Coated in the blue barrier, the dragon widened its mew, unleashing a sea of deadly electric shocks which spewed throughout the walls of the barrier.

The flurry of the diverging snakes of lightning that wracked upon the impediment, impaired in a matter of an instant then like a vanishing flame, it gradually disappeared. the three men, all substantiated the occurrence before they conveyed to Azraf the notification he had been patiently awaiting.

“ the dragon has been weakened.”

“Do it, young lord.”

“Deliver the killing blow.”

Hearkening to their messages, Azraf dashed forward steadily, coming into the impediment, he heavily swiveled down at the dragon's head.

In the eyes of the dragon, the zooming silhouette of Azraf reflected before his sword met with its skull.

“ rooooooooooar.” The huge monster growled as it’s felt a splitting twinge on its skull, it instinctively retracted its head, its talons scraped on the ragged ground, leaving an extended claw mark.

Azraf quickly made another movement with his sword, aiming at the long neck of the creature however this time, his objective was not fulfilled.

Just as he was approaching, the dragon's eyes flickered gaily with ruthlessness. Miscellaneous bolts of thunder flickered out from below its scales and propagated to all directions.

Azraf was slung away by the sudden outburst into a togged wall that was behind him. The dragon bellowed in excitement upon discerning the disappearance of the impediment that weakened it.

Old man Tougher, Oman Shivzat, Atler Grieves, and Racket Crimson all suffered great injuries as blood spat out from their mouths. The dragon jerked its body and slung away from the injured men who tied it down with the chains.

It heavily stamped to the ground and pounced at Azraf.

Catching a glimpse of the fierce creature as it shifted closer to him, Azraf felt an ample sense of danger. The dragon widened its jaws, gulped at Azraf's head when it got to him.

Azraf slides below its gut, circumventing the creature's mew when it was a hair breath of contacting his flesh. Its chest came face to face with his head. He pointed the sword in his grasp at the place which he suspected to be the heart of the creature.

“lightning, hear my call,” Azraf shouted, purple sparks of lightning abruptly flashed on his sword as lightning snakes enshrouded the sword within them.

“goooooo.” A horrible wail escaped from the maw of the dragon when a sword covered in purple lightning punctured into its chest. Blue blood spewed from it which died Azraf's face.

The creature had sustained a wound that has taken a toll on its body, Azraf felt the creature drastically weakening, it looked like it was going to plunge at any moment.

Just when he heaved a sigh of relief and thought that he had attained victory, a mad cry from the creature entered his ears, he unexpectedly felt something running through his abdomen.

“ahhh.” Feeling the discomfort, Azraf couldn’t help but shriek miserably. He vaguely glimpsed at a dragon nail that punctured his abdomen before everything went black. The enormous body of the creature plummets unto his tiny body.

One twinkling after the incident, a bright thunder light suddenly epitomized in front of the entrance to the dragon layer and morphed into a majestic middle-aged man whose facial features resemble Azraf by seventy percent.

_____________________________________

Old man Toughler and other men, glimpsed at the two corpses with troubled moods, they were sent here to ensure that the young lord safely kills the dragon and completes his mission but they have failed.

Autler: “I can’t believe that we failed.”

Old man Toughler : "what a shame."

Racket: "we almost succeeded, if we go back to the lord now, what are we going to say to him?.”

Oman: “the lord entrusted us with the young lord's life, but we couldn’t protect him. We... Failed the lord, I can no longer live with this failure.”

“Oman! what are you doing, you mustn’t kill yourself.” Racket promptly clamured when Oman brought his sword to his neck in the attempt to slay himself.

“you should not waste time preventing him, he is a true warrior from a family of warriors which never flunked in any of his duties, this loss today has not only destroyed his clean slate, and tarnished his honor, above all, it lead to the perishing of the young lord. Perhaps if he doesn’t kill himself now, he will forever live in the guilt of not being able to protect the young lord” Autler asserted, pulling Racket.

Oman was an instant away from cutting his neck with the sharp shelf of the sword when a hand unawares clasped his shoulder from behind.

Turning his neck around, his eyes met with the old man’s.

“young man, you want to murder yourself because you couldn’t accept that you’ve failed in your mission, but do you know the implication of what you are doing, you are simply giving the impression that you are a coward who cannot live or come to terms with his mistakes."

" Once you die like this, you won't be known as a warrior, instead, you shall bear the name of a coward. one should not end his life like a coward.”

The old man's words stabbed into Oman's ears like a blade of the magistrate, opening his eyes to the truth. The sword dropped from his hands as he staggered to the wall, shivering.

While they were in a debatable mind, a faint sound entered their ears.

“rustle,” “rustle,” “rustle,” “rustle.”

“who's there!.”

The men jerked in high vigilant, swords clutched in their hands, prepared to murder the intruder but they froze when they finally saw the person who walked in.

“lord!.” Their voices creaked in resonance and they immediately prostrated themselves on the floor. Their hearts were beating in disarray, they were unable to calm their apprehension as they had failed their mission.

The middle-aged man peered at the corpses on the floor in a daze, he strides forward oblivious of their utterings. When he finally reached one meter to the dead bodies, he suddenly halted his action and his lips widened into a faint smile.

“Azraf has finally set out for his true mission.”

His voice entered the ears of the men, astounding them, they could not find the courage to believe what they just heard.