Swords, magic, and martial arts

"You think I'm only talking to you because no one has spoken for thousands of years? I'm just stalling for time." The dragonman turned around and said with a smile, "What a foolish insect. I recover my strength much faster than you think."

That being said, it actually used a secret technique to achieve such a recovery speed, sacrificing its power for a permanent reduction in strength to accelerate the recovery process.

The seal of thousands of years has reduced its power to less than one-tenth. The death just now only temporarily weakened its current power, but will not lower its upper limit. And the secret technique just now...

This pained it greatly. Originally, as long as it retrieved the power from that girl, it could recover its former strength in a few months. Now, even after its strength is fully restored, it will need to hone its skills for several more years to fully recover to its former power.

The dragonman's smile was extremely ferocious. While it was rambling on, Rhode drew his sword and thrust it directly into the dragonman's left chest.

The dragonman grabbed the sword with his large, scale-covered hand, ignoring the cut on his hand, and snatched the sword from Rhodes's hand, throwing it to the ground. His strength was much greater than before.

Rhodes regretted his cleverness. How could such a monster that had lived for countless years be so easily fooled? While Rhodes thought he was deceiving it to create an opportunity for a sneak attack, it was actually deceiving him to increase the time it took to recover its strength.

"Thank you for teaching me a lesson," Rod said.

"I don't need the insects' thanks. What? You want to stall for time too?" the dragon-man said mockingly, confident that its current strength was enough to easily deal with the small insects in front of it.

While trying to distract the dragonman, Rhodes was thinking about how to get out of this predicament. His brain was working at a rapid pace, but it seemed that he had tried every possible method.

He had just thought that eating the dragonman's flesh would ignite the dark green flames again like last time, but this time it only increased his strength and restored some of his stamina.

"Since you understand my language, the merciful Bescote will spare your life," the dragonman said. "As long as you turn and leave now."

"Should I just abandon her and slink away alone?" Rod asked, clenching his fists.

"What, is that not allowed? Isn't it good to survive?" The dragon-man smiled. "Who is she to you? Or are you two very close?"

"No, I've only known her for less than a month." Rod took a deep breath.

"But I don't want to live the rest of my life in regret!" Rhodes roared as he charged toward the dragonman.

Sometimes, when people get angry, they are not afraid of pain and death at all.

"Overestimating yourself." The dragon-man chuckled disdainfully, spewing scorching flames from its mouth.

Rhodes was engulfed in flames and let out a painful howl, but he continued to approach the dragonman step by step.

"He's quite resilient." The dragonman watched as Rhodes, his body scorched red, struggled to walk up to it and stopped spewing dragonfire.

The dragon-man grabbed Rhodes by the neck with one hand and lifted him up like a rag doll, while his other hand gripped Rhodes' head. He grinned menacingly and said, "Let me see how much force I need to crush your head now."

Its large hand grabbed Rhodes' head and began to slowly apply force. Rhodes gritted his teeth and endured it, letting out a low growl.

"Oops, it seems my current strength isn't enough to crush your head." The dragonman's large hand released Rhodes's bald head, which was now empty after being burned by flames.

The dragon-man stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "You seem to be more resistant to flames, able to withstand my flames and walk right up to me. Now, let's see how long you can last under my flames."

It opened its huge mouth and spewed orange-red flames at Rhodes, who was being held in mid-air by one hand. Rhodes struggled painfully in the flames and let out an extremely shrill scream.

Not long after, Rhodes, who was engulfed in flames, stopped screaming and struggling.

The dragonman casually tossed the still-burning Rod to the ground, dismissing it like a discarded toy, saying disdainfully, "I thought he was so tough."

It flapped its wings and flew towards Aya, lifting her up with just two fingers. Looking at the unconscious Aya, it murmured to itself, "The taste of revenge is truly delicious."

A white shield suddenly appeared around Aya, deflecting the dragonman's hand. Protected by the shield, she slowly landed on the ground.

The dragonman looked at his fingernails that had been broken by the shield, then slapped the shield with his backhand. The shield produced a white ripple, but it did not break.

It crouched down and swung its claw at the shield again. Then it felt a sharp pain in its abdomen. Its hand quickly reached for its abdomen and plunged a sword into it.

The dragonman turned around and saw that it was Rhodes, who was lying on the ground with his chest heaving violently. Rhodes used all his strength to stab Shengxie into the dragonman's abdomen while lying on the ground.

If my injuries had been less severe, I would have had the strength to plunge the sword into its heart, which was located on its right side.

The dragon-man's face twitched, and he reached out and pulled Shengxie out, throwing him aside. He then grabbed Rhodes by the neck and lifted him up again. Black flames erupted from Rhodes' body, but only lasted for a moment.

The scorching black flames burned the dragon scales on the dragonman's hands until they cracked, and it quickly threw Rhodes away.

It was about to continue dealing with the white shield that appeared around Aya when it thought for a moment and turned to see Rhodes, whose face was burned beyond recognition, struggling to get up on the ground. It kicked Rhodes in the stomach, and after being kicked, Rhodes flew up from the ground like a football and crashed to the ground and rolled several times.

The dragonman stepped forward and stomped hard on Rhodes' calf. Rhodes let out a painful howl, his voice completely unlike that of a human, his vocal cords also deformed by the flames.

The dragonman casually kicked him aside, knocking him to the side until he crashed into a tree and stopped. He then said to Rhodes, "No, the merciful Bescote shouldn't torture a defenseless insect like this, even if it has been painfully imprisoned for thousands of years."

Rhodes tried his best to get up, but he collapsed again before he could stand up. He leaned against the tree, panting slowly. The dragonman's flames had completely burned his lungs, and now he felt intense pain with every breath.

It walked up to Rhodes and punched the tree he was leaning against, breaking it in two. Rhodes was crushed under the tree. The dragonman then said, "I won't torture you like before. I'll give you a quick death."

It spewed orange-red flames from its mouth, igniting the tree clinging to Rhode's body. It then snapped off several more large trees, piling them all onto Rhode's back. After seeing the large bonfire fully ablaze, it nodded in satisfaction and walked towards Aya, who was enveloped in white light.

Before the dragon-man could even get close to Aya, it was struck near the wound on its left chest that Shengxie had previously pierced by a steel arrow. It roared and pulled out the arrow, covering the wounds on its left chest and abdomen with its hands, searching around for the person who had ambushed it.

Another arrow flew in and struck its hand that was protecting its abdomen. The arrow bounced off with a clang after hitting the scales on the back of its hand.

This time it saw clearly who was attacking it with a bow and arrow. If it were Rhodes, he would definitely recognize that it was the Demon Slayer who was carrying the giant bow earlier.

The demon slayer nocked a strangely patterned silver arrow onto the bowstring, muttered a few words, and shot it. The arrow, carrying a silvery light, pierced through the dragonman's wings that were blocking his way, and continued its trajectory, pinning his hand and damaged abdomen together.

The dragon-man had a hole the size of a wrist in its belly scales. The intense pain made it bend over, clutching its stomach and panting heavily. It endured the agony and pulled out the arrow, throwing it on the ground.

The demon slayer fired another arrow, which grazed the dragonman's neck and flew away. After dodging the arrow, the dragonman felt the earth shaking, and the shaking became stronger and stronger.

It struggled to fly in the opposite direction from which the vibration came. Because its wings had been injured before, it could not fly high or fast enough. Another arrow came and hit its wing, and it fell from the sky.

Just before it hit the ground, it felt a sharp pain in the back of its head. In the last moments of its life, it only saw a blood-stained lance pierce out of its mouth...