Chapter 29: The Plot Is Different From What I Know!
A magical beast's breath attack, generally speaking, uses its own mana as a propellant, mixed with some of its inherent traits, to be expelled as an attack.
A fire dragon spews flames, a white bear breathes frost. The speed of their breath has nothing to do with their own strength, but rather with the medium that transmits this power—a dragon's breath uses its own combustive powder as the main body, while a white bear's breath is the cold air emitted from the freezing liquid stored within its body.
Mana propels these media and catalyzes the power within, finally transforming them into fireballs capable of melting metal and ice that can freeze solid rock. Naturally, the conversion speed of powder is much faster than that of liquid or crystal, not to mention the scales of a Black Dragon, which are already nearly identical to chaotic mana.
When they say it's as fast as light, it truly is as fast as light. The viral scales were converted into pure chaotic mana within a thousandth of an instant, forming a dim beam of light, and then poured out.
A black, turbid light silently streaked across the night sky, without stirring up any gale or shockwave. With such incredible speed, it blasted towards the warrior on the city wall.
What greeted it was a hand that had already been raised.
After throwing his lance, Joshua seemed to have anticipated the enemy's counterattack. He had prepared to defend from the very beginning. Extending his left hand, battle qi burned and swirled around it, covered by armor forged from the hardest patterned steel and inscribed with magic runes. He faced the chaotic beam of light, half the size of his own body, without dodging or flinching.
"Dodge—"
Brandon, standing nearby, also noticed the enemy's attack and shouted nervously. However, compared to the speed of the Black Dragon's breath, his words were a bit slow. Just as he uttered a few syllables, the pitch-black beam of light had already traversed nearly a kilometer of open space, directly hitting the warrior clad in black armor.
Boom!
Black smoke billowed, and a repulsive aura surged. High temperatures and a purple-black mist immediately enveloped the area where the breath had struck.
"..."
Swallowing his saliva, the blonde swordsman had no idea what Joshua was thinking. He had clearly known the enemy would counterattack, yet he didn't dodge at all. Even if a warrior's defensive capabilities were stronger than his own as a swordsman, he shouldn't be this reckless—that was the breath of a Gold-rank draconic magical beast! Although he couldn't identify the exact type, it was undoubtedly a top-tier monster.
However, since he had the confidence to face such an attack head-on, he probably wasn't in any serious trouble.
The truth was indeed as he thought.
Drip.
The sound of something falling.
Within the black smoke, something gold-red was slowly flowing.
The knights who had withstood the explosion looked up, staring at the figure deep within the mist.
"This armor is somewhat useful against Silver-rank opponents, but against Gold-rank, it's clearly not enough."
A voice came, accompanied by footsteps, as a person walked out of the mist's range.
The surging hot wind melted the ice and snow, and blurry heat waves rolled in the cold wind, echoing like a pillar of air above the fortress.
At this point, with the warrior's left hand as the origin, terrifying high temperatures spread. The originally black armor had been melted by the Black Dragon's breath, slowly dripping gold-red molten steel, but he seemed unconcerned.
After breaking through Joshua's battle qi defense and armor, the Black Dragon's breath was no longer enough to break his skin. The defensive power brought by the Steel Armor Breathing Art was indeed formidable. Even as molten iron flowed over his body, protected by the defense of battle qi and the breathing art, he didn't find it unbearably hot; instead, it felt as warm as a hot spring.
In the hand that had withstood the dragon's breath, Joshua was holding a small, churning mass of black mist. This mist spun endlessly, as if trying to break free or dissipate, but it could do nothing under the confinement of battle qi. He looked up, scanning the sky for the Black Dragon's figure, then frowned: "It used one dragon breath and ran away?"
The pitch-black sky was empty, and the faintly visible black dragon body was nowhere to be seen.
However, the warrior didn't look disappointed. He looked down at the black mist in his hand and sneered: "I deliberately took your breath head-on just to get this aura... You won't escape."
That the Black Dragon would flee was something Joshua had already anticipated. Now that the beast tide was in chaos and its own wing was injured, for the Black Dragon, which held a huge advantage and initiative, this was not the time for a decisive battle. Its retreat now was only natural.
Nevertheless, even he found it a bit strange. A Black Erosion Dragon, the apex existence of a beast tide army, would basically never come to the front lines personally. Before throwing his lance, the warrior had originally assumed it was another Gold-rank magical beast. It was only after discovering it was a Black Dragon that he changed his strategy.
This was very unusual. Could it be that there were no other Gold-rank magical beasts in the entire beast tide? Even the wave of beast tide attacking Moldavia had a Gold-rank mammoth beast for siege warfare.
"Hiss—ah—"
From the distant black clouds came a long, drawn-out dragon roar. Accompanied by this roar and a sudden surge of chaotic mana, the formation of the magical beasts below stopped being chaotic. They slowly returned to order and began to retreat.
As the purple-black mist dissipated, the magical beasts also returned to the Black Forest. These monsters left behind a field of corpses and foul-smelling blood, while the chaotic mana lingered, spreading endlessly.
But regardless—the Black Tide had receded.
"Sorry, I spotted an enemy earlier, so I didn't have time to finish."
As the Black Tide slowly retreated, Joshua turned around. He walked towards the blonde swordsman, who was still standing there dumbfounded, and greeted him naturally: "Now that the Black Tide has receded, let me reintroduce myself—I am Joshua van Radcliffe."
Extending his hand, still dripping with gold-red molten steel, the warrior said politely: "May I ask your esteemed name?"
"I am Brandon Chaos..."
Looking at this hand with a bewildered expression, the blonde swordsman felt a turmoil in his heart and was completely thrown off.
A swordsman is considered a technique-oriented profession. In terms of damage resistance, it is far inferior to the tanky warrior. Even if he were also at Gold-rank, he wouldn't dare to directly touch molten iron like that... Damn! Even an ordinary Gold-rank warrior couldn't do that!
Cursing inwardly, but for the sake of face, Brandon gritted his teeth and reached out, firmly grasping Joshua's palm: "On behalf of Count Sclant, I extend my most profound gratitude to you."
...Count Sclant? Sir Sword Saint, aren't you a baronet from the cadet branch of the Chaos family in the Imperial Capital? How did you suddenly end up representing the lord of Moldova to thank me...
Sensing something strange, the warrior was a bit puzzled, but he still shook their clasped hands up and down to show respect: "It's nothing. For the people of the Northern Lands, this is what I, as a lord, should do. May I ask if you know where the master of this place, Countess Verdani, is?"
"My wife... Count Sclant, due to using too many war spells earlier, has exhausted her mental energy and fainted. She has been sent back to the central tower for recuperation."
Pulling his hand away without changing his expression, the blonde swordsman quickly hid his palm, which was already starting to smell like roasted meat, behind his back. While frantically cooling and healing it with battle qi, he said with a serious face: "I have full authority to represent her, so if there's anything, you can come directly to me."
My wife?
Joshua was not someone easily fooled. Although the other party had only said a few words before stopping, he could completely guess the rest. Especially the word "wife." Upon hearing it, the warrior immediately furrowed his brow and looked at the golden-haired Sword Saint before him with a puzzled expression.
Brandon Chaos, as a direct descendant of the legendary archmage Kabala Chaos, had excellent magical talent but chose not to become a mage, instead becoming a Sword Saint. Yet his achievements were no less than his ancestor's, and he was even more renowned.
In his past life, the fame of the Empire's Sword spread across the void and multiple worlds. As a guardian of order, many forces of chaos and evil trembled at the mere mention of the [Sword Saint of Ruin]. In the mid-fourth expansion, this Sword Saint even led a legendary team, with the assistance of players, to successfully raid the Demon Lord's largest stronghold in the Abyss, the Valley of Tears Fortress, and killed the Demon Lord [Gluttony Demon King Goliath], ending the second Void Invasion campaign.
Even among players, the blonde swordsman was very popular. As a true powerhouse with both strength and appearance, even Joshua's own battle group had many fangirls shouting various slogans, buying all the officially produced merchandise, figures, and posters, and constantly recommending him in the group chat.
But even so, he had not escaped the curse passed down through generations of his mage family.
Brandon Chaos, this future Sword Saint, current Gold-rank swordsman... He should be the most famous bachelor in the entire Continent of Strife!