I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 1238: Head On

Zerathul’s thoughts fractured the instant his time power vanished and panic started to come for the first time since the battle began.

No. This was not possible.

He reached inward, instinctively grasping for the familiar flow that had always answered him since he had absorbed Krono the Time Dragon’s power.

T time power had bent, shattered, and obeyed his will across countless worlds. It was not something that could simply be stopped.

But there was nothing.

The current was gone. Frozen. Sealed behind an alien resistance that burned and constricted like chains wrapped around his existence.

He pushed harder, forcing his will outward, but the golden rings only tightened, rejecting him completely.

His tentacles twitched violently as disbelief twisted into raw fear.

At that same moment, Erend felt his rage stop.

Just for a heartbeat, the storm inside him loosened enough for clarity to return. He felt the sudden absence, the unnatural stillness where Zerathul’s time pressure had been.

Erend turned his massive Dragon head sharply.

There—hovering dozens of meters away—stood the four Archmages suspended in the air, their Magic still glowing faintly as the seal held firm.

"So that’s it..." Erend realized, fire simmering low in his throat. "They did it."

Eccar felt the way the resistance around Zerathul changed too. The oppressive drag of time vanished, replaced by something brittle and restrained.

Aesa’s ice steadied, her instincts sharpening as realization also struck her. Zerathul was bound.

But of course, not permanently.

"He’s trapped," Aesa sent through their shared mind, tension sharp beneath the words. "But I can feel it... he’s fighting it already."

"Yeah. This won’t last long," Eccar growled mentally.

Erend’s will snapped fully back into focus.

"Now. Come on!" he sent through the telepathic link, his voice blazing with urgency.

Eccar and Aesa answered with thunderous roars.

The three Dragons surged forward as one.

Erend sends his attacks first, his fire and lightning crashing down in brutal waves, tearing across Zerathul’s body with terrifying force. The impact detonated before the next arrived, giving him no space to recover.

Aesa followed next with her ice lances reforming and slamming into the golden rings and Zerathul’s warped flesh alike, freezing, cracking, and exploding in rapid succession.

Eccar’s earth power crashed in from below and the sides, colossal masses hammering into Zerathul again and again, driving him backward through the sky.

The attacks did not stop.

They came in relentless waves of fire, lightning, ice, and earth. They were layered and overlapping, each strike feeding into the next.

Zerathul was pushed farther and farther back, his body shaking under the combined assault.

His fury finally broke through his fear.

He snarled, bellowing in rage as frustration tore through him. Bound, battered, denied his greatest weapon, he lashed out blindly, tentacles flailing against attacks he could no longer properly predict or evade.

Below them, the shockwaves grew even more catastrophic.

The Archmages were forced to raise their barriers fully as the air screamed and buckled around them. Their Magic strained and trembling under pressure far beyond what they could safely endure.

"This is getting worse," Sylmira shouted over the roar. "If we stay here—"

"Right. We’ll be crushed by their crossfire," Saeldir finished, grimacing as another wave slammed into his shield.

Lysander glanced upward, watching the Dragons drive Zerathul back.

"The seal is holding for now," he said quickly. "That’s all we were meant to do."

Adrius nodded once, firm and decisive. "Then we must retreat. Now!"

They did not hesitate.

The four Archmages turned as one and descended rapidly, pulling away from the epicenter as the sky above continued to shatter under Dragon fury.

Behind them, the battle raged on. Three Dragons pressed their advantage, and the enemy was still fighting back.

The four Archmages finally descended back to their positions, their barriers flickering as they touched down amid the battered battlefield in the air below.

King Gulben turned toward them immediately, the remaining fighters following his gaze as debris continued to rain from the sky.

"Are you injured?" king Gulben asked with a steady voice despite the chaos above and around them.

Adrius shook his head, planting his staff firmly into the ground.

"Mostly intact. I’m drained out of Magic energy, but still I think I will still be able to move."

"Nothing we can’t endure," Sylmira said, rolling her shoulders with a grimace.

Saeldir glanced upward briefly before speaking. "The seal is active, your majesty. Zerathul’s time power is restrained for now. That should give Erend, Eccar, and Aesa room to unleash everything they have."

Another shockwave rippled through the air, forcing the fighters to brace themselves as fragments of energy-scorched debris slammed into the ground and air around them.

King Gulben narrowed his eyes. "How long will it last?"

Silence followed.

They all knew the answer even before it was spoken. No seal forged under such pressure could hold forever, especially against a being like Zerathul.

Saeldir finally broke the quiet. "Approximately five minutes, Your Majesty."

Gulben’s jaw tightened for a brief moment. He felt a little bit of disappointment flickering beneath his composed expression. But he did not voice it. Instead, he nodded once, firm and resolute.

"That should be enough."

The group lifted their eyes skyward again as larger fragments began falling, remnants of shattered Magic crashing down with growing intensity.

"We can’t let this bury the field," Gulben said sharply. "We must intercept the debris."

At once, the fighters moved again. They spread out across the sky battlefield.

—

Zerathul continued to receive the relentless attacks from the Dragonborn that landed clearly now, no longer slipping through distorted moments or fractured seconds.

Pain finally reached him, tearing a roar from his throat as his massive body shuddered under the impact.

His consciousness split with brutal precision. One part of his mind turned inward to gnawing at the sealing spell that bound his time power, probing for it to fracture and weaken.

The other sharpened into pure violence, locking onto the three Dragons before him.

With a thunderous roar, Zerathul surged forward, abandoning distance and distortion as he advanced straight into close combat.

His arm snapped out with terrifying speed. Long, clawed fingers raked across Erend’s face, sparks and scales scattering as the force sent him crashing backward through the air.

Erend twisted, barely stabilizing himself before his wings caught the sky again.

Eccar watched it happen and laughed, his Dragon body coiling with excitement rather than fear.

"So you’ve decided it’s time to fight us head-on, huh?" he said, his grin sharp and feral. "Bring it on!"

—