Chapter 107: The Dragon’s Fall
Each crystal Silas burned stabilised his descent for a brief moment before another burst of Mana and Wind propelled him toward the cliff wall.
Eventually, he reached the side of the abyss.
His foot struck solid rock, only to slip from the sheer speed of his fall. He scraped against the cliff before being thrown back into the open air.
The first attempt was a failure. Yet, Silas remained calm. He burned another crystal. Then another.
After several failed attempts and more than a few heart-stopping moments, his foot finally found a stable footing. Once he established a rhythm, everything became much easier.
He rebounded from one section of the cliff to another in a precise zigzag, descending deeper into the abyss while clinging to its walls through a series of controlled leaps.
It was an incredibly dangerous manoeuvre. For some reason, though, it was also strangely exhilarating.
Once he grew confident in the pattern, he shifted his attention downward.
Far below, the humanoid dragon was still plummeting like a cannonball, roaring in fury while hurling curses and threats into the endless darkness.
"Even while falling into an abyss like this from such a terrifying height, you’re still acting like a bully."
Silas shook his head, a wide smile slowly spreading across his face.
’Go ahead.’
’Roar. Curse. Threaten all you want.’
’By the time this fall ends... your blood will belong to me.’
The mine abyss stretched hundreds of meters below before ending in a shimmering expanse.
From high above, it resembled a carpet woven from the night sky, an endless sheet of darkness scattered with countless stars glowing in different colours. Yet the closer Silas drew, the wider the glittering field became, and the tiny specks of light slowly revealed themselves as enormous crystal formations.
He had no idea how deep the abyss truly was or how close he was to the bottom.
The moment he judged the distance to be manageable, he changed the rhythm of his descent. Instead of propelling himself straight downward, he began kicking against the walls at an angle, redirecting part of his momentum sideways to bleed away as much of his falling speed as possible.
The strain on his legs became unbearable despite the constant flow of Mana and repeated bursts of Wind Element. He had long since lost count of how many Mana Crystals he had burnt. One hand never left the backpack, dusting crystal after crystal inside without bothering to take them out.
There wasn’t enough time for that.
One mistake, one delayed movement, and the fragile balance he had painstakingly maintained would collapse, turning the entire plan into a fatal miscalculation.
Little by little, his efforts paid off. His speed decreased, if only slightly.
The dragon, however, had no such luxury.
When Silas had tested this part of the plan inside his Time Mind World, one concern had haunted his mind since then. What if the dragon transformed? What if it unfolded its wings, recovered midair, or simply flew away before reaching the bottom? What if it attacked him midfall?
That possibility had always seemed like the greatest flaw in his plan.
Yet no matter how many times he replayed the scenario, the dragon’s shadow never transformed. It remained in its humanoid form until the very end.
Reality unfolded exactly the same.
The dragon never changed forms, not even as the ground rushed toward it with terrifying speed.
BOOM!
The impact sounded nothing like anyone would expect after such a devastating fall. There was no earth-shattering explosion, no violent tremor racing through the mine, nor any roar of pain from the dragon.
Instead, the ground gave way.
The instant the dragon crashed into the shimmering surface, it resembled a frozen lake breaking beneath an overwhelming weight. The thin rocky crust shattered into countless fragments, revealing a massive tunnel hidden beneath.
The dragon plunged straight through it.
The tunnel was enormous, wide enough to accommodate the dragon even in its true form. Rather than descending vertically, it sloped sharply downward, one side polished smooth while the others bristled with countless jagged crystal spikes.
Unable to stop its momentum, the dragon tumbled through the passage, smashing violently against the razor-sharp crystals lining its walls.
Its body had already been covered in wounds before the fall. Now those injuries multiplied.
Each collision tore open deeper gashes across its flesh, while new crystal spikes ripped through its scales one after another. With its momentum carrying it relentlessly downward, the dragon had neither the chance to regain control nor the space to avoid the deadly obstacles waiting ahead.
For Silas, however, the situation was entirely different.
Part of the reason Silas slowed his descent was to buy enough time for the dragon to crash first and tear open the tunnel. Once it did, he merely adjusted his trajectory and dived straight into the opening.
Unlike the dragon, which had been caught completely off guard and couldn’t recover its balance, Silas knew exactly where he wanted to land. He aimed for the smooth side of the tunnel, extended both arms to his torso, stretched his body into the shape of an arrow, and let gravity carry him downward while gliding with as little resistance as possible.
Had the tunnel descended vertically or at a steeper angle, his speed would have continued to increase. Instead, it sloped gently downward, gradually bleeding away his momentum until he finally reached the bottom.
BOOM!
ROAR!
The dragon landed first.
It struck the ground like a cannonball, smashing into the solid stone with enough force to shake the entire tunnel and the surrounding mountain. At the same time, the dragon could no longer suppress the agony it had endured ever since Silas pushed it into the abyss.
A heart-rending roar echoed through the cavern as it rolled across the ground, its body twitching violently while it screamed in unbearable pain. The fall had been far worse than anything it had anticipated.
"Ouch..."
Then Silas landed.
Even after doing everything possible to slow himself, the impact still felt brutal. Pain shot through his body, and he nearly collapsed as he struggled back to his feet, convinced he had fractured something in his right leg. Yet this was no time to dwell on injuries.
He had survived the fall and brought the dragon exactly where he wanted it.
Now came the most dangerous moment of his life.
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