Wandering Knight-Chapter 345: Power Unleashed

The dragon's titanic form hurtled forward in a head-on collision with the Fire Elemental Lord. The force of the impact shook the mountain-sized body of stone and flame, sending molten waves scattering over the magma lake below as the elemental staggered backward and toppled from the blow.

The Fire Lord roared in rage. The cry of an elemental bore no resemblance to the voices of mortal creatures; the Fire Lord's mind, simple and bestial, could only express its pain via fury.

Steel wings flared as thrusters howled, endowing Sieg with terrifying momentum. His dragon claws pierced deep into the Fire Lord's chest, talons driving meters through searing stone-flesh into the molten core within.

The Fire Lord's aura of immolation blazed with even more energy, a hellscape of flame wrought from its elemental core. Everything within was scorched. Even the air burned like a skin of fire wrapped around the world.

Down came the elemental's colossal arm, aiming to strike at the dragon that dared claw at its chest.

The Living Dragon Armor covering Sieg's body blazed with magic. High-purity crystals compressed within its plating detonated, flooding the mana circuits woven into the living steel. And from those runes came Sieg's spells.

Scarlet radiance cloaked his iron wings, a Molten Aegis shielding them from the hellish heat, preserving the alchemical engines that held him aloft.

His own body needed no such warding. The blood of red dragons were resistant to fire beyond anything that metal or mana could offer; the Fire Lord's heat would do little against him.

Nor could it sunder his living armor, infused with part of his essence and thereby sharing in his resilience.

The next moment, a rift in space tore open, releasing a greatsword so large that it seemed beyond the limits of even a dragon.

It was half as long as Sieg himself. Its blunt bulk shone with arcs of violet lightning, the bindings of gravity magic. Without such an enchantment, Sieg wouldn't be able to manipulate it himself.

The weapon hummed like thunder. Its mechanical housing split as power surged and jagged chains snapped into motion, clattering around the blade until they were whirling in a blur. It was less a sword than a colossal chainsaw, its savage shriek a promise of annihilation.

It had not initially been a weapon. Once, this had been a tool for mining, just like Wang Yu's sawblade. Whereas Wang Yu had purchased his in Skyborne City, however, Sieg and Avia had reforged this one with their own hands.

Once they witnessed its destructive might, it was an obvious choice for them to turn this tool into a blade of war.

No longer would it excavate ore. Instead, Sieg would use it to carve open the heart of a Fire Lord.

Sieg's steel wings shifted into overdrive. Flames flared, hurling him forward in a sudden, violent thrust.

His talons drove harder into the elemental's chest, causing it to topple, its body crashing into the magma pool below. Scalding waves erupted, but they washed harmlessly over the red dragon.

Even fallen, the Fire Lord did not relent. Its titanic arm continued to descend toward Sieg.

Sieg released his claws, seized his chainsaw-blade in both hands, and brought it up to meet the elemental's strike.

The blade's teeth tore through the Fire Lord's magma hide before slowing under the impossible strain. Then its engines roared, its gears locked, and the chainsaw spun faster still.

Teeth made of alchemical alloys ripped through stone, then plunged into magma-flesh and shredded the Fire Lord's body in a storm of sparks and flame.

With a spray of molten fire, the arm split apart at the wrist. Half fell into the magma pool below with a crash; the resulting waves of heat splashed harmlessly over Sieg's body.

Sieg, wings flaring, twisted in mid-air. He reversed his blade and aimed it at the Fire Lord's chest.

He summoned another spray of dragonbreath. It would be ineffective against the Fire Lord, but that didn't matter—Sieg was using it more like a jet thruster to drive himself forward.

A torrent of flaming breath fanned outward, forming a jet of force that propelled him downward.

In that instant, Sieg dove down toward the Fire Lord's chest, chainsaw-blade held firmly before him. Deep within was the Fire Lord's elemental core, shielded by layer after layer of magma plating.

The teeth of the blade shrieked as they ground through rock and flame. Sieg had inverted the gravity bindings on the chainsaw, its weight now multiplied rather than divided. The immense weight of the weapon itself now drove it further and further into the Fire Lord's body.

As if Sieg were excavating ore, the chainsaw ripped through layer after layer of rock, plunging into the Fire Lord's molten interior and tearing a path toward its core.

The Fire Lord quaked in terror. Even its dull mind could sense its impending doom as the dragon clawed toward its elemental core. In desperate fury, it unleashed all its energy at once, detonating its body in the process.

The world became fire. The magma lake vanished in a single eruption, hurled skyward in waves of burning rock.

From the tempest of flame, Sieg emerged unscathed. As a red dragon, he possessed incredible resistance against heat and physical force; even the Fire Lord's last-ditch explosion could not harm him.

An explosion of diffuse force would never penetrate his defenses. Perhaps a focused beam, a spear of destruction, could have done so, but it was far too late.

Sieg dismissed the chainsaw-blade, sending it back into its extradimensional rift.

Then, he seized the gaping wound he had carved out with his claws and tore it wider. His bulging muscles lent him impossible strength. This was Sieg's specialty: he possessed strength beyond even ordinary dragons. Rock split. Magma and light poured forth.

Then, he plunged straight into the Fire Lord's body.

For any other creature, it would have been suicide. The heat and pressure within the Fire Lord's body dwarfed what it radiated outside, and could easily incinerate any invader down to their bones.

But for a red dragon clad in living armor, one that had honed its physical abilities to its peak, this was but another battlefield. The Fire Lord thrashed, pounding its arm against the ground, howling in agony as its own body betrayed it.

Sieg tore through the molten labyrinth within, searching for its elemental core. The Fire Lord, its last defenses powerless against Sieg, could do nothing but thrash and wail in the face of its inevitable demise.

At last, the elemental faltered. The flames around its skull winked out. Its glow dimmed. Its body crumbled, magma and stone falling apart without the core's binding will.

And from the ruin stepped the dragon, wreathed in fire, a blazing crystal clutched in his claw—the elemental core itself. He strode toward the stunned magicians of the Council of the Arcane, draconic majesty radiating from him with each step.