Chapter 119: The Blood Mark of an Elder Dragon
Chaz was more furious than he had ever been.
By the time he reached the place where Cher had supposedly been, he had no choice but to force his way through the Dark Hunters. Even after summoning every available man to reinforce him, it had taken nearly an hour to crush their resistance.
The Dark Hunters were far from weak. Three powerful B-Enhancers stood among their ranks, and unlike Chaz’s exhausted forces, they had entered the battle fully rested. Not to mention, they were prepared for any fight against mine troops while looting the crystals. They had been prepared to hold their ground even against Chaz Avaron himself, and when escape became impossible, they fought like cornered beasts.
’Unbelievable...’
The battle only became one-sided after he and his own B-Enhancers killed the enemy leaders, allowing the remaining Dark Hunters to be swept aside with little effort.
Everything had gone smoothly after that, everything except one: He couldn’t find a single trace of Cher.
’She was here, and my people surrounded the entire area... so how did she disappear again?’
His fury continued to build as an unsettling feeling settled in his mind. Leaving the cleanup to his subordinates, Chaz stood in silence, replaying every event from the beginning.
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that he had walked straight into a trap.
’Don’t tell me... she orchestrated all of this.’
’She actually used herself as bait to lure me away.’
’Cher...’
His gaze slowly shifted toward the top of the mine, where the entire incident had begun.
Piece by piece, the outline of her plan became clearer. The dragon had fallen into the abyss, while Cher deliberately drew his attention elsewhere, buying herself all the time she needed. Remembering how long it had taken to eliminate the Dark Hunters, his expression darkened even further.
"Gather up."
"We’re heading into the mine abyss. Let’s kill the dragon."
Even so, Chaz did not take everyone with him. He left a small force behind to search the surrounding area, unwilling to dismiss the possibility that Cher was waiting for him to descend before making her escape.
Once they reached the circular paths winding around the mine, he split his men into several groups and led them downward at the fastest speed possible.
Halfway through the descent, a deafening roar echoed from below.
ROAR!
’The dragon...’
’That roar sounds different.’
A faint tremor ran through the mountain, sending dust cascading from the rocky walls. For reasons he couldn’t explain, an ominous feeling gripped his heart.
Then another roar followed, and another.
This time, Chaz focused on the trembling mountain instead of the sound itself, and the conclusion he reached made his face stiffen.
’Impossible...’
’It’s reached the peak of A-Grade.’
The entire mountain shook violently, as though struck by a relentless earthquake. Such overwhelming force couldn’t possibly come from a dragon that was at an early stage of A-Grade.
’What have you done, Cher?’
He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, unable to believe his daughter had pushed the dragon that far, yet the evidence lay before him.
Upon reaching the bottom of the abyss, he found the massive crater left behind by the dragon’s fall, followed the tunnel beyond it, and eventually arrived at the cavern where the trap had been laid.
The dragon’s furious roars echoed through the chamber without pause, each one carrying the overwhelming pressure of a peak A-Grade existence.
’Something is wrong.’
The moment Chaz stepped into the cavern, he realised the dragon’s behaviour was completely abnormal.
Its terrifying aura froze every Enhancer who had arrived before him, yet despite possessing enough strength to slaughter them all, it never attacked. Instead, it continued to thrash violently, roaring without end as its enormous body smashed into the towering stone pillars, reducing them to rubble and shaking the entire mountain with every impact.
’Why does it feel... as though something is restraining it?’
Chaz spent several minutes trailing the dragon, studying every movement with patience. The beast moved as though invisible chains weighed down its body, each motion sluggish and strained, as if something far heavier than its own injuries was dragging it toward the ground.
’Has it lost its mind?’
He had no way of knowing that the entire mine was crushing the dragon beneath an overwhelming pressure. Nor did he care. Whatever the cause, one fact was obvious.
The peak A-grade dragon was no longer capable of fighting at its full strength. This was the perfect opportunity to kill it.
"On me."
"Attack at will."
Without another word, Chaz leapt from the ledge, black lightning erupting around him as he descended onto the dragon’s back. Inspired by his charge, the other Enhancers roared and followed without hesitation.
Even crippled, the dragon remained terrifying.
Its movements lacked precision, its Mana was unstable, and its body was already riddled with wounds, yet every swipe of its claws and every swing of its tail claimed lives. The battle quickly turned into a brutal war of attrition.
Before engaging, Chaz had ordered part of his forces to search the surrounding tunnels.
’Cher is definitely here.’
The dragon’s bizarre behaviour only strengthened his suspicion that she was hiding nearby, perhaps using the beast as another distraction before escaping to the surface. It was a reasonable conclusion, but dividing his already limited forces proved to be a costly mistake.
Every attack from the dragon slaughtered more of his elite soldiers. Had Chaz not repeatedly placed himself in its path, enduring blow after blow, even the surviving B-Enhancers would have perished.
The price, though, was devastating. One savage claw tore through his knee, severing his leg.
Pain twisted across his face for only an instant before it disappeared beneath sheer resolve. He continued fighting as though nothing had happened, his black lightning raging with undiminished fury.
The entire cavern turned into a brutal confrontation between two A-grade beasts. Chaz kept relentlessly launching pillars of black lightning, fiercely attacking the dragon. And the dragon kept swaying its tail, claws, even trying more than once to bite Chaz with its terrifying spear-like teeth.
Hours crawled by, and the dragon drew ever closer to death.
Throughout the battle, it struggled not only against its enemies but also against the crushing pressure radiating from the mine. Time and again, it attempted to assume its humanoid form, only to fail as the pressure from the mine disrupted every transformation.
Unable to control its Mana, it could no longer unleash its devastating breath. All it had left were its claws, its tail, and the scales that still clung stubbornly to its battered body.
Opposite it stood Chaz.
Even after losing a leg, the A-Enhancer remained relentless, advancing with the same terrifying determination as if he had sacrificed nothing.
Eventually, the dragon understood; there was no escape.
Death stood only a single step away, yet, strangely enough, resentment never took root within its heart.
Its golden eyes drifted toward the tunnel through which Silas had escaped. It could still faintly sense the flower racing farther and farther away. That flower had been the cornerstone of everything it had planned, but none of it mattered anymore. Even if it reclaimed it now, nothing would change.
’You stole my future, Ashborne.’
’Then take mine instead.’
The dragon abandoned every thought of defence or struggle.
It no longer resisted the crushing pressure of the mine, nor did it care about the attacks raining down upon its body.
Instead, it devoted every remaining fragment of its strength to a single purpose.
A hidden rune began to glow on the dragon’s back, small and faint enough to disappear amid the chaos, yet Chaz noticed it immediately. The moment it appeared, his eyes widened as the dragon released a long, deafening roar. The rune shone brighter and brighter before suddenly dimming.
’Carry the mark of my blood.’
’Carry the burden that follows it.’
The dragon offered no further resistance. Instead, it poured nearly all of its remaining Mana into activating the ancient draconic seal carved into its back.
Chaz seized the moment. He knew exactly what that rune was, and he understood what its activation meant.
’An Elder Dragon...?!’
The revelation shook him.
’So it wasn’t here merely to rampage.’
His gaze remained fixed on the mark as countless old rumours resurfaced in his mind, all pointing to the same terrifying conclusion. This conclusion appeared clearly in the devastation left after destroying the Ashborne Kingdom.
Yet he recalled another infamous rumour, one that made him grit his teeth in painful loss. Anyone who claimed any precious part from a dragon after that rune was activated would eventually disappear without a trace.
’Cher...’
His concern was not born from fatherly affection. What troubled him was the possibility of losing the only opportunity he knew of to break humanity’s limits.
"Kill the dragon!"
There was no time to waste. Whatever the Elder Dragon had set in motion would steal that chance forever unless he ended its life first. Only then could he search for his daughter and find her before leaving for the academy.
Fortunately, activating the rune had drained the dragon of the last of its strength. The battle shifted decisively in Chaz’s favour, and less than half an hour later, the beast finally fell.
The battle had been relentless, and the dragon’s final act caught everyone off guard. Chaz immediately ordered that no one touch the corpse. Contrary to his expectations, nobody objected. After fighting both the dragon and the Dark Hunters, every survivor was too exhausted to argue.
The soldiers scattered to treat their wounds and recover what little strength they had left, while Chaz finally allowed someone to inspect his own injuries. Learning that his leg could not be saved barely affected him. After discovering he had been facing a dragon of Elder lineage from the beginning, losing half a leg no longer seemed like an unbearable price.
Then the report he had been waiting for finally arrived.
[We spotted Lady Cher.]
[She is aboard the shuttle and is leaving the mine’s territory.]
Chaz rose to his foot at once. Despite the pain and the crude artificial leg hastily fitted to him, he limped toward the exit.
"Only those still capable of fighting, come with me."
Of the ten thousand soldiers and Enhancers under his command, fewer than a thousand had survived, and only six hundred were still capable of moving into battle.
"Intercept the shuttle."
As his reduced force advanced, he contacted his clan’s special squad.
"I’ll send the coordinates..."
He stopped midsentence as a report arrived first.
[We are already engaging the shuttles.]
[The other clan’s special squad is here. We’re holding them back.]
Chaz frowned and came to a halt.
He had completely forgotten that he had dispatched his elite squad to intercept Leopard’s reinforcements. That meant his strongest force would remain tied down for hours before they could break free.
The timing was almost absurd. Every move made by the opposing clan seemed to interfere with his pursuit of Cher.
’It doesn’t matter.’
After calmly assessing the situation, a faint smile appeared on his face.
’They’re still just a group of children.’
’What could they possibly do against me?’
After surviving a battle against both a dragon and the Dark Hunters, Chaz realised he had begun treating Cher’s team as far greater opponents than they truly were.
It was a mistake he would soon come to regret.