Chapter 409: Snapped

The battlefield was alive with the cheers and roar of the festivities. What was supposed to have been a one-sided slaughter had somehow turned into a battle that had the entire arena on edge.

DOOOM!

"Ghak!"

Luke was thrown backward, his boots scraping across the arena floor as he caught himself. Without wasting a second, he snapped his fingers.

A concentrated burst erupted in front of him, striking Astfall with enough force to disrupt the momentum of the dragon’s advance and briefly jolt his head to the side. Luke immediately seized the opening and hurled his dagger straight at him.

Astfall snickered. Even without thinking, he could see the incoming projectile.

He raised one hand to block it, his mouth already filling with flames as he prepared to return the favor. But then...

"Huh?"

The dagger vanished at the exact moment it was about to connect.

So did the human behind it.

Astfall had barely shifted his feet when the world in front of him disappeared behind a flash of fire.

DA-BOOOOOM!

Something exploded right in front of his face.

It was an explosive Luke had purchased, and against an opponent like Astfall, it was hardly enough to cause any real damage. The blast produced little more than smoke and flames, and flames were never a particularly good weapon against a dragon.

But that was never the point.

It distracted him.

Luke grinned as he charged through the opening.

He leaped high into the air, rising until he reached the height of the stands. A massive hammer materialized in his hand, violet thunder crawling along its surface as the weapon crackled with power. The sound alone was enough to silence the arena for a moment.

Below him, the smoke still clung to Astfall’s position, obscuring the dragon’s vision and giving Luke the perfect screen for his attack.

"Heh..."

Astaroth shifted in his seat as he watched Luke descend.

DOOOOOM!

The hammer came down with tremendous force.

But it did not strike the target.

Astfall was no longer there.

The impact sent thunder rolling across the arena instead, cracking the stone beneath Luke and blasting chunks of debris outward. The destruction was impressive, but it was not what Luke had intended.

"Tch."

Luke clicked his tongue and looked up.

Astfall had grown his wings.

The massive dark appendages stretched behind him as he hovered high above the battlefield, each powerful flap keeping his body suspended in the air.

"I must say, you have exceeded all of my expectations."

His voice carried across the arena as he looked down at Luke.

"You have even pushed me to use a considerable amount of my strength."

The way he said it made Luke’s expression tighten.

It was as though the battle had only just begun.

Luke exhaled and rested the hammer against his shoulder.

"Well, I intended to finish this battle by now. But I underestimated your endurance."

He knew exactly how dangerous that endurance was.

The longer he allowed Astfall to fight, the more options the creature would reveal. The wings alone had already changed the battlefield completely.

And Luke knew that once the dragon fully transformed into that enormous form, defeating him would become almost impossible.

[58%... 59%... 60%.]

A notification suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.

Luke barely registered it.

He couldn’t afford to focus on the numbers, let alone ask the system what they meant.

Because at that exact moment, a pillar of fire descended from the sky.

"Oh, cra..."

SHCBOOOOM!

The flames swallowed him.

This volley was fiercer than anything Astfall had unleashed before. The explosion expanded across the battlefield, while the heat wave rolling out from the flames washed over the stands hard enough for even the spectators to feel it.

"If he survived that..." Astaroth murmured, his gaze fixed on the inferno. "He would have my respect."

He knew his brother was no longer holding back.

The column of fire continued to expand, its diameter growing larger with every passing second.

Astfall descended with it, his mouth stretched wide as he unleashed hell upon the human below. His eyes were wide with ferocity, every trace of amusement gone from his expression.

Then he saw it.

Something was moving through the flames.

Astfall’s eyes widened.

A figure pierced straight through the center of the inferno, emerging from the fire and racing toward him.

"Woah..."

"Can’t be..."

"What?!"

The entire arena erupted in disbelief.

Luke had broken through the flames.

He shot into the sky like a missile, his fist already drawn back.

Astfall reacted instantly. His wings snapped outward as he pulled his body back just enough for Luke’s punch to pass beneath his chin.

"Fu-guh!"

But then something else appeared.

A hammer.

It materialized in Luke’s hand at the last possible moment, its massive head swinging upward with the force of his momentum.

BAAAM!

The hammer caught Astfall directly beneath the chin.

The dragon’s head jerked upward, and for the first time, genuine pain crossed his face.

That strike hurt his pride far more than his body.

Luke descended from the sky and landed back on the battlefield with a heavy thud, the impact sending dust rolling around his feet.

Luke slowly raised his eyes and found Astfall lowering himself back to the ground.

His expression had changed.

There was no amusement left in his eyes, no trace of the relaxed confidence he had shown earlier. They were serious now, fixed entirely on Luke.

Luke wiped the blood from beneath his nose and released the hammer. It had served its purpose for now.

"You... are immune to my flames. And you are a daring fighter, I must admit."

Luke shrugged. "Well, you’re quite tough yourself. I’ve never dealt so many strikes to someone and had them survive all of it."

His Concentrated Burst had ended nearly every battle he had fought, or at the very least left his opponents unable to continue for a considerable amount of time.

Yet Astfall had endured burst after burst and remained standing, seemingly no worse for wear.

Astfall clenched his fist.

"Well, I hope..."

TNG.

Something shifted.

Just as Astfall was about to lunge, he caught a strange gleam in Luke’s eyes.

His body froze.

Those eyes...

No. Something was wrong.

He knew it.

But for some reason, he couldn’t understand what.

"What is happening?"

"Why did they stop?"

"What is going on?"

Confusion spread through the audience as both Luke and Astfall stood completely still.

Astaroth frowned from his seat as he stared at his brother.

His hand was trembling.

The muscles in his face had tightened, his expression twisting as though he were struggling against something no one else could see.

He is under a spell.

And Astfall was seeing it.

He was standing in front of his home.

The familiar sight of his house stretched before him, unchanged from the memory buried deep within his mind. Yet his body refused to move. He could not take a single step as he watched his youngest child flying through the air with his brothers.

"Kruuu!"

The small dragon shrieked playfully as his siblings shoved him from the side, sending him tumbling through the air before he quickly recovered and chased after them. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Astfall could only watch.

His youngest.

His Raava.

The child he had just lost.

Seeing him playing with his brothers again, hearing that familiar cry of joy, stirred something deep within Astfall’s chest.

A single tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

Back in the arena, Luke’s expression changed as he watched him.

He suddenly summoned a pair of sickles into his hands.

It might not have scared him with the spell.

Luke’s gaze sharpened.

He’s enraged.

He didn’t hesitate.

Luke leaped forward and covered the distance between them in a single bound. He twisted his body midair, bringing one sickle around as he sharpened its edge toward Astfall’s neck.

The blade swept through the air.

CLINK!

Luke’s eyes widened.

The sickle had stopped.

Astfall had caught the blade with one hand, gripping it just beside his neck.

He hadn’t even raised his eyes.

His gaze remained lowered, his mind still trapped somewhere within the memory Luke had forced him to relive.

Then his fingers tightened.

TNG!

The sickle shattered in his grasp.

Astfall slowly raised his eyes.

His pupils had thinned to slits, and his presence surged with such force that Luke’s hand began to tremble at his side before he even realized it.

The ground beneath Astfall’s feet started to shake. Fine cracks spread through the stone as the pressure around him continued to rise. Above them, the clouds darkened, swallowing the light over the battlefield.

The entire audience fell silent.

"You... are... no different..."

Astfall’s voice had changed.

Each word came out deeper and heavier, carrying the weight of something far more dangerous than anger. His presence continued to thicken around him, pressing down on everything in its reach.

Luke clenched his teeth.

He immediately adjusted his stats.

He needed speed.

He did not know exactly what Astfall was about to do, but every instinct in his body told him that speed was the only thing that might keep him alive.

Then, without warning, the Dragon King leaped.

The ground beneath him exploded.

Luke’s eyes snapped upward.

His lips slowly parted.

For a moment, his mind struggled to comprehend what he was seeing.

The small, human frame that had stood before him was gone.

A massive dragon had emerged in its place, its enormous body rising into the sky until it completely filled Luke’s vision.

Scales stretched across a body far larger than Luke had imagined, while enormous wings unfolded through the darkened sky. The sheer size of the creature made everything around them look insignificant.

Luke stared upward.

For the first time since the battle began, he realized the difference between a human and a dragon