Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Eotomel, a world among the Pathworks---

An unfamiliar fluctuation in the dragon vein woke him from his slumber. It had been over a century since had come to this world, razed these plains to the ground, and claimed them as his territory. Who was so brazen to tough his place? Had he slept so long that people forgot their lesson?

Cracking his neck, he turned to the shape of a human with dragon horns, worse a simple robe, and stepped outside his cave. The moment he left the cave, he suddenly felt a terrible feeling, as if a noose was tied around his neck. His body felt heavy and he had a hard time breathing. Was this magic what had caused the fluctuation in the dragon vein?

“Aw, did I wake you up? Good,” a beautiful female voice asked coldly. It was a voice that could raise a male's heart with praise and affection, or rend it to pieces with a single cold comment. The most important thing was, he knew this voice.

He looked up to see a figure floating in the air above. Slim waist, shapely hips, tanned, smooth skin, and respectable mounds... a face to die for. It was a beautiful woman wearing light, revealing clothes. The smirk on her full lips was beautiful, yet deadly.

“A-Al'Zalsar?! But this can't be! You are dead! I- I-” the dragon began stuttering when he saw the apparition of the woman he had destroyed almost 200 years ago. Back then she was a talented sorceress quickly improving to become a legend.

“You thought you had killed me during my legendary ascension, didn't you, Tydis!?” the sorceress exclaimed, the anger burning coldly in her dark eyes only adding to her beauty.

Back then, she was just a girl living in his territory with a great talent for magic. However, as she kept improving quicker and quicker, he had come to perceive her as a threat to his rule. On the day she was about to ascend as a legendary sorceress, he used this chance to strike her down and adsorb part of her legend. Turning her into a footnote of his epic.

“H-How are you here?” the dragon exclaimed, stepping back a step. He felt like he was drowning, physically and mentally. He was sure he had killed her, he had added her defeat to his legend, despite making an enemy of the kingdom that had supported her. Ultimately, it was them that had forced him to leave his old lair.

“What do you mean? How I survived, or how I found your little hiding spot? I can reassure you, that I died back then. I have spent the past two centuries as a Lich, preparing my revenge. I have to give it to you, it actually took me a while to find you when I was ready for our final showdown.”

A lich? She had actually dared to become an undead in her obsession with revenge...? but he couldn't feel the aura of an undead on her. He tried using his <Dragon Eyes> but his appraisal skill was blocked by powerful magic.

“Ah, ah, ah, no peeping at my status. Today, you will die absolutely clueless, only knowing that it was at my hands!” she exclaimed and raised her hands to the sky. His eyes constricted when he found that the whole firmament was covered in a dome of magic formations. His whole territory was covered by this dome.

“Don't think I will just lie down and die! I'm a dragon, not a worm!” he exclaimed full of indignation. Even when he knew that things looked bleak as the sorceress came prepared, he still had his pride. The human figure exploded and the twenty-meter-long body of a dragon broke out from the human hull.

He shot to the sky, aiming at Al'Zalsar. Tydis still had an advantage. The dragon had defeated her before, it was anchored in his legend. He would be able to deal increased damage to her. Reminiscing the first time, his fangs shredded her tender flesh, he was actually looking forward to doing it again-

Suddenly a mighty haymaker blew him out of the sky and into the ground. His thoughts were in chaos and his eyes teared up from the overwhelming pain he felt from his muzzle. What happened? Did Al'Zalsar just...hit him?

He was a proud Dark-blue Sky Dragon! Although his specialty was magic battle, there was no way a sorceress could compete with him in physical combat. His scales negated 70% magic and 50% physical damage, there was no way she could have hit him... yet he could clearly feel that his snout had been crushed.

Two petite feet landed gently outside the crater where he landed. Looking up, he found the sorceress cracking her knuckles with a cruel smile as if telling him this was just the beginning.

“Don't be in such a rush, Tydis. I want to take my time to... tenderize you before I finish you off. I have two centuries' worth of grudges I need to relieve.”

“Don't think this is over yet...” the dragon coughed.

“I'm counting on it,” she answered with a cruel smile. The moment she ended talking, there was a giant lightning that shot toward her. Tydis had used the time to cast magic, however, his massive lightning was dispelled as quickly as it appeared. The magic disintegrated into particles and was absorbed into the giant dome above.

“ You crazy-! You have sealed the usage of all magic in this place?!” he cried out, just before a fist like that of a mountain giant hit his scaly stomach.

“Yes, I did. This will be a dog fight, and I intend to win it!” she said with a manic laughter, as her fists kept raining down on the dragon. Her punches and kicks were filled with burning resentment she had collected for many years.

She had been close to being the youngest legend of their world. An unrivaled sorceress with the potential to found her own empire and give rise to a new age of magic. She had worked hard to accumulate power of existence and raise her level of existence to the max over the course of 25 years.

Al'Zalsar was in her late twenties when she was about to rise to her legendary status when this stupid reptile attacked her during what should have been the greatest triumph of her life. Al'Zalsar took her time, shredding the dragon with a passion. These fists given to her by Seth, made from the divine metal of the God of Chains were perfect for this task.

As the resentment in her fists was relieved, her gratitude for this chance grew further its place. Who would have thought that she would get the chance to take her revenge like this, having regained her original appearance and not as an ugly, desiccated corpse with a hate for the living?

“You insane!” Tydis started truly fearing for his life, seeing the manic smile on the face of the sorceress. It was not just her expression or the overwhelming physical power that struck fear in his dragon heart.

He was not taking a one-sided beating. His claws tore away her flesh, and his fangs ripped at her body, but she ignored anything he did. The wounds kept closing before his very eyes and even his mighty jaws were unable to crack those weird silvery bones beneath her flesh. Was this really Al'Zalsar, the naive young girls he had killed back then?

“Of course not,” she answered the question, that was written on his face.

All the damage negation and dragon power couldn't help Tydis now, as he was affected by the dome and the items she prepared. Soon the dark blue scales that covered the lizards body started flying with every punch and the dragon whimpered in pain with every kick.

Letting out a heavy breath, Al'Zalsar finally halted her breaths. The dragon had stopped resisting a while ago and couldn't even scream in pain anymore. Only its shallow breathing showed that it was still alive.

“M-mercy, please. Spare my life, I will even swear an oath. I can serve you, please,” Tydis pressed out. This was another path the sorceress could take. She could kill Tydis here and become a dragon slayer or enslave him and become something like a dragon knight or tamer. A dragon as a slave was worth a lot. To others that was.

“You are worth more when you are dead,” Al said cruelly and stabbed the beast with a magic blade. The last sight in the dragon's eyes, was the sorceress as she took off her clothes and exposed her pristine body to the world as the dome above them quickly shrank down.

So this was what she meant...

---Delta, Minas Mar---

<Ding! One of your creations has slain a dragon! Your title “Dragon Slayer (minor)” had improved to “Dragon Slayer (minor+)”>

<Ding! One of your creations has been baptized by dragon blood. Your level of existence has slightly increased.>

<Ding! One of your creations has ascended to become a legend! Your level of existence has slightly increased. All stats +1>

<Ding! Your Creation “Al'Zalsar” has become...

Seth was woken by the sounds of notification, but by the time he was barely awake, everything was already over. Unsure what had even woken up, he turned around in his bed and hugged Mina and Fin, before slipping back to sleep.

In the morning, he had already forgotten about the moment he woke up in the middle of the night.