Chapter 48: Strength of a Dragon [1]

Leaving Dark Sister to her violent, blood-soaked feast in the center of the burning grove, Craig drifted toward the edge of the clearing.

The air here was thick with ash and swirling embers, echoing with the crackle of burning iron-wood.

He took a slow, measured breath, his fingers tightening firmly around the leather-bound handle of his arming sword until the knuckles of his gloved hand turned white.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The ground shuddered beneath his boots.

Through his heightened dragon senses, Craig picked up the heavy, rhythmic vibrations of massive hooves churning through the soil.

Two Three-Headed Rhinos—their thick, rocky hides scorched by stray dragonfire and their grey eyes bloodshot with frantic rage—erupted from the thick smoke twenty paces away.

Seeing a solitary human standing in their path, the two 1st-Tier Abominations let out ear-splitting roars, lowering their three-horned foreheads as they surged forward at full speed.

They moved like twin battering rams, intent on crushing the young Viscount into a bloody paste against the scorched earth.

Craig’s lips curled into a faint, dangerous smirk.

He didn’t step back.

He didn’t call upon Dark Sister. He welcomed the charging monstrosities with open arms.

When the leading rhino was mere inches from tearing into his torso, Craig moved.

His body shifted with terrifying, absolute precision—a fluid display of bodily control and spatial awareness forged across forty years of grueling survival in his past life.

With a subtle pivot of his rear foot, he leaned his upper body back by a fraction of an inch.

The primary horn of the massive beast whistled harmlessly past his chest, the wind generated by its speed ruffling his dark crimson battle suit.

Without breaking his momentum, Craig transferred his weight into his left leg and leaped into the air.

SWOOSH!

He vaulted directly over the shoulders of the second charging rhino, twisting his body mid-air like a spinning hawk.

As he hovered momentarily above the beast, his arming sword became a blur of silver light.

Thanks to his Monarch of Swords Talent, every swing of his blade was executed with absolute, divine perfection.

In the single second it took for gravity to pull him back down, Craig struck six times.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

THUD!

Craig landed lightly on his boots five paces behind them, his sword held low at his side.

Behind him, both Three-Headed Rhinos stumbled, their massive hooves plowing uselessly into the dirt as they staggered violently.

Deep, precise lacerations had opened across their thick armor plating, severing their tendons and spraying streams of dark, corrupted blood onto the ash-covered grass.

Craig wasn’t finished.

Before the beasts could recover their footing, he closed the distance in a fraction of a second, his boots kicking up a small cloud of soot as his figure blurred.

BANG!

Appearing directly at the flank of the first wounded rhino, Craig unleashed a horizontal strike infused with the pure physical speed of his body.

The steel edge cut straight through the dense, bone-like armor plate protecting the beast’s neck, cleaving through the first two heads in a single, brutal arc!

SPURT!

The severed heads tumbled into the dirt, and the 1st-Tier Abomination screeched out in agony.

A violent shockwave of raw, unrefined abyssal mana erupted from its gaping wounds, sweeping outward like a dark tempest that flattened the burning brush nearby.

In the complex hierarchy of Abominations, the vast majority of 1st-Tier beasts existed purely as brutal physical monsters, lacking specialized bloodline abilities.

Only a rare few possessed a distinct "Trait"—such as acidic spit, shadow-stepping, or explosive mana bursts—which rendered them infinitely more lethal to ordinary Superhuman hunting parties.

However, the Three-Headed Rhinos Craig was currently dissecting possessed zero Traits.

They were nothing more than mounds of armored flesh and brute force.

To someone like Craig, they were merely oversized target practice.

Unmoved by the creature’s screeching or the wave of dark mana washing over his clothes, Craig stepped inside the beast’s guard and thrust his blade upward.

The steel drove straight through the lower jaw of the remaining third head, piercing its brain stem and killing the beast instantly.

With a heavy, dull thud, the headless carcass collapsed onto the dirt.

Craig smoothly pulled his sword free and turned his golden eyes toward the second rhino.

The remaining 1st-Tier Abomination, its hide bleeding profusely from the deep slashes Craig had inflicted earlier, huffed hot steam from its nostrils.

The two opponents locked eyes, keeping a brief, tense distance in the quiet clearing.

Then, Craig did something that would have horrified any veteran knight.

CLANG.

With a cool, nonchalant expression, Craig slid his arming sword back into its leather scabbard.

He raised his bare, gloved hands and slowly clenched them into fists, cracking his knuckles with a sharp click.

His eyes gleamed with a predatory light.

He wanted to test the raw, unadulterated physical limits of his newly awakened Divine Draconic Physique—without relying on steel or mana.

Perceiving the human’s sudden lack of a weapon, the rhino’s primitive instincts took over. It didn’t care about its wounds or the lingering threat; it simply wanted to gurgle the human’s blood.

With a furious roar, the beast charged blindly forward, driving its heavy, rock-hard horns straight at Craig’s stomach.

Craig widened his stance, dropping his center of gravity by an inch.

BOOM!

The multi-ton beast collided directly with the young Viscount.

Yet, instead of Craig being shattered or flung fifty yards into the tree line, a shocking scene unfolded.

Craig didn’t yield a single inch.

The stone ground beneath his boots fractured into a dozen web-like cracks, but his upper body remained completely stationary, like an immovable iron wall.

"Is that all the weight you carry?" Craig growled, his voice low and vibrating.

Before the rhino could pull back in shock, Craig reached out with both hands.

His fingers, empowered by the biological perfection of his dragon physique, clamped onto the beast’s horn-studded snout.

PUNCTURE!

His bare fingers pierced straight through the creature’s iron-hard armored hide and drove deep into its bleeding flesh like steel spikes!

The rhino let out a muffled, frantic screech of pain, but Craig merely grinned.

Muscles flexing along his arms and back, he lifted the several-ton 1st-Tier Abomination completely off the ground with his bare hands!

WHOOSH!

With a single, fluid burst of raw, biological power—and without using a single drop of internal mana.

Craig slammed the massive beast down onto the shattered stone floor with catastrophic force!

CRASH!

The impact shook the clearing, caving in the rhino’s chest cavity and causing it to cough up dark blood.

Standing over the dazed, paralyzed beast, Craig stepped onto its torso.

Reaching down with his bare, gloved hands, he grabbed the middle horn of the first head and pulled upward with ruthless, terrifying strength.

SNAP! CRUNCH!

With a sickening tear of bone, muscle, and hide, Craig manually ripped the rhino’s heads off one after another, painting the clearing red under the burning canopy of the Jeju Forest.

He had fought with the strength of a 1st-tier Dragon.