Immediately after Paul, Baku, and Simon reached halfway down the passage, two winged beasts lunged down, attacking them.

    In a desperate movement, Baku grasped his two-handed kanabo 1and smashed the leading wyvern in the side of its head, shattering the beast''s brittle eardrum and cheek.

    —Crack!

    The moment the first wyvern''s body crumpled from the impact of Baku''s blow, Paul''s hands snapped three barrier runes, tossing them ahead to block the second.

    "Paul, pull back into the barrier!"

    —Woosh!

    A burst of wind and sharp stones flung at the barrier from the second beast''s wings flickering rapidly the moment before it crashed into the barrier with a loud thud, cracking the first purple sphere with one hit.

    "Damn... what the hell are these things?!"

    "Wyvern!" Baku growled, his muscles bulging as he smashed the kanabo into the face of the first wyvern repeatedly, panting as it struggled to fight back.

    "I don''t care if they are inferior dragons—they are terrifying creatures! I''ve only heard of them in fairy tales!"

    Simon''s voice echoed through the rumbling cave, his swords held ahead, facing the beast with a wingspan of roughly five metres at most. These were genuine wyverns, not drakes.

    Paul watched the two beasts while taking out two runes in his hand.

    The wooden slabs instantly cracked as a burst of purple light, seven missiles each bursting out towards the two wyverns. Paul''s eyes switched to checking the barrier. With only two remaining, he couldn''t lower his guard for a moment.

    —Da-da-da-dah!

    The missiles fired several waves of small purple bolts, knocking the beast''s back, denting their soft scales and snapping a few of their teeth.

    Baku''s strength was monstrous. The second beast''s wings burst forward, unleashing a storm of sharp pebbles that cracked the second barrier to the point of shattering it.

    Paul''s hands were already prepared, and two additional runes were thrown out, snapping the same barrier spell again. It flickered to life just a moment before the wyverns launched another wing buffet attack.

    At the same time, Simon''s blades swung down on the first beast''s face, aiming for its eye. He landed a perfect cut, slashing its cornea.

    The blinded beast roared in fury, but it couldn''t dodge Baku''s brutal blow that followed right after.

    —Crunch!

    It was a bone-cracking hit that smashed its jaw.

    "Damn... this is hard..." Paul hissed in a heavy breath, throwing another set of missile spells.

    Because of his low mana, he used these runes to fight the same as a normal mage might, but this didn''t remove the mana cost and stop him from becoming exhausted.

    With one of the wyverns down, the second became more irate, groaning and roaring. Its tail lashed, and the beast pushed away from the group with its wings. Then, it soared upwards and flew up the passage out of the cave.

    At that moment, a sudden quake in the ground threw them off their balance and shattered every barrier that Paul created, causing them to drop before a huge beam of pure mana shot into the sky from the opposite direction.

    Meanwhile... back at the canyon centre, Asmodeus stood silently, gazing at the humongous creature that emerged from the broken cavern entrance.

    The bronze dragon.

    ''I guess killing that dinosaur really awoke this bastard...'' Asmodeus thought to himself, watching as the copper-scaled dragon crawled from the crumbling hole, a gigantic maw the size of a small house. It was nothing like the young dragon that appeared when he fought with Velvet... this was a genuine elder dragon.

    Its bloodshot and eerily red eyes gazed at Asmodeus as the bronze dragon dragged its body from the small hole, creating huge quakes in the earth with each movement.

    "Human?"

    An old... hoarse voice, the eyes of the dragon seemed to flicker between the eerie red and a dull copper colour several times before it growled.... and slammed the ground, causing Asmodeus to bounce, the obsidian slate shattering from the immense weight.

    "No... demon....demon....DEMON!"

    With each repetition, the bronze dragon became more enraged, thrashing its body and trying to climb from the cave faster.

    "I WILL NOT FALL TO YOU AGAIN, DEMON!"

    The earth split open in a circle of fire that blasted the area, sending Asmodeus hurtling across the canyon.

    He used his wings to counter the force against him, but the dragon''s wings finally left the canyon... huge, nothing more than that at least fourteen metres long. As the dragon emerged, it spread its wings, and from them burst a blast of wind so powerful that it cracked the ground below and knocked down several of the canyon walls.

    The bronze dragon was free from his cave prison, and his rage was palpable. It was a being that seemed almost eternal.

    "You disturbed my rest... disturbed her slumber! Demons... demons must die... all demons, only death!"

    Incessantly crazed and burning with a desire to destroy Asmodeus, the dragon flapped its gigantic wings. With a flap, the entire mountain began to shake, and the dragon rose in the air, its head reaching for the heavens.

    Then, its scales flashed, and with another flap, the dragon''s mouth opened, unleashing a shaky roar.

    ROAR!!!!

    "Damn... so noisy..." Asmodeus stood on the edge of a broken canyon wall. His eyes narrowed, watching the dragon as it stared down at him, obsessed and clearly determined to kill him.

    ''Well... at least the other''s left.''

    —Snap!

    The next moment, Asmodeus snapped his fingertips, a brilliant volley of hundreds of magic arrows shot from beneath the dragon. The magic circle he had formed earlier launched the beautiful blood arrows into the beast''s soft belly.

    As they pierced through, a minor explosion caused a slight wound in the creature''s hide.

    It wasn''t a life-threatening wound. The bronze dragon was a colossal monster, one of the oldest of its kind. Although its body and scales were practically impervious to such attacks, it still irritated the dragon.

    Asmodeus grasped his weapon, now transformed into its blood-drinking axe form—with a slight smirk on his lips. He flung himself into the air towards the dragon.

    ''Well... Let''s earn the dragon slayer title for real.''

    Two-handed Spiked mace of Japanese Origin. Typically used by the Oni in fantasy media.