Chapter 177 – Sibling Fight (5)

Yoojin-shi

When Noah saw me approach, he folded his wings and lowered his body. I climbed onto his back and fastened the harness and it's connected belt.

I then used the Teacher skill on Noah. The image of Riette standing opposite us was clearly felt.

I wrapped the shawl I had borrowed from Yerim around Noah's neck and had dyed my hair white like the harness to make it less noticeable. I reached out and patted his scaly back.

"In the beginning we'll focus on dodging,"

Okay

In the distance, I could see Yerim rising into the air, she was wearing a headset like those from the broadcasting companies and held a camera in one hand. She was also using an item that improved one's eyesight.

Because it would be too dangerous for ordinary people and also because their vision could not keep up with the movements of S-rank hunters, an A-class hunter with a flying skill was scheduled to be used for filming and commentary for the A-class ranking.

But that was impossible now since they could be swept away by and become casualties in the S-class fight. However, Yerim was able to safely broadcast an S-rank battle because she was not only S-class but also had an instant movement skill.

I turned on the earpiece that I had on – it was connected to Yerim's microphone so Yerim's voice was heard clearly.

[Hello~! This is Park Yerim, the broadcasting manager of today's competition!]

With a bright greeting, she waved at the drones who were filming her.

[Right now, both players are on standby. The Seasong guild leader will give the signal to start the battle,]

Seasong's guild leader was at the site with the broadcasting equipment and the healer. He had decided that since he was showing up anyway, he might as well protect the broadcasting equipment, though just from looking at the skills alone, you'd think he would be the most likely candidate to break them.

Well, Yoohyeon was standing not far from there as well. Since Noah's stat rental time was 30 minutes, I had asked him to be there if he needed to borrow it.

[Seasong's guild leader seems to be raising his hand – I think it's about to start,]

Listening to Yerim's broadcast, I lowered my posture to sit more stably and shared the skill to double attack skills with Noah. I was worried that the skill might get released during the fight, but fortunately, I was connected to Noah with a strap and would remain in contact.

While using the skill until now, there had been things like clothes and gloves that had prevented direct skin contact.

When tested, the connection seemed to be valid even with objects such as rods and straps as long as the items were about half the height of the target.

And the connection wasn't a connection starting from the tips of one's fingers with their arms stretched out, the distance was measured taking the physical body into mind.

Light splashed faintly in the sky above. Noah's two wings were tensed and his hind legs were ready to kick off from the ground.

Riette also unsheathed the sword she had at her waist.

Kwakwakwang!

The thunder roared.

Noah folded his wings and leapt forwards. At the same time, the air seemed to tremble greatly – and the area where Noah would have been if he had flown up –

Kiiiiing!

A half-moon shaped flash of a sword passed by wildly, there was a loud sound coming from behind.

Reitte's attack had dug deep into the mountainside! Noah Oppa you didn't fly straight up and avoided the attack well! Riette is on the chase straight away!]

"Towards the mountains!"

Since we can fly, it was better to have obstacles around than flat land. Noah flapped his wings quickly – even if we didn't look back, Yerim was telling us Reitte's movements and soon, the ground turned into a summer forest.

[When Riette swings her sword, all the trees are cut off – no broken! Is it a skill? It seems like she is using the wind to throw fragments into the sky!]

A part of the forest spread out in the air. A tree with all of it's branches and leaves passed right by us. Noah moved away from Riette quickly, avoiding debris with his sharpened flying skills and breaking debris with his claws.

"Keep dodging like, until Riette makes it special,"

Even if the attack skills were doubled, it didn't matter very much for Noah. In the first place, it was a useless skill for the support and defensive style people. It was a matter of whether there were any attack skills that it could be applied to in the first place.

The same was true for Noah. He couldn't use poison and Silent Scream wouldn't work against Riette. Items other than equipment were prohibited for the competition so painkillers that worked on hunters could not be taken. That's why I had thought it might be useful.

'It won't work against Noo-nim,'

While working on the strategy and talking about Riette's skills, Noah had said this.

Riette's combat assist skill, 'Heart Towards Victory', made it so concentrating on the fight led to speeding up the reaction time so that she could react to the opponent's movements faster. It greatly reduces the pain of injury and even helps to increase the body's haemostasis activity to prevent bleeding from injury.

That was why Reitte could endure even two Silent Screams lightly. In the end, both of Noah's attack skills were blocked.

All that was left was the newly acquired Silent Wound.

[Noah, who seems to only be dodging – I'm worried he might be defeated by going outside the range,]

Yerim said this with real concern. Although the range of the stadium was not set exactly, there was a case-by-case rule to keep it within a certain range. There were hunters stationed around the field who were supposed to fire a signal for it.

"Are you going to keep running, Fable!"

A loud cry could be heard. Noah reflexively turned his head and looked at Riette – at the same time, the air trembled once again. The golden wings twisted sharply and Noah's body began to descend diagonally.

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!

Unlike the first attack which had blown away the entire surrounding area, this time, the attacks sharply followed one after another.

Noah twisted his wings and body around, avoiding attacks that seemed to follow like guided missiles. A few times, the tip of the wings and tail were barely brushed, but there were no wounds. I sighed with relief.

[Oh! Riette is directing Noah's movements towards her!]

I heard Yerim's words and realised we were getting closer and closer to the ground. Even as he came to the cold realisation, he shared his intuition with Noah through the teacher skill.

Since they had been led this far, it was too late to avoid, so –

"Hi, Fable,"

Riette stormed out from within the woods. The blade glowed in the unavoidable distance between them. Instead of trying to dodge the attacks, Noah spun his body around,

Kwagang!

The whistling sword hit my arm. Originally, the attack would have been enough to sweep me away from the aftermath alone, but the strike was instead swallowed by the power of Damage Nullification and the force completely disappeared.

Riette made eye contact with me for a fraction of a moment and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It had only been a single second, but Noah swung hsi tail around without missing the gap when the attack was blocked.

Puck!

As if waiting for the attack, the soles of Riette's platform boots met the golden tail and Riette's body leapt up as if she had used Noah's tail to jump and hovered in the air. Noah bared his teeth at the way she appeared so defenseless.

A body that looked small compared to a dragons'. Noah had been flying hard enough that his body might break into two. But when he saw those smiling eyes, he hurriedly turned his golden wings.

"Where are you going to run to?"

Riette threw her sword in the air. Her body twirled and shot her leg towards the sword.

Twung-!

A sharp sword plunged towards them in the grasp of a black claw.

It flew towards Noah like an arrow.

Ah!

Although he was not hit directly since he had already started spreading the distance between them, the scales on the wings suffered a large gash.

Riette fell to the ground and quickly picked up the sword.

In the meantime, Noah quickly turned around and ran in the opposite direction while using the recovery skills.

[What a close call! Having recovery skills is a big advantage in a ranking game where you can't use potions. That's why you shouldn't underestimate support-type hunters. Every hunter has their own pros and cons.]

That line must have been something Seok Shimyoung put her up to.

Riette came after Noah again. It seemed she was starting to get frustrated since Noah kept avoiding her.

Unless they had a special skill, a small human running on their own two-feet was bound to be slower than a dragon with wings.

The speed of moment caused by the momentary explosion of power was fast – but it was hard to maintain.

"Is your stamina okay?"

Yes, I'm fine. Shall we tease her a little more? Even if I get a little hurt, I have plenty of mana left.

"But you should still be as careful as you can, I thought once you get caught, you would't even have the chance to use your healing skills?"

Yes…

Noah's voice seemed to have lost strength all at once. Perhaps because he was recalling things that had happened in the past. 'Oh no, don't worry' I quickly comforted him with words like that, telling him he was doing very well.

[Noah is getting close to the outer edge. A signal has been fired from there!]

A red flare soared into the sky. At the same time, Noah swerved, changing the direction of the flight.

As they passed directly above Riette, as if teasing her on purpose, another attempt to attack them was made – but at this distance it wasn't difficult to avoid.

"You're like a rat!"

Riette's voice was beginning to sound irate. And finally.

Krrrrr!

A huge black dragon appeared with a heavy roar. One by one, giant iron-hook-like toenails scratched the ground.

"Noah-ssi, to Yoohyeon!"

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! With a terrible ring, the black dragon followed closely.

The land in Riette's path looked like it had been torn up by an earthquake. The enormous size and speed meant that she quickly caught up with Noah's flapping wings.

Come here!

Like a cat chasing a butterfly, Riette leaped far more agilely than her large size should allow and swung her claws.

Although the claws missed, the force of Noah's wings made Noah's wings tremble roughly.

Stumbling precariously, Noah used the stat rental skill on Yoohyeon. What he borrowed was strength.

Shortly after, Yoohyeon pulled out a sword. A long line was drawn on the ground in front of Reitte's feet and flames rose between them like a barrier.

Looking into Reitte's golden eyes, Yooheyon spat,

"Past here it's out of bounds,"

I think it was wider before – aren't you taking sides?

"Why would I?"

[Is there an extra game? But if another hunter storms in, what happens? Is the game stopped? A three-way competition sounds fun though!]

While Yerim was excited about this development and Yooyeon and Riette were growling at each other, Noah took out the equipment he had prepared and put them on.

They were none other than covers that went over his claws.

"I know I've already said this, but they're one-time use,"

Just once, it would strengthen the ability of the claws to penetrate – courtesy of Myongwoo.

Noah's strength wasn't enough to injure Riette, when in human form, he couldn't even approach her properly and when in dragon form, the thick scales were hard to penetrate.

But Noah's new attack skill, Silent Wound, could only be triggered after he had injured his opponent.

"As soon as we have the opportunity, it's important to injure her as deeply and for as long as you can,"

Riette was resilient. Even without potions or healing skills, the bleeding would stop immediately and even with specialised wounds, light wounds would heal soon. So she had to be hurt in a manner that she could not recover herself.

"With her specialization, Riette will trust in her scales and pay less attention to defence and avoidance. Since her neck is also on the short side, she will have a narrower field of vision,"

Yes, I practised a lot.

Noah had spent a whole day in a C-class dungeon where an earth dragon that was slightly smaller but similar in shape to Riette appeared. The speed and power would be different but the basic moves would be similar.

The golden dragon turned towards the black dragon.

Riette looked contendely at Noah, who hovered in the air.

Do you finally feel like doing things properly?

Instead of answering, Noah folded his wings. A black mass snatched at the golden body that flew as if falling.

The cracking sound of thrones hit the ears and dust and earth was being dug up.

A moment before colliding with Riette, Noah spread out his wings and flapped. The air swelled up and dust was spread even more widely.

Riette blinked for a moment.

Noah whirled his body, barely brushing past the fangs that reached for him. As he passed, the tip of his golden wings gently scratched past the armor-like black scales.

Kwagak!

Riette's neck and thick muscles were thoroughly dug into by Noah's toenails. Thanks to the speed of the rapid descent, the red gash continued on to the shoulders.

With the sound of splitting scales, the splashing blood soaked by clothes. The claw-cover that had done its job, shattered apart into pieces.

An deafening roar. It wasn't a sound of pain- but of anger.

The black dragon's body spun around quickly, once again, showing off a level of mobility that didn't match its giant size.

A soaring piece of debris blocked their vision and Noah's small body was struck by a giant front foot.

Oh my god!

"Noah-ssi!"

Noah's right wing and hind legs were almost torn apart.

Fortunately Noah didn't lose his head and used his healing skill almost immediately and with a limp over Riette's back.

Just before the black dragon could turn to attack and try and stop him, the quickly recovered wings spread out once more.

"You did so good!"

As they flew up, Ishowered compliments on Noah who was panting heavily.

"Now time is on our side,"

Silent Wound triggered a double effect. The golden dragon shivered and looked down at the balck dragon below.

The tremors slowly ceased and Noah began to calmly move his wings, even as he met his sister's angry eyes.