The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 59
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Dragon Slayer’s Return After 1,000 Years — Episode 59
For a dragon, 1,500 years was not an especially long span of time.
But for humans, it was time enough for kingdoms to rise and crumble; for elves, a full generation could pass into dust.
Through all those long centuries, Anactras had never been challenged by anyone.
Least of all by one of his own kind.
Anactras, who had been locked in combat for more than half a day, gasped for breath and demanded an answer.
[Huff… huff… Why are you doing this to me? What grudge do you have?]
[Hah… I harbor no grudge, sir.]
[Then why?!]
[It is all for the good of our race!]
The creature spouted incomprehensible words and lunged toward Anactras’s back, but the silver dragon twisted away with practiced ease.
Seeing the fellow’s exposed nape, Anactras seized what seemed like an opening and opened his jaws wide—
[Screech!]
But his teeth snapped shut on empty air; the creature’s tail had clamped down on his snout first.
[You insolent little wretch!]
[Three hundred years is still a difference, isn’t it!?]
Beratus dodged the lashing of Anactras’s tail and seized another opportunity to mount the silver dragon’s back.
In dragon combat, whoever claimed the higher ground held victory.
‘Hah… I’m reaching my limit. When will the Seer arrive…?’
Beratus could not sustain this battle indefinitely.
His opponent’s resistance was fierce, and with the two of them nearly matched in size, subduing him was no simple task.
He had dragged out the engagement as ordered, keeping Anactras pinned here, but even that had its limits now.
‘Hold on a little longer. This is to prevent extinction.’
Beratus’s eyes blazed with purpose.
Anactras, witnessing that look, curled his lip in disdain.
[You’re insane… your eyes are completely mad.]
[Shall we resume now that you’ve caught your breath?]
As Beratus advanced, Anactras’s weary gaze sharpened in an instant.
The Barrier Magic he had woven around his Lair was sounding an alarm.
‘Someone has breached my Lair.’
A dragon’s refined sorcery could detect even the intruder’s size.
‘Humans! And not just one—two of them!’
Could it be that Drake’s subordinates had returned for another attempt?
Or perhaps a subjugation party?
A single hypothesis crossed his mind like a bolt of lightning.
Anactras’s gaze became razor-sharp.
[You… were you in league with humans all along?]
[…]
When the green dragon remained silent, suspicion hardened into certainty.
[Now I understand. Why you provoked me.]
[You have perceived it correctly, sir.]
[You were conspiring with humans to plunder my Lair.]
[…Pardon?]
[Filthy cur. I see it now—you were trying to lure me away from my home. While I was gone, you meant to let the humans steal my treasures!]
[No, that’s not—]
[Silence, you reptilian dog!]
Ice crystals formed in Anactras’s maw as he roared.
The silver dragon’s Frost Breath erupted forth.
The attack came too suddenly for Beratus to react; he beat his wings frantically and launched himself beyond the reach of the icy deluge.
Boom-crack!
The breath tore through the empty air.
The cliff face it struck froze solid in an instant.
Had Beratus taken even the slightest touch, the battle’s momentum would have shifted decisively; but Anactras had never intended this as a true offensive stroke.
Separating his opponent was purpose enough.
[You humans dare covet my hoard? I will slaughter every last one of you.]
Anactras wheeled about and raced back toward his Lair.
* * *
Anactras was the eighth dragon Cain had slain before his Regression.
That first encounter, too, had taken place beneath the Canyon in the Mandras Plateau far to the north.
‘I’ve never hunted him this early before.’
Back then, at the Ninth Tier, it had been effortless prey.
But now I’m at the Seventh Tier.
Hunting a 1,500-year-old dragon was premature, but by channeling the Demonic Swordmaster’s Secret Technique, I could muster power equivalent to the Eighth Tier.
And I could now wield the Relic’s strength as well—something I hadn’t possessed before.
‘So dealing with that creature isn’t a problem at all.’
The real problem was the one trailing behind me.
Grokus Almon.
The question was how to dispose of him in a way that looked like the dragon’s doing.
‘He’s trying to follow in secret, keeping his distance, but…’
He couldn’t escape Cain’s keen Ki Perception.
‘Interesting—the treasure vault has Barrier Magic on it.’
Before long, Anactras would burst through here.
For a dragon, treasure was sacred above all else.
Cain rummaged urgently through the vault before the beast arrived.
But he found no sign of any Relic.
‘I was hoping he might have one, but no luck.’
It wasn’t only that.
He’d thought to salvage something rare or distinctive, but there was nothing of the sort.
Everything was mere trash—glittering on the surface but hollow inside, exactly what a dragon of this age would favor.
‘Beratus will be pleased, at least.’
Once the work was done, as always, he’d need to secure some treasure for him.
It would be fair compensation for the effort of drawing attention.
Cain tore his gaze from the hoard and looked toward the entrance.
Footsteps echoed, and a figure emerged from the shadows.
It was Grokus.
Caught by Cain’s unflinching stare, Grokus faltered and stopped in his tracks.
“Did you know I was coming…?”
“Of course. With that bulk, how could I not hear you?”
His shock was brief.
Grokus’s eyes flared with rage.
“Damn it… you knew I was following, yet you didn’t hide?”
“Why should I hide? I’ve already beaten you twice.”
Bang!
Grokus planted his massive Two-Handed Sword on the ground and loosened his body with deliberate rolls of his shoulders.
“The third time will be different, you bastard.”
Drawing his Aura to its peak, Grokus
—unsheathed his blade and rushed at Cain like lightning.
Yet even against that explosive momentum, Cain remained composed.
“Coming at me without sense or caution? Pathetic.”
Cain clicked his tongue sharply and twisted his body aside.
The attack that had seemed so fierce carved uselessly through empty air.
“This is why they say humans are creatures of forgetfulness.”
His fist drove into Grokus’s flank.
“Kagh!”
The lifted body crashed into the wall with a deafening crash.
Even with his Aura as a shield, several ribs had surely splintered.
“Damn you to hell!”
Grokus, moving through sheer rage, bore that pain and lunged at Cain again.
Or tried to.
Before he could, Anactras appeared.
[What are these two humans doing in my treasure vault?]
The dragon regarded the humans fighting in his domain with bewilderment, but Grokus was far more shocked.
He hadn’t expected to encounter the beast so soon.
“Damn it all…”
Grokus wheeled his blade back and forth, panicked and uncertain.
Cain in front, a dragon behind.
He was caught between two fires.
Then he caught sight of Cain’s expression.
‘What? This bastard. Laughing at a time like this?’
The appearance of a dragon meant Cain wouldn’t escape unscathed either.
It was a dangerous situation—the kind where he might become a meal.
Yet there he stood with such composure.
‘That one’s lost his mind.’
Grokus could only come to that conclusion.
[Speak, humans. What brings you to invade my Lair…….]
Anactras began speaking, then his gaze shifted to Cain.
His eyes widened dramatically.
[What is……? Why does that human bear the aura of a Relic…….]
“Well, because I’m the savior who’s come to rescue you all.”
At this sudden claim of salvation, Grokus was certain of one thing.
The man had to be insane.
But Cain paid him no mind, addressing the bewildered dragon instead.
“I am the Seer.”
[A, a Seer……!]
“I came to verify whether you possessed a Relic of mine, but unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be here.”
Cain looked around at the treasures with an air of disappointment before turning to Anactras.
“Do you know anything about Relics?”
[…….]
“Listen. Anactras?”
At the sound of his name, Anactras flinched in surprise.
There was no way a mere human could know his name.
“Why are you standing there like an idiot?”
[T, that is…….]
“Were you about to tell me that you didn’t know Seers actually existed?”
As Cain read his thoughts with perfect accuracy, Anactras’s pupils dilated.
[To know even that…….]
“I know everything. I know how your race will fall to Ruin.”
[…….]
“Only I can save you from that destruction. So then, Silver-Scaled One.”
Cain spoke in an ice-cold tone, commanding.
“Tell me everything you know about the Relics.”
A Ring-shaped mark carved into Cain’s finger glowed violet.
It was an Absolute Command—a power that worked only on dragons.
[From what I know, the Relics are possessed by the Dragon Lord. But when he entered his slumber, he distributed them among other dragons.]
“Name those dragons.”
[I don’t know all the dragons who share the Relics, but I can tell you those I know of…….]
Names poured from Anactras’s mouth in a torrent.
Yet his eyes wavered with confusion.
He wasn’t opening his mouth of his own will.
‘What is happening?’
Grokus stared at the dragon conversing with Cain in bewilderment.
Though words about Seers and such flew back and forth—words he didn’t understand—one thing was clear: the dragon was obedient to Cain’s every word.
As Cain listened to the information, he nodded slowly.
‘All familiar names. All dragons I’ve hunted before.’
He simply didn’t know whether they possessed Relics at this point in time.
When he’d hunted them before the Regression, he’d found nothing like that.
Still, this was remarkably useful intelligence.
“So all the Relics are held by the five dragons you mentioned?”
[That is correct.]
“Are there no other dragons you know of?”
[There are not. As for the remaining Relics, I know not who possesses them.]
“Tell me the locations of those dragons you just named.”
But Anactras’s lips sealed shut.
‘The Absolute Command isn’t working?’
Absolute Command couldn’t be used indefinitely.
The more he interfered with another’s will, the greater the strain it exacted.
Especially now, when suspicion was beginning to take root.
[I have no obligation to reveal that.]
“Tell me. The Lairs of your kin.”
[……I refuse. Why should I obey the commands of a mere human?]
A complete denial.
This method would no longer work.
Had it continued to succeed, he could have extracted information indefinitely.
‘But I’m not without options.’
Cain approached Anactras slowly, the Dragon Breaker held firmly in his grip.
“I am no ordinary human. I am a Seer.”
[Spare me. If you’re a Seer who can glimpse the future, why are you fishing for information about other dragons?]
“Don’t you wish to prevent the extinction of your kind?”
[Dragons do not fall to extinction. Who could possibly destroy our entire race? Such talk is nothing but nonsense.]
“Then the Dragon Lord is a fool who believes in fairy tales, is that it?”
For a moment, Anactras’s words faltered, though it hardly mattered.
Cain had already closed the distance to within arm’s reach.
“Your faith is wanting, young dragon.”
Cain swung the blade without hesitation.
The Dragon Breaker, wreathed in sword energy, tore through scales and split flesh.
[Screeeeeech!]
Pain unlike anything he had ever known.
Even during his brutal clash with the Green Dragon moments before, he had felt nothing like this.
It was only natural that Anactras’s eyes went wild.
[Kraaaagh! You pathetic insect of a human!!]
For a bite from an insect, it was remarkably effective, but there was no time to dwell on such matters.
Only one thought now filled Anactras’s mind: tearing the human to shreds.
Yet it was not easy for a body of such immense size to track a creature so small.
Especially not when the Seer’s bracelet concealed his every trace.
Silver blood poured down as Anactras’s eyes snapped open wide, searching.
[Where are you! Where has this mote of a human gone…….]
Then a figure entered his field of vision.
Grokus—someone clearly aligned with Cain.
Crunch!
An enormous foot came down upon Grokus’s body, crushing it.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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