Chapter 174: Encounter with the Demon Queen (P4)

The immense green dragon continued to roar with uncontainable fury. It opened its gigantic jaws and, from deep within its throat, unleashed a powerful blast of burning fire that pierced through the dungeon’s portal like a devastating torrent, illuminating the stone walls.

Ryan, Helen, and Mirian reacted immediately, leaping in different directions to dodge the wave of extreme heat that threatened to incinerate them.

Mirian, sliding across the floor, quickly drew her bow and attacked. She fired a swift volley of mana-imbued arrows directly toward the beast’s eyes.

However, the arrows disappeared in mid-air, disintegrated by the immense pressure of the magical aura surrounding the dragon before the attack could even connect.

For her part, Helen didn’t hesitate for a single second. Completely ignoring the warning Ryan had given her just a few minutes ago, she leaped toward the dragon with all of her might.

She let out a battle cry, preparing a powerful descending thrust. But just as the tip of her sword was about to graze the monster’s scaly face, the dragon swung its massive tail with a speed that was imperceptible to an S-rank heroine.

Helen went flying like a ragdoll and was violently smashed against the dungeon wall.

Her chest armor cracked and she spat out blood as she freed herself from the embedded rocks, falling heavily to her knees against the floor, completely dazed after taking such a powerful blow.

"Helen!" Mirian shouted in desperation upon seeing her companion fall.

Irina, despite the terror that paralyzed her, immediately ran over to assist her, while Mirian stood firm in her attacking stance, nocking another arrow to try and buy them some time.

But the dragon had no intention of stopping. It stretched out its scale-covered neck and began to charge another devastating fire attack within its core.

And this time, it aimed it directly at where Helen was kneeling, with Irina positioned right by her side trying to lift her up.

"Agh!" A muffled scream filled with pure fear echoed through the corridor, coming from the elf Irina as she saw the light of the fire illuminate her face.

"No way, get out of there!" Mirian yelled, her voice cracking.

But Irina couldn’t move Helen’s body in time. Faced with imminent annihilation, the elf stood frozen in place, closing her eyes and hugging the heroine, trying to shield her out of a pure instinct to protect.

The fire attack struck with a deafening brutality. The blaze completely consumed the area and was sustained steadily for several long seconds, melting the stone of the floor, until the dragon finally closed its mouth and cut off the flow of flames.

Mirian ran forward ignoring the dense smoke, fearing the worst. But as the cloud of burning ash dissipated, there was no one left in that corner of the wall. The place was completely empty and scorched.

"Where?" Mirian murmured, turning her head in several directions in total bewilderment.

"Ivis was your name, wasn’t it?" Ryan’s unmistakable voice commented.

Mirian turned around sharply. There stood Ryan, on his feet and completely unharmed, just a few meters right behind the dragon’s gigantic back.

And hidden behind him, protected by his figure, were Helen and Irina, trembling but completely intact.

"What a relief." Mirian sighed, lowering her bow as her legs lost a bit of strength from the adrenaline easing away.

The immense dragon slowly turned toward him, scraping its claws against the floor.

"What exactly were you trying to do to my lady?" the dragon said with a deep voice that vibrated with pure rage, while opening its jaws and beginning to charge fire once again.

’It seems she won’t calm down the easy way.’ Ryan thought, analyzing the monster’s slow flow of mana with evident annoyance.

And before the creature could fire its flames, Ryan moved. He didn’t use teleportation magic, but due to his vastly increased Agility stats.

In a fraction of a second, the templar’s image disappeared and he appeared floating right above the dragon’s head.

"Do you want to calm down so we can talk?" Ryan said, a tone of annoyance in his voice.

With a quick and precise movement, Ryan planted a heavy, descending blow with his fist directly onto the beast’s skull.

The force of his SS-rank impact was so colossal that it forced the dragon to snap its mouth shut, making it swallow its own half-charged flames.

The dragon’s head impacted against the solid dungeon floor with the force of a meteorite, shattering the stone slabs and making the entire entrance structure tremble.

Ryan landed cleanly by its side, shaking off his hand. He looked down at the defeated beast. Even though the immense green dragon had its eyes wide open, only the whites of them could be seen.

’Is she unconscious?’ Ryan evaluated in silence. Noticing how hot steam seeped out from the dragon’s mouth.

After a few tense seconds as the dust began to settle, the immense beast let out a weak groan.

Its body began to glow intensely, shrinking down until it recovered its humanoid form with long green hair and pale skin, exactly as they had known her in their first encounter.

Ivis lay there within the stone crater. Her eyes regained their usual color and, with a slight grunt of pain, she slowly stood up, staggering a little.

"What was that?" she said, rubbing her head and dusting off her clothes, looking at him with evident disbelief.

"Even if you took me by surprise, I didn’t think you had the strength to harm me in my original form..."

The sentinel scanned Ryan from head to toe, finally perceiving the overwhelming and dark magical pressure that he radiated.

"Now I understand why my lady is so interested in you..." Ivis acknowledged, losing a large part of her initial hostility upon comprehending the similarity in their power.

"But, what you did was unacceptable. What exactly were you trying to achieve by making us teleport into the void of the sky?"