Chương 94: Malice

Nikolai smiled as his body began to change. His frame stretched taller while crimson scales spread across his hands and feet, hardening over his skin like armor. A long reptilian tail tore from the base of his spine, followed by two enormous red wings that unfurled from his back and cast a shadow across the arena. Curved draconic horns emerged from his forehead, completing a transformation Noah recognized immediately. Partial Dragonization.

It was the trump card of the Fafnir bloodline, a physical manifestation of the dragon traits carried within their bodies. Noah was still too young to achieve such a transformation himself, but for Nikolai—who had devoured Walter's flesh and stolen his draconic abilities—it appeared to require no effort at all.

"The troublesome thing about you Fafnirs…" Nikolai examined one of his scaled hands, turning it over as though admiring a newly acquired possession.

"Your blood has a habit of overwhelming almost everything else." He flexed his claws before stretching his wings wider.

"Most innate traits become weaker whenever I mix them with this form. A few are vaguely compatible, but the effort is hardly worthwhile." Nikolai released a satisfied breath as his tail swayed lazily behind him.

"Besides, this body is remarkably comfortable." Noah's grip tightened around the Lion King of Heroes. Then Nikolai's right hand began to twist. The crimson scales softened and sank into his flesh as his fingers fused together. Bone cracked, skin expanded, and the limb reshaped itself until a human head protruded from the end of his arm. Noah's breath caught the moment its features became clear. The face was unmistakable. Walter Fafnir.

Nikolai lifted the grotesque imitation toward Noah as though presenting a puppet.

"What do you think about the Fafnir traits, Wally?" The false head's mouth opened.

"Blah, blah, blah…" Nikolai moved its jaw with childish exaggeration.

"I'm just a stupid dead man." Something inside Noah snapped. Three golden rings appeared beneath his feet and detonated at once. The layered force of Royal March launched him across the arena with terrifying speed, reducing the distance between them in an instant. Nikolai leapt backward, narrowly avoiding the Lion King as its blade carved through the space where his chest had been.

"Don't you dare…" Noah pursued him without hesitation, the black spots covering his body beginning to flare.

"Speak about my father…" Darkness poured from Noah's skin and flowed into the Lion King. The Regalia devoured the negative energy, transforming it into blinding golden power.

"Like that!" Nikolai landed several meters away, still smiling as Walter's stolen face hung from his arm. Noah raised his sword, his hands trembling around its hilt. It was not fear that caused them to shake, but the overwhelming urge to tear Nikolai apart with his bare hands.

"Calm down…" Noah forced himself to breathe as the blade continued growing brighter.

"Calm down." His father's face smiled from Nikolai's hand.

"Calm down." Noah lowered his stance and steadied his breathing. Nikolai was only using that form to torment him. Every word and gesture had been chosen to provoke him into abandoning reason, yet the transformation also revealed something important. It could become Nikolai's greatest weakness. Noah's green eyes studied every scale, muscle, and twitch within Nikolai's stolen body. By remaining in Partial Dragonization, he was sacrificing his greatest advantage: adaptability.

The ability to transform into whatever creature or trait best suited the situation was what made him so difficult to predict, but the overwhelming nature of Fafnir blood restricted nearly everything else he possessed. As long as Nikolai remained in that form, he would be forced to rely almost entirely upon Walter's traits. He could abandon the transformation at any moment and become something completely different. But his malice would not allow him to. Nikolai wanted to defeat Noah with Walter's body.

He wanted to humiliate him using the bloodline he had stolen from his father. And Noah intended to punish him for it. The false head withdrew into Nikolai's arm, leaving his right hand normal once again. Then he charged. Flames erupted from the crimson scales covering his fist as he drove it toward Noah's face. Noah planted his feet, and a golden ring formed in the air before him. Its repulsive force launched him upward, allowing him to flip over Nikolai and land against the empty air behind him.

"Royal Arts Adapted—Sky Walk!" Noah stepped down. Another golden ring formed beneath his foot and exploded, propelling him forward as he twisted his entire body.

"Royal Arts Original—Corkscrew!" He combined the aerial movement of Sky Walk with the penetrative force of Knight Killer. The added rotation transformed Noah into a living drill, concentrating his full momentum behind the point of the Lion King. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Nikolai barely turned in time. The golden blade tore through the left side of his ribs, destroying scales, flesh, and bone as Noah passed straight through him.

Blood scattered across the arena while Nikolai staggered forward. Noah landed and immediately spun around.

"Royal Arts—Execution!" The Lion King swept toward Nikolai's neck. Slime poured from the wound in Nikolai's side, filling the missing flesh and rapidly reconstructing his shattered ribs. Most traits struggled to coexist with Fafnir blood, but slime possessed no blood of its own. Its regenerative properties remained perfectly compatible with the transformation. Crimson scales bloomed across Nikolai's throat an instant before the Lion King struck.

The impact echoed throughout the arena as cracks spread across the natural armor, but the blade failed to sever his neck. Nikolai laughed.

"This is fun." He turned toward Noah, the wound in his side already beginning to close.

"Let's play some more." His fist tightened as the flames surrounding his arm intensified.

"Using this body, I'll give you all the training your daddy never could." Nikolai drove his fist into Noah's stomach. The impact emptied Noah's lungs and launched him backward across the arena. He struck the ground, bounced through the sand, and rolled several times before finally coming to a stop. Nikolai remained where he had attacked, wearing Walter's scales and smiling like a monster hidden inside another man's skin.

"I still have my trump card," Noah thought as he forced himself back onto his feet.

"But I can't use it until I'm certain it will kill him." The Lion King trembled within his grip. The Regalia had accepted his hands, his conviction, and the suffering he carried, but it had not acknowledged him completely. A true Soul Release was likely still beyond him. At least for now.

"Damn it." Nikolai rushed toward him, flames erupting from his feet and wings.

"Think." Noah moved.

"Royal Arts—Silver Dance!" His blade became a blur as he circled Nikolai with a relentless barrage of thrusts. Noah layered Sky Walk into every movement, creating golden rings throughout the air and launching himself from one angle to another before Nikolai could properly react. Above. Behind. At his side. Noah attacked from every direction, but the crimson scales remained difficult to penetrate.

Each strike carved only shallow wounds before scraping away from the armor, and Nikolai laughed as the Lion King repeatedly failed to reach the flesh beneath it. Then Noah heard the crowd. Their fear. Their worry. Hundreds of people were watching their Hero struggle against a monster who seemed impossible to kill. Every anxious breath and frightened whisper carried suffering, and the Ladybug stirred in response. Negative energy flowed from the stands and entered Noah's body. He welcomed it.

"Good." The dark spots across his skin multiplied as the Lion King began devouring the fear surging through him and transforming it into brilliant golden light.

"You're all afraid for me." Noah leapt high above Nikolai.

"Give it to me." The light surrounding his blade began to compress.

"Every ounce of terror." The radiance narrowed toward a single point along the sword's edge.

"Every worry." It became finer and sharper, far more delicate than the overwhelming power of Light That Burns the Night Sky.

"I'll carry it all." Noah raised the Lion King above his head.

"And I'll use it to slay this monster!" The golden point burned brighter than the sun.

"Royal Arts Original—Caliburn!" Noah descended. Nikolai crossed both draconic wings in front of his body and used them as a shield. Caliburn cut through them like paper. The concentrated edge passed through scales, flesh, and bone before cleaving directly through Nikolai's skull. Both wings split apart and fell to the ground as the blade opened his head and divided his brain. Nikolai staggered backward.

Slime immediately poured into the ruined skull, filling the destroyed tissue, yet his severed wings remained abandoned upon the sand. Noah's eyes sharpened.

"When I destroy his brain, he loses conscious control over his regeneration." Without Nikolai's mind directing it, the body operated through instinct alone. And instinct prioritized survival.

"The most important organ heals first." Noah launched himself forward.

"Until I learn how to kill you…" The Lion King flashed.

"I'll keep tearing you apart!" He attacked from every side. Noah severed Nikolai's arm, slashed through his lungs, and cut open his throat. Each time the brain came close to fully reforming, Noah shattered it again before Nikolai could regain control. The regeneration could not keep pace. Nikolai's body ignored the lesser injuries and desperately focused on restoring only what it considered necessary to survive.

His missing arm remained upon the ground, while the wounds across his torso continued spilling blood and slime. Noah drove the Lion King toward Nikolai's chest. Armor plates instantly formed over his heart. The blade struck them and stopped. Noah smiled.

"I've got you." Nikolai's half-restored face twitched.

"I already destroyed your heart once," Noah said, pressing the Lion King harder against the armored chest.

"And now your body protects it before anything else." His green eyes widened as the final pieces fell into place. The heart could be destroyed. The brain could be destroyed. But as long as one remained intact, Nikolai could regenerate through the other. Noah pulled back his sword as golden light and darkness gathered together around the blade.

"So that's the secret." His smile became vicious.

"Your brain and heart…" The Lion King shone within his hands.

"Need to be destroyed at the exact same time."