"Damn it."
Adam spat out a mouthful of coagulated blood. Though his right eye, recently blinded by Rebecca's shot, could barely perceive nearby shadows, he directed a weak but venomous glare toward Leon's general direction.
"I guess I've fallen into the hands of you lowly humans today. Do what you want—kill me however you please!"
Ever since he had embraced the life of a mercenary, trading violence for coin, he had always known a bloody end was a possibility.
What Adam hadn't expected was to meet his final downfall at the hands of a human.
His defiant challenge—"kill me however you want"—was not spoken in jest. He had built his reputation on ruthlessness, often ensuring his targets suffered fates far worse than a quick death, never granting them a clean end. As death stared him down, he simply assumed Leon would reciprocate in kind.
Leon, however, heard the bitter expectation in his words and paused for a moment before responding, his voice flat.
"I don't torture the dying. Don't lump me in with scum like you."
"General Leon has always granted his defeated opponents a swift and honorable end," a calm voice affirmed beside him. "Isn't that right, Old Constantine?"
"Hmph... Humans. Showing mercy to your enemies is nothing but cruelty to yourself in the long run," Constantine grumbled, his crimson eyes fixed on Adam.
Adam shuddered, biting his tongue so hard he nearly severed it, using the pain to fuel one last, choked taunt.
"Don't get... cocky. I may have my... moments of softness... but the master I serve... is not so forgiving..."
"What—AAAH!!"
Before Adam could finish his thought, an excruciating pain erupted in his remaining ruined eye. Blood streamed down his face as the sensation of acid searing into raw nerve endings overwhelmed him.
"My eye... my eye!"
The realization that he'd been ambushed even in his final moments was brief, for the torment was far from over.
Constantine stepped forward, and with a swift, brutal motion, slashed his sharpened dragon claws across Adam's throat. Thick, dark blood immediately clogged his windpipe, reducing his agonized screams to a muffled, wet gurgle.
"Ugh... UGH!!"
The intense, suffocating pain left Adam able to do nothing but flail his torso wildly. Showing no shred of mercy, Constantine methodically crushed the major joints in his shoulders and thighs with precise, stomping blows, rendering him completely immobile.
Leon stood silently, watching the brutal scene unfold. While he was normally opposed to such drawn-out, excessive violence, he found himself strangely unmoved, his conscience quiet.
Both he and Constantine, in their own ways, knew that Adam had unequivocally earned such an end.
Before long, Adam fell silent. The shattered form of the Warhammer Dragon King slumped against the broken boulder, his breathing growing fainter, his heartbeats slowing to an eventual, final stillness.
"Mind if I take this piece of filth back with me?" Constantine asked, his voice a low, gravelly rumble.
Leon nodded. He understood the deep, cultural need for vengeance that ran through dragonkind, especially for a father whose child had been wronged. Constantine wouldn't be satisfied with merely ending Adam's life; his revenge required a more absolute, and likely more gruesome, conclusion.
"Do as you please."
Leon remembered the last time they had kept the corpse of a powerful enemy too close. The reanimated dragon head mounted on a rival's gate had become a monstrous, vengeful amalgamation. He had no desire to repeat that particular horror.
Letting Constantine take Adam to his own volcanic domain, where he could deal with the remains as he saw fit, seemed the most practical and safest choice.
"I'm going to find Noah and Helena."
Leon turned and headed in the direction Rebecca had indicated earlier.
.
.
.
As he neared the small cave, he saw a group of young dragon students and their teachers carefully helping a weary Noah and a barely-conscious Helena out into the open.
"Noah!"
Leon called out, his voice thick with anxiety as he ran to his daughter.
He knelt in front of her, placing his hands gently on her small shoulders. As he wiped the dust and dried blood from her pale face, a sharp pang of心疼 lanced through his heart. Her usually bright eyes were clouded with exhaustion.
But the moment Noah's gaze focused and she recognized him, the shadows in her eyes vanished, replaced by a flicker of pride and stubborn determination.
"Dad... I held out... until reinforcements arrived... Wasn't I... amazing?"
Looking at his dust-covered, battered little girl, who even in this state sought his approval, Leon's heart melted. It took every ounce of his willpower not to let his emotions overwhelm him right there.
Surrounded by onlookers, Leon suppressed the lump in his throat and simply pulled Noah into a tight, secure hug.
"You were amazing, Noah. The very best."
Her eyelids fluttered, heavy with fatigue, and her consciousness began to fade once more.
"That's good... Dad... I just want to... sleep for a little while..."
"Noah? Noah!"
Leon called out in concern, but the academy's medic who was examining Helena quickly reassured him.
"She's fine, Mr. Cosmodeous. She's simply pushed her mind and body far beyond their limits. A few days of proper rest, and she'll be back to her normal self."
Profoundly relieved, Leon took her small hand in his own for a moment before carefully lifting her into his arms. Feeling the undeniable warmth and safety of her father's embrace, Noah finally surrendered completely, drifting into a deep and peaceful sleep.
"Mr. Leon, we are so deeply sorry," a teacher approached, bowing his head in apology. "We had no idea the Warhammer Dragon King would appear here. If Kristina hadn't alerted us when she did, the situation for Noah and Helena could have been... unthinkable."
Leon gave the teacher a measured glance, neither outright accepting the apology nor unleashing the fury he felt.
"The fault isn't entirely yours. By the southwest entrance of the forest, there might still be some of your perimeter guards alive. Adam injured them, but when I passed through, they were still breathing. If you hurry, you might be able to save them."
"Thank you, Mr. Leon! Team, let's move, immediately!"
As the medics hurried off, Leon's mind lingered on a particular detail.
On their way here, he and his team had encountered several ferocious forest beasts slain in a characteristically gruesome manner. Deeper in the forest, he had seen more creatures with identical, crushing injuries.
It was undoubtedly Adam's handiwork.
But was it merely wanton slaughter? Or was the mercenary Dragon King scouring the forest for something—or someone—specific?
This was a question worth investigating further.
"Uncle Leon! You're so cool!"
"Uncle, can you sign an autograph for me and my brother? We're from the Golden Sand Dragon Clan! Emperor Morgan said you're his friend!"
"Me too, Uncle! I want an autograph too!"
"..."
Leon: ?
"Wait, stop! Hold on, everyone, I'm not some celebrity. There's really no need for autographs..."
In a flash, the young dragon children swarmed him, surrounding him completely.
Behind the crowd of children, a teacher carrying the unconscious Helena chuckled softly.
"Adam has terrorized many of our clans for years. No one seemed able to stop him. Today, Mr. Leon, you stood up and faced him down. Calling you a hero to the dragons wouldn't be an exaggeration. You are far more significant than a mere celebrity."
"Great. Now I'm a 'hero of the dragons' again?" Leon muttered under his breath, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the attention.
"Oh no, I'm surrounded by baby dragons!"
As much as Leon genuinely liked children, his latent social anxiety began to spike under the pressure of dozens of excited, chattering young dragons all vying for his attention.
"Wait a second," he said, a thought striking him. "Didn't someone just say this was a 'good thing'?"
He glanced down at his sleeping daughter in his arms and whispered with a soft, mischievous smirk, "Noah, let me teach you another life lesson. Good things are always best when shared with friends."
With a wider, more playful grin, he addressed the eager children. "This victory wasn't just my doing, you know!"
"Huh? Was there another hero?" a little silver dragonet asked, tilting her head.
"Of course there was!"
Leon gestured grandly toward Constantine, who was standing a distance away, looking solemn. "That esteemed Dragon King over there played a huge part! Why don't you all go ask him for an autograph? I'm sure he'd be delighted."
"Yay! Let's go! I'm going to get the first autograph!"
The children cheered and immediately changed course, rushing en masse toward the brooding Crimson Flame Dragon King.
Constantine, who had been solemnly contemplating the specifics of his long-awaited vengeance against Adam, suddenly found his field of vision filled with a horde of tiny, excited dragons, all shouting about autographs.
He shot a look over at Leon, who was standing safely away, grinning like a mischievous fox.
I see. This is your doing.
"Leon... I will deal with you later," Constantine muttered under his breath, the stern lines of his face twitching slightly as the first child tentatively tugged on his scaled finger.
"Uncle Constantine! I read about you in my history textbooks! You're so amazing!"
"Uncle... you're not really that scary... are you?"
From his vantage point, Leon smirked, thoroughly enjoying the sight of the notoriously stern and fearsome Dragon King being swarmed by a crowd of adoring, if slightly nervous, children.
And thus, Leon thought to himself, at least for today, a different kind of peace had been restored.