Powerful Dragonman

The thick scales covering Rello's body were its armor. It reached out and grabbed the blade of a soldier's thrusting sword, yanked hard, and pulled the soldier to the ground. The dragonman guard behind it immediately drove its strange spear through the soldier's body. Rello brought its axe down on a soldier's raised greatshield. As the blow threw the soldier off balance, Rello wrapped its thick, long tail around the soldier's ankle and yanked. When the soldier fell, it chopped down with its massive axe again, severing his neck outright.

Rello fought its way to Knight Warren. At that moment, Knight Warren was pinning a Gnoll's weapon against its chest with his shield while driving his broadsword in along the shield's edge. Sensing the bone-chilling killing intent behind him, Knight Warren startled and hurriedly kicked away the Gnoll's corpse before turning to block with his shield.

With a thunderous crash, Rello's great axe slammed into Knight Warren's shield and buried itself deeply within it. Knight Warren, caught blocking in haste, was knocked straight to the ground. He rolled away from the dragonman guard's thrusting spear and rose again. When Warren saw Rello before him—covered in gray scales, towering in stature, with a horned lizard-like head, reverse-jointed legs, and a tail swinging behind its rear—as well as the smaller dragonman guards behind it, his pupils contracted. Dragonmen! Knight Warren cried inwardly, countless thoughts flashing through his mind.

Before he could think further, Rello let out a furious roar and charged at Warren again. Rello stood nearly half a meter taller than Warren, yet possessed agility entirely at odds with its massive frame. It swung its great axe with howling force and occasionally harassed Warren with its thick tail. For a time, it beat Knight Warren so thoroughly that he had no chance to strike back, able only to keep dodging and defend with his shield. But the shield suffered blow after blow, its surface covered in deep axe marks. It was badly damaged and would likely split after only a few more hits.

Seeing Knight Warren suppressed and in grave danger, Ronan hurriedly called for his men and the nearby Ravenwood Town troops to go support him. However, several dragonman guards blocked their path. Though these monsters, wielding spears as tall as themselves with twisted spearheads, were not as large as Rello, they still frightened many mercenaries who had never seen such creatures when they bared their enormous mouths, exposed their interlocking fangs, and roared at Ronan's group. The mercenaries immediately hesitated to advance.

Ronan could only sigh, draw his sword, and charge forward first. A nearby Knight of Shadowfort also noticed the dragonman fighting Knight Warren. His expression changed, and he quickly led several Shadowfort soldiers over. Their arrival gave Knight Warren a brief chance to catch his breath.

Yet they found it nearly impossible to deal with Rello, the ferocious dragonman. Swords striking Rello's scales actually sent sparks flying. Rello grabbed the shoulder of a soldier who had slashed its side and lifted him straight into the air. Then it opened its blood-filled maw and clamped down hard on the soldier's head. With a savage pull, it tore off his head along with a section of spine. Spitting out the terrified head, helmet and all, its metal crushed out of shape by its bite, Rello roared at Knight Warren and the others before charging again.

Ronan and his men had also clashed with the dragonman guards. He sidestepped an incoming spear, grabbed the shaft, and drove his shoulder armor into the dragonman guard's chest. As it staggered from the impact, he gripped his sword with both hands and thrust it into its chest. These dragonman guards' scale armor was not as tough as Rello's. Though he met tremendous resistance, Ronan's greatsword still pierced its chest.

Kicking away the corpse before him, Ronan charged and shoulder-slammed a dragonman that had just dragged a soldier over with its tail and was about to finish him off, sending it flying. Then, with a leaping chop, he cut through the spear shaft it raised to block while trying to rise. His sword continued onward, slicing diagonally into the joint between the dragonman's neck and shoulder. The entire blade sank deeply in.

Even so, the tenacious dragonman did not die immediately. It picked up the broken section of spear with the spearhead still attached and tried to stab Ronan in the leg, but a veteran mercenary who rushed over promptly chopped off its arm with a battle axe.

The other dragonmen also fell under the veteran mercenaries' practiced encirclement tactics, though their desperate final counterattacks still wounded two mercenaries.

After ordering the soldiers to hold back the nearby bandits, Ronan joined the battle with two Vigier Cavalrymen. By then, more than half the Shadowfort soldiers surrounding Rello had been killed or wounded. The worst-off among them had been cleaved in two from his right shoulder downward by Rello. Their chainmail offered no protection at all against Rello's attacks.

Using the force of his momentum, Ronan swung horizontally and struck Rello in the lower back. But after cutting less than five centimeters deep, his blade was caught by Rello's powerful muscles. Ronan's heart jolted, and he quickly ducked beneath Rello's great axe as it swept back toward him. By the time he finally wrenched out his greatsword, Rello's second strike had arrived. A Vigier Cavalryman hurriedly raised his shield in front of Ronan, only to be sent flying backward by the blow. He crashed into Ronan, and both fell to the ground.

Warren and the Knight of Shadowfort hurriedly took the chance to slash Rello several times, but they only left shallow wounds. Against Rello's huge body, they barely mattered. As the enraged Rello turned its attention back to Knight Warren, Ronan quickly got to his feet and considered a plan.

"This thing's body is too tough. If this keeps up, who knows how many men will die before we wear it down. We have to attack its weak points." Ronan glanced at the guard of his greatsword, and an idea came to him.

In that short time, another Shadowfort soldier was killed by Rello. Rello grabbed his head with its left hand and lifted him into the air. The soldier desperately tugged at the fingers gripping his skull with both hands, but could not move them at all.

As the soldier kicked helplessly in midair and struggled without end, Rello raised the battle axe in its right hand and hacked viciously into the space between the soldier's chest and abdomen. Then it released him with its left hand, gripped the axe shaft with both hands, and chopped down with all its strength until the blade struck the ground, cutting the soldier in half at the waist. The bisected soldier did not die at once. His upper body writhed across the ground as miserable screams poured from his mouth. Perhaps tired of the noise, Rello simply stomped on his head and crushed it.

Seeing their comrade's horrific death, Warren and the Knight of Shadowfort were beside themselves with rage. They growled and charged forward again. Ronan rushed in as well to help them, while his men continued dealing with the nearby bandits.

Facing the three men's joint assault, Rello gripped its enormous battle axe in its right hand and kept pressing the attack. With its left, it used the hardest part of its arm armor to block Ronan's attacks. Its hard claws could leave deep scratches even on armor, and it occasionally attacked the three men by whipping or dragging them with its tail. Ronan and the other two could not inflict meaningful harm on Rello, but neither could Rello kill them while they kept it occupied. The occasional bandit tried to rush over, but all were held back.