It was like another wall had been placed on top of the barrier.
People all around Puzzle City could see the half-transparent red wall.

“Those children-”

Queen Litana gasped internally after recognizing On and Hong.

“Grrrrrr-!”

However, she heard Ten, her friend, no, this black panther was pretty much her family, growl. It was a sudden action from Ten, who had quietly been by her side as if to guard her.

‘When Ten growls like this……’

Ten had senses that were much more sensitive than human senses.
Ten only growled like this for one reason.

‘It must be dangerous!’

Ten had not growled like this for any of the Lion Dragon’s actions until now.
She quickly turned toward the Lion Dragon and noticed something odd.

“Whirlwinds?”

There were some odd fluctuations in the Lion Dragon’s eyes that were now black. They looked like whirlwinds that seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.

“…Young master Cale.”

She then made eye contact with Cale Henituse who was looking at her. Cale shook his head side to side before pointing down. It wasn’t enough for Litana to figure out a lot of things but her mind jolted awake after hearing a Dragon shout.

“Everybody duck!”

Litana shouted right after the Grey Dragon.

“Everybody duck!”

She then heard a weird noise.

Wiiiiiiiiiiing—
She felt that a sharp line cutting through the air would make a noise like this.
She soon discovered the identity of this noise.

“…Oh no!”

The monster’s black eyes… She saw something shooting out of there.
The black light that shot out in a straight line was so fast that it was right in front of the barrier before she could even comprehend that it was released.

Baaaaaaaaaang—!

And, as it had been over and over, the rock shield was there to stop the black line.
However, the people below were not covered by darkness like before. The shield was floating in the air blocking the black line before it could reach the barrier.

‘This is different from before!’

Litana, who had not been able to duck like her black panther Ten, saw something different from before and subconsciously clenched her hands.

“What is that?!”

Crown prince Valentino shouted without thinking while trying to stop his hands from shaking.

The black line that shot straight out….
That line was destroying the rocks too easily.
The red power used before that was similar to a Dragon’s Breath was the type that was released one attack at a time. However, this black light was shooting out continuously without stopping.

“…It looks like dead mana.”
“Ah.”

Valentino realized why his hand was shaking and why he was feeling scared about this black line after hearing Clopeh Sekka’s calm voice.

“It is okay. There is no need to fear.”

Clopeh Sekka was standing tall while observing everything that was happening.
A reverent voice flowed out of his mouth.

“I have faith.”

He was showing the elegant holiness of a Guardian Knight in full display.

“In my hero, the future legend.

Kekeke.”
Clopeh Sekka quietly cackled after that but it was not loud enough to be heard.

“The shield is attacking!”

Behind the Lion Dragon… Another group of rocks had gathered together to attack the monster’s back.
However, the Lion Dragon quickly turned around and used its white shield to stop the rocks.

Boom-!
“Not bad.”

The corners of Cale’s lips twisted up. He addressed On and Hong, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“Now.”

On and Hong could see the beads of sweat on Cale’s forehead. They looked away from Cale and looked at each other for a moment before nodding their heads.

The red fog wall started moving.
With the Lion Dragon having turned around… On and Hong could see the Lion Dragon’s ripped wings and its damaged back.
On and Hong recalled something Ron had told them.

‘You must not miss an opening when you see it. That is one of the basics of gathering important information.’

The two Cats were not looking for information right now but they could tell that this was the most important moment they had ever faced.

“Distract it!”
“I got it! Just attack its legs!”

Eruhaben, Rasheel, and Mila… The three Dragons seemed to have noticed what On and Hong were trying to do as they were distracting the Lion Dragon so that it would not turn back around.

Bang, baaaaang! Bang!
Cale’s rock shield was still blocking the black light as all of this happened. The crumbling shield gave the Dragons small openings to slam into the monster’s body or use physical attacks to keep its attention on them.

It was fierce.
Even though it was for less than a minute…
Parts of Puzzle City other then the area around the barrier were destroyed and crumbling. The rock shield sometimes didn’t manage to block all of the black light and it landed on some buildings.

Pssssssssss-
The buildings just turned to black dust and scattered into the air without any explosion.
People watching this finally realized that the rocks that were breaking right now were turning into black dust and disappearing unlike the dust covering their heads and shoulders from before.

“…There’s less than 10 minutes left!”

The Lion Dragon would soon get past this phase.
It was just ten minutes.
But they could feel that the next ten minutes would be more difficult than anything they had ever faced.
At that moment…

“Meeeeeeeeeeow!”

They heard a Cat meow.
The red fog reached the Lion Dragon’s back.
The red fog started from where the exploded wing was bleeding before it covered the Lion Dragon’s back and then its entire body.

The monster did not pay any attention to the fog.
It kept its focus on the rock shield that kept blocking its attacks and the three Dragons.
However, the red fog slowly gobbled up everything, moving to the Lion Dragon’s head and its feet.
It was moving meticulously so that the poisonous fog would not touch their allies. The poisonous fog was creating an extremely thin layer around the Lion Dragon’s body.

“Attack carefully!”

The three Dragons stopped slamming into the Lion Dragon with their bodies and moved away while distracting the monster after seeing the red fog covering its body.

Drip.
On had beads of sweat on her forehead like Cale.
Hong had his body right next to his sister as he observed the red fog. Hong was slowly starting to sweat as well.
The two of them heard a calm voice at that moment.

“There is no need to overdo it or do it while experiencing pain. Just give it some effort and then stop.”

On and Hong didn’t even look toward the speaker.
It was obviously Cale’s voice. They could also tell something even without looking. The person who was saying this to them looked extremely terrible, probably the worst out of anybody here.
They also knew that Cale meant what he was saying.

That was why On and Hong would give it their best.
They were using their powers as best they could.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds… Time slowly ticked past before On and Hong smiled at the same time. Their smile looked almost identical to Cale’s smile while oddly having Ron’s fake benign smile mixed in with it.
Cale would probably have gasped in fear If he saw their smiles because it would have reminded him of Ron. Fortunately, Cale was unable to see their smiles because he was calculating the number of remaining rocks and dealing with the monster’s attack.
But he did hear the two Cats mumbling.

“It reached, nya.”
“It works, nya.”

Cale then smiled.

“Hmm?”

The ones who first noticed the change were the individuals closest to the Lion Dragon.

“Did this bastard get slower?”

Rasheel asked Eruhaben while pointing toward the Lion Dragon.
The ancient Dragon just ignored Rasheel and quietly observed the Lion Dragon.

Boom.
The monster took a step forward.
It was slow.
It was slower than before.

Eruhaben had sat the young Cat children and chatted with them in the past while teaching Raon.

‘The poisons I can use the most of are paralyzing poison and sleeping poison, sir! They are weaker poisons so I can use a lot, nya!’
‘I can use the fog without any limit but it is difficult to control it, sir. That is why I only use as much as I can easily control, nya.’

“Hoho.” Eruhaben quietly laugh.

“…My my, who do they take after to be so amazing?”

Eruhaben slowly started to smile.
He looked around. Everybody who was participating in the battle noticed the changes in the Lion Dragon.

Poison worked on the Lion Dragon.
The Lion Dragon was getting slower.
The paralyzing poison entered through the injury on the Lion Dragon’s back and was slowly spreading through its body.

This monster would stop moving in a little bit.

“Good job.”

On and Hong smiled after hearing Cale’s nonchalant voice. However, On responded in a tired voice.

“I think it will be difficult to make this monster stop moving completely, nya. It would also take too long. We also can’t keep this up for a few minutes, nya.”

There were about four minutes left now.
On, who was speaking in a calm and collected manner, knew that it would be difficult to maintain their red fog like this for the rest of that time.

“…That is a problem, nya.”
“That is not a problem.”

Cale shook his head after hearing On sound a bit upset.

“This is enough. You did a great job.”

His eyes sparkled.

“Making it so that the Lion Dragon cannot react properly… Making it so that its defending speed is slower… That is exactly what we needed.”

On and Hong saw Cale raise the golden top’s whip slightly at that moment.

Shaaaaaaaaaaa-
They felt a gust of wind.
The beads of sweat on On and Hong’s foreheads were washed away.

‘Cale, Cale! Gashan said that he will immediately head to the Bears! The Whales have started moving as well!’
‘Destruction, chaos, ruin! Beacrox informed Duchess Violan!’
‘That little Wolf kid has started moving too!’

He received information from the Wind Elementals.
Responses to most of Cale’s orders had come back except one.
The remaining order was, ‘The Molan household arriving around the houses that the Wind Elementals lead them to.’

‘The houses are not far from each other.’

In fact, the Wind Elementals said that the houses were pretty close to each other.
The assassins of the Molan household should be able to stealthily surround those houses in a few minutes.

‘The question is whether Ron can recognize the wind signals from the Wind Elementals without the top’s whip.’

However, Cale wasn’t that worried about it.
That extremely sensitive and vicious Ron was someone who could easily pick up on such changes.

‘Cale Henituse!’

The last piece of information finally arrived.

‘There are a total of seven places! They are a few meters away and have surrounded the houses!’

Ron really did notice it.
He noticed it in just a few minutes.
Cale opened his mouth to speak.

“On and Hong. You can get rid of your fog now.”

The Lion Dragon’s stage three had about three minutes left.
Cale raised his hand toward the sky.
Chhhhhhh-
A strand of water flowed out of Cale’s palm and shot up toward the orb of light that Alberu released into the sky.
The strand of water rose up into the sky like an arrow trying to pierce through the sky.
The people looking at the sky started shouting.

“It’s the young master-nim’s signal! Head to the Bear stronghold!”
“Deputy territory lord!”

Violan raised her hand after hearing the person who went to look outside urgently rushing in.

“Stop your action.”

The mages started stopping the mana disturbance tool.

“We will stop it for about one minute.”

Violan reminded them about the plan as she recalled someone who had been with her until just moments ago.

‘I will head out now.’

Rosalyn.
She said that there was somewhere she needed to hurry over to as soon as they heard what Cale was planning. Duchess Violan could immediately tell where she was headed.

‘It is probably to where the mana has remained gathered together.’

It was the place that they had plastered with magic circles to gather mana even before they planned to use the mana disturbance tool.
And the young Dragon that should be maintaining that space…

“It has stopped, madam!”

Ooooooong.
The mana disturbance tool stopped temporarily as a mage shouted.
Violan then started to think about someone.

“…Cale.”

The only thing left was Cale’s part in the plan.
Cale looked away from the strand of water and turned around.

“It’s our dongsaeng’s turn, nya!”
“As I expected.”

On and Hong excitedly looked back as well.

“Huh? The mana has stabilized!”
“Really?”

The mana that had been vibrating chaotically in the air because of the mana disturbance tool had calmed down.
As the mages, followed by the others, started to realize that the mana had stabilized…

“…That little punk sure is vicious.”

Dragon Rasheel had the chills as he subconsciously looked somewhere.
Eruhaben could not hide his smile as he looked in the same direction. Cale, On, and Hong were all looking there as well.

The window that Cale jumped out of not too long ago…
Mana was swirling widely through the open window.

“…They are my disciples.”

As Eruhaben watched the black mana and red mana mix together to grow in size…

“Raon-nim.”
“Thanks, Rosalyn! It’ll be an even bigger launch thanks to you!”

The large power of mana swirling around Rosalyn and Raon started to gobble up the mana in the atmosphere.
Crack. CRUMBLE-! The highest-grade magic stones around Rosalyn’s neck and in her hands broke. Ooooooooong. The room that was full of magic circles started to shake.

“Young master-nim.”

Someone walked underneath the barrier where On, Hong, and Cale were standing.
This person, who had been lost for a bit due to the unstable mana because she uses a power similar to it, regained her senses and walked over as the mana had stabilized.

“Mary.”
“I will hold it down.”

Thousands of black threads shot out of her robed body, crawled through the ground, climbed up the wall and floated past toward the Lion Dragon.
The monster that had been slowed down by the poisonous fog… Black threads started to bind its limbs.

The large black and red mana whirlwind was aiming for that monster as well.

There were less than a couple thousand rocks left floating in the night sky.
Cale looked at the remaining rocks in the sky before shooting another strand of water into the air.

“Take it down.”

It was time to take down the monster.

—

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