Chapter 182. The Seven Extreme Stars, Varkanon (2)

Evan’s provocation to finish him within 5 minutes struck a deep chord in Varkanon’s pride.

“Ha……. To dare utter such words. You weren’t fated to die a peaceful death.”

“I know that well myself.”

Evan, who had surpassed the wall of a Sword Master with the power of the wolf god.

The axe in his hand was no longer a simple weapon.

It was a sharpness of the highest level that even Varkanon could not take lightly.

—Hwoong! Hwoong!

Evan’s body moved as if dancing, cutting through the empty air.

Sand footholds continuously shot up, supporting his feet, and his movements were as natural as flowing water.

He blocked what needed to be blocked precisely, and dodged what needed to be dodged by a hair's breadth.

Even while receiving attacks like that, the trajectory of the axe was not rough.

Rather, it was even more delicate and precise.

‘This fellow…… handles the axe as if it were a part of his own body.’

Evan moved with precisely calculated intervals.

A delicate distance that did not let Varkanon get a single step further away, and did not let him get a single step closer.

Only five to seven steps.

Only within that distance did the axe blade come alive, tightening its grip on Varkanon’s life.

—Cheut! Cheut!

The tip of the axe blade continuously grazed the blue scales.

The once impenetrable defensive wall began to thin, showing small cracks.

Sensing the cracks on his skin, a smile unconsciously spread across Varkanon’s lips.

“You are strong. Strong enough to awaken my subconscious.”

In that instant, his pupils slit vertically.

Like the pupils of a snake.

This was a signal that the dragon’s blood flowing in Varkanon’s body had begun to react, and Evan recognized it at once.

‘Damn it……! I have to stop that!’

Evan, who sensed danger by instinct.

He ignored the distance he had been maintaining and charged in.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

However, Varkanon’s wings spread wide, creating a huge gust of wind.

—Hwoooong!

Evan’s body was pushed back as if bouncing off the air.

“Keut!”

Nevertheless, he did not give up.

Even as he was sent flying, his gaze was fixed on Varkanon, and using the strength of his entire body, he threw the axe, forcibly lodging it into the gap between the wings.

—Puk!

First, a heavy sound entered his ears.

Then, he saw Varkanon’s figure.

The axe blade was embedded in Varkanon’s collarbone.

But instead of joy, Evan broke out in a cold sweat.

“Damn it……”

Varkanon did not even flinch in that state.

Rather, his entire body twisted, making a sound as if his exoskeleton was being destroyed.

—Udeudeudeuk!

The whites of his eyes around the long, slit pupils began to turn black.

They finally transformed into the eyes of a complete dragon.

Also, a blue horn sprouted from Varkanon’s forehead, and the scales on his entire body transformed to become even thicker.

“Is that all you have?”

Varkanon, having finished his transformation, looked at Evan and then approached him at a speed even he could not react to.

At the same time, a huge tail cut through the empty air and wrapped around Evan’s body.

—Hwirik!

His entire body was constricted as if bound by hard chains.

‘……Dragon Blood Awakening!’

The dragon’s blood had fully awakened, shedding its human form.

No longer a half-Dragonkin, but a true Dragonkin, closer to a dragon, had revealed itself.

“If that is your limit……”

The corners of Varkanon’s mouth twisted.

“This amusement ends here.”

The tail began to tighten around Evan’s body.

“Kkeueueuk!”

A pressure that could bend even steel squeezed Evan’s torso.

‘I have to get out…….’

Feeling suffocated, Evan instinctively exploded with strength to resist, but the tail did not loosen one bit.

In the first place, he was not a human with exceptional physical strength like Bakan Hardan.

Therefore, no matter how much strength he put in, escaping from a dragon’s tail was close to impossible.

—Kkudeudeuk!

Rather, the tail tightened even more around Evan, crushing his ribs.

“Struggling is useless.”

Varkanon sneered at Evan.

But at that moment, Evan’s eyes flashed fiercely, and he pulled his head back.

—Jjeok!

Evan’s forehead strongly struck the handle of the axe that was embedded in Varkanon’s collarbone.

Unable to use his arms and legs, Evan had moved the axe with a headbutt.

“Keut?!”

The blade, already halfway embedded in Varkanon’s collarbone, dug deeper from the impact.

The sensation of metal digging beneath the scales stimulated Varkanon’s nerves.

“Krrr……”

In that brief moment of stiffness, Evan did not miss his chance.

The tail momentarily loosened as he was distracted by the wound, and twisting his whole body, he broke free from the tail’s pressure and forcibly pulled out the axe.

However, the price of escaping by overexerting himself came immediately.

The huge tail swung and struck Evan’s torso.

—Teong!

A heavy impact sound, as if hitting metal rather than human bone.

Evan, who was directly hit by the shock, was sent flying into the temple wall.

“Keok!”

A part of the wall cracked, and fragments scattered in all directions.

He instinctively gasped for breath and checked his condition.

‘Arms, legs…… they move. But my breathing…… is not easy. It seems my ribs are broken.’

The taste of iron spreading in his mouth.

The intermittent pain that erupted from his chest every time he took a breath proved that fact.

Nevertheless, he could not give up.

If he collapsed here, everything he had done so far would be for naught.

‘After the Dragon Blood Awakening, most physical attacks won't work. But…… there is a gap that cannot be completely blocked.’

Varkanon’s wound, which was beginning to regenerate.

Even at the sight of the flesh under the scales slowly mending, Evan’s gaze did not waver.

He gripped the axe again.

And without even catching his breath, he threw himself forward.

—Huhuhung!

In response, Varkanon flapped his wings.

The physical abilities of the awakened Dragonkin were on a different level than before.

As Evan’s axe cut through the empty air, Varkanon’s body slipped like the wind, dodging its trajectory.

“How pathetic, struggling even when defeat is imminent.”

Blue mana enveloped Varkanon’s surroundings like a storm.

The boundless mana unique to dragons, erupting from his heart.

He created a pillar of water with that mana and made it absorb into the sphere floating in the sky.

“Now, stop…… and disappear along with the temple.”

The sphere of water expanded even further.

An overwhelming pressure, as if a piece of the sea, already larger than the temple, was floating in the air.

‘Damn it……!’

At that moment, sand shot up from under Evan’s feet.

A huge shield, layered dozens of times, formed in mid-air, blocking the mass of water.

—Cheolpeok!

The sound of water and sand colliding.

The huge sphere scattered, mixed with the sand, and poured down like mud.

Harashin had pushed himself to the limit to create the shield.

“Tsk…… a useless gesture.”

Varkanon tore through the sand shield and instantly appeared in front of Evan.

And a huge hand grabbed his neck.

“Heup!”

A situation where a slight squeeze of the fingers would break his neck bone.

But Evan’s eyes were not filled with fear, but with a strange conviction.

“Do you have something you’re counting on?”

Evan chuckled, baring his teeth.

“I do, you idiot. Your arrogance.”

His hands slowly opened.

And in those hands…… there was no axe.

“!”

Varkanon’s pupils momentarily wavered.

He instinctively looked up at the sky.

…….

There was nothing in the sky.

“You’re a real idiot. Why are you looking at the sky?”

Evan’s hand moved like lightning.

He took out the axe he had hidden behind his back and plunged it straight into Varkanon’s barely healed wound.

—Puk!

The sound of metal and the sound of flesh tearing overlapped.

But the blade did not reach the heart, nor did it completely break the collarbone.

Varkanon twisted his head and roughly pulled out the axe.

Then he threw it to the ground like trash.

‘A futile act……!’

The muscles under the blue scales twitched.

The moment Varkanon raised his hand to aim for Evan’s heart, the corners of Evan’s mouth slowly curled up.

A smirking expression.

And then his outstretched hand grabbed the back of Varkanon’s neck.

“You just thought it was a futile act, didn’t you?”

Two things simultaneously came out from Evan’s waist.

A self-defense dagger. And something small and shining.

The reason he had thrown himself this far to get close to Varkanon.

There was only one reason.

“You…… how do you have that……!”

“It’s been a while since you’ve had a taste of something hot, right?”

The small orb was lodged deep into the wound.

Varkanon’s eyes rolled back in despair.

“Eeeeek!”

The Fire Dragon Orb.

The jewel containing the essence of the flame that once burned the continent dug into Varkanon’s wound.

‘Ah, what a waste. If he doesn’t give me Kailam’s Armor after I’ve gone this far, I’ll destroy Solaid with my own hands.’

Evan held the dagger in a reverse grip and plunged it down onto the orb.

—Jjeojeok!

Cracks spread, and something erupted from within.

—Jjeojeojeok!!!

An explosive heat.

Not a simple flame, but the fire of a Fire Dragon.

The flame that had burned the continent began to erupt from Varkanon’s back.

“Kraaaaaah!!!”

The scales burned away.

Even the bloodline of a dragon was helplessly weak before that flame.

Moreover, Varkanon’s lineage was that of a Blue Dragon.

The fire of a Fire Dragon was, in terms of elemental matchups, worse than poison.

“Kraaak!!!”

Varkanon, with a crazed roar, attacked Evan.

A punch swung by instinct cut through the empty air, creating an explosive wind.

—Kwaang!

Evan tried to block it but was sent flying.

With the sound of bones crushing, his left arm was horribly bent.

“Keuk……!”

In the midst of the suffocating pain, Evan gritted his teeth and widened the distance.

The sand footholds created by Karnak gently supported his body, allowing him to land in front of the temple.

When he raised his head, gasping for breath, he saw it.

A huge shadow, burning fiercely, falling to the ground.

‘……Is it over.’

Evan clutched his chest with his right arm and slowly walked towards the temple.

—Step, step.

But just before he crossed the threshold of the temple, the sky turned red.

To be precise, it was more accurate to say that a pillar of fire rose up, covering the sky.

—Hwareureuk!

A huge pillar of flame rose as if to swallow the temple.

A suffocating hot wind blew, and the smell of burning covered the battlefield.

And from within that flame, something shot up and fell in front of the temple.

‘Damn it.’

Evan swallowed his breath.

A monster with one arm and all of its wings, and half of its face burned away.

It was Varkanon, standing on his two legs, his entire body charred black like charcoal.

“Ah……. any more than this…… is going to be tough for me too.”

Evan, with his left arm hanging limp, barely caught his breath and took a step forward.

At that moment, he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder from behind.

“You did well. Now I will take on that bastard.”

It was Harashin.

“You…… how? The temple is……?”

“Ah, that? I fiddled with it here and there, and it started moving on its own.”

The moment he saw the brightly smiling Harashin, a curse rose to the tip of Evan’s tongue.

“If you had something like that, you should have done it sooner……”

“It was my first time using it too. Anyway, I’m sorry. And thank you.”

“If you really don’t bring me that armor……”

Evan gritted his teeth, holding onto his consciousness to keep from collapsing.

“I understand. But first, let’s finish off that damn lizard.”

Harashin looked at the half-dead Varkanon and raised his fist.