Chapter 221: Draekarys

"To trigger the transformation, there are three requirements: awakened dragon blood, dragon tongue, and draconic veins," Vlad mumbled. "No wonder it was locked until now."

He was about to activate the technique when the stone door to his left descended into the ground. The debris on the floor began trembling as numerous humanoid puppets emerged, their heavy footsteps striking the floor.

Each puppet wielded a different type of weapon. The moment they stepped into the hall, the weapons in their hands illuminated with a bright glow of Aura.

These puppets were different from the one Vlad had fought on the second floor. Their Aura was stable, almost comparable to Vlad’s Sword Aura. Not to mention, all of these puppets seemed to be made of highly dense metal.

Within just a few minutes, Vlad was surrounded by over fifty such puppets.

Ding...

[You have entered the Second Phase of the Fifth Floor.

Defeat the puppet knights to clear this stage.]

"Oh, has it already been two hours?" Vlad raised an eyebrow. Being too engrossed in learning the technique, he hadn’t realized how much time had passed.

He drew Éclair from his storage pouch and activated his maximum Umbra-laced Sword Aura from the beginning. His other sword, Dark Heart, had been left in the dungeon where he used it to destroy the array.

As the puppets launched their attacks, Vlad swung his sword three-sixty degrees around his body, blocking every attack coming at him.

The blade felt incredibly light in his hands, as if it were merely an extension of a body part he never knew existed.

Naturally, the first few strikes with this new limb of his were very clumsy, like a beginner trying to imitate the swings of an advanced warrior.

If not for the Black God Armour protecting him, he would have already suffered numerous injuries from the relentless barrage of multiple Aura-laced attacks coming from every direction.

Some struck his shoulder, while others hit his back and neck, yet they never managed to pierce his defenses. Before the armour could suffer the full force of the blunt impact, Vlad would push them back with a counterstrike.

As time went by, Vlad’s swordsmanship became sharper and sharper, or more accurately, it began returning to how it should be now that he was becoming accustomed to his new body.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The hall was filled with bright, star-like sparks from the deafening strikes of steel meeting steel.

Together with his monstrous physique and fully unleashed Sword Aura, every one of Vlad’s strikes became lethal.

Yet the puppets didn’t seem like random pushovers either. The material they were made of was extremely durable, as if their creator had perfectly predicted Vlad’s strength and prepared them accordingly.

Vlad couldn’t afford to take this fight casually. One mistake, and they would immediately break through his defenses.

To increase the pressure upon himself, Vlad moved the armour back into the ring. There was no place for external protection during training.

He swung his sword in a wide horizontal arc, pushing all the puppets in front of him several feet backward.

The weapons of the puppets behind him were about to strike his bare back when he muttered,

"ZHAEKOR!" (Lightning!)

A bolt of lightning struck the puppets with a loud thunderclap, illuminating the hall in a crimson glow.

The sound of short circuits followed next. The puppets vibrated violently before falling to the floor, smoke rising from their metallic bodies.

He immediately pointed his hand toward the puppets in front of him and roared,

"KHAROTH!" (Devour!)

A large, shadow-like figure emerged from the floor beneath the puppets. Its wide, mawing mouth bit off the lower bodies of more than five puppets at once. Their broken upper bodies fell to the floor, only to be immediately buried beneath the footsteps of the puppets behind them.

Vlad pointed his sword toward the incoming puppets, the Aura around it turning violent as dark flames rose from its surface.

"Sword of Abyss: Chapter One:

Finger of Annihilation!"

From the tip of the blade, a finger as tall as Vlad himself, with a sharp, pointed nail, emerged and shot forward.

It pierced cleanly through dozens of puppets, devouring any part it came into contact with.

When it vanished, a gaping hole was visible through the puppets’ bodies, revealing its unstoppable path.

As the number of fallen puppets increased, the pressure on Vlad naturally decreased.

Only around twenty puppets remained when Vlad slammed his hand onto the ground and whispered,

"Thael!" (Bind!)

A web of concentrated crimson lightning descended upon the remaining puppets, holding them in place. Those who tried to cut through it instantly suffered a powerful electrical shock.

"Stay there while I use my final blow," Vlad ordered, his lips slowly rising into a smile.

He stabbed the sword into the ground and closed his eyes.

His mana began increasing rapidly, transforming into a pillar of dark energy. The air around him shifted, and the debris on the ground slowly began rising a few inches into the air.

"Draekarys!" (Awaken!)

Vlad whispered as he opened his eyes, revealing his vertical slit irises.

The pillar of energy that had been rising upward from his body suddenly descended with crushing pressure. The small debris turned into fine particles, and even the puppets before him had their backs bent beneath the sudden pressure.

His nails elongated, turning sharp like the claws of a beast. His ears became pointed. The obsidian-like scales around his forearms reflected the faint light of the glow stones.

"GRRR..." A deep, growling voice came from his mouth as his draconic gaze fixed upon the puppets ahead.

He moved his index finger upward, lifting the net from the puppets. They immediately rushed toward him, their Aura-laced weapons pointed at Vlad.

Crackles of crimson lightning danced across Vlad’s feet. The weapons were about to strike him when he suddenly vanished from his position.

The next moment, he was standing on the other side, leaving behind a trail of crimson lightning.

The bodies of the puppets were hurled outward from the sheer aftershock of Vlad’s movement. As if that wasn’t enough, they were all chopped into multiple pieces by Vlad’s claws.

Only the metallic debris fell to the ground with loud thuds.

Ding...

[Congratulations! You have cleared the final floor of the Ascension Dungeon!

For successfully finishing the tutorial, you have triggered the requirement to enter the Floor of Inheritance!]