Even though his body had reached its limit and was on the brink of collapse, Arlette used his conviction and adrenaline to mobilize all his remaining physical functions.
The next moment, his body, which had become somewhat weak and limp, instantly woke up.
With a sudden flash of silver light, the shield in Arlette’s hand was swung out with great force. It struck the Companion Dragon that had previously pounced on him. A heavy metallic explosion instantly erupted on its skull. Even with hard scales for protection, the powerful impact penetrated through, making the massive monster stagger on the spot.
For a moment, the spectators on the surface were once again shocked by Arlette’s performance. Previously, they had watched every scene of how badly he was injured and how poor his condition was. Many spectators were even nervously worried about him. Just as everyone thought he would fall due to his weakened body, he burst forth with power that no one could have imagined.
Even the commentator was shocked once more, his colorful feathers trembling in fear.
“This, this…”
“This Heavy Knight contestant actually repelled a Companion Dragon purely with physical strength, without any magic or item buffs!”
“To be able to explode with this kind of power while injured, it seems his limits are far beyond our imagination!”
In an instant, all the spectators who knew what a Companion Dragon was went into an uproar.
“No way? You’re telling me he knocked that thing back two steps?”
“That’s a damn Companion Dragon! High physical strength and hardened scales!”
“He took on one entire team by himself earlier, with no recovery, and traveled this far, yet he can still keep fighting?”
“Is this guy really human?!”
Since Arlette first appeared, this rare Heavy Knight had refreshed the understanding of all the adventurers outside over and over again. Even though they all had the same profession and status, there was a chasm of a difference between themselves and him.
However, the price Arlette paid was also extremely heavy. Dark red blood began to gradually seep out from the gaps in his armor’s joints. He could clearly feel that after that one strike, the flesh on his hand had split. Even the bone might have been damaged.
Along with the searing heat, the flesh exposed under Arlette’s broken skin almost stuck directly to his armor. An intense burning sensation and piercing pain immediately transmitted into Arlette’s nerves, sending signals of agony to his brain.
However, Arlette didn’t care. At this moment, his entire body was riddled with holes. Whether it was the external flesh, the internal organs, or the bones, everything was on the verge of collapse. The pain he endured was so intense and massive that it had exceeded the limit of what he could bear, turning into numbness.
The current Arlette was like a pile of broken parts, held together and supported entirely by his iron will and adrenaline.
However, just as he had repelled one of the Companion Dragons and wanted to catch his breath, the other Companion Dragon pounced forward in the gap while its companion was pushed back. As a member of the dragon kin, the Companion Dragon possessed an extremely high level of intelligence.
After the previous companion temporarily lost its ability to fight, this Companion Dragon gave up on the method of charging and fighting with brute force. Instead, it used its agility to quickly carry out harassing attacks in front of and behind Arlette.
This happened to hit Arlette’s biggest weakness. As a Heavy Knight, he was already clumsy and heavy. Now, while his body was weak, he also had to endure multiple negative statuses like high heat and the heavy pressure of his armor. When facing an extremely agile Companion Dragon, he didn’t even have a chance to protect himself, let alone counterattack.
In an instant, Arlette’s armor, which had lost most of its magic resistance, was already torn open with several gashes and punctures by claws and bites. After losing its resistance protection, the heavy armor became like decorative cardboard that collapsed at a single blow before the Companion Dragon’s claws and teeth. Several times, those sharp claws directly broke through his defense, nearly disemboweling him on the spot.
“This beast…”
Arlette watched his own flesh begin to bleed, the blood overflowing bit by bit from the openings and leaving countless mottled red spots on his armor. Seeing that the other Companion Dragon was also gradually recovering from its brief dizziness, an overwhelming disadvantage began to spread.
Now, even just one Companion Dragon had put Arlette in a huge predicament. If the second Companion Dragon joined the battle, there would be no suspense in this fight.
Fortunately, he had delayed for long enough. Logically, Dela should have accumulated enough cold magic to slow the enemy down by now. As long as they could be controlled, and then the Lady took over as the core, consuming mana to kill them… they could definitely win this battle!
And he could successfully retreat to the rear, temporarily using healing magic to adjust his status to deal with the intense battle against the Fire Dragon later.
He gasped for breath, the scorching air filling his lungs from the inside out. Countless beads of sweat seeped from his skin and then entered the wounds on his broken flesh, causing wave after wave of pain with their salt. Seeing that the two Companion Dragons had gradually recovered their status and were about to attack him, Arlette took a few steps back.
“Dela! Cold magic!”
In this life-or-death moment, Arlette suddenly began to call out to the team’s mage.
“I’ve been waiting!”
The dragon-girl mage, Dela, instantly released her mana the moment she heard Arlette’s voice, and a strong blast of cold air erupted from her staff. In an instant, the cold air spread over the scales of the Companion Dragons, giving rise to a layer of snowy white frost. Their movements suddenly became sluggish, as if a video had suddenly been put into slow motion.
“Lady!!”
He opened his mouth and roared those words out with all his might. Now, he had successfully delayed the two Companion Dragons, exposing enough of their weaknesses. The Lady only needed to use enough mana to operate the secret blood kin techniques, and she could easily slay the two Companion Dragons.
“Lady!!”
Arlette roared this word representing hope from his throat with all his strength.
The next moment, that tall figure walked slowly to his side with the elegant gait unique to nobility. She looked at the two Companion Dragons not far away with disgust, her blood-red eyes full of loathing.
Hearing Meloe’s approaching footsteps, a sense of relief couldn’t help but well up in Arlette’s heart.
‘Great… next, as long as the Lady releases her ultimate move, we can easily break the situation. Then comes the Fire Dragon… I have to think carefully about how to face that guy next…’
Arlette’s entire body relaxed, and he breathed heavily, trying to adjust his condition. Then, he slowly turned his head toward Meloe and forced out the words:
“Lady, the condition of those two Companion Dragons has been mostly worn down. Next, as long as…”
However, before he could finish his sentence, Meloe did something unexpected. She didn’t launch an attack on the Companion Dragons at all. Instead, she reached her fingers into a gap in Arlette’s armor and pressed them against the blood kin brand on his neck.
Immediately, Arlette clearly felt that a large part of the physical sensation of that brand was gradually disappearing from his skin. To maintain the brand on Arlette’s body, Meloe had to keep approximately one-fifth of her mana in his body. Now, she was taking that mana back.
Then, Meloe still showed no intention of attacking the Companion Dragons. Instead, she turned around and left.
Arlette was dazed, not knowing for a moment what Meloe’s intention was. Just as he was still hesitating about whether to ask, the other party spoke first. What greeted him was a cold command —
“Arlette, those guys are about to catch up.”
“There’s no time to waste. You stay behind to hold off the Companion Dragons. We’ll go ahead and fight the Fire Dragon directly.”
“Wha…”
Arlette’s head buzzed. Her approaching him wasn’t to attack those monsters at all. It was merely to take back the remaining mana from his body. That was it.
Holding the line.
At this life-or-death moment for Arlette… Meloe gave him a command to hold the rear.
He wanted to say something, but a thousand words were stuck in his throat, and he couldn’t say even a single word for a long time. This was a command Arlette had been given countless times. At this moment when Arlette was most vulnerable, when he most needed cover and to recover his status, a moment when he could die at any time due to a single oversight, he was ordered to hold the rear.
Simply because she was afraid her title as Dragon Slayer would be stolen. Even though Meloe could have easily killed the Companion Dragons if she had just acted now.
Arlette looked at her face in disbelief. At this moment, those blood-red eyes of Meloe’s held only a massive indifference. She was a completely different person from the Lady who had chatted with him on the ship and shown him such gentleness.
The gentle Lady versus the cold Lady. Those two extremely familiar faces overlapped and conflicted in Arlette’s head, erupting with a sense of pain stronger than any wound.
“But… Lady. I can’t handle two Companion Dragons on my own, but if you…”
Arlette wanted to speak and struggle a bit, but he was ruthlessly interrupted by Meloe.
“How you deal with those two beasts is your problem.”
“If you can’t kill them, then put everything into delaying for time, then escape and wait for us on the surface.”
“That shouldn’t be difficult for you, should it?”