Chapter 49: Strength of a Dragon [2]

Craig stood firmly in the center of the quiet clearing, his crimson battle suit drenched in foul, dark blood.

None of the blood belonged to him; it was all harvested from the corpses of the abominations he had slaughtered with his bare hands.

Surrounding him were five fresh carcasses of Three-Headed Rhinos, including the two he had just ripped apart.

Their heavy, rock-like bodies littered the scorched earth, turning the clearing into a miniature slaughterhouse beneath the burning canopy of the Jeju Forest.

Craig took a slow, deep breath, evaluating his condition. He was thoroughly satisfied with his experiment.

He had officially confirmed the absolute baseline of his physical limits.

The Divine Draconic Physique was an incredible, transcendent blessing, but its raw capabilities were fundamentally bound to his current cultivation Realm.

Even though his strength, speed, and endurance far surpassed any ordinary Superhuman at the Sword Apprentice class, the biological vessel itself had hard limits.

He could handle a single 1st-Tier Abomination with complete, effortless ease—even without a blade.

Handling two simultaneously required absolute focus and precise body control.

But if three 1st-Tier beasts ambushed him at the same time? In his current, un-ascended state, it would become an incredibly troublesome, dangerous ordeal.

’I need to break through to the Sword Runner class as soon as possible,’ Craig realized internally, his golden eyes narrowing. ’My current physique is a sleeping powerhouse, but without the core foundation of a higher realm, I am merely scratching the surface of its true potential.’

Still, a flicker of dark curiosity burned in his mind.

He knew he could slaughter ordinary, traitless 1st-Tier beasts all day long. But could he handle a true anomaly in his current un-ascended state?

Could he defeat a 1st-Tier Abomination that had succeeded in awakening a specialized Trait?

As if answering his unspoken thought, the ambient temperature in the clearing suddenly dropped.

Craig tilted his head slightly toward the northern edge of the burning iron-wood thicket.

Acknowledging his limit, Craig smiled, he could feel it, he had leveled up by one stage.

He was now a Middle-stage Sword Apprentice.

Standing fifty paces away, half-concealed by drifting black ash, was another Three-Headed Rhino.

At first glance, it appeared similar to its dead kin, but a closer inspection revealed terrifying differences.

It was nearly double the size of an ordinary rhino, its rocky hide covered in strange, glowing grey veins that pulsed in rhythm with its heavy breathing.

Its three grey eyes did not burn with mindless, frantic rage; instead, they stared at Craig with a cold, unnatural malice.

Craig’s grin darkened as he confirmed the beast’s identity.

This was no ordinary straggler.

This was a rare 1st-Tier Abomination with a fully awakened Trait—the undisputed alpha, the King of the Three-Headed Rhinos ruling this northern region of the Jeju Forest.

The beast snorted, blowing two plumes of dark, icy steam from its snout.

It began to circle Craig from a distance, its heavy hooves striking the earth in a slow, calculated pacing.

Craig watched it calmly, making no immediate move to draw his weapon, maintaining a relaxed, casual stance.

Then, without warning, absolute darkness descended.

Craig’s vision went completely pitch-black. His eyebrows furrowed as a sudden, sickening sensation washed over his mind.

He didn’t just lose his eyesight; a suffocating, disorienting fog wrapped around his nervous system, scrambling his razor-sharp draconic perception.

Capitalizing on the young Viscount’s sudden vulnerability, the alpha rhino surged forward, driving its heavy hooves into the dirt with explosive speed.

It made no attempt to conceal its bloodlust, roaring as it closed the gap in a heartbeat.

Instinctively relying on his draconic reflexes, Craig tried to pivot to evade the incoming trajectory—but his deep frown darkened.

He couldn’t feel the air currents.

He couldn’t smell the metallic tang of the beast’s blood.

He couldn’t hear the thunderous impact of its hooves. His heightened senses weren’t just obstructed; they were completely scrambled!

BOOM!

The multi-ton alpha rhino rammed directly into Craig’s flank like a falling cliff face.

The kinetic force was catastrophic, blasting Craig off his feet and sending his body flying fifty yards through the air until he slammed violently against the trunk of an ancient, charred tree.

CRACK!

The tree shattered upon impact. Craig groaned, falling into the ash-covered dirt as intense pain flared across his back.

He gritted his teeth, trying to force his trembling body back onto his feet, but the relentless alpha gave him zero room to breathe.

RAM! STOMP!

Before Craig could regain his footing, the massive beast was on him again.

It trampled upon the young Viscount with merciless, brutal force, its iron-hard hooves stomping onto his limbs and crushing his body against the shattered rock.

A sickening crunch echoed through the clearing as the bone-shattering impacts twisted Craig’s arms and legs at unnatural angles.

If Craig had been an ordinary Superhuman Sword Apprentice—or even a seasoned Sword Runner—his organs would have been pulverized, his skull crushed, and his life ended in seconds.

But the absurd, biological durability of his Divine Draconic Physique saved his life.

His bone structure held, his skin refused to tear, and his internal organs endured the crushing weight.

Lying trapped beneath the brutal assault, Craig remained surprisingly calm, his mind working at lightning speed despite the agonizing pain racking his body.

He was still completely blind, his sight, hearing, and smell completely disoriented.

’This is the effect of its awakened Trait...’ Craig analyzed, piecing the puzzle together beneath the rain of heavy stomps. ’A sensory deprivation aura. It doesn’t halt senses entirely; it distorts and blocks them, turning a warrior into a blind, deaf target.’

His mind raced as he searched for a countermeasure.

How could he possibly fight back when he was blind, disoriented, and his limbs were broken?

In that split second of intense focus, Craig stopped relying on his blocked sensory perception.

Instead, he felt a localized tremor beneath his back.

The vibration of the soil.

The shifting mass of earth as the alpha raised its heavy head for a final, crushing blow straight to his chest.

It was coming again.

Craig braced himself for the collision. The moment the alpha rhino lowered its middle head and slammed its heavy snout into his sternum—

BANG!

Craig ignored the exploding pain in his ribs.

With a fierce, bloodthirsty roar, his broken right arm snapped forward, his hand locking onto one of the beast’s massive horns in a vice-like grip! He refused to let go!

"Grow!"

In response to his dark rage, sharp, obsidian dragon claws sprouted from his fingertips, piercing straight through the alpha’s rock-hard hide and driving deep into its skull flesh!

SCREECH!

The alpha rhino winced and shrieked in agony as dark, corrupted blood gushed from its head.

The beast thrashing wildly, rearing back and dancing around the clearing in a desperate attempt to fling the human off its body.

But Craig was relentless. Holding on with unyielding tenacity, he ignored the blinding pain in his fractured bones and forced his broken left arm upward.

He channeled a dense surge of dragon-tinted mana straight into his fingers, increasing his gripping force tenfold!

CRUNCH!

With a terrifying burst of raw, mana-enhanced strength, Craig crushed the rhino’s middle head into a bloody pulp!

The moment the primary head was destroyed, the sensory distortion weakened drastically.

Craig’s vision snapped back in an instant, the dark veil lifting from his eyes!

Though his smell and hearing remained partially blocked by the beast’s remaining two heads, seeing his enemy clearly was more than enough.

"My turn, you oversized cattle," Craig spat, his golden eyes blazing with pure, vindictive spite.

Still hanging onto the frantic beast, Craig dragged his mangled body along its back.

He infused his dragon mana directly into his feet and hands, driving his sharp claws straight into the alpha’s spinal column.

SNAP! CRACK!

With a brutal, sweeping flex of his full-body strength, Craig crushed the abomination’s spine, severing its central nervous system completely!

The several-ton alpha rhino let out a final, muffled groan as its hind legs collapsed uselessly beneath it.

Crippled and unable to move, the massive beast fell sideways into the dirt.

Craig slid off its back, standing over the paralyzed monster.

Without an ounce of mercy, he raised his dragon-clawed hand and drove it straight through the creature’s neck, ending the life of the 1st-Tier Alpha Abomination once and for all.