Tens of blue mana columns raised themselves from the ground, unbeknownst to the knightess-focused dragon. Turning into chains, they swiftly stopped the scalding copy, to the shock of the dragon.

With just himself alone, he couldn’t take on the girl, who was already charging an attack.

Flying to the side, it tried to evade the incoming aura strike, but it was too fast. A drilling pain spread through his left foreleg as the fire shield hardly protected anything.

The dragon’s nostrils flared up in anger while he made an attempt to get away. Nonetheless, she had already caught him.

Juliette’s rapier was stuck in his leg, and she was being dragged along. Ripping it out, she slashed it horizontally, right where the exposed neck had been.

The dragon focused all of his remaining defenses on the weak area while summoning mana to protect the rest of his body.

Seeing that he left the other parts exposed, Juliette sent out three more attacks. There wasn’t much resistance, even though the material was the legendary dragon scales.

Riddled with wounds, the dragon dismissed his copy, who almost broke free from the mana chains. Regaining greater mana control, he stopped her advance with fire attacks before flying away.

Seeing this, the girl used almost all of her remaining aura on a singular slash. Aiming at certain point and a specific time, she sent out an attack that was even larger than the fallen tree.

Faster than ever, it made contact before the dragon could realize it. Half of its right wing had been cut off, the fire shield nonexistent anymore.

Although he flew using magic like any dragon, the wings were also a part of the correct mechanism.

Instantly, having lost balance, he fell down on his face, crashing into the ground. Juliette was already going after him, however, she quickly stopped as she felt her hair stand up. The atmosphere felt eerily stuffy.

Turning around, the lord of the skies used his final skill, Element Evolution. Coming all the way from the heavens, the clouds parted as a great lightning fell upon him and the world.

It wasn’t a natural one that affected only the water inside the plants and ground. With dense mana filling the surroundings, the electricity spread through the place, paralysing Juliette and Silvana.

Still, being able to move somewhat because of her grade and level, the knight girl was able to stand her ground, albeit extremely limited.

At every step, she was being electrocuted, and her muscles didn’t want to work properly. Also, because she used up most of her aura, she couldn’t fend off a lot of the energy.

She, along with Silvana, could only watch as the dragon made himself a wing of electricity before flying away.

“Conall, we should get away from here. We can’t risk him notifying the others.”

Silvana told him weakly, her sight focused on the dragon ahead. However, she heard no response from him, so she got worried. Thinking that he might have passed out, she turned to the side, only for her expression to plummet.

“Conall?”

He was nowhere to be found, at least in the magic barrier she believed she reinforced.

Suddenly, both her and Juliette looked in the sky, stunned. Looking closely, they could see something wiggling on the dragon’s back, around its nape.

Dropping to the ground in disbelief, the girls couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

The red-haired boy, on the other hand, clenched his teeth with a clouded expression. The impact of the lightning mana was quite severe right at its center, but he prevailed, holding firmly onto the dragon, who didn’t even seem to have noticed his puny existence.

Of course, that was only because of the chaotic thunder a second ago. When it flew higher into the sky, with intent to run away from the dangerous Grade A, he felt something nagging at his scales around the neck.

Just having someone ride him was a great shame, but to have a Grade C do it? Fury spread across his orange eyes as electricity sparked inside them.

Abruptly, using the lightning mana, the explosiveness inside his massive body increased as the muscles worked twice as fast.

Gaining speed indescribable for his own grade, the dragon accelerated through the sky, trying to make human fall off.

On top of that, he conjured lightning magic to electrocute the areas around Conall, though somehow, he held on, even though he should have been fired to a crisp already.

Probably for the first in his life, the human thanked his coreless body for existing. Because there was no center where the lightning mana could gather, it went through his mana veins on one side before going out the other.

As for the physical matter, his heart dealt with the electrical pulses, letting his muscles breathe again. Lifting his fang using two hands, he stabbed directly at the nape, between the miniscule gaps his scales had left.

He used little aura, but the dragon’s skin was far too deep and tough, almost like stabbing a knife into a tree while meaning to go through to the other side.

Sensing a sudden threat, Conall quickly hugged the monster as it flipped its direction, going down all of a sudden. Smashing harshly against the hard scales as his body was lifted up, he felt his organs shake up.

Spinning around like a tornado, the dragonheart once again changed direction, toward the clouds.

Soon, they entered the spacious, white world, and Conall began to feel the increasing lack of oxygen. Nonetheless, despite the fact that they were going higher and higher, he held on tightly.

Then, the limits of his weak, human body started appearing. A staggered breath that couldn’t really keep up the demand, as well as a shivering cold penetrating him made the boy lose strength bit by bit.

Having flown tens of kilometers into the heavens, the dragon slowed down, almost to a complete halt.

The human on his back felt his grip around the scales loosen, his body falling down slowly.

Conall saw as the fingertips of his left hand were about to come off the scales. Together with the dragon that was about to go down yet again, it spelled nothing but death.

‘Conall?’

But, recalling certain two voices in his head, one very clear and the other drowned out, the spiritual energy around his body staggered.

As though in front of him, he felt the blocked aura pathways around his spirit. Like a brute, he had done something almost instinctively.

Forcefully opening some of the veins, he felt different than before. Clarity spread throughout his body as aura heavily poured out, its size slightly less than that of Juliette’s one.

With just his left hand holding onto the dragon, he grabbed it fiercely, slight cracks appearing on its scales. He heard his body scream in pain as they began falling down, but he didn’t feel it at the moment, focusing only on the path ahead of him.

Pulling himself closer to the dragon, he felt his head was about to be ripped away from the sheer speed they were going at.

Hugging the beast once more, he put fang around his neck, holding it on both ends with his hands. The aura that spread throughout his blade was starkly different compared to before.

The unstable, opaque white energy turned clearer while gaining some smoothness. Blood poured out from his left hand and he felt the blade around his bone.

Grabbing the sword even tighter, Conall heard the dragon’s painful grunts.

Digging into his neck through the scales, crimson blood tainted the blade. Slowly, the weapon began going deeper before the boy felt the tough spine. Gritting his teeth, he was about to add even more aura, but the monster stopped him.

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All of a sudden, the dragon’s neck twisted eerily, staring directly at the pesky human. Opening its mouth, a breath of lightning mana went right through him, knocking him down immediately.

Falling down, Conall felt as though his hand was hundreds of meters away from the dragon. Time seemingly stopped, yet it wasn't something to be proud of. He couldn't do anything in this space, only watch as the dragon gradually ventured away.

The boy witnessed the sensation as he was falling. Despite being just a bit away from him, it made all the difference, especially because the dragon was going up, while he was going down with the world. Gritting his teeth, resolution spread through the kinght's face as his aura faltered.

Even though he had finally dealt with the human, he couldn’t be happy. The damage he had received earlier was incomparable to the one a mere Grade C boy had dealt. He needed to quickly go back to the mountains and fall asleep to recover.

As his wings flopped, however, a spreading pain reached his back, going all the way towards his tail’s base. The abrupt sensation made the monster stagger in air.

The boy wasn’t done, as it could see in the fearsome glare he gave off. A deep wound was left after he stabbed his fang and slid down the dragon’s back. Using a plain dagger to climb up, he had done so in a few seconds, before the tail could start atatcking.

Trying to flip over its body while realsing mana to make the human fall off, it wasn’t effective whatsoever.

In a matter of moments, the human coiled his legs around the neck of the monster, his hands lifted up as a horrifying amount of aura was surging from the sword, something that made it all possible. Almost doubled in size and width, the sword was as deadly as it could be.

Right above the monster’s head, a sword fell upon him, penetrating right through its skull and going out below. A specific warmth engulfed Conall’s soul.

Confused as to what had happened, the light in the dragon’s eyes slowly dimmed. Coming to halt, the huge body started to fall down. Calmly waiting and preparing himself for the crash, Conall witnessed just how quickly the ground was coming towards them.

About three kilometers above the ground, it didn’t take long for them to crash. After a bit less than twenty seconds, they had already touched the blue grass.

The girls could only watch in horror as Conall received the impact, not able to reach them in time since they were a few kilometers away. They only needed five more seconds, and Juliette could have carried Silvana quickly enough.

Still, the witch girl wasn’t able to conjure a magic circle in time, especially not at such a scale.

While they were getting there, he had already felt the crash, every corner of his body experienced it. Summoning aura just before crashing, he hoped to lessen the impact.

His bones shook and cracked as the energy was scattered away while the remnants of Silvana’s mana shield crumbled apart instantly.

He hit his head against the tough scales, the world around him becoming cloudy. A warm liquid trickled down his face, some of it even entering his right eye.

However, he lived. He could even move his limbs on his own. Clearly, the defensive measures worked somewhat.

Quickly storing the dragon’s corpse in his ring, he plopped down on grass flattened in the shape of a dragon, staring ahead of him.

Though it seemed like he was admiring the landscape, his sight was focused on the golden window in front of his eyes.

[An incredible accomplishment! You have hunted a Grade B Dragonheart while being a Grade C. You have gained an additional point to every stat.]

“Why did you do that?! You could have died!”

On the side, Juliette rebuked him while Silvana scanned potentially lethal injuries inside him. Thankfully, his bruised organs were already being healed by the heart, but almost all of his bones were in some way cracked or missing a piece.

Anger furrowing her brows, Juliette glared at him, who slowly turned to her. Seeing the weary smile on his face, coupled with half-closed eyes, she finally dropped the angry attitude.

“The other dragons would have gotten him.”

Question filled her mind, but it wasn’t the time for that. Silvana quickly came up to them.

Juliette carried the boy gently in her arms before speeding up along with Silvana. Though the witch wasn’t sure of it, she didn’t want to test their luck.

After hiding behind the burnt tree, she used her worldly veil. She had recently understood that the item had another function. The miraculous meranh ore made it possible to extend it beyond herself.

Catching a loud flutter from far away, she put it on them and activated the ability. A few seconds later, her half-giant heart began to beat loudly as she looked up at the sky.

It wasn’t some mediocre dragon fighting for food along the mountains. The very lord of a peak had gone down to inspect the area that had become bereft of sounds.

With its huge, glistening red body, it stared down at the scorched tree and grass around it. However, it seemed that they got away. Sensing nothing in the mana, the dragon simply went back, disinterested.

Heaving a sigh of relief, the girls looked at the already asleep knight before moving away from the grasslands that eventually changed its hue back to green.

…

“Argh!”

The boy grit his teeth. Just a second ago, he woke up, and this what he already had to deal with. Trying to raise his upper body, he noticed that he was practically bare, covered in dry, bloody bandages except for the neck and above.

With difficulty, he raised an arm to clutch his head, which felt like it was being hit on with a hammer repeatedly every moment.

Supporting himself with a hand, he raised himself up slightly from the soft, yet hard floor, just so that he could sit, but even that made his body screech in pain like a mandrake.

He waited a few moments to let his body adjust before slowly standing up with his knees. As he got closer to it, it was as though he was trying to carry the heaviest object in the world.

His thighs almost gave out a couple of times, and he had already started sweating profusely, however, he finally stood up in the end. He used fang to help himself get out of the tent.

The only thing he had on his body expect the bandages were his academy pants. Hot, black sand touched his feet in the very first instance he stepped out of the tent.

However, rather than painful, the warmth, as well as the sand itself were rather pleasant. Basking in the high sun, he stared at the mellowy, purple waves crashing against the shore.

A few meters on his right, Silvana was preparing fire, drilling a stick into wood while using her circle to stabilize them. With no issue, the fire was quickly started as she added shavings and dried sticks.

At the edge of the sea, Juliette was busy butchering what seemed to be a boar. Although she struggled a bit, having little experience, with a quick hang of the art, she carried the prepared meat onto the campsite. However, she couldn’t not notice the boy standing near the tents.

“Conall! You’re awake!”

She exclaimed, making the witch turn around.

A faint smile spread across his face as he walked towards them with his sword. It was a lot easier now that the heart rejuvenated his tired muscles.

“How bad does it hurt?”

Silvana asked while going up to help him.

Sheathing his sword, Conall put his right arm around her, taking even bigger steps.

“I’m sore all over my body, but it’s better now.”

“Rest near the fire while we prepare the food.”

“No, it will just hurt again when I try to stand up. Besides, we have a job to do.”

Declining, he looked towards Juliette, who was standing near the fire. A questioning look appeared on her face after hearing him. While piercing the meat through with a girthy stick, she asked.

“What job? We were planning to rest before crossing the dead sea.”

‘Right, we’ve arrived here already. Judging from the distance and the broomstick speed, I must have been asleep for about two days.’

A thought jumped into his head before he answered her properly.

“It’s nothing dangerous. Have you ever eaten dragon meat?”

Directing the question at the two of them, Conall received two head shakes.

“Should I get rid of the boar?”

With excitement riddled on her face, Juliette was ready to feed the fish, but he quickly stopped her.

“We should still eat it. Butchering a dragon properly is a lot of work. Not to mention a dragonheart. Every part of it is extremely valuable, so we can’t mess up.”

Nodding her head, she put the boar on the make shift roasting pit above the fire while Conall laid the dragon on the sand, directly from his inventory ring.

Once again, Juliette was reminded, as well as baffled, of his ring’s inventory space. What she had was a small eight hundred cubic centimeters, and even that cost her a fortune in the past.

“Where the hell did you get such a ring? Does it not have space limit? Also, how can it even operate with aura?”

She asked, to which Conall smiled mysteriously before pinching his lips shut.

Nonetheless, after pouting slightly, Juliette came up to the dragon. It was worlds apart from when she fought. At least the atmosphere made it that way.

With no longer having to fight for her life, she could finally take a proper look at the glossy, red scales of the humongous monter that span for at least ten meters in length even without the tail.

Without the wings spread out, the dragon was about three meters wide. It was a lot to go through, but the quality was top-notch since majority of his body was unharmed, especially the most sought-after parts.

It did look imposing, it was a dragon, after all. However, it was also a beautiful, sophisticated monster that could make a person famous just from killing one of them.

Looking at the pretty scales, Conall took out a dagger from his inventory before prying away at it. Putting the knife under it, he skillfully cut off the callous, white membrane that connected the scale. It was extremely hard, but rummaging through it, he finally got it in his hands.

A skin-like layer revealed itself under the scales, but it was not the real skin, rather, a protective layer to have the scales hold onto something. It was similar to that of a chicken’s skin, but on his whole body since mana needed to be transported around to strengthen and grow the scales.

In his hand, roughly the size of his palm, the dragonheart’s scale lay, shining in all its glory.

“Can I touch it?”

Silvana asked to his and Juliette’s surprise. She usually wasn’t one to ask for something, so Conall gladly handed it to her, who started inspecting it with a mana sense.