Pov: Vik
Holding the arrow, I walked out of the crumbling catacombs. It felt like someone had put them under great pressure. Once outside, I saw the Azure mountains. They looked very different from the Azure mountains I remembered from Chakor, as a thousand years had passed since then. Still, I felt a strong sense of familiarity. It was as if I had returned home.
As I took in the scenery, I was struck by its beauty. The only ugly thing was the miasma covering it. I frowned and said, "This dragon is polluting my home. I think I need to plant a few more trees in this forest. Maybe using the dragon's corpse as fertilizer will help the plants. I need to give this a try."
Hearing this, Gullnor shivered and flew higher into the sky, trying to keep his distance and fight me from afar. He formed a giant sword made of thunder, which was in its final stages. The purple lightning inside it started to change to deep gold, and its size was increasing.
Completing the attack, Gullnor fired it toward me while shouting, "Heavenly Judgment Sky Piercing Thunder Sword."
When I heard the name of the attack, I almost laughed. Seriously, who names their attack like that? Shouting its name might take longer than actually creating the attack. Maybe this dragon is a fan of those old martial manhwas where the protagonist tries to lengthen the names of their techniques.
With that thought, I looked up. A massive sword made of thunder, as big as a hill, was coming toward me with deadly intent. Behind it was Gullnor, his expression serious as he seemed determined to kill me. But all I saw in his eyes was fear—the fear of death.
I did not react to the growing sword or the lightning turning from purple to gold. I felt no fear. Instead, I smiled at Gullnor and said, "Hey, you overgrown lizard, I already told you that if you want my home, I will bury you in my backyard."
With that, I positioned the arrow—No! I put the Vajra arrow in front of me. The sword, made of golden lightning and as large as a small mountain, hurtled toward me, gaining more strength with each passing second.
In the blink of an eye, it struck me straight in the chest. But before it made contact with my skin, it had to pierce something else—the arrow made of bones that I called Vajra. As a result, the sword stopped before it could touch the Vajra, as if a paper plane had hit a wall of iron. The lightning around the sword flickered like a dying flame. Normally, lightning is energy that should be stopped by something physical, but we were talking about a legendary Vajra.
No matter what strikes it, whether it was physical or energy, nothing can destroy it. So what happens when you try to destroy something indestructible? It gets destroyed in return. That's what happened to the sword made of golden lightning. After flickering for a few seconds, the lightning intensified as Gullnor decided to blast that sword, engulfing me in a huge explosion.
Yet, even the impact of the explosion only pushed me backward because the Vajra stood in front of my chest like an impregnable wall. Seeing this, Gullnor did not appear scared. Instead, he launched another wave of attacks. More than 20 swords formed in the air, made of ice and fire. It was strange; the blue ice swords were covered in blue flames.
These swords were both chilling and burning. He hurled them toward me again, shouting, "Heaven Piercing Glacial Flame Swords."
At least this time, the name was a bit shorter. The swords flew toward me in the blink of an eye. This time, they attacked not just my chest but also took sharp turns, aiming at every direction to strike parts of me not protected by the Vajra.
But the Vajra didn't just protect one point—it shielded me from every side. My very soul and existence were guarded by the Vajra as long as I held it. So those swords detonated, unable to harm even a single hair on my head.
I looked at Gullnor, who now seemed to be in his ultimate form. Golden and purple lightning streaked along the scales of his body, while various blue and azure tattoos formed on his scales. His antler-like horns grew larger, resembling tree branches spreading on his head.
All his power was concentrating on a heavenly bead atop his head, which resembled a crown. I realized he was about to unleash the greatest attack of his life. Honestly, I was starting to feel nervous seeing so much power being gathered for a single attack. I know the Vajra is indestructible, but what if he decided to strike a city or harm someone else? The Vajra could only protect me; it couldn't save everyone. I didn't want innocent lives to be lost in our fight.
So I decided to stop him while he formed his attack. Different from his normal attacks, this power-up did not take time. A blinding flash occurred, making me lose my eyesight for a second.
What worried me most was that I hadn't been hit by any attack. This meant his powerful strike was aimed somewhere else. What if he attacked the city? Thinking of my disciples, I tightened my grip on the Vajra. I squeezed so hard that the spikes pierced my hands, and my blood flowed onto the arrow.
The bright flash lasted only a second, and I regained my eyesight almost immediately. But before I could process what was happening, I flew toward the city, recalling its general direction. When I saw the city's state, I felt a bit relieved—it was completely fine. As far as I could see, there were no signs of destruction.
I was confused. Such a power-up for an attack should have been capable of destroying entire regions. Looking up, I saw Gullnor slowly flying away into a dark purple portal. Then I realized he was running away.
Sensing my gaze, he looked back and said while still entering the portal, "You should have gone for the head."
What on earth was he saying?
System: "Host, that is an iconic line. Now he'll use the infinity stone to snap and disintegrate half the world's population."
Hearing the system's joke, I replied, "System, I know I watched that movie too, but why is he saying that? I didn't even get the chance to attack him."
System: "Host, maybe he's a distant relative of Thanos."
I was already in a bad mood as I saw Gullnor disappearing into the portal. I hadn't even gotten the chance to attack him, and he escaped after realizing he would lose. This felt like preparing hard for an exam only to have the questions leaked on a telegram group. Oh, that's a real-world situation, but anyway, I was really angry now, and the system was making lame jokes. In my frustration, I responded while trying to find a way to follow that dragon.
Vik: "Please, system, can you shut up? Go back to silent mode. I don't want to hear your lame jokes anymore."
System: "Okay, host. I won't disturb you anymore, but—"
Vik: "But what?"
System: "The system will return in Doomsday."
Vik: (*_*)
The system said this with iconic Avenger music playing in the background.