novelraw Chapter 181: You Have a Second Phase Too?
Chapter 181: You Have a Second Phase Too?
Raising his head, Garoth gazed at the descending red iron dragon, its trailing flames billowing like clouds draping from the heavens.
Balor's pupils constricted.
Having remained vigilant against the red iron dragon throughout the battle while holding back his full strength, he reacted instantly.
In terms of sheer size, Balor stood over eight meters tall at the shoulder, his iron tower-like physique bursting with muscle that threatened to split his skin. His massive frame appeared no less imposing than the red iron dragon whose tail accounted for much of its length—if anything, he seemed even more colossal, resembling a minotaur titan.
Yet even so.
Facing the red iron dragon's terrifying charge accumulated with immense kinetic energy, taking it head-on would be sheer idiocy.
At the critical moment, Balor raised his right hoof and stomped violently. As the ground fractured across a wide area, he propelled himself forward like a projectile.
BOOM!
The earth trembled violently.
A shockwave carrying waves of soil and shattered stones swept across the battlefield, sending combatants from both sides flying or burying them alive. The terrifying spectacle brought the entire battlefield to a momentary standstill.Suddenly, the dust clouds were torn apart.
The red iron dragon's wings vibrated as it skimmed low across the ground, charging toward Balor who had steadied himself at the opposite end.
This time, Balor didn't retreat but instead stomped forward.
Three obsidian spires erupted from the ground like fangs of an abyssal beast, stabbing toward the red iron dragon.
Garoth's body tilted slightly, his wing blades grazing past the stone spires and cleaving them at mid-height. Amid the flying debris, his draconic claws were already tearing toward Balor's throat.
CLANG!
The Bloodhoof Chieftain lowered his head, his horns clashing with the dragon claws. Sparks erupted like a torrential downpour as the rock layer beneath Balor's feet collapsed. Using the impact, he leaned backward while his left hoof ignited with dark flames, swinging upward like a battle-axe toward the dragon's belly.
Yet it failed to connect.
The red iron dragon's wings surged with crimson flames as it disengaged immediately after the exchange, ascending rapidly.
"Cowardly lizard! Do you only dare fight from the skies?"
The Bloodhoof Chieftain's deep, resonant voice rolled out.
"Come down and face me!"
He beat his chest and roared.
Garoth preferred action over words in battle.
Ignoring the taunt, he coldly locked onto Balor while circling to build momentum before diving again in an unstoppable charge.
Balor temporarily yielded, ready to evade rather than confront the dragon's aerial assault head-on.
At the last moment before impact, Garoth didn't waste energy crashing into the ground. Instead, he expended most of his momentum to bank sharply, skimming barely above the surface with wings extended like guillotine blades. Several blood-crazed minotaurs charging toward him were bisected mid-stride.
At close quarters,
Garoth abruptly pivoted, his wings rotating like giant blades toward Balor.
The chieftain retreated several steps, dodging consecutive wing strikes—just as the thick draconic tail came whipping through the air.
The red iron dragon had transformed into a terrifying war machine.
His wings and tail became deadly weapons, his claw strikes lightning-fast with vicious angles. The relentless assault battered Balor like a storm, leaving numerous bloody gashes across his body if not critical wounds.
Balor was no weakling.
Realizing continuous retreat would only mean enduring endless attacks,
he decisively halted and switched to offense as defense.
His iron-like fists hammered into the red iron dragon, carrying tremendous force and high-frequency vibrations that penetrated scales and flesh to damage internal organs—even double-layered dragon scales couldn't fully negate it.
Yet Garoth alternated between close-quarters combat and sudden aerial maneuvers, making his attacks unpredictable.
His mobility surpassed the minotaur chieftain's, resulting in few solid hits—and those that landed were rarely on vital spots.
BOOM!
Balor's heavy fist connected with Garoth's shoulder.
The explosive scales shattered instantly, flames licking over Balor alongside scale fragments and sharp spikes, leaving charred marks and embedded debris in his flesh.
Even when hit, the red iron dragon could retaliate.
Moreover, Garoth's own attacks remained ferociously precise—claws, wings, tail... Balor bore multiple bone-deep wounds.
Dodging sideways barely in time, Balor avoided a tail whip but still suffered a bloody gash across his chest from the tip.
Eyes blazing with fury, he grabbed the dragon's tail, attempting to swing and slam him.
Yet the moment he gripped it, excruciating pain tore through his palm.
Garoth's tail scales were equally blade-like, shredding Balor's flesh and making it impossible to maintain hold.
As the grapple failed,
Garoth turned, crushing a minotaur warrior rushing to aid his chieftain underwing. His claws struck left and right, battering Balor's iron tower frame backward until a final thrust with his horns launched the chieftain skyward.
Followed by a fiery breath.
Balor's body was hurled upward in a stream of magma-like flames before crashing down, his skin nearly charred to cinder, vitality significantly diminished.
"Did I overestimate him?"
The red iron dragon narrowed his eyes at the scorched Balor.
Both excelled in melee combat.
In such intense close-quarters battles without flashy techniques, superiority became obvious—unless evenly matched, the stronger would swiftly dominate.
Reviewing the fight,
Balor's attacks, while threatening with their penetrating vibrations causing internal agony, never posed real danger.
His counterattacks had shattered nearly 80% of Garoth's explosive scales and broken numerous spikes.
But that was all.
The scales were merely one defensive layer, the spikes renewable.
Beyond some stamina and scale depletion, Garoth's actual injuries remained minor.
"Something's wrong—the other Bloodhoof leaders show no concern for their chieftain's condition."
Garoth noted the minotaurs still fighting fiercely with undiminished morale—highly abnormal when a leader's severe injury should break most warriors' will.
"Regardless, finish him first."
Garoth inhaled deeply, readying another fiery breath to reduce Balor to ashes.
Suddenly, the charred figure moved with startling speed, evading the attack.
CRACK. CRACK.
Balor's blackened form split like pottery, countless crimson tendrils squirming beneath the scorched skin—intertwining like mating vipers before weaving new obsidian flesh.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Molten blood oozed from his fissured skin, instantly igniting into billowing dark flames. His body swelled further, muscles layering upward as his skin took on a metallic black-iron hue.
Finally,
A ten-meter-tall monstrosity resembling something from the abyss stood before Garoth, radiating palpable danger—an entirely different presence from before.
"Demon bloodline awakened. This is his true power."
"But ordinary demonic reversion shouldn't be this strong. He's abnormal."
Garoth ascended higher, peering down at the abyssal horror that was Balor.
Standing firm, the chieftain's pitch-black eyes locked onto the red iron dragon. His voice rumbled like boulders tumbling down mountains:
"Forcing me into this demonic bloodboil state... I acknowledge your strength."
He declared: "Now, let us truly begin."
"I'll snap your neck and use your life as stepping stones to greater power."
Entering his second phase, Balor reveled in the surging might within, brimming with confidence.
With a distorted roar of pain, he hunched slightly as his shoulder blades ruptured through his back. Bone spurs rapidly extended, forming twenty-meter bat-like demon wings.
Immediately,
Balor beat these wings, generating gale-force winds as he launched skyward to engage the red iron dragon in aerial combat.
Below, the Molten Iron Legion and Bloodhoof forces continued their bloody clash while above, their leaders waged war amidst the clouds.