Chapter 74: Second Hunt Finale [3]

Ser Hughway’s thick eyebrows furrowed into a deep, anxious crease as a sudden, violent vibration rattled the soles of his boots.

He snapped his head upward, sweeping his keen gaze across the smoky horizon, expecting to see the colossal obsidian silhouette of Dark Sister hovering above to lock down the skies.

She was nowhere to be seen.

A cold jolt of alarm shot down the veteran Sword Master’s spine.

If the 4th-Tier Dragon was no longer maintaining her high-altitude patrol, it could only mean one terrifying truth:

Viscount Craig had descended directly into the heart of the blazing central area.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ser Hughway kicked off the dirt, surging forward like a silver cannonball and plunging straight through the wall of roaring dragonfire.

"Commander! What is it? What’s wrong?!" Ser Damian shouted from behind, his legs blurring as he pushed his physical limits to keep pace with the Master.

"Dark Sister is no longer in the upper canopy!" Ser Hughway bellowed over the crackle of burning ironwood trees, his face set in grim panic.

"That means the Lord Viscount has landed in the central zone alone! We must reach him immediately! Protect his life at all costs!"

The moment the words left Hughway’s lips, Damian’s expression instantly locked in.

His dark eyes burned with intense, unwavering focus.

Channeling his inner mana, the First Dragonknight unleashed an explosive burst of speed, leaving a trail of kicked-up embers in his wake as both men raced toward the epicenter of the inferno.

Meanwhile, inside the ash-choked clearing, Craig had already drawn his refined arming sword with a crisp, ringing whistle of steel.

He didn’t waste a single second standing on ceremony.

SWOOSH!

Using the explosive mobility of his Dragon’s Heart, Craig vanished from his spot, covering dozens of meters in a fraction of a breath.

He materialized directly before a pair of snarling Red-Scaled Deers that had survived the initial aerial strike.

BANG!

Bringing his blade down in a heavy, ruthless vertical arc, Craig cleaved the first 1st-Tier abomination cleanly in half from crown to torso.

Corrupted, greenish blood erupted like a fountain, splashing across the scorched earth.

The second Red-Scaled Deer let out a bloodthirsty screech, its grey, vacant eyes fixing on Craig.

Baring its razor-sharp fangs, the 2.1-meter-tall beast lunged with terrifying kinetic force, aiming to crush Craig’s ribs beneath its heavy, scaled hooves.

Craig’s lips curled into a smirk.

With airborne nimbleness, he twisted his torso mid-air, dodging the crushing blow by a hair’s breadth.

He landed silently behind the beast like a predatory cat.

He was entirely alone in this pocket of smoke.

There were no knights around to witness his subtle maneuvers, making this the absolute perfect opportunity to field-test his newly acquired A-Grade Talent:

Sensory Disruptor.

Focusing his intent, Craig mentally triggered the talent, selecting the second Red-Scaled Deer as his target.

In an instant, the abomination’s visual input was completely severed from its eyes and rerouted—linking its optical perception directly to Craig’s groin.

SCREECH?!

The effect was instantaneous and completely devastating.

The mutated deer freaked out entirely, its grey eyes rolling into the back of its head as its brain was flooded with an utterly incomprehensible, alien sensory feed.

Blinded, disoriented, and driven into pure, chaotic terror, the beast began wildly thrashing its antlers, goring the empty air and kicking violently at trees it couldn’t see.

Craig didn’t wait for the creature to recover.

Step-pivoting into a clean execution stance, he whipped his sword around in a blinding horizontal line.

SLICE!

The abomination’s heavy head flew off its shoulders, spinning through the air before thudding heavily onto the ground.

Craig flicked his wrist, sending a shower of greenish monster blood off his blade.

He barely glanced at the two twitching corpses.

These were merely 1st-Tier fodder—they possessed no unique conceptual traits or divine bloodlines worth absorbing, so devouring their remains was a complete waste of effort.

However, the warm-up was quickly over.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Through the swirling curtain of black smoke, four more massive Red-Scaled Deers burst into the clearing, their hooves churning the molten dirt as they locked onto Craig in a desperate, pack-driven charge.

Craig tightened his calloused grip on his sword handle, shifting his weight onto the balls of his feet.

A thrill of combat hunger coursed through his veins—he was fully prepared to clash head-on with the pack.

ROAR!!

Suddenly, a deafening, sky-shattering roar erupted from directly behind him!

Dark Sister, who had landed near the edge of the grove to guard her master’s rear, saw the four beasts charging toward Craig.

Protecting her sovereign above all else, the massive 4th-Tier Dragon opened her terrifying jaws and unleashed a sweeping wave of dark crimson dragonfire across the clearing!

KABOOM!

The incinerating blast swept over the four Red-Scaled Deers before they could even get within twenty meters of Craig, turning all four abominations into piles of glowing, disintegrated ash in less than two seconds.

Dark Sister lowered her massive head, letting out a soft, proud rumble as if expecting praise for her vigilant defense.

However, instead of smiling, Craig’s face darkened.

He lowered his sword, his golden eyes narrowing in genuine displeasure.

"Zira, Dark Sister," Craig muttered in a low, cold voice.

(Calm down, Dark Sister)

While he understood her protective instincts, her intervention had robbed him of a vital combat exchange.

Craig knew his current martial standing with absolute clarity.

As a Sword Apprentice, he had painstakingly pushed himself to realize his physical limits.

By climbing to the Middle-stage, he had come to thoroughly understand those limits.

Now, he stood at the absolute threshold—he was completely ready to breakthrough into the Sword Runner class.

The singular, primary reason he had personally organized this high-risk deployment into a C-level danger zone was to complete the mandatory Ascension Ritual for the Sword Runner class.

According to the rigid laws of the martial path, to ascend into a Sword Runner, a warrior had to be pushed to the absolute brink of death in a genuine life-and-death struggle—and emerge victorious through sheer, unyielding willpower.

Indiscriminately burning everything to cinders with a 4th-Tier dragon would never fulfill the ritual’s strict conceptual requirements.

To break through his ceiling, Craig needed a real wall to overcome.

He had to face the primary threat of this forest—the mutated 2nd-Tier Abomination—in single, unassisted combat.

He had to stand against the beast alone, feel the cold touch of true mortality, and slaughter it with his own hands.

Craig took a deep breath, his dark golden eyes igniting with a sharp, draconic fire as he looked deeper into the burning thickets, where a towering, dark energy was finally beginning to stir.