The creature had climbed the wall. The injured man saw it too, his expression collapsed into pure hopelessness.
Syltra couldn't move. Her legs refused to respond. She slowly turned to face it.
Its face was just inches away. Rows of sharp fangs. Skulls wedged between them.
A half-digested human hand poking between molars. 'It stinks…' That was the first thought that entered her mind.
Of course it stinks. It probably hadn't cleaned its mouth in centuries. Or maybe… maybe she was just trying not to panic.
A deep, low growl rumbled out from its throat. The vibration shook her bones. She felt like her entire life was flashing before her eyes.
Growing up in a poor orphanage. Making it into the academy when no one thought she would. Every day after that had been a fight just to survive.
The one time things changed, when she met her odd, sharp-tongued teacher. He trained her until she reached silver rank.
Once, she saw a black dragon. It was just a sub-dragon, her teacher said. But the fear? That had been real.
She remembered running that day. Running and wanting to live. And now… that same terror gripped her heart.
This thing, it gave off the same pressure. The same roar. The same feeling of death creeping close.
Everything felt slower. Like the world paused just for her. She clenched her jaw. She was too scared to even cry.
But her hand tightened around her wand. With everything she had left, she pulled on the last threads of magic inside her.
Cold air whipped around her, barely forming a spell. Just pure elemental force. She charged just like a moth to the flame.
If she was going to die, then she'd take a piece of this thing with her. "Screw you!!" she yelled.
The monster roared back, jaws opening wide, But then a howling surge of wind slammed down from above.
A blast of freezing power crashed into the wall. It struck the monster mid-roar, ice swallowing its entire body.
In an instant, it froze solid, locked in a weird pose, then shattered under the weight of the frozen blast.
The battlefield went quiet.
"ROOAAARRRR!!" A new roar echoed across the sky.
Something even bigger descended, wings spread wide like shadows over the earth. Its cry rumbled like thunder.
Syltra's eyes widened. She knew that sound. The dragon had returned.
***
"I might've overdone it a bit." Belial casually flicked aside the mangled lower half of a beast he'd torn in two.
The grotesque chunk of flesh, easily several meters long, hit the ground with a wet splat, splashing dark, stinking blood and shaking the cracked earth. He'd heard about lizards breaking off their tails to escape predators, but this… this was something else.
That thing had torn off its entire lower body just to crawl away. And to make it worse, the creature had clearly gone through some weird genetic mutations, its flesh rotten, its stench unbearable. It was so disgusting that it completely killed his appetite.
He glanced down at the city beneath him. Once a chaotic battleground, it now stood reborn under his ice magic, transformed into a frozen fortress of towering spires and crystalized walls.
Every last monster had been wiped out. From below, the surviving humans, no bigger than ants in his eyes, still tried to catch a glimpse of his enormous figure, even though he'd already cloaked himself with stealth magic.
Honestly, he'd done them a favor. In fact, he'd originally thought about trying to talk with the humans, maybe even make peace.
But that idea flew out the window after one particular incident.
He checked the system status in his mind [Download Progress: 17.56%… Network Disconnected. Please relocate to a better network zone…]
"Seriously? Not again," he muttered, letting out a long sigh as he flapped his wings.
That, more than anything, was the real reason he took off again. Every time the system needed signal, it dragged him around like a giant Wi-Fi seeker.
To reconnect, he'd follow its directions, blasting nearby strongholds with wide-area magic, hunting high-tier magical beasts and absorbing their energy. It was the only way to unlock bits and pieces of the system menu.
But even after leveling an entire city and hoarding its mana, he barely got a few seconds of stable signal, never enough to finish the download or crack the main system lock.
Thankfully, there were always more cities to visit. In just one day, he'd flown over three major cities, and every single one of them was already under siege from beast tides. And every single time, he wiped out all the monsters in one go.
Problem was, the connection always dropped after a minute or two, leaving him no choice but to keep moving. What caught him off guard was one lucky bastard of a magical beast that survived his massive blizzard spell. Even after being torn in half, it somehow managed to slip away.
At first, he didn't notice. Then he wondered, why hadn't he absorbed any mana from that last kill? Turning around, he caught a glimpse of the creature, its shredded torso dragging behind it, fleeing into the chaos of the horde in very fast speed.
It disappeared into the crowd like smoke in a windstorm. A few of the weaker monsters followed it, probably its minions.
They were the only ones lucky enough to dodge his spells. At his current level, even high-ranking magical beasts couldn't last long. Most would get frozen solid before they even realized they were under attack.
With a gust of wind, Belial launched himself into the sky like a missile. He surged through clouds with bone-shaking speed, cutting through thunderheads and snowstorms as if nothing could stop him.
If he flew any lower, just the shockwaves from his wings would've caused a disaster on the ground. He had entered the Northlands not long ago, a region buried in snow and thick with mana.
After devouring thousands of magical creatures, his body had grown again, now towering over forty meters tall. Though his shape hadn't changed drastically, his frame was thicker, his muscles heavier.
Every breath he took shook the air, and crystal-like spikes had started forming along his tail. His grip on magic had also evolved. Ice and wind were now second nature, and his understanding of rune formations had deepened. Every spell he cast packed way more punch.
He no longer relied on gravity flight alone either. With magical propulsion, he was hitting near-supersonic speeds, approaching Mach 3. And thanks to his cosmic sense, he never lost track of where he was, even inside the densest storm clouds.
A deafening boom echoed behind him as he blasted forward, locked onto the scent trail of that beast that had gotten away. His eyes narrowed. "Hmm… tons of monster signatures up ahead. And blood. Perfect."