The bullet flew and struck the serpent’s back. It made two holes in its sides and drilled a hole in the ground.

The serpent started to have a slight spasm before moving again. It seemed to make a U-turn as its head appeared from the side of the tunnel. It pushed the ground, dirt and all, towards Rune to try to crush him. Then, if that plan didn’t work, it readied its maw to devour everything in its path.

A boulder was pushed up onto him and he was shoved against the tunnel wall. But, since it was just a boulder made of a bit of metal and granite, he utterly destroyed it with his bare hand. The pieces of rock broke and, what he saw before it was, the maw of the serpent was wide open and it swallowed him once more.

However, instead of being electrocuted, he used [Dispel Magic]. He used it multiple times, over and over again.

Holes appeared in the serpent and he fell through again.

The collosal dragon looked down at the ground. Oh, it's shaking. Is he still being attacked by the serpent?

It was inconsequential to the dragon whether or not he was dead or alive. He was more focused on the green dragon girl who killed his familiar, Meintenistoros.

He turned to look around as he wasn’t sure where they were. A pebble shifted and he turned to look at the sound. He squeezed his eyes to squint at the movement.

Rune turned his head to look at dragon. The dragon looked back at him which was a very big mistake.

Rune raised his pistol and fired. The reason why he would use his pistol with less firepower would be so that he could inflict more damage on the dragon. The rifle had barely penetrated, but the pistol would go through the scales and affect the insides directly.

As soon as he let loose the bullets, the dragon raised its claw to defend itself. Three bullets found their way into his left arm and stayed in there.

Rune didn’t wait to find out what would happen and he jumped back into the hole that the serpent had previously made. He had destroyed the serpent, almost completely, but found that he couldn’t absorb it since it was made of pure magic.

Instead of becoming part of his power, he decided to put it to another good use. He dispelled most of it until only the left and right sides and the roof of the summon remained. That way the tunnel wouldn’t collapse any time soon.

The dragon felt immense pain searing in its arm and it looked down at it. Since he was a gargantuan dragon, the bullets didn’t travel as far as Rune had hoped, but it traveled far enough where it made the dragon’s arm numb.

The dragon didn’t know that several parts of the nervous system in its arm was damaged. The bullets had burned those nerves to a crisp and left him feeling an intense amount of pain.

He could still move his arm, but it felt stiff and it hurt when he did so. He, unfortunate as it is, couldn’t move his fingers or his wrist. His elbow worked just fine and so did his shoulder, but he could only use that arm to defend now as it wasn’t faster than Rune.

Rune, on the other hand, was healing himself from all the attacks he had received from the dragon and recently deceased lightning serpent. The serpent still pulsed with lightning that was slowly growing dimmer and, some parts, went into the ground.

He had cuts, bruises, and even some gashes all over his body. He had to heal those before he lost all his blood and he was not happy when he felt the painful feeling of his skin regenerating at a pace too fast for most to handle without screaming.

Although he was taking shelter in the tunnel, he wasn’t just resting. No, he was walking as well. He knew that he dragon would become angry and try to kill him. If he stayed in the same area, he would have died in a way so sudden that he wouldn’t even realize that he had died.

The dragon stooped to a crouching position where it went over its spells in its mind. It couldn’t use another serpent because it was a once a day use, but Rune didn’t know that. Of course, being an Irregular Dragon, that wasn’t the only trump card it had.

“You okay? I can use another Miracle if want?”

“No, I’m fine. Actually, do you have a limit on Miracles?”

Rouna turned her head. She was lying down on a bench made of rock that she had created when she decided to stop moving underground and built a small, one room bunker.

“Ah, no. Not really. I mean, I do have a limit, but it is one hundred per day. I used up…”

She counted the miracles she used on her fingers.

“...Nine Miracles.”

Rouna turned her head again to face the ceiling as she wondered how Rune was doing. Lilac was trying her best to listen to the battle. So far, she could only hear the sound barrier exploding, but she had been feeling the ground shaking up until a minute ago.

“Do… do you think he’s fine?”

“Hmm?”

Rouna sat up and rotated to face her. She had to prop herself against the wall to do so as she was worn out and had immense mental fatigue.

“Well… Hmm… He is… Hmmm…”

She didn’t know if Rune was okay or not because she knew he was going up against an Irregular Dragon alone. She did know about it being the weakest of the eleven strongest, but there was one problem: it was still one of the strongest beings on the planet.

It was hard to decide if he or the dragon would win mainly because of the large amount of things that he had in his storage. She only knew of a small percentage of things he had in it.

Lilac was worried because she only knew how strong the dragon was. The last thing she saw before she went underground with Rouna was that Rune was being smacked into the ground.

“Look. I’m sure he came up with something.”

Rune rummaged through his storage to look for his bombs. He was tired of trying to fight the dragon head on as it started to dodge the ethereal bullets. It knew that his pistol fired off those types of rounds and the rifle used power to attack.

However, it didn’t know about the bombs and grenades. He pulled out the black, slender grenade and looked down at it. He placed it on his belt and grabbed out two more of the same kind. They would come in handy soon enough.

The dragon was stomping with its massive, clawed feet. Every time it stomped, it either made a huge indent in the ground or it crushed the tunnels underneath. Rune, using his enhanced senses, could hear where the dragon was and he could avoid it, even if the dragon was slowly catching up to him.

Rune whipped out a round object and looked at the ceiling. The dirt was falling down from it whenever the dragon stepped. The lightning serpent had completely dissolved and the tunnel had grown unsturdy.

He took out something from the object and threw it at the ceiling so hard that it penetrated through and hit the shins of the dragon. It was just a coincidence that it hit the shins, but he had thrown it on purpose to hurt the dragon.

The dragon looked down at it and was about to kick it when it exploded. Pieces of metal and magic crystals found their way around the scales. Those pieces drained life and stopped the use of magic in their legs.

It stumbled, but kept on moving as it had more vitality than the parts could drain. There was only a set amount as it was just metal and magic crystal and not a living being. The dragon also hadn’t been using magic in its legs so that was basically useless.

The parts hadn’t even went too far into the flesh and it didn’t hinder it from walking onwards. It was even more furious as it had to summon a new familiar to heal him and he could only do that a month after his summon was either dismissed or killed.

That explosion did that as well as make a hole large enough for Rune to escape through. While the dragon shielded its head from the pieces, Rune leapt through it and swung his blade.

His katana left from its sheath as soon as he had jumped through the hole. A single swipe allowed him to cut the dragon in the leg. It only caused a small amount of damage, but it allowed Rune to leap out of the way before it saw him.

The dragon growled at him as it wheeled to look at him. It was still quite alive and still had a lot of magic left. It raised both hands and glowered at him.

A cloud of dark grey appeared above his hands and it expanded to engulf the entire ceiling of the evaporated lake. The temperature in the room lowered as the clouds started to let loose an abnormal amount of hail. Lightning could be seen in the clouds and some struck the ground and pieces of rubble around them.

Stepping away from the dragon, he was trying to not be hit by the lightning. He sheathed his katana and placed it into his storage, leaving him without any metal or things that could attract lightning on his person.

Lightning struck the dragon, but didn’t seem to do any damage. Instead, those bolts of lightning lashed out at Rune who was standing extremely far away. Even with the distance between the two, the bolts still hit him and he tumbled backwards.

Sliding across the ashes, he ended up a couple dozen yards away. He stood up and wiped the dirt and grim from his clothes. He closed his hands and opened them again.

Then he charged. Running with [Breakneck] and [Quick Step], he transformed into his White Dragon form that was just barely smaller than the Irregular Dragon. With both skills being used at once as well as the amount of strength in the Dragon form helping, he rammed the Irregular with his horns.

Seeing this, he pushed back against the force and tried to stay his ground only to find himself knocked over by the sheer amount of force projected upon him. Rune had dug his long talons into him and he automatically started to use [Ice Age] and [Frostbite] to freeze the insides of the enemy.

Lightning still struck, but now it started to hit his back as he was the tallest thing around. On top of the dragon, Rune kept slicing at it and freezing its wounds.

It was certainly dying, but none of the attacks that had landed were fatal. The closest one to being fatal was the attack that had damaged its arm. It used that same, damaged arm to block several attacks while the other arm was used to try and stab Rune.

None of those attacks landed as he used [Ethereal] to make the dragon’s hand move through it. For Rune, as long as he was able to hurt it, he would call that a successful hit. Even those that only took off scales still damaged it.

“ENOUGH!!!! YOU HAVE DONE IT NOW!!!! DIE!!!!”

The dragon took five direct attacks to its face while it cast a spell. That spell launched Rune off of him and crouched on all four paws. He opened his mouth and it seemed to unhinge, like a snake’s.

Behind the dragon, Rune could see sparks crackling as five, then ten pentagrams appeared behind the dragon. He guessed that it was casting its most powerful magic to annihilate him from the face of the planet.

Rune changed back into his Demon King form and flew upwards. The dragon turned to gape its mouth at him and the pentagrams also rotated in place to face him.

The pentagrams had new magic symbols appearing around them every second and the blue light from each of them glowed brighter. That light he saw from each of the magic circles felt brighter and hotter than sunlight and he could feel a tingling sensation.

That sensation had come from the electricity n the pentagrams that were crackling. It had electrified the air everywhere and, now, the only place safe from the electricity was he bunker made by Lilac.

Rune didn’t care about being electrocuted by the lightning above now. He knew that he had to stop the dragon before it potentially collapsed the isle and he drew his katana.

The dragon was desperate, but no one knew due to the fact that dragon faces aren’t too flexible with facial muscles. He was using the most powerful spell in his arsenal and he only cared about his survival at the moment.

The two maids, any dragons left, the trees and animals of the tainted forests, none of them mattered to him as he was now going to destroy the isle. The only obstacle now was Rune who was most clearly a powerful foe and threat. He wasn’t someone who you wanted to make an enemy out of.

Rune used all the skills to harden and strengthen his body on top of using [Ethereal] to avoid the lightning. That skill did allow him to phase through the dimensions, but he still had a chance of falling through the floor or hitting something if there was something in his way in the dimension that he partially phased to. He had only realized it quite recently when he was using it and his foot fell through the floor causing to trip inside the house when it wasn’t burnt to cinders.

He gripped his katana which didn’t fall out of his hands since his fingers and palms were currently being affected by [Ethereal]. He flapped his wings and flew towards the dragon.

He had to kill him in this one strike, otherwise, he would likely die along with Rouna. Probably not Lilac due to her being a goddess, even if just a minor one. She could even leave now, but didn’t due to her trying to nurse one of her saviors.

And so, again, he charged at the giant and pointed the tip of his blade towards its head. He was aiming to kill. The dragon readied both of its arms to try and thwart his attack.

As he got closer, he adjusted his aim to point it towards the area right in between the dragon’s eyes. The dragon was opening up its hand to gain as much surface area as it could to swipe at him.

Then came an attack. The dragon, not expecting what just occurred, used all of its paws to steady itself on the ground. It still kept its mouth wide open, but it certainly seemed that the spell chanting had slowed.

Rune was almost as confused as the dragon as he was not the one who attacked. Instead of his blade piercing its skin, it was a huge array of bullets that had found its way into the flesh. It was certainly fortuitous that Rune had scratched off hundreds of scales that would have easily blocked the bullets.

The source was Lilac who had taken Rouna’s LMG and was trying to shoot. Even now, she was holding the trigger down and closing her eyes. She was hitting nothing but air at the moment, but, when she hit the dragon, she aimed the muzzle towards the dragon and held down the trigger to shoot.

Her aim was shoddy at best, but her line of fire allowed for several of those shots to actually hit their mark and damage the dragon.

Rune, still on course, stuck the dragon through its crown. The sword slid in with some difficulty, but the gravity helped push it down. Blood gushed through the air and its eyes rolled up in its head.

The mouth stayed unhinged, but the pentagrams and the lightning faded away. Its eyes seemed to fog over with a cloud of grey as its body took its final breaths before falling to the ground.

It twitched several times before it fully stopped moving. By then, the artificial storm overhead had subsided and Lilac stopped shooting. Not because she knew it was over, but because she had run out of bullets to shoot.

“Uwah!!”

She looked dumbfounded as she didn’t think they would be able to pull off such a such a huge feat. Rouna was behind her, on a blanket that covered the ground. She looked around and then promptly fell over.

Lilac glanced at her, saw she was still breathing, and gave Rune a thumbs up to indicate it was so. She was smiling a genuine smile that she hadn’t showed in several centuries.

The oppressors were slain and the oppressed freed. Rune looked back at the dragon corpse and started to carefully dismantle it. Even a colossal Irregular Dragon had some fragile pieces.

“Who knew that such a being could level me up twice AND allow me to change my class?”

“Oh? What class do you have?”

Lilac was not well versed in the ways of adventurers and also peoples’ classes. She had mainly interacted with dragons and animals.

“Death’s Hand has a requirement that says that I have to kill a being that is immortal. Are dragon’s immortal?”

Lilac shook her head and spoke after looking at Rouna.

“Only the gods, vampires, Irregular Dragons, and some other beings are immortal. A Guardian Dragon such as she will likely live to be about one million years.”

“Ah. What about Demon Kings?”

“Oh. Are you perhaps talking about yourself? You are not immortal, but you will live quite a long life, even without that ring of immortality.”

Rune nodded to tell her that he understood as he cut off one horn. The horns he was taking a long time to prepare was actually quite tough and he had to try and use his katana. He used his katana like one would a saw.

“Ummm, since she fell next to you, could you check on her? I don’t think she’s dead yet, but I want to make sure she’s fine.”

“Oh, she’s just exhausted. Well, since things are hopefully over, we could just rest in the dragon’s lair.”

“His lair isn’t just a throne?”

“No, there is an area where the two maids and his ex-familiar slept.”

“And you know this how?”

“I have some invisible servants to scout the areas for me.”

“Awfully convenient for someone who was sealed in a lake.”

“I try.”

It did make sense, to an extent, that gods had servants, but he didn’t think that she would be able to gather information that way. However, she was a confirmed lawful good goddess.

“Alright, then let’s pick her up and get her somewhere… more safe than here. So you said that there were sleeping quarters somewhere?”

“There is a hallway near the throne. It should be easy to find if you look.”

He tucked Rouna under his arm and looked up. Then he turned back towards Lilac who had spread her arms open as if to hug him.

“I need a lift.”