A person appeared, interrupting the upcoming battle between Jurgen and the dragon.

"Y-You're—" Jurgen quickly recognized the man's rough and high-pitched voice, and also his red hair that looked like a pineapple when tied. "Ryner!" The old man blurted out loud in surprise. His eyes grew wide as he looked at the man in front of him.

Ryner faced the old man and smiled with his eyes closed like a mischievous child. "Yow, it's seems like there's a big ruckus going on here." he said.

"You idiot," Jurgen almost stomped onto the ground in anger. "I already told you to not come here." He was gritting his teeth and clenching his fist, annoyed by his disciples actions.

"Shut up," Ryner crossed his arm and stubbornly faced away from his master. "I ain't listening to you."

"You stupid—"

He was about to scold the man but Jurgen picked up and sensed a danger, causing him to quickly glance around him. Surprisingly, he saw the dragon that supposed to be buried in rocks slowly standing up.

Meanwhile, Ryner looked up to see the monster and was left speechless afterwards. "What the— is that a dragon?" he asked, looking at the old man.

'This man,' Johan looked at Ryner with eyebrows up. 'Don't tell me he came here without knowing that.' He laughed inside his head as he formed a smirk on his face. 'For real?'

Before Johan could even make a comment with his mouth, he quickly snapped out of his thoughts as he saw the dragon's gaping mouth coming towards them, ready to bite them with its extremely large teeth.

"Mana arts 17: Enclosed cube!" Jurgen chanted just in time. A cubical barrier immediately enveloped them before the monster could even take a bite of their fleshes. As a result, the beast's teeth bumped to the barrier, causing it to pull away its head and looked at the cunning humans in front of him.

"That was close." Jurgen sighed, holding his chest, trying to calm his nerves. It was a close call but he somehow managed to protect them, including himself. But that did not solve the problem.

After Jurgen deactivated the enclosed cube, the terrifying beast once again opened its mouth facing above. All of sudden, it breathed in a huge amount of air, filling its lungs. The sound it made was similar to a strong breeze in a stormy day, it sounded terrifying that even Jurgen needed to be cautious about it.

Then, the monster almost immediately stopped and looked at them fiercely. With that gaze, they knew what was about to come, so Ryner quickly jumped towards the monster's head, pulling the excalibur.

He knew that the monster will once again unleash its destructive breath. "No you don't!" Ryner screamed, before swinging his sword vigorously.

Just when the flames are about to come out of its mouth, Ryner's sword unleashed a vacuum swing that completely erased the flames. He thought that would solve the problem.

But all of a sudden, the giant beast opened its extremely wide wings and burned with yellow flames. In one flap of it, all things in in front of the dragon, including Ryner was blown away by violent winds, followed by the flames licking the ground with hot embers.

"Heh, you got some skills eh?" Ryner gritted his teeth as he tried plating his feet onto the ground, trying not to be blown too far away by every flap of the dragon's wings.

Meanwhile, Jurgen took the courage to aim his finger at the thinner part of the monster's left wing. "Mana art 05: Piercing beam!" He fired a highly concentrated mana from his fingertip with the intent to put a hole on the beast's wing.

However, even with his mana art, he didn't even managed to penetrate its hard wing. Jurgen just clicked his tongue after failing the attempt.

Then, all of a sudden, Johan grabbed his by the arm and flew without saying a thing. On their way, Johan also grabbed Ryner by the shirt and forcibly dragged them out through the giant hole that they saw earlier.

"Hey, what are you doing? Let go of me!" Ryner tried to struggle but the man's grip only tightened.

"Shut up. We have to fight it somewhere else." Johan said as he desperately flew. "Can't you feel it? The heat in that enclosed place gradually increases and I could tell that this dungeon might collapse because of that giant dragon's movements. I don't want to be buried here alive."

"But—" Ryner tried to argue but Jurgen immediately interfered.

"If you're worried about the other members of the party, their dead." Jurgen said, as he forcibly escaped Johan's grasp and flew through the tunnel on his own while Johan was still grabbing Ryner by the clothes.

"W-What?" Ryner blurted in surprise. "How can you guys take that so lightly?!" he screamed.

"We're not taking it lightly. This is called acceptance.'" Jurgen coldly replied before he laid his eyes on a sliver of light ahead of the tunnel. He could still smell the burnt smell in his nostrils, caused by the dragon's flames that blasted through the walls of rocks and created that tunnel.

"Mourning over the dead won't bring them back to life are they?" Jurgen looked at Ryner, holding tears in his shaking eyes. "So, let's fight now on their behalf... and mourn later."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

A few more minutes, they started to hear flapping sound coming from behind them, echoing through that tunnel. The dragon must've followed too quickly.

But at that time, Johan could already see that sliver of light ahead of them grew larger as they moved towards it, indicating that they're getting closer to the end of the tunnel.

As they moved forward, Jurgen could only be anxious because the outside of the tunnel was unknown to them, because that tunnel was created by the dragon's breath earlier and was un explored. Whether it would lead them outside or would take them somewhere was a mystery that gave him a worried look on his face.

Then finally, at full speed, they reached the end of the tunnel and got their first breath of the outside air. But all of a sudden, for a second, they felt their body being suspended in midair before they were slowly pulled by gravity down.

"Whaaaaaat?" They panicked for a second when they realized that they were falling but immediately snapped out of it after remembering that they could fly.

They pumped mana through their nerves and veins, focusing it on their heels and toes, they managed to levitate in the air without any assistance of wind magic to glide them.

Soon enough, they realized the surroundings they're in and looked around. And what they saw left them speechless.

"This is..." Ryner couldn't fine the exact words to explain the surroundings.

They were inside a massive crater that was atleast a hundred meters deep and thrice as large as the entire Hotstone village. From their position, they could see below them an entire pool of boiling hot red liquid that emits black smokes.

"Lava?" Jurgen exclaimed, looking down at the seemingly thick liquid that flowed from every corner of the crater.

"There's no doubt about it." Johan uttered. "We're definitely at the volcanoes vent." He looked back at the tunnel they'd just went through and awkwardly smiled. "What could possibly worse than fighting a fire breathing monster above a pool of boiling liquid fire?"

"Well," Ryner hovered a few feet away from the tunnel they'd went in. "Here it comes!" He bravely glared at the tunnel as he saw stones being dropped from it.

Suddenly, a large mass of soil and dust blasted off from the tunnels entrance, startling them by a strong explosion.

Then, the fire breathing dragon flew out of the deep hole at an incredible speed, almost immediately spreading its wings at full length and gliding through the air. It freely flew in the open space while circling around the crater, ignoring the humans who interrupted its slumber.

From there, Johan and the two other people with him could see the monsters massive structure and extremely large wings. Its scarlet colored scales reflects the light from the sun as its tail end burned with orange flames.

Then, all of a sudden, the dragon flapped its wings and flew higher up in the sky, reaching the lower clouds just above the Mt. Vermont. Fiercely inhaling air on its way, the clever monster sure knew how to deal with its opponents.

In one quick drop, the dragon accelerated diagonally towards them at an incredible speed, carrying momentum while wings are half closed. Opening its large mouth and then aiming it at them.

"Guards up!" Jurgen yelled.

In one fierce breath, highly condensed flames escaped the dragon's throat and went straight towards them, giving them the taste of hot embers.

Jurgen didn't even bothered to think and quickly hovered out of the way to evade.

Johan and Ryner also acted accordingly, flying to their own separate ways, trying to confuse the monster.

But the fierce dragon didn't even care. It flew around them in circling motion, keeping its distance while constantly blasting turrets of flames from its mouth, overwhelming them.

"This bastard got some intelligence." Jurgen couldn't help but play defensive as Ryner tried to catch an opportunity for a counterattack.

Meanwhile, Johan was nearly at the limit of his spirit form. He could feel his mana slowly leaving his body as his speed gradually decreased. The armor of mana enveloping the parts of his body are also slowly evaporating as the golden marks all over his skin faded away with his strength.

"Damn it. Why now?" Johan gritted his teeth with desperation. All the muscles in his body uncontrollably tensed as he flew for his life, evading the fire of the dragon while also trying to save some magic for later use. "A little more. I still need to assist them."

On the other side of the volcano's vent, Jurgen and Ryner raised each one of their hands in a similar posture. Like some kind of a statue, hovering in the air in an awkward position.

They both watched as the dragon took a sharp turn and flew towards them once again, ready for another breath.

"Are you sure this will work?" Ryner doubtfully asked the old man, raising his eyebrows while looking at him with suspicion.

"Shut up." Jurgen raised his voice as his face was suddenly filled with confidence.

Staring back at the dragon and aiming their palm at it, Jurgen and Ryner focused their mana on the center of their palms.

Even with that stance, the dragon remained unbothered and flew directly towards them and blasting another breath of crimson flames towards them.

Jurgen and Ryner saw it coming. As a response, they both exhaled sharply in unison as a strongly concentrated beam of mana went off their palms and collided with the dragon's highly focused flames.

"BAANG!"

The collision created a strong explosion as both humans and monster were blasted away from each other. The shockwave of the explosion was enough to shake the side of the vent. Even the lava below them didn't remained unmoved as it started boiling even more after the explosion occured.

"Amazing." Johan stared in awe as hw watched the two slowly got bock on their stance while the monster was still seemingly dizzy from all the shockwave. "They're keeping up with that beast?"

"As expected." Jurgen uttered, confusing Ryner.

"What? It didn't work." Ryner clicked his tongue with annoyed face. His eyes were full of desperation as he stared back at the fierce dragon.

"It was stated in the legends that a dragon's scales are harder than rune metal itself." Jurgen said out of the blue while panting heavily. The purple spirit mark located on his left arm was also slowly losing its glow. "During my prime, I always wanted to face something like that. And now, I can't believe I would be facing such a beast after my retirement. Fucking fate keeps on messing with me." He chuckled as he drew his sword, strains left by his constant drinking of the limit breaker potion earlier started to act.

"Are you okay old geezer?" Ryner asked rather worriedly.

"Yeah, I... can manage."

Jurgen's muscles were tensing uncontrollably as his nerves started freezing all of a sudden. His breathing was also labored than usual as he's sweating rather intensely.

Looking at his old master, in one glance, Ryner could tell that his old body was also on his limits. Averting his gaze not too for away from them, he was surprised to see Johan trying to combat the dragon singlehandedly as a distraction. The man was also at a terrible state, leaving Ryner with no other choice but to use the card up his sleeve.

He grabbed Jurgen by the arm and pulled him away from the battlefield. "I'm sorry old man." All of a sudden, Ryner blurted an apology, causing the old man's heart to beat with anxiety.

Jurgen felt uneasiness deep down his heart as he watched his disciple moving away from him, drawing his sword and leaving Jurgen behind.

"I'm sorry. It seems like, this is the last time I will disobey you." Ryner once again apologized clearly before completely pulling his excalibur from its scabbard.

He bitted his lower lip with desperation before he chanted, "Manifest and help me cut my enemies," A red aura of mana suddenly exploded and enveloped him. "Release!... Sword spirit: ARTHUR!"