“Huff, huff!” Vincent dashed through the forest as fast as he could, his face white. The thought of an invisible enemy chasing him made his hairs stand on end.

“The bastard. He’s good at running away.” Seo Jun-Ho stepped quietly. He didn’t plan to attack him.

‘I’ve confirmed that they’re fiends, so it’s a bit of a waste to kill them right now.’ 

It would be better for him if he used them to kill the Nameless Dragon first. 

‘They’ll be the hunting dogs.’ 

Of course, he would put them down once they served their use. That was why he didn’t show Vincent his true strength and just scared him a bit. 

“It’ll be troublesome if he gets too scared.” As he watched the hunting dogs come together, he also started to prepare for the hunt. 

***

“Wow, he must’ve been feisty.” 

When the Nameless Dragon momentarily flew up to the clouds after fighting viciously for a bit, Edvar looked to his brother. Vincent was in a terrible state. He was covered from head to toe in dirt and weeds, and his face was pale. “You took care of him, right?” 

“N-no…I couldn’t…” 

Hearing his brother’s half-hearted answer, Edvar yelled. “What? What do you mean?!”

“There’s something weird about him! He knew that we were fiends and hid his true strength! I used all my demonic energy, but I couldn’t even sense him, let alone find him!” 

Vincent suspected that Seo Jun-Ho was hiding his true strength. But Edvar, who hadn’t experienced it personally, only spoke coldly. “How did you live, then?”

“...What?”

“If he was truly hiding his strength, why did he let you go?”

“...”

Vincent wracked his brain. His brother was right. If Seo Jun-Ho had the strength to kill him, he would have done so when he was separated from his brother. But he let him go and didn’t attack him even once. 

‘I only got dirty because I fell while running…’

Vincent’s face twisted as he realized. “So I fell for his bluffs?”

“He wouldn’t have let you go so easily. Of course, he’d try to take us out one by one.” 

Vincent gritted his teeth and turned back to the forest. “That sly bastard! How dare he trick me, I’ll go back right this instant…..”

“No, now’s not the time for that.” Edvar shook his head, looking up to the sky. “It’s actually a good thing that you came. I can’t defeat the Nameless Dragon alone.”

“...It’s that strong?”

“Not just that, it’s annoying to deal with. It’s hard to land attacks because it keeps flying.” 

“Then we should try to get on top of it.”

“Yeah. But its focus is on me, so I couldn’t do it.”

“...So you want me to help?” Vincent understood immediately. 

“Attacks from the ground won’t work. We have to go for its reverse scale.” 

All dragons had a reverse scale as a weak point. Their enormous bodies had a single scale that faced the opposite of the rest.  [1]

“Then what about Seo Jun-Ho?”

“We’ll corner him with a pincer attack after we kill the Nameless Dragon.”

“...Alright. Then, you get the dragon’s attention when it comes down. I’ll use Shadow Movement to get on its back.”

“I’m counting on you.” 

The moment they finalized their plan, the Nameless Dragon pierced through the clouds and appeared in their field of vision. Its mouth was opened wide, revealing a concentrated black energy. When Edvar saw this, his face fell. 

“Goddammit! It was gathering its breath above the clouds!”

Guooohhhh! 

The dark ray in its maw shot at Edvar. 

“Gah!” He barely managed to dodge with Shadow Movement, but his remaining Shadow Soldiers were all destroyed. Edvar coughed up blood. 

“Hyung!”

“Don’t worry about me…Focus!” 

The long shadows on the ground formed into a spear. Edvar gripped it in his hand and got into position to throw a javelin.

‘The eye! I have to hit the eye.’ 

The Nameless Dragon was protecting its reverse scale with its entire body. Even if he could attack it, he wouldn’t be able to even scratch it thanks to its natural defense. 

Wooshhh! 

As Edvar summoned all his demonic energy, his eyes turned redder. He had to land this attack no matter what it took. The Nameless Dragon must come down lower so that Vincent could ride on top of it. 

“Hup!” He accelerated forward on his feet. As he reached the peak of his speed, the spear left his hand. 

The spear flew straight like a comet, only to pivot off its path, hitting the Nameless Dragon in the face. 

Clang! 

“Ah!” Edvar cursed. He missed by an inch. But since the scales on its face were less resilient, the spear had pierced through its scales and was stuck there. 

Guoooohhhhh!

The Nameless Dragon thrashed in pain. It wriggled like an eel on a cutting board, descending lower and lower. It fell from 500 meters in the air to 200. 

‘Just a bit more…’

Edvar hoped, but the Nameless Dragon quickly returned to its senses. After receiving a life-threatening attack, it started to go up again. 

“Dammit, Vincent! Now!”

Edvar knew instinctively. If it went back up into the sky, it wouldn’t come down again. Vincent realized this too.

“Help me!” He shouted. Edvar lightly stepped with his right foot. 

Boom! 

He picked up pieces of shadow and threw them toward the dragon and Vincent. They had a limit of 30 meters, the same as Shadow Movement.

Woosh! Wooosh! 

Vincent used his brother’s shadows to make his way to the Nameless Dragon.

Guooohhhhh!

As it sensed its enemy approaching, the Nameless Dragon tried to climb higher in the sky, but Vincent was one step ahead. 

“Ahhhhhh!” He grabbed onto the Nameless Dragon’s scales on its tail. He yelled down to his brother. “I did it!”

“The reverse scale…..It’s near its back…..!” Edvar’s voice grew fainter by the second.

“Kuh!” Vincent held onto the scales with his two hands and tightened his knees around its tail. With the way its body squirmed and moved, Vincent felt like he would fall at any moment. 

‘Dammit, I’d rather ride a rollercoaster without a seatbelt than this!’ 

The Nameless Dragon glanced at its back. Realizing that a human was clinging onto its tail, it started to move its body even faster. 

“Huff, huff…..” As Vincent gritted his teeth and clung onto its tail, he glanced down. 

Urp! 

He never experienced motion sickness on planes or boats, but he suddenly felt nauseous. The island he had been standing on had become as small as an ant. All he was surrounded by was a sea of clouds. 

‘I’m confident that I’ll live, but it’s still scary.’

He gulped and barely kept himself together as he slowly started to move. As he crawled on top of its body, he arrived at its backside. 

“I found it!” His eyes sparkled as he found his target. There was a white scale that stood out among the black ones, facing the other direction. 

‘The reverse scale.’ 

The weak point of dragons. Vincent ripped it off without hesitation. 

Crackle! 

The Nameless Dragon felt a spark of electricity course through its body. 

“I did it! I ripped off the reverse scale, so…”

The moment Vincent looked up with gleaming eyes… 

Woosh!

A long, black spear tore through his shoulder. 

“Guh…?”

A seasoned Player would have lost their head. But Vincent was a fiend who had some immunity to pain. He quickly gripped the spear and checked the bleeding. 

‘Who? Is it Seo Jun-ho…?’

He quickly shook his head. It was impossible. Even if he hid his true strength, they were 5000 meters up in the air where even oxygen was thin. No attack from the ground would be able to hit him. 

‘If it’s not Seo Jun-ho, then…’

Vincent looked to the Nameless Dragon, trembling. 

Guoooohhhh!

Eyes shining red, dozens of black spears had formed near its head. 

‘I’m fucked.’ 

Vincent turned white and jumped off its back without a second thought. 

Wooooshh!

He heard the sound of the spears following him behind. Vincent summoned the final vestiges of his demonic energy.

Shadow Return! 

The world around him spun, and he rolled onto the ground. 

“Cough! Cough!” He vomited blood, and Edvar ran over.

“Did you do…? Wait, what’s with that injury?” Edvar dropped to the ground next to him, and Vincent gripped his arm. 

“Hyung, we…..Urk, we’re fucked!”

“What are you saying?”

“You have to run…..” 

Before he could finish his sentence, the Nameless Dragons ripped through the clouds. 

Kuroouhhhhhhhh!

The black spears shot toward them. 

***

Seo Jun-Ho watched as the Nameless Dragon raged at the Shadow Brothers from a distance. 

“You can study for college exams with textbooks, but not hunting…..I’m the one who said it, but it’s a famous saying.” He had expected this to happen. “Of course, it would react like that if you went for its reverse scale recklessly.”

It was easy to defeat a dragon if you attacked the reverse scale. This was what rookies who had never fought a dragon before would think. 

Of course, it was true that the reverse scale was the weak spot for dragons, but just because you found it didn’t mean you could kill the dragon easily just like that. 

‘If you touch the area where the reverse scale is, the dragon will sense danger and become much more vicious.’ 

There was a reason people often said not to recklessly touch a dragon’s reverse scale. Players that couldn’t take on its rage would be better off not touching the reverse scale at all.

‘To be honest, I don’t think I can take on a rampaging dragon in my current state.’ 

But it was a different story if he had ‘bait’ that would receive the brunt of its wrath. 

“Don’t die. Keep running until I kill the guy,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered as he pulled back the Tempest’s bowstring. 

1. both European/Asian dragons ☜