No one breathed. All eyes were fixed on the fallen dragon.
Silence draped the battlefield like a strange, suffocating shroud.
Then came the sound an eerie, deathly melody that made the air crawl.
"Something's wrong!" someone cried out.
"Look! It's… breathing!"
A low, guttural exhale escaped from the dragon's crushed remains. Its eyes flickered open again those blood-red pupils glowing with renewed malice.
"It's… coming back to life?!"
Clack… clack…
A strange rattling sound like bones grinding together echoed from within the mangled corpse. Dark purple mana seeped from its wounds, boiling into the air.
Kael's eyes widened. "No way… It's regenerating!?"
Louis spun around, barking, "EVERYONE FALL BACK! GET AWAY FROM IT...!! NOW!"
From the torn flesh of the dragon, twisted sinews began to coil and reconnect, stitching themselves together with unnatural precision. A black light pulsed from its core, forming a resurrection barrier.
Purple lightning crackled across the dragon's body as it began to rise. Its scales fell away, replaced by sharper, denser armor that radiated a suffocating death aura.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The Forbidden Dragon's body flashed, blazing with power. Its crimson eyes reignited like twin hellish suns. It stood, slow and deliberate—each step cracking the earth, each breath darkening the sky.
Everyone froze in disbelief.
Louis clenched his teeth. "Again. Same formation. Hit it hard!"
The battle restarted.
Louis beheaded the dragon. Fighters shredded its limbs. Mages and summoners drowned it in spells and beast attacks.
Once.
Twice.
A third time…
By the fifth kill, the pattern was clear.
It kept coming back. Stronger. Faster. More violent.
The sixth. Then the seventh resurrection.
Every time its body shattered into ash, it pulled itself together. Its head, limbs, wings, and tail reformed as if some ancient force defied death itself.
"No… it can't still be alive…" a mage stammered, voice trembling in dread.
But this time, the world changed.
The wind died.
The earth stopped quaking.
Reality cracked.
A black fracture split open across the dragon's chest. Though slumped, the beast raised its head. Red eyes flared. Its crescent wings snapped open with a sharp clang.
Mana exploded from its core pure, wild, destructive.
It roared. Not a cry of pain… but a requiem.
KRAAAAAHHH!!!
A pillar of black energy erupted from its body, spearing the sky and dyeing the entire forest in a twisted hue of violet and shadow.
The Forbidden Dragon was evolving.
Its scales cracked like an eggshell. From within, a darker, shinier armor emerged razor-sharp, etched with glowing ancient runes pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Careful! It's transforming!!" Louis shouted... but too late.
The killing aura surged. Just standing nearby tore at skin and muscle. The air itself screamed.
The mist returned but this time it wasn't mist.
It was living shadow.
It slithered like mana-serpents, wrapping around adventurers' legs, wrists, throats. No one could move.
Then the dragon roared.
This was no roar. This was the song of death.
The real counterattack had begun.
It swept its new wings black blades that tore the sky. The outer line of the adventurer formation was shredded. Half the team flew backward, slammed into rocks and trees, blood spraying in arcs.
"Counter now!!" Draven bellowed, rushing to the front. His Ancient Martial Titan shielded the others.
But the dragon… was no longer the same.
It teleported leaving behind shadowy afterimages.
In one flash, it appeared behind a mage mid-chant claws slashed, body torn in half.
Another blink tail swipe splintered a veteran fighter's armor like kindling.
It roared.
From the skies, black orbs fell like meteors.
"Forbidden Magic: Storm of Void Lightning – Oblivion Array!"
The earth exploded in waves. Trees ignited not with flame, but with voidfire, unquenchable and soul-burning.
"WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!" someone screamed then vanished in a wave of darkness.
A sound pulsed out an invisible mana shockwave from the dragon's throat. It rippled through the battlefield like a dying scream.
Mages collapsed ears bleeding.
Fighters staggered hands trembling.
The formation fractured.
Louis roared, voice hoarse: "HOLD THE LINE! THIS IS DO OR DIE!!"
He and the Thunderfang Tiger King charged once more but the dragon didn't wait.
It blinked reappeared behind them.
A claw swipe laced with annihilation magic shredded the Tiger King's armor, sending it stumbling, howling in agony.
Draven dashed in his titan stepping forward, intercepting the beast.
But the Forbidden Dragon exhaled.
A breath of darkfire poured out, melting the ground into glowing black sludge.
Kael ordered Canon Turtle to blast away the fog, restoring visibility.
But then
"LANIA!!"
A gust of corrupted wind howled past. The dragon vanished.
It reappeared behind her.
"TOO LATE!!" Kael shouted.
A wing strike slammed into her. She flew skyward
...and before anyone could react, a dark mana sphere blasted from the dragon's mouth, engulfing her.
She vanished into a violet prison hovering above the beast.
Kael screamed in despair as he watched her float within the arcane orb trapped… alone… above the immortal monster.
Lania had been taken.
The dragon reared back, bellowing in triumph. From the prison, it drained her mana in torrents.
Glowing violet veins spread across its body proof it was now absorbing true life force.
Dark wind howled.
Louis, seeing the battlefield in shambles, gritted his teeth and raised his sword.
"…All units… retreat!"
This was no longer a World-Rank beast.
This was something more.
A creature whose every motion now carried a curse of destruction.
[End of Chapter 15]
Next Chapter 16: The Key to Victory