Chapter 161: Impossible Odds (I)

The dragon’s question hung in the air like a blade poised to fall.

Filch stood frozen under the dragon’s golden gaze. His burgundy hair fell across his face, plastered with sweat despite the cool night.

“Would you like to work with me?” the dragon repeated.

Filch’s lips twitched. When he finally spoke, his voice was very calm. “Tempting offer, really. But first… I would need to ask for other benefits. You see I have worked without benefits for long enough.”

The dragon tilted its head and its smile widened fractionally. “Amusing. I appreciate your humor.”

“Yeah, well,” Filch continued, eyes scanning for any possible escape route, “my last employer was a real bastard. Beat me daily, starved me, threatened to kill me sometimes… he was a real piece of work.” He paused, then gestured at the corpses littering the street around them.

“But at least he didn’t crush people’s hearts for fun. So you know… you’re somehow worse. That’s impressive, honestly. Didn’t think anyone could beat that record.”

The dragon looked at him and laughed and his sound echoed across the ruined plaza. “Insolent! I like you even more now.” Its golden eyes gleamed with delight. “You’d make an excellent first high priest for my cathedral. Someone with your spirit should absolutely not be wasted.”

“First high priest?” Filch’s eyebrows rose. “Sorry I am allergic to Cathedral.”

The dragon’s eyes gleamed further… he was clearly enjoying this exchange. “Don’t let your life be wasted here boy… think about the power, authority and immortality even. Yes immortality. All can be yours -”

“Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there,” Filch interrupted, hand dropping behind his back. “I like my life as it is… at least I am free. I have had enough of working for monsters who think they own people.” His fingers spread flat against the air. “So here’s my counter-offer: fuck off and die.”

His palm slammed into the ground.

The marble street beneath the dragon exploded upward in a hexagonal cage—six pillars erupted with the sound of tearing earth, curving inward to interlock at their peaks. The construction happened in a single breath.

“Move!” Filch shouted as he sprinted into the alley across to him.

Ishiki who had been observing from the sidelines… stumbled forward, gasping, and then tried his best to run into the alley alongside the house.

Behind them, the stone cage lasted three seconds.

The explosion sent fragments spraying outward like shrapnel. Through the dust cloud, four wings spread wide, golden eyes burning with something that might have been genuine amusement despite the attack.

“I’ll take that as a no,” the dragon called out, voice carrying across the distance. “What a shame. You would have looked wonderful in ceremonial robes.”

It moved.

Ishiki and Filch merged into a single larger road.

Behind them the dragon’s figure started to blur out and then it was suddenly standing in their way.

Filch skidded to a halt, shoving Ishiki sideways. His hands slammed against the facade of a collapsed building, and the wall responded instantly.

Stone tore free, flowing through air like liquid and reforming mid-flight into a massive hammer head three meters wide. It swung with momentum and aimed to crush the dragon against the opposite structure.

The dragon caught it one-handed.

Taloned fingers sank into compressed stone as if it were wet clay. The hammer froze mid-swing, all that devastating force dispersing harmlessly. Cracks spiderwebbed from where the dragon gripped, spreading rapidly until the entire construct crumbled to dust.

“Clever,” the dragon acknowledged. “But insufficient.”

Filch was already moving. His eyes swept the ruined street, cataloging materials like exposed rebar jutting from a collapsed wall, twisted metal objects and wooden debris.

His hand made a grasping motion.

The rebar tore free from the will as he ran with it… Ishiki had already pushed himself up and disappeared into the darkness of an alley. The dragon looked but he could not quite find the young injured man, It was because Ishiki had use Ghost Blade.

He flew towards Filch’s direction.

Filch saw that and smiled, the he turned around and slammed his hand against a whole building which was larger than the normal ones… It glowed with a bright blue hue and then dozens of pieces from multiple metals responded to his will, flowing through air like iron serpents.

They converged on the dragon above, tips sharpening as they moved.

The dragon’s wings folded tight against its back, then exploded outward with concussive force. The shockwave was visible as dust was blown away in expanding rings. Most of the metal projectiles deflected harmlessly.

But one of them made it through… it was the rebar Filch had picked up earlier. Now it was shaped like an arrow as it punched into draconic flesh with wet, meaty sound.

It pierced into his torso and golden ichor welled around the wound, dripping slowly down perfect skin.

The dragon glanced at the rebar protruding from its body with mild annoyance. It reached up and pulled it out. The wound didn’t bleed long… his flesh was already beginning to knit closed.

It flicked the rebar arrow back at Filch who was already running away.

The metal moved with supersonic crack splitting the air. Filch threw himself sideways, but wasn’t quite fast enough. The rebar grazed his shoulder, tearing through cloth and flesh, the impact spinning him around and sending him tumbling across white marble street.

He hit the ground hard, blood streaming hot down his arm. But his hands never left the street. The moment his palms made contact, stone rippled beneath him like water, carrying him backward in a wave of flowing marble that put distance between himself and the dragon.

The dragon pursued with leisurely beats of its wings. “Still resisting. How entertaining.”

Filch pressed both hands flat against the street, ignoring the blood slicking his fingers. A chunk of building—three tons of stone and timber fused together, tore free from a nearby structure with the groan of failing mortar. It hurtled through air and slammed into the dragon from the side.

The impact was cataclysmic and the sound echoed through half of the Secondary Ring. The dragon’s body was driven sideways, crashing through the wall of an adjacent house in an explosion of pulverized masonry and splintered wood.

Filch didn’t wait and closed his distance with the dragon then placed both his hands on the building.

Wood from collapsed structure tore free and weaved themselves into massive battering rams. Glass shards from shattered windows crystallized into glittering clouds. Metal reinforcement from surrounding debris wound together into nets.

The house the dragon had crashed into suddenly collapsed inward, around the creature like closing jaws.

For one second there was silence.

Then golden light began leaking from the gaps and the house exploded.

Fragments sprayed in all directions with lethal velocity. Filch raised a desperate shield that barely formed in time, but the sheer force sent him skidding backward.

The dragon rose from the ruins, dust coating its form. Several scales along its torso had cracked. One wing bore a ragged tear leaking golden ichor.

But it was still standing.

“Enough,” the dragon said coldly.

It raised one hand. Golden energy swirled over his palm coalescing into a sphere that pulsed with malevolent intent. The orb grew rapidly. The air itself began to warp from the pressure.

Three figures burst from an alley… it was a man with a lightning-wreathed spear, a woman with hands covered in rock and a younger man with a ghostly sword.

All three of them attacked simultaneously.

The spearman struck first. His weapon punched through one of the wings and lightning discharged directly into draconic flesh.

The dragon didn’t even flinch.

One of Its tail lashed backward faster than the eye could track. The appendage caught the spearman across the chest and threw him… the man’s body flew backward and didn’t move again.

The woman’s eyes widened and she tried to jump back… but the dragon’s wing swept sideways. The razor-sharp edge caught the woman across the throat and her head separated cleanly, tumbling to the ground while her corpse collapsed.

The young swordsman froze at his spot… his blade trembling in his hand.

The dragon’s sphere continued growing, pulsing with great power.

“For interrupting me,” the dragon said, “you’ll all die together.”

Then something blurred through the darkness from behind the dragon… a figure was moving with impossible speed.

At the last instant, it resolved into a young woman… with her hair fluttering wildly across her face.

It was Kaori.

Her fist drew back as she appeared just besides the dragon and then she struck.

The punch connected with the dragon’s face.

The impact was thunderous. The dragon’s head snapped sideways and Its entire body staggered… his taloned feet carved deep furrows as it slid backward three meters.

The Golden sphere in his hand dissipated instantly.

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