Just before the war hammer could strike Noah, Leon arrived, descending from the sky like an avenging god, a savior emerging from the chaos itself.
His timing was flawless. His feet landed directly on the head of Adam's hammer, the immense force of his impact driving the massive weapon deep into the ground with a thunderous crunch.
Without a moment's hesitation, Leon spun in a blur of motion, delivering a devastating side kick crackling with raw lightning. Adam, who had been gripping the hammer's handle with all his might, had no choice but to release his weapon or risk having his arms torn from their sockets.
The concussive force of the kick sent Adam flying dozens of meters backward. His shoulder screamed in agony as he skidded to a violent stop, his feet carving deep, smoking trenches into the forest floor.
Once he steadied himself, Adam clutched his dislocated arm, his lone dragon eye locking onto Leon with a volatile mix of rage and newfound unease.
"So, this is the man 'Shadow' warned us about... Leon Cosmodeous. It seems your reputation is not exaggerated," Adam growled through gritted teeth.
The sheer, focused power behind Leon's seemingly simple kick was something only another seasoned warrior could truly appreciate—it was pure, efficient destruction without a single ounce of wasted movement.
"Hah! Attacking by surprise? If you're so strong, face me in a proper fight!" Adam roared, adjusting his stance despite the searing pain radiating through his body.
"It doesn't matter how many of you come at me," Adam continued, his voice dripping with venom. "The outcome won't change. Leon Cosmodeous, someone has paid a very high price for the heads of your entire family—"
"I'm going to kill you."
The air itself seemed to freeze and crackle as Leon's voice cut through the fog, sharp and final as a executioner's blade.
A sharp, keening cry like that of a thunderbird echoed, and Leon's figure became clearer. His voice was cold as the void, carrying a weight of absolute conviction that even the thousand-year-old Warhammer Dragon King could not ignore. Adam found himself involuntarily taking a step back.
"What... what did you say?" Adam stammered, the words feeling foreign in his mouth.
"I'm going to kill you."
"This isn't a threat. It's not a boast."
"It is a statement of fact."
A fork of lightning split the mist, starkly illuminating Leon's face—a mask of grim, cold fury filled with an overwhelming, palpable killing intent.
Adam, for the first time in centuries, found himself speechless. His pride screamed at him to laugh, to counter with arrogance, but the words died in his throat.
Seconds ticked by in the electrified silence before Adam finally forced himself to swallow and barked out, "If you're so confident, then prove it—"
Leon vanished.
His speed defied comprehension. By the time Adam's brain registered the movement, Leon was already at his right side, moving like a phantom born of the storm itself.
"You're blind in your left eye, relying only on your right," Leon remarked, his tone analytical and cold.
Electricity surged around Leon's arm, coalescing into a massive, clawed gauntlet of pure, crackling lightning.
"So tactically, attacking from your left blind spot would be the obvious choice..."
With speed that blurred reality, Leon's lightning-claw shot out and clamped down on Adam's throat, lifting him off his feet and then slamming him down into the earth with apocalyptic force.
BOOM!
The ground cratered beneath Adam's massive frame, fissures spreading outward like a monstrous spiderweb.
"Cough—!" Adam spat a fountain of blood, the world swimming in a daze of pain and impact.
The blood sizzled and evaporated instantly upon contact with Leon's superheated lightning claw.
"But I don't need cheap tactics to kill a mongrel like you," Leon spat, his voice colder than glacial ice.
"Go to hell! You haven't won yet!" Adam roared, his hands gripping Leon's arm in a desperate, futile struggle. Despite the searing heat and electricity charring his flesh, he fought to pry the claw from his neck.
His resistance was pathetic, the last thrashing of a cornered beast.
Leon had no patience for it. With a contemptuous flick of his wrist, he hurled Adam's massive body through the air like a ragdoll.
Adam's eyes widened in brief shock as he was freed, his instincts screaming to retaliate. Mid-air, he twisted, opening his jaws to unleash a counterattack.
"Fool," Leon muttered.
Before Adam could act, a blazing kick, wreathed in crimson fire, slammed into his back.
"ARGH!" Adam howled as the flames scorched his spine, burning through his legendary dragon scales as if they were parchment.
"You dare harm children, and yet you accuse others of betrayal?" Constantine's voice boomed as he towered over Adam's crashing form.
The Crimson Flame Dragon King pressed Adam deeper into the ground with his foot, then raised his leg high before stomping down onto Adam's chest with the force of a meteor.
THUD!
The earth exploded outward. Blood spilled from Adam's mouth, pooling in the hot, newly formed cracks.
Constantine's fiery red eyes blazed down at Adam, his voice a low, menacing rumble.
"For thirty years, Adam... my daughter has slept beneath the enchanted waters, trapped in crystal, for thirty years because of you."
"I have spent every single moment since that day dreaming of the ways I would kill you."
"And today, not even the Dragon God herself can save you from me."
Raising his hands high, Constantine summoned a colossal inferno, the flames twisting and compressing into a gigantic, burning fist above his head.
"You think you can kill me?" Adam sneered, forcing out a mocking laugh through the blood. "Thirty years ago, you couldn't save your own daughter. What makes you think you can accomplish anything now, you old fool?"
"You're doing this to ease your own guilt, aren't you? How pathetic."
"You should be thanking me. Without me, you wouldn't have this chance to play the redeemed hero by helping this human!"
"Back then, I should have torn your precious daughter limb from—"
BOOM!
Constantine's flaming fist smashed down, the roar of the inferno silencing Adam's taunts forever. The ground glowed molten red as the force of the blow scorched everything in its radius, purging the area with cleansing fire.
.
.
Leon approached, standing beside Constantine as they gazed down at Adam's broken, smoldering form.
Neither man spoke. They didn't need to. Their vengeance was a quiet, profound satisfaction that radiated from their shared silence.
A weak, rasping gurgle broke through the quiet.
"Humans... dragons... working together... truly... unprecedented..."
"You think you've won... but I'll drag that brat down with me!" Adam roared with his last breath as a final surge of black, chaotic energy erupted from his chest, forcing Leon and Constantine to step back from the violent outburst.
When the dust cleared, Adam was using his last vestige of strength to charge toward where Noah lay, her body limp and utterly defenseless.
"Noah!" Leon's roar was raw, filled with a father's primal desperation.
Adam's twisted grin widened as he lunged. "Cosmodeous, you'll live the rest of your life in agony over your daughter's corpse, just like Constantine has!"
Just as Adam's claw was about to touch Noah, a single, sharp gunshot rang out, precise and final.
BANG!
A single, magically-enhanced bullet tore through the air, striking Adam's remaining good eye with unerring accuracy.
"ARGH! My eye! My eye!!" Adam howled, clawing at his face as the bullet's enchantment actively disintegrated his optic nerve, plunging him into permanent, absolute darkness.
A green blur darted past the writhing dragon. Rebecca, moving with impossible speed, scooped up Noah's unconscious form and dashed to safety.
Turning briefly, she smirked at the blinded beast. "Warhammer Dragon King? More like the Blind Dragon King now!"
.
.
Adam collapsed, his body twitching as blood streamed from the ruins of his eyes. His strength utterly spent, he could only lean against a shattered boulder, his breaths shallow and wet.
Leon and Constantine stood over him one final time.
Adam raised his head weakly, a bitter, bloody laugh escaping his lips. "Leon... you're searching for 'Shadow,' aren't you?"
Leon remained silent, his dark gaze an unyielding promise of death.
"I have information... information you want. Let me go, and I'll lead you straight to him," Adam croaked, his words dripping with desperate bargaining.
Leon's expression did not change.
"Don't you want to know why 'Shadow' sent me here? Or where Queen Elizabeth is hiding?"
"I can give you all the answers. Just... let me live."
Finally, Leon spoke, his voice devoid of any mercy, any quarter.
"You misunderstood something, Adam."
Lightning surged, condensing around Leon's raised hand into a blade of pure, focused annihilation.
"The moment you raised your weapon against my daughter, you were already a dead man."
BOOM!
The lightning blade fell, and the Warhammer Dragon King knew no more.