris could clearly see that the fire wasn’t strong enough to injure them. It could only burn away their wings, which appeared to be quite fragile.

He ran towards one of them and slashed with his sword.

*Slash!*

The ant’s body was instantly sliced in two.

He rushed towards another, then another, killing each one with a single strike.

The armored ants on the ground finally closed in, stepping into the domain.

Chris smiled. Remembering the technique Aelia had used while sparring with him, he focused more of his fire mana into his sword before swinging it towards the ants.

*WOOSH!*

A thick wave of fire formed and flew towards the approaching ants, killing dozens of them in a single strike.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Chris felt like he was losing his mind. The feeling he was experiencing at that moment was unlike anything he had ever felt before.

It was so thrilling that he felt like he could fight like this for days without stopping.

He spun around, slashing his sword in every direction and sending waves of fire everywhere.

The ants began dying in great numbers as their bodies started piling up all around him.

The corpses didn’t have enough time to burn away before more and more piled on top of them, creating a hill of ants with Chris at its center.

The approaching ants had to climb over one another in hopes of reaching him, but his killing speed was far too great.

A few ants occasionally managed to close the distance and attack him, but his dragon scales were too strong for them to penetrate. They stood no chance before he swung his sword and killed them.

Soon, he felt the ground beneath him becoming increasingly unstable as he was forced to move around on top of the corpses of fallen ants.

Raising his other hand into the air, he conjured a gigantic fireball, putting as much force into it as possible before slamming it down.

*BOOOOM!*

The explosion spread in all directions, sending dozens of approaching ants flying away.

The corpses beneath him began disintegrating at great speed, and soon, the earth was completely covered in ash, with only the beast cores shining through.

*SCREEECH!*

A piercing sound came from behind him.

Turning around, he saw the ant queen rushing towards him at great speed.

The surrounding ants separated, forming a pathway for her as she charged forward to attack.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! COME, COME! TODAY YOU WILL DIE!"

He eagerly awaited her approach.

Before reaching his evolution, he would have been worried about facing the queen head-on, as she was stronger than him.

But now? The tables had turned. Now, she was the one who needed to worry about him.

He raised his sword and gripped it with both hands before swinging it down in her direction.

*WOOSH!*

A wave of fire shot towards her and struck her directly.

*SPLASH!*

The queen didn’t even have time to make a sound before her head was cleaved in two, and she fell to the ground without any signs of life.

Chris raised an eyebrow. He had expected to cleave her entire body in two, but had ended up cutting only through her head.

Soon, he shrugged and shook his head. It was still enough to kill her instantly, so why worry about such a small detail?

The other ants around him stopped their attack for a moment and took a few steps back.

"Hoho? What’s the matter now, stupid ants? Scared?"

The ants were evidently startled by their queen’s death, but before they could do anything else—

*ROOOOOAR!*

A powerful roar spread in all directions before a concentrated stream of fire struck the ground.

*BOOOOOOOM!*

The stream of fire continued circling around Chris before extending even farther, burning everything in its path to ashes.

Chris almost dropped his sword in shock.

Just as he had expected, Azreon had emerged from his cocoon and was now bombarding the ants from above.

But Azreon’s firepower had increased exponentially. He was easily burning dozens of ants to ash with every passing second.

Chris thought his own strength had increased tremendously after his evolution, but what Azreon was displaying now was even more shocking.

’Isn’t he even stronger than me now?’ he thought as he looked at the chaos unfolding all around him.

He could barely see anything around or above him through the flames spreading in every direction.

Smiling happily, he lowered his sword. He was naturally glad that Azreon had grown stronger. Even if he became countless times stronger than Chris, he would still be happy.

Chris viewed Azreon as his greatest friend and, in a way, even as his own child, considering he had been the one to hatch him from his egg and practically raise him.

Just a minute later, the flames around him began to disappear, and he looked around.

*DING!*

This time, however, he lost his grip on his sword in shock as it fell to the ground.

Looking around, he couldn’t see anything.

There were no ants, no ant corpses, nothing. Only scorched ground stretching in every direction, covered with beast cores.

*BOOM!*

Azreon landed heavily on the ground beside him, sending ashes flying in all directions.

Finally coming out of his stupor, Chris looked at Azreon.

"HOLY SHIT!"

But as soon as he got a good look at him, he gasped again.

As expected, Azreon was much larger than before. However, his size still shocked Chris, who had never seen such a large beast in his life.

The dragon was now easily as big as a house. Even the horn on his head was larger than Chris himself.

"Buddy, you keep shocking me every single time!" Chris shook his head. "At the rate you’re growing, won’t you be as big as an entire city in the future? This is ridiculous!"

Then, a big smile appeared on his face.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Keep growing, keep growing! Soon, we’ll rule the whole world together!"

*ROOAR!*

Azreon flapped his wings and roared loudly, sending out a burst of air that almost lifted Chris off the ground.

"Easy now, buddy! Do you want to blast me away? Hahahahahah..."

Chris couldn’t contain his happiness, and the adrenaline from the fight was still coursing through his veins.

He looked at the now-crumbled anthill, which was only half its original size.

Jumping onto Azreon’s back, which was now large enough to easily accommodate ten people standing on it, he raised his hands and conjured dozens of fireballs.

"Let’s burn that thing to the ground!"

*ROOOAR!*

Azreon ascended into the air before flying towards the crumbled anthill.

Chris hurled the fireballs at it, making the explosions consume the anthill once again.

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

He continued throwing fireballs at it, and the mountain started falling apart completely.

"Damn, this feels so good." Feeling refreshed, Chris continued bombarding it.

But soon, something caught his attention, making him stop his attacks.

Beneath the rubble, something was glistening in the sunlight.

"What the..."

Activating Dragon Vision, he looked more closely at the spot.

What caught his attention appeared to be a pool of some strange gray liquid near the bottom of the anthill.

"What in the world is that?"