Chapter 988: The First Bossfight

Arad and Arthur crashed onto the soft bushes and flowers of the mansion’s garden, scaring away the gardener working there. She ran back to the tool’s shed with a terrified face and stared back, her fingers shaking. As the dust cleared, she saw Arad standing straight with Arthur still in his hand. A large cut was burned clear on the mansion’s wall, the wooden beams still oozed smoke.

That was a three-stories fall yet Arad and Arthur seems unharmed. Fighting dragons included a lot of falls, especially since the dragon’s most loved way of killing people is carrying them high and dropping them to their deaths. They loved watching their terrified face as they fell to their doom.

Any newbie trying to face a dragon must learn how to survive falls and Alcott had made sure to drill that into Arad, even if Arad can fly and would seldom need it. That skill included using all of his joints from toes, ankles, knees, hips, spine, and neck to absorb the impact shock and transfer it to his arms, where he can release it in a powerful swing.

“We’re outside, aren’t we? I felt the flowers.” Arthur couldn’t see anything with his face covered with Arad’s large palm, but he could tell where he was and he giggled, “You’ll regret going outside with me.” A large shadow engulfed the whole garden.

No one could miss it, a powerful presence resting on the roof.

Chirp! Chirp! Arad’s eyes slowly looked back, and they opened wide. A massive bird… the thing had four limbs in addition to wings, that was a griffin sitting on the roof of the building, staring at him with a curious gaze. It was large, almost twice as large as normal griffins, and far too muscular.

It was big enough to swallow a human of Arad’s size whole. A powerful monster, A+, probably even an S-rank threat.

While in Arad’s world griffins were wild monsters rarely tamed by anyone, in this world, they alongside wyverns were commonly trained as mounts for war. The golden feathers on its chest, the shiny beak, the glowing red eyes, and the brown talons with sharp black claws. A royal griffin, the one usually leading packs of griffins in the wild.

Judging by its size, this griffin was well-fed and trained, grown up to be mounted in the deadliest of wars like a warhorse. “She’s a sweet baby, isn’t she?” Arthur giggled, “A royal Wargriffin.”

The griffin jumped down from the ceiling with a loud chirp, crashing right on top of Arad and Arthur. The whole mansion shook and even the houses beside it cracked. Arad was pushed back to the wall, holding his head. He did manage to dodge the impact, but the shockwave still sent him flying back, and his head was hurting like hell.

Touching the back of his head, Arad’s palm came drenched in blood. He must’ve hit a solid part of the wall too hard for his human body to take. But at least, he couldn’t feel any cracks in his skull.

“Tis but a scratch.” He stood and started stretching, flexing his arms back as if warming up. Suddenly moving in his human form seemed to be quite exhaustion if he wasn’t ready for it, it’s better to warm up his muscles and joint before going head on in a deadly fight.

He looked forward as the dust cleared, seeing Arthur riding on the griffin’s back. ^Giving me time to warm up, what a generous man…^ Arad almost giggled.

Arthur looked back at Arad, seeing him stretch. ^Is he mocking me? Bastard isn’t even trying to preventing from mounting. I’ll smash that arrogant face of his in the dirt. Coming to lecture me in my own house. A

The city lord pulled a sword from the sack on the griffin’s side and pointed it at the sky. “You come to my home to lecture me? I’ll see that you know your place! Face first on the fucking dirt!”

[Welcome to the first boss fight. Arthur Cumalot, lord of Domiros. He’s too powerful for you to defeat head-on, and you’ve only got one way to beat him. Use magic to win in the dragon’s most favorite style.]

^I bet that chicken is loyal, this fight won’t end even if I knocked Arthur down. I don’t have enough firepower besides elemental expansion to kill it, so I’ll have to find another way. That’s why Yog said I can’t win… which means… let gravity do its job. Chicken can’t fly, I’ll knock this one out of the sky…^

Arad smiled, but a thought quickly came to his mind. ^Just don’t tell me he shoots spells from above that thing…^ Arad was a bit worried, he’d be at a severe disadvantage if man started flinging spells down. And as if answering, Arthur fired a lightning bolt at him. He barely dodged it and growled, “Ah…shit.”

With a powerful leap, Arad rushed forward, throwing his steel sword for the lightning bolt to get pulled into, and made his way between the griffin’s legs. The griffin tried hitting him but Arad was far too nimble, like a motivated cockroach, sliding into the garden’s tool shed.

The griffin stopped chasing Arad, and Arthur didn’t attack since the gardener was also one of his women and she was hiding inside the shed. “Get out!” Above his sword, a golden lightning bolt beckoned death, awaiting for Arad to peek his head out.

Arad slid into the shed and looked to the side, seeing the gardener hiding beneath the workbench, closing her mouth with both hands, terrified to the bones. “Don’t get out, it’s kind of ugly there. And I don’t just mean your husband’s face.” He approached the workbench she was hiding beneath and scrambled through it, picking a small bag filled with nails. “This should work.”

Arad looked again at the gardener, “I’ll make his mug even uglier.”

He then approached a pile of tools that had several shovels, pickaxes, and strange spears. From that pile Arad picked a large shovel and kicked the spade out, leaving only the wooden handle. A wooden pole for him to use as a weapon.

“Now…to cook that large chicken.”

***

As Arthur kept a sharp eye on the shed, one of the windows suddenly shattered with something flying out at blinding speed, covered in the old drapes. ^Does he think he can trick? Celia can’t move that fast and if she did she’ll be already dead.^ Covering himself wasn’t going to save Arad from Arthur’s lightning-fast judgment, and Artur dropped the biggest lightning bolt he could on the moving object, charring it to cinder.

“Fool! Did you think I can’t…” Arthur gasped; the one beneath the drape wasn’t Arad, it was nothing more than a bag of old fertilizer. From behind the shed, Arad silently flew out and swung his arm, throwing the nails all over the garden with a single swing.

Arthur knew nothing about Arad and if he did, he would’ve known that Arad would never lay his hands on someone who couldn’t fight. Celia was far safer around Arad than with Arthur

himself.

As it rained rusty nails, Arthur looked around in panic, spotting Arad running toward him with magnificent steps, carefully avoiding each nail as he flailed a long wooden pole.

“Do you think this will save you?!” Arthur swung his sword and fired a massive lightning bolt. The lighting bolt twisted, changing its direction toward the nails on the ground. Arthur stood shocked, normal nails shouldn’t be enough to pull lightning, Arad’s must’ve done something to those nails.

Arad is capable of using the basic forms of magic like fire bolt or lightning hand, weak spells that can’t even kill a human with a single hit. Lightning hand is akin to a taser, mainly used to incapacitate people. But Arad had used it to charge the nails, making them far better at

attracting lightning.

With precise magic control and sufficient output Arthur should still be able to surpass the nail interference, but that would be wasting far more mana than he can handle, resulting in his mana running out after just a few attacks; If he got careless, he might even pass out.

Arad could still try and dodge the lightning bolts so it wasn’t a good gamble for Arthur to take, forcing him to give up on his lightning magic and focusing on melee combat with the assistance of his trusty griffin.

Arad used the wooden pole to jump up, racing toward the griffin’s wings. He needed to knock Arthur down or he won’t get anywhere with this fight. The griffin was waiting for such a moment, immediately turning aside and swatted Arad down with his wing.

For war griffins, attacking their rider was a far too common a tactic and they have been taught how to protect their rider first and foremost. Arad won’t be getting anywhere near Arthur with simple attacks and moves, that was clear from that short interaction.

^Didn’t need an order from Arthur to strike me down, she’s well-trained.^ Arad landed on his

feet, circling around the griffin like he wasn’t hit.

The women watching from the window looked at the fight in awe, “Wait! Wasn’t he a

swordsman?” Mesharra gasped.

“He’s here to learn magic, right?” Mary looked at the fight, “He isn’t casting any magic.” No matter how she looked at it, Arad was pushing the fight toward a physical one.

“No, he’s using magic. Just not directly.” Plum had a smile on her face, “He’s smart.”

Echidna giggled, “Magic isn’t just for blasting stuff. He’s using it to render Arthur’s powerful

lightning magic useless.” She could see Arad’s magic spread all over the garden, each tiny nail pulsed with his magic, interfering with lightning magic and reducing its accuracy back to

almost nothing.

Arthur growled, “Fine! I’ll show you what I’m made off!” He pointed his sword at Arad, charging the biggest lightning bolt he could ever cast.

A smile crosses Arad’s face, his left fist holding four long nails between his knuckles like claws. It wasn’t just Alcott who had great fighting techniques.

Arad threw the nails at the griffin and swung his wooden pole, dodging the griffin’s attack as he nailed her. WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! A nail onto each of the griffin’s arms, head, and chest, all crackling with Arad’s lightning.

The ones Arad mimicked was no one else but his wife, Mira, her moves were tailored to her human body, but Arad could push it a bit further using his superior physical strength and

speed.

Arthur didn’t even notice the nails and the griffin was trained to endure hits and keep

fighting, no one knew what was going to happen next besides Arad. Arthur fired his massive lightning bolt, and it immediately struck the griffin, disorienting her and leaving her

wobbling like a newborn calve.

The divine moves of the newborn goddess of greed were too much to predict even for the seasoned Arthur and his well-trained mount.

In that fraction of a second Arad had already jumped aboard and was standing face-to-face

with Arthur, “Yo… a nice roasted chicken you have here.”

“He’s dangerous…” Echidna gasped, “Far too smart, I’ve never seen magic being used like that. If I passed curses with nails like that…”