Emperor of Steel

Kiiiik-!

The terrible scream blew the ears of everyone.

Horrifying echoes reverberated in the sky, and every being that witnessed the dragon looked very fascinated.

“Dra, Dragon!”

Belfair, who had witnessed the incredible being, sat down.

His stiff eyes looked at Luke, who was right in front of the dragon.

Luke couldn’t get stuck mid-air. He saw a shocking situation, and his mind and body just stopped as he saw the dragon appear right in front of him.

But his instinct for survival was desperate. His consciousness was had awakened, and his stiffened body began to try to move.

‘Is this really a Dragon? No, the dragons had gotten extinct a long time ago. Then the one here is…’

He heard from Katarina more than 500 years ago… That a dragon would appear from God’s pride and lust.

The last dragon that stood on earth was Tiamet.

A descendant of Tiamet would inherit the power of a dragon—knowledge and magic, half-human and half-dragon.

In a world where the dragons cease to exist, their successors were meant to carry on their legacy…

‘Dragonian! Shaikan is a dragonian!’

Apparently, he wasn’t a normal orc, but Luke didn’t think that things would turn out like this.

It had been so long since the dragons and dragonians had made an appearance, and people were almost on the verge of forgetting about them.

But surprisingly, this happened.

Shaikan, who turned into a red dragon, was still feeling hostility toward Luke, and as of the moment, Luke would easily lose.

‘Move! Move!!’

Grrrr!

Luke wanted to move, and he was desperately trying to do so, Shaikan growled. The air started to get sucked in with a heavy sulfur odor and malignant toxic gas.

Puahhhh!

There were sparks between his teeth. Shaikan’s mouth released Breath.

Breath, which struck Luke in an instant, blew half of the southern hills to the ground.

During the process, the Life Steal circle had been destroyed. The monster army got saved from the mana absorption.

“Kyaak! Monster!”

“Run! Run away!”

But ungratefully, the monsters were busy throwing weapons and running away from the place. Many of them peed themselves out of fear.

Shaikan, enraged because of it, yelled at them, “You stupid one! Where do you think you’re going, leaving your king alone?!”

However, the voice coming out of Shaikan’s mouth was more like a cry.

Monsters screamed out of fear while laying down on the ground.

In fact, there was a reason as to why the monsters had reacted in such a way. Shaikan showed dragon magic, which was mysterious, but he never showed them his dragon form.

In addition, in the process of becoming a dragon, Shaikan temporarily lost consciousness and wasn’t able to control the monsters.

He tried to take control again, but the monsters were scattered like ants, and that upset him.

“Dark Bullet!”

Suddenly, a flying purple magic bomb hit Shaikan’s body.

The magic bullets were much bigger and stronger than before.

But, in that situation, Shaikan could see who did that.

“Kuk, you’re still alive?”

“Yeah, somehow.”

Shaikan turned to Luke.

There was a steel Gigant about 15 meters tall.

With a blue glove and sharp armor, the Gigant seemed incomparable to the antique and scrap ones he witnessed in the Navarre Duchy.

“Kratos.”

Hero-class Gigant, Kratos of Altica Magic Tower.

Shaikan had seen Kratos when he was a kid. At that time, Kratos was assigned to the Imperial palace as a guard.

However, its existence showed him that he was the enemy.

“You did well bringing him here. If you would have left it back…”

Shaikan moved closer to land.

Luke barely managed to escape Breath with Blink and immediately took out Kratos from his subspace bracelet. As the opponent turned into a dragon, he felt that he had to add more power.

Even if he could ride a hero-class Gigant, he wasn’t sure if he could catch a dragon with it.

But as his size grew with the help of a Gigant, his chances of winning were a bit high now.

“Take this! Black Spear!”

When Luke produced dark magic with Kratos, the core engine of the Gigant reacted to amplify the dark magic.

Its power was more than 10 times the original Black Spear. It flew toward Shaikan who was looking at Kratos with anger.

“Nope!”

Shaikan turned around and hit the spear with his tail. Black Spear got destroyed in a split second.

Not panicking, Luke kept on attacking.

He used Fly Magic to get Kratos closer to Shaikan and tried to knock him down with a huge aura sword.

“Dragonic Shield!”

As Shaikan released his magic, a red curtain appeared in front of him.

However, it couldn’t completely block the aura sword of the Gigant.

Strike!

“…!”

As the Gigant’s sword split the shield, Shaikan hurriedly crossed his arms to stop the attack.

Luckily, due to the Dragonic Shield, the smash attack had been weakened considerably.

After the attack failed, Luke, while frowning, moved back.

“This is really strange. Is this the dragon magic used by the dragons?”

Whether it be white or dark magic, magic was based on the mana built in the heart.

However, Shaikan’s magic was different. While reciting the spell, the mana surrounding him reacted in a flash.

The activation of the spell was short, and there was no circle around his heart.

‘Is dragon magic based on a dragon’s heart?’

It seemed like Luke would find out the answer to that later in the future as no one knew about the dragons.

A dragon’s heart played a huge role in maintaining a dragon’s life and using the combats was based on Dragonic Aura.

A race blessed with mana, the dragons were able to activate magic in a split second.

That was why thousands of years ago, the dragon race was able to freely use 12 circles.

But…

‘Tch, even if I have the blood, a dragonian isn’t a real dragon.’

Shaikan clenched his fists in frustration.

An awakened dragonian could turn into a dragon with dragon magic but not a real dragon.

They would only be half the size and only have one-third of a real dragon’s power. They could use a few magic spells, but their power was still inferior to a real dragon.

Even then, Shaikan knew that he could go against the strongest Sword Emperor or the 9th circle Arch wizards, but strangely, he didn’t know how to fight against this warlock whom he met today.

‘Was there a reason why I haven’t fully awakened into a perfect dragonian yet?’

Shaikan had awakened his dragonian blood two years ago.

He had been honing his abilities and created an army of monsters, but it was still impossible for him to transform into a full dragon.

And it wasn’t long since he was able to transform, and it was tiring. His dragon instincts that were left by the dragon lineage told him how much time was left for the transformation to wear off.

‘But, I can’t let it end like this,’ Shaikan thought to himself.

How could he take revenge if he couldn’t even take down one warlock!

After telling himself that, Shaikan decided to push himself till the very end.

“Flame Blizzard!”

Shaikan cast his magic and tried hitting Kratos with it.

Luke, however, managed to create a barrier to block the storm of flames. He wielded his sword and attacked Shaikan with it.

Shaikan, cutting off the huge sword with his sharp nails, turned around to hit Kratos with his tail.

He then used Breath and hit Kratos with it. Kratos was shocked.

“Did you think that I could get attacked by that!”

Luke escaped the Breath and hit Shaikan with his sword. However, Shaikan struck Kratos with explosion magic and blocked the sword with the horns on his head.

Kwang-!

“Kuk!”

As the heat reached breastplate of Kratos, it broke.

Fortunately, the Gigant’s gloves were thick.

The ones that broke were only the outer armor, so the Gigant was lucky to survive.

“I will make you into a great scrap metal!”

The moment Shaikan tried to attack with his teeth, he was taken aback.

Luke not missing the timing, added the weight of Kratos to his Gravity Spell and pushed Shaikan to the ground.

Kwang!

“Ahh!”

Watching the fight unfold, Belfair became scared when Shaikan and Kratos crashed near him.

He was like a shrimp stuck between the fight of two whales.

“Kuk! This warlock!”

Shaikan struggled to get up from the unexpected fall.

Luke used his treasured dark magic.

“Black Bind!”

“No!!”

The stem of the black plant came from the ground and wrapped itself around Shaikan’s body.

Shaikan struggled to get up, but once the vines of Black Bind wrapped around him, it got increasingly harder for him to even move.

Luke glanced around at the helpless dragon.

“Did you really think that I would just let you push me down?”

Thanks to the core engine of Kratos, the power of Black Bind became much stronger.

Thanks to that, the spell had no problem holding down a 30-meter tall creature.

“Kay, then for the final blow… No?!”

Suddenly, a blinding red light appeared, and Shaikan disappeared from where he was.

Luke’s eyes looked around when he suddenly heard a voice.

“This way, warlock.”

Luke looked in the direction of the voice.

Shaikan, on the northern hills, went back to his original form.

Perhaps that was his way of getting out of the Black Bind.

“With my power, I thought that I could go beyond the duchy and take over the empire, but I guess I was mistaken.”

Shaikan had no intention of fighting anyone. He lost everything.

“Shaikan, what are you saying?! Are you running away?!”

“Everyone runs away. Let’s end our fight today. But, there is one thing I want to ask.”

“What is it?”

Luke wanted to absorb the massive mana of the dragon, which could never be compared to the monsters.

However, he couldn’t pounce at a dragonian who was once again ready to turn into a Dragon.

To fight a dragon, he would have to use a Gigant. The Gigant he had now was in no shape to fight since Kratos’ core engine was exhausted already.

A while ago, Kratos took too much shock when Shaikan pushed it to the ground.

If he tried to use it again, it might explode.

‘Tch, too bad.’

As Luke could no longer continue to fight, he listened to what Shaikan was about to say.

“Are you the descendant of the Devil King Saymon?”

He wasn’t sure of it at first, but as he escaped, he thought about the identity of Luke.

The golem legion and the dark magic.

Those were a very well-known combination, and he was able to recall the stories of the legendary Rakan when he was a kid.

When Luke didn’t answer, he opened his mouth once again.

“If you indeed are the descendant of the Devil King and share the same feelings toward the Baroque Empire, we may be companions on the same path.”

“Companions?” Luke asked.

“Yes. There is something I owe to the Baroque Empire. The next time we meet, I wish we could work as companions rather than enemies.”

With those words, Shaikan disappeared.

‘What the hell did the Baroque Empire do to you?’

Luke stood there lost in his thoughts.

It was surprising that the Orc Hero who caused the monster wave was a dragon.

But more importantly, a dragonian was hostile toward the Baroque Empire.

That was something that would surely affect his future.

“Master, are you okay?” Belfair went close to Luke and asked.

Luke, opening the hatch of Kratos, replied, “Why? Would you be glad if I wasn’t?”

“I would never!”

Belfair said that, but his heart did hope for it. If Luke died, he would be free from his oath.

Luke got out and placed Kratos back into his subspace bracelet.

“Well, since we defeated the Orc Hero, let’s head back to Akbar Fortress. An important battle is happening over there.”

“Yes, master.”

Luke and Belfair flew straight to Akbar Fortress.

They were tired after fighting such a death-defying battle, but they had no time to hesitate.