1113 Level ???
Liam did not train for too long. After a while, his progress had become stagnant so he exited the building and once again stepped out in the open.
The night had fully enveloped the surroundings, and the moon hung high in the sky, casting its soft silvery glow over the vast expanse of the mountains.
Liam gazed up at the night sky, allowing himself a brief moment of respite. He glanced in the direction of the sword scar in the distance. Just in these outer mountains, he had gained so much, he couldn't help but think of the benefits he could reap from reaching the sword scar.
Liam was not a fool. He knew that something like that was impossible. An entire B-grade world had been trying to reach the sword scar for perhaps centuries, only to fail. So the chances of him claiming that for himself were abysmally thin.
However, the same could not be said for the inheritance site Liam had in mind. Steadying himself, he flew toward the direction in which the elven elder had screamed out. He still did not know if it was a trap but he had no other option except to check it out.
He had to keep moving forward.
Liam barely took a few steps forward when suddenly a loud roar resounded in his direction. The roar echoed throughout the mountains, causing the earth beneath him to tremble. A powerful aura emerged from behind him.
Liam immediately went on high alert. His hand instinctively moved to the hilt of his sword, as he snapped to look behind him. Instantly, his face paled.
From the shadows, a massive creature emerged, its eyes glowing a menacing red in the moonlight. Its scales shimmered with an eerie crimson luster, and its long tail thrashed wildly behind it.
Its scales were deep crimson, almost maroon, giving it an appearance as if it was carved from coagulated blood. Instead of the standard wing structure, its wings seem to be an amalgamation of membranous webbing and thick blood vessels, pulsing with every heartbeat.
The beast resembled a dragon, but it was different from any dragon Liam had ever seen.
[Level ???, Bloodforged Drake]
The creature fixed its gaze on Liam, its nostrils flaring as it let out a low growl. Liam could feel the creature's immense aura pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.
He knew that he was fucked.
Even though he had leveled up quite a bit lately, this was not an opponent that he could face. As for outrunning it…
"Damn it." Liam knew that it was only a matter of time. This ruins was full of things that could skewer him and shred him and he had finally run into one.
The next instant the drake barreled forward without any warning. It looked like it had woken up from a deep slumber so it fumbled about.
Even so, Liam was only barely able to dodge it as his body crashed against the rocky face of the mountain, his hand almost ripped off of his body.
This was not good. He was just moments away from dying. The drake was already revving up to charge toward him for the second time. Everything happened in a split second.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Liam's mind raced as he instinctively unsheathed his black dragon sword to block the attack.
As the Bloodforged Drake lunged towards him, he raised the sword, positioning it to meet the beast's charge with all the strength he could muster.
BOOM!
A massive collision ensued, creating a shockwave that resonated throughout the mountains. Pain rippled across Liam's body as he felt the beast's claws digging into his side. He had only managed to block half the attack.
But to his astonishment, he was still alive. Fresh blood continued to spill as he gazed at the bloody drake that had momentarily retreated.
And then Liam felt it.
The black dragon sword in his hand was awake. The sword that had been dormant all these days was thrumming alive with life, seething with anger that resonated with his own frustration.
Liam quickly took out a healing potion, uncorking it with his teeth and gulping it down. The elixir coursed through his veins, stitching together torn flesh and mending broken bones.
His vision blurred momentarily as immediate relief washed over him. Perhaps the drake decided not to fight with him?
But he instantly realized that it was a fool's dream as his actions seemingly triggered the beast that was in a trance staring at his sword.
As Liam immediately shot back with all the speed that he could muster, the drake let out an enraged roar before it charged toward him once more.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Huge cracks formed on the surface of the mountain as the drake crashed and flapped its bloody wings to follow after him with everything it had as if it had an endless animosity with him.
For a moment, Liam had hoped that using the black dragon sword would give him an advantage in this fight but it turned out that he was fucked after all. The sword only managed to further anger the beast.
Liam flew blindly in a random direction to escape the damned thing but the beast was like a bloodhound not willing to let go of him. He saw that the drake was not that good in maneuvering with its big lumbering body so he weaved through rock formations and soaring peaks.
However, whatever he did, it was all useless. The drake was quickly catching up to him.
There was no other way. He had to compromise on his escape speed to retaliate a little. Otherwise, it would be game over.
While continuing to fly away, Liam slashed his sword down, sending out arcs of sword beams. The drake snorted in contempt as it completely ignored the attack of the insignificant human being.
But just as the first sword beam touched its body, the beast trembled for a moment. A biting cold seeped into its scales, causing it to let out a painful roar. A layer of frost covered its scales, resulting in unexpected cracks on the touch crimson metallic surface.
Three of its scales were chipped away and fell down.
The drake roared in anger. It was forced to evade the rest of the attacks. Even though the attacks were not powerful enough to become a threat to the beast, its pride did not allow it to let its scales get damaged from fighting with an insect.
Liam's grip on the sword tightened. He was not there yet but this was something. He continued to swing his sword at the enemy chasing behind him as he dashed forward at full speed.
However, his mana core was not the same as before. He could barely last for a few seconds before it gave out and his mana supply ran dry. The meager amount he was pulling in from the surroundings was not nearly enough for maintaining both his speed and his attack power.
Liam felt as if he was putting up a futile fight with the beast. The divine temple high priestess might no longer be behind him but that did not mean that he was invincible. The world was filled with many dangers and now he was going to die at the hands of one of those dangers.
What was even the use of fighting back against something so powerful? He had absolutely no chance. His sister was probably dead. The woman he loved was probably dead. Everyone he cared about was also dead.
Perhaps this time he should really just let go…
Liam snapped himself out of his thoughts as he felt that something was wrong. His thoughts were running wild and a hopeless destitute feeling was washing over him.
At the distance, he saw the drake gaining speed with its wings flapping madly. It had to be the drake. The beast finally played its hand and was now feeding on his fear and despair using some sort of mental attack.
The next second Liam felt a searing pain that made him come to an absolute standstill. He could no longer move. When he forced himself to see through the pain, he felt something restricting him and saw chains of blood wrapped around him.
A rueful smile appeared on his face. He had done the exact same thing to the elven elder hours ago and now ironically he was also bound by some sort of chains.
Wait. Liam once again forced himself to focus. He grunted and with a forceful push, he broke and shattered the chains binding him. This was just another mental attack.
However, the fight was already over. Even though he managed to come out of the mental attack, the drake also evaded all of his sword beams filled with the power of his newly acquired dao seeds.
Combining the power of his ice elemental dao seed and sharpness dao seed, he had used a modified version of the arcane frost slash, an attack that was his most powerful technique.
But it was nowhere near enough to deter the Bloodforged Drake, and now, out of mana and exhausted, Liam was left defenseless.
In a last-ditch effort, he put all of his remaining energy to flee as fast as he could when suddenly numerous roars echoed all around him.
Another mental attack? Liam turned to look when he saw something that shuddered his very being. He was completely surrounded on all sides. Dozens of soul-blood beasts appeared on the mountain face, blocking his every path of exit.
And above them hovered the drake, with its menacing eyes locked onto Liam.
