One Last System

​ 'What the hell is going on?' I thought, watching how the dragon hunters became more and more restless as their attacks continued to be as useless as before.

Unable to solve the issue on my own, I cast a quick glance over to where Levi was taking his well-deserved rest.

He didn't wink back at me. He didn't give me a knowing smile. He didn't even try to avert his eyes.

Levi genuinely focused all of his strength and attention on doing nothing but recovering from his injuries and trying to regain his mana.

He was in a state that screamed past trouble. And yet, no matter how long I waited, the same people that gave him such a hard time failed to reach the point where I would even consider them a treat!

'Wait, no,' I pursed my lips as I brought my eyes back to my current enemies. Yet, they were still stuck in their attempts to hack away at my first barrier, unable to progress past this relatively simple hurdle.

'If they are stalling for time, then what's going to happen soon?' I pondered, trying to act innocent while uncovering the secrets of the other side's fighting plan.

And so I waited.

And waited.

And then waited some more, while putting up a front of exhaustion building up on my face.

Yet, no matter how long I allowed the other party to stall… nothing really happened!

'Maybe I'm just too careful?' I suddenly realized.

It was truly a weird thought. To be so careful actually worked against me.

Ever since I experienced fear for Mia's safety, I didn't dare to underestimate any of my opponents. And yet, in the current situation… I couldn't help but worry that I ended up greatly overestimating them!

"So you are a dragon too," the leader of the dragon hunter finally broke the stalemate with just a few words of his.

He then stood up from the pile of ruins that he turned into his makeshift seat before raising his right hand at the level of his elbow.

The man then put his thumb and middle finger together only to snap his fingers right as he brought his arm down.

It was a simple snap. It did nothing but produce a short, snappy sound. Nothing, save for how a long yet simple staff materialized in the man's hand.

The design of this new weapon was as simple as it could get. A metal-reinforced wooden stick with three fingers curling towards the insides at the top.

All in all, it was a tool I could make in less than five minutes if given the proper materials. An item that I would hardly pay any attention to if I were to find it in some random spot.

And yet, the one element of the dragon hunter's staff was there to attract my full attention.

And it was the beating heart, roughly four times the size of a human one, currently stuck right between the three curly spikes at the top of the dragon hunter's staff.

'Is that…' I thought, gulping my saliva down when the realization struck me.

There was only one animal, one beast or one monster that would have its heart extracted and put on this kind of display by a group of dragon hunters. And similarly, there were only a few beings in the entire wide world whose hearts could continue to beat even when extracted from the rest of their bodies.

'A dragon's heart,' I thought, squinting my eyes while scanning the area for an unusual movement of the mana.

"Why didn't you help your kin, though, I wonder," the man then said again, forcing me to recall his stupid claim.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. And with just that, I could confirm that no nearby mana behaved in a way I didn't expect or couldn't explain.

And as I slowly opened my eyes, I finally came to a decision as to how I wanted to influence the current stalemate.

"If you want to talk," I said, leaning my head over my shoulder before gracing the man with a simple, sympathetic smile, "I should get rid of those nuisances first, don't you think?"

There were a total of seven people attacking me. One support, two ranged, and four melee fighters.

And it just so happened, that after the constant training that I never dared to stop, the number of my wardens was just slightly above double that number.

'Wardens,' I thought, bringing forth fourteen of them at once, before aiming two of them at each of the aggressors.

"Attack," I muttered while sending my right hand forward.

Sadly, I had no fancy tool in my hand to make this move any more dramatic. But at the same time, I didn't have any need for it.

In an instant, a nearly endless line of mana bolts shot out from the wardens floating within the bound of my mana tower, directing two streams of constant attacks at each of my attackers.

Tsssss….

The sound of the condensed mana striking the target only to evaporate it right away quickly reached my ears when a total of three enemies fell to the ground while missing either a limb or a huge chunk of their bodies.

'That's a drag,' I thought, turning my eyes towards two melee users and the one ranged attacker whose wits were tuned in nicely enough to allow them to jump back and escape the attack.

'It would be easy to make the line of fire follow them… but wouldn't it be too anticlimactic?' I thought, allowing a small smirk on my lips right when I added this simple instruction to the fray.

A second volley of mana bolts then shot out from within my mage's tower. This time, however, rather than being aimed at a fixed spot, the wardens actively sought their designated opponents while modifying their firing solution to account for their possible moves.

In the next four seconds, two more people died, leaving only the supporting dragon hunter and the ranger attacker for me to have fun with.

"Damn it," I muttered as sorrow filled my soul. "It truly is lonely to stand at the top of the world," I said in a regretful tone while raising my eyes to the skies.

And then, with a single wave of my hand, I sent two modified formation stones in the direction of the only two surviving members of the dragon hunting squad.

"STOP IT!" the leader of the dragon hunters screamed from the bottom of his lungs after taking his sweet time to digest what was happening.

For nearly an hour straight, I allowed the other party to do their best to break my first barrier.

And now, in a matter of mere seconds, I killed off five out of a total of seven of the man's group.

Yet, right as the leader's shout sounded out in the air, my formation pebbles reached the areas near their targets.

And this time, rather than simply unleashing a storm of condensed mana…

Those formation stones dissolved, unleashing a spacetime fracture right where my opponents stood!

"Through the bond of the dragon blood…!" the leader of the dragon hunters shouted, grabbing his fancy staff in two hands before raising it high up to the skies. "I command thee, kneel!"