Death Match

Damn it! What a total dead weight of a teammate. Hurry up and finish it off! Why are you standing there posing? Don't you know villains die from talking too much? Seriously, stop posturing or you'll get struck by lightning.

Solam cursed inwardly. Damn it, I came here to save people, not to save corpses. If he really kicks the bucket, it's not that this brother isn't loyal. Buddha saves those with affinity, medicine cures those not destined to die; I've done my best, it's your own fault for courting death.

But now really isn't the time to dwell on that; better to hack this Snow Dragon down first and worry about the rest later. Solam steadied his mind and summoned Thor's Hammer back into his hand. As he gripped the weapon, he felt power flowing back into his body (once Thor's Hammer leaves the wielder's hand, all buff effects vanish).

Without hesitation, he fired a Rock Spear Spell straight at the Snow Dragon's blinded eye. But the Snow Dragon didn't earn its fearsome reputation for nothing; even with one eye gone, it sensed the incoming projectile and tilted its head, dodging the spell.

Solam hadn't expected a single Rock Spear to finish it off, of course. If the dragon had been like that idiot earlier—too busy posing to react—and taken a spear through its eye socket into its brain, that would have been ideal. But clearly, the Snow Dragon's intelligence was above the passing grade. Solam wasn't disappointed; he had a plan B. While the dragon was dodging the rock, he fired a Lightning Bolt directly at the Blade Greatspear embedded in its chest.

Solam's education within the orc clan had been top-tier. From his grandfather to his second uncle and Garom, and later Blackhand—these were all well-traveled, knowledgeable figures. Having been carefully taught by them since childhood, Solam naturally knew that a Snow Dragon's hide had high magic resistance. If his Lightning Bolt hit the hide directly, the damage would be limited. But hitting the Blade Greatspear was a different story; the weapon was made of metal, and metal conducts electricity. Solam didn't believe that while the dragon's hide could resist lightning, its internal organs could do the same.

In the blink of an eye, the Lightning Bolt struck the Blade Greatspear. The Snow Dragon let out a strange sound, like a rooster being throttled mid-crow, its fur stood on end, and it froze stiff—clearly stunned by the shock.

This was exactly the effect Solam wanted. Taking advantage of the dragon's inability to move, he leaped up, aimed for its skull, and delivered a heavy overhead smash with Thor's Hammer. The warhammer and the dragon's skull made intimate contact once more. With a dull, thunderous "boom," a flash of lightning erupted the moment the hammer struck.

This heavy blow knocked the Snow Dragon's massive head completely to the side. Moreover, Solam had viciously targeted the eye wound from his first attack, dealing secondary damage. The combination of the heavy impact and the electrical surge left the Snow Dragon on the brink of death.

But this is why creatures like the Snow Dragon are terrifying. Even in this state, it managed a counterattack. Just after Solam landed the blow, the dragon used the momentum of the impact to tip over, swinging its powerful tail in a vicious strike. Solam hadn't even touched the ground yet; one could only imagine how fast this creature's reflexes were and how lethal its death throes could be.

Solam truly hadn't expected it to pull off such a counterattack at this stage, making the situation quite awkward. He was still in mid-air with no way to dodge. Wind Agility was similar to light-body techniques, but it wasn't some wuxia novel's "Cloud-Ascending Ladder" that allowed for mid-air displacement. Avoiding the hit was impossible. However, Solam wasn't completely out of options; he immediately held Thor's Hammer horizontally across his chest while swinging his war-axe with his other hand, intending to leave a mark on the dragon's tail. If I'm going down, I'm not letting you off easy.

"Bang!"

Solam was sent flying by the impact. His wish to land an axe blow on the dragon's tail fell through—partly because the tail strike was too fast, and partly because it's hard to land a real hit without leverage in mid-air. Still, this showed that Solam had a ruthless streak in him.

After being struck, even with Thor's Hammer acting as a shield, Solam felt as if his ribs were about to snap, and the shockwave made his internal organs feel like they had shifted.

The heavy blow sent Solam flying over ten meters. Fortunately, he hadn't lost consciousness; as he fell, he performed a series of rolls to dissipate the force. Otherwise, hitting the ground directly would have likely left him either unconscious or coughing up three liters of blood.

Even so, Solam was in bad shape. He struggled to stand up through the searing pain in his chest, only to immediately vomit a large mouthful of blood and collapse, limbs weak. Fortunately, that mouthful of blood actually helped; he felt much better afterward. Though still painful, the tightness in his chest eased, indicating that the blood in his lungs had been cleared, preventing him from going into shock due to internal hemorrhaging.

However, Solam no longer had the strength to finish off the Snow Dragon.

After delivering that powerful tail strike, the Snow Dragon also collapsed to the ground, gasping violently. Clearly, the recent counterattack had worsened its condition. But as an apex predator, the Snow Dragon forced itself to stay conscious, preparing to finish off its enemy. Though it lacked the strength to kill Solam physically, it still had its innate spells.

The Snow Dragon lay there panting for a moment before lifting its head toward Solam. Despite the distance, it opened its massive jaws, and a ball of blue light began to gather within.

Solam groaned inwardly, recognizing the dragon's ultimate move: Frost Breath. It was a powerful blast mixed with sharp ice shards; even a boulder would be shattered to pieces if hit head-on. The Snow Dragon could only use it once a day, and in Solam's current state, dodging would be difficult. However, Solam still had one trump card: the spell imbued within Thor's Hammer.

Regardless of whether it would work, Solam just wanted to interrupt the Frost Breath. He activated the hammer's spell, firing three Lightning Bolts at the greatspear in the dragon's chest. He didn't care about damage; he just wanted to disrupt the dragon. Sure enough, only one bolt hit the spear while the dragon dodged the other two, but one was enough. As the final bolt struck, the dragon's body went rigid. This was the moment Solam had been waiting for. Seeing the dragon stiffen, he immediately triggered the most powerful spell on Thor's Hammer: Lightning Strike, aimed once again at the greatspear.

"BOOM!"

This Lightning Strike was truly more than the Snow Dragon could bear. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking the greatspear directly. Currents of electricity began to arc wildly between the dragon and the weapon, and soon, sparks were even erupting from the dragon's wide-open maw. The dragon's body shuddered violently in the current until the electricity finally dissipated. The Snow Dragon could no longer hold itself up and collapsed with a thunderous crash. Even after it fell, steam continued to rise from various parts of its body.

"Phew, damn it, that should be dead for sure now."

To be honest, Solam hadn't expected the Snow Dragon to be so durable. Any other monster would have died three times over from such heavy injuries, yet this thing had almost managed a counter-kill. If not for Thor's Hammer, he would have been in deep trouble, if not dead.

"That guy from earlier, he didn't kick the bucket, did he? Come to think of it, that dead weight definitely isn't an orc. He must be a human. But since when have there been humans in Avalon?"

Only now did Solam wonder about the origin of that figure. But the priority was to see if the guy was dead. Solam cast a Rejuvenation Spell on himself, felt a bit better, then slung his war-axe onto his back and walked slowly toward the figure with his hammer held at his waist.

Upon reaching him, Solam finally saw the man's face. It was an old man, roughly sixty or seventy years old, his face etched with deep wrinkles. Judging by his weathered appearance and the tattered black cloak he wore, he must have had a rough journey to Avalon. He was clad in a suit of black armor that looked quite aged, yet the strange light flickering across its surface suggested it was far from ordinary.

Thinking about it, if not for that armor, Solam would probably be digging a grave for this old man right now. Having his spell interrupted and taking a direct hit from the Snow Dragon's Howling Sonic Wave, the old man's injuries were truly not light. Still, his condition wasn't terrible; there was only a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, and his breathing remained steady. He wouldn't die for the moment. Solam quickly cast a Rejuvenation Spell on him and left the rest to fate. There was no helping it; an Elemental Shaman's healing capabilities were very limited. If he were a Spirit Shaman, he might have been able to wake the old man up.

Solam whistled for Frostfang to come over and watch the old man, then took off his own coat and wrapped it around the man. It would be a joke if he survived the injuries only to freeze to death in the cold.

As for Solam himself, he didn't care about the temperature at all. Besides, he had work to do, and wearing too many layers would only get in the way.

As for what that work was—naturally, it was to butcher this Snow Dragon. Poor kids grow up early; although Solam wasn't exactly poor, given the orcs' level of production, he wasn't exactly wealthy either. Wasting resources was a sin. This was a Snow Dragon! Among all the monsters in Avalon, it was definitely in the top three for hunting difficulty. His grandfather and second uncle had never even caught one. He'd have plenty to brag about when he got back.

This is a Snow Dragon! Most orcs would be lucky to even see one.