The road to the summit of Jagged Peak was more treacherous than expected.
The mountain path had not formed naturally. It looked more like the remains of something repeatedly torn apart by violent force, its jagged rocks twisted into spikes.
After dodging a stone ball from who knew where and rounding an almost vertical rock face, the view suddenly opened up, only to make everyone's heart sink an instant later.
It was a relatively spacious mountain hollow, low-lying and filled with cold water from some unknown source.
The water was shallow, barely covering their ankles.
What was truly deadly was the enormous creature occupying the center of the pool.
It was older than the drakes they had encountered before, its overlapping dark-gold scales as thick and heavy as rock.
The ancient dragon-Senessax.
"Another one?" Far from afraid, Hoarah Loux's eyes burned with an even fiercer fighting spirit. He licked his slightly cracked lips, his greataxe already trembling faintly with excitement.
"Now that's a good size! Asei, this heart's bound to be more nourishing than the last one!"
Horace Loux knitted his brows. Wasn't this that bullshit enemy outside Bayle's door?
"Brother, watch out for its light-"
Before he could finish, Senessax seemed to sense the intrusion of strangers. Its enormous eyelids slowly rose, revealing slit pupils like molten gold.
It lifted its head slightly from its foreclaws and let out a low, lingering roar toward the sky.
In an instant, the weather changed, though they could not see it from here.
That was no exaggeration, but an actual sight.
Countless tiny red arcs of electricity were gathering.
Then a bolt of dark-gold lightning as thick as a bucket struck without warning.
A deafening crash erupted alongside a blinding flash. Savage Dragonbolt hammered the water, spreading in every direction at astonishing speed!
Snaking currents darted wildly, covering the entire pool in an instant!
"Everyone, spread out! Find dry rocks to stand on!" Horace Loux's voice cut through the lingering thunder. He had already retreated onto a huge black rock, hard and solid beneath his feet.
The well-trained guards quickly followed Horace Loux's example, scrambling toward any nearby rocks that rose above the water.
Hoarah Loux reacted a little slower—or rather, he had never intended to evade it entirely.
Thick arcs climbed his body through his soaked hide trousers and the feet planted in the water, crackling as his powerful muscles bulged and his veins stood out. A muffled grunt mingling pain and excitement escaped his mouth.
Yet he actually endured the lightning strike head-on. His legs remained rooted to the spot as he swung his greataxe in a full arc, hacking viciously at Senessax's newly lowered head!
Clang!
The axe blade struck the thick scales on the ancient dragon's forehead, unleashing a tremendous metallic crash and a shower of sparks.
Senessax jerked its head in pain, flinging Hoarah Loux and his axe several steps away.
Clearly enraged by this tiny creature's provocation, it fixed its molten-gold slit pupils on Hoarah Loux and raised its head again. A second bolt, then a third, struck in succession, blasting straight at him!
"Protect the chieftain!" The guards' eyes bulged with fury. Several nearby men hurled themselves forward without fear of death, trying to shield Hoarah Loux with their bodies or shields. But their shields were like paper before Dragonbolt, shattering instantly as their bearers were blasted away.
Hoarah Loux finally realized how formidable these lightning strikes were and stopped taking them head-on.
With a furious roar, he unleashed astonishing speed and agility, rolling and leaping through the gaps between successive lightning strikes.
"Attack its eyes! Don't hack straight at the scales!" Horace Loux shouted the warning as he, too, leaped down from his rock.
He carried no heavy weapon, only a relatively light, sharp Twinblade at his waist.
He had sought them out specifically to comply with the [Do not use heavy weapons] commandment. After years of practice, he wielded them as naturally as his own limbs.
Now, he temporarily activated another commandment: [Precision strike]-sacrificing some of his slashing power for a significant increase in attack speed. (Reduced strength, increased dexterity.)
Terrifying though Senessax's Dragonbolt was, it seemed to require a brief charge.
When it raised its head to chant for the third time, Horace Loux moved.
Like a phantom, he sprinted along the dry path at the edge of the pool and circled to one side. His legs drove down, shattering a rock, and the force launched him into the air. His twin shortswords traced cold arcs in the sunlight, aimed straight at the neck the ancient dragon had exposed by raising its head.
Schlick!
The blades slipped precisely between its scales and sank into flesh.
Though the wound was insignificant compared with the ancient dragon's enormous body, the pain was real.
Senessax's chant broke off. It whipped its head downward, trying to smash this annoying "insect."
Horace Loux had already released the hilts and curled up, rolling with the swing of the dragon's neck to dissipate the force. He landed unharmed on another rock, but his swords remained lodged in the ancient dragon.
That harassment bought the others a precious chance to catch their breath.
Hoarah Loux seized the opportunity. Rather than trying to hack at its hard head again, he roared and charged one of the Ancient Dragon's forelimbs. With enough force to split mountains and shatter stone, his greataxe chopped viciously at the joint where the dragon's claw met the ground!
The scales there were relatively thin, and the joint bore immense weight.
"Roar!" Senessax bellowed in pain and fury. Agony shot through its claw, making it jerk the limb upward and send muddy water spraying into the air.
Its enormous body became unsteady as a result.
"Now! Attack that leg!" Horace Loux shouted sharply. At the same time, he drew several poisoned throwing knives from his waist. With repeated flicks of his wrist, the knives became cold streaks of light, flying straight toward the ancient dragon's eyes and the enormous mouth it had opened slightly in pain!
The guards regrouped. No longer charging blindly, they coordinated with Hoarah Loux's attacks, raining spears, greatswords, and greathammers onto the ancient dragon's wounded forelimb joint and relatively vulnerable belly and flanks.
Although most attacks still bounced off its thick scales, the relentless blows and stinging pain in its vital areas left the ancient dragon deeply agitated. Its Dragonbolt began to grow erratic.
The battle became a grueling struggle of attrition.
The ancient dragon possessed astonishing defenses and even more overwhelming strength. Every tail sweep or slam carried tremendous force; the slightest carelessness could leave tendons torn and bones broken.
Hoarah Loux was indisputably their main fighting force. Like a tireless war machine, he fought ever more fiercely, every swing of his greataxe heavy and powerful, always targeting weak points.
His attacks were crude and direct, but that ferocity genuinely inflicted sustained pressure and damage on the ancient dragon.
Horace Loux prowled the battlefield's edge like the deadliest of venomous wasps.
He never confronted the ancient dragon head-on, always appearing at the most unexpected moments to attack its eyes, nostrils, and ear openings with precise thrusts, throwing knives, or sharp stone spires he found on the spot, or to try to widen the wounds Hoarah Loux had inflicted.
He had long since retrieved his swords.
Each of his attacks might not have dealt much damage, but their speed made up for it, constantly causing the ancient dragon trouble and pain and disrupting its movements and judgment.
(Easy on the scraping, master. You're about to draw blood.)
The guards took on the task of keeping it occupied, using their bodies to draw the ancient dragon's attention and create openings for Hoarah Loux;
At last, Senessax's movements began to slow. Axe and sword wounds covered its dark-gold scales. Repeated blows from Hoarah Loux had twisted and deformed its left forelimb joint until it could barely support its enormous weight.
Its Dragonbolt came far less frequently now, and its power had also diminished considerably.
"The finishing blow! Brother!" Horace Loux spotted the instant the ancient dragon lowered its head in agony and shouted a warning.
Hoarah Loux was already poised to strike. He drew a deep breath, his muscles swelling once more and a savage light blazing in his eyes. He launched himself like a cannonball, raised his greataxe overhead, and brought it crashing down on the junction between the ancient dragon's nape and spine, exposed by its lowered head!
Crack!
A teeth-grating crunch of shattering bone rang out.
The greataxe buried itself deep in the ancient dragon's neck, cutting through well over half of it.
Senessax let out an earthshaking death cry. Its enormous body convulsed violently before finally crashing down, throwing up towering waves of mud and losing all signs of life.
The battlefield instantly fell silent, save for everyone's heavy breathing.
Hoarah Loux leaned on his axe handle, gasping for breath. Scorch marks and claw wounds deep enough to expose bone covered his body, but he grinned broadly and laughed with satisfaction. "Ha... hahaha! What a fight! That big thing... really packed a punch!"
Horace Loux hurried over and first checked his brother's injuries. They looked frightening, but with Hoarah Loux's inhuman constitution, the wounds would practically heal before they could be bandaged.
He breathed a sigh of relief, then looked toward the ancient dragon's corpse.
The guards had already begun tending their wounds on their own while keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.
Horace Loux walked over to the ancient dragon's head and tried prying up a scale with his shortsword.
It felt extraordinarily heavy and hard, less like living tissue than some kind of rock with a metallic texture.
He hacked at it several times, leaving only faint white marks.
"Ancient dragon scales... and their hearts, too, are supposedly made of stone."
"That's why Dragon Communion rituals never include ancient dragons. No one can bite through and digest a stone heart."
Looking at Senessax's enormous body, he abandoned his plan to take its heart.
Still, ancient dragon scales were good stuff.
After a brief rest, the party set out again.
Beyond the ancient dragon's corpse, the mountain path became even steeper and more jagged, as though countless claws and lightning strikes had ravaged it repeatedly.
Dragon remains began appearing along the way. Some had long since weathered away; others still bore scraps of flesh, giving off a rotten smell.
The higher they climbed, the stronger the free electrical charge in the air became. Their hair stood on end involuntarily, and a faint numbness tingled across their skin.
From time to time, lightning struck without warning from the dense thunderclouds overhead, blasting the mountain rocks and scattering shattered stone.
Hoarah Loux cursed as he dodged a lightning strike. Looking up at the seemingly endless steep mountain path, he muttered discontentedly, "This damned mountain's a pain to climb! Worse than the ice cliffs in the Wasteland!"
Horace Loux did not reply. He watched their surroundings warily. Compared with the map in the game, the real environment was far harsher.
The dragon's calorblooms and corpses along the way proved that.
The environment itself was full of malice, never mind the one they were about to face-Bayle the Dread.
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