Book 1-2.5 The Red Dragon
As soon as Yulian stood up, he felt a slight vibration under his feet.
‘It’s them.’
Yulian
confirmed that the vibrations were happening because Sand Dragons were
nearby. Among the monsters that live in the sand, there are the Spec (a
ball-shaped monster that moves around inside the sand to hunt small
animals) and the Gorias (a turtle-like monster living in the sand), but
since neither of those could cause such vibrations even when moving in a
giant herd, Yulian was able to determine that the vibration was caused
by the Sand Dragon.
“Let’s go.”
Now that Yulian knew it was
nearby, he started to head at full speed on top of the Pirma. When he
traveled for about ten minutes?
“Oh! Unbelievable!”
Yulian was astonished by the sight in front of his eyes.
Even
though a part of its body was still in the sand, it still shot up as
high as the sky. Even on the small end it was at least ten meters long.
Thinking about the remaining body still stuck underneath the sand, he
could not even fathom just how long it truly was.
It was the Sand Dragon he had been looking for. He had finally found it.
There
were three of these Sand Dragons tangled together like tree roots as
they shot up. Yulian gasped in shock staring at the three heads, which
looked like large fruits. Momentarily, he even thought about backing
away.
Even though he was confident, he thought it would be
impossible with three of them together. He had thought about first
running away, and then roaming around this area, taking them down one by
one.
Crrrrrrr. Craaaaaaaaaaaak!
As Yulian made his decision
and turned the Pirma around to run away, he heard a loud noise that
vibrated across the desert, making him turn his head.
“What the!”
A funny sight came into his view. The two dark red Sand Dragons were trying to bite the one red Sand Dragon.
The
red Sand Dragon started twisting its body left and right and moved its
head to try to avoid the two attacks, but it was difficult since their
bodies were tangled together.
However, it looked like the red Sand
Dragon was a strong one; even though it was getting hit and bitten
everywhere by the two dark red Sand Dragons, it did not receive a
critical blow and was able to endure.
But as time passed, it’s
movements started to become dull, and it was certain that the dark red
Sand Dragons will end up winning in the end.
What just went through Yulian’s mind?
Yulian
turned his Pirma back around and started to head towards the location
the three Sand Dragons were fighting. As he started to get closer, the
Pirma became frightened of these desert monsters and stopping moving.
When that happened, Yulian got off the Pirma and put his two greatswords
across his shoulders.
“Haaaaaaaaaaa!”
With a loud noise Yulian’s body quickly headed towards the location where the three Sand Dragons were fighting.
Craaaaaaaaaa!
The three Sand Dragons were too busy brutally fighting with each other to notice Yulian approaching underneath them.
“Just pretend I am cutting down a tree. A gigantic tree that is three meters wide.”
Yulian mumbled to himself as he looked up to stare above him.
“Since they are tangled together, they should not be able to get free until the body falls over.”
This
was what you call the fisherman’s gain. Yulian was giddy as he thought
about the term his master had taught him. (TL: It’s a Korean saying that
states that when two parties are fighting, a third party can benefit
without putting much work. It’s called the fisherman’s gain because how
it is described is that a bird tries to eat the meat of a clam and
sticks its beak inside, but as soon as it sticks it in, the claim
tightens itself and won’t let go of the bird. While they are fighting,
the fisherman is able to catch both of them).
Crack. Crack.
Yulian
swung his greatsword as if he was leisurely stretching. He twisted his
hips as much as possible, and once the two greatswords were parallel to
the ground, Yulian quickly untwisted his hips as he swung his sword.
Slaaaaaaaaash.
Yulian’s large greatsword went into the body as if it finally met a worthy opponent.
“Guoooo!”
The
moment he heard a piercing noise that felt like it would break his
eardrums, the two greatswords showed themselves again, dropping large
drops of blood onto the sandy floor as if to show that they completed
their mission.
“It’s not time for me to slow down.”
Without even a moment to look cool, Yulian swung his hips again.
‘This time, the red one.’
Yulian made up his mind. Even in cutting them up, there was an order.
He
didn’t know if monsters had that type of mentality too, but anybody
could see that the two dark red Sand Dragons were allies. In that case,
it made sense to cut up one of them first. Next was the red one, since
it looked like the strongest of the three.
Once he does that, he should be able to take on the last one with his own abilities without attacking stealthily like this.
That was the image Yulian drew up in his head, and he was about to draw the second image.
Twist.
The
Sand Dragons had fast reactions. Even though they were busy fighting
with each other, as one fell away, they quickly untangled themselves.
At
that moment, Yulian ended up seeing it. The red Sand Dragon, which
looked to be the strongest, quickly spread open its wings. The wings
were glorious and looked to be at least fifteen meters wide.
“There’s no way…”
Yulian
remembered reading about this in one of the continent’s books. There
was even an image in that book that matched the red dragon in front of
him, and he vividly remembered that image even today.
“A real dragon?”
As Yulian shouted in shock, the Red Dragon used its large claws to rip apart the Sand Dragon.
As
if it was finally paying back all of its grudges, it ripped the Sand
Dragon apart like it wanted to make it into thin strands of yarn. Yulian
almost fell down on the ground in shock.
The pressure given off
by this monster known as the dragon was beyond imagination, and when the
Red Dragon landed on the ground and tilted its head to look at Yulian,
he even felt like he wanted to die.
“Haaaaaaa!”
Yulian pushed out all his energy to stand up, let out his force and crossed the two greatswords in front of him.
The
strength of the force was weak and did not cause any damage to the
monster, but at least he was able to get rid of the fear inside of him.
“Puk.”
As a consequence to letting out all of his force, he was starting to bleed dark red blood from his mouth.
At
this moment, he felt a gushing wind come from behind him and he felt
like his body was lifted up before he fell down on his butt. In front of
his eyes, there was a person who looked greater than anybody else.
“Master.”
It was none other than Chun Myung Hoon who stood between Yulian and the Red Dragon.
“For an insect, you have quite the force.”
Chun
Myung Hoon deliberately ignored Yulian’s calling and yelled at the
dragon. The dragon looked at Chun Myung Hoon as if it was amused.
“Master.”
Yulian jumped up and stood next to his master. Chun Myung Hoon raised his hand to shut him up.
This
monster had a force greater than he imagined, and one that was no
weaker than himself at full force. It was not comparable to the thousand
year old Leviathan he took care of in China.
Chun Myung Hoon said to Yulian:
“I
thought it was a worm but it seems like it’s actually a dangerous
insect. With your level of force, it’ll be difficult to even stand here
so go stand far away.”
Yulian knew that his master was right, but how could he run away alone and leave his great master here?
Especially when his master came here for him.
“How could I leave my master and run away by myself? I would rather give my life to save…”
Hearing Yulian’s words Chun Myung Hoon turned his head to look at Yulian in disbelief.
“You…you don’t think that I’ll be killed by that insect, do you?”
