"Awoooo!"
The provoked Red Dragon flew into an utter rage.
Its jaws opened wide, and a blazing light welled up deep in its throat-
Dragon breath!
Scorching dragonfire poured forth, its white-hot flames sweeping toward him on a wave of devastating heat.
Never mind a human body-even metal armor would be no better than paper before that breath.
Everyone present turned deathly pale and trembled inside, instinctively retreating to get far away.
Even Soldat broke out in a cold sweat at his temples.
By now... he could tell, too.
This man was no weaker than him.
At the very least, he could never have come anywhere close to doing something like that himself.
Under the Red Dragon's attacks, the man could still advance and retreat freely, with strength to spare.
But could he really defeat the Red Dragon?
If it were Soldat, he would have no chance whatsoever. Even if everyone here joined forces to surround and attack the Red Dragon, it would be impossible.
But if it were this man before him...
He glanced at the novice adventurer fighting the Red Dragon up ahead. Perhaps this man really could work a small miracle.
Not just Soldat, but everyone else, too, placed all their hopes... on Luo Ge alone.
The merchants, passengers, elderly, and children in the group... stopped fleeing. They all raised their heads to look toward the very center of the battlefield in the snow.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Dragon breath poured toward him like a torrent, its heat distorting the air. Just as Luo Ge was about to be swallowed by the flames-
"Ice Wall!"
The instant Luo Ge landed.
He raised a hand and swept it through the air, casting incantationless ice magic. With that casual motion, he sent a wall of ice rising from the ground before him.
The towering defensive line stood squarely in front of him!
The scorching dragon breath struck the ice wall.
Steam erupted, and white mist billowed upward.
The ice wall began melting at a rate visible to the naked eye, but it also bought Luo Ge plenty of opportunities.
Catching it off guard... he created smoke magic that effectively blocked the Red Dragon's sight, as well as the view of everyone around them.
Within the mist...
Luo Ge moved like a stealthy shadow assassin, swift and decisive.
While the Red Dragon could not see clearly.
Clang!!!
A sharp, piercing metallic clash suddenly rang out.
Almost no one saw how Luo Ge had closed in.
All they saw after the smoke dispersed...
Was that he had appeared directly in front of the Red Dragon as though he had teleported, his iron sword striking solidly into a gap between the scales beneath its neck.
He swung his sword!
Then swung again!
A glint of cold light arrived first, followed by a sword thrusting forth like a dragon.
From everyone else's perspective, Luo Ge had only swung once, but in that brief instant...
He had unleashed thirty-eight slashes in a single burst.
Those consecutive slashes were so fast that they took only a tenth of a second, making it look to everyone else as though Luo Ge had swung just once.
Consecutive slashes.
Every strike landed precisely on the weakest points in the Red Dragon's scales.
The gaps in its joints.
The soft armor beneath its neck.
The bases of its wings.
As those unending, stormlike slashes struck the Red Dragon, all that could be heard was a barrage of metallic impacts as dense as a downpour.
The Red Dragon wailed.
Roared.
Helpless...
A novice adventurer had actually beaten it until it could not fight back at all.
This Red Dragon was already ancient and near death, and now, in its twilight years, this once-mighty overlord let out shrill screams.
Its enormous body trembled violently.
Crimson blood gushed from dozens of wounds, quickly staining a broad stretch of snow red.
"Huh?"
Everyone stared, dumbfounded, almost stupefied by the sight.
Soldat, who had been planning to help, instinctively swallowed.
This was a fucking magician?
A magician charged in with a sword and beat a Red Dragon into submission?
Absurd... utterly absurd. Were novice adventurers these days all this ridiculously strong?
A Red Dragon.
An S-rank monster that stood at the top of the Central Continent's food chain was being thrashed single-handedly by this novice adventurer from start to finish.
Without any chance to fight back.
Suppressed the entire time.
Had they not seen it with their own eyes, none of them would have believed any of this was real-that someone could actually take on a Red Dragon alone.
After a period of maneuvering and wearing it down, Luo Ge had roughly gauged the Red Dragon's strength.
Suddenly.
"This ends here. This is the final blow." He drew a deep breath, wrapping all his mana into Touki and gathering it along his blade as he activated the Transparent World once more.
The Red Dragon's breathing...
The Red Dragon's weaknesses...
Everything about the Red Dragon...
A layer of solid light shone along the blade, and even the air trembled slightly, giving the impression that this sword could slay gods and demons.
His narrowed eyes suddenly opened a sliver. "Sword God Style secret art, Silent Blade!"
The next instant.
He struck to kill in one blow!
It was none other than the Sword God Style's secret art, Silent Blade. This strike already far surpassed the Sword of Light of an ordinary Sword Saint.
Even a Sword of Light unleashed by another Sword Saint would fall far short.
Luo Ge...
The Silent Blade he unleashed seemed to have reached utter perfection in angle, power, and speed alike, entering an entirely new realm.
A true sonic-speed slash.
It seemed to drain the world of color in an instant, turning everything black and white. Time... and space stood still.
All fell silent.
The speed of this strike was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye. Everyone saw only a flash of sword light.
Then.
Luo Ge appeared a short distance behind the Red Dragon, sheathing his sword in one perfect motion, confident enough not to look back.
Squelch!
First, a bloody line opened across the Red Dragon.
The blade had torn unobstructed through layer after layer of its armor and flesh, emerging through its back and even carrying fragments of its internal organs with it.
Then a great column of blood spurted out like a fountain.
The Red Dragon's enormous body finally crashed to the ground.
"Oh! The Red Dragon's down?"
"Him? He... who on earth is he? He actually defeated a Red Dragon all by himself."
"He beat a Red Dragon! Can someone tell me if this is real? A novice adventurer could actually go this far? Even one of the lower-ranked Great Powers could only do this much, right?"
"He took on a Red Dragon alone without feeling the slightest pressure."
After a brief silence, everyone erupted, bursting into cheers together.
The scene shifted.
The focus returned to Luo Ge. His face was expressionless, as though he had merely done something insignificant.
The Red Dragon opposite him had already fallen and could not get up.
"Uuuu..."
The Red Dragon wailed and struggled in defiance.
Finally, when its limbs slumped weakly and it could no longer rise.
The savagery in its eyes vanished completely.
Only faint, mournful cries remained, filled with deep unwillingness.
"I have successfully slain the Red Dragon!"
Luo Ge announced it to everyone without turning around or so much as glancing at the Red Dragon behind him.
Then... he slowly walked off in another direction without looking back.
Boom!!!
With a snap of his fingers, an enormous blaze shot skyward behind him.
Flame Explosion!
With a thunderous boom, towering flames engulfed and utterly annihilated the Red Dragon, while the shock wave swept in every direction, carrying ice and snow through the air.
"It-it's over..."
Soldat stood where he was, staring fixedly at the devastated battlefield without looking away for a long time.
He understood what had just happened better than anyone.
The Red Dragon, an S-rank monster that required a large, coordinated team of dozens of adventurers to defeat, had been toyed with by a boy from beginning to end, with almost no chance to fight back.
Once the flames died down and the thick smoke dispersed.
When everyone looked toward the battlefield again, the novice adventurer had long since vanished.
Silently, without a trace, as though he had never appeared at all. It felt like a dream.
"What was that person's name again?" someone asked curiously.
"It was Rudeus. His name is Rudeus Greyrat," Soldat answered first, his face full of admiration.
Everyone else's eyes burned with fervor...
The name Rudeus Greyrat was firmly etched into the memory of everyone there.
What Luo Ge did not know was.
Not long after he left, a story about a novice adventurer slaying a Red Dragon alone... began spreading at an incredible speed through the Adventurers' Guild branches and taverns across the north.
Bards composed songs about him, and adventurers eagerly spread his tale. Before long, it became a favorite topic among adventurers in the northern Central Continent.
The name Rudeus... became a legend. People called him the strongest novice adventurer, but even more called him the "Dragon Slayer."