The bottom of the canyon began to surge with boiling magma, and the head of that giant dragon, silhouetted against the black clouds, looked especially terrifying.
But the overwhelming pressure coming from Viktor felt as if it had turned into a disaster beast, something even more dreadful.
On both sides of the canyon, waves of scorching flames rose continuously, engulfing the lightning.
Pillars of flame burst from the ground, colliding head-on with bolts of thunder, perfectly matched in strength.
[Fire Calamity: Scorching Earth]
Cocotte stared blankly at the strange phenomenon around her.
As a nature spirit, she knew very well what a Calamity was.
Strictly speaking, they weren't monsters.
They were the incarnations of the world's natural elements, beings born when nature itself gradually gained consciousness over eons.
Wind, thunder, earth, and water all had their own embodiments.
And only a Calamity had the power to change the natural environment itself.
Cocotte was dumbfounded.
'Why? Why could Viktor use a power similar to that of a Calamity?'
'Could he be the Calamity's illegitimate child?'
Nature spirits revered and feared nature alike, because their magic could only be released within natural environments.
But a being like a Calamity, capable of influencing nature, was, in a sense, their father.
Cocotte's eyes darted nervously as she thought to herself.
She hadn't offended Viktor just now, right…?
She should probably treat him more politely.
Fiddling with her fingers, she looked tense and uneasy.
Then, suddenly, she noticed Aurelian watching the battle from a distance.
Kicking at the cloud beneath her, Cocotte floated toward her.
When she reached Aurelian's side, she no longer looked drowsy. Awkwardly, she started a conversation.
"Hey, uh… your teacher, what's his background, exactly?"
Aurelian glanced at her but didn't answer, simply taking a few steps back to distance herself.
Seeing the student act so distant made Cocotte feel as if even sleep wouldn't be comforting anymore.
She almost forgot, the little girl couldn't speak.
Helpless, she turned back toward the battlefield, staring at the epic fight unfolding before her.
Every mage in Endymion knew what the Storm Dragon King represented.
It had long slumbered in the depths of the Storm Lands' abyssal canyon, the most powerful being in the area.
Even a fourth-tier mage wouldn't dare face it head-on without absolute confidence in victory.
Not every mage could alter their surroundings like Viktor could. Normally, fighting it under the Storm Lands' environmental advantage would be even more dangerous.
In fact, it was because of the Storm Dragon King's presence that this place had become known as the Storm Lands.
The chaotic flow of magic energy in the Magic Canyon only further restricted a mage's power.
Its sudden appearance now had even caught Cocotte off guard.
Typically, the Storm Dragon King never clashed with mages.
Mages merely passed through the Magic Canyon, the monsters there weren't under its control. It simply slept, existing as a manifestation of pure, powerful magic, without much consciousness.
Without deliberate provocation, it would never attack others.
But Viktor's arrival, radiating that furious Calamity aura, made the Storm Dragon King sense the presence of a powerful rival.
With the environment and terrain altered, the Dragon King viewed Viktor as an invader of its domain.
Yet compared to the human-shaped Calamity that Viktor had become, the Storm Dragon King was nothing but a giant insect.
Cocotte shook her head. A Calamity could alter even chaotic magical flow, this time, the Dragon King was doomed to lose.
Feeling scalding magma spill across its claws, the dragon roared and lunged toward Viktor.
Its claws, crackling with countless bolts of lightning, slashed downward like a storm breaking through the clouds.
Within seconds, those claws had already reached Viktor.
"Crap! Too fast!"
Cocotte realized Viktor was in danger, but it was already too late to warn him.
The Storm Dragon King's speed was beyond imagination.
However, to Viktor's eyes, the motion of its claws seemed unbelievably slow.
He could even see clearly the trembling paths of lightning dancing around the claws.
Hands still in his pockets, Viktor experienced time slowing by hundreds of times in those few seconds.
Finally, after a full second, the giant claw above his head had dropped by only a centimeter.
Sensing danger, the metal cards at Viktor's waist suddenly burst outward.
Cocotte and Aurelian stood side by side, eyes fixed tensely on the sky.
Neither realized that the flash of cold light had already reached the dragon's claws.
In an instant, the flying cards split into hundreds, slicing through the Storm Dragon King's limbs, stabbing deep into its joints.
Its magically formed limbs were completely severed.
The Storm Dragon King, being a mass of magic, had no true body, its physical form was merely a product of condensed energy.
Those hundred cards erupted with dazzling light, red and green intertwined.
Flames burning the sky wrapped around the dragon's body, and vines of greenery sprouted, binding it tighter and tighter, until even the leaves glowed red-hot from the heat.
The hundred cards spun madly, shredding the Dragon King like a magical meat grinder.
Before it could even resist, its massive body shrank smaller and smaller, until it disappeared entirely.
Aurelian's eyes widened, full of admiration.
Her teacher was… too strong.
So strong that even a sky-covering Dragon King was no match for him.
As for Cocotte, she almost fell to her knees.
Her slightly dark-ringed eyes stared at Viktor in disbelief.
But the Storm Dragon King wasn't dead yet.
"It's not over. Inside the Magic Canyon, the Dragon King's body will quickly regenerate."
No sooner had Viktor spoken than the black clouds rumbled again with lightning.
Energy began to gather in the air, reforming veins, bones, and skin at incredible speed.
Within seconds, the lightning-wreathed dragon reappeared, its aura even stronger than before.
In Viktor's vision, a health bar and level slowly appeared over it.
[LV 40]
Viktor knew well, the Storm Dragon King wasn't powerful in itself. Its uniqueness lay in its ability to revive infinitely through boundless magic.
Cocotte said it couldn't be killed, but that was only because the mages of Endymion had never seen it die.
Viktor, however, knew better, it could be annihilated.
When he'd been a player, every time he passed through the Magic Canyon, he'd farmed the Storm Dragon King countless times.
To him, it was just a giant XP piñata.
Its respawn time, behavior pattern, he knew it all by heart.
'So all I have to do is kill you until you can't regenerate anymore.'
As the hundred cards returned to orbit around him, hundreds of magic circles flared to life behind Viktor.
They rippled like water, runes and symbols too numerous to count. Then, flames poured forth, engulfing everything.
Even within the altered environment Viktor had created, Cocotte could tell he was only casting second-tier fire magic, yet the power reached third-tier levels.
"This is… the Fire Calamity?"
The flames seemed about to consume the entire canyon.
Panicking, Cocotte quickly wrapped Aurelian in her cloud to shield her from the magic's shockwave.
The blinding white heat spread everywhere, the flames lighting up the entire Rhea Canyon.
Even the canyon itself probably never imagined it would one day shine this brightly.
The heat softened the rocks, igniting them midair.
The Storm Dragon King, which had only just finished reforming, was instantly blasted apart again.
In the blink of an eye, its body shattered once more.
"H-how long has it even been!?"
Cocotte was stunned.
Was the Dragon King always this weak? It didn't even seem able to fight back.
Seconds later, it began regenerating again, but Viktor had already anticipated it.
Before the reconstruction even finished, the iron cards sliced through it again.
A third time. A fourth time…
Its revival grew slower and slower.
The canyon around them, battered by Viktor's bombardment, crumbled and shook violently.
The bottom of the gorge fell silent. The hurricane winds were gone, only trembling heat waves remained.
Cocotte could only stare, feeling the destructive force that Viktor wielded.
No wonder he'd dared provoke the Storm Dragon King. After all this time, she hadn't even seen the Dragon King use a single skill.
It was completely one-sided, total domination.
Under Viktor's seamless assault, every time the Dragon King revived, it was instantly torn apart again.
Countless cycles of magic gathering and rebirth repeated.
An hour passed. Then two. Yet the result never changed.
The canyon had been blasted into rubble, collapsing into ruins.
Viktor's spinning iron cards carved into the dragon's half-reformed body once more.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminated the air, then burst apart.
As the dust settled, there was no sign of the Storm Dragon King reviving.
"It… it's dead?"
The Storm Dragon King was dead?
She had never seen a battle end so easily.
It was as if Viktor had calculated everything, the respawn spots, the damage required, each strike perfectly timed.
Not too much, not too little. Just right. Always lethal.
Peeking out from her cloud, Cocotte felt the heat scorch her face.
"This temperature… it's insane."
This kind of flame magic was definitely beyond what any normal mage could wield.
She was now convinced, Viktor must have made some kind of deal with the Fire Calamity.
And she was half right. The truth was, Viktor had ripped this berserk flame magic from Gul'dun himself.
The Fire Calamity had already been sealed once by Viktor.
As the raging lightning finally settled, it condensed into a glowing white core.
Viktor stretched out his hand, and the core floated into his palm, as if recognizing its master.
[Storm Dragon King's Gene]
[Description: A mysterious gene containing the power of an ancient dragon. It may be compatible with ancient dragon essence.]
Viktor looked at the core, clearly satisfied.
The molten lines on his coat dimmed, and the beastly eyes on it closed once again.
Cocotte curiously leaned close, very close, and asked hesitantly, "Are you… related to a Calamity somehow?"
Viktor glanced back at her with a calm expression.
"I killed one. Do you believe that?"
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