A fancy carriage halted at the northern edges of the forest, and the people riding inside looked out of their window. They had seen it, a titanic black dragon that came down from the night sky. They planned to meet with their suppliers in this forest, but with that thing showing up, the meeting is sure to be canceled.

What kind of fool would stay around after seeing the terror of that black dragon? Among the people in the carriage, one of them was an experienced and talented adventurer, and even he was scared. His job was to protect the nobles coming here to buy materials, and he had to warn them about the dragon, make it clear that it wasn’t something he could fight or stall.

He described Arad’s power as being similar to a destructive tidal wave. You cannot stop or slow it down; the moment it comes, everything is just washed away. Fighting the black dragon wasn’t an option, escaping from it was impossible, and drawing its attention was fatal. They could only plan ahead of time and take the dragon into account.

The adventurer’s current plan is simple: stay away and get back home as soon as possible. Most importantly, never return to this forest for the coming months.

The noble understood the adventurer’s warning well; he knew that each second they spent anywhere near the forest could spell their end. But he couldn’t just leave empty-handed. This trip had to pay for itself somehow, and he had just the trick.

He was a wizard, a talented one. The discovery of such a terrifying dragon has to be sought by many powerful and rich magicians, and he would sell that information to them. He’ll record everything: the dragon’s size, color, scale type, jaw type, eye color, potential magic, spells, observed biology, intellect, and even behavior.

As the black dragon brutalized all of the fairy hunters, the noble was sitting comfortably in his carriage, observing from afar and recording everything with increasing curiosity. But with each observation he made, the dragon seemed stranger and weirder.

The way it moved, how it hunted, and how its glares looked. The noble was almost certain it wasn’t hunting to satiate its hunger or for fun; a deep regret and anger flickered in its purple eyes. It was sad, grieving, and only reaping lives to fulfil a duty, or enact vengeance.

His suppliers must’ve angered it somehow... no, just angering that dragon won’t bring forth such a reaction.

"We’d better retreat and erase all records of our previous dealings." The noble smiled and gave an order to the driver.

The adventurer by his side sighed. "Finally? Did my warning reach your ears?"

The noble shook his head. "I don’t listen to the words of a dumb adventurer. I only listen to mine." He then looked out of the window with a smile. "That dragon is most likely here to avenge the fairies. One of them must’ve belonged to him or something, and what they got harmed, he came here to avenge them."

"That mean it’ll come after you as well." The adventurer growled, "Fuck! This is far above what you paid me. I’ll not face that dragon no matter how you’ll pay."

The noble smiled. "Don’t worry, I’m not expecting that. I mean, if it attacked us, it won’t matter anyway, we’ll die whether you fight or not."

At that moment, the horses panicked, the driver screamed, and the carriage halted. "What’s going on?" The noble screamed, and the adventurer replied before the driver could even open his mouth. "Were those the horses? Did the harness snap?"

"It’s an arrow! It cut the harness, and the horses ran away. We need to catch them before we get stranded!" The driver cried as he ducked down, and the adventurer kicked the carriage’s door open and shouted.

"Get inside. I’ll deal with the archer." The adventurer pulled his sword, looked around for a second, and then swung his blade, deflecting the second arrow. This time, the archer had aimed for his head.

"You..." The adventurer growled as he turned around to deflect the arrow a second time. That arrow wasn’t normal. When he deflected it the first time, it flew back, swung around like a boomerang, and came flying toward the back of his head.

The adventurer had to deflect the same arrow three times before it broke and fell to the ground. That alone made him aware of several things. The archer was abnormally skilled, had magic to control the arrow from afar, probably wind, and wasn’t a fairy, as the arrow is too big.

"Let me guess, a dark elf? This sneakiness and skill with the bow, am I right?" As the adventurer asked, a second arrow came flying at his head, and this one was far heavier than the first, and carried enough magic that a shockwave powerful enough to flip the carriage exploded when he deflected it.

"Won’t you answer me? Why is this giving me a bad feeling?" The adventurer smiled. "Come on, Archer, show your face. I promise I’ll cleave your head quickly. Don’t make me chase you."

A third arrow came, and this one held even more power, yet the adventurer still deflected it without sustaining a single injury.

"Do you know? A melee fighter’s weakness is ranged attacks, so I trained well to patch that hole. You can’t take me down with arrows. Unless they are powerful enough to destroy the entire area." He lifted one hand, and flicked his fingers.

The ground in front of him shifted, and a stone spear emerged. "Now, where are you?" The adventurer smiled as the stone spear fired forward like a missile, aiming toward where the arrows came from.

As he expected, an arrow came and intercepted the spear, shattering it.

"I can also fight at range. Let’s see how much you can handle." Moving his fingers, ten stone spears appeared and fired forward, only to be shot down before reaching the mark.

He smiled. "I see, upper A-rank... maybe even an S. Let’s see, let’s see... this would make it clear." As he grinned, a thousand spears emerged around him like a new forest, and all of them blasted away toward where the arrows came from.

He expected at least one spear to reach the archer. In his entire life, he had never needed to fire more than twenty spears at someone, and even monsters barely needed more than a hundred stone spears to die.

He had fired a thousand spears simply to display his power and test the waters. If the archer is crazy enough to shoot them all down, this fight might not be worth the gold he is being paid.

To the adventurer’s surprise, all of the spears were shot down in a second, and as they crumbled to the ground, the smile on his face turned into a somber and tense frown.

"The archer is at the level of an S-rank, maybe even an upper class. I can handle them, but I won’t be able to protect you. Flee if you don’t want to fight." As the adventurer spoke, the noble kicked the carriage’s door open and walked out.

"Me? Run away, you’re kidding." The noble was a young man in his late twenties with short black hair, radiant green eyes, and a boiling aura of powerful magic. "After you showed me that magic, I can’t let you die here. I want to study it later."

"Then you’ll help me take that archer down." The adventurer smiled. "Problem, how do we close the distance without getting shot?"

"Well, I was thinking of using a powerful barrier to protect us while we approach." The noble growled. "But that seems to be unnecessary now."

"Shit..." The adventurer cursed as he saw the archer slowly walk out of the shadow, a graceful elvish lady, and he recognized her face immediately. "Queen Aella..."

"Hey! My Queen, tell me. Was that dragon our Emperor?" The noble looked at Aella with glowing eyes. "How strong is he?"

Aella just glared at them. "A werewolf fighter with earth magic, and an immortal lich covered in human flesh. I came here ready to skin some people, but this would make me feel less guilty about it."

A minute later, the fighter’s body was flying faster than sound through the forest, crashing through the trees. He was missing an arm, and his torso was riddled with arrow holes.

^I knew she was strong, I knew that if a dragon like that took a mate, it won’t be weak... but... what is this elf?^ His severed arm regenerated as he lifted his sword to block, only to get grabbed by the face and dragged across the forest ground.