I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 331: Hephis at His Peak

When Gauss joined the battlefield and the death toll of the Dragon Worshipers broke through a critical point, the fighting spirit they had barely maintained with their numerical advantage quickly dissipated.Fear spread through the crowd like a plague.

"Run!"

"Thud!"

Someone shouted, but as soon as they moved, a burning Fire Bolt pierced through their abdomen.

Gauss would not let a single Dragon Worshiper who participated in this operation escape.

"Hold your ground, all of you! No one runs!"

"Lady Cecilia will soon reinforce us!"

The Master-level Warrior roared.

His rough voice boomed across the battlefield like a drumbeat.

He even casually beheaded two worshippers beside him who were attempting to flee.

However, it was precisely after his shout, especially upon hearing the name Cecilia, that the crowd actually overcame their fear and barely managed to hold their formation.

They raised their weapons and attempted to reorganize an attack against Gauss and the others.

But this only had a negligible impact on the course of the battle.

Their resistance could only add the slightest of hindrances to Gauss's actions.

Gauss glanced out of the corner of his eye at Aria floating in the air.

She was still shrouded within a mysterious shield.

As for the Silver Wolf Ulfen, Serlandul had already performed preliminary first aid on it.

The spear in its abdomen had been pulled out, and the wound had been treated with healing magic to stop the bleeding and begin healing.

Judging by its faintly rising and falling chest, it was likely not in mortal danger.

Aria's situation, however, was not so good.

She was enclosed within that shield, and even Serlandul couldn't penetrate it to heal her.

He needed to finish this fight quickly!

Gauss's hands never stopped moving.

Dark red energy tentacles extended from his empty left hand, lashing out at several Goblins not far away.

The Goblins struck by them convulsed, and then their bodies beneath the skin visibly began to wither.

"I've pretty much killed off these ordinary cultists and monsters. It's time to help Albenia and Shadow."

Just as he thought this, a sudden change occurred.

In the sky above.

An intense aura suddenly enveloped the entire battlefield.

What happened?

Gauss immediately became alert and raised his eyes.

He saw, amidst the clouds and the brilliant afternoon sunlight, a blue-white skeletal wyvern slowly descending.

Its size was not as large as the adult Dragon created by the warlock's illusion earlier, but it was clearly two sizes bigger than the Red Drake Hephaestus.

Its body had no flesh and blood whatsoever; thick, twisted blue-white bones were exposed. In its large, empty eye sockets, two clusters of ghostly blue soul-fire flickered.

The tattered membranes attached to the bones of its spread, giant wings flapped, bringing with them a bone-chilling, bitingly cold wind.

It wasn't just a drop in temperature, but a psychologically unnerving sense of oppression.

"Woooo!"

"Hail the arrival of Lady Cecilia!"

The previously demoralized Dragon Worshipers instantly perked up, as if they had regained their backbone, their fighting spirit soaring.

They continuously shouted and cheered towards the sky.

Gauss warily looked up at the sky.

The female figure riding on the wyvern's back captured his full attention.

She was completely shrouded in a dark red robe, her face hidden behind a mask, making her features underneath impossible to discern.

But judging by her aura, she was clearly an extremely formidable opponent.

"Be careful!"

Gauss warned the others.

However, the Dragon Worshiper leader in the sky named Cecilia clearly had no interest in the others.

The pair of sharp, slender eyes visible through the mask were firmly locked onto Gauss's figure on the ground, deep within their pupils flickering a desire for investigation.

She quietly licked her lips.

Although after becoming a Dragon Priestess, she had lost many of her lowly human desires and some emotions, at this moment, looking down at that strong, powerful figure below...

Her heartbeat involuntarily accelerated again, and her cold body seemed to gain some warmth.

Gauss's current form held a kind of fatal allure for her, who had already undergone a half-transformation.

"So you are Gauss?"

She murmured to herself.

Her voice wasn't loud, as if talking to herself.

"What a pity."

She sighed.

If she had encountered this man in the wild herself, she would definitely capture him and make him her private possession.

Unfortunately, he had already been "reserved" by the Green Dragon Queen in advance.

No matter how reluctant she was, she had to follow orders and bring Gauss before the Green Dragon Queen. Otherwise, that one's wrath was not something an ordinary Dragon Priestess like her could bear.

"Let me test your quality."

Cecilia looked at Gauss, then urged the skeletal wyvern beneath her to dive straight down.

"BOOM!!!"

Like a falling meteorite.

Gauss narrowly dodged, flashing to the side. His right hand, transformed into a Dragon Claw, stabbed into the ground to steady himself.

As for the monsters originally around him, they became pulped meat cushioning the wyvern's dive.

"So fast!"

"No, I've slowed down."

Gauss was shocked inwardly.

To be precise, on one hand, the opponent's speed was indeed fast. On the other hand, he also felt his own movements seemed to be under some kind of restriction.

The air around him seemed to have grown heavier.

"Not bad!"

Cecilia on the wyvern's back nodded, her gaze as if appraising the value of an object.

After getting closer, she could even smell the "sweet" scent emanating from him.

A little demonic voice whispered temptingly in her ear.

"Why can't he... belong to me?"

"The Green Dragon Queen, although powerful, cannot infiltrate human territories on a large scale."

"No!"

Cecilia's reason quickly overcame that inexplicable desire.

She had visited that adult Green Dragon many times and knew just how powerful she was. It was true the Green Dragon Queen couldn't casually set foot in human kingdoms, but the same applied to her.

Furthermore, her fellow high-ranking colleagues in the Dragon Worshipers would be more than happy to curry favor with that esteemed one and then ruthlessly betray her information and location.

Her gaze towards Gauss grew wary.

This man indeed had something abnormal about him.

Logically, she shouldn't have lost her composure like this.

Was it some kind of illusion she hadn't detected?

"It seems I must subdue you first, lest you continue to bewitch me and disturb my mind."

Cecilia let out a clear, girlish laugh.

But the laughter, reaching Gauss's ears, sent a chill down his spine.

It felt downright sinister somehow.

And her words were also baffling.

Bewitch? What did that mean?

He clearly hadn't done anything.

However, one thing he understood clearly: it seemed the other party was about to get serious.

She raised the staff as tall as a person in her hand.

Countless frigid energies, seemingly solidified, rapidly swirled around her.

"Crunch, crackle, snap!"

Almost instantaneously, in a time frame impossible to react to.

The ground beneath Gauss's feet turned blue.

Then, ghostly blue energy rapidly condensed and grew around him. These sharp icicles interlocked and connected, forming an inverted bowl-shaped ice coffin prison in just an instant.

Moreover, this prison was rapidly closing in on him.

"Magic Missile!"

Gauss fired several Magic Missiles in succession. The missiles struck the icicles, only leaving behind some ice shards, but they could never penetrate this ice coffin prison.

"Such strong defense!"

A sense of urgency arose in Gauss's heart.

Instinct told him that the tightening of that ice coffin was definitely not good for him.

As his range of movement narrowed.

It became even harder for him to break free from this cage's restraints.

"Just surrender quietly."

"Why struggle?"

"If I wanted to kill you, it would be effortless."

The Dragon Priestess lightly pointed a finger. An ice blade grazed Gauss's cheek.

"Slice!"

The surface energy Scale Armor was instantly torn, and a trickle of blood slowly flowed from the wound.

Gauss's face remained expressionless.

He glanced outside the ice prison at the Dragon Priestess seated atop the bone wyvern. Her eyes behind the mask revealed a sense of amusement.

As if he was already a turtle in a jar.

He became even more acutely aware that the opponent before him was absolutely the strongest enemy he had ever faced. Without exception!

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the giant ice coffin slowly condensing icicle spikes.

Every single attack could shatter his current defense.

It seemed this was indeed an enemy beyond his capabilities.

He sensed that the other party seemed to only want to capture him alive.

So the spikes just now were merely a warning, or perhaps a taunt, and hadn't been aimed at his vital spots.

"Hah—"

At this moment, the corner of his mouth slightly lifted.

The blood within his body gradually grew hot.

Usually, facing opponents far weaker than himself was, at best, slaughter. But the opponent before him now was a true battle.

"Although you are indeed stronger than me right now, even a cornered rabbit will bite."

His burnished-gold pupils looked towards his teammates locked in combat, at the unconscious Aria, and then at the enemy on the wyvern's back. His gaze gradually turned serious, icy.

Humanity was slowly receding.

Replaced by a terrifying power about to surface.

In the distance, the Red Drake Hephaestus, having finally broken free from its restraints and received preliminary treatment from Serlandul, struggled to its feet.

It suddenly sensed a familiar yet strange power rising from a certain direction.

It involuntarily shuddered.

The wounds on its body that had just begun to knit together seemed to ache faintly again.

A moment later, it remembered its first encounter with Gauss, and that fear of being dominated.

"Ghost Form! Activate!"

Gauss growled low in his throat, like an angry Dragon roaring.

As soon as the words fell, energy surged wildly from his body, as if he had entered some berserk state.

His hair rapidly lengthened, its color fading, turning stark white.

"Crack! Pop!"

His bones emitted explosive noises. In the blink of an eye, his body rapidly stretched under an invisible external force.

His physique visibly grew taller and larger.

Intricate, beautiful phantom images of energy Scale Armor covered his body.

"Rip!" A pair of wings several meters long extended from his back.

An extremely domineering, ancient power awakened within Gauss.

Cecilia, who had been observing Gauss with casual indifference, rapidly contracted her pupils. Her face beneath the mask quietly turned serious.

"What is this?"

If Gauss's previous form had given her an illusion of being like a Dragon...

Then now, in her perception, there was no difference in aura between Gauss and a genuine, bona fide Dragon.

And she wasn't talking about the pseudo-dragon beneath her, but a true Dragon.

She had seen Dragons, understood them, even served them. No one understood the greatness and terror of these creatures better than her.

"Interesting. Truly fascinating."

The current Gauss had become a supreme treasure in her eyes.

She seemed to see the lofty ideal they had all been desperately pursuing materializing right before her.

Was he the key for humanity to step towards becoming Dragons?

If before, she had clung to the idea of capturing Gauss and handing him over to the Green Dragon Queen, she had now completely changed her plan.

His body contained an inconceivably great treasure, and this would belong to her, it *must* belong to her.

"Vampiric Touch!"

The Dragon-and-Ghost coexisting form in its burst state endowed Gauss with unparalleled physical attributes and spellcasting ability.

He received an all-around enhancement.

The only drawbacks were the extremely high energy consumption and the damage inflicted on his body.

"Vampiric Touch!"

He charged at the ice coffin.

Energy surged rapidly from his hand, and then the dark red tentacles instantly swelled, lashing out at the ice coffin like a thick, heavy whip.

"Boom!"

This attack was effective.

Clear cracks rapidly appeared on the ice coffin.

As Gauss lashed out with a second whip strike.

The ice coffin shattered with a roar!

Countless ice crystals scattered in all directions.

The freed Gauss wasted no time.

The wings on his back spread, augmented by the Fly spell, unleashing a terrifying speed.

"Whoosh!"

A white afterimage solidified behind him.

The next moment, he had already flashed to appear before Cecilia on the skeletal wyvern.

"Clang!"

Cecilia reacted quickly as well.

She manipulated her staff to block in front of her, while a protective barrier separated her from Gauss.

"Fireball!"

A fiery light rapidly formed in Gauss's clawed palm.

Then, it condensed into shape at a speed several times, even ten times faster than usual, and was pushed by Gauss towards Cecilia.

"BOOM!!!"

Like a volcanic eruption, temperatures high enough to completely melt an ordinary person's bones erupted in an extremely brief clash.

The earth cracked, flames engulfed Gauss, Cecilia, and the skeletal wyvern beneath her.

Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, a white figure was sent flying backward. It was Gauss.

In front of him, a blue Water Shield had already been raised, absorbing part of the shockwave from the point-blank explosion and converting it into a recoil force that propelled him away from the battlefield.

However, despite the protection of the sacred water, his Scale Armor was still shattered in the earlier impact, with traces of blood seeping from the cracks.

This was no ordinary Fireball, but an enhanced version, and released at point-blank range. Its intensity was far beyond what a normal Fireball could compare to.

"Cough! Cough!"

Blood trickled from the corner of Gauss's mouth.

He looked towards the monsters sent flying by the residual shockwave, quickly found his targets,

and used "Vampiric Touch" to entangle them.

Within seconds, the nearby monsters fell one after another, turning into withered corpses under the binding of Vampiric Touch.

And Gauss, who had been somewhat listless, recovered again, at least the wounds on the surface of his body completely healed.

The life energy drained from the monsters repaired the injuries caused by the Fireball earlier.

One could say that most enemies on the battlefield were his natural blood bags.

He looked towards the smoke and dust.

As the dust gradually dispersed, the skeletal wyvern's massive form reappeared.

Its bone body showed some damage.

And on the wyvern's back, Cecilia's mask had been completely shattered.

Beneath the mask was a withered face, skin membrane tightly clinging to the bone, not a trace of flesh visible.

Her expression was extremely unpleasant now.

Originally thinking this was a surefire capture, she never expected the prey in her eyes to wound her.

"Child, you are being a bit too mischievous."

Her eyes were icy as she spat out the words through gritted teeth.

Originally, because she was worried about harming Gauss and affecting subsequent research, she hadn't gone all out.

Now, it seemed she could no longer afford to be careless.

The skeletal wyvern flapped its wings and rose into the air.

She raised her staff high.

A blizzard descended from the sky.

The ice blades that had wounded Gauss earlier materialized within the wind and snow. Not one, not a few, but densely packed, swirling throughout the sky.

In the distance, Shadow and Albenia, locked in their own battles, each disengaged from their opponents and looked towards the completely altered weather.

Wind whipped through the clouds. The skeletal wyvern hovered amidst the blizzard, while Gauss stood alone on the ground below.

"ROAR!!!"

A roar sounded.

The one making the sound was the Red Drake Hephaestus, which had only just begun to recover.

Flames erupted from its body.

It swiftly flew to Gauss's side.

Its aura had, at some unknown time, actually recovered to its peak state, even surpassing it.

Gauss flipped onto Hephaestus's back.

Feeling the scorching heat of the drake beneath him, a special surge of energy seemed to stir within his own body.

This energy connected him and Hephaestus.

Is it you?

Gauss wondered inwardly.

But right now, there was no time to think too much.

The airborne Hephaestus slightly opened its maw, overflowing molten lava flames uncontrollably spilling from its mouth.

How long had it been since it felt such a powerful body?

"It's just us now, Hephaestus!"

He placed his palm against Hephaestus's neck, as if their hearts and minds were connected.

Two dragons stood poised in the air.

The next moment, they charged towards each other in unison.

Wind, snow, and the blazing flames spewed by Hephaestus tore at each other madly.

And on the dragons' backs, Gauss and Cecilia simultaneously brandished their staffs, their enhanced spells clashing across the distance.

"Slice!"

An incredibly sharp icicle slashed across Gauss's waist.

"No good!"

He realized that in a pure contest of spellcasting, he was at an absolute disadvantage.

Because he wasn't just fighting the Dragon Priestess before him, nor the skeletal wyvern. It was more like he was fighting against the surrounding heaven and earth itself.

After just a minute of combat, his body was already covered in wounds.

Yet the opponent's skeletal wyvern could fearlessly block his spells.

The energy within his body was gradually depleting. Although there was energy flowing from Hephaestus, Gauss knew that continuing like this, he would still be boiled like a frog in warm water, exhausting his strength.

No doubt the opponent sensed this, hence she remained patient.

The only plan now was to seek life through death.

"Charge over! Bite it!"

He stood up on the drake's back, looking at Cecilia with a fierce, wolf-like gaze.

Even if he died, he wanted it to be a glorious, all-out fight, not an unclear end where he exhausts his strength.

Moreover, Gauss keenly detected that although the opponent summoned the blizzard with murderous intent, her attacks weren't overly vicious. She still wanted to capture him alive.

This could be seen from the Sleep Hex she had just released, which hit but failed to take effect against the highly resistant Gauss.

The more fearless he became, the more restrained she would be.

After instructing Hephaestus, he spread his dragon wings and shot forward.

His advantage was that, entering an aerial combat state, he could also be a dragon.

Flying through the air, facing the constantly incoming ice spikes, he extended his dragon wings, dodging those swirling attacks. He and Hephaestus flanked the skeletal wyvern from left and right.