Gods Among Gods

by UltraFan123

Nazarick remained unchallenged as the sole YGGDRASIL beings in the world, until 100 years after their arrival when the next wave of Players made their way into it. Perhaps these new guests on his world will be the break of tiresome routine he waited for so long, such hoped the God-King Ainz.

14. Chapter 14: Thousand Blade Dragon Lord

At the opposite side of mighty spectrum of the Dragon Race are the weaker ones, those who always stood behind everyone else, those who were the laughingstock of their peers, the "fake" Dragons who were little more than stronger slaves.

Those Dragons-in-name-only usually submitted to their fates, they never attempted to be more than what Dragon society expected of them, always subservient and obedient to their superiors, all expect for Guste Mik=Reihk Nacol.

With Wild Magic inferior even to the likes of Cure Elim the coward, Guste Mik lacked the strength to be someone of notice among the myriad of Dragon Lords who were always struggling for power, yet he refused to surrender. He kept pushing his own body forward, he honed his natural weapons beyond their limits, he polished his fighting skills, but it was always for naught, there were plenty of Dragons much stronger than him no matter the amount of effort he put in.

When the Dragon Emperor summoned aliens from a mysterious world who were bent to pollute the world and were slaughtering the strongest Dragon Lords like mere flies, Guste Mik saw his chance to prove his strength, show everyone that hard effort triumphed natural talent. But the 8 pieces of filth, too, rendered all of Guste Mik's hard work pointless.

It was sheer luck that he survived.

The storm eventually passed and the strongest Dragons in the world were either dead or missing. Guste Mik felt the desire to mock those who in the past mocked his weakness and showed off their own flashy power around just to later on be murdered by dirty filth and their hideous weapons, but he immediately realized just afterwards how pathetic such thing would be.

Time passed, there was an Alliance of survivors like him that formed in preparation for any future confrontation with lingering filth, one that he joined to hone his abilities even further, and when each Dragon Lord of said Alliance eventually parted ways Guste Mik finally found a place were he felt at home. A place were every single being was much weaker than him, a place where he was, at last, the strongest around.

Guste Mik was always a large fish in a tank full of whales, but now he was a large fish in a tank full of little shrimps. For the first time in his long life the Dragon felt the intoxicating sensation of being the top dog around, at long last he had the respect and admiration he always wanted.

Being worshipped by the contaminated rabble as a God made him very, very glad, and such thing made him feel very, very sick.

Chapter 14: Thousand Blade Dragon Lord

He was stranded in a desert, normally deserts are hot as hell, but the opposite happens when night falls.

Right now Teinu was in an extremely cold climate, he could see his breath like mist every time he exhaled. Maybe he should've picked warmer clothes, or he could just switch to his usual gear for elemental protection.

It's true that he's a Level 100 being, but he's still a Human. Since Humanoids are unable to build Racial Classes they don't get elemental resistances of any sort, hence why they depend on their gear to defend themselves from dangerous environments.

However, what Teinu does have are incredibly higher stats compared with virtually every other Humanoid of this world. Even if the temperature does indeed chill him to the bone, he has enormous levels of endurance and durability, his pain tolerance is quite high too, that's why the extreme climate that would make other Humans tremble on their knees is little more than a fresh breeze to Teinu, he has no need to cover himself with his Divine-class armor to survive in this place. He doesn't even feels discomfort of any sort.

He was walking aimlessly, nothing could be seen in the distance except for dunes and rock formations, not even a single cacti at sight. The sky was starry with a full moon so the sight was nice, but Teinu was more worried about his friends, he couldn't find any reason why Daifuku would take him here, and couldn't see his friends anywhere.

Perhaps if he screams as loud as he can? He also lacks enhanced senses, but he has Equipment that can cover up for that too. He took out Relic-class goggles from his Item Box that allow him to see far and wide into the distance, and has [Dark Vision] built in too, but still couldn't see his friends, instead Teinu saw something else.

He saw a sand vehicle similar to a boat, it had a sail supported by a mast and all that, travelling at high speeds. In said vehicle he saw 3 Humans, he couldn't distinguish their physical features but could clearly tell that they were a man, a woman, and a child, must likely a family. One may think that they were simply traveling in the clear night, but the wounds of both the man and the woman tell otherwise, and the numerous monsters pursuing them must have something to do with said wounds.

Trailing them was a large and colorful bird with a bloodied beak, as big as an elephant, flying at high speeds above them, and riding said monster were several non-Human creatures wielding crude weapons, most likely Demi-Humans of some sort.

Said enormous bird is a carnivorous Monster called Roc, it usually ranges between Level 40-60 depending of their type, but Teinu can't identify the breed of Roc that is currently hunting down the fleeing Human family. But he has no time to think about that since the Roc is getting dangerously close to the family, he has to do something!

He took out his usual Equipment and dashed forward, his speed was enough to close the distance in a heartbeat and a single slash from his blade was enough to chop off the Roc's head clean. It seems the bird wasn't above Level 60 after all, Teinu didn't even needed to buff his own strength nor use a Skill.

The headless bird collapsed into the sand, the Demi-Humans riding it fell too, and the fleeing Human family got farther away. That's good, they're no longer in danger.

However, the Demi-Humans stood up, grabbed their weapons and begun to chase the family again, they didn't seem to mind that their Roc transport was beheaded, for some reason they were determined to hunt down this Human family, so Teinu used [Acceleration] to appear right in front of them and block their way.

Now that he was close to them he could finally tell what the Demi-Humans are: Asabi, the desert Lizardmen. Standing 7 feet tall, sporting dark brown scales to camouflage in the desert, and horns on their heads. These Demi-Humans resembled bipedal horned lizards basically. Since their scales were very hard and some of them were even pointy the Asabi had no need to wear armor, and usually fight unarmed too in order to take advantage of their natural weapons, but the ones in front of Teinu were welding swords and clubs, some even had belts with pouches.

The Asabi don't seem to hold any high-level weapons, and don't seem high-level themselves, but Teinu isn't dropping his guard.

The one that seemed to be their leader addressed Teinu in an irritated tone.

"Out of the way, Human! You're not our target, do not meddle with our business less you want to make enemies with our lord!"

The Asabi's voice was ragged and savage, but Teinu responded in a confident tone.

"A lord that orders you to chase down children after wounding their parents doesn't deserves to be a lord."

Another Asabi spoke in a furious tone.

"Insolent Human! Do not speak of our master as if you know him!"

That specific Asabi lunged himself forward to attack Teinu, but the Asabi leader screamed at him in a rage.

"Idiot! What are you doing!? That Human beheaded Kanash with a single strike!"

But the warning came too late, in less than a second Teinu chopped away his assailant's body and even weapon into sliced pieces, the Asabi never knew what killed him.

The other Demi-Humans were startled, they held their weapons firmer than before and pointed them towards Teinu, but the fear in their eyes was clear to see. The Asabi leader in particular seemed to have the strongest willpower as only he dared to speak.

"You are strong, Human. But you are nothing to our lord, when he learns that you got on our way, you are dead meat."

After saying that, he gave the signal for them to retreat, and the Asabi tuned tail and ran away as fast as they could. And after a minute or so they could no longer be seen in the distance.

Teinu took a glance at his surroundings and saw that there were no more enemies around, so he sheathed his katanas and fixed his glare towards the direction the family was escaping to. He hoped that they were far away now, but such thing wasn't the case.

A man, a woman, and a child were standing several feet away from him, their sand vehicle was further behind, it seems that they stopped their escape and returned for a reason. Perhaps they saw the Demi-Humans defeated and felt the danger has passed. But now that they were closer, Teinu could have a much better look at their appearance.

They had dark skin, hair, and eyes. The man's clothes were composed of white fabrics and a leather armor, had what seemed to be a scimitar held by a belt of his waist, and he was heavily wounded but it seems his life wasn't in any immediate danger. The woman was covered full-body in a grey garb, her face was exposed though, and had no weapons nor armor, but had less wounds than the man. The child was covered full-body too in a white garb that only exposed his head, and didn't seemed to be older than 6 years. Thankfully, the kid wasn't harmed at all.

If Teinu were to give his opinion, he would say that these Humans are native of the Middle-East regions of Earth. But this isn't Earth, so he feels he would be objectively wrong about that.

In any case, the Human family saw this mysterious swordsman next to a headless giant bird Monster and the chopped pieces of a desert Lizardman, their expressions were a weird mix of awe and fear. But eventually, the man mustered up the courage to step forward and address Teinu.

"Foreigner, you saved my family's life. You have my eternal gratitude."

"Oh? Is the fact that I'm not from around that obvious?"

The man chucked a bit, then answered that joke question.

"Someone with a skin and hair like yours can't possibly be from these lands, your panoply definitely wasn't crafted in this desert either. Also, our communities are small and close, everyone knows everyone, yet I've never seen you before."

"Well it's true. I'm not from around, I was...passing by. But I'm glad I did."

Teinu slowly turned his head towards the Roc's corpse, and so did the wounded man.

"Yes, me and my family are glad you did, too."

"Why were those Demi-Humans following you? Will they return to persue you again? Are you still in danger?"

"It's complicated."

"Is it?"

"We were planning to reach the lands that reside much further away from this desert. Apparently there's a mighty Kingdom ruled by an all-powerful Magic Caster that protects his citizens from any harm. As a representative of our tribes, I was meant to offer vassalage to this Magic Caster in order to become his subjects, that way he may protect us from the dreaded monster that has oppressed my people since time immemorial."

'A Kingdom ruled by a powerful Magic Caster? That's Momonga's Sorcerer Kingdom!'

"However, we were trailed by the servants of the dreaded monster and forced to forsake our original route to escape, their pursuit drove us off-course and now we lack the necessary resources to continue our travel. Hence, we must return to our tribe to resupply."

"Didn't you brought more people with you? Bodyguards? Warriors and Mages to ensure a safe journey?"

"We did...me and my family are all that's left..."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, if not for you then we would be dead too, thanks to you we still have a chance."

Teinu remained silent for a few seconds. He still had to return to his friends' side, but he couldn't just ignore these people and the danger they're in, especially if he has the power to actually do something about it.

"In that case, please let me accompany you and your family, I will make sure you return safely."

"You would do that for us?"

"Of course I would!"

"You don't know us, yet you're willing to go this far..."

The man seemed dumbfounded by Teinu's act of compassion.

"I will spend the rest of my life looking for a proper way to compensate the kindness you're showing us."

Teinu wanted to say that there's no need to thank him, but seeing how moved the man was, he couldn't bring himself to say so.

[Some minutes later]

The 4 Humans were riding the sand vehicle towards the family's home tribe. They had no map to guide them, instead the Human natives of this desert learned to follow the stars in order to always find their way.

They found a few Monsters along the way, but Teinu made quick work of them with long-range Skills. Turns out that the creatures of this world are so low-level that relatively weak Skills are enough to one-shot anything Teinu saw, but perhaps his weak Skills are considered strong by the people of this world.

Another thing they came across were the remnants of destroyed sand vehicles similar to the one they're currently riding, and the remains of slain Humans with similar complexions to the family Teinu is currently with were not far from those. The family's expressions were grim, it mustn't be easy to see the ravaged corpses of your friends.

Teinu was deep in his thoughts, all this time he heard that Momonga was this kind and fair King that protected everyone everywhere, yet here this people was, being oppressed by an unknown creature in the middle of an arid desert. Is Momonga ignorant of this place? Perhaps it's one of those places that are too far to reach? Maybe his nation isn't expanding no more? They did learn of an expansion campaign in those tomes he and his friends read. Or...is Momonga afraid of the monster oppressing these folk? But he has Nazarick, that broken Dungeon, what could he possibly fear?

Eventually, the kid broke the chilling silence.

"Mister, how did you got so strong?"

It seems the little boy couldn't hold his curiosity and asked Teinu a question.

"Uh? You wanna know?"

The 6 year old kid nodded, it was the usual infantile curiosity that children usually have. Teinu would've gladly answered the boy's question, if he could.

'What am I supposed to say? I became this strong because I Leveled Up with powerful Classes? From what we've seen and learned this world has no concept of Levels or EXP, so they wouldn't understand even if I explain.'

Another thing is the general low Level Caps that almost everyone in the New World suffers off. Even IF they were to understand the concepts of YGGDRASIL, there's nothing they can do about their own lack of potential.

So instead Teinu chose to avoid the topic.

"Well, it's a long and boring story, I doubt you would want to hear it."

But the kid's curiosity couldn't be dodged.

"But I want to know how to get strong. If I don't get strong then more people like grandpa, grandma, and uncle will keep getting hurt by the bad monsters."

The child's father stepped in.

"Badhi, that's enough. Don't bother our guest like that."

The child's mother spoke too.

"Besides, if everything turns out as it should, we will be protected by an invincible Mage King. We can live our lives without fear, and you can grow up to become anything you want to be."

It seems the child's, Badhi's, mother doesn't wants him to grow up as a combatant who is always afraid for his life. Someone who is either killed by monsters (like the ones who accompanied them on this dangerous journey) or is constantly wounded by them (like his father).

"Okay mommy."

Badhi eventually gave in to his mother's words, she only wants what's best for him after all.

Teinu couldn't help but form a soft smile on his face, such thing makes his desire to protect these people even stronger.

And after a while they could finally see the Human tribe in the horizon, the family's trip back home was almost over.

"That's our tribe. I can vouch for you so you can have sanctuary, and it's very likely that our elders will request your aid to our cause."

"That's cool, you don't have to ask me to help, I'm willing to...wait, what's that?"

Teinu stood up and directed his view farther away, and the man followed suit. What they saw shook the man to the core.

"No..."

2 massive flying creatures were headed towards the tribe, their draconic features were obvious even at such distance.

"That damned, petty beast! To think he would send 2 Dragons!"

"I take this monster doesn't takes kindly when you rebel?"

"It's more than that. This beast is obsessed with absolute loyalty, not only us Humans, but also his Demi-Human servants are held with an iron grip. Any small mistake, any little sign of disobedience, and you are massacred on the spot."

"I also assume that your best fighters were accompanying you back there? If so, that means your tribe is unprotected."

"Half of them joined our mission to keep me and my family safe, but the other half of our fighting forces remained behind to protect our people. We knew that the foul beast would seek to punish us for attempting to escape his grasp. However, even with all our Warriors and Mystics, defeating just 1 of his Dragon servants would be difficult, but 2 Dragons? With just half our men?"

The man remained silent for a second before locking eyes with Teinu, his gaze was full of fear and remorse, perhaps a tint of anger too.

"You already saved us once, I haven't even properly rewarded your kindness, I have no right to ask you this, but-"

Teinu held his hand to signal the man to stop.

"As I said, it's cool. I'm very strong you know, I don't mind breaking a sweat if that means saving other Humans from oppressing monsters. Just leave it to me."

Teinu didn't even waited for a response when he jumped forward and ran at high speeds towards the Dragons approaching the Human tribe, in just an instant he became a blur.

The man for his part was mouth agape while staring in the direction the mysterious Human just disappeared through, he couldn't believe such person exists in this world. Someone who is both unbelievably strong and offers a helping hand too!

'If only we crossed paths before.'

The man, his wife, and his son closed their eyes in prayer for this stranger savior, supplicating their ancestors to watch over him, secure his victory, and grant him a safe return home.

[...]

'All the Monsters I've seen so far in this desert are so low-level, maybe this Dragons will be more challenging? In any case, I have to make myself sure that they can't hurt the Humans living here.'

Teinu unsheathed [Raijin and Fūjin] which started to vibrate with electrical fire, and before any of the Dragons could react he jumped to chop off one of their heads, decapitating the Dragon just as easy as the Roc from before.

'Ah!? Dragons are weakasses too!?'

The other Dragon didn't even noticed his dead comrade, just kept flying at high speeds to attack the defenseless Humans Teinu wants to protect. He could kill him just as easy, but had an idea.

He jumped towards the other Dragon's back, ran to his head and stomped on it with his foot.

"Aaaaaargh!"

Teinu didn't put that much force on his stomp, but the Dragon was heavily hurt still. After releasing a painful wail the Dragon fell to the sand, then slowly lift up and analysed the surroundings, the Dragon was looking for any Monster in the vicinity that would dare sneak attack a servant of the invincible lord of this desert, but saw no such Monster.

He did however spot a single Human standing near him, a Human that spoke in an arrogant tone.

"You there, take me to your master. Now!"

The Human just ordered him? A mere Human, giving HIM orders!? The Dragon was obviously irritated by such thing.

"Who's this little bug? Thinking it can talk to me like a superior? You're not even worth being a snack! Get out of my sight! I have a task at hand."

The Dragon spread his wings to take flight again, he can't allow himself to be distracted by this worthless twerp, he has a genocide mission to carry. But as he did so, the Human jumped towards him and kicked his huge draconic torso with his little foot.

So powerful was the kick that the Dragon was pushed many meters back, he was now feeling an intense pain on his chest on top of the pain on his head from the previous strike. Now the Dragon was certain, the one who injured him was this insignificant being.

"You! What are you!? There's no way you're a Human!"

"Oh, I'm a Human alright! So if you don't want to end up like your buddy there, you will take me to the place your master is!"

"End up like...who?"

The Dragon turned his gaze to the place Teinu was pointing, and saw something he couldn't believe.

"Kkaizhe! How...!?"

Seems the Dragon Teinu decapitated was called Kkaizhe.

But curiously, this Dragon either didn't or couldn't notice that Kkaizhe was dead before Teinu told him so. Granted, these 2 Dragons are adapted to this desert environment, so their scales are perfectly colored to allow them camouflage in the sands, but Dragons are supposed to have excellent senses, there's no way they wouldn't notice something like a partner being beheaded right next to them.

Perhaps these Dragons are too relatively young, maybe not even in the [Adult] category yet, hence explaining their undeveloped senses. The one in front of Teinu couldn't even detect the powerful panoply enveloping his body, giving testament to how weak the Dragon is.

"You killed Kkaizhe! You bastard!"

The Dragon spewed a powerful lightning breath attack, but Teinu simply used [Acceleration] to dodge it and land another kick, this time on the Dragon's jaw to interrupt the lightning breath.

Debris of fangs were scattered among the sands, and the Dragon's mouth was bleeding.

Teinu pointed one of his swords towards the Dragon and spoke in a furious tone this time.

"I said, take me to your master. Right. Now."

The wounded Dragon was staring daggers at Teinu, but eventually left out a small chuckle, as if he was mocking him.

"So earnestly you want to die? Alright then, my lord may forgive our failure to destroy the Human tribe if I present him a prey of your caliber, I will perhaps be even rewarded! Hahaha!"

The Dragon spread his wings and took flight at high speeds, this time he was headed to the opposite direction from before, and Teinu was trailing behind at comparable speeds. He could've ran much faster, he is a Level 100 Warrior after all, but he had no idea where the abode of the foul monster was, so he had to adjust his speed in order to not lose the Dragon's trail.

[A few minutes later]

Teinu saw large and weird formations of rocks at the distance, the figures of several Demi-Humans and Monsters were visible too, as well as Dragons similar to the ones sent to attack where flying around. He didn't had enhanced senses like his friends do, but his eyesight was at the absolute peak of humanity, so he could see much better into the distance than any other Human of this world could.

In the distance he could make the figures of several Behir, large blue serpentine monsters with 12 legs resembling a cross between a snake and a centipede. Those Monsters have a dangerous electric breath attack that could paralyze and inflict poison too, and usually range between Level 40-80 depending of their type.

Figures of Basilisks could be seen in the distance too, giant 8-legged biffy iguana-like Monsters with a deadly petrifying gaze. Those Monsters varied in Level and type too, but there existed variants that were dangerous even to max Level Players.

And if he pays attention, Teinu could also see smaller, but still relatively big, figures flying in the distance. Rocs like the one he beheaded before. A monstrous variant of that giant bird called Rukh, that was basically a big vulture with a second head growing in its torso. And maybe even Sphinxes variants too.

Whoever has all those Monsters under its control is undoubtedly very powerful, that's for sure. Teinu just hopes that whoever or whatever this foul beast is, it isn't one of the Dragon Lords he learned about earlier today.

Eventually the Dragon he was following landed near the place, Teinu stopped running too, and one of the Demi-Humans nearby addressed the Dragon.

"Zabhor, you killed the Humans I presume? And where's Kkaizhe?"

The Dragon, Zabhor, remained silent for a while before answering.

"Kkaizhe is dead. He was killed."

Zabhor purposely omitted the fact that he didn't got to destroy the Humans, there's no way he's letting lesser servants know of his failure.

"Oh, those Humans were tougher than we thought, if they managed to kill Kkaizhe and hurt you like that."

The Demi-Human, an Asabi, was analyzing Zabhor's body, contemplating his wounds, but Zabhor himself was stiff, he didn't liked the fact that an inferior reptile was seeing him wounded.

"None of your business, I need to report to our lord so get out of my way."

Normally, an annoyed Dragon would've killed an insolent Demi-Human right on that spot, but the lord of this deserts prohibits infighting between his servants. Even a whole tribe of Desert Dragons submits to the laws of someone else, that powerful is the foul beast that plagues these lands.

As the Asabi was about to move however, another Asabi who was also nearby walked towards Zabhor and raised his voice.

"Wait a bit, Zabhor. Who's that Human over there?"

The second Asabi was pointing his clawed finger at Teinu who could be seen in the distance from where they were standing.

"That one? Well, he..."

Zabhor was, for some reason, a bit nervous to respond. There's no way a Demi-Human would make a Dragon feel intimidated, but that Asabi is no common Demi-Human. That Asabi is a true monster who is renown as the Scourge of the Desert, arguably one of the strongest beings that inhabit these lands, and a high-ranked servant of their lord too.

That Asabi surpasses Zabhor in both power and authority, he even has the influence to affect their lord's decisions regarding who is useful and who isn't among the servants. In contrast to Zabhor who is very low in the command pole and doesn't even has subservants of his own yet.

"That Human looks surprisingly similar to the one our pursuit forces described as the one who killed Kanash and Mepit. That panoply, those blades, there's no doubt about that."

The high-ranked Asabi was staring daggers at Zabhor, but the Desert Dragon decided to swallow his pride and act the fool, THAT terrifying this Asabi is.

"That Human was following me? I had no idea, must have hidden his presence from me somehow."

The Asabi, for his part, didn't believed a single word Zabhor made up.

"Hiding from you? You expect me to believe this?"

"I swear lord Moreigh, I had no ide-"

In that instant, Zabhor's head exploded into smithereens. And just an instant after that the Asabi, Moreigh, appeared right in front of Teinu. A common person would have no idea what just happened, the head of a Dragon just blew up and the Asabi somehow teleported right in front of the Human.

In fact, that's what the Asabi from before that welcomed Zabhor think is what just happened. He couldn't make heads nor tails of anything that's going on.

Teinu, however, knows exactly what just happened: Moreigh used his fist to hit Zabhor's head with so much force that it instantly destroyed his skull, then ran towards him at incredibly high speeds. Both things happened literally in the blink of an eye.

Right now the Asabi was standing just 20 centimetres away from Teinu. He was very big, easily 2 and a half meters tall, was far more muscular than the other Asabi and had more spiky protrusions adorning his scales too.

Both were locking eyes, the size disparity between both of them could be considered ridiculous, almost laughable, but nobody around was laughing.

'Such strength and speed, this Moreigh dude must be a Monk. I should be careful, just in case.'

"You. You killed Kkaizhe didn't you? I can see it in your eyes, you're very strong."

"Oh, you can sense my strength? Is that one of the Monk abilities I've heard about?"

Moreigh formed a scaly smile on his face before answering.

"That's right, I can sense the strength of anyone surrounding me. However, I have a hard time figuring out the strength of anyone who is close or above my own level of strength. Which means, you're a Human on par with me, how unexpected."

'So you don't consider the possibility that I'm stronger? What arrogance, mate.'

Teinu would've loved to put this Demi-Human on its place, but he had a mission to accomplish.

"Well, the thing is, that Dragon you just killed promised me to take me to the place your master is. But now he's dead. So I guess you don't mind taking me there yourself?"

"Zabhor did? Oh, what an incompetent Dragon, that one. He and his brother were always idiot scum, but our master never ordered their deaths. Only a failure is proper justification for an execution, and both Zabhor and Kkaizhe were ordered to kill every single last one in the Human settlement."

'This foul monster and his minions are nothing short of tyrants. Just like those soulless corporations back in my world...'

"But they didn't only failed to kill every single last one of the Humans, since you're here alive and breathing, Zabhor was also shameless enough to guide you here, so his death by my hand will be seen as justifiable in the eyes of my lord, so I should thank you for giving me an excuse to get rid of that pest."

Teinu's face twisted into a hateful glare.

"Just, just how low do you think of your own comrades! Those Dragons were your friends!"

Moreigh for his part showed a confused expression.

"Friend? Is that the Human word for 'servant'?"

The Asabi just shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. As a way to show you my gratitude, I will make your death quick and painless. At the end it will be I who gets the credit for killing the last insolent Human, so that's another thing I should thank you for."

In just a fraction of a second, Moreigh charged his large bulky fist with powerful Ki and unleashed a devastating punch. He aimed at Teinu's head, since he wanted to be true to his promise of ending the Human's life quickly. The impact was enough to create a small cloud of sand, the shockwave of the attack could be felt even far away, a few Monsters even appeared on the scene to see what's going on.

After a few seconds the sand cloud dissipated, and what they saw defied common sense.

The unstoppable fist of Moreigh Bazzer, the strongest Demi-Human servant of their lord, was easily blocked by the blade of a Human. Teinu used the flat side of his katana to intercept the strike, there wasn't even a microscopic scratch on said sword, Moreigh himself was dumbfounded, while Teinu had an unimpressed expression on his face.

The Asabi jumped back, eyes still locked on the Human, he didn't knew what just happened, but he clearly hasn't lost his will to fight yet. Moreigh activated a buffing Monk Skill and tried to strike again, this time from behind, but this sneak attack was easily blocked too.

"Mmm. You're better than I thought. Or should I say, your weapons are sturdier than I thought."

Moreigh jumped back yet again, making himself sure he's far away from Teinu's reach.

"That's the thing with you Warriors, you have such low confidence in your own strength that you have to rely on weapons to do the fighting for you. It's a shame the other Asabi rely on weapons too, instead of polishing their own natural gifts like I've done."

"So you think my swords are what make me this strong?"

"That's correct. Needing mere pieces of metal makes you weak, even our lord thinks so. The fact that I went out of my way to build my own body is what gained my master's favour in the first place!"

"I see. So if I were to defeat you, it wouldn't be my own victory, but rather my weapons would be the victorious ones. That's what you're saying?"

"To even consider the possibility of you defeating me is beyond wishful thinking, but even if that impossible scenario were to pass, then yes, it would be because of those impressive swords that I was defeated. No Human could ever hope to approach the strength I have, hence why you need those things to even survive my hits."

Teinu remained silent for a second, then did something nobody saw coming. Moreigh's face twisted into a weird expression, clearly saying "what are you doing!?" through his face.

The Monsters watching the battle couldn't believe what Teinu was doing either.

"What the hell! The Human just dropped his swords into the sand!"

"Is he crazy? Those weapons can block Lord Moreigh's strikes! Does he want to die?"

"Should we grab them? They would make a fine addition to our lord's treasure hoard."

"Don't, you may get in Lord Moreigh's way. Just wait until the Human is dead, then we can offer his full panoply to our lord."

Teinu could perfectly hear their mocking remarks, but he just ignored them, his enemy is the Asabi in front of him. He took a fighting stance similar to those of the martial artists featured in action films and series, and shaped his hands into fists. Then, he drew and smile on his face and said 2 simple words.

"Come on."

Just 2 simple words, yet were more than enough to lit a rageful fire inside Moreigh.

"You lowly worm. To think I offered you a quick death!"

The Asabi let out a loud battle scream, then simultaneously activated every single Racial and Monk Skill that augmented his physical strength beyond the natural limits. It seemed as if Moreigh was enveloped in an aura of sorts since his body created a powerful force shockwave that pushed everything around him.

Even the surrounding Monsters could feel the sudden spike in Moreigh's strength.

Then, Moreigh vanished, he was moving so fast that only Teinu could follow his movements, the Asabi aimed his fist at Teinu's exposed back yet again, but this time much faster than before, striking his opponent with the greatest amounts of strength he has ever mustered so far. This must be the fastest Moreigh has ever moved in his entire life, so unaccustomed he was to this speed that his senses couldn't properly follow his own movements, and the fact that his explosive rage was also blinding him must be the reason why he took several seconds to realize what happened the moment his punch connected.

But he realized soon enough...

"My, my arm! MY ARM!"

Moreigh's arm was gone, obliterated all the way to the elbow. He quickly used a healing Monk Skill to stop the bleeding, but the pain didn't go away. He was now the angriest he has ever been, he couldn't understand why his arm just exploded like that, nor why the Human was still unharmed.

"You! What cheap trick did you just use! Tell me!"

In contrast to the wrath-filled and agitated Moreigh, Teinu was very calm and confident. Arrogant, even.

"Trick? I didn't use any trick. I just did what you did, attack with a punch."

Said Teinu while holding his fist up.

"Bullshit! That's not what happened! Tell me for real!"

Teinu simply shrugged with a mocking smile on his face.

"I don't know what to tell you man. You asked me what I did and I answered you. What do I care if you believe me or not."

Teinu's honest answer only infuriated Moreigh even more. But as the Asabi was about to strike yet again, this time with his remaining arm, one of the Monster spectators interrupted them.

"The Human isn't lying, Moreigh, he speaks the truth. He did return your strike with his own fist."

It was a Desert Dragon, a very large one, much bigger than Kkaizhe and Zabhor were. Another contrast were the eyes full of power and experience that Dragon has, taking such things into consideration Teinu speculates that this Dragon is much older, and by extension much powerful, than the Desert Dragons from before.

Said Dragon begun to slowly walk towards them, Teinu had a stoic expression on his face while Moreigh was panicking.

"L-lord Kyrkk'ai! Are, are you sure? This Human really did counterattack with his own punch!?"

"Uh? What's this? You're insinuating that my senses are faulty? That my combat perception is inferior? You say I'm weak?"

"No! NO! Of course not, Lord Kyrkk'ai! I would never dare say such thing!"

Moreigh now was totally ignoring Teinu, he was way too scared of the imposing Dragon in front of them.

'He's calling him Lord. Is this the foul beast that terrorizes the Humans living here?'

Teinu thinks that he finally found the monster he's been looking for. Perhaps if this Dragon is slain, the people will finally know peace.

'Or will they? What if all these Monsters try to avenge their master and hunt me or the other Humans down until the end of the world? Also, what if they simply obey his orders out of fear? In that case, I doubt they will be interested in revenge.'

Is killing this Monster Lord the smart answer? That's what Teinu is frying his brain to figure out right now. If only Anchelo were here, he's much smarter than Teinu is, and he would most likely provide the wisest choice.

But Teinu is alone now, he has to decide what to do by himself.

While he was scrambling his head, the Asabi and the Dragon kept talking.

"If you were at least half the fighter you think you are, you would've easily noticed what the Human did. You would've seen how his own fist clashed with yours, and how he used his own brute strength to overpower your attack and destroy your arm. To not notice something so obvious, you call yourself the Scourge of the Desert?"

"My deepest apologies Lord Kyrkk'ai, my own weakness shames me."

"You're not the only one ashamed, little Moreigh. This sand empire has no need of weak servants like you."

"Wait! Please Lord Kyrkk'ai! Give me another chance to-"

Kyrkk'ai's tail swiftly hit Moreigh like a wip, easily cutting the Asabi vertically in 2. It was a clean, perfect cut, anyone inspecting the corpse would assume that Moreigh was sliced by a high-grade sword, but it was a Dragon tailtip.

"Now that it's taken care of. Only you're left, Human. Leave this to me, everyone, you would just get in the way."

At those words, every single Demi-Human and Monster in the vicinity left the place, nobody dares to disobey.

'Such speed, precision, and power. This Dragon must definitely be foul beast commanding this place. At least, I'm mostly certain.'

Teinu picked up his swords again, he will fight more seriously now.

"Oh, you will fight me with your weapons? I was thinking you were an unarmed fighter like little Moreigh, masquerading as a Warrior to fool your opponents. But...those weapons you have..."

It seems this Dragon had his draconic nose for treasure well developed, another difference with the previous 2 bozos.

"Hard to think a fake Warrior would have swords and armor of the same caliber as you. To think there's a swordsman with such raw physical strength. I would like to offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity, Human. Become my servant."

Teinu just blinked twice at those unexpected words.

"Um, what?"

"You heard me. I offer you the chance to spare your life and become a vassal of the new Dragon Empire."

"New? Something happened to the old one?"

"Dragons are the rightful rulers of this world, if not for the interference of the beings known as the filth of the old Dragon Emperor, then we would continue to rule this world unhindered."

'What the hell is this guy talking about? Filth? Dragon Emperor?'

"But we will amass our power, expand our borders beyond this desert, and then a new Dragon Emperor will arise to reclaim this world!"

Kyrkk'ai said that last sentence with tremendous pride, he even unconsciously spread his wings wide. Teinu thinks that this Dragon is extremely full of himself, out there Momonga is ruling (almost) everything with that stupidly overpowered Guild Base, this guy wants to rule the entire world? Make a Dragon Empire? Come on.

"And now that you're aware of such thing, you understand the magnitude of the offer I just gave you, no? Only a fool would refuse to be a pawn of such magnificent Empire."

After Kyrkk'ai finished his monologue silence reigned for a while, only the howling wind could be heard. It seems the Dragon really was waiting for a response.

"Yeaaaaaah. No."

"What?"

"You heard me, I have no interest in your whatever Empire. I want to live my life in this world the way I want, enjoy freedom!"

As a person who grew up and lived in such a dull and terrible world like Earth, where people were treated like mere objects, Teinu has no intention of being anyone's slave in this world.

"How can freedom possibly be better than living under the mighty rule of dragonkind!? You colossal idiot! It seems I have to beat into you the power difference between you and me. If you won't obey willingly, you will do so by force!"

At that moment, a terribly huge and powerful blast of lightning was expelled from Kyrkk'ai's mouth. It was dozens of times stronger than Zabhor's, much faster too. The potency of the breath attack caught Teinu off guard, but he used [Acceleration] right on time to dodge it and move behind the huge Dragon.

He jumped forward and tried to use the mid-level Skill [Vorpal Strike] to behead the Dragon, but Kyrkk'ai was fast enough to dodge Teinu's attack.

'Not bad.'

Kyrkk'ai flew upwards and unleashed yet another breath attack towards the Human, but this time Teinu decided to counterattack.

"[Skill - Avalanche]!"

This was actually a sword Skill you use downwards when you have the upper ground, but Teinu used it upwards to intercept the lightning breath, and turns out that Teinu's gut feeling was right, this Dragon is just mid-level or so, stronger than the previous 2 but much weaker than him seeing how a mid-level Skill could destroy the breath attack so easily.

"You're truly magnificent, to think you can rival the power of my breath."

Kyrkk'ai landed several meters away from Teinu, he was keeping his distance despite acting so high and mighty.

"Killing you would indeed be a waste, so I will use my own strength to hammer discipline and obedience into you. A servant of your caliber will do wonders to our cause."

"Funny, I want to hammer into you the difference in our individual strengths too."

"...I will start by ripping off your tongue. A slave has no need of a voice."

A clearly irritated Kyrkk'ai lunged himself forward and used his myriad of natural weapons to attack Teinu, claws, fangs, and even the tail that was still dripping of Moreigh's blood was clashing with [Raijin and Fūjin] but to no avail. Natural weapons simply pale in comparison with high-level gear.

Teinu eventually realized that this much was all this Dragon could do, a moderate breath attack and heavy blows, that's it. A far cry from the Dragons of YGGDRASIL. His opponent couldn't offer him anything more, so he decided to end this.

"[Skill - Meteor Break]!"

Teinu unleashed a 7-hit sword attack Skill that consisted of several strong and precise slashes that ended with a final attack aimed at the enemy's neck. It's a mere mid-level Skill, but it was more than enough to finish off the so-called "foul monster".

After a final flash of Teinu's blade, Kyrkk'ai remained standing for a while before finally collapsing, his lifeless body filled with cuts remaining still on the cold sand.

Teinu jumped on top of the corpse, filled his lungs with shilly air and spoke in a bombastic voice.

"Your master is dead! Killed by me! A Human!"

Some seconds after said noisy declaration several of the Monsters that kept their distance during the fight were now approaching the scene. They were moving with caution and obvious confusion, some of them clearly couldn't believe what was going on, and refused to accept Teinu's words, even. But nobody could deny the Dragon corpse that the Human was currently standing on.

"You no longer have to obey the commands of this beast! If you were here against your will, you are free now! But if you were truly loyal to this monster and look for revenge, then come and challenge me! Here I am!"

Teinu spread both his arms and by extension his swords. Clearly a welcoming sign for combat, he will cut down any beast that dares try to avenge Kyrkk'ai. It does sound heartless, but these Monsters may try to destroy the Human tribe he currently tries to save in the future, and he can't be with them to protect them forever since his place is by his friends' side, there's no way he would trade total strangers for the ones he has gone through thick and thin with.

He has to end any potential danger against the native Humans here and now.

Several seconds passed and no Monster nor Demi-Human got near him, their primal instincts were clearly warning them against this small Human who easily killed such large and powerful Dragon.

'Good, they're scared shitless of me.'

Just as Teinu lowered his arms and prepared to deliver a final warning, he saw a large figure on the distance becoming bigger and bigger by the second.

"Oh, one of you does want to avenge your master? Bring it on then!"

It seems there are always those who willingly chose to serve tyrants. Teinu feels sorry for them, but he feels even worse for the oppressed Humans, so he decided to slay anyone who is still loyal to Kyrkk'ai.

The Monsters who noticed said approaching creature turned tail and escaped, even the Behir and Basilisks were little more than scared animals now, it seems the creature approaching him is a terrifying one, no doubt. However, it was different from the way they kept their distance before, back when Kyrkk'ai ordered them to get away. Now, the creatures aren't following anyone's orders, they are genuinely scared for their lives, it's almost as if they fear this looming beast far more than they feared Kyrkk'ai.

But Kyrkk'ai was their master, no? Monsters only obey stronger Monsters, Teinu can't find any reason why a creature stronger than Kyrkk'ai would willingly submit to him.

Unless...

'I made a mistake? This Dragon I just killed wasn't their ruler?'

Teinu just shrugged it off and took a battle stance, doesn't matters who nor what this creature is, he just has to kill it and problem solved. He hopes.

He allowed a cocky smile to form on his face, perhaps this new creature can give him a proper challenge. But as the creature finally came into clear view, his smile froze.

'No...anything but this...this can't be happening...'

Approaching him was one of the very last creatures he hoped to find. One of those beings that, according to Daifuku, are capable of fighting on par with Players like him.

One of those even killed a Player centuries ago.

The Dragon Lord eventually got close enough for Teinu to have an idea of his colossal size, such huge difference from the previous Dragons he saw, even YGGDRASIL had few creatures as humongous as this.

They both locked eyes. Teinu's smile was all gone now, but he was determined still. The Dragon Lord for his part seemed to have an unimpressed expression, he simply opened his mouth slowly.

Teinu knew what that meant so he used [Acceleration] to get out of the way, and in that moment a huge corroding cone of acid was expelled from the Dragon Lord's mouth, a breath attack that instantly dissolved Kyrkk'ai's corpse.

There was such disparity in their sizes that even the Dragon Lord's breath attack was still larger than Kyrkk'ai's body.

After making enough distance between him and the Dragon Lord Teinu begun to activate several buffing Skills on himself, his mind shifted into PK mode, and begun to remember all the details he recently heard about this Dragon.

'Let's see...something about natural weapons, shooting spiked scales against his opponent, excellent battle skill I think...man, if only Anchelo and the others were here.'

He would feel far more confident if he had his friends to watch his back, but only he is here, he has to make do with his own abilities.

The gigantic Dragon Lord finally shifted his eyes towards Teinu, the unimpressed expression was still painted on his scaled face, and spoke in a slightly annoyed tone.

"I always knew this poor excuse of a Dragon would be eventually killed, he even dared to sport the title of 'Desert Dragon Lord' before I took control of this lands. To mock our titles like that. Death is what happens to the weak, he deserved this. But to think it would be a single Human, fighting alone. My kind has truly fallen."

Teinu remained silent, he will wait for his opponent to make the first move.

"Or perhaps...was it your panoply what granted you victory?"

It seems his draconic nose for treasure, too, was superior to Kyrkk'ai's.

"This magnificent yet disgusting scent. I haven't sensed something like this since...since..."

At that moment, the Dragon Lord's expression slowly twisted. Now, his face was painted with deep hate, for some reason the Equipment Teinu is currently wearing just made the Dragon Lord feel very, very angry.

At such sight, Teinu held a tighter grip on his blades, and despite the cold night desert wind a drop of sweat was falling from his forehead. He doesn't wants this, he doesn't wants to face this unknown enemy alone, but he has too.

"You...those weapons you are wielding. You are the Dragon Emperor's filth, are you not?"

"I'm the what now?"

"Don't paint me a fool!"

The Dragon Lord swinged his tail at bullet speeds and countless pointy scales were shot towards Teinu like oversized arrows. Compared to the Dragon Lord these natural projectiles seemed tiny, but each of them was over 10 times larger a fully grown Human being, and were monstrously fast too.

Luckily for Teinu, natural weapons are still natural weapons, his katanas are superior to the spiked scales so it was easy for him to slice and destroy them.

"No weapon of this frail world could possibly cut my scales so easily. There's no need to play the jester now, you damned filth."

Teinu still has no idea what the Dragon Lord is talking about, but his intentions are crystal clear, this Dragon wants blood.

"To think we would cross paths again. Don't know if it's misfortune, or luck."

The Dragon Lord was slowly walking towards him now, and he was talking as if he and Teinu knew from somewhere or saw each other before. But Teinu is really certain that he would remember a spiky Dragon with thick wings and a split scythe tail, so all those words were just nonsense to him.

"For so long I imagined, what would I possibly say to you. But at the end I decided that it doesn't matter, there's no need for words, not for world-polluting filth like you."

In a mere heartbeat the Dragon Lord raised his arm and enhanced his claws with Wild Magic before bringing it down like a guillotine, Teinu barely reacted with [Acceleration] on the nick of time.

The Dragon didn't gave him a breather, now both his claws and fangs were imbued with potent Wild Magic. The flurry of physical attacks was relentless and merciless, a single false move and Teinu could be ripped to shreds. Of course, he has no way of actually knowing that Wild Magic can bypass the protection of his Divine-class armor [Kotoamatsukami] to deliver fatal damage, but his instincts are screaming him danger nonetheless.

Teinu decided to create some distance and used the high-level Warrior Skill [Supersonic] which was a much faster version of [Acceleration] to get as far as he could from this crazed Dragon.

After some seconds of running he turned his head to see behind him, expecting to see the Dragon Lord as a mere blur in the distance, but what he did saw left him dumbfounded.

"You gotta be shitting me!"

The Dragon Lord had rolled himself into a ball-like shape and was spinning like a wheel at incredibly high speeds, so fast that he was slowly catching up to Teinu.

Such sight was reminiscent of that super old videogame series featuring an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog that ran at high speeds and rolled himself into a ball. The situation would almost be comical, if it weren't for the fact that Teinu could die if he's careless, that is.

Now every single scale in the Dragon Lord's body was buffed with Wild Magic, making him a gigantic saw of pure destruction. Teinu couldn't just keep running forever, so he decided to counterattack.

"[Skill - Kyokujitsujin]"

[Kyokujitsujin] (Rising Sun Edge) enveloped the user's blades in a hyper intense mantle of flames, even grazing the opponent with this is enough to cause severe burns. But this was just the buffing Skill to make sure the real strike does some damage, so Teinu jumped, turned around, and used his most powerful single-hit slash Skill.

"[Skill - Tenchi Kaijin]!"

Both katanas which were already flared up with powerful fire exploded with divine flames to deliver twin energy slashes.

If used by a Level 100 Warrior like Teinu and buffed by the appropriate Skills, [Tenchi Kaijin] (Heaven and Earth End in Ashes) is a terrible Skill that can incinerate even high-level gear and outright destroy mid-level gear and below. His opponent may be a high-level Dragon Lord, but Dragons are still just Monsters that rely on natural armor, if this flaming attack can severely damage even Legendary-class armor then there's no way a Dragon could withstand it.

And turns out he was just half-right. His Skill was enough to interrupt the rolling motion and stop the Dragon Lord on his tracks, the sheer force was enough to push the gigantic body many meters back, and received some damage too considering the burnt marks he left on his numerous scales, but Teinu was perplexed by the low amount of damage his opponent received, far less than he expected.

'What the hell, his scales are on par with high-level gear!? That's bullshit!'

Teinu was cursing both his unfair enemy and his own poor luck that made him cross paths with said enemy in the first place. But the Dragon Lord however was seemingly amazed.

"Now there's no doubt in my mind, you really are the filth of the Dragon Emperor. At last, I will have my revenge! It will be I, Guste Mik the Thousand Blade Dragon Lord, the one who destroys the filth! Me and nobody else!"

It seems this guy, Guste Mik is his name apparently, was now talking to himself.

"Dirvelek...Huyrtob...those damned Mairgoleido and Tsaindorcus too, they will have no choice but to recognize me as their superior!"

Guste Mik wasn't looking at the Human in front of him anymore, rather, his mind was projecting the images of those Dragon Lords he resents from the bottom of his heart, the ones he always yearned to surpass for centuries.

So big was his bottled up rage and frustration that he instinctively charged up his acidic breath attack and unleashed a ridiculously huge cone of corroding acid. It was much bigger than the one that dissolved Kyrkk'ai's body, and Guste Mik can control the level of acidity of his breath so the corroding ability of this one was also leagues ahead of the previous breath.

Teinu used [Supersonic] again instead of [Acceleration] to dodge since his gut told him that a mid-level Skill wouldn't be fast enough to escape the breath. And he was right, had he used [Acceleration] he would've been caught in the acid, and who knows what such thing would've done to his weapons, armor, or himself.

But Guste Mik didn't stopped there, his acid breath followed Teinu wherever he ran to, he's determined to not give his enemy even the smallest breather. The filth will die here and now, that's what the Thousand Blade Dragon Lord has decided.

Teinu was obviously sick of running away, [Supersonic] is a high-level Skill that has limited daily uses so he has to find a way to either incapacitate this Dragon Lord, or kill him. The buff of [Kyokujitsujin] hadn't dissipated from his swords yet, so now he will try something else.

He pushed his speed Skill a little further to close the distance and, once he was near the Dragon Lord, activated another powerful Skill. If a single-hit attack won't do, then a multiple-hit attack may do the trick.

"[Skill - Starbust Stream]!"

While the previous attack Skills he has been using during this fight come from his [Rōnin] Job Class, this particular one comes from his [Saviour] Job Class. Those 2 Job Classes alongside [Knight of Midgard] are the strongest Job Classes on Teinu's build, since Humanoids are unable to build Racial Levels to increase their overall strength they must pick the strongest Job Classes they can get if they want to stand against Demi-Humans and Heteromorphs because, even at Level 100, Human Players are still weaker than their monstrous peers.

[Starbust Stream] is normally a 16-hit combo Skill that works by stockpiling damage with each sword attack, each slash is stronger than the previous one. However, Teinu is one of the few Players in the entirety of YGGDRASIL that can increase the upper limit of attacks from 16 to 21, making said Skill incredibly deadly when he uses it since those 5 extra slashes stack with the stockpiled damage of the previous 16 slashes.

He will compensate lack of quality with quantity, that's how Humanoid Players could stand up against Demi-Human and Heteromorph Players in the game. Of course, there were always monstrous Players that had both quality AND quantity, in which case there wasn't much a Humanoid Player could do, their best choice in that scenario would be to team up with other Humans and overwhelm their monstrous enemy.

However, Teinu is alone now, he has to defeat this Monster that surpasses his own strength by himself.

Thanks to [Supersonic] Teinu could aim each of the 21 sword strikes at the joints and other weak-looking parts of Guste Mik's humongous body, he was so fast that even shooting out spikes against him couldn't stop him nor slow down his combo Skill. The final slash in particular was aimed at the Dragon Lord's neck, and even though Guste Mik did buff his already hard scales with Wild Magic, the stockpiled damage of [Starbust Stream] was so big that his Dragon scales might as well be thin paper against Teinu's blades.

"Argh! Dammed fiiiiiilth!"

After delivering the final strike Teinu made some distance before the effects of [Supersonic] ran out, that is the ultimate movement Skill Level 100 Fighters can use after all, nobody should be able to spam it to their heart's content. There's only 1 daily use left too, so Teinu will try to limit himself to use [Acceleration] since the last use of [Supersonic] should be reserved for the final, fatal strike.

'This is it, the fight is serious now. No turning back.'

Guste Mik's neck was gushing out blood like a waterfall, and the other areas of his body cut by [Starbust Stream] weren't in any better conditions. Teinu couldn't kill the Dragon Lord with this, but at the very least it seems his movements will be impaired, so Teinu will have more openings to deliver fatal strikes. Hopefully.

"As if..."

"Uh?"

"As if I would lose, to the filth, again!"

In that moment emerald green flames begun to emanate from Guste Mik's body, his entire body was covered in fire. The gaping wound on his neck stopped bleeding too, this isn't a healing Wild Magic Spell, but rather the Dragon Lord forcefully closed the wound on his neck. It hurt a lot, but to Guste Mik who has suffered throughout his long and arduous life, such pain is nothing.

In fact, he will even use said pain to fuel his rage and strength beyond limits, he won't allow the filth to catch him by surprise again.

Guste Mik jumped forward and begun to spin at high speeds, transforming his body into a giant drill with the appearance of a green fire tornado, a tornado aimed at the Human who just used [Acceleration] and other high speed movement Skills on top of it to evade the incredibly fast Dragon Lord. This combination of Skills still wasn't as fast as [Supersonic] was, obviously, but Teinu doesn't plans to escape, not anymore.

There's a Skill called [Air Step] that flightless Warriors can use to compensate for the lack of flying Spells. It basically creates an invisible foothold in the air you can use to step on and reach higher places. Since it's a low-level Skill you get early on it has no cooldown of any sort and no limited daily uses either, meaning you can use it endlessly throughout the fight.

Teinu was using [Air Step] to run up high into the sky at high speeds with the Dragon Lord tailing him behind. Unlike the previous persuit however, Guste Mik now was shooting out scaled projectiles towards Teinu. But also unlike before, these projectiles weren't just fired at him like arrows, they were following his movements in the air as if they were homing missiles.

"What the hell! That's cheating bro!"

Despite the fast spinning movements Guste Mik is still perfectly aware of his surroundings, his draconic senses are more than capable of pinpointing the exact location of the Dragon Emperor's filth. So by using the Job Classes he attained during his long and harsh training as part of the Anti-Player Alliance, Guste Mik can shoot out his scales (which are engulfed in emerald Wild Magic fire) with tremendous force, high speed, perfect accuracy, and can guide their trajectory even after they're no longer connected to his body.

Teinu realizes that simply dodging won't be enough, so he once again coated his blades with [Kyokujitsujin] in order to slice away any homing scale that gets too close. But there was no end to them, they just kept coming and coming no matter how many he destroyed, so he tried something else.

"[Skill - Tsumujiguruma]!"

This is an omnidirectional Skill that is activated by the user spinning his weapons around in order to create horizontal 360 degrees slashes. [Tsumujiguruma] (Whirling Wheel) destroyed all the scales aimed at him, and even though Guste Mik is perfectly capable of simply firing more, this little breather is all Teinu needed.

Once high enough in the sky, Teinu can use another powerful Skill of his [Saviour] Job Class. The higher he is, the better. He held one of his swords upwards, and then activated his attack.

"[Skill - Saint Bow]!"

As he lowered his raised sword downward, a massive pure-white lightning arrow fell at light speed from the heavens. It hit Guste Mik head-on, but this time his powerful Skill wasn't enough to interrupt the Dragon Lord's momentum, but the spinning motion was slightly slowed down by the attack, so he kept pushing.

"[Skill - Zanjitsu Gokui]. [Skill - Heart of Chosen One]."

[Zanjitsu Gokui] (Remnant Sun Prison Garb) is a defensive Skill that covers the user in a mantle of divine fire, while [Heart of Chosen One] is the strongest buffing Skill Teinu has.

This time he used [Air Step] to jump downwards like a meteor and directly clash against Guste Mik, stacking 2 high-level Skills into a single strike.

"[Skill - Tenchi Kaijin]! [Skill - Meteoric Stomp]!"

[Meteoric Stomp] by itself isn't very strong, but the added damage bonus it gives if you use it while falling downwards makes it a very popular Skill that everyone tried to successfully pull off during high-level PvP.

Combining these 2 Skills plus the most powerful buffing Skill in Teinu's arsenal was enough to cancel out Guste Mik's spinning attack and cause him even greater damage than before. Thanks to [Zanjitsu Gokui] the emerald flames didn't made him any harm either.

Since a bludgeoning Skill was merged into the attack a good amount of Guste Mik's scales were shattered into shrapnel, leaving a big chunk of his head exposed. The Skill combination was also capable of pushing his giant body downwards with unimaginable force, now the Dragon Lord was falling at very high speeds.

Teinu attempted to use long-range Skills to keep his flurry of attacks going, but Guste Mik spread his thick wings to stop his fall and unleashed another acid breath, forcing him to use [Air Step] to dodge and outmaneuver the Dragon Lord in aerial combat.

Right now the Swordsman is really envious of the [Teleportation] Spell Magic Casters can use, since such thing would be far more useful and less taxing to him in this current situation than running around at high speeds in the air.

But alas, Teinu must make do with what he has. And turns out it's easier to dodge the breath attack in the air than it is in the ground, so now he can focus on attacks more.

Guste Mik for his part didn't attempted to use neither of his spinning attacks again, it seems he's more wary of Teinu now, so he limited himself to long-range attacks like his breath weapon and flaming scaled projectiles.

"What's this? You're keeping your distance?"

The Dragon didn't responded to that taunt, not with words at least.

Guste Mik used Wild Magic to push his acid weapon beyond its limits, all the emerald flames enveloping his body condensed on his mouth. So acidic it became that even the insides of his body were being corroded by his own charging breath weapon.

Teinu braced himself to perfectly time his dodge, but this time the unleashed breath attack was much faster and wider than the previous ones, so much that the right side of his body was caught in the acid cone.

"AAAAAAAAAARGH!"

He hurriedly tried to make distance but it was difficult to evade the large acid cone even in the air. So in his desperation Teinu used the last daily [Supersonic] he had to evade the acid cone, get close enough to Guste Mik and, before the Dragon Lord could even notice, buried his katanas into his oversized torso to activate the most powerful Skill of his [Knight of Midgard] Job Class.

"[Skill - Rage of YGGDRASIL]!"

This is an explosion-like Skill that uses the 4 elements to make your enemy implode from the inside, hence why you must bury your weapons into their body.

A good chunk of Dragon flesh was completely obliterated in just an instant, so much damage was inflicted on Guste Mik that he couldn't even maintain his acid breath no more, but Teinu wasn't done, he used his last daily [Tenchi Kaijin] on top of his Skill to make the lethal wound even more lethal.

If Teinu could use [Life Essence] he would be able to see the dwindled amount of HP Guste Mik has left, the Human Swordsman has made a huge number on this Dragon Lord, but the fight isn't over yet.

Before [Supersonic] ran out Teinu took advantage of Guste Mik's confusion to make distance and take out a Full Restore Potion from his Item Box which he immediately drank. His pain and acid burns where gone, but who knows how much damage his sword and part of his armor sustained. They're Divine-class, yes, but Guste Mik is a high-level True Dragon Lord, Teinu's body now knows firsthand how dangerous they are. Had the enhanced breath attack hit his full body instead of just half of it, Teinu may have been killed then and there.

Guste Mik for his part recovered his composure soon enough. He was the most wounded he has ever been, but he was also the angriest too. His eyes were locked on the Human, eyes full of rage and despair.

"How dare you hurt me like this, you damned filth!"

This isn't what Guste Mik had planned for centuries, not at all. All the hellish training he endured to surpass the Dragon Emperor's filth was meant to cement his place as the strongest Dragon Lord, yet there the filth is, easily wounding the body he spent an entire lifetime to hone, and quickly recovering of any wound he does manage to inflict! This isn't how death fights are supposed to be!

Teinu took notice of the Dragon's enraged tone. One would normally feel intimidated by such a powerful beast in a seriously wounded state, but he wasn't intimidated at all.

He briefly remembered the Humans he saw soon after he arrived on this desert, the wounded father and mother, the scared little child, and all the slaughtered people they saw on their way back to their tribe, scattered piles of corpses that reminded him of the unfortunate people back on his world that couldn't secure a job under a black-hearted corporation and thus starved to death homeless and alone in the streets.

Now it was Teinu the one who was angry.

"How dare I? How dare YOU hurt innocent people for no reason! What did those Humans ever did to you!? What could they possibly do to you!? I bet you didn't even knew them, did you!? You will pay for what you've done! I swear!"

"Do you feel pity for the insects you step on? The beasts whose flesh you feed upon? What are Humans to me? What is everything to me? I am a Dragon Lord! A rightful ruler of this world!"

It seems neither of them will ever see eye-to-eye.

Teinu spoke high and mighty just now, but he wants to end this as soon as possible, prolonging this fight is no good for him. While he does have 2 [Starbust Stream] left today, he isn't sure if Guste Mik will allow him to connect 21 slashes on his body again, especially since he just used the last [Supersonic] he had.

No choice left, he will use his trump card. He's not sure if Guste Mik is a Boss, but he will run that risk.

He ran as fast as he could with the movement Skills he has left towards Guste Mik, and his draconic enemy followed suit. Both were running at each other to deliver the final blow.

"[Skill - Heart of Chosen One]! [Skill - Star Slayer]!"

With a 72 hours cooldown, [Star Slayer] is an extremely powerful Skill that does non-elemental damage against evil-aligned beings. Teinu is certain that Guste Mik is as evil as you can get in this or any world, so this attack should either finish him, or left him a severely weakened state. Assuming he isn't a Boss, that is.

[Raijin and Fūjin] flared up with pure-white flames, while Guste Mik once again flared up with emerald green flames, but it matters little since Teinu's trump card can bypass any defensive Skill or Spell.

Full of confidence, he jumped forwards and swinged both swords against the Dragon Lord while he attempted to perform another spinning attack, and luckily enough, the Skill connected. The spinning motion was interrupted and Guste Mik was being pushed back a considerable distance.

Teinu left out a loud "Yes!" while his energy slash pierced through Guste Mik's body like a knife, for an instant he thought that he finally won, that the Humans living in this desert will finally be safe now, but what happened next blew out his hope like the light of a candle.

Guste Mik "grabbed" the energy slash piercing his body with his claws (somehow) and injected Wild Magic into them, destroying the [Star Slayer] Skill just like that.

'Wha...what...what!? WHAT!? But, h-he's evil! That Dragon ordered the demise of innocent people! How can he not be evil!? What the hell!'

Teinu was dumbfounded, how could his strongest Skill possibly fail against an evil being?

As it turns out however, Teinu made a fatal mistake. His enemy, the Thousand Blade Dragon Lord, is NOT an evil being.

While the other 5 Dragon Lords of the Anti-Player Alliance do in fact have tons of Negative Karma, Guste Mik is arguably the member with the "highest" Karma rating. Of course, his Karma isn't very high in the spectrum, he is merely what could be considered a Neutral being, with neither extremely low nor extremely high Karma.

That is because of the nature of Guste Mik's actions. While the other Dragon Lords simply enjoyed to stomp and abuse the weak, Guste Mik did what he did for most of his life not out of some sadistic pleasure, but simply to survive. The laws of this world don't consider "evil" the notion of doing everything you can to preserve your own life, so it seems that the fact that Guste Mik was always weaker than his peers is what ironically protected him from the strongest attack the Dragon Emperor's filth could possibly throw at him.

But Teinu couldn't see such thing from the neutral point of view of this world, he could only see such thing from his own biased Human point of view, so there's no way he could possibly understand why Guste Mik isn't an evil being.

The Dragon Lord once again forcefully stopped his bleeding and directed his gaze towards the shocked Human.

"My turn."

The emerald flames enveloping his entire body were amassed on the tips of his scythe-like tail, and each second the intensity of the fire was increasing more and more, Guste Mik is concentrating all the power he has left on his tail, something that big can't be other than his trump card.

It was an overwhelming power, so big that it made Teinu snap back into reality. His trump card failed but he still has 2 [Starbust Stream] left, perhaps he can find a way to connect 42 sword slashes without [Supersonic]...maybe. He himself knows how ridiculous such thing sounds, but what choice he has left? Run away? He can't even do that with the dwindled amount of Skills he has left. And if he somehow escapes he's certain that Guste Mik will make the native Humans pay, he can't possibly allow that to happen.

He reinforced his resolve and took his battle stance, he still has a chance! If he can dodge whatever comes next perhaps he can find an opening to use his Skill. Teinu prepared himself for anything the Dragon could possibly throw at him. Anything, except for what Guste Mik did throw at him.

The massive draconic body jumped high, and with a single body spin he shot a huge crescent moon-shaped slash from his tailtip. Any onlooker may think that such thing is far too simplistic for a trump card, but a hardcore Player knows otherwise, such thing is not a simple slash attack. Quite the opposite, Guste Mik somehow fired the absolute strongest Warrior Skill that existed in the entirety of YGGRRASIL.

[World Break]

Among the Eight Greed Kings that slaughtered the Dragons 600 years ago, one of them belonged to the absolute strongest group of Fighters, the World Champions. This specific Greed King was the greatest bane of dragonkind, he alone killed far more Dragons than all 7 of his peers combined, his [World Break] is something the few Dragons that survived him still see on their nightmares even to this day.

But Guste Mik is the sole Dragon that used that nightmare as fuel on his quest for power, he took that nightmare and made it his own, he managed to refine his Wild Magic to the point of being able to mimic the Skill that took the lives of so many Dragon Lords of the old world. Of course, a mere True Dragon Lord can't possibly be on the same level of a World Champion, but his own custom-made [World Break] is close enough. And of course, the Soul price is extremely high, but if it means the destruction of the filth then Guste Mik is more than willing to pay that price.

Teinu didn't stopped to consider why his enemy could use [World Break] and just focused every single fiber of his being to dodge the attack, something he barely did, but Teinu could still feel that he received damage by simply being grazed by the attack.

What would've happened if the slash attack connected? Better not think about that, he just needs to focus on exploiting the opening he now has since mimicking [World Break] took a huge toll on Guste Mik, this is the chance Teinu needed! He activated [Starbust Stream] and prepared to start his combo, it seems he will really save the native Humans after all, Teinu felt a warm sense of victory and accomplishment filling his body.

Then, that warm sense was swiftly replaced by pain. Unfathomable pain.

After apparently missing his mark, the Dragon Lord used his remaining Wild Magic to turn the [World Break] around and hit Teinu from behind.

Guste Mik missed the previous slash attack on purpose, he wanted Teinu to forget evasion and defense by giving him the impression that his trump card failed and he was vulnerable to attack, a trap that Teinu was naive enough to fall in.

A cheap, dirty trick. No honorable Warrior would ever do what Guste Mik just did.

Teinu felt pure agony, but his body wasn't sliced in half, and his armor wasn't scratched either. That's because Guste Mik's [World Break] doesn't cut physical matter, it cuts the Soul.

If it weren't for [Kotoamatsukami]'s HP tickle function, an ability of his armor that always leaves him with at least 1 health point every time a fatal attack is used once (an ability similar to the ones Death Knights have), he would've died with that attack just now.

But in the current situation he's in, he might as well be dead. With just 1 HP digit left he lacks the strength to even move, his rag doll-like body fell almost lifelessly to the ground, he was now at the total mercy of the Dragon Lord.

"It took a while, but you did fell at the end. To think you're still alive. But no matter."

Teinu's senses were dulled by his piercing pain and low vitality, but he could still roughly understand what Guste Mik was saying.

"As I told you before, there's no need for any words, so you can forget any last wish. I won't give you the chance to pull out any more tricks, so you will die right now."

The Dragon lifted his arm, and his claws in said arm were enhanced with Wild Magic.

"Farewell, filth."

And just like that, Guste Mik lowered his arm like a guillotine.

Time seemed to stop from Teinu's perspective, a second felt like an eternity to him now that he's certain that he's about to die.

'So this is it? I'm gonna die here? I can't believe I screwed up so badly. So much for a fantastic Parallel World adventure.'

The heroes in those old series who were transported to magical worlds always won against the evil monsters they fought against, but this world he and his friends were taken to is anything but.

'Those innocent people, that little kid...he will never grow to become an adult...because I was too weak.'

After remembering the face of that small child he just met today, a tear fell from his eye. He promised to save them from this beast, but he didn't. Guste Mik is adamant to wipe out any disobedience, so all the Humans living here will be eliminated, and it's all his fault.

He felt anger at Momonga for not protecting the people living here, he felt anger at his friends for not being here to fight with him, he felt anger at Guste Mik for being such an evil and selfish monster, but above everything, he felt anger at himself for failing to uphold his word.

If only he had chosen an Heteromorphic Race instead of a Humanoid Race to play as. It's true that Humanoids like him enjoy more Skills overall, but the strongest Skills (the ones that are most useful in high-level combat) have limited daily uses and long cooldowns. Heteromorphs usually don't have as much Skills, but they enjoy the highest stats, and unlike Skills, the stats never leave you. Not to mention the simple fact that better stats mean stronger Skills, so the fewer Skills Heteromorphs do have are leagues above the Skills Humanoids like him have.

Teinu certainly would've used better stats during this fight, that way he wouldn't have needed to burn all his Skills so quickly, but it's too late to Race change and build the necessary Racial Levels to have the strength he needed to defeat Guste Mik. At this point, all he can do is accept his fate.

With his heart full of regrets, Teinu closed his eyes, and prayed that wherever his friends are, they are okay.

He expected to be ripped apart any moment now, but no pain ever befell him. For a moment he thought he was finally dead, so he opened his eyes again, and what he saw blew his mind.

The arm that was supposed to crush him was dismembered from Guste Mik's body, it was cut with such strength and precision that it was sent flying away. The Dragon Lord was screaming in pain, Teinu has no idea what's going on.

Guste Mik directed his view towards someone Teinu couldn't see, his vision was too blurry and he lacked the strength to move his head, but it was definitely someone hostile judging by the Dragon's expression. He could however roughly make out what Guste Mik said next.

"More filth!? You will die too!"

'Another...Player...? Ragnar...? Asmodel...?'

Teinu allowed a faint sense of relief wash over him. It obviously existed the possibility that this new assailant was just an enemy of the Dragon Lord and not really an ally of his, but help is still help, especially if you were at death's door just a second ago.

Guste Mik forgot about him and rushed to confront this unknown new opponent. Teinu couldn't see what was going on, but he could scarcely hear the mysterious entity shout out something that ringed some bells on his head.

"[Skill - Acalanatha]! [Fudo Kensaku]!"

That Skill, it was the first strike needed to carry out the Wisdom King Strike!

The Wisdom King Strike was a series of coordinated Samurai Skills that, if pulled out successfully, will push the DPS through the roof and beyond. Since it was the combination of several high-level Skills and not a single ultra powerful Skill, such thing doesn't really registers as a trump card. Hence, it was one of the very few ultimate moves that could be used against Bosses.

The mysterious entity shouted again.

"[Trailokyavijayarāja]!"

This was the second Skill in the combo series.

"[Yamāntaka]!"

The third.

"[Kundali]!"

The fourth.

"[Vajrayaksa]!"

The final one. Whoever this being is, it surely possesses great level of skill with the sword to pull out the Wisdom King Strike by itself. Unless, this unknown helper is accompanied with allies, that is.

If only he could move his head to see.

But in any case, he could hear the activation of the Wisdom King Strike followed by a painful Dragon wail. Then, silence...

The only thing he could hear now were the approaching steps of the mysterious entity who just saved his life. Judging by the sound, it was very large and heavy, so Teinu doubts that it's a Human like him. As it was getting nearer, the entity spoke in a calm tone.

"Magnificent."

It was an inhuman and monotonous voice, confirming that this being isn't a Human after all.

"You. Truly. Are. Magnificent."

The non-human entity was praising Teinu for some reason. Him, who was laying demi-dead in the ground and was almost killed by a Dragon Lord he was so close of defeating.

Eventually the being came into his diminished field of view, and Teinu could get a clear sight of his unknown helper. And when he did, it wasn't unknown anymore, Teinu knows exactly who this entity is.

A bipedal 4-armed Insect that stood 2 and a half meters tall. It looked like a cross between a praying mantis and an ant, it had a tail that was twice as long its body and it was covered in sharp spikes which resembled icicles. It was surrounded by a frightening aura of cold, its exoskeleton was a dull blue color and sparkled like diamond dust, and protusions which looked like icebergs bulged up from its back and shoulders.

On each of its 4 arms there was a high-level blade, one of the swords bearing a strong resemblance with the custom weapon of Ainz Ooal Gown member Warrior Takemikazuchi, one of the absolute strongest Swordsmen in the whole server.

Teinu wasn't part of the Guild Alliance that raided Nazarick back during the golden years of the game, but he does remember the Player accounts of the Floor Guardians protecting each floor. And the being in front of him is a perfect match of the description of the NPC protecting the ice floor.

Cocytus.

He couldn't believe what was happening right now, one of the NPCs of Nazarick just saved his life! Is this Momonga's doing? Teinu mustered all his remaining strength to ask a question.

"You...saved...m-me...?"

Cocytu responded.

"Yes. It. Was. My. Desire. To. Aid. You."

"Guste...Mi...the Dragon...?"

"He. Is. Dead."

Cocytus moved Warrior Takemikazuchi's sword in front of him for Teinu to see.

"Slain. By. My. Creator's. Blade."

So it's over, the Dragon Lord is finally gone. That means the people living here are finally free! A small smile took shape on Teinu's weakened face, but before he could even say thanks to Cocytus his mind drifted away into unconsciousness. He wasn't dead, but his life is still in danger, his Soul was literally split in half after all. But luckily for Teinu, Cocytus desires to honor this brave Human who dared to oppose a mighty creature whose power eclipsed his own strength.

He reached out into his Item Box and took out a scroll holding the 6th Tier Spell [Heal]. It wasn't enough to fully restore the HP of a Level 100 Warrior, obviously, but its just enough to stabilize his life force. Since the Soul is still connected to the body, anything affecting one of either things will affect the other, that is why damaging the Soul caused so much damage to Teinu's body, but that also means that restoring the body can help restore the Soul.

Now that Teinu's HP is no longer in the red, his split Soul will slowly heal over time. In a day or so his life shouldn't be in danger anymore. But the Human was still unconscious, that much is obvious since his body needs rest more than anything else.

Any other Floor Guardian would have left Teinu to die, his life is inconsequential to Nazarick after all, but not Cocytus. Is very likely Sebas would do the same thing he did.

Then in that moment, the desert begun to violently shake.

One of the Insect vassals accompanying Cocytus spoke between the quakes.

"My lord, the Dragon corpse has already been safely transported to Nazarick, but what do we do with the Human?"

"There. Is. A. Human. Settlement. In. This. Desert."

Cocytus was ordered to keep an eye on Teinu after all, so he knows about the other Humans he fought to protect.

"Leave. Him. Close. Enough. To. Be. Noticed. By. Them. But. Do. Not. Engage. In. Any. Conflict."

"Understood."

Another Insect vassal took the unconscious Teinu and flew at high speeds towards the desert Human tribe. Cocytus hopes that the family Teinu met will recognize him and will speak on his favor to give him sanctuary. Such courageous Warrior should not be allowed to die just like that.

Then, a [Gate] was opened near Cocytus. His business here is done for so he can go where he needs to be right now, by his master's side.

After stepping into the magical portal Cocytus saw a sight that is worthy to behold. Besides his master and his 3 adult children, all the Floor Guardians and other high-level beings of Nazarick, even the entities of the Eight Floor were stationed here. And if that wasn't enough, the Demi-Gods of this world, the children of the Floor Guardians like him, were all summoned here as well. He could see his 2 sons alongside the other Demi-Gods too!

Cocytus feels proud of them, now is their chance to directly serve the Supreme Being in glorious combat and show their value, there is no greater honor. He even feels thankful to the Dragon Lord that formed the Anti-Player Alliance for creating this opportunity for his children.

Eventually, the worldwide earthquake stopped. They could see far into the distance the "wood" being they were expecting erupt from below the earth, and after taking flight the draconic being unleashed a world-shattering roar for everyone to hear. But nobody present was scared, each of them knew what they had to do.

His master levitated high into the air and used a huge amount of preset fireworks to call the gigant creature's attention towards them, and it worked like a charm.

The massive being took notice of the flashy spectacle and flew towards them, loudly landing right in front of the Supreme Being.

The size disparity was ridiculous, Lord Ainz seemed like a tiny little flea in comparison with the "Dragon" standing right in front of him.

Both locked eyes for some seconds, the "Dragon" was silent, so Ainz spoke first.

I hope I didn't made the "inspiration" for Teinu's build and Skills too obvious. Haha

This Player is basically the main character that a typical and generic Parallel World(Isekai) story would have, but since Maruyama enjoys subverting cliché and expectations, I wanted to try that out myself. Teinu isn't the strongest Player just because of plot reasons, neither in YGGDRASIL nor in the New World, and won't grow a bazillion times stronger during the course of the story either.

None of the 5 new Players is special, there was always someone much bigger than them. Even in the case of Anchelo since, while Imogen is never coming to the New World, Rubedo is still full leagues ahead of that broken Cleric, [Channel Divinity] or not.

Also, have you noticed the little trends I started since Chapter 11? My personal favorite is how each Dragon Lord reflects the previous/next one to a degree.

Cure Elim and Sulte'rioj are both Vampires, yet one is a dumb coward that uses lesser Undead to shield himself and only knows how to copy other Dragon Lords, and is a total jerk too. While the other is innovative and tenacious who isn't above studying and learning from other Races if that means strengthening himself, he was respectful to others as well.

Also both were weaker than they were supposed to be. Isn't it a bit odd how Meitro and Asmodel had relatively flawless victories, but Anchelo and Teinu had such a hard time? That's because vampirism and Wild Magic don't mix at all, the fact that Cure Elim and Sulte'rioj had to focus their efforts on Tier Magic diluted their power considerably, unlike Dirvelek and Guste Mik who could fully focus on their natural Wild Magic abilities.

And to reflect each other, Dirvelek and Guste Mik both fell deep into despair, but for totally different reasons. Another contrast is that Guste Mik was always weaker than his peers no matter how much effort he put, unlike Dirvelek who was born and lived stronger than most. The amount of effort would never close the distance between them, Guste Mik could've trained for an eternity yet would still be Dirvelek's inferior.

Guste Mik was Climb and Dirvelek was Gazef. They just can't compare.

This also means that the remaining 2 Dragon Lords will also reflect each other to a degree. I wonder if you will figure out how so after Arc I is completed.

Normally this is the part where I show Guste Mik's Level Sheet, but they were a few noteworthy enemies besides him, so they deserve a Level Sheet too I think.

Moreigh Bazzer

Epithet

[Scourge of the Desert]

Racial Levels - 20

10 - Asabi

10 - Asabi Lord

Job Levels - 23

10 - Martial Lord

05 - Single Blow

08 - Ki Master: Physical

Total Level - 43

This was the strongest Demi-Human in the desert region this Chapter took place in. You may be wondering why he has the [Martial Lord] Job Class without the basic [Monk] Job Class before it, right? Well that's because the [Asabi] Racial Class is already a substitute of the basic Monk Class.

Since the bodies of these Lizardman variants are filled to the teeth with pointy scales and other natural weapons, their Racial Levels already count as a substitute for any Job Class that is related with unarmed combat.

Kyrkk'ai=Yush'ane

Epithet

[Desert Dragon Lord] (formerly)

Racial Levels - 35

10 - Dragonling

10 - Young

05 - Adult

07 - Old

01 - Elder

02 - Ancient

Job Levels - 32

09 - Fighter

07 - Battle Master

10 - Tempest Fighter

06 - Champion

Total Level - 67

What's this? An incredibly odd number of Racial Levels, right? Well that's because of a curious detail that Maruyama revealed in the Volume 11 Author's Thoughts, that modern Dragons are sacrificing Racial Classes for Job Classes, as in they gain less Racial Levels in exchange for more Job Levels.

Assuming they're interested in building Job Classes in the first place, since the White Dragon Lord had no interest in developing skills nor training himself in a specific field, hence he didn't achieved any Job Levels which allowed his Racial Levels to develop unhindered.

That's one of the reasons why modern Dragons pale in comparison with their ancestors, since less Racial Levels mean lower stats, which in turn mean weaker bodies, weaker magic, etc.

Whatever that weird mechanic is, it must've been a side effect of the introduction of Tier Magic into the New World by the Greed Kings, since the Dragons of the old world don't seem to follow that rule as you've already seen with the True Dragon Lords of the Anti-Player Alliance.

Also, another perk the surviving Dragons of the old world have is that they can get modified/stronger versions of YGGDRASIL's Job Classes, those have (Dragon) next to it, unlike modern Dragons like Kyrkk'ai that get the very same Job Classes any other New World native gets. His [Champion] Job Class for instance is just as "strong" as Gazef's and Go Gin's Job Class, but thanks to his status as an Heteromorph he did gain greater stats than Gazef the Human and Go Gin the Demi-Human, though.

Now the big guy!

Guste Mik=Reihk Nacol

Epithet

[Thousand Blade Dragon Lord]

Racial Levels - 50

10 - Dragonling

10 - Young

10 - Adult

10 - Old

05 - Elder

05 - Ancient

Job Levels - 49

10 - Iron Dragon

10 - Steel Scales

08 - Dragon Overlord

07 - World Striker

09 - Sword Saint (Dragon)

05 - Sniper (Dragon)

Total Level - 99

So untalented was this Dragon that he couldn't even unlock [Primitive Caster]. While the Dragons of the old world could use Wild Magic innately, [Primitive Caster] augmented the magic they won through their Racial Classes alone and allowed them to properly use their magic like real Magic Casters. Said Job Class allowed them to use Spells too, both the creation and polishing of Wild Magic Spells is done thanks to [Primitive Caster] and its advancement [World Connector].

Guste Mik's lack of talent forced him to polish his own body and natural weapons instead, something as simple as a slash attack is the best trump card he could make with innate Wild Magic alone. His Job Classes gave him lots of boosts to his strength and combat ability though, so that was a trade off.

Also, you remember what I noted back in Chapter 11? How Cure Elim and Guste Mik have something called [Dragon Overlord] even though Cure Elim wasn't a skeletal being nor had any of the Racial Skills Ainz uses, and Guste Mik isn't even a Necromancer.

That's because [Dragon Ovelord] isn't a Job Class version of the [Overlord] Racial Class from YGGDRASIL, [Dragon Overlord] is unlocked by a Dragon that achieves complete authority over a specific physical resource to use in combat. Cure Elim mastered the use of Zombies in battle, and Guste Mik mastered the use of his natural scaled projectiles.

Their Zombies and scale weapons got enhanced by [Dragon Overlord] to the point the Dragon Lords could use them as a second nature, as easy as breathing, that's why [Dragon Overlord] complemented their builds so well.

One last little trivia about this Dragon. Unlike the Mountainous Dragon Lord and the Dragon Lord after him, this Dragon isn't an original one I made. Not in name, at least. In the Evileye Side-Story he was named just once, it was translated as Swordmaster Dragon Lord, but it turns out that the kanji of his title could also be translated as Thousand Blade Dragon Lord, which is the title I decided to use.

Just one more fight remains featuring a new Player after this, since the final Dragon Lord will be taken care of by Ainz and his Nazarick.

Next Chapter, the Mountainous Dragon Lord.