Ori energy poisoning…
My mind was frozen as I did not understand why this was happening. Why was there Ori energy inside a dungeon? How is this even possible?
The questions that filled my mind didn’t last long because the drake, seeing my family’s black knights suddenly fall to their knees and cough up blood, immediately pounced on us and tore into my family’s black knights.
I moved out of the way with much more strength than I thought I had, and that emotion that was building in me that I did not seem to control burst like a dam.
I held my arms, and I couldn’t hold in my uncontrollable laughter as joy filled my every being; I must looked like a crazy person right now because I was smiling and laughing near a couple of dead bodies right now.
Yes, yes, yes. Something interesting has appeared. I want to kill it. I want to kill it. I want to kill—
Ori energy strengthens any living being when they come into contact with each other, and it looks like that drake is bathed in it, if not infused into its very essence from the glowing marks around its body.
From my family’s black knights, seeing them cough up blood in around a minute and that they are extremely fit military-age males, I could estimate the ori concentration in the air is high, probably enough to give me an OBI level of 0.25 to 0.30 because I haven’t dropped dead yet and just have a nosebleed.
It would seem, even in this life, that my Ori energy tolerance is still high for some reason.
Retreat is not an option because the passageway I came in was just big enough to let it go through, and who knows how many people would die before someone took it down.
Thinking all that, I threw it all out the window because why should I care about that? Why should I care about other people dying? All that filled my mind was how fun it would be if I fought it and outsiders were not welcome.
The drake was busy tearing apart my family’s black knights' dead bodies, thinking no one who came in here was a threat.
It’s time to get its attention and make it see me as a threat.
Running up to it with it not noticing me, I thrust my sword at its sides and under one of its scales.
Surprisingly, I managed to slide my sword under its scale with not too much trouble. Normally, I would have trouble cutting the flesh of high-level monsters, but with the Ori energy in my body, I could guess my strength is that of an average adult, and with the strengthening potion, I now have around double the strength of an adult.
I moved back as the drake roared in pain and immediately whipped its tail in retaliation because I twisted my sword right under its scales to make it hurt even more.
Yes, that’s it, get angrier. Make this even more fun for me.
“Heh heh, ah ha ha ha ha!!!”
Proceeding with the tail whipped at me, it stretches its arms and swipes at me with its claws.
Dodging by the skin of my teeth, I was about to dodge out of the way of its claws, but it managed to graze my left shoulder, so I took out one of my engraved knives and stabbed the drake under the skin at the base of one of its claws.
It reeled back in immense pain as a large amount of electricity was being emitted from my engraved knife.
Moving away from me, it tried to get the engraved knife out but couldn’t.
Feeling my skin being torn on my left shoulder, I was exhilarated by it and ran to the drake as it was in pain and distracted. Stabbing it under one of its scales at its side, I wonder what internal organs I manage to damage.
Before I could take my sword out of its body, it surprised me by slamming its body against me, throwing me back in the air and into the ground.
I was careless there; I thought the pain momentarily incapacitated it, but I was happily proven wrong.
Getting up, I look at the drake, and it looks at me back warily. It didn’t just attack me but was showing caution like I was a threat to it.
There were a couple of seconds where we stared at each other, and then suddenly it readied its body to lunge at me.
It lunges at me in full force and faster than before. I knew that it was going to do that from its body movement and prepared for it.
Seeing the slightest tension in the drake's body, I moved out of the way, fractions of a second before it was about to lunge at me.
Rolling on the ground, I immediately got up as the drake landed on the wall I was standing behind because there was a deafening shockwave as a small crater formed on the wall it landed on.
I saw it look like it was going to do it again, but like last time, I preemptively moved out of the way. This happened a couple more times until it started screeching at me in anger and began running up the walls.
Oh come on, it’s running away. Annoyance filled my mind as I saw it hang on the ceiling instead of fighting me directly.
Don’t tell me…
Seeing the drake upside down on the pitch-black ceiling, I saw its red eyes coming out of the darkness, but suddenly a bright light started glowing, lighting up where it was hanging.
I knew it; this really is like a game. It looks like the drake is preparing a breath; I don’t know what element it is going to use, but it’s probably fire from its red scales and eyes.
I was proven right when it opened its mouth and a ball of fire started to appear. It then shoots the fireball at me, followed by another and another, so three in total.
The fireballs were about one meter in diameter, and they were moderately fast, so seeing the drake aim at me, I began to run sporadically.
I managed to dodge the first fireball by rolling out of the way to the right, and then the second one with another roll to the left, and the third one, I jumped back.
Looking at the drake above me, it looked annoyed that I didn’t burn to a crisp, and it prepared another breath.
This time it looked like it was going to do something different and more powerful because the light from its dragon heart glowed even brighter and bigger throughout its chest, illuminating the pitch-black ceiling and the entire room.
Seeing that, my only thought was you have to be kidding me. I thought that because it wouldn’t come down and was just firing down fire breaths, one after another, to fight me, which would not make it a fun fight.
Thinking on my feet, I took out 4 of my engraved knives.
I wonder if this would work.
My engraved throwing knives absorb mana from their surroundings to emit electricity, and when they’re in a monster, they make the electricity even stronger. So what happens when I throw it at something that has an extreme amount of mana, like a powerful spell or the drake’s breath?
Timing it correctly, I threw my engraved knives at the mouth of the drake, where it was charging up something big.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Releasing its breath, a stream came out of its mouth, moving in my direction.
I jump out of the way and cover myself with my cloak to protect my body from the fire as my engraved knives fly through the air to the drake.
However, my cloak didn’t completely protect me, and my upper left thigh was burned from the fire by a hole in my cloak made by that red-listed mage during our fight earlier.
I giggled a bit from the burning pain from the burn I got on my left thigh. So this is what it’s like to get burned by fire, not bad.
Hearing a surprisingly loud explosion, I then heard a loud thud like something big had fallen down.
Taking off my now singed and burning cloak, I look at where the loud thud came from, which was the drake hitting the ground from falling from the ceiling.
Seeing the drake, I saw that its jaw was heavily damaged with a couple of teeth missing and blood coming out.
Other than the drake, I saw what seemed to be red-hot pieces of metal around it, which I guess were my engraved knives.
I didn’t think it would be this powerful, but it would be good to know since I could use them on mages when they are casting their spells.
Laughing out loud I found it funny because it looks afraid, and when a monster is afraid, it either runs away or fights without holding back.
The excitement started to build up in my mind to the point where I started belly laughing because the best part was about to happen.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Finally, the main course is going to…
Feeling something in my stomach, I felt my stomach was turning like something was coming out.
I tried to stop it by covering my mouth with my hand, but it didn’t stop me from vomiting.
Seeing that I was bending over vomiting, the drake lunged at me. I tried to move out of the way but realized I couldn’t, so I did the next best thing, which was to not get pierced by its claws.
Feeling the force of it lunging at me, I willed myself not to go unconscious when I hit the ground, pinned down between its claws, by tasting something rancid in my mouth with a strong iron taste, which I realized was vomit mixed with blood.
My face on the ground, I look up to see the drake looked surprised from not skewering me with its claws, then visibly pleased pinning me down. It made a deafening roar at me with saliva mixed with its glowing blue blood being drooled and spit on my back.
I gritted my teeth as I felt a somewhat familiar painful burning sensation that felt even more painful than being burned by fire. It felt like the Ori circuits under my skin were being burnt out and seeping into my flesh in my past life.
Ori circuits are implants that go under my skin, which increase my tolerance for Ori energy and efficiently distribute it throughout my body, other than in my veins and arteries.
Kaiju blood, or at least something very similar to it from how it was glowing, is, as the name suggests, kaiju blood, which is blood coming from a kaiju. It’s very dangerous to all normal living beings because the thing that makes the blood flow is highly concentrated Ori energy. It is corrosive and would seep into any living being’s skin, then into their veins, and their entire body.
My strength was not strong enough to let myself slip free from its grip.
“Huh heh heheheheh, ahahahah ahahahaha!!!”
Well, it looks like I am cornered. This is a fine surprise and more than makes up for the fact that I’m running out of time. I cough out blood, and the kaiju blood on my back would make my time fighting this drake short. I doubt I would last a few more minutes if I don’t kill it soon and get out of here.
I was about to do something very dumb, something I never thought I would do since I always fought in my Aias or in my base in my past life.
Using my left arm, I grab one of my engraved knives. Then I stab my engraved knife into the base of its claw.
I laugh wildly as electricity flows through both our bodies because this is nothing and not the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It hurt like hundreds of needles were poking my body throughout my body while my left felt like there were a thousand needles.
The drake tried to resist, but in the end, it let go of me. For a big, bad dragon, I laugh at how it can’t handle a little pain.
Getting up, I vomited out some more blood. So… my time is shortened even more because of its kaiju blood.
Feeling my exhaustion, the pain from the burn on my left thigh, and my back that had a very weird and very painful sensation like something was coming out.
I looked at my left arm, which had electrical burns that went up to at least my shoulder, and for some reason, I couldn’t feel anything from it. The engraved knife I stabbed at the drake was still in my hand, and I could smell burnt flesh, to see I was still gripping it.
However, what was most concerning was the black electrical sparks coming from the engraved knives that I was still holding. Looking at them, I guess there must have been some sort of malfunction because the magical circles in my engraved knife didn’t completely burn out since I didn’t let it go due to the electrical currents going through my body and the drake pulling away before it shorted out.
After quickly going over my condition, I continued laughing again because I didn’t care who would win or anything; nothing mattered except for fighting that Drake over there since this was just too much fun.
I ran to the drake this time instead of it coming to me because it was my turn to attack first.
Time, for some reason, was even slower than before, and my nosebleed was even worse, but I did not care and dodged the drake’s swipe of its claws and a whip of its tail.
I repeatedly stabbed it under its scales with my daggers, which was much more effective than my longsword.
Seeing me dodge its attack and get up close to it, it tried to bite me, but I threw the dagger out of my hand and into its mouth, then moved to the side.
Taking out my short sword, I was on the right side of the drake's head as it was gagging on the dagger that I threw at its mouth and stabbed its eye with my short sword and then with my engraved knife that was burned into my hand.
Ripping out the engraved knife in my palm, I move back out of the range of its physical attacks as black electricity starts coming out of my engraved knife and being conducted through my short sword, maybe through its brain.
The black electricity started to grow much bigger than I expected, and the engraved knife in its eye turned red and exploded, taking out its right eye.
I instinctively cover my face with my arms seeing that explosion. I thought to myself that it was a shame that that malfunctioning engraved knife exploded because that would be potentially useful to know and a new discovery, but that is for a later time.
Reeling back in pain from its eye exploding, I was delighted by its resilience because that certainly would have killed most monsters, but since it’s a dragon, it only makes sense.
I guess I have to stab its dragon’s heart to kill it. Grabbing my other dagger with my only usable hand, I ran to it.
The drake, seeing me coming for it, chest glowed red. Great, I smile even bigger because that was lucky since I wanted it to do that.
Laughing even harder from seeing my luck, the drake seemed to be mustering up all its strength and was about to let out something big, which I’m guessing was the flamethrower thing.
It immediately let it out as I was close to it. I moved out of the way of the breath, but my right shoulder was burned.
I did not let that stop me because my chance to win is now.
Under its chin and in front of its chest, I stab deep into it and into its dragon's heart.
However, as I did that, the drake swung its massive arms at me. Ripping out my dagger from its chest, I guarded its attack because I couldn’t get out of the way in time.
Feeling the force of its arms hitting my body in full force. I felt like my right arm broke, and a few of the bones in my rib cage also broke as I was sent flying back across the room.
Hitting the floor, I rolled on the ground.
Heh heh heh, that hurt a lot.
Trying to get up with all my might, I looked at the drake while I held my dagger with my formerly only usable arm that was broken.
Blood started to come out of its chest and other wounds. I dealt it, but it seemed to move.
Seeing me, it began running toward me for some reason instead of lunging, which I’m guessing it was on its last leg.
It ran charging at me while I prepared to meet it head-on because I was also on my last leg.
However, midway toward charging at me, it fell to the ground. From its momentum, it slid onto the ground till it was a meter in front of me.
I waited and waited, but it did not move. Did I win?
Slowly and carefully I move toward the Drake and lightly kick the drake for there to be no movement.
Realizing it was dead, I let out a small and weak giggle, vastly different from the boisterous laughter I had fighting the drake.
So… I killed it. Regaining a small hold of my emotions due to the main thing that made me that way was dead, I thought to myself that I should go back to Clare after taking a health potion.
Fortunately, it looks like I only twisted my arm instead of breaking it, and I could feel my left arm, which had electrical burns, start to have some sensation again as I—
Suddenly, without warning, I began vomiting blood, way more than usual and only blood, but not only that, my vision was turning red, and I could feel a viscous liquid coming out of the corner of my eyes.
Internally cursing to myself, I thought, I stayed here for too long; I need to get out.
I try taking a step, but I collapse. I tried to get up but didn’t have the strength to do so. I tried moving my arms to move but couldn’t, and my vision was getting weaker and weaker.
I forced myself to stay conscious, but it was useless.
Goddammit, is this how I die? No, I need to get to Clare and everyone; I need to get to…
My vision finally went dark, and the last thing I saw and heard was the door to the boss room opening with some strange beeping and humming sounds and a mysterious black feather falling in front of my eyes.