Chapter 61: Destruction

The sky shattered and the earth trembled as the golden dragon’s terrifying pressure enveloped the entire battlefield in an instant.
Even the observers from both sides in the distance were so intimidated by that dragon pressure that they were drenched in cold sweat, some even falling to their knees.
However, before Sta’s majestic and noble form, that man called Leon Casmode showed no fear.
He gathered lightning power in his hand and loudly expressed his dissatisfaction to that enormous being.
He really hated how these Dragon Kings would randomly roar all the time.
Transforming was fine, but did they have to shout it out?
Did shouting make them feel more badass?
Honestly, this is a battle, not a contest of who can shout louder.
Leon turned back to look at Rosvitha.
Though he was being sarcastic, he understood that the dragon’s aura wasn’t something an ordinary person could withstand.
Even Rosvitha, a Dragon King herself, would inevitably feel suppressed by Sta’s dragon aura at such close range.
Fear of the powerful is a biological instinct, and even more so the innate submission to stronger beings in dragon bloodlines.
Rosvitha raised her eyes, staring intently at the enormous creature.
Her face showed no expression, and her body wasn’t tense – rather, she appeared completely relaxed.
Looking at her, Leon opened his mouth to check on her condition, but she spoke first.
“Leon.”
“…Yes?”
“That shout of yours just now… was incredibly cool.”
General Leon was stunned, looking at Rosvitha in surprise.
She smiled with narrowed eyes, her smile carrying no hint of pretense – it was completely genuine praise for Leon.
But looking closely, Leon still noticed traces of cold sweat on her temple and the tip of her nose.
Suddenly, Leon understood.
That earth-shattering dragon aura had actually affected Rosvitha somewhat.
Those things hidden in bloodlines couldn’t be easily changed – even other Dragon Kings would react similarly.
They might even fare worse than Rosvitha, who had shown no sign of discomfort while facing the Starlight Dragon King’s pressure at close range, relying purely on her strong willpower to endure.
Until Leon’s shout completely steadied her mind.
She didn’t lack the courage to face powerful enemies; she just needed someone to help her at crucial moments.
And that person was Leon.
“If you praised me like this normally, I’d definitely be very happy,” Leon said with a smile after his brief surprise. “So, could you praise me like this again after the battle ends?”
Rosvitha spread her dragon wings, slowly enveloping herself.
Before her beautiful face was completely covered by the wings, she replied, “Depends on your performance, dummy.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Rosvitha spread her wings again, and instantly, a silver dragon roared as it soared into the sky.
The battle entered its next phase from this moment.
Dragons’ human form and dragon form each had their advantages.
In human form, dragons had more precise control over magic and more concentrated attack ranges, though the drawbacks were insufficient burst capability and slightly lower defense.
Dragon form could completely make up for these two shortcomings, but sacrificed agility, and magic consumption also increased.
The Silver Dragon clan’s attributes were focused on speed, so in terms of size and magical strength, Rosvitha was inferior to Sta.
Therefore, to defeat this gleaming old creature, she and Leon had to coordinate closely without any mistakes.
Fortunately, the couple had enough tacit understanding.
They didn’t even need to speak – just one look and they knew what each other would do next.
In other words, team communication.
Seeing Rosvitha fly into the air ready for battle, Leon also adjusted his state.
“Round two… begin.”
The husband and wife launched simultaneous attacks on Sta from the ground and sky.
This time, Sta didn’t use the Vesper Bell like before.
In human form, with a smaller body size, magic could more effectively cover the entire Vesper Bell.
But in dragon form, trying to concentrate that level of power into the Vesper Bell would require dozens of times more magic than in human form.
Moreover, the Vesper Bell had already been pierced by that human boy – using it again probably wouldn’t have much effect.
So when facing the couple’s assault this round, Sta chose to switch from defense to offense.
Using the dragon form’s ultra-high burst power to intercept their attacks.
“ROAR!——”
With a dragon’s roar, countless golden lights burst forth from Sta’s mouth.
Like golden rain, they fell from above, bombarding the ground.
His first attack target was naturally Leon Casmode.
Through the previous exchanges, Sta roughly understood why the Empire was so eager to eliminate this guy.
If they allowed someone like this to continue living, his influence would be immeasurable.
Those in power might rule differently, but they shared one thing in common:
They would never allow uncontrollable factors to exist.
And Leon was uncontrollable.
So he had to be eliminated.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—
Countless golden lights streaked past Leon’s body, triggering a series of magical explosions at his feet.
The silver armor was swallowed by flames and dust, which actually caused Sta to temporarily lose track of Leon.
But before he could relocate Leon’s position, intense heat came from an oblique angle above.
Looking up, three crescent-shaped flames came straight at him.
S-Class Fire Magic – Moon-Chasing Fire
While maintaining fire magic’s characteristic high burst and burn damage, it also used magical form transformation to make it into a blade, greatly increasing penetration power.
The three crescents struck Sta’s head with perfect accuracy, leaving obvious burn marks on the golden scales.
But ultimately it only damaged the scales, which didn’t count as effective damage against a Dragon King.
“Dragons have truly declined. The new generation of Dragon Kings only have this much ability,” Sta didn’t spare any sarcasm toward his enemies.
“If you still possessed overwhelming power, why hide in the shadows for a hundred years, even allying with humans?” Rosvitha shot back without weakness.
“My alliance with humans is for dragons’ longer-term future.”
“Dragons’ future should be in dragons’ own hands, not relying on others.”
After the brief exchange, Rosvitha spread her wings, blowing out a spiral of air currents.
Following that, she gathered flames in her mouth and sprayed them forth.
The flames caught up with the spiral currents ahead, and instantly, a winding, coiling ‘fire snake’ attacked Sta at extreme speed.
S-Class Fire Magic – Explosive Flame Dance
Sta’s body was extremely large, giving him transcendent defense and magical burst power.
But large size also meant he was easier to hit.
Moreover, against flame attacks accelerated by air currents, Sta had no way to dodge.
The fire snake impacted Sta’s neck – his scales blocked a large portion of the impact force but couldn’t block the high temperature.
Sta let out a low growl, gathering energy in his dragon mouth, targeting Rosvitha in the air.
But before he could release this attack, on the ground, a silver figure burst out of the previous bombardment’s flames at extreme speed.
He gripped lightning as he charged straight at Sta.
Sta had been keeping an eye on Leon’s position, so he wouldn’t be successfully ambushed by this kid.
While continuing to gather energy, he swept his massive dragon tail toward Leon.
That human boy neither dodged nor evaded, still charging straight at Sta.
Sta snorted coldly, thinking to himself, “Arrogant hothead, die!”
The golden tail rose high, blocking the sunlight above Leon, instantly enveloping him in shadow.
By the time he looked up, the tail had already slammed down heavily.
BOOM!!—
This strike wasn’t just a free-falling tail – it was almost Sta’s full-power attack.
Using the advantage of his massive dragon form, even Dragon Kings of equal size would struggle to block this powerful, crushing attack.
Let alone a human in physical form.
The moment the tail slammed down, Sta released the energy gathered in his mouth toward Rosvitha in the air.
Naturally, the Silver Dragon Queen, known for her speed, wouldn’t be hit by such a clumsy charged attack. Rosvitha easily avoided Sta’s attack.
“Hmph… one reckless hothead who only knows how to charge straight ahead, one new queen who only knows how to dodge and weave. I truly don’t know how to evaluate you two.”
The queen hovered in midair, her dragon eyes fixed on the area beneath the golden tail.
She believed Leon had a strategy; he wouldn’t be foolish enough to charge in and get crushed underneath.
“Since you don’t know how to evaluate us… why not… hear my evaluation?”
Suddenly, that man’s voice came from behind Sta’s neck.
The massive body violently shuddered.
Sta’s pupils contracted, “When— when did you—”
“Well then, my evaluation is… a thousands-year-old creature should quietly stay buried in the ground.”
Sta tried to turn around to swat off the “flea” on his body.
But with just a crisp snap of fingers, a blue light flashed from his tail area.
Immediately after, a numbing sensation shot through his entire lower body from his tail.
A-Class Lightning Magic – Lightning Shadow Illusion
Just now when Sta’s attack kicked up countless flames and dust on the battlefield, Leon used this as cover to create a briefly-existing clone in the dust using Lightning Shadow Illusion. Then, after the clone had completely drawn Sta’s attention, he silently circled around to the back of Sta’s massive neck.
This move only works against large Dragon Kings – in equal-sized combat, it would be too easy to distinguish between the real body and the clone.
Of course, Rosvitha’s cooperation was also crucial.
If it weren’t for her two S-Class magic spells interfering with Sta, this old Dragon King might have discovered Leon’s trick.
“I believe someone must have warned you before you came not to transform into dragon form when fighting me, but obviously, you didn’t listen.”
Leon concentrated a lightning sword in his hand, “But it’s not too late – you can do a post-mortem review with Constantine in the underworld. The title can be ‘How Foolish it is to Fight Casmode in Dragon Form’.”
The lightning sword slashed down, piercing through the hard golden scales at the back of Sta’s neck.
Sta’s dragon eyes trembled violently.
This was even more shocking to him than being successfully ambushed by Leon.
“He- he actually penetrated Sta’s scales with a sword made of lightning?!”
Even watching from afar, Ravi was shocked by that human’s terrifying power.
The discomfort from Sta’s dragon aura earlier hadn’t yet faded when that Casmode fellow plunged him into another bout of ice-cold fear.
But these two fears were fundamentally different.
Dragon aura suppression came from dragon bloodline;
But the pressure Leon brought came from his power that far surpassed Dragon Kings – power that was almost abnormal.
At this moment, Nacho also lost his desire to kick someone while they’re down or gloat. His expression became grave, “Does Sta have any other trump cards left? If not, call Blai and Jagus – we can only rely on you three.”
Ravi swallowed, and this time he didn’t argue with Nacho, “Understood, I’ll go prepare. A monster like this… absolutely, absolutely cannot be allowed to live. Too terrifying…”
He stared at Leon, mumbling again, “Too terrifying.”
Ravi used all his strength to tear his gaze away from Leon, turning to prepare his final killing move.
But before he could descend from the general’s platform, he heard Nacho shout, “Wait, look, what is Sta trying to do?”
At the sound, Ravi turned back to look.
He saw the golden dragon roaring to the sky, completely disregarding the dragon blood gushing from its neck.
Light radiated brilliantly from his body, as tremendous energy gradually gathered in the air above him.
The energy was so powerful it changed the color of heaven and earth, causing elements to run wild.
Ravi immediately saw through Sta’s intentions.
“He- he’s converting his self-destructive energy into an attack!”
“What… does that mean?” Nacho asked, confused.
“Ancient dragons choose to destroy everything when backed into a corner.”
Ravi broke out in a cold sweat, his voice trembling,
“Including themselves.”