Reincarnated as a Dragon – The path of the Dragon God

“I had enough of your shit!” Henry roared as he thrust his claw into the mangled carcass of the Zombie Dragon. He rummaged through its dried-up innards harshly, turning everything within into a mash of guts.

Eventually, Henry found what he was looking for and he yanked it out of the husk of a carcass.

“You are… a dangerous anomaly…” the boy said as he remained still within Henry’s grasp. He didn’t even try struggling himself free. There was not a flick of urgency in the boy’s ever-so-impassive face.

“Dangerous only to those who seek to harm me or my loved ones,” Henry growled.

“I should have… gotten rid of you… from… the start.”

“Well, too late. Your mistake.”

“No… never too late.”

As soon as those words left the boy’s mouth, a Rift appeared above them and a mass of tendrils shot out from the tear in space, crashing into Henry. His grip loosened inadvertently and the boy slipped free from his momentary incapacitation.

While Henry was wrestling with the tendril mass that appeared out of nowhere, the boy opened up another rift and walked towards it.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Chloe said as she stood in the boy’s path.

“Move…”

“I’ll move when you stop moving for good.”

“...So… be it,” the boy said and splayed his hand forward.

Chloe didn’t see anything but she moved to the side at the beckon of her instincts.

The air then split apart as if something sharp had flown through.

Chloe’s eyes widened. “What the hell was that?”

“You can see… it?”

“I don’t need to see it. I’m quite sensitive to danger.”

“...Hubris.”

“Says you,” Chloe retorted and charged at the boy.

“Die…”

Chloe rolled out of the way as the invisible cutting force once again sliced through the air. “That trick’s getting kinda old,” she scoffed.

With barely a few feet in between them, Chloe lunged towards the boy with her fist raised.

“Got you!” she yelled as she threw the punch.

Just as her fist came within inches away from the boy’s face, her hand was swatted away by something invisible.

“What the fuck!?” Chloe cursed in surprise.

“Hubris,” the boy repeated and pointed at her.

Chloe immediately tossed herself back as the invisible thing carved into the ground where she had just been standing. Before she could catch her breath, she spun to the side. The ground was ploughed in a line.

The boy waved his hand.

Chloe tutted and ducked low. She felt the invisible object grazing the air over her. She then twisted her body in a way that she had never before, just to avoid being torn apart by whatever the invisible thing was.

“Good… instincts…”

“Can’t say the same about you,” Chloe sneered.

The darkness behind the boy sprang towards him like a viper. Much to Chloe’s anticipation, the shadows were also being deflected by the unseen object.

“Ah, damn it,” Yula muttered under her breath as she rose from the shadows behind the boy. “Welp, there goes the element of surprise.”

“Annoying…”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Yula said and swarmed the boy with shadows from all sides, but the result remained the same, the shadows were all deflected.

“It’s no use, Yula. We have to get rid of whatever’s protecting him before we can get to him.”

“I can see that, but how?”

Chloe shrugged. “I wish I knew.”

“Enough… this farce has… gone on… long enough.”

“Oh, shut up, will you?” Yula snarled and sent a torrent of shadows at the boy.

The mass of shadows was shredded like meat going through a grinder.

The boy held up his hand at Yula and snapped his fingers.

“Yula, leap out of the way!” Chloe shouted.

Yula didn’t have Chloe’s instincts, so she could only heed her words. She dove to the side as a large hole was bored into the ground.

Before Yula could gather her bearings, she saw the dust clouds being cleaved by something thin and it was travelling towards her.

“Yula, incoming!”

“Yeah, I saw it!”

There was no time for Yula to dodge. She covered herself in a shell made of her shadows. The shell absorbed the damage but not the momentum. She went tumbling across the ground in the shell.

Chloe seized this chance to attack the boy from his blindside. She knew she failed when she saw her wrist blade being snapped into half when she thrust at the boy.

“Futile,” the boy said.

Chloe groaned and quickly distanced herself away from the boy before a volley of destruction rained down upon where she had just been standing.

“Chloe, I think they are strings!” Yula yelled out as she undid the shadow-moulded shell and regained her bearings.

“What? Strings?”

“Yeah, I saw it when they came at me through the dust clouds. They look like strings.”

“What kind of strings are they to be able to repel even shadows?”

“The otherworldly kind?”

“Enough…” the boy muttered. “I am… tired…”

“Yeah, so are we,” Chloe said and lowered her posture, leaning forward. “Yula. Can you attack him with your shadows at my signal? It doesn’t have to be orderly.”

“I can but… what good will that do?”

“Just trust me.”

Yula was hesitant but she nodded in the end. “Okay, Chloe. I trust you.”

“Good.”

“Enough!” the boy muttered loudly, though it was still barely louder than a whisper. He spread his arms wide.

“Now, Yula!” Chloe shouted and charged at the boy.

Yula started assaulting the boy with a disorderly wave of shadows. Much like the previous times, the shadows were shredded like cheese as they came close to the boy.

A grin appeared on Chloe’s expression as she saw the shadows being shredded. She increased her speed and dove right into the crossfire.

She slanted her torso, bent her waist, lifted her leg, swung her arms away, lowered her head, and twirled her body, all these movements were made with precision to dodge and evade all the incoming invisible strings.

Chloe was only able to make these precise dodges due to the “sacrifice” of Yula’s shadows, which gave her an estimate of the strings’ positions as they shredded the shadows.

When she saw the faint hint of panic in the boy’s expression, she knew the strings were not automated. They were moving in accordance with the boy’s consciousness and awareness.

She also realised the strings helped the boy feel his surroundings, which was why she and Yula were unable to flank him.

“I-impossible…” the boy gasped as Chloe successfully evaded all of his attacks and now, he was vulnerable.

Chloe thrust towards the boy before he could reel back in the strings. She was way faster than the strings could move.

“No…!” the boy heaved in terror as Chloe closed in on him.

“Yes,” Chloe said and drove her newly formed wrist blade through the left side of the boy’s chest, his heart.

The boy jerked backwards as the blade went through his body.

Chloe retracted the blade and her arm and withdrew a few steps away from the boy.

The boy stared blankly at Chloe, clutching his chest. There was no blood. There was only pallid green mist leaking out from the gaping hole in the boy’s chest.

“Chloe, double tap him!” Yula shouted.

“I-I…” Chloe hesitated. Though she knew the boy was dangerous and absolutely had to be put down, she still found it hard to hurt him due to his deceitful visage. A blade through the heart was the most she could force herself to do.

If it was Henry or Yula, the two would have decapitated the boy outright.

Suddenly, the boy’s eyes changed. They turned pitch black and his blank stare morphed into an ugly grimace. He proceeded to shriek in a ghastly and unholy voice.

Chloe scrunched up her face and covered her ears.

The boy tossed himself at Chloe while she was incapacitated by his sudden shriek, but the boy never reached her. Instead, he was flung far away from her by a paw twice the size of his body.

“Are you alright,” Henry asked.

“Henry…” Chloe sighed in relief. “You’re… done on your end?”

“I believe so?” Henry said, glancing over his shoulders at the tendril mass that was now in hundreds of pieces, unmoving.

Chloe smiled. “Thank you… Henry.”

“You are most welcome,” Yula responded in Henry’s stead as she skipped over to the two. “Nice save there, my darling.”

Henry frowned at Yula’s frolic attitude. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Yula snickered. “Just a little… excited, you know? That was the… most intense battle I have ever had. I was treading very close to death… My heart’s beating very fast now, isn’t it?”

Henry chuckled wryly. “You did well, my love.”

“Oh, stop it, now,” Yula protested playfully. “That’s too straightforward, even for you, Henry.”

“Can you two not read the room?” Chloe grumbled. “We are not out of the woods yet.”

“We would be if you had torn that brat into pieces instead of just stabbing his heart,” Yula retorted in a huff.

“Are you telling me to… butcher the boy like a piece of meat?”

“That thing is only a boy in appearance, Chloe. It’s not even human.”

“Enough of this,” Henry cut in. “We can point fingers after we dealt with the boy.”

The boy was back on his feet but that didn’t mean he was back in shape, in a literal sense even. His neck was bent into an L-shape. His face was slanting to one side. His torso was dented. His legs were twisted. Yet, in spite of all these severe injuries, the boy managed to stand on his feet.

“Are you still having some reservations?” Yula asked.

“...Not anymore,” Chloe answered with an unsettled expression. “What are we waiting for now? Shouldn’t we be attacking?”

“I don’t believe he had shown all of his cards. He managed to outrun the gods for so long. This is definitely all that he’s capable of.”

“But we can’t just stand around and wait all day.”

“...You’re not wrong about that but the thing is… I’m not even sure how to kill him. I’m supposed to just… apprehend him but we all see how that’s working out.”

“Simple, Henry.” Yula tittered. “We hit him with all we got and see how that goes.”

Henry chuckled. “That works for me,” he said and drew a deep breath as lightning crackled all over his body. In addition, the tattoos on his body began to glow. The gravity around him also started to shift.

Yula and Chloe distanced themselves from Henry to not get affected by the gravity shift.

“I’m gonna rain down shadows upon him. What about you, Chloe?”

“I will cut him into pieces like I should have done.”

“Good to know. I’ll cover you.”

Chloe nodded and took off dashing.

“Die! Die! Die! ” The boy shouted in a hollow tone as the invisible strings darted towards Chloe.

Waves of shadows shielded Chloe from the strings but the barriers of darkness fell quickly one after another. Thanks to the shadows, Chloe saw the trajectory of the strings and dodged accordingly.

This time, the boy learned his lesson and quickly reeled in his strings before Chloe got close enough.

“Now!” Chloe shouted.

“Take this!” Yula cried out as she sent the shadows crashing down on the boy. Not a single strand of her shadows got through the boy’s defence but she was keeping the boy in place.

As she said she would, Yula rained down shadow after shadow on the boy like a faulty faucet that finally gave in under pressure. As Yula was not at her full strength, she couldn’t keep up the assault for long, but she didn’t need to.

She stopped her assault and backed away a few steps.

“Die!” the boy shouted once the shadows were cleared and sent the strings after Yula.

However, a vortex of flames, clad in lightning, swallowed the strings and rushed towards the boy.

It was a literal storm of fire and lightning and it was approaching the boy, who could only look on helplessly as his strings were all incinerated just from being in the proximity.

Soon, the boy was also engulfed along with his invisible strings.