NOVEL WEB Chapter : Three Ways to Kill Your Boss (10)
Three Ways to Kill Your Boss (10)
A brief silence.
The response was slow, too stunned to react properly.
'What did that person just say?'
She turned her head to see if perhaps he had shouted at someone else, but there was no one except those watching from a distance.
Staring at her, Minjun ground his teeth.
"Still stinking of dragon scales and egg whites... You've really lost it, huh."
The shock quickly turned to anger.
"What did you just say?! How dare you..."
"Hey, you don't even know who I am, do you?"
Edelrineth still regarded Minjun as nothing more than a servant to Jenkinson. The idea that their relationship was more of a symbiotic one was something she could never imagine.
Minjun twisted his lips and said:
"Then what about me? I know all about you."
"!"
The dragon's eyes widened.
But Minjun ignored her reaction and continued:
"Edelrineth. 64 years old. Acquired conditional citizenship six years ago and moved to Earth. You didn't get permanent citizenship because of a scandal in your home dimension."
Edelrineth's eyes narrowed.
The human in front of her was exposing her dark past. What he said was true. She had fled her homeworld after causing trouble and had relocated to Earth.
She had only been granted conditional approval by the committee because the victim had dropped the case, thus leaving no criminal record, and, most crucially, her parents had lobbied actively on her behalf.
"But you wouldn't know that. Wanna know why?"
Minjun asked mockingly.
"When was the last time you attended the Elder Dragon Council?"
"?!"
The words that left his mouth were beyond her expectations.
"Do you think you can get any information by hiding from the Elder Dragons' wrath?"
Edelrineth had no idea about this secret, a crucial one that any proper dragon should have known.
"You bastard!"
At this point, Edelrineth didn't care about the identity of her opponent. A human was a human. A weak and insignificant species. She was ready to stop holding back. Just as she began to gather her magic...
"Are you trying to go back to your original form here? You think you'll debut on the 9 o'clock news tonight? You have no plan, no thinking at all... Enough talk, follow me."
Minjun said, as he levitated using magic.
"If you go where there are no eyes, you'll be better off. You think the Elders would be happy if you turned into a dragon in a residential area, smashed buildings, and crushed people?"
"······!"
His words hit home. If she transformed in front of humans, the aftermath would be too much for her to handle.
Though she was irritated by his manipulation, she had no choice but to follow. She could only listen to the last remnants of reason as she reluctantly decided to follow Minjun.
"You... Whoever you are, whatever you are, you'll regret this terribly!" she said, trying to hold on to her pride.
"Enough with the clichés, follow me. Can you use levitation magic?"
A few minutes later, after thinking that she would be begging him to kill her, Minjun lifted off the ground.
He figured it was good to let her think she was walking right into a trap.
After a brief flight...
Minjun led Edelrineth to a remote mountain on the outskirts of the city. The path was blocked, so even an accidental hiker wouldn't be able to stumble upon the place.
As soon as he set foot, Minjun spoke.
"Seriously, are you stupid?"
"?!"
"You really followed me when I told you to?"
Edelrineth could no longer hold back her rage.
"KA-AAA!!"
Light flickered around her body, and in an instant, she transformed into a dragon.
Seeing this, Minjun thought to himself.
'How long has it been since I've fought a dragon?'
The dragon veered off course.
It was a direct and powerful charge.
'Height about 3 meters... Definitely still young. Her levitation magic is shaky too. She's just lived by brute strength without properly studying spells.'
Young dragons, with their thousands of years of lifespan, often neglect training.
Of course, they had a reason for confidence — a species born with built-in magic defenses that could be as tough as a walking fortress as soon as they hatched.
Until that resistance field was broken, Minjun couldn't use his specialized curses on her. The only option was to go head-to-head with physical attacks.
CRACK!
A tremendous noise echoed.
The cliff Minjun had been facing shattered, and he swung around, gripping his stone dagger.
"GRR-rrr!"
His left hand was still in a mummified state, healing slowly. The magic had been intense.
'If I can't use my left hand for now...'
His decision was swift.
SHHEEK!
Edelrineth's eyes filled with confusion as she pursued him.
"?!"
The line Minjun had drawn with his sword cleanly severed her lower arm, just below her elbow.
"You crazy bastard... You've really lost it!"
As she prepared for more, the more powerful the magic, the greater the risk. Minjun wasn't interested in dragging the fight out.
Her arm vanished into black mist, and a shadow loomed over him. A terrifyingly large monster took form.
GRRRR!
The massive pressure forced the dragon into retreat. The dragon was surprised to see a monster bigger than itself.
'Suicidal attack?!'
It had summoned that thing with self-sacrificial dark magic. Minjun couldn't avoid death now.
'A last-ditch effort!'
Meanwhile, the shadow's appearance continued to change. It destroyed the shape it had created, the monster disintegrating into a cloud of black mist and absorbed into Minjun's pores.
Having absorbed the full power of the beast, Minjun felt a surge of energy coursing through him.
'This is the best way to fight a dragon.'
From the stump of his severed arm, darkness poured out and formed a replacement hand.
SIZZLE!
The dragon's horns sparked with lightning. Minjun easily read the magical flow and dodged the dragon's lightning strike.
The distance between them closed rapidly.
"No way?!"
Breaking the limits of a human, Minjun shot forward like an arrow.
He then struck the dragon's snout with the left hand formed from the shadow.
An unstoppable uppercut!
WHAM!
"AAAARGH!"
The dragon's body flew into the air from the force, unintendedly starting an ascent.
The dragon's heavy body barely managed to balance itself in mid-air and pursued Minjun.
"!"
At the end of her line of sight, Minjun was diving toward her, closing in with rapid speed.
The dragon was shocked.
'How... How is a human moving like this? How can he have this much strength?'
Before she could think any further, she instinctively activated her powers. A classic dragon weapon — an elemental breath attack.
The air around Edelrineth began to rapidly swirl, drawing in everything around her.
Minjun's face turned pale as he realized.
'Breath attack!'
He burned through a chunk of his dark magic to accelerate, the wind ripping at his ears. The fiery dragon's face loomed larger.
As the distance closed, Minjun shouted in horror.
"This bastard... is trying to start a wildfire!"
BAM!
He kicked the dragon's snout, sending it reeling.
"Ugh!"
The dragon, which weighed tons, flew backward with immense force.
Minjun quickly cast a spell while watching the dragon's path.
The dragon became trapped in mid-air, as if caught in a spider's web.
"?!"
Two powerful gravity fields formed on either side of the dragon, pulling her in opposing directions, snapping her like a ragdoll.
The wings and four legs spread wide. The skin was torn, and the scales were being pulled off one by one. The long neck repeatedly twisted left and right.
And then, Minjun flew towards that place.
"Ah... No!"
Minjun interlocked his left hand, which shimmered black, with his right hand, which looked no different from an ordinary human's. He raised his arms with all his strength and assumed his stance.
At the same time, he eradicated the gravitational field and struck the dragon's head from above!
Splat!
"Ugh!"
The sound of teeth shattering and something hard cracking echoed.
With a scream, the dragon plummeted.
Boom!
A huge crater formed in the mountainside, as if a meteor had fallen.
Watching the dragon twitch, Minjun analyzed.
'Did it land?'
The area he had just struck was near the backbrain, one of the six brains in the dragon's skull. This part was responsible for mana output, reflection, and balance.
There was a reason he aimed for that specific spot.
'It worked!'
Edelenes, who was greatly impacted, exhibited temporary symptoms of a concussion, and the innate resistance barrier covering her body wavered and distorted.
Minjun didn't miss the opportunity.
After landing, he aimed at the twitching dragon and threw the ceremonial stone knife he was holding.
Whoosh!
A sharp sound split the air.
The dagger pierced into the dragon's wing joint.
It seemed like a negligible attack compared to the dragon's massive body. It was like being cut by a small utility knife. Therefore, the response should have been minimal.
But Edelenes didn't react that way.
"-------!"
She let out a terrible scream, one that couldn't be expressed in words. It was a wail that sounded like her soul was being ripped apart.
Minjun smiled.
'That hit, too, really worked!'
He had no idea how many humans had been offered as sacrifices with that same dagger before it reached him. The resentment of the sacrifices, who had their ribs torn and hearts ripped out while still conscious, had slowly accumulated on the blade, and after passing through Minjun's hands, it was now a powerful curse.
It was a curse that inflicted unbearable pain on the one pierced.
"Ahhhhh!"
That's why dark magic was outlawed in many countries and why the list of notorious dark magicians was a perfect subset of the Interpol's most wanted list.
The source of dark magic is the pain and life force of the living, and unlike Minjun, it couldn't easily be charged. Most sorcerers kidnap their victims, torture them for days, and then squeeze the mana out of them when they die.
In contrast, Minjun charged dark magic through self-sacrifice. He absorbed his own life force and inflicted pain on himself.
In other words, every time he injured himself with that dagger, he had to endure a pain similar to that.
"Cough, ugh, aahhh!"
Edelenes writhed and screamed in agony. Her movements were like the iron wheels of a road roller paving the asphalt. Dozens of trees on the dragon's path were crushed and shattered. A few seconds later, Minjun felt the texture of her screams change.
The dragon's vocal cords, tougher than steel, had just been torn.
"Aaahhh! Stop! Please, stooop!"
With a hoarse and broken voice, the dragon howled. The ceremonial dagger, which had penetrated the resistance barrier, had successfully inserted the curse.
Minjun approached with calm steps. The traces left by the dragon's body, scraping and digging the ground, were stained with fresh blood, like crooked lines.
He had to finish it cleanly before the curse's effect wore off. In his mind, the dragon's anatomy unfolded. The key points of the nervous system that would paralyze the lower body if damaged.
Thud!
A slender finger, cast in shadow, pressed down on the shiny scales.
"Choke!"
Like a drill, the finger burrowed into the skin, leaving a hole. The outer layer of skin collapsed like mud.
The finger pierced through the muscles and fat and stopped at a single point.
The dragon's body twitched! It convulsed right at that moment.
Swoosh!
Minjun pulled his finger, now stained with nerve fibers and blood, and shook it in the air. The dragon could no longer roll. At the same time, the curse from the dagger had finished its work. Minjun retrieved the knife with a calm gesture.
They locked eyes.
"······!"
The human's gaze was downward, while the dragon's gaze was upward.
Beyond the slanted intersection, the dragon's mouth opened.
It formed a sentence that it had never uttered before in its life.
"P…please… spare me…"
Swish!
The dragon, whose legs were paralyzed, desperately moved its arms to drag its body away. It was heading in the opposite direction from Minjun. The dragon staggered, weeping, crawling on the ground. Overwhelming fear. It was trying desperately to escape from him.
"Don't come... Stay away!"
But Minjun had no intention of letting it end here.
Swoosh!
A shadow hand took the place of the severed left hand, growing larger. It had become big enough to grab the dragon's tail with one hand. As it approached, Edelenes desperately pushed the ground. Of course, it was futile.
Minjun grabbed her tail tightly and spoke in a flat tone.
"Being foolish isn't a crime."
He pulled her with force. It was like snapping a whip with a short, sharp crack.
Whoosh, the dragon's body was lifted into the air. It stretched stiffly, drawn by centrifugal force.
Minjun twisted his shoulders, bracing with his feet, becoming the center of gravity for the arc he was drawing. He slammed the dragon back into the ground!
Crash!
The body, now free of the barrier, collided with the earth, unprotected. The ground cracked open, and the earth beneath his feet shook heavily.
The dragon could no longer scream.
"Being a fool isn't a crime either."
He muttered quietly and twisted his shoulder in the opposite direction.
Whoosh, the dragon's body rose into the air once more, like a balloon tethered by a string.
In the reverse direction, he drew the arc and slammed it back into the ground!
Crash!
"But… if you're foolish and a fool..."
Whoosh!
The dragon's body bent like a bow in midair. The human holding the tail and the inverted dragon's gaze crossed. The dragon's eyes seemed to say something. Minjun decided not to understand it.
"Don't push it, you should've figured it out, you stupid bitch!"
Boom!
The final strike caused the underlying rock to crack and split with a screeching sound.
The dragon was already covered in blood.
Its scales had shattered, embedding themselves into the skin, and several bones had broken, causing its body to twist into a grotesque shape. Its breathing became erratic, and its chest heaved unevenly. There was a bubbling sound mixed with its breath.
Minjun still wasn't planning to stop here.
Swish!
He grasped the ceremonial stone knife.
"How dare you touch my territory?"
Just because he didn't know about Minjun, didn't mean he'd let it slide. He planned to use Edelenes as an example. Since the Commission's first contact with humanity, the population of dragons residing on Earth had steadily increased. He couldn't guarantee that something like this wouldn't happen again.
So, he intended to carve an indelible sense of caution into the brains of all dragons living on Earth.
Minjun grabbed Edelenes' wing joint and spread it out. As he brought the ceremonial knife to the base...
=Do not go any further.=
A mental wave echoed in his head.