Ch. 10: Spirit Dragon

"So… Die now." I showed myself again on a whim before I delivered the final blow.

"But there should have been no way for you to confuse me with stealth! I saw through you earlier!" The wyvern cried out, confused and angry.

"You saw through about one percent of my full efforts at concealing myself. It was enough to convince me that you were worth [Predating]." I explained, "This time, I used about five percent."

I hadn't used a single point of MP after my barrier around the carriage, until now. This time, I used about 500 MP on my old pal, [Obscure Presence], using the huge, ineffective Breath blast as cover.

At this point, 500 MP for me was basically nothing, but I didn't like revealing my full hand, so I told him that I was expending more effort than I actually did, as a mercy.

"I'm gonna kill you now." I repeated my statement, "Ohh… [Wind Magic] now?"

He was getting desperate. Since he couldn't move his body, he was using [Wind Magic] to whip the air in the chamber up randomly, hoping that I'd get caught up in it.

It was a truly desperate move that would never work against me, but if this had happened outside, there would be serious damage to our surroundings.

"Done with you. [Seal]. Die." I didn't really need to [Seal] his [Wind Magic], but I did it anyway.

"Wait! I challenge you to Marke Di!" He shouted frantically.

I'd been challenged to Marke Di before. It was a challenge between dragons. If they acknowledged each other, they'd fight to the death, using nothing but their breath. Dying in a Marke Di challenge was considered the greatest honor for a dragon.

"Die." I didn't even bother going through the official setup for a Marke Di challenge. Instead, I just killed him.

Black and purple flames erupted along the threads, instantly burning the wyvern and the threads to ash. This was my ultimate magic, [Thread Destruction], a [Thread Art] that combined with [Abyss Flame], the Extra skill that you unlocked once you maxed out fire magic, with my threads, vastly increasing its destructive power.

Not even my threads could survive more than a few moments of [Thread Destruction], so it went without saying that it annihilated the wyvern without a trace.

It cost me more than ten thousand MP to execute, but there wasn't anything on the planet that could withstand it.

"I win." I muttered, turning on my heels to leave. However, things wouldn't go that easily.

"HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME LIKE THAT!? I REFUSE TO BE TREATED LIKE A CHILD! DIE BY MY WRATH!"

"You came back as a spirit? I killed you according to the rules of the Marke Di. What could you possibly have to complain about?" I complained, exasperated.

More specifically, the wyvern had come back as an Ancient Dragon Spirit. For reference, the strongest wyvern around (this guy before his evolution) had average stats of about 9500. Had he evolved into a regular dragon while still alive, I would have pegged him at around 15000 to 25000 on average.

However, his rage at being slaughtered like livestock had caused him to undergo a remarkable post-death evolution. His current average stats were around 40000, incomparable to before. As is, his strength was enough that he might just be able to hold his own for a few hours against the strongest ancient dragon in the world, the same dragon that even the demon lord himself feared far more than any natural disaster.

And all of this strength was driven by a rage directly focused on me.

"DIE LIKE A BUG!" He unleashed his breath on me again.

"You really should have waited a little while before you came back. If you had waited, and then hidden from me, you might have ended up almost as legendary as Ravana." [Thread].

He unleashed the full power of his breath, on a scale incomparable to before, but I wasn't anywhere near where the breath landed, so I shut his spiritual body's mouth with my threads. His breath held so much of his power that the buildup from it destroyed his entire head.

But the only way to destroy a spirit was to completely annihilate it with some sort of 'holy' or 'special' skill. Fortunately, I had experience killing spiritual beings, and my threads were currently imbued with 'holy' power, so I could still stop him from moving.

"I think I want those stats. [Drain]." I didn't need to say the words to start using my skills, but it was certainly easier for my opponent to feel despair if he knew what I was doing.

I literally sucked his entire spiritual body into my fist in an instant, using a [Skill Combination] of [Drain], [Gluttony], and [Predate] to instantly steal 10% of his status. I expected to feel myself getting stronger, like usual, but this time felt a little different. I ate his soul, but I didn't feel the extra 4000 to each stat like I was expecting.

"Oh well." I shrugged and turned to leave the dungeon. The dragon didn't come back a second time.

...

"The kingdom of Perseus?"

"After the incident, Alric is low on talented fighters. The only soldier under our employ strong enough to take on a wyvern one-on-one is you, Parker. The kingdom of Perseus, on the other hand, is sending over a huge amount of not only wyvern, but also dragon parts through the Guild's network. That means that there is a party of adventurers in Perseus capable of taking out dragon-level monsters. We need that kind of power, or Alric will be wiped out within the year." Ava Amale, newly crowned queen of Amale told Parker, who was kneeling in front of her, in the center of an empty throne room.

Queen Ava was right. Ever since the demons' spy managed to infiltrate the castle and poison not only the acting king, but also every single hero, including Parker, who only managed to survive due to her light magic's various healing and antidote spells, the second strongest person in Amale was the knight captain, who had been there during their summoning.

He wasn't weak, but his status only barely broke 900 overall, while Parker's average stat was around 5,000. The average demon had a status of around 500, while the stronger ones could likely outmuscle Parker, so Amale was starting to seriously lose ground to the demonic armies.

Despite that, Parker could see the wheels spinning in Ava's head about how she would take total advantage of whoever Parker brought back. Knowing full well what that entailed, Parker tried to tell her that she needed to be fighting on the front lines, rather than recruiting, but the more she thought about it, the more pain she was in.

She knew that if she tried to say anything against her orders, she would be wracked with pain far more intense than anything that the demons could do to her.

Each hero (other than Grant) had been subjected to a secret binding ritual without their knowledge. They couldn't go against any order given to them by the kingdom, short of suicide, which could be ordered for them, but only by the acting monarch.

'If only I had left with Grant.' Parker thought for the millionth time, as her body gave the affirmative to the queen's request and exited the palace right away.