The Devouring Dragon

I tensed my body, silently reinforcing it as the world around us burst into flames.

The fireball slammed into the pile of broken spears, lighting up the ground at Ragnar's feet and then spreading in an instant. It flowed across the ground, jumping from piece of wood to piece of wood until it reached the edge of the small box that Ragnar had unintentionally carved out.

It spread to the trees, the oil only making the flames flare up even higher. The entire area around was set alight in a massive fire.

"W-What?!" Ragnar stuttered, letting out a pained grunt as he was suddenly surrounded by a sea of fire. He bent over, his paws clutching desperately at his legs as the fire lashed out onto his fur, spreading across his body.

Considering how sore my chest still felt from his earlier blow, I was enjoying watching the wolf-man suffer. But, alas, I had no intention of burning alive with him.

"See you never!" I grinned, my face still stained in blood as I turned around. My whole body became reinforced - my limbs and body feeling as hard as steel. 

I sprinted forward, barreling through the flames around me as they licked at my skin.

-50HP! (6,485/23,035)

+25 HP! (6,510/23,035)

-50HP! (6,460/23,035)

+25 HP! (6,485/23,035)

Even with my toughened exterior, I wasn't completely immune from the flames around me. The heat slammed into me in waves as smoke floated above the small clearing, expanding wider and wider as the flames spread to the trees in the surrounding area.

This might've been a bit overboard - I'm glad that we happen to be toward the top of a mountain, because otherwise I might've accidentally burned the whole forest down.

I vaulted over the trees in front of me, ignoring the way the flames licked at my feet. 

"YOU BASTARD!" Ragnar's voice screamed behind me, and I took a glance over my shoulder.

While my tough skin, and lack of clothing, meant that the fire wasn't sticking to me well, Ragnar had the opposite situation.

His fur was a perfect catalyst for the flames to spread, and his entire body was practically engulfed in fire as he clutched and clawed at his own skin.

He stumbled toward me, but he couldn't focus on trying to catch me as the fire continued to consume him. His steps were slow as he desperately clawed at his own fur and skin.

I almost felt bad - it was kind of pathetic to see the wolf king bending over in pain as he desperately tried to ward off the flames.

Almost. I still haven't forgotten how badly that claw to the chest hurt.

"Help him! Save His Highness!" I heard Podo scream from somewhere behind the wall of flames, but I didn't see him run in to help.

As much as the advisor might've wanted to help him, he wouldn't be able to. The king was entrapped in a box of flames, and he would slowly but surely burn to death.

I paused, turning around to take one final look at Ragnar as he burned. The flames continued to spread, slowly coming closer and closer to me as they spread from tree to tree.

As I stared at Ragnar as he burned, I felt a strange sense of… disappointment.

I was arrogant. 

Not stupidly arrogant, but definitely arrogant.

After defeating all the generals so easily, I had thought that the king wouldn't be a challenge either. If I didn't have the forethought to think up a plan like this then I might've really died.

But, I did have a plan, so I lived. And, before my very eyes, Ragnar was dying.

I wasn't above playing dirty - no, using such a method to defeat Ragnar wasn't why I was disappointed. 

I had purposefully not used [Fireball] so that I could catch him by surprise. I had planned to enact a much smaller-scale attack with [Materical Change], but [Reinforce] had been a stroke of luck.

In the end, I had outsmarted Ragnar. For all his spying, and for all his countless troops he could send at me, he had still lost.

The way I had won didn't disappoint me - it was how close it had been.

I had been lucky. If [Harden] hadn't evolved into [Reinforce], and thus I had been forced to use [Material Change], then I might have lost.

If Ragnar hadn't knocked over so many trees, creating a prison for himself within the flames, then I might have lost.

It wasn't like I was guaranteed to lose in a fair fight, but I also wasn't guaranteed to win.

My victory wasn't perfect - no, it was far from perfect. It was flawed. It was lucky.

I silently clenched my fist, my eyes glinting as I stared into the mass of flames in front of me.

I need to be better in the future. Any victory needs to be an overwhelming one.

"V-Valon!" I blinked, pulling myself from my silent brooding as I spun around. Raya was standing a couple dozen feet behind me, her eyes wide as she stared at the destruction in front of us.

"I told you to run," I hummed, raising an eyebrow at her. My exact order had been to 'run and not look back,' and yet she was waiting not even a hundred feet from where me and Ragnar had been fighting.

"You didn't say how far to run," Raya replied evenly, puffing out her cheeks at me as she glared at me lightly, "Sorry for not leaving when you were literally spitting up blood! I didn't know what you had planned! Give me a little warning next time… I was ready to grab you run…"

I couldn't help but smile softly at her words. It was nice to have someone worrying about me.

"Are you fine with seeing this?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her and gesturing forward. 

While Ragnar might've been the Great Wolf King, he was still her father. And, while she had come to me with the intention of taking him down, there was a big difference between watching me defeat him in a fair fight and watching him slowly burn to death.

"I… yeah," Raya nodded shakily, steeling her face as she stared forward, watching her father roll in the flames as he continued to scream in pain, "...We came here to kill him. How he dies doesn't matter."

I nodded at her words. I was glad that she wouldn't hold any hard feelings over the rather merciless way that Ragnar was dying.

Burning to death had to be a bottom 5 way to die - even with my reinforced skin, just being near the massive fire was daunting.

"You…" Ragnar screamed again, and at this point his body was becoming near-unrecognizable. His fur was burned away, leaving just blacked charred skin.

His maw was melting away grotesquely, his face physically burning away and exposing his jaw to the world.

"I… I WON'T DIE LIKE THIS!" Ragnar screamed abruptly, his words echoing through the small clearing as he glared at me with hatred in his eyes.

"You literally will," I deadpanned.

His body was being melted - literally - in front of my eyes. There was no way he'd survive, even if someone pulled him out of the flames right now.

Ragnar crawled forward, his hands digging into the ground beneath him as he glared forward with a fire in his eyes.

"BLUE ONE!" Ragnar screamed abruptly again, his voice horse as he inhaled so much smoke, "I'M USING IT, YOU HEAR ME?! I DON'T CARE IF I DIE! TAKE MY LIFE, BLUE ONE! TAKE MY SOUL! TAKE MY SOUL AND KILL THIS BASTARD!"

I froze at his words, my body tensing. I still wasn't sure who this 'blue one' was, but hearing Ragnar's dramatic statement wasn't filling me with confidence.

Surely this was just the delusional ramblings of a dead man, right?

Luckily for me, I was right!

Ragnar's burnt hands continued to claw as he dragged himself towards me. Then, he started to slow down. His arms gave away, and he slumped over, his body lying motionlessly on the ground.

"Damn, I was actually right this time," I muttered, surprising even myself. 

Usually the 'this totally bad thing isn't about to happen, right?' precedes a bad thing about to happen. This time, Ragnar was actually just dead.

Then, his corpse started to glow.

Never mind, I wasn't right.

A blue glow slowly surrounded Ragnar, spreading around his burnt-dead body. It surrounded him, seemingly flowing out from the inside of his body.

"Raya," I started. Raya glanced over at me, her eyes unsure.

"Run," I finished, slamming my body sideways and shoving her out of the way. As I did, a ball of fire burst past where I had been standing just a second earlier.

I spun around, tensing my body as I stared at the ball of fire. It wasn't actually a ball of flames - it was a burnt corpse covered head-to-toe in fire, smoke rising from his body.

Ragnar stabilized himself, slowly turning around and facing me. His eyes were lifeless - his burnt flesh making him look more like a zombie than a wolf man.

Yeah, he's definitely dead.

Behind him, a streak of blue stretched back into the flame-encased area. I didn't have time to think about that, because Ragnar was leaping at me a second later.

He was faster this time - far faster than even when he was using his skill earlier. I had no chance to dodge as his fist slammed directly into my chest.

-100HP! (6,360/23,035)

+50 HP! (6,410/23,035)

I blinked, staring down at the fist that was pressing into my chest as it barely hurt at all. I slid back a tiny bit from the impact, and my chest was slightly burnt from the flames coating Ragnar's fist, but that was it.

I raised my own hand, forming a fist and launching it at Ragnar. It didn't even come close to landing - the wolf-man-turned-zombie disappeared faster than my eyes could even process, and suddenly his fist was slamming into my back.

-100HP! (6,310/23,035)

+50 HP! (6,360/23,035)

Once again, I barely even felt the impact. I spun around, lashing out at him but hitting air as his fist slammed into my side again. 

-100HP! (6,260/23,035)

+50 HP! (6,310/23,035)

I gritted my teeth as Ragnar dodged around me easily, his movements too fast for my eyes to track. 

I was more confused than anything.

His attacks barely hurt me, and yet he was so fast that I couldn't even keep track of him?

My thoughts were cut off as I had to jerk my head back, not able to dodge in time as Ragnar's hand slammed into my face. As it did, I blinked again in confusion.

-100HP! (6,210/23,035)

+50 HP! (6,260/23,035)

Instead of a fist smacking me in the face, it was fingers. It was as if Ragnar had slapped me in the face. My eyes widened as I put together what was going on.

Ragnar had used a skill - which assumedly the mysterious 'blue one' had given him - to allow him to keep fighting after he died. 

Judging by the long blue streak trailing off of his body and back into the flame-encased area, his life force, or possibly even his soul judging by his previous words, was being drained to fuel his final chance at taking me down.

However, Ragnar was stupid. The skill allowed his body to keep fighting, but his body was broken and disintegrating. 

Ragnar's hand slammed into my face again, his bony fingers brushing past it in a light fiery slap.

-100HP! (6,110/23,035)

+50 HP! (6,160/23,035)

His body was trying to slash at me with his claws - claws that no longer existed. They were burned away along with his flesh and muscles. 

Now, he was just a weak corpse with a time limit. Eventually, his soul would drain away and the skill would end - leaving his corpse empty and lifeless.

"The blue one, huh?" I muttered, now much less urgent as Ragnar continued to mercilessly attack me - all of his attacks barely doing any damage as I could completely ignore them.

This 'blue one' person might be a bit more trouble than I had initially thought. Considering that this entire forest was pretty much a tutorial, I had figured that nothing would give me too much trouble, but I was proven wrong.

They had access to magic - that much was clear now. I wasn't sure if both Ragno and Ragnar's skills came from their magic, or if just this final one had, but either way I had to be more cautious.

I would need a lot more preparation before I could go after them.

Finally, after roughly a minute of Ragnar wailing on my body, his burning corpse started to slow down. His arm lashed out, slapping his bony hand into my chest one last time before he slumped over.

I stared down at the crispy corpse at my feet, the fire mostly out as his flesh and fur were entirely burned away.

"I hate burnt meat," I wrinkled my nose, then blinked as I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.

The blue glow had finished trailing off of Ragnar's body, but the final trail of it was floating in the air towards the wall of fire in front of us. 

I squinted my eyes, ignoring the pain that I felt as I stared into the inferno, and I spotted a blotch of blue on the floor. The trail in the air flowed into it, disappearing as it slammed into the ground below.

I walked forward, stepping over Ragnar's corpse as I walked toward the wall of flames.

"V-Valon?" Raya called questioningly behind me, the girl not having gone far when Ragnar tried to attack us again.

I ignored her, my eyes staying locked onto the blue glow as I stomped into the inferno. The flames licked at my body, barely being staved off by my reinforcement.

As I approached the glow, I found the source of it. Lying on the floor, looking completely untouched despite the countless burning trees and spear remnants around it, was a small chunk of a broken spear.

Yeah, this definitely wasn't normal.

It was glowing blue, and it looked as if it had been carved partially. Instead of a random chunk of wood, the piece of spear looked eerily similar to a wolf's claw.

I reached down, grabbing the piece of wood in my hand.

[You have acquired [F-Tier] [Sacred Treasure]!]

[King's Claw] - The claw of the Great Wolf King, Ragnar.

I blinked, staring at the text that appeared in my face. However, the name in particular stood out to me.

A treasure. A treasure from the 'blue one.'

I think I figured out who the 'blue one' was now, and I wasn't happy about it.

I might be fucked.

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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out in a couple of days, or you can read ahead on Patreon.com/Koyon !