SON OF THE HERO KING

<<Steel Dolls: Juggernauts.>>

Even though the number of enemies went down, Sol knew very well that the situation only became far more dangerous.

With how dire the situation was, Sol couldn't even joke about the fact that he was now facing a knockoff of Susanoo.

What followed was a beat down on scale Sol never went through.

The giant knight was mercilessly pounding him as if he was its personal punching bag.

Sol was rendered completely helpless. His right hand was useless, and the bones in his left hand were about to break.

His forehead was bleeding heavily and his vision was impaired. He was vomiting a little blood, which meant nothing good. He was pretty sure that he looked like shit currently.

Meanwhile, his hits could barely dent the near-indestructible armor he was facing. They were not completely ineffective, but it was far from enough to change the outcome.

Secondes trickled by and the situation only became worse. The bitter truth was, he was being completely outmatched.

'I have underestimated what it means to be a Duke too much.'

How could he not? The only Duke he ever faced was Zehn and back then she did not use her zone. She had also been caught too easily. So he had the mistaken impression that if a top-tier Duke like her was so weak, most Dukes shouldn't be such a big deal.

He was surrounded by game-breakers at the King rank, and even those at the Duke rank like Milia or Lilith had absurd conceptual type zones. For these reasons, be it Rio, white, or in fact any duke, he unconsciously began to look down on them.

Even though the main reason he was helpless was because of White’s air advantage and Rio’s ability to absorb mana, Sol refused to use such flimsy excuses for his current predicament and cover his shortcomings.

Taking a hit to the jaw, Sol flew through the air, his consciousness becoming even fainter as he landed heavily on the ground.

Laying down and looking at the beautiful blue sky through his blurry vision, Sol for the first time, entertained the thought of giving up.

He felt so tired. None of his muscles moved the way he wanted them to, there was no part of his body that didn’t hurt.

He fought against two Dukes even though he wasn’t one with purely his physical strength. Even for a complete dragon, this was no mean feat. After all, dragons generally only had resistance toward one specific element.

‘I did my best, right?’

‘I should be satisfied, right?’

…

…

As if!

Did his best? Satisfied? What was that bullshit?

It didn’t matter how much he did his best. Failure was still a failure and it was something he refused to accept.

He did not want to lose. He refused to lose. He refused to be satisfied with mediocrity.

So what if it hurts?

He just had to bear through it.

So what if his body was broken?

He just had to heal again and again as much as necessary.

So what if his body wasn't strong enough?

He just had to discard...

'Why do you act as if you were a human?'

His heart missed a beat. He somehow finally understood something that had always eluded him.

"Hahaha… So that's what she meant."

A small laugh escaped him as he fought the pain and stood up with difficulty.

His previously listless' eyes filled with renewed light and battle thirst.

He now understood what he had been missing all along.

The human form divine beasts took was not their natural form but the result of transformation, a facade they took.

If so, why did he always take his hybrid mode as a transformation?

In the first place, why was it that, even in hybrid mode, he barely changed appearance?

Was it out of fear of losing himself? Was it because he was used to his form as a human?

He did not really know. What he did know though was that on the day of his awakening, he officially stopped being a human.

Despite this, he kept acting as a human. His body may have been stronger and regeneration speed faster, but that was it.

'Indeed. This body is nothing but a prison created by my own fears.'

The moment this realization hit him, it was as if a dam was opened.

From the depth of his core, a terrifying amount of mana, that made his previous upper limit look pathetic, gushed forth like a torrent and rushed towards the sky like a pillar of light.

Standing on White’s back, Rio felt as if thousands of ants were crawling on her body. For the first time since the start of the fight, she felt that she was about to lose control of the situation.

'Whatever he is doing, I can't let him continue.'

She wasn't the kind to stay put and watch as her enemy completed some kind of transformation.

[White, it's time. Fly away.]

White did not need to receive this order twice and even used his domain in order to display full speed. In just a few seconds, he was already several kilometers away.

If Sol had been able to pay attention to the situation above, he would have remarked that neither White nor Rio were covered by Rio's silver steel.

Back on the ground, the two red lights where the juggernaut's eyes should have been, flashed briefly before it began to run toward Sol at full speed like a bull charging at a matador.

Then, when it finally reached Sol, disregarding the torrent of mana, it opened its arms widely and gave a bear hug, strong enough to shatter a boulder.

At the same time, a small part of the pillar of mana that Sol was clad in was being absorbed.

[95%]

.

.

.

[98%]

.

.

.

[100%]

BOOOOOOM!!

With the thunderous sound of an explosion, a blinding light occupied everyone’s vision before a mushroom of dust rose so high in the sky that it could be seen from several kilometers away.

The very atmosphere seemed to be repulsed as a shockwave spread apart from the point of impact, covering several kilometers and absolutely destroying everything in its wake.

The air burned, the wind stirred and all sounds in the space of the explosion vanished, replaced by a silence full of devastation and destruction. It was like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.

When the explosion finally stopped, all that could be seen was a hundred of meters deep crater spanning nearly a kilometer.

-----

Admiring the large mushroom that seemed to reach the ceiling of the sky, Rio never felt so tiny.

"He should be dead this time, right?"

Rio tried to speak calmly, but even then she could hardly hide the goosebumps on her skin.

That explosion had been of an intensity she had never faced. During her fight with Sol, she had already remarked that he had some level of resistance toward magic. She knew that dragons were generally completely immune to one specific element, as such it wasn’t weird for a hybrid to have a partial resistance.

Since she did not know how effective a simple attack would have been, she had decided to create the fourth puppet while using her and White’s armor, armor that was filled with all the mana burst attack of Sol. From the start, her plan had been to tire him out as much as possible then detonate the explosion from point-blank range.

Even so, the explosion was far more intense than she had thought. Had she been in his place, she was sure that even with the armor, she would have been vaporized without any traces.

[No matter how fast or resistant he is, such a large explosion at ground zero should have blown him to smithereens.]

White had no doubt about it. It was absolutely impo...

“Hey, guys…”

For both Rio or White, it was as if time had stopped.

‘Impossible!’

They raised their head in hurry, only to be blinded by the light of the suns. But, this did not matter.

What mattered though, was the silhouette floating high above them in the sky.

Rio’s eyes went wide, but her reaction was immediate,

“Run!”

She did not even show the slightest bit of hesitation. She did not know what kind of transformation Sol had gone through, but anything that could survive that explosion was something she did not want to face.

White shared the same feelings and put everything he had in activating his zone. With just a flap of his wings, he had already moved several meters away, it took him less than half a second to break through the sound barrier.

But this wasn’t enough for them,

‘Faster, I need to move faster.’

White reached a speed several times above that of sound and still continued to accelerate. They just needed to go as far away as possible.

Rio’s erratically beating heart calmed down, White was the fastest Duke she knew, she was sure that they had already long lost that monster. At least, that was what she thought, until, from the corner of her eye, she saw a golden light flash past them.

‘Wha–?!’

Before she understood what happened, a claw grabbed her head and pushed her away from White’s back.

“Argh!”

All it took was one blink, and the side of her face was already kissing the ground. Refusing to let her go, the owner of those claws continued to fly while rubbing half of her face on the rough and hot sand.

The pain felt so vivid that she was seeing stars. Her thoughts were in disarray and she felt faint, but years of fighting made her react by instinct alone.

Managing to create a sword, she controlled it to chop at the claw. She did not believe that she would be able to make a deep wound, but all she needed was a window of opportunity. Sadly, the moment the sword came in contact with the target-

Clang!

Far from leaving a shallow wound, it could not even leave a scratch. Still, it seemed that her goal succeded since he stopped rubbing her face on the ground and slowly brought her up.

Half of her face had been rubbed raw. All that could be seen was a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

But, with the remaining half, from the gaps on the claw, she could finally see the change that had happened to Sol properly.

Previously, even after transforming, aside from his skin taking a more bronze tone and a few more centimeters to his height, the sole true change had been the two glowing horns made out of energy on the top of his head and his blue eyes changing into a slits of gold and black. In short, he looked more like a human with the aura of a dragon than anything else.

Right now though, there was no doubt about his ancestry.

Nearly all his body, aside from the middle-upper part of his chest, was covered in golden scales that reflected the light of the sun, making it look like he was covered in a sacred aura.

This impression though would vanish fast at the sight of the row of vicious-looking small spikes on his back and the long spikes on his tail that was gently swaying with the wind. The tip of his tail looked like the point of a spear and gave a dangerous vibe.

The transformation did not stop there, since even his hand had changed into long and powerful claws. In place of the previous energy horns, two curved black horns pointing toward the sky could be seen on either side of his head.

Finally, on his back, his two golden wings spread wider than two meters, each having a specialized layer of white skin on the inside. A jagged, fang-like bone protruded from the end of its shoulder blades.

Even though she was facing the same opponent from a mere moment ago, the difference couldn’t be more obvious.

From up so up close, she could not even breathe properly. It was as if she was facing a superior being, something she could not afford to offend.

<<Dragon Force, Final Step: War.>>

“You know, I must thank you. If not for the pressure you put me through, It might have been impossible for me to reach this level.”

The moment he opened his mouth, sharp teeth seemingly able to tear through anything were reflected in her eyes. His voice sounded graver, more dangerous.

Controlling the deep fear that threatened to take control of her body, she gave a weak grin, as she asked,

“I guess you aren’t thankful enough to just let us go.”

She had asked this just on the fly, but then he seemed to judge her, before asking in return,

“Serve me. Be it you or your companion, swear your allegiance to me and I will spare you.”

Dukes were not that common in the mortal world. What’s more, he had tasted the efficacy of their teamwork and knew how dangerous those two would be on a battlefield.

Rio’s eyes wavered a little before resolve flashed in the depth of her remaining eye,

“I refuse. I will never serve anyone, ever again.”

Sol looked carefully at her expression, before releasing a sigh,

“Such a shame.”

“Ugh!”

Rio groaned and slowly lowered her trembling head, only to see his tail fully embedded in her body. She could feel that he had destroyed the core of her essence and her energy was already leaving her.

Blood leaked out from her lips, while her eyes gradually lost their luster.

From behind Sol, she could see her companion and best friend, rushing toward them in order to save her.

She showed a sad smile, while tears began to fall from the corner of her eyes. She knew that it was already too late for her.

“R-run…”

Those were the last words she muttered before death finally took her away.

(AN: Holy hell. Writing this fight has been one of the hardest things in my career. This fight lasted four chapters with each chapter being 2K+. Like damn. Anyway, Sol finally took the first step in the big league. I hope you liked this fight.)