Chapter 142: The Great Dragon is Gone
The moment the fist hit its body, Dikarn felt as if it were soaring through clouds. It shot into the air uncontrollably, like a rocket breaking through the black smoke-filled volcanic crater and flying high into the sky. Then, before its kinetic energy was depleted, the Giant's afterimage pursued it from below. A chokehold gripped its neck, dragging its body into a diagonal dive at an even faster speed!
The fall was world-shaking. The intense vibrations triggered landslides and cracked the earth, stirring up surging waves of dust. The mountain valley disintegrated amidst rising smoke and dust, the sound of cracking continuing endlessly like rolling thunder. Clay and dust spread like a mist kicked up by a storm, and the rising thick smoke increased the air pressure, making it suffocating.
Dikarn landed squarely on its face, while Orin Vale negated the impact with a series of somersaults followed by a magnificent slide.
Turning around, he saw that the Kryptonian flame dragon, despite being battered and bruised from the fall, had actually managed to clumsily get up again, though it looked a bit dizzy.
It had to be said, as expected of something from Krypton, anything produced there was incredibly tough with high defense. Its other attributes might not be up to par, but it was definitely a professional punching bag.
Dikarn's gaze locked onto Orin Vale, and blazing flames of rage overflowed from the corners of its eyes.
*This old dragon doesn't show its might, so you think I'm just some orange cat, is that it?*
"Roar!"
Dikarn roared, twisting its tail as it charged forward, its sharp claws striking with immense force. It had clearly noticed that its proud flame blast wasn't effective, so it changed tactics, preparing to tear its opponent apart with sharp claws and fangs.
This just so happened to fall right into Orin Vale's area of expertise. He saw the attack coming, dipped his left shoulder, smoothly caught the proffered claw, and executed a back-over-the-shoulder slam.
The giant dragon's sagacious brain couldn't even comprehend what was happening before the entire beast was smashed head-first into the ground. Its poor forehead scored another point on the ground. The massive impact traveled down its spine and through its entire body, sending dust flying throughout the mountain valley.
Dikarn shook its head and started to get up again. Its eyes, seeing double from the heavy blow, had just barely managed to focus when a silver-white hook punch slammed into the side of its face.
Its head snapped to the side, a spray of blood sent flying by the exaggerated power of the punch. Its massive body crashed into the mountainside, causing another landslide and rockslide.
Orin Vale pressed forward, a right hook nearly cracking the giant beast's eye socket. Dikarn wailed, instinctively raising its claws to protect its face. Seizing the opportunity, Orin Vale changed his line of attack. As it protected its upper body, leaving its lower half open, a heavy swing from his rear hand blasted its abdomen.
The punch, glowing with a halo effect, was so powerful it nearly rearranged the dragon's internal organs. The giant dragon couldn't help but vomit blood. Under the immense impact, its arms involuntarily loosened their defensive posture. In that instant, a silver straight punch blurred into an afterimage, shooting through the gap in its defense. It cracked the dragon's nasal bone, causing two jets of flame and blood to erupt from its nostrils.
A classic hook-and-swing combo. Within three punches, Dikarn was completely disoriented. It flailed its claws wildly. Its right claw instinctively grabbed a tree from the mountain behind it, and like a drowning man grasping at a straw, it uprooted the tree without a second thought and swung it at Orin Vale like a dagger.
But its thrust was clumsy and artless. Orin Vale simply sidestepped to avoid the sloppy "weapon," reached out with his right hand to grab the proffered arm, and skillfully twisted it into a joint lock. With a *crack* from the giant dragon's arm, the limb instantly broke.
Dikarn howled in pain and instinctively opened its mouth to gather flames, seemingly intending to force its opponent to retreat with a point-blank blast.
But Orin Vale didn't retreat at all. He snatched the tree from the claw of the broken arm and, with a classic "Godzilla-stuffs-the-throat" move, fiercely stabbed it into the giant dragon's mouth.
Its throat felt as if struck by a fierce dragon, and the ancient tree, unable to withstand the immense force, snapped inside its mouth. The half-formed flame was choked back, forcing the dragon to swallow it.
*Too terrifying. This place called Earth is simply too terrifying.*
The giant dragon had lost all will to fight. It turned its head, wanting to flee, but suddenly felt its body captured by some kind of invisible force, frozen in a running posture as if paused in time.
Dikarn's eyes widened, once again finding the situation incomprehensible.
*What kind of strange move is this now?*
A derivative use of Ultra Psychokinesis, similar to a stasis technique. It was frequently used as early as the Original Ultraman era. The Original Ultraman once used it to immobilize Red King for a finishing blow with the Ultra Slash, and also froze all the hidden weapons launched by Geronimon in mid-air, achieving an effect similar to Magneto stopping a sky full of missiles.
Orin Vale spread his five fingers, aiming in Dikarn's direction. An invisible field of psychic power locked the giant beast firmly in place, with bolts of lightning occasionally radiating out from it.
He raised his arm, and Dikarn rose into the air, unable to resist. He dropped his arm, and the Great Dragon was powerlessly slammed into the mountain valley.
He waved his arm repeatedly, and the Great Dragon rose and fell with it, taking off and then being smashed onto the ground again and again until it was battered and dizzy. Finally, it lay on the ground with its tongue hanging out, panting heavily.
The giant dragon shed tears of humiliation.
*Big bro, I'm begging you, just give me a quick death.*
The test results of the new move once again left Orin Vale quite satisfied.
If it wasn't necessary, he actually used to dislike using psychic power. In fact, compared to his performance in other subjects, it was one of his weaker skills. It wasn't that he hadn't mastered it, but mainly that the energy consumption was too high, making it strenuous to use.
But ever since Grodd had shown him the boost the Speed Force could provide to psionic abilities in Gorilla City, Orin Vale had been inspired. After returning, he had started a project specifically to research the Speed Force's effect on psionic power and was pleasantly surprised to find it was quite effective.
To put it simply, he followed the method he had already figured out to channel his Light in a way that simulated the principles of the Speed Force, then used a method similar to Grodd's to power his Ultra Psychokinesis. The skills and effects of the psychic power were still the ones he learned in the Land of Light, but by complying with the constraints of the DC Universe's laws, he could achieve stronger effects with less energy consumption.
The test was complete. After recording the data, Orin Vale lifted his finger again, and the giant dragon was hoisted up like a marionette, immobilized in mid-air.
Then, Orin Vale raised his right palm. Light energy converged into a spinning, serrated disc that radiated bolts of lightning.
Dikarn was fixed in mid-air, watching the spinning Light Wheel, instinctively sensing an immense threat from it.
At this moment, the first reaction that appeared in its mind was not the fear of death, but a tearful sense of immense relief.
*It's finally over. What a freaking torment...*
The Light Wheel was thrown, splitting in two in mid-air. The giant dragon was instantly sliced into three pieces, ending its sinful and torment-filled life.
***
Fort Rozz.
Zod, Non, and their remaining Kryptonian elites were in a meeting, discussing their grand blueprint for building New Krypton. Just then, the door to the Conference Room suddenly burst open, and a Kryptonian rushed in hastily.
"General! General!"
Zod frowned. "What's the matter? Why the panic?"
"It's the Great Dragon!" the Kryptonian reported. "The Great Dragon is gone!"
(end of chapter)