Chapter 127: The Final Strike
Arios’s entire focus was on the beast before him. The broken hilt of his sword clattered against the stone floor, a sound swallowed by the cavern’s vastness, discarded. His hands were empty, his breathing uneven, ragged, and sweat poured down his face, washing away the grime and soot. Across from him, the dragon crouched low, blood dripping from its grievous wounds, but its eyes burned hotter than ever, twin pools of molten gold and crimson rage. Its fury hadn’t diminished; if anything, the pain had sharpened its malice.
Arios flexed his fingers, testing the tendons and joints. His arms trembled, weak from the hours of combat, but he clenched his fists tight, refusing to yield the ground he had fought so desperately to gain. He had overcome every tactical and physical challenge the illusion could throw at him; he would not fail at the final, brute-force confrontation.
The dragon’s chest swelled again, the massive intake of breath preceding the fire attack, heat radiating visibly from its throat. Another firestorm was coming, the final, desperate gambit of the illusion beast. Arios didn’t wait for the inevitable surge of flame. He sprinted immediately, accelerating before the dragon could unleash the destructive torrent. He rushed straight at the beast, forcing it to deviate from its large-scale attack pattern and react to his proximity. The dragon shifted its immense bulk, aiming its head downward, narrowing the cone of its attack to hit the human who dared challenge it.
The torrent of fire erupted, a blast that would have incinerated solid rock. Arios darted sideways, rolling along the floor, the edges of the flames licking at his singed clothes. He came out of the roll, sprinted again, and reached the beast’s hind leg, slamming his body against it. With no weapon, he drove his fist against the wound he had already opened earlier at the joint. The dragon roared—a sound of piercing, concentrated pain—as the blunt force hammered the exposed, vulnerable area.
The impact hurt Arios too, the collision of flesh and bone against dragon scales splitting his knuckles, blood dripping from his hand. He ignored the searing pain. He struck again, a piston of flesh and bone, hammering the injury with relentless, desperate blows. The dragon lifted its massive leg, the claw aiming to crush him into the stone, but Arios rolled away, avoiding the stomp by a fraction of a second, relying on pure, adrenaline-fueled instinct.
The ground cracked deeply where the claw landed, the impact echoing like a thunderclap.
Arios pushed himself up again, panting, forcing the air into his burning lungs. "I can still fight. You can’t crush my will."
The dragon’s tail swept across the ground, a lightning-fast scythe. Arios ducked under it, the wind pressure nearly knocking him off balance. Instead of retreating, he seized the opportunity. He sprinted along the tail, using the momentum of its movement to run up toward the beast’s back. The dragon twisted violently, trying to shake him off, but Arios leapt onto its damaged wing joint, gripping the sharp ridge of its scales with both hands.
He pulled himself upward, ignoring the excruciating pain in his arms, climbing toward the neck. The dragon thrashed violently, slamming its body against the cavern walls, trying to use the environment to crush him. Rocks rained down in a deafening shower of debris. Arios clung tightly, forcing himself to hold on despite the crushing centrifugal force. His body banged mercilessly against the scales, pain exploding across his ribs and abdomen, but he didn’t release his hold. His survival depended on this climb.
He reached the wound beneath its jawline, the deepest injury he had inflicted before his sword broke. Blood oozed from it, hot and steaming. Arios raised his fist and drove it into the wound again, shoving his hand deep into the lacerated flesh.
The dragon screeched, a sound that was less a roar and more a terrible, high-pitched wail of agony, shaking its head wildly. Arios was flung off, unable to maintain his grip, crashing hard onto the stone below. His vision blurred, his body screaming in every nerve ending, but he rolled back to his knees, spitting a mouthful of blood and forcing his eyes open.
He looked up. The dragon’s neck dripped dark, steaming blood. Its massive body shuddered, and its breathing had grown ragged, rattling in its throat.
"It’s weakening," Arios muttered, a grim triumph in his voice. "Just a little more. I’ve found its limit."
The beast charged, fueled by its last reserves of magical energy, claws tearing through the floor in a desperate, final rush. Arios forced himself to his feet, staggering sideways as the massive strike came down. The claw smashed into the ground, missing him by inches. He sprinted up the arm, leveraging the slope of the limb, leaping onto its shoulder. His hands grabbed hold of the ridges again as he climbed higher, ignoring the deep cuts and heat burns tearing at his exposed skin.
The dragon slammed itself into the wall, a self-destructive attempt to dislodge him, but Arios jumped just in time, landing near the top of its head. He crawled forward, gripping tightly, until he reached the crown of its skull.
The beast thrashed, trying to shake him off, but Arios was now locked onto the highest point of the illusion, the most vulnerable area. He crouched low, raising both fists, pooling every last ounce of strength and focused rage. He drove them down with all his might against the thinner scales near the eye ridge. The impact cracked the shell slightly, a sickening sound of fracturing bone and scale. The dragon howled, its massive head jerking violently.
Arios struck again. And again. Each blow deepened the crack, blood seeping through the ruptured scales. The dragon roared, its tail slamming the ground, its wings smashing into the walls, tearing the cavern apart in a desperate frenzy.
"You’re not invincible! You’re just a projection!" Arios shouted, his voice hoarse, smashing his fists down harder, ignoring the pain splitting his bones.
The crack widened, spreading toward the beast’s eye. The dragon thrashed one last time, an involuntary convulsion of its entire body, then rolled onto its side, trying to crush him against the cavern floor. Arios jumped clear, landing roughly on the ground, panting hard, barely able to stand.
The dragon staggered, blood dripping heavily now from multiple deep wounds. Its wings sagged, their membrane torn, and its movements were sluggish, its threat reduced to raw momentum. Still, it raised its head, molten eyes glaring with pure, unadulterated hatred.
It inhaled again, fire building in its throat, a last, concentrated breath attack. Arios’s eyes narrowed, locked onto the rising light. He had only one chance left, one final move to end the confrontation.
He sprinted forward, leaping onto the dragon’s lowered snout. He ran up its face as the flames began to surge from its mouth. Just as the fire burst out—aimed directly at him—Arios slammed his hand deep into the cracked wound above its eye, pushing with all his remaining strength, forcing the scales and bone apart.
The dragon screamed, the sound utterly deafening, its fire bursting wildly and harmlessly into the cavern ceiling instead of at him. Arios shoved deeper, blood and searing heat covering his arm, until he reached the soft tissue beneath the skull plate. He drove his hand in as far as he could, twisting brutally, severing the core connection of the illusory mind.
The dragon convulsed, its massive body thrashing violently in a death throe. Then, slowly, terrifyingly, it began to collapse. Its wings drooped, its head lowering with the weight of its own defeat. The light in its eyes dimmed, fading from molten gold to dull charcoal, as its massive frame crashed into the cavern floor.
The ground shook violently with the impact, and then, silence.
Arios rolled off its head, landing nearby, coughing heavily, his entire body trembling with exhaustion and pain. His arms were torn, bleeding, his knuckles raw, the skin flayed. He lay there for a moment, simply staring at the fallen beast, confirming the victory he had bought with pure endurance.
Then came the sound he had been waiting for since the beginning.
[Boss Defeated. Illusion Sequence Ending.]
The dragon’s corpse shimmered, losing its solidity, dissolving into black mist. The cavern began to fade. Arios blinked, squinting as the world around him melted away. The jagged stone walls dissolved, the oppressive heat vanished, and the floor beneath him flattened into smooth, cool tiles.
When the haze cleared, he was back in the familiar, austere setting of the training yard.
Standing directly in front of him was Instructor Garron.
The man looked perfectly calm, almost bored, as though the deadly battle Arios had just survived had been nothing more than a minor test he had arranged for his own amusement. His arms were folded casually across his chest, his eyes fixed on Arios—eyes that held a familiar, cold scrutiny.
Arios straightened slowly, forcing his battered body upright despite the blinding pain. Blood still dripped from his hands, his body covered in burns, bruises, and deep exhaustion. He locked eyes with Garron, refusing to look away, refusing to show the true depth of his suffering.
The instructor smirked faintly, a subtle curve of the lips that held no warmth. "So, you survived. I must admit, I miscalculated your stamina."
Arios didn’t answer immediately. He just kept staring, his gaze challenging and unbroken. He tasted blood and ash, but the fire of his determination remained.
The silence stretched, thick and heavy between them, replacing the noise of the illusion with a far more dangerous, personal tension.
Finally, Arios spoke. His voice was hoarse, raspy from the heat and his shouting, but steady.
"This isn’t over. You nearly killed me with an illusion. That won’t be forgotten."
Garron’s smirk widened slightly, acknowledging the challenge. "No, Arios. It isn’t. But you passed the test. Congratulations."
The Chapter ended there, the illusion broken, the dragon defeated, but the true confrontation—the struggle for dominance and defiance against his instructor—was only just beginning.