But for some reason, the closer he got to the battlefield, the more restless Iori felt. It wasn't until the clouds in the sky grew thicker and thicker, and that strange feeling struck again, that he finally stopped the small boat, a grave look appearing in his eyes.
"Roar!"
Sure enough, the clouds split apart once more. A gigantic dragon, covered in bloodstains yet still overwhelmingly powerful, looked down on the sea with godlike majesty.
After swiftly sweeping past a pile of wrecked ships, its gaze finally locked onto Iori.
In his previous life, Iori had also imagined what dragons looked like during his chuunibyou youth. No matter who it was, everyone had more or less been awed by such creatures in movies or shows.
However, no matter how realistic the special effects were, they could never compare to the miracle of seeing one with your own eyes.
Beautiful, dangerous, sacred… such impressions felt irrelevant at this moment. Because once the distance closed to a certain point, once you felt that breath full of vitality and were suppressed by some invisible aura, only a single thought remained in your mind.
Powerful.
This was a towering body built purely from strength and the accumulation of ages.
It was so close that Iori could clearly see his own reflection in pupils as large as a round table.
There was no beastliness and no divinity. These eyes were incomparably calm, like a lake without even the slightest ripple, completely different from its ferocious state during the earlier fierce battle.
"Huff!"
The dragon's breath stirred Iori's cloak, revealing the famous blade Kousetsu hanging at his waist.
"Roar~"
The resounding dragon roar stirred waves across the sea. The small boat swayed like a fallen leaf in an autumn wind, yet Iori's feet remained firmly planted on the deck, unmoving.
As the giant dragon raised its majestic head and opened its massive jaws, Iori's pupils slowly contracted.
BOOM!
There was no charging motion at all. It wasn't flames, nor frost. Instead, in an instant, a vast vacuum was created.
Dense, flood-like invisible blades swept through, shredding the small boat into countless pieces and mixing them with tens of millions of tons of seawater, blasting everything into the sky.
But Iori was nowhere to be seen among them.
In the next moment, the boy who had drawn his katana appeared slightly behind and above the dragon's head. The spinning blade tore through the airflow and struck the dragon's neck like lightning.
Rip!
A shower of sparks burst forth, accompanied by a teeth-grinding friction sound. The sensation transmitted through the blade felt nothing like cutting into flesh.
The mane that looked soft actually possessed extraordinary toughness. Using the momentum of his fall, Iori's strike cut through several strands, but a thin, long silver filament hidden among them blocked the blow, forcibly diverting the blade aside.
The result was merely a conspicuous scratch left on the hard dragon scales.
"Roar!"
The sea dragon, having suddenly lost its target and then immediately been attacked, paused slightly before letting out an excited, high-pitched howl. A massive shockwave swept outward in all directions.
Iori instinctively tried to grab the fur along the dragon's spine, but the moment he touched it, he sensed something was wrong and immediately pulled back. In the next instant, his entire body was blown far away.
Amid the raging winds, Iori struggled to adjust his posture. His feet skimmed the sea surface, kicking up a string of splashes, before he finally sank into the water.
In the dim surroundings, he looked at his left hand. The leather glove had been sliced open with a cut spanning the width of his palm, and from the palm beneath, small beads of blood slowly seeped out and dispersed into the seawater…
Cut? Was its body hair naturally that sharp?
Iori thought of the Imperial Arms from the original work, [Thousand Variations: Cross Tail], and couldn't help but feel a chill.
It was said that that thread-type Imperial Arms was made from the body hair of a super dangerous species from the Eastern Sea, the Dragon in the Clouds.
Its toughness and sharpness were astonishing, and the strongest strand was even called the "World-Cutting Thread," with remarkably dazzling combat performance.
And this was only body hair. According to the laws of nature, for a large predatory creature like a dragon, body hair was usually meant to enhance intimidation or provide insulation, overall, it served a supporting role. The real weapons were sharp fangs and claws.
If even the body hair was this tough, there was no reason for the claws, teeth, and scales to be any weaker.
This was basically like fighting a moving weapons arsenal…
Another unbelievable thought flashed through Iori's mind, could this thing be the very dragon that the first emperor from a thousand years ago encountered?
Although the time span was enormous, even among ordinary lifeforms there were species that could live for several hundred years. A super dangerous species having such an extreme lifespan didn't seem that strange.
Bang!
There was no time for Iori to think further. The sea surface was soon split apart by the massive body as the giant dragon, eyes blazing with divine light, lunged straight at him.
'I've been waiting for you!'
Iori's gaze sharpened. Casting aside his usual thrifty fighting style, he released all restrictions and let his spiritual pressure pour out.
The giant dragon opened its mouth in the sea. Violent undercurrents shot out like a high-pressure water cannon, aiming to blast Iori into the abyss.
But the water column was clearly slower than the vacuum blades. Calmly, Iori extended his left hand, manifesting a glowing spiritual shield, 'Binding Way No. 8: Repulsion.'
Though it was a low-level kido, it protected him well. Pushed by the incoming undercurrent, his falling speed actually increased, pulling him farther away from the dragon instead.
And that distance was enough for Iori to quietly prepare an incantation, 'Binding Way No. 63: Locking Bond Chains!'
Thick, serpent-like chains shot out from the darkness, spiraling along the undercurrent. The giant dragon almost seemed to meet them head-on, allowing itself to be loosely wrapped.
By the time it realized something was wrong, the chains suddenly tightened under Iori's control, locking its neck and lower jaw together.
The dragon struggled wildly, but to its shock, it found that it couldn't open its mouth at all.
The chains were wound extremely densely, and their inherent strength was high, making it difficult for the dragon to exert force for the moment.
Iori moved at incredible speed. Grabbing the chains, he used the force of the dragon's pull to trace an elegant arc through the sea, attacking its comparatively softer lower abdomen.
Boundless fighting spirit surged in the dragon's eyes. Its enormous body burst forth with terrifying strength, abruptly halting its downward momentum and charging upward toward the sea surface instead.
As a result, Iori was slammed by immense water pressure, his movements immediately thrown into disarray.
Splash!
The dragon broke through the surface and soared into the sky, spiraling up into the clouds, while Iori held tightly to the chains without letting go.
In the clouds, the dragon was even more agile than in the sea. Iori felt as though he were dragging a high-speed train racing along a roller-coaster track in the sky. His body risked being torn apart at any moment, yet even so, he had to persist.
Because the moment he let go, without his direct control, the chains would break at any time.
'Wait, that is!'
Thanks to his prolonged persistence, Iori noticed that on the inner side of the dragon's lower jaw, near what should theoretically be its throat (though Iori wasn't exactly sure about dragon anatomy), there was a scar hidden beneath the fluffy mane.
It was absolutely impossible to see under normal circumstances. Only when the fierce winds blew could it occasionally flash into view.
Iori's gaze sharpened. After briefly estimating his remaining spiritual pressure, he began chanting the incantation for a certain destructive spell.
The fluctuation of spiritual pressure seemed to alarm the dragon as well. Although it had never seen this form of attack before, its mental power was far from weak, and it keenly sensed the abnormality.
Suddenly, arcs of electricity flickered across its scales, and Iori felt a surge of foreboding.
Crack!!!
A blinding bolt of lightning lit up the clouds and struck the dragon, instantly enveloping its entire body.
Yet not only did this fail to injure it, it instead made its mane appear even more magnificent and flowing under the tempering of lightning, fully displaying the beauty of pure power.
At the same time, the dragon felt the force on the chains around its mouth loosen. With a slight exertion, it shattered them. Then, a ball of fire slowly fell from the sky, seemingly the human who had been caught up in the lightning.
A look of regret appeared in the dragon's eyes as it looked toward that falling flame, its vertical pupils suddenly shrank into a thin line.
The flame was scattered by the wind. It turned out to be nothing more than a burning cloak.
A startling fluctuation of spiritual pressure suddenly appeared to the left of the dragon's head. A masked swordsman in tight-fitting clothes held a famous blade, coating the edge with "energy" compressed to the extreme.
A frontal clash? A suicidal strike?
This human had seen the wound on its neck.
"Roar!!!"
The giant dragon opened its jaws, biting toward Iori with something like manic human laughter.
In that instant, just that single instant, either Iori would pierce through the protection of the mane and strike the wound, or he would be buried within the dragon's maw.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment, the dragon's fangs about to pierce Iori's body.
Clack!
The dragon's jaws snapped shut with a terrifying collision sound, yet no blood splattered. The dragon froze in shock.
This human's movement trajectory wasn't toward its wound at all!
In the next moment, Iori had already appeared on the other side of the dragon's head. His refined flash-step technique was exactly as Saito had described, precise and composed, 'Destruction Way No. 78: Slashing Blossom Wheel?'
A pure white blade of energy clung to the katana, slicing through the dragon's vertical pupil like a spinning wheel of blades.
Clang!!!
"Roar!!!"
The long blade tore all the way through to the jawbone, colliding with hard bone and sharp dragon teeth, producing a clear, ringing metallic tremor.
Crack!
The famous blade Kousetsu, shattered...
Scalding dragon blood rained down. A roar suppressing immense pain echoed through the sky, while Iori's body fell freely amid the raging winds.
In the end… was it still one move short?
Glancing at the broken blade in his hand, Iori gently shook his head.
If it had been a Zanpakuto, the result would have been completely different, right?, though saying that now just sounded like making excuses for himself.
Most of his spiritual pressure was spent. What remained was far from enough to support such an intense battle.
The weapon he carried with him was broken as well. Although there were spares on the ship, the small boat had been destroyed at the very beginning.
You could say he had used every means at his disposal, yet still had no options left.
By contrast, even after losing an eye, the giant dragon still retained formidable combat power. As for Iori's chances of victory next…
Splash!
The boy fell into the sea, sending up a spray of water. This time, he quickly surfaced and found a plank of wood to stand on.
"No choice, then."
Iori looked at the dragon circling in the sky. Reaching into his clothes, he grasped something hard, [Dimensional Formation: Shambhala].
Looks like he had no choice but to retreat… a strategic withdrawal. Before that, he would mark this place so he wouldn't have to make another sea journey later.
Iori gripped the Imperial Arms tightly, ready to activate it at any moment. Yet he wasn't in a hurry. For reasons unknown even to himself, he delayed his action, instead staring at the heavily wounded dragon with deep contemplation in his eyes.
Moments later, the dragon spiraled downward, stirring wave after wave on the sea's surface. Iori stood steadily on the plank, gazing up at this apex lifeform amidst the heaving waves.
"Roar!!!!"
The violent dragon roar actually calmed the sea somewhat, as if even nature itself feared it.
Unexpectedly, the giant dragon, blinded in one eye, did not immediately seek revenge on Iori. Instead, upon seeing the broken blade in the boy's hand, it halted its movement. In its remaining eye, a distinctly human-like sense of regret appeared.
It looked deeply at Iori, as if engraving this human, who had lost his weapon yet still showed no fear, firmly into its memory.
Then it let out a long, melodious howl toward the sky, rose once more like a whirlwind, and disappeared into the pitch-black clouds.
"…It left?"
Iori stared at the clouds in surprise. He had felt that this dragon possessed a certain level of intelligence, and that there might be some unknown reason behind its actions, but he hadn't expected it to suppress its bloodthirsty instincts and choose to abandon the fight at this stage.
The clouds gradually began to disperse, or rather, drift farther away. The wind and waves on the sea slowly calmed as well. It seemed it had truly left.
"Why?"
Just as Iori was thinking this, a faint point of light suddenly fell from the sky. Its speed wasn't fast, merely free fall, and it didn't emit any dangerous aura.
After hesitating for a moment, Iori used flash step to leap into the air and catch the glowing object. It felt cool to the touch, instantly refreshing his mind.
Looking closely, it turned out to be an orange-cyan orb about the size of a muskmelon. Its texture was clear and transparent, yet faint wisps of mist-like airflow inexplicably lingered around its surface, appearing and disappearing in cycles, truly wondrous.
"This is…"
A guess surfaced in Iori's mind, but the vast open sea was hardly a place for calm contemplation. He tore a piece of cloth from his clothes and wrapped it up simply. Then he found a larger piece of driftwood to use as a raft, paddling hard with a broken plank in each hand.
Of course, he had no intention of crossing the ocean this way. His goal was to gather as many supplies as possible and find a relatively intact small boat.
He had seen clearly that under the dragon's attack, all the large ships were destroyed. However, many small skiffs had survived, and those would be his next means of transport.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for him to find a suitable skiff. In the process, he also found the wreckage of his own fishing boat and retrieved items like the spirit-particle conversion device.
Although most of the money and supplies were lost, at least the important things weren't.
Another noteworthy point was that there were surviving sailors from the fleet. Some clung to driftwood, struggling to survive, while others had scrambled onto skiffs amid the chaos. They had watched Iori's battle with the giant dragon in a mix of terror and awe.
Iori knew that he had lost, but in their eyes, Iori had single-handedly driven back the ruler of the sea, even making it bleed across the sky.
His achievements surpassed their entire fleet. He was a man as powerful as a demon or god.
Whether out of blind worship of the strong, or helplessness in the face of despair, they naturally placed their hopes on Iori. One after another, they begged him for help, hoping he would take them back to land.
This place wasn't too far from the "Eastern Island Nation." If nothing went wrong, it would be at most a five- or six-day journey. As long as they gathered usable supplies, they could definitely hold out until reaching their destination.
The problem was that with so many people gathered together, they would likely attract sea aberrations (dangerous species) along the way.
Without a large ship to rely on, they would be utterly defenseless against monster attacks. The only one who could save them was Iori.
And Iori decisively agreed to this.