Secrets of the Body
Correction to chapter 15: The woman from the stall had had a three claw mark and another claw mark that cut through them diagonally.
As they walked towards the examiner's office, Ha-Jin was lost in his thoughts.
Just who was Ji-Yeong all this while? Was he a premature dragon? No… that couldn't be. From what Ha-Jin had heard, even a premature Supreme Dragon could rival the strongest of Drakrath.
Ha-Jin was jolted out of his thoughts by the creaking of two large metal doors as they opened, revealing several doctors standing around a table studying a humanoid body.
Ha-Jin recognised the mangled body to be the dragon's body they had seen on the projector.
The doctors turned back and their eyes widened in surprise as they quickly bowed down to the Emperor and Ha-Jin.
"Good evening!" They greeted simultaneously as Ha-Jin scratched the back of his head before nodding curtly along with the Emperor.
The Emperor still held his stoic expression as he walked towards the humanoid body as the doctors moved aside for the Emperor.
The old man stared at it with a hateful gaze. He was snapped out of whatever he was thinking about as an older distinguished looking doctor with brown hair, streaked with white walked out of his office, spreading his arms as he walked towards the Emperor.
"Emperor Charles! How are you? It has been so long I was starting to forget your voice." The doctor cried out as Ha-Jin made a mental note of the Emperor's name, Charles.
"Ah, indeed! It has been so long, too long in fact! I have been quite nice indeed, what about you, Henry?" The Emperor chuckled, embracing the doctor—Henry.
"I have been doing fine as well—well, I was until this anomaly came up." Henry said, his playful expression turning into dead serious as he glanced back at the dragon's body behind them.
"Well, enough of the gloom! What brings you here, Emperor Charles?" The doctor laughed, snapping the room out of its seriousness.
The secretary came forth, explaining the plan to Henry before stepping back.
After Henry listened to the plan, his face contorted into pure confusion. "Well that is just plain stupi—"
"It was the Commander's plan." The secretary cut in.
"O-Oh! I suppose we could give it a try then!" Henry said, clearing his throat which made Ha-Jin's cheeks tinge a light pink out of embarrassment as he realised just how instinctual and stupid his plan really was.
Henry stepped aside and gestured for Ha-Jin to proceed with his plan.
Ha-Jin snapped himself out of his embarrassment and stepped forward to stand beside the body. He extended his hand to rest it on the scaly draconic body—which still felt gross even after cleaning and released mana into it through the mana veins in his palm.
The mark on the dragon's chest flared as the dragon's eyes suddenly snapped open, a hand shooting forward to grab and pierce Ha-Jin's throat with its claws.
Though, the dragon missed by an inch as Ha-Jin whipped his head to the opposite direction. Though, the dragon did not miss completely as blood splurted out of a small cut on Ha-Jin's throat as he put a hand over it.
The dragon did not pay heed to its mangled arms and body and continued to slash and stab at Ha-Jin, almost like a wild animal hunting on instinct.
As Ha-Jin dodged another slash from the dragon, a thick, almost palpable murderous intent filled the room, freezing the dragon and Ha-Jin dead in their tracks. The intent was only released when the Emperor's hand shot upwards to tell the Great Families to cease their intent.
"But, Empero-" Stark Ironwood cried out but was quickly interrupted by a sharp glare from the Emperor. He scoffed and looked away as Ha-Jin continued to dodge attacks from the dragon.
A vein popped up at Ha-Jin's forehead as he finally had enough of dodging. His fist swung at the dragon's side.
[You have successfully used Liver Shot!]
The notification appeared in front of Ha-Jin for a split second before he dismissed it. He followed up with a stomping motion with the ball of his foot, aimed diagonally at the dragon's knee. A crack resounded through the room as the dragon's left leg turned at an impossible angle.
The dragon fell onto the ground where Ha-Jin clamped his hands over the dragon's ears and kicked him in the face with his knee. The dragon's nose cracked and broke as blood poured from its nose, trickling down its chin.
The dragon collapsed onto the floor. Ha-Jin had won. He turned around and shot a mocking grin at the Great Families who scoffed at his smugness.
Though, the entire room was surprised as blood droplets flew into the air as Ha-Jin stumbled forward, grunting in pain.
"What in the actual fu-" Ha-Jin grunted, quickly interrupted by having to duck to dodge another slash from the now healed dragon.
Ha-Jin tackled the dragon, grabbing the inside of his thigh, bringing it down to the ground, sitting down on top of the dragon's stomach.
Mana coursed through his arms as the flame mana particles in the air coalesced together to form a large flame around his fist as he started pummeling the dragon, the flames badly burning its face as it struggled against Ha-Jin, clawing at his body like a wild animal. The ripping of fabric and the echoing cracks from each punch sounded in the air as the dragon and Ha-Jin kept regenerating the wounds from each other's attacks.
Though, the struggle did not last long as the dragon managed to grab one of Ha-Jin's fists, surprising Ha-Jin as its claws tore into the flesh of his stomach, blood pouring from the wound as he rushed away from the dragon.
This was enough to trigger the Great Families. Stark and the representative of the Silverthorne family vanished from their place behind the Emperor and before the dragon. Stark turned the dragon's head 720 degrees, killing the dragon on the spot as Silverthorne cut the dragon's body from the stomach, only bits of skin holding its body together as blood poured from its body until there was nothing left to spill. The dragon's wounds quickly froze however from what seemed like Silverthorne's ability.
Though, Ha-Jin realised he had no time to ponder about this as blood spilled from his mouth, trickling down his chin as the wound started to slowly close from his regeneration ability. A searing pain shot through his body as he further concentrated mana on the wound for it to heal quicker as Henry rushed towards him.
He was immediately sat on one of the beds, his shirt already ripped apart by the dragon, only bits of the fabric hanging from where he had tucked it in.
The last thing Ha-Jin saw before his mind was engulfed in the all too familiar darkness from unconsciousness was Henry's worrying expression as he checked the gaping wound.
When Ha-Jin woke up, he was resting on a cleaner bed, the bed beside him drenched in blood. He tore his gaze away from the blood drenched bed to Henry who was sitting on one of the chairs, his hand tightly gripping his forehead as he seemed to be deep in thought.
The sound of the rustling bed sheets snapped the older man out of his thoughts as he quit staring at the ground and glanced at Ha-Jin. "Oh! You have finally awakened, Commander!" Henry cried out, joy returning to his face as he looked at Ha-Jin.
"Call me Ha-Jin, you are older than me after all." Ha-Jin replied, putting up the most polite manner he could muster. "What happened to the dragon? Please give me a detailed explanation of what happened with the dragon, if you may." Ha-Jin said, his tone and way of speaking all weird as his pride warred with him for talking to a noble doctor.
"You don't have to speak so formally to me, Ha-Jin." Henry said, his expression turning into a more serious one as he continued. "I know you are from the Junkyard. Though, the Great Families do not except Mr. Silverthorne."
"How come?" Ha-Jin asked, his expression remaining neutral. He had expected this for the man before him was a close friend of the Emperor after all.
"You have already seen the power of Stark, if he decided to kill you, you would be dead before the initiation." Henry said, standing up from his chair before swiping a bottle of alcohol off of the table beside him. He took a swig of alcohol before speaking again. "You kill the Chois, one of the Great families, really stupid of you if I must say but what could we do about it now after so long."
'Tch, this asshole's started being completely informal with me just because I told him to call me by my name.' Ha-Jin thought, resisting the urge to let out a scoff.
"Anyway, getting back on topic." Henry began once again, taking another swig of alcohol as he spoke. "The dragon was a surprising specimen."
"He had a one claw mark, he was at the bottom of the dragons but he still had regeneration. The dragons we saw last did not have regeneration below the three markers. This could only mean one thing." He paused for a brief moment, sitting back down and slamming the bottle on the table beside him, his cheeks tinged a light pink.
"The dragons are evolving!" He cried out, worry once again etched onto his face.
Ha-Jin's eyes widened as he opened his mouth to speak but no words formed. The dragons were evolving? They were stronger than the world devastating creatures they were before?
"I also noticed another thing while you were fighting that 'thing'" Henry began, looking down at the ground solemnly. "The dragon didn't have a mana signature all the while you both fought."
"That means…"
"Yes, the dragon was dead all the while you both fought!" Henry finished Ha-Jin's sentence. "That also means, the dragon wasn't using mana or whatever the hell they use to fight. And he was only going on instinct." He added before pausing.
"The dragon was fighting at about 30% the entire fight." Henry finished, his grip on the alcohol bottle tightening as he started gulping down the liquid tensely.
"And I lost…" Ha-Jin said, staring at the blankets in disbelief at his defeat.
"At this rate, I question if humanity could really win in a war against the dragons." Henry sighed, his cheeks flushed a deep pink now as he put the bottle back on the table.
"Anyway, I have a question." Ha-Jin said, jogging himself out of the gloomy mood.
"What is it?" Henry asked, curious to see what the Commander would have to ask him.
"What are runes?" Ha-Jin asked, in response to which Henry's eyes widened and he burst into a fit of laughter.
Ha-Jin cocked a brow. "What is it?" He asked, staring at Henry as if he were the lunatic in the room.
"You seriously don't know what runes are after nearly 18 years of living here?" Henry said, wiping a tear with his finger before getting up from the chair once again and walking to the door. "Well, too bad. It's too much to explain. Just ask Charles to sign you up for the Royal classes in the Palace." He added before leaving the room to get another bottle of alcohol.
"Stupid drunkard." Ha-Jin grumbled before collapsing back onto the bed and materialising Moonshadow—the name he had given to the black bladed sword—into his hand studying the runes on it closely. Just what exactly could these runes mean?
The Crescent Moon mark flared to life, an almost familiar warmth spreading through his arm as the runes on the sword flaring to life simultaneously as Ha-Jin felt the sword sharpen and get lighter in his hands.
Ha-Jin could have come to a conclusion that they were just marks of mana that made something or someone stronger but he had seen them be used for multiple purposes.
Just what exactly were these runes and what did they mean?