Chương 91: B2 Chapter 13

The dagger hurled through the air with surprising velocity. It was faster than even his strongest [Mana Bolt]s and it hit much harder as well. The Young Drake caught the projectile from the corner of its unscathed eye, but it underestimated the force behind it. The dagger scraped across a set of damaged scales instead of its exposed flesh when the Drake's body shifted. However, that was enough. Its blade, coated in a translucent sheen, pierced the damaged scales and dug into the monster's flesh beneath.

It dug deeper than anticipated, yet the worst was only about to come. [Bleeding] triggered as the mana coating the dagger's edges tore into the Young Drake. It let out a pained yelp, bringing a smile to Hakon's lips. A smile that widened as a new Scripture popped up. [Basic Skill, [Throwing], has mutated. [Enhanced Throw] has been created under the Will's influence.] He was sure he could have used mana to create some sort of magical throwing Skills, but [Enhanced Throw] was positively terrifying.

So was [Accelerate] when he applied it on his sword arm, accelerating his arm's momentum drastically. It had been hard to keep up with the Young Drake's constant attacks, yet with [Accelerate] he was no longer slower. If anything, Hakon felt like he had caught up to the Young Drake.

Upping his physical power with [Circulation] and further amplifying his attack speed with [Accelerate], while [Swiftstep] allowed him to evade as well as close the distance to the Young Drake, was all he needed to power through, yet it was far more exhausting than using a few Magic Skills. Using and maintaining several Skills at once was a pain already. However, it was a pain that affected his mind. [Split Focus] helped him remove the strain on his mind, which was not possible in this case.

Now, under the influence of Will, draining his body rapidly, Hakon was fighting against himself. Not only was the Will positively exhausting, it was painful as well. [Swiftstep] was already painful if used for more than a few heartbeats. And that was without imbuing the Skill with mana. [Accelerate] was even worse though. Applying it on his legs while [Circulation] and [Swiftstep] were both active made him feel like his legs were being torn apart.

His body was simply too weak to endure the strain for more than a fraction of a heartbeat. Thus, it was applied to his arms, which worked well enough to face the Young Drake, even if it hurt just as badly. Hakon tried to conjure a construct with his body's resource, but it was unlike mana. Whatever the Will was, it had to be used within his body. It was… his Lifeblood? Regardless of what it was actually called, Hakon felt drawn to it much more than even mana.

Twisting his sword with a sudden motion to block yet another attack forced the Young Drake to change its tactics. It leaped at Hakon, who twisted to the side. [Weakness Detection] flickered to life, and he stabbed into the monster's wide open maw. He would have added [Bleeding] to the blade or applied [Reinforcement], but everything happened so fast and he was already fighting on fumes. Stabbing the Drake in the back of its mouth, twisting the blade, and retracting it took no longer than a heartbeat.

Blood sputtered through the air, but the fresh wound only seemed to irritate the Young Drake more. It let out a defiant roar and was about to charge when Hakon unleashed a presence of his own. [Intimidation] amplified with the Will. He wasn't even sure why he did that, but it felt correct. His Ancient Power agreed wholeheartedly with that assessment, and so did the Young Drake as it froze in place. Its eyes grew wide and it stopped in its tracks. [Intimidation Lv. 11 → Lv. 13] There were a lot more improvements to the Scripture, but Hakon caught a glimpse of the last line before he leaped at the opportunity presented. The Young Drake had lost all its momentum. It was heaving heavily just like him, but Hakon felt like he was much worse off. He was dead tired, feeling like he might collapse at any moment, yet the excitement and probably [Adaptive Resilience] kept him going. That's Lifeblood, isn't it? Even if it wasn't Lifeblood, it had to be part of it.

A fraction of the power his father wielded. How could he not be excited about that? Even if he still had to learn how to wield it properly and his Skills threatened to harm him, he was more than willing to face the consequences. Hakon took that into consideration as he did something that was probably stupid. He closed the distance to the Young Drake, his sword nowhere to be seen. Mana gathered in his palms instead.

With [Mana Shaping] active and [Reinforcement] and [Compression] added to the fray, he placed his palms together and formed a pole made of highly compressed mana. The Drake eyed him but backtracked rather than charging him once more. But it was prepared, its eyes scanning him with newfound fear. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. A large mass of mana gathered at the pole's tip.

[Compression] shrunk the mass immediately into a small block, only for it to expand again as more mana poured out of Hakon's Core. It took a bit of tweaking and shifting, or would have, if he had bothered with that. But Hakon brute-forced his way through the process, relying on his Skills as framework, [Enhanced Comprehension] to guide him, and his other similar Skills to force the creation of something new. [Skill, [Magical Warhammer], has been learned.] And it worked.

The mana consumed in the creation of the warhammer resting in his hands was too much. It wasn't worth it under normal circumstances. Even now, Hakon couldn't be certain that it would work, but he trusted the process and the instincts that pushed him onward. [Magical Warhammer] was heavier. It weighed almost as much as the Maulaxe Crusher did, and it felt just as powerful.

If he had any more time, he would have checked the spirit form to confirm his suspicion, but he was certain the new Skill was connected not only to [Mana Shaping], [Compression], and [Reinforcement], but also to [Mana Shield] or [Mana Bolt], possibly both. Not that it mattered as he singled out a weakness. Hakon pulled back and aimed. [Accelerate] flared up and drained him, but so did [Enhanced Throw] as he pumped his body's power into his arms.

One moment the warhammer rested in his hands, and in the next it soared through the air. A snap echoed in Hakon's ears and his wounded right arm went limp. But his torn and shredded body did not concern him, neither was [Vitality Stream]'s desperate attempt at fixing the wounds he and his foe had inflicted upon him. He stared at the warhammer as it closed the gap to the Young Drake. It struck the monster's snout with tremendous force, creating yet another opportunity.

And this time, Hakon was close enough to exploit it properly. He appeared in the Young Drake's dead angle and lowered his body to weave underneath its head as it yanked it his way. The last of his daggers in his left hand, Hakon rammed it into the Young Drake's unscathed eye. It noticed him at the last moment, and tried to snap its eyes shut, but it was too slow. [Circulation] and [Accelerate] combined made him feel like collapsing even more than he already did, but he wasn't done.

[Bleeding] and [Reinforcement] had been applied to the dagger right before it found purchase in the Young Drake's eye. Still, it wasn't until Hakon used [Discharge] that the eyeball exploded in a gory mess. And even that wasn't all as the lines of his chest burned alight and a beam of all the force gathered in his Runeskin was unleashed at once. A white beam erupted from the epicenter of Hoard Impact, and it struck the back of his dagger, pushing it deeper and deeper into the Young Drake's head.

It whirled around with a screech, its head crashing into Hakon. Unable to block or divert the impact, he took the full force of the hit. Rather than being yanked through the air, Hakon was pushed backward until the ground stopped him. Cracking noises and searing pain greeted him, yet his eyes never left the thrashing beast. Hoard Impact's power died down as soon as the Young Drake hit him, but the damage was done. Only the bottom of the dagger was visible at this point.

It thrashed around, head and tail smashing into the ground and nearby shrubbery, but it was to no avail. Its strength faded away until it finally collapsed dead to the ground. Batch upon batch of Scriptures popped up before him confirming once more that combat was over. Then, unsurprisingly enough, mana flowed toward him. It flooded his pathways and filled his Core to the brim, expanding and strengthening it. A smile bloomed on his lips, however, the exhaustion etched deep into his marrow didn't fade.

It stayed with him even as the mana from his inevitable Ascension enhanced him, strengthening him so much more than several Levels as a 1st Ascension Barbarian could. A familiar stench filled the air around him, making him grimace. His pathways were being cleansed. They were also being tempered and grew wider than Hakon was used to. The obstacles were no longer a problem, not that there were many spots of impurities left in the first place. Yet, as his power rose to new heights, Hakon felt weaker than ever.

His body was still worn and torn, no matter how much tougher, stronger, and faster, the mana seeping into his flesh, bones, and muscles made him. Even when [Vitality Stream]'s warmth enclosed his entire body, the exhaustion prevailed. It changed and diminished ever so slightly, but no matter what the influx of mana or [Vitality Stream] tried, it wasn't enough. I need to rest. He mused, the corners of his lips curling upward, knowing he had just achieved something great.

Defeating a Young Drake at the 1st Ascension was great, and so was learning more about the truth of Lifeblood – if his theory wasn't all skewed and actually made some sense, that is. I deserve some rest. He thought once more, but rest was for the weak. Or the dead, and Hakon certainly did not want to die. If not for the overabundance of mana roaring through his Core and pathways, he wouldn't have noticed anything.

But with so much mana at his disposal, Hakon activated [Sensory Expansion], [Flow Observation], and [Mana Sense] to scan the surroundings for potential dangers. When he picked something up, it was time to ramp up his effort by also activating [Combat Awareness] and [Edge of Awareness]. By that point, his danger sense was screaming at him, and his eyes flicked to the right to see a spot of blue moving within a dark shrub.

I knew you'd come, he told himself, hair standing on end as the smell of mana flooded his nostrils for the first time. It was overflowing with mana, much more than he smelled and sensed before. It wasn't even comparable to the minuscule amount of mana he controlled. That creature was horrifying, to say the least. But the creature to his right was not the problem. The real threat came from behind. A roar reverberated through the forest, the ground shook, and the undergrowth split ways to a hut-sized terror.

[Mature Drake – Lethal Threat]"Fuck," Hakon spat out, clenching his fists tightly enough to hear his knuckles crack.