Chapter 72 : Alright, Let’s Do It

‘He’s not reacting?’

Inside the barrier, Karin, who was using the Veil, perception distortion, and even invisibility magic, frowned.

She had descended to a height where she could attack sufficiently, but the man was still only fleeing.

‘…Should I go down further?’

To be honest, it was a rather shallow bait.

The current altitude was about 100 meters from the ground, a height that he could barely reach if he jumped using those cursed iron chains and then extended the chains again.

To be certain, it was right to descend further, but.

Throb.

A phantom pain was felt from her severed left ankle again, raising her sense of caution.

‘…No, that’s dangerous.’

She had already confirmed that the man's magic absorption was more than twice what she had expected.

His movements were also unbelievably fast for a 3-Star knight.

The fear, which she wanted to frame as caution born from two failures, prevented her from taking a risk.

And thinking about it, there was another way.

‘Anyway, if I decide to hide, he won't be able to find me before I use other magic.’

I won’t push him any further. And.

‘I’ll aim for a moment of carelessness.’

Flash.

Kwarurururururung.

After striking the ground with a large amount of lightning for the last time, Karin quietly disappeared, looking down at the ‘anomaly’ who had endured it with cold eyes.

“Hm?”

“Mya?”

Pabababak.

At some point while running frantically, Muno's gaze turned to the sky behind him.

The attacks of the X woman, who had been pouring down magic like a disaster, had suddenly stopped.

‘Did she get tired and run away…?’

Just as he was about to turn on his happy circuit due to the sudden feeling of liberation.

“Mya?”

Seeing the baby dragon in his arms, he snapped to his senses.

‘…There’s no way.’

He put strength back into his legs, which were about to gradually stop in relief.

Pabababak.

‘If you’re not going to interfere, I’ll go even further away.’

This is a child that absorbs magic from the moment it’s born.

He didn't know much about the differences between a wyvern and a dragon, but he knew how rare that ability, the same as his own, was.

An ability that even his father said he had never heard of in myths or legends.

It was unlikely that such a child was a wyvern, a degraded version of a dragon.

If so, the mother who was looking for this child right now was, of course.

‘A real dragon.’

A moment of leisure led to a perfect inference, and goosebumps rose on his spine at that moment.

A dragon, which had now disappeared into legend, was coming to Drasen?

No matter how positively he tried to think, no other conclusion other than destruction came to mind.

So.

“I’ll find your mom soon.”

“Mya!”

Pabababak.

Freed from the interference of magic, Muno began to focus solely on running.

However.

Quite naturally, there was a limit to that.

“Heok. Heok.”

How many hours had it been since he started running?

Not long after he had gone several kilometers out of his way to bypass Drasen and turned back towards the northern mountain range.

Even the superhuman body, urged on by a sense of urgency, finally reached its limit.

He slowed down his pace without realizing it.

“Miya…?”

“I need to rest a bit…”

The moment he gave a bitter smile looking at the baby dragon in his arms.

“Mya!”

“Ack!?”

Flash.

With a chilling sensation, a bright yellow lightning bolt struck his entire body.

A lightning bolt that contained a more intense power than anything he had experienced before.

“Udadadada.”

Just before the unbearable electric current, which made his teeth chatter on their own even after absorbing the demonic energy, paralyzed his entire body.

“Mya!”

With a small battle cry(?), the baby dragon took in much more demonic energy than before.

As a result.

“Kkeueok~!”

When the little one looked at him with teary eyes as if it couldn't eat anymore, there was only one thing he could say to it.

“…Thanks!”

Pajijijik.

Kwarururururung.

The moment the remaining demonic energy of the electric shock magic that the baby dragon couldn't absorb was converted into useful mana(?) in his body and his mind was jolted awake.

Muno broke through the lightning that was continuously falling and shot out.

“Thanks for the charge, you X X!!”

Expressing his gratitude to the sky(?) like that.

Pabababak.

The exhausted he regained his vitality and started sprinting again at a terrifying speed.

The feeling of demonic energy concentrating again in the sky behind him was caught by his senses, but for some reason, no more magic came pouring down.

And Muno also felt like he could somewhat guess the enemy's mind.

‘She must be dumbfounded.’

The smile that formed on its own helped to suppress the fatigue that the mana charge alone could not erase.

Pabababak.

His speed, as he ran, kicking up dust, became a little faster.

But that too did not last for more than a few hours.

At the end of a frantic sprint, around the time a different mountain range of the northern mountains, not the gorge north of Drasen, came into view.

Extreme fatigue came over him again.

‘I have to get to at least there.’

Only then would there be monsters that would react to the magic being shot instead.

If he ran any further, he felt he would be too exhausted to even deal with a few goblins.

‘I have to rest. I can’t do anything like this. But…’

How far had the witch chasing him followed?

Would she leave him alone while he recovered his strength?

‘Aren’t you going to shoot something this time?’

He glanced at the place in the sky behind him where the enemy might be, but now he couldn't feel any signs.

If it were magic of a moderate intensity, he could at least use it as energy for a short period of time.

‘That woman must have almost figured out my ability by now. Including the limits of this child. She’ll either use a magic that can finish me in one shot, or she’ll use another method.’

Still, he couldn't help the current situation.

‘If I run any further from here, my stamina will drop to the point where I can't even perform a minimal battle.’

He had to rest.

It was an unfair race between one who runs on the ground and one who flies in the sky, but he could only hope that the magician's poor physique had accumulated more fatigue than his own.

“Mya?”

“Shh.”

Pabababak.

Muno, who had squeezed out his strength, jumped into the shade of a nearby forest again.

And.

As if they had been waiting, fireballs began to fly into that forest.

Kwang!

Kwaaaaaaang.

“Miyaa…!”

Feeling the frightened baby dragon trying to burrow deeper into his arms, Muno frowned.

‘She’s not aiming at me. She intends to burn the forest.’

There was not a single magic that directly hit where he was, and the flames were spreading from the distant forest.

The meaning was clear.

‘She’s trying to prevent me from hiding.’

In fact, he could already feel the scorching heat nearby.

As a price for taking a short breath, the surroundings were engulfed in a terrible heat.

“Damn it!”

“Miyaa….”

“Ah, no. I wasn’t talking to you.”

He had felt it briefly before, but this baby dragon seemed to be strangely sensitive to fire.

“Mya….”

X-bal, what should I do.

He tried to rack his brain while stroking and soothing the anxious little one, but no brilliant idea came to mind.

Before his breathing, which he had struggled to calm, became ragged again in the flames and smoke.

‘First, I have to get out of this forest…’

However, his legs wouldn't listen after taking a short break from running like crazy.

The moment he tried to force his unmoving body to get up again.

Kwakwakwakwakwa.

Suddenly, a huge rock flew nearby and slammed into the ground right in front of him.

‘Shit…!’

While being surprised by the appearance of a rock the size of a house, he had a slight question about the rock's color, which was almost completely brown.

Kwang!

Kwakwang!

Other brown rocks(?) or uprooted trees began to fly and slam into the surroundings one after another.

‘This is…’

Muno couldn't help but be surprised.

Of course, the power of the earth clumped to the size of a rock or the flying trees was far inferior to the power of the magic that woman used.

But he couldn't feel a single point of demonic energy from them.

‘Indirectly? You X…’

That witch had come up with a secondary method to deal with him with magic.

The burning surrounding forest, the flying rocks.

Muno gritted his teeth again and dodged the offensive, shooting out towards a clearing in the forest.

“Finally showing your face?”

The witch, with a huge clod of earth and trees floating above her head, was igniting a blue flame in front of the staff with three dog heads on it.

The closest distance since the battle began.

He could clearly see the expression of the woman, who was wearing a prosthetic on her left ankle that he had blown away before, with a pale complexion and sweating coldly.

‘That woman is tired too.’

As if she did anything.

‘All she did was pour down attacks from the sky.’

But Muno couldn't rush in recklessly.

Because he still remembered that blue flame that had almost melted him.

“Miya….”

It seemed that this baby dragon, trembling with fear, would not be of any help in absorbing that magic.

‘That magic has a narrow range. I’ll dodge it once and aim for an opening.’

Chwareuk.

As Muno glared at the enemy, the iron chains from his four limbs began to prepare to shoot out little by little.

“Let’s talk, experiment.”

An unexpected word was heard.

“What?”

“As you know, you can't absorb my Flames of Gehenna.

And it's not like there's another magician to heal you like last time.

You know that, right?”

As expected.

He confirmed once again that the woman had almost figured out his ability.

“Yeah, I know. I also know that all I have to do is dodge it.”

At those words, the woman's face contorted, but she soon snorted with a ‘hmph’.

“Don't twist my words, experiment. No, Muno Drasen.

I have no intention of giving you time to recover your stamina while you stall.”

…You look pretty tired too, you know?

“Then come at me.”

“That's what I plan to do. If you refuse my final offer, that is.”

“An offer?”

He had no intention of accepting it, whatever it was, but for now, he needed time to recover his stamina somehow.

But then.

“You persistent bastard…!”

The witch, who was chewing on her lips, frowned and shouted with a displeased expression.

“Hand over the offspring of that demonic beast to me, and disappear.

I’ll let it go with just that for today!”

And the offer that followed was completely unexpected.

“What?”

What kind of nonsense is this.

‘I’m not the target? Ah, this one is important too, but…’

Was that woman tired after all?

For a moment, his mind became complicated.

“Hand over the offspring of the demonic beast right now!

I won't give you any more time!”

Wooooong.

Kagagak.

As if she would really kill them together if he didn't hand over the baby dragon right away.

The woman's magical power began to vibrate violently.

‘Why…?’

Soon, the clods of earth floating around her vibrated, and the bases of the trees were sharpened.

Seeing the blue flame flickering in front of her staff burn even bigger, Muno had no time to refine the thought that suddenly came to him.

So he just moved on instinct.

“Then take it!”

Paang!

Muno threw the baby dragon towards the woman's front.

“Mwa!?”

The baby dragon's eyes, which had grown round, stabbed his heart painfully.

Pabak.

Muno accelerated at that moment and ran under the woman.

And.

“You trickster…!”

When he felt the demonic energy move with a shout.

Kwang.

Chwareureuk.

He leaped up and followed right behind the baby dragon.

“This is…”

He could feel the bewilderment in the eyes of the woman who was now at the complete opposite side of him with the little one in between, but the blue flame did not pour down.

‘Okay.’

The gamble was a success.

‘It’s certain that she won’t kill this child.’

Then, I just have to use it as a shield.

Thinking a thought that only a villain would have, Muno moved his iron chains in all directions.

With the chain in his left hand, he gently coiled it around the baby dragon and pulled it in as he had originally intended.

With the remaining three iron chains, he aimed for the woman's body and staff.

“Where do you think you’re going!!”

Then, the blue flame that was immediately shot at him melted the iron chain in his right hand in an instant.

‘Kkeueueuk!’

Kwaaaaaaang.

As the clods of earth and trees struck the remaining iron chains and began to pour down on his body.

Pushuk.

With a small noise, a small hole was drilled into the ground, and a sharp dagger shot up towards the woman in the sky like a lightning bolt.