Chapter 16: Life And Death Crisis

‘Red Dragon Slayer… What the hell is a Red Dragon Slayer?’

The moment Max read the greatsword’s inscription, Max’s thoughts were instantly filled with the memories of his ancestors. Since he was a pure dragon, he had inherited some of his ancestors’ memories from the moment he was born.

From a cost-effectiveness standpoint, it was clear that the door-sized greatsword was not meant to be used against humans. Instead, it was more likely to be used against large creatures.

In Max’s memories, the greatsword was specially made to kill Red Dragons. It had accumulated several accolades, and at one point, it had even managed to slay an Ancient Red Dragon. 

Max was only a Dragon Hatchling at that moment, and the threat that he was facing was capable of slaying even Ancient Dragons.

He was clearly outmatched.

“MOVE! MOVE!”

Max grabbed Mia and ran away without looking back.

After retreating a few steps, he then flapped his wings and took off.

Perhaps out of arrogance, or perhaps due to his heavy armor and heavy weapon encumbering him, the human swordsman still walked slowly.

Max had no desire to fight an opponent that strong at such a young age. Even if he had combined his height with Mia’s, they would still be smaller than the greatsword. Worse still, the greatsword was specially forged just to deal with Red Dragons.

“Huh? They’re running away?”

Rafik was confused. He did not understand why the two Dragon Hatchlings were fleeing.

The Red Dragon Slayer functioned exactly as its name had implied. It was specially designed to deal with Red Dragons.

The greatsword was immune to lightning and it did not conduct electricity. It could even be used as a shield.

This, combined with the blessing of being immune to illusions, had made even Adult Dragons helpless against it.

Of course, its most important component was the ruby embedded on its hilt.

By using magic to amplify the crimson glow of the ruby, it was capable of distracting Red Dragons, and at best, it was even capable of completely crippling Red Dragons with weak willpower. 

Generally speaking, it was more than enough to deal with Dragon Hatchlings.

Whenever Dragon Hatchlings spotted the ruby, they would lose all their cognitive functions. They would rush headlong into his blade, and he would chop their heads off with a single slash.

Rafik had utilized this method to kill more than a dozen Dragon Hatchlings. He had made a great contribution to the security of the Kingdom.

Rafik respected the Red Dragons’ style of fighting to the death.

After all, all the Red Dragons that he encountered had always accepted his challenge. They would gladly fight enemies stronger than themselves, and they would only retreat when they were gravely wounded.

However, more often than not, the Red Dragons would continue fighting until their very last breath.

As a warrior, Rafik admired this kind trait of the Red Dragons.

At the same time, as an adventurer who fought for money, their behavior was highly beneficial as well. 

After all, half of an adventurer’s troubles came from not being able to defeat their prey.

The other half of their worries was from being unable to capture their fleeing prey.

However, they need not fear the second issue when it came to Red Dragons. Even if they knew that it was a losing fight, the Red Dragons would continue battling to the bitter end. Even if he knew that he could not win, he would still have to face the prey head-on. They were a great joy to adventurers.

Rafik’s problem, however, was that the Dragon Hatchlings had reacted completely different from what he had in mind.

‘Aren’t they supposed to flee only when they’re heavily injured?’

He was off to a great start too. He had successfully grabbed the attention of one of the Dragon Hatchlings the moment he appeared, after all.

However, his joy was instantly crushed when the other Dragon Hatchling held it back!

‘And they’re running away now?’

‘Since when did Red Dragons act in this manner?’

Rafik thought long and hard, or at least he tried to, but he could not make sense of the situation. After all, his preys were Dragon Hatchlings!

The intelligence of Dragon Hatchlings were supposedly lower than his own!

‘Why did they run when they knew that they were at a disadvantage?!’

Rafik had a string of questions in his mind.

His money bags were taking off right before his eyes.

He could no longer afford to walk at a leisure pace.

His muscles tightened and he immediately increased his pace!

…

“Now that we’re in the air, we should be safe.”

The moment he said those words, however, he suddenly heard a rhythmic thumping sound.

He turned around and looked.

That human swordsman that was wearing heavy plate armor that was at least twice his body weight was running as fast as a cheetah!

He was like a tank in human form!

“Brother… Brother! What is that!”

Mia had also noticed the sound. Upon turning around, however, she was stunned once more.

Max turned Mia’s head back. “Children shouldn’t look at such things.”

A fully armed, two-meter-tall human holding a giant greatsword that was capable of slicing dragons into mincemeat was running at the speed of a sports car…

This was an unbelievable scene for most Dragon Hatchlings.

Moreover, Max was also worried that Mia would succumb to the allure of the ruby once more. 

As such, he turned his sister’s head back around. The only thing she needed to focus on was on flying forward.

Max doubted that the human warrior was able to reach them in the air. After all, the weight of his armor would definitely hold him back.

Moreover, they were only ten minutes away from their lair, the location in which their mother, Agatha was dwelling at.

‘We’ll be safe once we return to the lair!’

That was what Max thought.

However, the memories of his deceased ancestors had shown some of them being beheaded by the giant greatsword.

In other words, even someone as powerful as Agatha might lose against the Red Dragon Slayer!

Upon recalling Agatha’s silly smile while holding the jewels back home, Max was certain that Agatha would be bewitched by the ruby greatsword.

‘Should Agatha lose, then wouldn’t that mean the end of my life as a Red Dragon?’

‘Maybe I should start a Battle of Existence.’

Max thought.

However, he was trying to hold onto it as a last resort. After all, if he were to use it too often, he might arouse the suspicion of the gods.

‘But it’s not like I have any other choice…’

While he flew, Max suddenly spotted something on the ground.

“That’s…”

“That’s the Dragon-vanquishing Ballista!”

The first adventurer who appeared before them was an archer. She specialized in using a massive ballista to slay dragons.

Upon recalling the ballista’s firepower, Max came up with an idea. While other Dragon Hatchling might be oblivious as to what a ballista was, the same did not apply to Max. As someone who had played plenty of video games in the past, he was certain that he could operate it.

Moreover, seeing as the materials that comprised the ballista was made from dragons, Max was certain that it possessed the firepower he desired.

A ballista used to kill a dragon must be able to easily pierce through the scales of a dragon. Moreover, its projectiles must be launched at high speeds, as the dragons would be able to avoid it otherwise.

‘Such a powerful weapon must be able to easily pierce through plate armor, right?’