Chapter 181: The Dragons (3)

His madness came at a cost.He had technically died half a dozen times now and was revived by [Deathless]. Each death was different, more painful, and far more horrifying than the others, leaving scars that went beyond the physical.

But his death had not been for naught. He had slain over one dozen dragons, and his level now sat at 230, only twenty more to reach the rank of a guardian and become the youngest in the entire history of Arden. But such things did not matter right now. After all, based on the scale of the current commotion, there might be no Arden anymore.

Marlon charged into the sky once more after resurrecting from his sixth death, his movements fearless and direct.

After seven consecutive deaths, he understood [Deathless] better. No matter how low or high his aether or health points were before his death, they were always halved each time he arose. Why that happened remained a mystery, one he would solve later.

His eyes locked onto an ice dragon that was descending toward him.

With a firm and fearless expression, he closed the gap and punched its massive head so hard that it tumbled through the air. But its balance was stronger than he expected, as it soon regained control and blasted toward him once more, this time with clear anger.

Its furious roar tore through the fabric of the sky, its eyes glowing red with merciless intent.

Their distance closed again, and this time Marlon did not gain the advantage of landing the first attack, as the ice dragon used one of its most powerful skills, one that consumed over half of the creature’s energy reserve.

And the attack was impossible for Marlon to avoid due to the distance between them.

It happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, his body was tightly enclosed within an ice statue.

The biting cold lingered immediately, threatening to freeze him to death. That was the main purpose of the dragon’s attack in the first place, and if he were any other hunter, he would have died at that instant.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, [Crimson Sovereign Physique] protested against the cold aggressively. His blood which was of a thicker and stronger quality tried to propell the biting cold, but it only made his death take longer, thus making it even more terrifying.

His physique resisted the cold for several minutes. During this time, Marlon was already beginning to lose his mind to the freezing torment. He prayed for death, wishing for a quick end to the unbearable pain.

And death did come. The ice dragon grew infuriated and smashed the ice statue to the ground. His body shattered into countless broken pieces. A terrifying way to die, or so the dragon thought.

The Aurax watching the battle seemed very sure that this was the absolute end.

The [Final Frost] skill the ice dragon used was a last resort skill that any target below SS rank could not defend against. Even S rank beings with Ice as their affinity could not resist Final Frost. It was a skill that technically spelled death in all forms.

That assumption collapsed when, all of a sudden, the ice particles on the ground began to melt away. Then the flesh trapped within them was pulled together by a powerful attractive force.

Under the surprised gaze of the Aurax and the amazed gaze of Norian, Marlon’s body repaired itself at an unnatural speed, and in the place where his frozen corpse once lay, Marlon now stood.

Marlon lifted a hand to his neck and cracked it with a sharp sound, staring straight at the ice dragon that had killed him just a minute ago. There was no anger in his eyes, only a chilling calm that made the air itself feel heavy.

The Aurax, who had once dismissed his presence, shivered briefly. But not out of fear, but from thrill, the kind one feels when finally encountering an interesting opponent.

Marlon waited for the last seconds of cooldown on his absolute death strike to finish before blasting toward the ice dragon.

At the moment, there were only two ice dragons alive.

The second one immediately dashed toward its colleague to fight by its side against the confusing human.

But this only made everything easier for Marlon.

He evaded several ice spikes darting toward him and closed the distance through flight. The two dragons also flew closer in an instant, leaving only a small gap between the two creatures, as neither was willing to leave their peer to die.

Marlon arrived between them. As the two were about to launch a synchronized attack, he used the absolute death strike, and the uncaring energy of death itself spread. In the next few seconds, the two ice dragons plummeted to the ground.

He earned a significant amount of experience points and grew by three levels, now at level 233.

He felt his strength surge, a new thrill appearing within him as he did a quick count of the remaining dragons.

Excluding the earth dragon on the verge of death fighting against Norian and the bone dragon mounted by the Aurax, there were only fourteen dragons remaining.

But he was not dismayed.

While others saw death and danger, he saw experience points and progress. Besides, he could not die. Why should he be afraid?

He resumed combat as usual while waiting for the ten minute cooldown to be over.

While fighting, he could not help but imagine what kind of reward he would get from killing the Aurax. He would like a skill upgrade core, but a skill merge card or something else would also be appreciated.

The aerial battle lingered, becoming more bloody by the minute.

And now, two hours had passed.

Marlon resurrected, blasted into the sky, and slew the last two dragons.

[ You’ve slain x2 Earth Dragon Kings.

EXP +41,000,000 ]

[ Death Reaper active. You’ve obtained 2,100,000 Aether Points and 4,000,000 Health Points ]

[ Aether Points: 1,000,000/1,000,000 ]

[ Aether Points capacity has risen to max. Enter A rank to upgrade further. ]

[ Health Points: 100,000/100,000 ]

[ Health Points capacity has risen to max. Enter A rank to upgrade further. ]

[ Level up ]

[ Level up ]

[ Level up ]

[ Level 248 -> Level 249 ]

He was now close to a breakthrough. Very close.

Norian flew beside him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked with care.

"Okay, I guess," Marlon responded casually as he closed the system panel.

Norian nodded and did not question further. The two of them turned toward the Aurax, who was now clapping its hands.

It was already midday. The afternoon sun hung in the sky, its glow shining upon the destruction on the surface, becoming the only witness to a new battle.

Clap. Clap.

The Aurax continued clapping, the expression on its face thrilled and excited, like someone who had just finished watching an interesting movie.

"That was a splendid show you two put on," it said.

"No one has ever been able to beat my thirty six dragon kings. But you, a mere creature who does not possess half their strength, managed to slay most of them. I am indeed very impressed," it continued.

Then its expression turned serious, its eyes locking onto Marlon alone.

"Do you think you can kill me?" it asked.

But neither Marlon nor Norian responded.

A smile blossomed on its face. "That was what I thought."

"You possess the inhuman power to force death and overcome your own death. But it comes with a limit. It is that same limit that stopped you from challenging me or my mount, because you know it will yield no result," it said, revealing its observation.

Marlon’s expression crumpled, but only slightly. He fixed it back afterward.

He did not respond. It was not really surprising that a being as strong as the Aurax would be able to figure out the limit of his skills.

Norian was even more surprised than him, as he apparently did not know much about Marlon’s ability.

The Aurax asked, "What are you two going to do now that your trump card is useless?"

None of them answered.

At that moment, Marlon’s danger sense picked up on something coming from behind him.

But it was already too late.

A sharp pain came from his back and spread all across his body before he could even react.

As he was tumbling through the air, about to crash onto a nearby heap of corpses, his eyes spotted something.

White hair.

Red eyes.

He already knew who it was.