Chapter 398: Three dragons

Words : 2090 Updated : Oct 16th, 2025

Chapter 398: Three dragons The moment Noah realized what Vex’s armor truly was—scales torn from murdered dragons—something inside him snapped. All the careful control, all the tactical restraint he’d maintained throughout their conversation, evaporated like mist in a furnace. He moved without warning, his body exploding forward in a burst of pure speed that left afterimages in the air. Excaliburn swept in a diagonal arc toward Vex’s neck, the void-enhanced blade leaving a trail of distorted space in its wake. But Vex had been watching, analyzing, preparing. The older man twisted his torso and leaned back, the sword passing close enough to his throat that Noah could see individual scales on the armor ripple with absorbed kinetic energy. Before Noah could reset his stance, Vex’s fist came driving upward in a brutal uppercut aimed at Noah’s exposed ribs. Noah pivoted on his left foot and slipped to the side, feeling the displaced air from Vex’s punch brush against his shirt. The man’s fist struck nothing but empty space, but the sheer force of the missed blow sent a pressure wave that rattled the chamber walls. ’Christ, that would have caved in my chest.’ Noah realized the threat level even as he flowed into his next attack. [VOID BLINK ACTIVATED] Reality folded, and Noah reappeared behind Vex, Excaliburn already in motion toward the dragon hunter’s spine. But Vex spun with inhuman reflexes, his armored forearm coming up to intercept the blade’s path. The scales on his gauntlet flared with golden light as they absorbed the sword’s momentum, and Vex used the redirected energy to fuel a devastating backhand that Noah barely managed to duck under. The two men separated, circling each other like predators. Around them, chaos had erupted as the guards engaged Noah’s companions. Sophie was already locked in combat with Kaia, their fight a brutal dance of precise strikes and perfectly timed counters. The sound of fists meeting flesh echoed through the chamber as the boys from the beach found themselves facing professional soldiers with beast-tech weapons. "You’re fast," Vex admitted, rolling his shoulders as the armor’s scales shifted and adjusted. "Faster than I expected. But speed alone won’t—" Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!! The sound rattled off as Noah’s shoulder absorbed the recoil. Noah’s void barrage cut off his words. Purple energy projectiles materialized around Noah’s position and streaked toward Vex in a coordinated pattern designed to eliminate escape routes. But the dragon hunter read the attack’s geometry perfectly, dropping into a slide that carried him under the lowest projectiles while the higher ones passed harmlessly overhead. Vex came out of his slide with an explosive leap, both fists driving toward Noah’s position with enough force to crater stone. Noah twisted away from the first punch, caught the second on his crossed forearms, and immediately regretted the decision. [Health Points: 3,170/3,200] The impact sent shockwaves up Noah’s arms and drove him backward three full steps. The armor wasn’t just protective—it was amplifying Vex’s natural strength to monstrous levels. "Did you take their cores?" Noah snarled, pressing his attack with a series of rapid sword strikes that forced Vex to dance backward. "Did you carve them out while they were still alive?" Vex deflected each strike with his armored gauntlets, sparks flying where void-enhanced steel met draconic scales. "I wish I could have," he replied conversationally, as if they were discussing sports instead of exchanging potentially lethal blows. "But dragons are remarkably possessive of their cores, even in death." Noah’s next strike came from an impossible angle, his enhanced agility allowing him to twist mid-lunge and attack from Vex’s blind spot. The blade scraped along the dragon hunter’s ribs, leaving a shallow gouge in the armor that immediately began to self-repair. "In fact," Vex continued, catching Noah’s wrist and attempting a throw that Noah escaped with a void blink, "I’ve never actually seen a dragon’s core. Every dragon I’ve killed has somehow managed to send their core... elsewhere... before I could claim it." The revelation hit Noah, catching him off guard. ’No cores? All this power is just from their scales and bones?’ The implications were staggering. If dragon remains alone could create armor this formidable, what kind of power did an actual dragon core contain? "How did you get a core?" Vex asked, launching into a combination that mixed boxing techniques with the enhanced strength of his armor. Each punch whistled through the air with enough force to shatter concrete. Noah slipped the first two punches, caught the third on his blade’s flat edge, and used Vex’s momentum to spin into a devastating elbow strike. But the dragon hunter’s armor absorbed the impact, converting it into stored energy that made the scales glow brighter. "Stop torturing Ivy," Noah countered, void blinking behind Vex again, "and maybe I’ll tell you." "Maybe I’ll torture you instead," Vex replied, spinning to meet Noah’s attack with a backfist that Noah barely avoided. ’That’s how he does it,’ Noah realized, the pieces clicking together with disturbing clarity. ’Every beast we passed was docile, sedated-looking. Not from drugs or containment—from constant neural suppression. He can project pain directly into their minds, keep them in a state of perpetual agony that only stops when they comply.’ The practical implications were staggering. No wonder Vex could capture Category 4 beasts alive. He didn’t need overwhelming firepower or specialized teams—he just needed to get close enough to establish mental contact, then torture them into submission. The creatures weren’t choosing to cooperate; they were being psychologically broken. ’But humans process pain differently. Our prefrontal cortex can override survival instincts, rationalize suffering, even compartmentalize it. What works on beast cognition wouldn’t work on human consciousness.’ Noah’s EDF training in xenopsychology was finally paying dividends. ’He’s been bluffing this entire time. He can’t touch me the way he touches them.’ Noah shook his head, a grim smile playing at his lips. "You can’t. That’s your secret, isn’t it? Your pain control only works on beasts." Vex’s expression flickered—just for a moment—but it was enough confirmation for Noah. "Beast cognition is fundamentally different from human consciousness," Vex explained, his tone taking on that lecturing quality even as they continued their deadly dance. "Beasts process pain through primitive neural pathways, survival instincts that can be hijacked and manipulated. But human brains..." He ducked under a horizontal slash that would have taken his head off. "Human brains have cognitive override capabilities. We can rationalize pain, contextualize it, even ignore it through sheer willpower." Noah’s response was a void-enhanced thrust that Vex barely managed to deflect. The older man’s armor absorbed the impact, but Noah could see stress fractures beginning to appear in some of the scales. "So you’re just a bully," Noah said, pressing his attack with renewed fury. "Picking on creatures that can’t defend themselves against your particular brand of torture." "I prefer to think of myself as a specialist," Vex replied, catching Noah’s next strike on his gauntlet and using the contact to land a solid hit to Noah’s shoulder. [Health Points: 3,135/3,200] The punch sent Noah spinning, but he converted the momentum into a wide slash that forced Vex to leap backward. As the dragon hunter landed, Noah noticed something important—the armor’s glow was dimming slightly. It had limits. ’He’s storing kinetic energy from impacts, but there has to be a maximum capacity. Keep hitting him, keep forcing him to absorb more energy than he can discharge...’ Noah feinted left, void blinked right, and came in with a strike aimed at Vex’s knee joint. The dragon hunter pivoted to avoid the attack, but Noah was already following up with a pommel strike to his ribs, then a knee aimed at his solar plexus. Vex caught the knee on his crossed forearms, but Noah used the contact point as a springboard, flipping backward and landing in a crouch. Both men were breathing harder now, sweat beading on their foreheads as the fight’s intensity continued to escalate. "You know what I find most fascinating about dragons?" Vex said, wiping blood from a split lip where one of Noah’s earlier strikes had found its mark. "They’re the only species that consistently manages to hide their cores before death. Almost like they know something we don’t." ’They’re not just hiding them,’ Noah realized with growing certainty. ’They’re sending them somewhere. But where?’ [VOID BLINK ACTIVATED] Noah appeared behind Vex again, but this time instead of attacking, he grabbed the dragon hunter’s shoulders and smiled. "Domain." The purple portal opened beneath both of them, and Noah felt the familiar sensation of dimensional travel as they fell through reality itself. But just before they crossed the threshold completely, Noah released his grip on Vex and activated another void blink, reappearing outside the portal’s event horizon. "What the hell..." Vex’s startled curse was cut off as he vanished into Noah’s personal dimension, leaving the dragon hunter alone in a realm where Noah held absolute authority. The fighting around the chamber stuttered to a halt as everyone processed what had just happened. Guards lowered their weapons in confusion. Sophie broke off her intense hand-to-hand battle with Kaia, both women breathing hard and sporting matching bruises. "Where—" one of the guards began. Noah didn’t answer. Instead, he walked calmly toward Ivy’s containment field, his expression softening as he approached the tortured dragon. Up close, the extent of her suffering was even more apparent. Scars crisscrossed her beautiful scales, and her eyes held the defeated look of a creature that had given up hope long ago. "Hey there, beautiful," Noah said softly, crouching beside the containment field’s perimeter. His voice carried none of the fury he’d directed at Vex—only gentleness and compassion. "I know you’ve been hurt. I know you’re scared. But I promise you, the hurting is over now." Ivy’s massive head turned toward him, her dulled eyes studying his face with cautious curiosity. Noah reached out slowly, his hand passing through the deactivated containment field to touch her snout. "I have two brothers who would love to meet you," he continued, his voice steady and reassuring. "Nyx and Storm. They’re good dragons, strong dragons, and they’ll help you remember what it feels like to be free." The dragon’s eyes seemed to brighten slightly, and she nuzzled against Noah’s hand with desperate gentleness. "I’m going to take you to them now, okay? You’re going to be safe, loved, and free to be what you were meant to be." He stood and placed both hands on Ivy’s flank. "Domain." The purple portal swallowed both of them, leaving the chamber in stunned silence. When Noah reappeared moments later, he was alone. He dusted off his hands and turned to face the assembled crowd, his expression calm but his eyes still holding traces of the fury that had driven his fight with Vex. "It’s time to go," he told Sophie. "What happened to—" Kaia began, but stopped herself. She lowered her eyes, her voice taking on a strangely formal tone. "If you killed him, I would ask for his body. He was my father, and despite everything, he deserves a proper burial." ’Her father?’ The revelation hit Noah like ice water. ’This woman has been working for a monster who happened to be her own father.’ "I didn’t kill anyone," Noah said quietly. "I just put him somewhere he can’t hurt any more innocent creatures. If you want to see your father again, I suggest you make haste to the royal palace." Kaia’s expression was unreadable, but Noah thought he detected a note of relief in her posture. "Ivy is safe now," Noah continued, addressing the room. "She’s with her new family, where she’ll be loved and protected. And if any of you even think about continuing this operation..." His voice took on an edge that made several people step backward. "Remember what just happened here." He turned to Sophie, extending his hand. "Ready to get out of here?" Sophie took his hand, her own still trembling slightly from adrenaline. "More than ready." As they walked toward the exit, Noah couldn’t shake the image of Ivy’s scarred hide, or the desperate gratitude in her eyes when he’d promised her freedom. Somewhere in his domain, she was meeting Nyx and Storm for the first time, probably the first positive interaction she’d had with other living beings in years. ’Three dragons,’ he thought as they stepped into the mountain air. ’I wonder if that’s just the beginning.’

Chapter 398: Three dragons

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