"It seems you are indeed the enemy…"
As Rey spoke, he brought out a sword seemingly out of thin air.
The blade was obsidian black, with several runes written on its flat surface. The runes glowed as he poured energy through its hilt.
This was one of the items he bought, and until now it was hidden in his [Inventory].
"… Filthy Dragon." Rey pointed his blade at his opponent, a wide grin on his face.
No one could see his smile, though.
The only thing evident to everyone was the grim mask of darkness that shrouded his face.
'I've seen your Stats and Skills. You're incredibly strong—stronger than anything I've ever faced. However…'
Rey felt relieved. Like a heavy weight had been lifted from his chest.
'… I can win!'
"What… are you?" The voice of the Dragon Commander—Jer'ard—rang in the air.
Rey took caution as he stared at him, though he gave no response.
"Your presence… your power… it's difficult to assess."
Rey wondered what the Dragon Commander was seeing from his heights.
"I can clearly tell that you're weaker than me, but there's something else. What… who are you? Hmm…"
'Such calmness in front of a stranger.' Rey smiled to himself.
This one was really confident.
He had read a lot about Dragons, especially their natural abilities such as their intuition, but not much was known about three-horned Dragons.
Dragon Commanders were rarely seen—even in the battlefield—so it was difficult to extract enough information about them.
'And it seems this one is an average example of a Dragon Commander. His Stats alone are wild.'
No human could ever hope to come close to a Dragon in power.
The fact that both Adonis and Lucielle couldn't beat it with their combined power didn't come as a surprise to Rey at this point.
No one in the entire United Human Alliance stood a chance against this thing.
No one but him.
'It has Spatial Magic—one of the rarest kinds of Magic—and a bunch of other great Skills. That's good…'
For Rey, he was simply grateful that his enemy was so strong, and he possessed such a variety of abilities.
'EXP and Skills. I'll be having both soon!'
Of course, he knew he couldn't be careless. Not in front of a beast such as this.
Dragons were known to be merciless.
They looked down on other beings of H'Trae as inferior creatures.
'I'm even surprised he hasn't killed everyone already…'
Rey could see blood stains as remnants of mangled flesh in the distance, so he knew that the Dragon Commander had gotten rid of the other members of the Rescue Team.
The fact that he could only see Brutus also meant that his entire team had been wiped out.
Rey felt his heart tighten, but he didn't take it to heart.
It wasn't like he knew those people very well, and he had seen worse earlier in the day.
'Monsters will be Monsters. Dragons will be Dragons.'
That was his philosophy.
He could talk to Monsters and even joke around with them. However, when it came to Dragons—or at least, this one—Rey didn't want to utter a word.
'The most intelligent Monsters are still somewhat primal. Their instinct is to kill and destroy…'
But Dragons were different.
Dragons were a very intelligent race—rumored to be even more advanced than every other Nation in H'Trae.
They were also very strong.
'Yet they choose to wage a meaningless war. They choose to engage in pointless violence and drown the world in despair.'
Rey had initially considered the possibility that Dragons could have a good reason behind their actions.
Perhaps they lacked resources, or their lands were overpopulated and they needed to expand their territory.
That wouldn't make their actions right, but he could at least see the reasoning.
There was even the possibility that the humans—or some other race—struck first, and this was simply the retribution that followed.
But… that wasn't the case at all.
'If any of those scenarios were true, humanity would have been wiped out already.'
The Dragons were too strong! They could easily take over the battlefield with half a dozen Dragon Commanders—at least from the Stats that Rey was seeing before him.
A Dragon stronger than a Commander would absolutely wreck everything.
But… none of them were invading.
Why?!
'It almost feels like some kind of twisted game. They're just crushing humans like ants, without even putting in the effort.'
There really wasn't any need for a long-drawn conflict between humans and Dragons.
'Yet here we are.' Rey sighed internally.
The humans banded together to form the Alliance, taking steps to improve and grow in order to fight the Dragons and triumph.
Rey was sure the other Nations of H'Trae were making similar moves.
But…
'It's all useless.'
Rey was an advocate for innovation and adaptation, but he also knew the ugly truth—and it was staring him in the eye right now.
'Against true power, there's nothing they can do.'
How long would it take for the humans to amass the kind of power needed to stop the Dragons? A few hundred years? A couple thousand?
It was going to take a remarkably long time.
Comparing that to the level of damage that the Dragons were already wrecking, it was easy to see the latter would emerge victorious before the humans could even raise a finger against them.
'They're not being stupid or complacent. They are already certain of their victory.' Rey smiled to himself, almost feeling the futility of it all.
These predators were merely enjoying the thrill of the hunt.
It reminded Rey of his little experiment with the Hobgoblins—
how he bred them for the purpose of growing stronger for his sake.
The Hobs were never going to be stronger than him.
He made sure of that.
However, he wanted to make sure they were 'strong enough' for his purposes.
'That's what all of this is.'
In a way, he could understand what they were doing.
However, there was one major difference between his experiment with the Hobgoblins and the current situation with the Dragons.
—The difference that made the latter unacceptable.
'I don't like being on the Hobgoblin side of the story.'
To Rey, being the predator was fine… as long as he was the one doing the hunting.
He had to be the predator.
His side had to be the one with the power and control.
'It's unfortunate that I was summoned into this side of the narrative. But, now that I'm here, there's only one thing to do.'
Rey felt his blood rising as he prepared for combat.
'I just need to flip the script!'
The Dragons had surely enjoyed a long while being the most powerful beings to exist.
There was nothing wrong in changing that now.
'I'm sure no Dragon Commander has been killed by a human—at least, not in a very long time.'
No book he read had shown even the slightest hint of humans defeating the three-horned.
And that made him excited beyond words.
'Let's change history! Right here and now!'
Once Rey's mind was made up, he decided to simply go all-out against his enemy.
'I'm going to use them all!'
*
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Thanks for reading!
Sorry for dragging out the story like this. I just get caught up on these things.
The fight begins in the , I promise!
