I Became A Collaborative Character In The Game

Chapter 25 – Aru 3

Balboa was enraged.

His mind was a blank canvas of pure, unadulterated fury.

His left arm was gone.

Although regeneration was already underway, it would take at least six months to fully regrow.

Six months.

It wasn’t a long time for a Dragonman, who lived for hundreds, even thousands of years.

But it wasn’t a short time either.

Moreover, it was the *next* six months that mattered.

This was the time when the Hecatoncheires would begin their operations in earnest.

How much he had to do in the next six months!

“Grarararara!”

He unleashed Dragon Fear.

The mana in the atmosphere rippled, creating whirlwinds.

And then Balboa realized.

The source of his rage was more fundamental.

Humiliation.

Insult.

Self-loathing for his absurd blunder.

His arm had been severed by a human.

He had lost his left arm to an unexpected blow.

Rage surged within him.

He felt like his head would explode if he didn’t do something about this rage.

So he would find him.

He would hunt him down.

Balboa had the blood of a dragon flowing through his veins.

Although a low-ranking one, he was a Dragonman, and as such, he could read the traces of magic as easily as breathing.

Right before his Breath Weapon struck.

Powerful magic was activated.

A spatial jump, without a doubt.

It wasn’t an easy feat.

Spatial jumps were not only incredibly difficult magic but also required a tremendous amount of energy.

So it left traces.

And those traces didn’t disappear easily.

Balboa suppressed himself.

He closed his eyes, controlling the rage boiling within him.

He read the flow of mana and the ‘system of the world,’ distorted by the spatial jump.

Where did they go?

Where did that miracle called magic transport Royal Peliarud and the unknown man?

He had a feeling.

He could roughly estimate the direction and distance.

Balboa opened his eyes, turned around completely, and started running towards the Anes River.

“Kuh-huh!”

His rage erupted again.

Running on three legs was an unfamiliar experience for Balboa.

Thanks to his sharp senses and extraordinary athleticism as a Dragonman, he could still run, but his speed was incomparable to when all four legs were intact.

“Grrr…”

Rage seeped through his clenched teeth.

With each step, his fury towards the human grew.

So, the moment he reached the riverbank, the moment the human’s figure appeared in his elongated pupils, Balboa could no longer contain himself.

He leaped, unleashing his explosive rage.

*Crash!*

Balboa’s massive body crashed into the water, sending up a spray.

Swimming on three legs was even more unfamiliar and uncomfortable than running, but it wasn’t the time to worry about that.

He would kill the man.

He would crush the insect who had severed his arm.

“Kuh-huh!”

Balboa roared and plunged into the water again.

Landing on the riverbank, Balboa used his sharp senses to pierce through the darkness.

Royal Peliarud was nowhere to be seen.

But he could sense where the human was.

That was enough for Balboa.

“There you are!”

Balboa roared, kicked off the ground, and his body crossed the distance in an instant.

Balboa, a quadruped resembling a wolf, lunged through the air.

*Crunch!*

A terrifying bite.

It was as if space itself had been bitten, and indeed, the mana in the atmosphere was erased, creating a gust of wind.

But the attack missed.

And that fact enraged Balboa even further.

“Haa.”

The human man—Luther—leaped to the side to avoid the attack, quickly stood up, and exhaled.

Balboa turned towards Luther, narrowing his eyes.

The reason his attack missed was simple.

Having lost a foreleg, his leaping power was weakened.

“Raaaa!”

His rage turned into a roar.

And that roar, amplified by Dragon Fear, enveloped the entire island.

Silence descended.

The chirping of insects ceased, and even the wind died down.

Luther’s body momentarily froze.

*Thump!*

And Balboa kicked off the ground.

He charged towards Luther like an enraged bull.

*Crash!*

The ground cracked, and trees crumbled.

Luther, attempting to dodge by leaping to the side, tumbled to the ground.

The wind picked up again.

Balboa tossed aside the fallen trees and raised his head, and Luther also scrambled to his feet.

The distance was short.

Twice as close as before.

It seemed like Balboa could bite off Luther’s head with a single leap.

So this time, Luther moved first.

He desperately turned and threw himself towards the thick bushes.

Instead of leaping after him, Balboa suddenly opened his mouth wide and roared,

“Grrrrrrrrrrra-!”

It wasn’t a simple roar.

The powerful roar of a dragon shook not only the atmosphere but also the flow of mana.

There was a reason for this roar.

He was disrupting the flow of mana to prevent magic.

He was preemptively blocking the possibility of another spatial jump, like the one before.

While simple magic might be possible, using high-level magic like spatial jump amidst the fluctuating mana was nearly impossible.

And one more thing.

The roar pushed aside the bushes, revealing Luther’s figure.

“Ugh!”

Luther, who had been crouching, hurriedly stood up and started running.

Judging by his limp, he seemed to have injured himself while repeatedly throwing himself to the ground.

Balboa smiled inwardly.

The sight of Luther desperately fleeing pleased him.

So Balboa didn’t pursue him immediately.

As he suppressed his rage and regained some composure, something came to mind.

Luther’s axe.

Even in his dragon form, he couldn’t underestimate that single blow.

Although it wouldn’t sever his limbs in one strike like before, a direct hit to a vital point would undoubtedly be fatal.

Therefore, instead of charging, Balboa opened his mouth.

Seeing Luther foolishly running in a straight line, he gathered flames in his mouth.

Breath Weapon.

An attack that surpassed the flames he breathed in his Dragonman form, practically a pillar of light.

Balboa’s dragon heart began to glow fiercely.

The magical power within his body concentrated at a single point, becoming a flame of pure rage.

*Fwoosh!*

Monstrous flames erupted from Balboa’s open mouth.

The flames, like a tidal wave, instantly engulfed Luther’s retreating figure.

And at that moment,

At a location away from the bushes.

As the gale caused by Balboa pushed aside the bushes, Luther, who had concealed himself not with magic but with the power of science, raised his outstretched right arm.

The duration of Invisibility Mode was only 5 seconds, but the hologram created by the drone had distracted Balboa, and the gale and swirling mana created by Dragon Fear masked the sound of Luther kicking off the ground.

And so, he reached his destination.

Luther hadn’t intended to finish the fight with a booster attack from the beginning.

Although hot-headed and ferocious, Balboa wasn’t a fool.

But because of that, it wasn’t difficult to predict his actions.

‘The moment he fires the Breath Weapon.’

The moment when a massive rigidity occurred, proportional to the power of the attack.

A booster attack with the axe was impossible.

To launch a close-range attack during the opening created by the Breath Weapon, he would have to be very close to Balboa, and even with Invisibility Mode, there was a high chance of being detected by the Dragonman’s sharp senses.

So Luther thought of something else.

Aru’s presence made it possible.

*Fwoosh!*

The Breath Weapon tore through the ground.

The drone, flying low to create the hologram, instantly turned to ash and disappeared.

And at that moment, Luther’s right arm was pointed towards Balboa.

“[Limiter release, Level Five.]”

Luther, leaning against a tree, hidden within the bushes, his right arm began to glow intensely.

“[Regulator open.]”

“[External energy injection, overcharge, system alert turn off.]”

It was different than usual.

The Nanosuit, having reabsorbed all the nanomachines from the giant axe, had transformed, becoming like a cannon barrel.

Luther’s left arm supported his right, and the ‘Royal Necklace,’ attached to the back of his hand, emitted a blue light.

“[Energy charge 1,674% complete.]”

The power of the necklace flowed into Luther.

And at that moment, Balboa flinched.

His red eyes darted around, searching for Luther’s location.

Their eyes met.

Their gazes locked.

In that seemingly frozen moment, catastrophe struck!

*Fwoosh!*

Balboa quickly moved his head.

The Breath Weapon, like a pillar of light, swept across the ground and charged towards Luther.

The ground shattered.

Crimson flames melted everything in their path.

But Luther didn’t see any of it.

In that split second, he stared at Balboa’s eye and shouted,

“Integra!”

“[Buster Cannon! Firing!]”

*Boom!*

Luther’s right arm exploded.

A pillar of blue light erupted from the Nanosuit, transformed into a cannon.

*Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!*

A series of explosions rocked the air as the two beams of light collided.

The blue beam fired from the Nanosuit struck the Breath Weapon diagonally from the side.

It was just a charged shot, a function added when the Energy Gun reached Lv2, but the energy concentrated through the Royal Necklace allowed it to unleash power beyond its limits.

Light destroyed light.

As cracks appeared on the Nanosuit, Balboa’s Breath Weapon began to collapse.

“[Boost!]”

Integra amplified the power of the Buster Cannon once more.

The blue pillar of light swelled, and his right arm, which had become a cannon, exploded.

But Luther didn’t withdraw his arm.

He roared with all his might, his bloodied right arm still outstretched.

*Fwoosh!*

The blue pillar of light pierced through the flames.

It engulfed Balboa’s head and continued forward, piercing the darkness.

*Boom!*

Smaller explosions erupted from the remaining parts of the Nanosuit.

The Royal Necklace lost its light and no longer glowed, and the blue pillar of light faded into a thin line and disappeared.

“Haa…”

As Luther’s right arm fell limply, Balboa’s massive body, the entire top half of his head gone, collapsed.

*Thud!*

The ground trembled.

And then, no one moved.

In the ensuing silence, as if the entire world was holding its breath, only Integra’s gentle voice whispered,

“[Balboa’s life signs have ceased.]”

“[Acquired a large amount of combat data.]”

“[Master’s victory!]”

Luther’s stance crumbled.

He had no strength left in his body.

His bloodied right arm felt numb, and he could barely breathe.

But that wasn’t all.

His Nanosuit was broken.

His drone was gone, and the giant axe, having lost its nanomachines, had reverted to an ordinary axe.

The Royal Necklace he had borrowed from Aru was also a problem.

Not only had it lost its light, but it had also turned a dull gray, as if it had exhausted all its power in that single attack.

He had won.

But at a great cost.

It wasn’t a pyrrhic victory, where the cost of winning outweighed the benefits, but it was a victory achieved at great personal loss.

But despite all that, Luther smiled.

It wasn’t simply because he had won.

It wasn’t just because he had defeated a Dragonman of the Hecatoncheires and saved Aru.

The reason he could smile despite the heavy losses.

“[Master, detecting a very powerful energy source.]”

He had suffered losses.

But if those losses could be offset by an even greater gain, it was a different story.

“A Dragonman is still a dragon, after all.”

Luther stood up.

Seeing Aru, who had been hiding, emerge and wave her hand, he smiled back and started walking.

Balboa’s dragon heart.

Something incomparable to the magic stones of ordinary dragonkin.

Despite his exhaustion, Luther quickened his pace.

—–CROW—–