Chapter 507 - 279: Dragon Knight (5)

Roy said, "What’s the matter? Surprised to see me here?"

Baron’s eyes narrowed. To be honest, he wasn’t surprised at all.

Even Soron, whom he’d blown away with a headshot, had reawakened as a terrifying Dragon Attendant. Compared to that, Roy, who had merely been run through the heart with a spear, coming back was nothing special.

He said, "Mr. Roy, I was just wondering... does your heart still hurt?"

Upon hearing this, Roy’s formerly refined expression vanished in an instant. He said in a low voice,

"It did hurt, a great deal. But it’s thanks to you running me through with that Dragon Spear that I’ve been reborn."

Baron said, "So you’re saying you’ve also become some kind of inhuman monster?"

"Monster? Is that how you see it?"

Without any warning, Roy appeared in front of Baron and slammed him into the ground with a single punch, burying him several feet deep. He completely ignored the astonished Kesha and Aile at the side. Looking down into the crater, he said,

"In truth, I prefer to call this an ’Equivalent Exchange.’ My soul has been to Hell, so it’s only right that my body should ascend to Heaven."

"You’re saying all this in front of a Lion-eyed Knight and a member of the Demon Hunter Association. Aren’t you afraid they’ll leak this information?"

Flames erupted from the crater like a volcano. Baron shot out, his black coat fluttering, embers trailing from his body like a swarm of dancing red butterflies.

He thrust his twin blades at Roy while simultaneously firing his guns. The muzzle flash made the pale green scales on Roy’s face shimmer with an iridescent light.

In response, Roy simply watched him and said coldly, "Weren’t Miss Kesha and Mr. Aile already killed by you? When I arrived with the Griffin Knight Order, all I saw was you standing in a pile of corpses with the Dragon Devourer Cultists."

Hearing this, terror seized the hearts of Kesha and Aile.

The blades vibrated, emitting a long, drawn-out hum like the sound of stretching molten glass.

The main material of the Spear Sword’s blade was Prole’s Snow Pattern Steel. This steel was extremely rare; only caravans from Far North Suluka would bring a few kilograms of it to Fude City each spring. In Prole, it was considered the finest material for forging Alchemy Weapons, with a hardness that could rival even Sumer’s Dragon King Iron.

Dragon King Iron was rumored to be an alloy that not even the legendary Dragon King could destroy, which only served to highlight the extraordinary hardness of Snow Pattern Steel. This was especially true after Baron had enhanced his blades by infusing them with his Spiritual Power and reinforcing them with Giant Fire Steel, Dwarven Iron, Yun Jin, and an Alchemy Matrix. Slicing through iron as if it were mud was a trivial feat; even carbon steel would likely be severed in a single strike.

Yet now, these blades that could sever carbon steel were pressed against Roy’s chest. Aside from the small, inch-deep gash they had opened with the initial surprise attack, they couldn’t advance any further!

Even the Alchemy Bullets met the same fate. The explosions all detonated on the surface of his skin, looking like sparks flashing across a steel plate coated with a green anti-rust primer. Only the concussive force of the blasts made his center of gravity shift back slightly.

It was only natural that skin that could not be pierced by Snow Pattern Steel could not be penetrated by bullets either.

In Baron’s experience, there were only two possibilities for an enemy that he, a Bronze Tier Dragon Knight, couldn’t handle even when infusing his attacks with Spiritual Power:

First, the enemy’s contracted entity was stronger than his Red Dragon. But as far as Baron knew, that was impossible. The Red Dragon was a being on the same Tier as the Dragon King, making it nearly equivalent to the Old Gods. The only beings that could surpass it were the Old Gods themselves.

A Knight who forged a contract with a God was known in the Alchemy Realm as a "Faith Knight."

Excluding that, only one possibility remained—his opponent was of a higher Tier.

Even if not a true Silver Tier, he had to be at least a Pseudo-Silver, on the same level as Ferdinand!

The realization hit Baron and he instantly tried to retreat, but it was too late. A predatory, ravenous smile spread across Roy’s scaled face—the smile of a lone wolf, starving for days, spotting a plump rabbit on the plains.

’Damn it,’ he thought. ’It’s bad enough I’m the rabbit in this analogy, but did my brain have to add ’plump’?! I’m a lost cause.’

As the thought crossed Baron’s mind, he saw Roy’s hand emerge from the darkness, reaching for his head. He instinctively started to twist away, but a sudden premonition warned him that doing so would lead to a miserable death.

Roy said, "Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because you’re a Dragon Knight. A Dragon Attendant with the aura of the Pure-blood Dragon Race isn’t necessarily any weaker than you."

His hand was quickly covered in pale green scales, like a bronze pillar overgrown with seaweed. It looked unremarkable, not much different from the Beastification of a typical Beast Hunter. Yet Baron knew, without a second’s thought:

’If that fist connects, even if I survive, I’ll be crippled for life.’

The instant that thought flashed through his mind, wings of fire—formed from several Little Flame Demons—erupted from his back. He crudely imitated the maneuver he had seen Jill perform in the auction hall, using the downthrust from the wings to violently pull himself backward.

As he retreated, he raised his twin guns and methodically fired a stream of Alchemy Bullets into Roy’s chest.

The light from the impacts made Roy’s face look savage and terrifying, reminiscent of the Lizard-Men from legends on North America’s Outer Side. Of course, Baron had read in an Inner Side newspaper that the Alchemy Realm had debunked the so-called "Lizard-Men." They were supposedly just North American Exorcists suffering the side effects of shoddy Magic Potions, who only allowed themselves to be seen due to a morbid sense of humor.

Roy sneered, and Baron knew exactly what he was sneering at. He was mocking the uselessness of the Alchemy Bullets, laughing at this futile, last-ditch resistance.

But frankly, Baron knew the Alchemy Bullets were useless. He was only firing so frequently to use the air currents from the explosions to lead Roy on a chase, drawing him toward the hillside before the ruins of the Dragon Family estate.

The scene there could only be described as a mountain of corpses in a sea of blood.

Then, after his last bullet was spent, he retracted his blades and wings. From the Dragon Pattern on his arm, he summoned the Golden Dragon Spear, gripping it tightly with both hands to shield his chest just as Roy’s scaled claws lunged for him.

A massive shockwave erupted with the two of them at its epicenter.

Baron could finally appreciate how Aile and Jill must have felt when they fought him. He felt as if he’d been hit by a fully loaded freight train, his body sent flying through the air like a stone flung from a catapult, trailing a parabolic arc of red.

As he flew, he heard a sound like cracking ice or tearing paper—the sound of his sternum and ribs shattering. By his own estimate, at least eight of his twelve pairs of ribs were broken.

His organs... Baron figured the pieces he’d just coughed up were probably fragments of his lung.

He slammed into the ground, carving out a deep crater that, amidst the billowing dust, quickly began to fill with his gushing blood.

Kesha and Aile were stunned by the sight.

They never would have imagined that Baron, who had seemed so arrogant and almost flippant in their eyes, could be so easily defeated by Roy.

"Look behind you! We’re surrounded!"

Hearing Kesha’s warning, Aile instinctively glanced back.

Sure enough, the Griffin Knights had them surrounded.

Aile pulled out his Lion-eyed Knight insignia and yelled, "I am a Lion-eyed Knight of the Third Squad, Holy Temple Lion Eye Knight Order! I am also a scion of the Lancelot Family! A family Elder has placed a special ward on me. If anyone so much as cuts me, my family will know instantly. Are you sure you want to do this?"

As he’d hoped, the Griffin Knights hesitated upon hearing his words.

Seeing her chance, Kesha announced her own identity as well. The Griffin Knights fell into indecision, clearly wondering who among them would be foolish enough to make the first move.

In that moment of hesitation, Kesha threw down a smoke bomb. After a quick word to Aile, the two of them fled in opposite directions.

Meanwhile, back in the crater, a battered and broken Baron looked up at Roy, who was lifting him by his scaled claws, and said,

"Those two are getting away. Aren’t you going to go after them?"

Roy said with a savage grin, "Don’t worry. I sealed the entire Beowulf Family estate with an Alchemy Barrier a moment ago. Unless they kill me, they aren’t getting out."

"Besides, you’re my primary target."

Roy pressed his sharp claws against the spot over Baron’s heart and made a casual slash, opening a new wound.

Feeling the claws begin to slice open his chest, Baron said breathlessly, "I’m dying anyway. Let me ask a few questions before I go. You can consider it giving me a clean death."

Roy was noncommittal. "Trying to stall for time?"

Baron gritted his teeth against the pain. "If I’m stalling for time just to watch you dig my heart out, then I really must be a madman."

Roy studied Baron for a moment with his turquoise Dragon Eyes, then suddenly shot his hands out and snapped both of Baron’s arms and legs. The immense pain caused Baron to let out a low, guttural roar.

Roy wrapped a hand around Baron’s throat. His face wore the smile of a child burning an anthill with a lighter—so innocent, and yet so evil. "Now, you may speak."

Baron sucked in a sharp, cold breath but still managed to control his features as he asked,

"Why have Soron impersonate me and attack the Lion Eye Knight Order? Is your Dragon Eater Association trying to frame me for this, just like you did with Anthony’s death?"

Roy said, "Since you already know, why bother asking?"

He saw the light in the Dragon Knight’s Golden Eyes begin to dim, so he nodded. "You are an indispensable part of the plan. From the moment the Dragon Eater Association chose you to be Anthony’s killer, there was no escape."

"So you’re the ones who assassinated Anthony. Framing me was just part of your plan, wasn’t it?" Baron said.

He was trying to confirm something.

"I don’t know the specific cause of Anthony’s death myself, but you were just unlucky enough to be there," Roy said. "Otherwise, how would anyone have found out you were a Dragon Knight, and colluding with the Dragon Witch, no less?"

Baron suddenly laughed. His smile made Roy suspicious and uncertain, because Baron’s current state was not all that different from Jesus being captured by the Romans. The only differences were the Cross and the two binoculars in his hands.

For a moment, it made Roy wonder if something was wrong with Baron’s head.

But what Roy didn’t know was that with this, Baron could finally put aside the suspicions he’d held about his body’s previous owner. At least on this matter, the blame he was shouldering wasn’t inherited from his predecessor.

Otherwise, the absurd notion of "I framed myself" might not have been a joke after all.