Chapter 54: Transforming into a Wolf

The Type I Disruptor is the most powerful weapon accessible to Explorers ranging from Ranks 1 to 4 in this world.

Its destructive force is equivalent to a grenade packed with magic factors, and the scale of the damage depends entirely on the user. The only catch is that greater destructive power demands closer proximity. Melina compressed her range to within two meters—this was the distance where the disruptor achieved its maximum lethality without harming herself.

At the same time, Melina was pondering how to seamlessly integrate her own magic into the attack.

If she refrained from using magic, her high spell-power stats would feel like a bit of a waste on output.

Melina reloaded her disruptor and quietly approached the slumbering Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon. The barrels of her ten Flintlock Maidens condensed high-pressure magic factors, making the silvery-white gun bodies appear slightly translucent and tinged with blue.

Magic factors, brilliant as a multitude of stars, continuously converged. Though she held no weapon in her hands, the factors gathered by the armament radiated from her palms. Her body tensed like a cat entering a combat-ready state, maintaining both readiness and the leeway to strike.

[My Love as Blood]

The principle of this spell was to scatter an adequate amount of magic factors into the bullet spread. Melina modified the spell's applicability as effortlessly as adapting it for firearms, trapping the magic within the ammunition chambers through the gun's "magic pre-trigger" mechanism.

Magic pre-trigger was a special mechanism unique to firearms.

Why did firearms account for such a high proportion of magic factors? It was entirely due to this mechanism. Fundamentally, a firearm is a novel staff that fires magic by pulling a trigger; understood this way, everything becomes clear. High-ranking firearm-wielding Explorers inevitably transition into generalists, simultaneously mastering a variety of supporting technologies, because firearms above Rank 5 are capable of launching self-crafted magical ammunition.

As a universally attributed staff,

a high factor proportion is only natural.

The function of the special magic pre-trigger mechanism was to "store the magic in a pre-fired state, allowing it to be released upon pulling the trigger while bypassing the chanting requirement." The price, however, was a much higher consumption of magic factors: casting [My Love as Blood] normally cost 2 copper leï, whereas storing it via the pre-trigger method cost 6 copper leï. Melina had prepared five rounds in one go, amounting to 30 copper leï.

Factor in the premium cost of the Disruptor rounds at 1 copper leï each,

and Melina had already resolved to make Master Magnaros write off the reimbursement paperwork for her. But then again, hunting offered no reimbursement channels, and the murderous intent in her heart overflowed instantly!

"Full salvo, fire!"

With a low roar, she pulled the triggers. A thunderous noise suddenly erupted as a storm of thunder-like, black-red projectiles slammed simultaneously into the head of the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon, bursting forth with gushing blood and countless ashen-gray scales.

The tremendous recoil generated by the disruptor rounds upon impact blew Melina backward through the air.

A series of roaring explosions reminiscent of cleaving mountains and splitting stones resounded. Simultaneously, the cascading chain of blasts caused the entire lair to tremble.

"Roar-hiss-s-s!"

Agonized screams mingled with the rattling noise of crushed windpipes. As the behemoth struggled to its feet, its front-left claw and rear-right claw failed simultaneously, causing it to collapse to the ground once more. Even one of its dragon horns had been shattered by the violent explosion, while the other was covered in dense, spider-web cracks, suggesting it could not hold out much longer either. The overwhelmingly massive damage had wrecked its balance system, yet the draconian beast still possessed the capacity to fight back.

The Radiant Swamp Dragon unleashed a blind-spot breath attack toward the entrance, displaying the beast's extraordinary level of intelligence.

Had they been an ordinary hunting party targeting a swamp dragon, they would have tried to lure it out of its lair for a coordinated encirclement, because the confined space of the lair was unfavorable for ranged weapons to deploy and unsuited for melee weapons to maneuver. Consequently, fleeing outward immediately after an ambush was a very common scenario. If the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon's breath attack had met such a team, it would have landed precisely where it needed to be.

Yet even a swamp dragon with such intelligence could not deduce external tactical shifts merely from its own instincts.

When facing winged draconian beasts—even if they were merely gliding types—one must never fight in wide-open terrain.

***

The three of them surrounded the Radiant Swamp Dragon with an immensely arrogant posture.

"What a cunning dragon. We must finish you off right here, otherwise, if we leave you to roam free, who knows how many tragedies will be born because of you."

Witnessing the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon's predictive breath attack, Lyon pressed down his scabbard with his left hand while resting his right hand on the hilt of his odachi, letting out a low growl. Drawing his blade, the flaming odachi swept a flawless arc, its thickened and weighted blade slicing smoothly into the flank of the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon. Lyon was the embodiment of strength and speed; this slash was so fast that even Melina only reacted at the exact instant the strike landed.

Stung by the pain, the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon regained control over its body.

Its scythe-like lateral claws swept backward in a rapid motion.

This cunning creature did not resort to brute-force-solves-everything tactics. It was already acutely aware that the armor worn by ordinary Explorers could not withstand a casual strike from it, and it understood the difference between humans and dragons even better. Even after suffering the previous heavy blow to its head, a dragon could still retain its vitality and life force, but humans could not; humans were fragile creatures that almost lost their lives and combat capability the moment their abdomens were sliced open.

However, Lyon was no ordinary Explorer.

This veteran, handsome older man swiftly raised his scabbard with his left hand as magic factors rapidly gathered. He took the claw strike head-on with his scabbard while simultaneously executing a spinning slash with his right hand, sweeping the blade back into the very scabbard that had blocked the blow.

"Sheath Slash."

Dozens of blade arcs composed of blazing flames surrounded the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon from all directions, slashing relentlessly into it.

A massive amount of the dragon's physical vitality factors was absorbed into Lyon's body; his previously pale complexion instantly began to flush with color. This was a vicious and insidious secret technique that drained the physical stamina of dragons. Humanity had invented all sorts of malicious abilities in their struggle for living space against these monsters and in their quest to carve out more comfortable domains, and these skills bound to odachi armaments were among them.

For the first time, Melina could leisurely reload and maintain a steady stream of damage output against the enemy.

Annoyed beyond endurance by her relentless barrage, the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon broke its aggro on Lyon and lashed its tail toward her.

Not far away, G, clutching a mining pickaxe, hurled the black box she never parted with. Hidden within that box were sixty or seventy avian skeletons, brought back to life through the application of necromancy. They slammed in unison into the tail of the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon, forcibly dragging it into a wrestling match and granting Melina ample leeway to keep firing while stepping backward.

Perhaps because he had lost the monster's aggro, Mayor Lyon felt a bit of his pride dented.

He gripped his samurai sword tightly as a massive surge of magic factors poured into it.

He was switching to his output stance!

Lyon's philosophy regarding protecting the backline was very simple:

As long as my output is high enough, the monster will be forced to look at me instead of the backline.

If the backline's output is even higher, then I must elevate my burst damage further still; as long as it is higher, I can seize the monster's attention.

...He operated on a complete, systematic methodology. In the end, his total damage output might only amount to about 10% of the backline gunner's, but he channeled every limited damage window into "Heavy Strikes!" Heavy strikes were the most effective bait for monster aggro.

Even the most intelligent draconian beasts could not calculate the exact cumulative damage inflicted upon them by the bullets burrowed inside their bodies, but they would certainly remember who had dealt them the heaviest blow.

Fortunately, little Mei had delivered her heavy strikes while it was still asleep, otherwise, it would have held a grudge.

Following two ferocious strikes that nearly split the lair apart, the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon locked its gaze entirely onto him, becoming entangled in close combat.

Seizing the opening, G continuously tossed out self-crafted perfumes to boost the group's attributes.

***

When Melina's output was too high—making it difficult even for Lyon's heavy strikes to completely draw away the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon's attention—it was G's turn to act. The armor-piercing capability inherent to her mining pickaxe, combined with the explosive properties embedded in her armament (capable of blowing up a dragon's graveyard), constituted a style of tremendous burst damage, though she was the kind of woman who only sustained it for a second or two.

For a fleeting half-second, her damage-per-second chart instantly spiked off the charts.

Yet the moment that half-second passed, she returned to being merely mortal—no longer human.

G's fierce onslaught was something ordinary women couldn't handle, nor could ordinary dragons. After a blow or two, the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon's aggro shifted toward her, whereupon G began employing various necromantic arts to stall for time, while Melina maintained her sustained output like boiling a frog in warm water.

By the time the swamp dragon realized the water temperature was wrong, the fragrance of spices was practically radiating from its body.

Realizing that continuing like this would drag it to death, the Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon lashed out frantically with its wolf claws and bat-like wings.

A desperate survival instinct compelled it to undergo yet another evolution.

The eerie werewolf statue had completely fused with the magic factor-controlling organs on its back, exuding a terrifying and sinister power. Innumerable magic factors converged upon its body, forming a vortex atmospheric pressure that felt almost like razor blades scraping against the bodies of the three Explorers.

The potent evolutionary factors once again displayed terrifying mutations and power.

Wolf fur sprouted from the gaps in the scales along the swamp-wolf dragon's robust hind limbs, while its claws underwent another monstrous development, growing continuously as showers of bloody foam shook free from its body.

*Crack.*

Its remaining dragon horn shattered completely, and a pair of wolf ears composed of dragon scales and bone grew out from its skull. It grew taller and taller, its forelegs gradually lengthening and shifting backward. Following a teeth-gritting deformation of its bones, it stood upright.

The wolf claws growing from its waist connected to its bat wings, and sharp bone blades sprouted along the outer edges of those claws. Within the swamp-wolf dragon's bestial pupils, a human-like cruelty and wickedness surfaced.

"Watch out!"

Melina used magic factors to grab G and Lyon, pressing them down to the ground while throwing herself flat as well. At the same time, the swamp-wolf dragon spun violently.

The razor-sharp bone-blade wing membranes extended for dozens of meters!

A surging torrent of violent magic factors poured in instantly.

The three of them felt a chill pass overhead as the entire lair emitted a thunderous crumbling sound. The lair, completely devastated by the razor-sharp bone blades, collapsed, exposing them to the sunlight outside.

Suddenly, heavily reinforced magic factors diffused outward from the completely transformed Radiant Swamp-Wolf Dragon.

The sky was unexpectedly blanketed in black.

In a short span of time, the celestial phenomena were altered as a moon formed of magic factors rose into the air.

And the swamp-wolf dragon, as if flaunting its supreme power, reared its head high and let out a wolf howl that tore through the sky:

"Awooooo!"