[Celestial Might has activated.]
The instant the massive pressure erupted from Leon’s body, the entire chamber reacted.
When that overwhelming presence reached the guardian dragon, its enormous body shuddered uncontrollably.
"What—"
The dragon froze.
The pressure pressing down on it was sothing it had never experienced before.
Not when it stood among other dragons.
Not when it clashed with powerful enemies in the past.
Not even during the countless centuries it had spent guarding this temple.
This feeling was different. It wasn’t fear. Nor intimidation. Those were things the dragon was familiar with.
This was sothing far beyond that, sothing it couldn’t properly define or understand.
It felt ancient, absolute, and utterly detached from conventional power.
The sensation alone forced the elental dragon to shut its mouth, disrupting the spell it had been charging. It wasn’t a conscious decision. Its body simply refused to continue.
"You are..." the guardian dragon muttered, its voice low and strained. "...what the hell are you?"
Leon didn’t answer. Instead, he grinned calmly and shifted his attention to the panel floating before him.
---
[Guardian Dragon of Elents (Temple Boss)]
[Combat Power: 70,000]
---
The debuff had worked. Perfectly.
A full thirty percent reduction, applied cleanly even against a being like this.
Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly. Its combat power was now lower than his own.
Still, that didn’t an the fight was suddenly easy.
Combat Power was just a representation of raw strength, stats, and overall capability.
Experience, intelligence, and hidden abilities still mattered greatly.
Leon knew that better than anyone. With the right tricks, a weaker opponent could kill a stronger one.
Likewise, even with higher Combat Power, carelessness could still lead to defeat.
Leon himself was living proof of that. Even when the dragon had been at its full strength of 100,000 Combat Power, his [Shadow Slash] had severely injured it.
If he had managed to land that attack one or two more tis, the guardian dragon would already be dead. That fact alone explained its fury.
Yet even now, with its power heavily reduced, the dragon showed no hesitation.
"I have refrained from using this spell," the guardian dragon said slowly, its voice echoing through the chamber, "because it is what I consider to be my strongest one."
The elents around it began to stir violently.
"But soone like you..." it continued, its eyes narrowing, "...deserves nothing."
STORM OF ELENTS!
The guardian dragon spread its wings to their full extent, completely overshadowing Leon. The chamber shook as if it were about to collapse.
In an instant, all four elents erupted.
Fire, water, wind, and earth condensed together, forming a massive, chaotic storm that engulfed the entire chamber.
The air twisted violently as elental energy raged in every direction.
Leon didn’t panic.
Vision Enhancent!
His eyes glowed faintly as the skill activated, allowing him to see the flow of elental energy clearly.
Fwoosh!
Leon leapt sideways just as a pillar of fire erupted beneath his feet, scorching the stone floor.
A mont later, the ground cracked violently as earth spikes shot upward where he had just been standing.
He continued moving, dodging with precise timing as water blades sliced through the air and violent gusts of wind attempted to slam him into the pillars.
"You can..." the elental dragon muttered, genuine shock coloring its voice. "You can see the elents?"
Its eyes widened.
"This doesn’t even make sense...!"
Leon didn’t respond. He simply kept dodging. Again and again.
Each movent was clean. Each step perfectly tid.
Watching this, rage surged through the guardian dragon.
It roared furiously and lunged forward, its massive claws slashing through the air toward Leon.
SLASH!
Leon raised his sword and t the attack head-on.
The clash echoed loudly through the chamber as Leon was pushed back a few steps—but he held his ground.
The smile on his face widened slightly.
If the dragon had attacked him like that when its Combat Power was still at 100,000, Leon knew he would not have been able to block it so cleanly.
But now?
"I win," Leon muttered.
He ducked beneath another surge of elental energy and dashed forward. In one smooth motion, he swung his sword upward, targeting the dragon’s neck once more.
SLASH!
The blade cut deep. Dark energy seeped into the wound as the dragon roared in pain.
ROOOOAR!
"YOU... HUMAN...!"
The guardian dragon thrashed violently, blood spraying across the stone floor. Its rage and pain mixed together, shaking the entire chamber.
Leon didn’t press forward imdiately.
Instead, he stepped back and began focusing his power, channeling mana steadily into his sword.
"I have guarded this place..." the guardian dragon bellowed, its voice filled with fury, "...for longer than I can rember!"
Its eyes burned with hatred as it stared at Leon.
"AND SOONE LIKE YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
Leon remained calm.
Then—
Crescent Slash!
A crescent-shaped wave of dark energy launched forward, cutting through the air with terrifying speed.
SLASH!
The attack struck the dragon’s already weakened neck.
This ti, it was enough. The guardian dragon’s head separated cleanly from its body.
For a brief mont, everything went silent.
Then the massive body collapsed, crashing heavily against the stone floor. The decapitated head rolled several ters before coming to a stop, its eyes slowly losing their glow.
The guardian dragon was dead.
"...Phew," Leon exhaled as he lowered his sword. "I actually didn’t expect that to work so cleanly."
Ding!
[You have killed "Guardian Dragon of Elents"]
[100% Drop Rate has triggered...]
"Nice."
Leon relaxed slightly and instinctively reached to open his [Storage Space].
After all, the stronger the opponent, the better the drops usually were. And dragons, especially one guarding sothing this important, were known to drop incredible items.
He was already anticipating what kind of rewards he would find.
But just as he was about to open it—
Ding!
[Your "Blood Heart" has recharged.]
"Oh shit," Leon muttered, his eyes widening. A wide grin spread across his face. "Guess it doesn’t take that long to recharge after all."
Still, the timing made him pause. It was strange.
The [Blood Heart] had recharged after killing this single monster even though Leon had killed many others before.
And the description of the item clearly stated:
[Once used, only upon killing a certain amount of monsters will the usage reset. The monsters cannot be much weaker than the user.]
Leon thought about it for a mont.
"...Ah."
It wasn’t just about quantity. It was about strength.
Perhaps the [Blood Heart] recharged faster depending on how strong the opponent was.
And the [Guardian Dragon of Elents] had been far stronger than Leon when they first clashed.
’That’s why it ntions monsters weaker than the user,’ Leon thought, nodding to himself. ’It asures both number and strength.’
That realization satisfied him.
If that was the case, then in the future, when he fought more powerful enemies, the [Blood Heart] would recharge much more frequently.
Leon liked that a lot. Before using it again, though, he finally opened his [Storage Space].
And the contents made him pause.
[Key of Elents (Unique): Opens the gate leading to the secret of the "Elental Temple".]
[Guardian Dragon of Elents Essence: Consuming will increase Spirit by 100 and Constitution by 50.]
[Elental Dragon Armor (Mythical): 2,000 Defense, 1,200 Spirit, 1,000 Constitution, 500 Agility. Protects slightly against elental attacks. Requirent: Have at least two out of the four basic elental sub-talents.]
[Elental Dragon Head (Trophy): Proof that you have defeated the "Guardian Dragon of Elents". May be useful in the future.]
"...Damn."
Out of all the items, the one that imdiately caught Leon’s attention was the [Key of Elents].
He summoned it into his hand. The key glowed softly, imbued with the power of all four elents.
Just holding it, Leon could feel a faint resonance coming from the massive gate at the end of the chamber.
There was no doubt about it. This key was ant for that gate. And the implications were massive.
It ant that anyone who discovered the [Elental Temple] was forced to defeat the guardian dragon in order to proceed.
And because finding the temple required possessing all four elental sub-talents, even Eternal-Level individuals who stood at the very peak had never discovered it.
They never t the conditions. Which ant, everything had aligned perfectly for Leon.
He stepped forward toward the massive gate.
And the mont he did—
Ding!
[Do you wish to use the "Key of Elents" to open the "Elental Gate"?]
[Yes] [Hell yeah]
Leon stared at the options.
"...Hm," he said thoughtfully. "I wonder which choice I’m picking."
User Comments
0 comments from readers