Hastora gathered all his energy and began to stand up to continue his journey. His body, covered in dust and dry earth that clung tightly, trembled under the weight of his wounds. Before him, the expanse of the destroyed Core monsters formed a bleak scene under the night sky. The pungent smell of blood was still sharp in the air, mixing with the scent of dry earth that cracked under his feet. Among the ruins, something caught his eye: small, glittering crystals—deep purple and sky blue—embedded among the shards of bone and flesh. The crystals pulsed faintly, emitting a subtle vibration that could be felt to the tips of Hastora's fingers. A cold and soothing sensation flowed throughout his body. He had to collect them all. His body, weak and helpless, was far different from its glory 20,000 years ago.
"Ughhh"
An excruciating pain struck him. He needed rest. With a shaky gait, he crawled under a large, shady tree, its massive roots like giant claws gripping the soil. There, under the shade of thick leaves that shielded him from the night light, he unbuttoned his tattered shirt. His trained abdominal muscles were clearly visible, but here and there were deep gashes, dried blood hardened. He touched his arm, feeling the broken bone beneath the torn skin. A stabbing pain pierced him. His ribs were also broken, his breathing labored. "Damn it," he hissed, his voice hoarse. "Why is my body so badly injured just from a small attack?" He grabbed some crystals, crushing them in his palm. Warm, gentle energy spread throughout his body, quickly patching up his wounds. The pain subsided, replaced by a soothing, comfortable sensation. "I knew it," he muttered.
"I better hurry"
Hastora got up, his steps steady, though still a little sore. He stepped deeper into the forest, without hesitation. The air grew colder and more humid, the pungent scent of blood and wet earth filling his nostrils. Each step left a deep footprint in the soft soil. He craved a stronger fight. His red eyes swept around, searching for prey. Black shadows darted behind the bushes. With a quick movement, his sword slashed, cleaving the bodies of weak monsters. Fresh blood soaked the ground, mixed with the scent of earth and crushed leaves. A cold, yet empty, satisfaction accompanied him. He wanted a more challenging fight. He collected crystals from every corpse, adding them to his pouch. The pungent smell of blood grew stronger, mixed with the scent of earth and crushed leaves. He felt a cold, yet empty, satisfaction. This wasn't what he was looking for. He wanted a more challenging fight, something that could test the limits of his abilities.
".... I hope something stronger will appear"
He hoped a disaster-class monster would appear there, but, what came out were only weak monsters. The corpses of monsters lay along the way, cut into several pieces in a very brutal way. The smell of the monsters' blood spread in all directions. And there were also many magic crystals there, Hastora collected all those magic crystals for his later use. According to him, those magic crystals looked very useful for his current self.
While he was busy collecting magic crystals, suddenly, the wind blew very strongly, carrying with it the smell of sulfur and a pungent hot air. Strong vibrations were felt under his feet. He looked up, seeing the sky filled with a giant black shadow. An incredible pressure hit him, pressing his chest until he couldn't breathe. His hair stood on end. Something very powerful and dangerous was approaching. The dragon appeared fully. Its ash-gray scales shimmered, its teeth were as sharp as daggers, its wide wings created a powerful whirlwind. The dragon's golden eyes stared sharply at Hastora, radiating a cold aura of death. The ground around him began to crack, some trees fell. Cold sweat soaked his forehead, but he stood firm.
"Disaster class," he muttered, his voice flat and cold. "I guess I don't have to bother looking for it, the monster also appeared on its own".
Hastora felt that the dragon had no good intentions from the start, it could be seen from the atmosphere it created at this time. The atmosphere right now was so frightening, it was caused by the energy released from the dragon.
Hastora drew his sword while taking a ready-to-attack position. He also coated his sword with aura so that every slash from the sword would be many times stronger.
Feeling that Hastora would attack him, the dragon launched an attack towards Hastora. A powerful jet of fire emerged from its mouth. The jet of fire moved quickly and powerfully towards Hastora.
"That's too easy to read"
Hastora cleverly avoided the attack, his movements were very fast, the dragon only saw Hastora suddenly disappearing from the location where he launched his attack.
The dragon began to fly a little higher, it aimed to find Hastora's location. The dragon surveyed the entire area from above. However, he did not see anything suspicious.
The dragon began to fly lower and was about to descend to the ground. He flapped his wings, causing a strong wind to arise.
Hastora, who had been hiding safely all this time, saw a perfect opportunity for him to attack the dragon. Hastora came out of hiding and attacked the dragon at full speed.
"Dark Swordmanship level one <𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻>"
Hastora slashed the dragon's wings. The dragon would not be able to fly anymore if their wings were seriously injured. So, keeping the dragon grounded by giving a fatal wound to its wings was Hastora's idea from the start.
The previous attack left dark traces in the path of its slash. The surrounding soil instantly crumbled due to the effect of the execution attack.
But, the attack didn't even have the slightest effect on the dragon's hard scales. The dragon retaliated against Hastora, firing a barrage of large, hot fireballs at him. They were so hot that the surrounding trees caught fire, creating a sea of fire.
The fires were so large and hot, even the steam alone made Hastora sweat profusely. But, the burning forest would not be visible from outside the dark forest. It was because the darkness in the dark forest was able to block someone's view from outside into the forest.
Although the fires were successfully avoided by Hastora, but he seemed to be having a very difficult time with the large fires. The steam produced from the fire that burned the surrounding area made Hastora weak. His body was not able to withstand such extreme heat.
The dragon didn't seem to stop there, it flew at high speed and flew towards Hastora. Although the dragon was big, but its speed was unreasonable, the dragon was able to move faster than the speed of sound.
Hastora, who was already looking tired, tried his best to avoid the collision from the dragon. He ran in a zigzag pattern to make it difficult for the dragon to hit him.
Although his attack did not hit Hastora, the dragon continued to attack him repeatedly, it flew at full speed, its full speed felt a little faster than before.
"It's so hot" he muttered. Hastora seemed to be in real trouble and cornered at this time.
The longer it went on, the hotter the fires that burned the surrounding area felt. The heat increased twice as much, Hastora, who could no longer bear it, immediately fell due to the hot air.
"Ughh... this is much more troublesome than I expected"
Hastora felt that his chest was a little tight now, it might be caused by the smoke that gathered in the area. Hastora tried to find a hiding place to avoid the dragon for a while while crawling.
The dragon was now apparently flying in circles in the sky, it seemed to be looking for Hastora's whereabouts in the blaze.
The dragon flew into the blaze, with its hard and thick scales, the heat from the fire would not affect it.
Hastora, who was currently crawling, was startled after seeing the dragon flying towards him from the very large blaze. He couldn't avoid the dragon's attack, Hastora was hit by it and thrown quite far from his previous location.
"... "
"Damn dragon!" he muttered.
Hastora felt a little annoyed with his current situation. Because his body currently couldn't contain his true power, he couldn't use destructive magic to kill the dragon in one attack. While he currently looked like a toy in front of the disaster-class monster.
His leg was broken from the previous attack, his mouth was bleeding, his left hand was broken, his breath was short, it all made Hastora look as if he could die at any time.
He wanted to hide, but he couldn't move. He kept thinking of a way to get out of this situation. While he was busy thinking of a way to get out of this situation, suddenly Hastora remembered that he was carrying magic crystals that he had collected from all the monsters he had killed along the way.
"I have to use this"
Hastora used the magic crystal, his whole body suddenly recovered completely. Now his body could move.
He stood up, took his sword, and quickly ran back to find the dragon.
The dragon was currently flying in circles in the sky, it seemed to be looking for Hastora's whereabouts, it didn't even know where Hastora was thrown.
"Space Time Swordmanship level one <𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗦𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵>"
"Bammm"
The dragon's leg was instantly cut off, the dragon immediately fell from the sky and hit the ground very hard. Hastora cut space and time in front of him that made the dragon's leg unable to regenerate again.
This was a great opportunity for him to finish off the dragon. He condensed a huge amount of energy in his sword and prepared to launch a final attack.
However, something surprising happened suddenly. The attack that Hastora was about to launch suddenly disappeared, the energy he had condensed suddenly disappeared.
Hastora turned towards the dragon. It looked like the dragon was gathering a huge amount of energy. Slowly, the dragon seemed to be changing, starting from its scales, wings, and head, it seemed to be changing.
Hastora felt that the cause of his energy disappearing suddenly just now was because it was absorbed by the dragon.
Suddenly, a blinding light came from the dragon.
"What!" he shouted in surprise.
The dragon had evolved, the energy and appearance of the dragon instantly changed drastically. The dragon's wings turned red with thicker wings. Its scales also seemed to turn red. And its head which had 2 horns on the right and left and one long colorful horn in the middle.
The dragon flew in the sky, its aura seemed completely different from before, as if it was fighting a different enemy. Hastora could only see the dragon flying from below. He seemed to be staring coldly at the dragon.
"The real fight has just begun"