Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner-Chapter 602: The trials of Ego [Unsung Hero 1]

The dragon's chest compressed, the sphere of energy condensing to a point of brilliant red-orange light that made Noah's eyes water from the intensity.

'This is different,' Noah realized, watching the energy build. 'Nyx's Magma Bomb is powerful, but this... this is on another level entirely. This dragon is stronger than Nyx. Maybe twice as strong.'

GRAAAAOAARRRRRR!

The roar was deafening, vibrating through Noah's bones, and then the dragon released.

A torrent of superheated energy erupted from its mouth, not in a sphere but in a continuous beam that turned night into day. The temperature spiked so high that the air itself ignited, creating a wave of fire that preceded the actual attack.

Noah closed his eyes, accepting what was coming.

'Even with regeneration,' he thought, 'this is going to kill me. No coming back from being vaporized.'

Seconds passed. One. Two. Three.

Noah realized he was still breathing. Still feeling the heat but not burning. Still alive.

His eyes snapped open.

The world around them was gone. The stone path they'd been standing on had melted into rivers of molten rock that flowed downhill like glowing orange water. Trees that had been growing from cracks in the mountainside were ash. The air shimmered with heat waves so intense that looking through them made everything distort.

But where the dragon knights stood, the ground was intact. Scorched, blackened, but solid.

In front of them stood Egor.

Not the tank. Not Brom with his golden defensive shimmer. Just Egor, his legs buried knee-deep in a trench his boots had carved from the force of holding position.

His hammer was between them and the dragon, and around the weapon was a golden barrier. Translucent, shimmering, shaped like a dome that covered all seven knights and redirected the molten energy around them like water around a stone.

The beam continued, the dragon pouring more power into the attack, and Egor held. His arms shook from the strain, his face was tight with effort, but the barrier didn't break.

"Holy priest," Marcus breathed, his voice carrying awe. "Did you see that?"

"I knew Egor was strong," Davos said, staring at their captain. "But this? That attack just melted the entire mountainside and he's blocking it with his hammer?"

"The captain's a monster," Brom said, and his voice carried admiration rather than fear. "An actual monster. How is he even doing this?"

"That dragon hit us with everything it had," Roland added, his sword still raised but his eyes fixed on Egor. "Enough power to destroy a small town. And the captain just... stopped it. Like it was nothing."

Noah could see what the others couldn't. Egor's legs trembling from the force being redirected through the barrier. The way his hammer was vibrating, the golden energy flickering slightly at the edges. This wasn't effortless. Egor was pushing himself to his absolute limit.

The beam finally died, the dragon's breath running out. Steam rose from molten rock in every direction, creating a hellish landscape of orange light and shadow.

Egor didn't waste the opening.

"ON MY SIGNAL!" he shouted, his voice carrying command despite the strain. "CONTAIN AND COUNTER!" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The dragon knights moved immediately, forming positions around Egor without needing further instruction. This was practiced, coordinated, the result of fighting together for years.

The dragon drew breath again, its chest expanding.

Egor held his ground, hammer raised, the barrier still shimmering around them.

The second beam came, smaller than the first but still devastating. Egor's barrier caught it, redirected it, held for three seconds that felt like hours.

Then the attack died completely, and Egor moved.

He launched his hammer with enhanced strength that turned the weapon into a golden projectile. The hammer spun through superheated air, trailing energy, and caught the dragon directly under its jaw.

KPAMMM!

The impact was thunder and earthquake combined. The dragon's head snapped backward, its neck bending at an angle that would have broken bone in a weaker creature. It stumbled, its wings spreading for balance.

"NOW!" Egor roared.

The dragon knights charged.

Marcus went left, his sword glowing with blue energy as he slashed at the dragon's foreleg. The blade bit into scales, drawing blood, and the dragon's head swiveled toward him.

Roland and Davos attacked from the right, both of them targeting the same wing joint. Their coordinated strikes hit simultaneously, and more blood sprayed.

Brom charged straight in, his golden shimmer intensifying until he looked like a living statue. He drove his shoulder into the dragon's chest, trying to knock it off balance.

The dragon's tail came around in a sweeping arc.

Brom took the hit head-on, his defensive ability absorbing most of the force. But "most" wasn't all. The impact launched him backward twenty feet, his body tumbling through molten rock that hissed and steamed.

Noah felt someone grab his arm.

Gareth, the healer, his face grim.

"Listen, kid," Gareth said, already pulling Noah toward the cliff edge they'd almost fallen from earlier. "I'm sorry about this. But if you make it out alive, you owe us drinks. A lot of drinks."

"What are you—"

Gareth threw him.

Noah's body left solid ground, sailing over the cliff edge into open air. His stomach dropped as gravity took over, his arms pinwheeling uselessly.

"THIS IS MERCY!" Gareth's voice echoed from above, and then he was turning back toward the fight, his hands already glowing as he ran to help Brom.

Noah screamed, his voice lost in the wind of his descent. Below him was darkness, rocks, death.

Above, Gareth rejoined the fight.

The dragon's attention had shifted. It recognized Gareth as the support, the one keeping the others alive, and evolutionary intelligence said kill the healer first.

Its head came around, jaws opening.

Gareth's hands glowed brighter, some kind of defensive technique manifesting.

The dragon's bite closed around him, and the defensive light shattered like glass.

Gareth's scream cut off abruptly. The dragon's head jerked upward, and when its jaws opened again, Gareth's body fell in two pieces.

"NO!" Marcus's shout was raw, fury replacing tactics.

He charged recklessly, his sword coming around in a wild swing that left him completely exposed.

The dragon's claw caught him across the chest, sending him tumbling. His armor saved his life but four deep gouges opened across the steel, blood seeping through immediately.

"FALL BACK!" Egor commanded, his hammer returning to his hand. "Reform! Don't break formation!"

But the formation was already broken. Gareth dead. Marcus injured. Brom struggling to his feet from molten rock. Roland and Davos trying to flank but the dragon was too fast, too aware.

The red death dragon took flight.

Its wings beat once, twice, lifting its massive bulk into the air. It climbed maybe a hundred feet, became a dark shape against darker sky.

Then it folded its wings and dove.

Not attacking with breath or claws. Using its entire body as a weapon, diving with gravity and mass behind it.

"SCATTER!" Egor shouted.

The knights threw themselves in different directions. The dragon hit where they'd been standing, and the mountain shook from the impact. Rock pulverized. More molten stone sprayed outward. The shockwave knocked everyone off their feet.

Davos didn't get up. There wasn't telling if he was dead or unconscious, but he wasn't moving.

The dragon's head came around toward Roland, jaws opening.

Egor appeared between them, his hammer catching the dragon's snout mid-bite.

CRACK!

The dragon's head jerked sideways, but its body followed through. The tail came around, caught Egor across his ribs, and launched him toward the mountainside.

Egor hit stone with force that created a crater. Cracks spread outward from the impact point, and his body slumped, unmoving.

The dragon turned its attention to the remaining knights. Marcus was trying to stand despite his chest wound. Brom's golden shimmer was flickering, his defensive ability taxed beyond its limit. Roland stood alone, his sword raised, knowing he couldn't win but refusing to run.

The red death dragon's wings spread, preparing for another dive.

Then there was movement in the crater where Egor had hit. His hand twitched, his head lifting slightly.

The dragon launched itself skyward again, climbing into darkness, becoming invisible against the night sky.

Then it dove, a meteor of scales and fury, aimed at the clustered knights.

"RENDERRRRRR!" Egor's scream echoed across the mountain.

He exploded from the crater, his body launching upward with strength that shouldn't be possible after that impact. His hammer was in both hands, glowing so bright it hurt to look at, and he intercepted the dragon mid-dive.

The collision was apocalyptic.

Egor's hammer hit the dragon's spine where the wings connected to the body. The sound was like mountains breaking, the shockwave visible as it radiated outward.

The dragon's dive became a plummet. Its wings folded wrong, its body rotating, and both dragon and knight fell toward the mountain.

They hit together, the impact creating a new crater that swallowed both of them in dust and debris.

Silence fell, broken only by the hiss of molten rock cooling and the ragged breathing of injured knights.

The dust settled slowly.

The dragon stood in the crater, shaking its head, blood running down its scales from where Egor's hammer had struck. But it was standing. Still alive. Still dangerous.

Egor lay in a trench maybe ten feet away. His hammer had fallen from his hand, lying just out of reach. His eyes were open but unfocused, his body trying to move but not responding properly.

The dragon's head turned toward him, recognizing the threat that had hurt it. Its chest began expanding, the familiar red-orange light building.

Egor saw this and smiled. A grin spread across his face as his hand reached toward Render, fingers stretching, trying to call the weapon back.

"Come on unholy beast. Give me all you have," Egor said as he called forth his weapon.

The hammer didn't move.

Egor's face went from determined to confused, his smile faltering.

'Something's wrong,' his expression said.

The dragon's light reached critical brightness.

Egor lay back, his reaching hand falling to his side. His smile returned, defiant despite knowing what was coming.

"Take your best shot," he said, his voice barely audible.

The dragon's chest compressed as it released the blast.

But just then, a blur crossed the distance between the cliff edge and the crater.

So fast that even the dragon didn't track it. So fast that Egor's concussed brain couldn't process what he was seeing.

The blur resolved into a figure. Young, wearing torn clothes, one hand extended forward holding a hammer that shouldn't be in those hands.

Render's golden barrier erupted, catching the dragon's beam at point-blank range.

Noah's feet carved trenches in the stone from the force, his entire body shaking from redirecting energy meant to vaporize. But the barrier held. The beam split around him, around Egor lying behind him, and struck stone instead of flesh.

The attack lasted five seconds. Ten. Fifteen.

Finally, it died.

The dragon's head pulled back, surprise evident in its glowing eyes.

Noah turned slightly, looking down at Egor through the dissipating barrier.

"Rest now," Noah said, his voice steady despite the trembling in his arms. "You've done enough."

He turned back to face the dragon, Render held in both hands, golden energy still flowing around the weapon.

"I'll take it from here."

Egor stared up at the coward's son standing between him and death, holding a weapon that shouldn't respond to anyone except its master, blocking an attack that should have killed them both.

"Burt?" Egor's voice was barely a whisper, confusion mixing with disbelief.

But Noah didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the red death dragon, his mind already calculating, already preparing.

Because this wasn't just any dragon.

This was the same species as Nyx. Which meant Noah knew its attack patterns, knew its abilities, knew exactly what it was capable of.

And for the first time since arriving in this timeline, Noah had an advantage.