"A... dragon??!"
One of the men cried out, his voice trembling as disbelief overwhelmed him. His eyes widened, and he continued in astonishment,
"They were telling the truth... It's—"
Before he could finish, Valerius immediately clamped a hand over his mouth and whispered sharply,
"You fool... You nearly woke him..."
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
Every pair of eyes remained fixed upon the colossal dragon lying in the distance. Their hearts were torn between countless emotions. Terror. Awe. Disbelief. Excitement. None of them could truly believe that the legendary creature standing at the pinnacle of existence was right before their eyes...
Yet...
None of them knew...
That Gyre had never been asleep to begin with...
Inside his mind...
"Hm... It's been quite some time since that idiot, Daem, made any sort of move..."
A brief silence followed...
"The longer he remains inactive... the more suspicious I become."
He let out a quiet sigh...
"Very well... As the eldest among them—and undoubtedly the wisest—it falls upon me to gather those two fools. We'll work together... and deal with him ourselves."
Meanwhile...
Valerius and his men continued watching the immense dragon from afar. Although his body remained motionless, it looked as though he could awaken at any second...
The soldiers exchanged anxious glances...
Then...
Valerius made his decision...
"We strike before he wakes."
Without another word, every man began advancing on the tips of his toes, suppressing his very presence until it nearly vanished...
A suffocating silence enveloped them...
With every cautious step...
The distance between them and the dragon shrank...
Yet strangely...
Each step felt heavier than the last...
Sweat dripped down their faces...
The faint clattering of trembling teeth echoed through the silence...
Uneven breaths escaped despite every desperate attempt to suppress them...
Minutes passed...
Yet to every man present...
Those minutes stretched into what felt like endless hours...
Suddenly...
One of the dragon's eyelids twitched...
Everyone froze...
No one dared breathe...
They were only a hair's breadth away from waking him...
Then...
Grrrrrr...
A deep rumble escaped the dragon's throat while he still appeared to be asleep...
One of the soldiers nearly lost his mind...
His knees buckled beneath him...
He collapsed onto the ground...
And that...
Was enough...
The dragon's massive eye slowly opened...
Its golden iris stopping directly in front of the trembling soldier...
"He's... awake!!!"
someone screamed...
A deafening roar erupted into the heavens...
The sky itself seemed to tremble beneath its might...
Gyre slowly looked around, trying to understand what was happening...
Roughly twenty humans surrounded him...
Half of them had already collapsed from sheer terror...
The rest barely remained standing...
His sharp gaze swept across each of them...
At first...
His eyes carried nothing but caution...
Then...
Little by little...
That caution faded.
"Humans...???"
he thought...
"Creatures of a lower hierarchy..."
"One of our ancient enemies..."
For a brief moment, he remained silent.
Then memories surfaced...
The words of their Lord...
"Ending the war with mankind... was the wise decision..."
"They are nothing more than insects..."
"Rarely... does one among them prove worthy of admiration..."
Without another glance...
He turned his back on them...
His massive wings unfolded...
He intended to leave...
The soldiers stared in complete confusion.
Was he...
Actually leaving???
Before anyone could react—
Valerius exploded forward...
His eyes burned with an overwhelming desire to kill...
The instant that murderous intent erupted...
Gyre turned toward him...
Not because he had seen him.
But because he had felt the hatred itself.
"What... is this???"
A flaming fist shot straight toward his face.
For only a fraction of a second...
Gyre focused on the man's intentions.
Then realization struck...
"This human..."
"He stands on equal footing with a Low-Tier Dragon."
He attempted to evade...
But suddenly...
His body became impossibly heavy...
Gravity...
An invisible force crushed him in place, stealing away his chance to dodge.
BOOOOOOM!!!
A thunderous explosion shook the battlefield...
Dust engulfed everything.
When it finally dispersed...
Not a single scratch could be seen upon Gyre's body...
He slowly lowered his gaze toward Valerius.
Then his voice thundered across the battlefield.
"You reckless human..."
"Do you have any idea what you're doing???"
"You dare raise your hand against a being whose very existence stands above your own..."
His eyes narrowed...
"Either your confidence borders on madness..."
"...or your...ignorance knows no limits..."
He beat his wings...
Despite the crushing force of Valerius' gravity, Gyre forced his massive body free through sheer strength alone...
A violent gale erupted across the battlefield...
The raging winds swept everything away, hurling Valerius and his men backward as if they weighed nothing...
But Valerius reacted instantly...
The air itself bent to his will...
He reversed the flow of the wind, transforming the force that sought to repel him into an overwhelming burst of acceleration...
His body shot forward like a blazing comet...
Then...
Another punch...
Far stronger than the first...
His fist, engulfed in roaring flames, crashed straight toward the dragon once again...
For the first time...
A trace of annoyance appeared on Gyre's face...
The indifference that had filled his eyes disappeared...
He raised his head and unleashed another roar...
This one was different...
Short...
Yet incomparably more terrifying.
The instant the roar ended...
The air vanished...
Not a breeze remained.
Silence consumed the battlefield.
The soldiers instinctively grabbed their throats.
Their lungs refused to expand.
Their desperate gasps produced nothing...
One after another, they collapsed onto their knees, desperately clawing at the empty air.
Panic spread like wildfire.
Their vision blurred.
Some had already begun losing consciousness.
Seeing his men suffocating before his eyes, Valerius immediately extended his hand.
The surrounding winds answered his command.
Streams of fresh air rushed back into the battlefield, filling every pair of lungs.
The soldiers collapsed forward, coughing violently as they greedily inhaled breath after breath.
From afar...
Gyre's eyes narrowed.
"Three elements...???"
He studied Valerius more carefully than before...
"I was under the impression that humans could wield no more than two..."
"In fact... most of them barely possess one."
For the first time since awakening...
The human standing before him had earned a fraction of his attention...
Valerius slowly turned toward his men...
Their fear was obvious.
Their resolve had begun to crumble.
He took a slow breath before speaking.
"I know every one of you is afraid."
His voice remained calm.
"And I swear before you all..."
"I'm even more afraid than you are."
The soldiers silently lifted their eyes toward him.
"But fear..."
He clenched his burning fist...
"...isn't the only thing beating inside our hearts..."
His gaze sharpened...
"Think about your families."
"Think about the people waiting for us to return."
"Think about those who gave their lives..."
"...so that we could stand here today."
His voice suddenly thundered across the battlefield.
"If we fall here..."
"There will be no tomorrow for Crag."
He pointed directly at Gyre.
"So fight!!!"
"Fight for those who entrusted us with their future!!!"
Without waiting for anyone...
Valerius charged toward the dragon once more...
Deep inside...
He was convinced...
No one would follow him.
Then—
A unified roar echoed behind him.
"FOR CRAG!!!"
The cry shook the battlefield...
Valerius looked back.
Every single one of his men...
Without exception...
Had overcome their fear.
They were charging beside him.
A faint smile appeared across his face...
Not because victory was certain...
But because none of them had abandoned their resolve...
He turned his eyes toward Gyre one final time.
His voice rang with absolute conviction...
"Prepare yourself..."
"Your death..."
"...is coming..."