God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 654: Slaying the Dragon.

Flames erupted from the ground the very next second.

Rolling over to dodge the fountain of liquid fire that had burst out from under his feet, Hunter stiffled a curse as a few drops of the molten magma landed on his body and scorched patches of his furs.

'No Wonder his mood was so terrible.'

Flipping over and pushing himself up with his hands, Hunter landed on his feet and continued his dash.

A few dozen meters ahead, the battle with the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} raged on as fiery as the lava that was constantly trying to burn all his hairs off.

There was a loud bellow, and the earth undulated. Large bricks that could easily weigh several times burst out of the ground and rose into the sky.

Hunter happened to be directly above one of them.

"So this is its power."

The ability to shape and reconstruct the landscape. In the hands of a creature as terrible as this, with as much power as this, was incredible.

Hunter could feel it. Almost see it even. The flow of Aether as it permeated the world around him.

Aether Beasts usually didn't use mana. Rather, they made use of Aether, a strange, tenebrous, and constantly evolving form of energy.

Aether was responsible for the changes that had befallen both himself, and the Beastmen. Just mana was not capable of fundamentally changing the very genetics of a human to such a degree.

As the large brick of rocky material rose above the ground, Hunter was able to see very clearly the assault being mounted upon the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} by Ignis and the others.

He frowned,

'They aren't doing very good.'

The beast was just too big. It was almost as though none of their weapons were going to be able to penetrate through all those layers of hide, flesh and fat to reach its more delicate organs.

Ignis' punches and kicks were powerful enough to break through layers of thick metal plates, and more than what was necessary to reduce a boulder into fine powder. However, while her punched could break its flesh, the force, unfortunately was dispersed by the layers of muscle fibers and fat beneath its hide.

It didn't make it any easier that she had to constantly be on the move to avoid any of the attacks the damned beast wouod throw their way.

Like the hail of boulders that were about to descend throne the sky right now.

Swallowing a curse, Ignis rolled out of the way to dodge one of the boulders. Curling her fist, she punched and shattered another boulder into pieces

Occupied by the falling boulders, she was unable to see the large shadow closing on her until it was too late.

The feeling of danger and imminent death enveloped her like a claw grasping the throat of prey.

She growled and a torrent of flames burst out of her body just in time for the giant tail of the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} to slam into her body.

She held her gauntleted up as she pushed against the tail of the beast with gritted teeth.

'M-my bones are going to shatter!'

She skid backward for at least a dozen meters, barely managing to stop the tail of the enormous beasts.

She looked down at her hands and discovered they were trembling like leafs in the wind.

"Damn it."

She had stopped it, but only after a tremendous amount of effort.

The {Earth Behemoth Dragon} roared again, its bellows resonating with the earth beneath their feet.

Its boundless rage traveled to the soundwaves and into her heart.

"You aren't the only one pissed off here." Ignis muttered to herself.

Taking another to gather herself, she prepared to jump right back in.

However, a thought suddenly entered her head.

"What?!" She had barely heard the words when another loud shook the earth.

Only, this time, it wasn't from the {Earth Behemoth Dragon}.

Instead, it was from another beast that had come to the fight.

Calling it a beast was not really accurate as well, as the beast also had a name.

Ignis looked up with barely concealed shock,

"Hunter..."

They weren't very familiar with one another, but she knew him well enough at least. Enough to know that he was one of the people Cain trusted the most.

He had turned into a hundred meter tall wolf-man.

The Beastmen behind her erupted into cheers.

Besides the {Earth Behemoth Dragon}, he was the most obvious thing on the battlefield.

The Pilgrims attacking them from the other side went pale with shock under their masks. From the looks of it, this beast that had just appeared was not one of those enchanted by the Songstress.

Those who were brave enough to look into its eyes would catch a glimpse of wicked human-like intelligence.

Baring his claws, Hunter considered his chances.

'Frankly, they are quite low. I don't have anything that quite counters its abilities, and I doubt any of my skills or spells with do an extraordinary amount of damage. However, that would remain true only if I were fighting it alone.'

Indeed, this battle wasn't just his to fight.

There were hundreds of people fighting alongside him.

'Fifty-fifty. At best.'

Those odds were decent. At the very least, they were better than a slim chance or next to no hope at all.

Hunter calmly locked eyes with the {Eye Behemoth Dragon}.

'How exciting...'

Since the battle began, he had not met anything that could be much of a threat to him.

Until now.

The {Earth Behemoth Dragon} seemed to recognize the strength of its for as it opened its abyssal maw and bellowed.

In response, Hunter threw his head back and let out a howl of his own.

The giant moon reflected in the depths of his eyes, almost as though to awaken some primal force hidden in his bloodline.

Moving many times faster than what should have been possible for a creature of his size, Hunter dug into the flesh of the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} with his claws.

No weapon would be able to measure up to him in this state, so he only had his claws and fangs to rely on.

However, that was more than enough.

His claws sliced through the creature's hide and flesh like butter, immediately drawing blood.

The {Earth Behemoth Dragon} roared and bit down onto his shoulder, tearing off a mouthful of fur and flesh as well.

Its tail whipped forward and grabbed him at the midsection, slamming him into the ground.

Despite being so huge, he still wasn't anywhere as enormous as the {Earth Behemoth Dragon}.

The 'Dragon' in its name was not for show one bit as it had, at the very least, inherited that aspect of a dragon's nature.

'This would easily have been the end for me.' Hunter thought to himself as he wrapped his hands around the Aether Beast's neck to stop it from chomping down even more.

"Nice one, Hunter!" Manny yelled with a grin as he slid down from the back of the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} and onto its neck.

'Yeah. I'm not fighting alone.'

With its attention focused on Hunter, it was unable to see Manny running along its neck.

Manny grinned ferociously as he brandished his swords.

A tremendous amount of sword ki wafted off his blades in billows as he dashed forward even faster, turning into a gust of wind.

The {Earth Behemoth Dragon} roared in pain. Blood poured out of both its eyesockets. It instinctively let go of its hold on Hunter.

Not wanting to miss his chance, Hunter snarled and put all his weight forward. He wrapped his hand around one of the Aether Beast's forelimb and pulled, tripping it off balance.

The creature stumbled towards the ground.

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Hunter roared,

"Attack!"

A trail of burning flames shot into the air. She poured a torrent of power into her fists. Her gauntlets radiated a terrible white flame as she crashed into the head of the {Earth Behemoth Dragon}.

She growled as he punched down again and again. Her gauntlets were painted red.

The moment the beast fell down to one leg, Roselle and Leah nodded at each other.

Ki exploded out of their bodies. Roselle thrust her ki encased swords into the joints of one of the Aether Beast's hind legs. An explosion of flesh and blood occured, but that was not what she intended to do. She wanted to sever the tendons and cartilage that held the beast upright.

After a few tries and a thorough bath in blood, she finally managed to achieve what she intended.

Lead did the same, and the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} cried out in pain as it finally fell to the ground.

It bellowed furiously.

Hunter frowned, the growled,

"Get back! It's about to attack!"

However, he made no move to retreat, instead, tightening his hold on the beast.

A surge of lava far greater than any of the previous ones erupted out of the ground and into the sky.

The pain of having his flesh and muscles being burned by the hot molten magma was a new high for Hunter.

However, he didn't, for a single moment, let go of the beast's neck.

The creature struggled as much as it could. But it couldn't shake him off.

With one final howl, he put all his strength into his arms and twisted. With that it the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} didn't adjust its position, its neck would be broken.

To avoid such a death, it rolled over.

However, that was exactly what Hunter had wanted.

A beastly grin spread across his face and he howled in triumph.

Just as how every dragon possesses a reverse scale, the {Earth Behemoth Dragon} also had a weakness.

Its underside was not protected by any scales and tough hide. Instead, it was covered by a thin layer of hide that could easily be torn through.

Because it had been on its feet, no one had been able to reach there without the fear of being crushed to death by the beast's weight first, or simply be skewered by one of the sharp pikes of earthen material.

The moment Hunter flipped it over, the battle was over.

The {Earth Behemoth Dragon § fought back hard. The ground beneath them collapsed inward, and a other flood of magma was released from the depths of the earth.

However, it was meaningless in the end. Although it managed to delay the inevitable, its stomach was torn open and its organs were torn, burned, and mangled until even its draconic vitality couldn't preserve its life anymore.

The dragon had been slain...

***

On the slope of the gorge, the Siesha let out a sigh. She stretched her arms and winced, causing her large breasts to shake vigorously.

"The Dragon has been killed."

She turned to Rain, the blindfolded young woman beside her and chuckled,

"Looks like things aren't going our way, are they, Rain."

The Seer was silent for a moment.

Then she turned to a patch of empty space,

"Come out. I know you are there."

"Hm?" Seisha frowned.

She had long learned not to doubt the premonition of Rain.

And unsurprisingly, the space before them shimmered, and a man dressed in white leather armor wielding a dagger made of frozen glass stepped out of nothing.

His mouth and nose were covered with a mask, but his cold, ruthless eyes could be seen.

'There's no doubt here. An assassin.' Seisha quickly understood their situation.'

However, she was not panicked in the slightest, and neither did Rain seem to be. If anything, she looked just as placid as she usually did.

Seisha sighed and sent a thought out.

The beast she laid on stirred from its slumber and rose to its feet.

It stared the assassin down, its cold, beastly eyes filled with malice and bloodlust.

Seisha chuckled,

"Attacking two defenseless women on your own? You are rather uncouth, I must say."

Her voice turned cold,

"But you have made a huge mistake. You see..."

Light shimmered in her hands, and she pulled a strange metallic staff from her inventory.

"We are anything but defenseless."

Then she began chanting...