Merlin was certain of one thing. If the war dragged out, the village of Blatt would be at a disadvantage. To prevent such a thing from happening, he gave himself a time limit.

  Ten minutes. In ten minutes, Chief Rivale must be dead.

  Merlin soared through the air, and it took a lot of effort from those below not to turn their attention from the warrior right in front of them to the sky.

  Chief Rivale didn’t have such a worry, though. He narrowed his eyes at Merlin as he crossed the battlefield in a couple of seconds, landing just before the Raubtier.

  Fury settled in Chief Rivale’s gaze, and disgust.

  [Otherworlder], he hissed in disdain.

  Merlin surveyed the scenery surrounding Chief Rivale. There were lots of things he had to take into consideration if he was to defeat the Drachen Chief. One was the Raubtier. From what the warriors had said about the beast, it was a creature of legend. If Merlin’s memory of fictions and studies served him right, creatures of legends couldn’t be tamed so easily, and without notice from the nearby villages. If dinosaurs still existed, that would’ve been the most direct of comparisons. Beasts like that couldn’t be tamed so easily, if at all.

  But Merlin had an idea of something that could do that with ease. Magic.

  During the peace talk the past night, he had not seen a priest with Chief Rivale. He had thought it was weird, but didn't say anything about it. But the warriors of Stein possessing enchanted weapons was proof that the village had a priest. And he believed that the priest was on the battlefield at this moment.

  He would find him, and he would eliminate him.

  The Raubtier snorted, hail of sand escaping its nostrils. Chief Rivale’s face wrinkled from above. He gestured at the two warriors that had stayed behind to guard him, despite the humongous monster he was riding, and commanded, [Kill him]!

  The warriors moved. But Merlin didn’t have the luxury of time to engage them in the way they might have wanted. The battle behind him had raged on; screams, weapons snapping, and the booms of magic. It was his duty to make sure they came out victorious. And there was no better way to turn a way in one’s favor than killing the opposition’s leader. Even the System knew that.

  Merlin channeled his mana to his fingertips. It came out in a burst, and coiled around his arms, a considerable length dangling like the ends of ropes.

  Chief Rivale frowned at the sight, obviously analyzing how different Merlin’s ‘magic’ was in comparison to the rest of the Otherworlders behind him.

  But Merlin didn’t spare the dragonman much of his thoughts. Not yet. The warriors spears had flames burst forth from their tips, and with something of a humane screech, they charged forward.

  Merlin flung [Mana Whip] at them. It wrapped around their spears, and he snatched it from their grips. They froze, dazed. A mistake. Merlin caught the spears, threw a leg forward. His muscles bulged as he tightened his grip on the spears. Flaming, he launched them forward. The air wriggled as they shot forward, the sand beneath their path of flight splitting apart like divided seas. Before the warriors could regain their senses, the spears drove into their chests. Black blood splurted into the sky, and screams followed.

  One fell. One stood. Merlin didn’t wait.

  He activated [Flash Step] and covered the distance between him and the standing warrior in a split second. [Mana Whip] vanished, and instead his right fist was wrapped in a glow reminiscent of a blue flame. He angled his left foot, put all his weight into his elbow, and launched a hook into the Drachen’s face.

  The warrior tumbled, and plummeted face first into the sand. His neck snapped, and his life was snuffed out.

  Merlin straightened. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Ever since he’d walked into this Tower, he had been confused whether to classify the Drachens as monsters or not. They were sentient beings. They could speak, and lived socially and as a family. If they looked like humans, they would have been classified as humans.

  Despite it being a simulation, he should feel a tinge in his chest as he took lives. But he felt nothing. And that was because he classified the Drachens of the village of Stein as monsters. He had no empathy to spare for them.

  Merlin looked up at Chief Rivale, specifically his necklace of bones, his brows anchored in a steep slope.

  Chief Rivale gritted his teeth.

  [Otherworlders have no place in a war between Drachens!] Chief Rivale roared, annoyance bleeding into his voice. He then leaned over and rubbed his palm on the Raubtier and ordered, pointing at Merlin, [Kill him!!]

  The Raubtier roared, a deafening, grating cacophony that sounded like saw through wood. Its beady eyes glowed red, and then they set on Merlin.

  Merlin stiffened slightly, swallowing dryly.

  He had no idea what the monster was capable of, and was uncertain how it would attack. So he let his gaze linger on it as best as he could, taking note of every angle of its body so that he was not caught by surprise.

  However, its body was too huge, and he missed it taking its first move.

  The Raubtier slammed a foot. The ground rumbled, and Merlin shook where he stood. By the time he managed to compose himself, he looked up to see the equivalent of a sandstorm rushing at him from the Raubtier’s mouth.

  Merlin gritted his teeth, angled his body, and activated [Mana Spring]. But it was too fast, and he was too late to notice it. He would be caught in the attack.

  A flash of blue only Merlin could see flew past at that moment, and settled in the air before him. Blue screeched sharply, creating a shockwave that intercepted the Raubtier’s attack.

  The sandstorm halted in the air briefly. But that was enough for Merlin to escape.

  [Mana Spring] completed. He grabbed Blue by his tail, and flashed out of view just before the sandstorm hit.

  The ground rumbled from the attack, and the war happening behind him wasn't left unbothered. Their screams made that known.

  Merlin couldn’t turn around to see how well the battle was panning out, however. He couldn’t make the mistake of taking his eyes off the Raubtier again. But he had to find the dragonpriest of the village of Stein.

  One thing he had learnt from spending time with Zauberer was that dragonpriests needed to be close to whatever they were casting an enchantment on.

  It was all speculation, but, unlike spears, the Raubtier was a living beast. Something like that should be able to break out of an enchantment if it wasn’t kept going at all times. In other words, the dragonpriest of the village of Stein was definitely not hiding back at their village.

  But finding the dragonpriest while engaging the Raubtier was too much work. And, in that regard.

  “Blue,” Merlin started in the small window he had. “I want you to keep the Raubtier occupied. Don’t fight it head on. You can’t win the way you are now. I’m going to find the dragonpriest that might be casting an enchantment on it, and take him out. Understand?”

  Blue purred, being a lot more simple to deal with at this moment. He knew how dire the situation was, so he was not behaving stubborn like he usually did, and Merlin was grateful for that.

  The dragon flapped its wings and zoomed off in the Raubtier’s direction as soon as it began to rear its head once again. Merlin took a few steps backward and activated [Mana Spring].

  Of course he had a contingency plan in the case that his notion on the Raubtier being controlled was wrong, which was basically to team up with Blue and take on the Raubtier together, but he hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. As long as the Raubtier set its eyes on a singular enemy, it would be a pain to deal with.

  [Mana Spring] coiled around his feet, and blew Merlin very high into the air. The Raubtier would have followed his movement, but Blue was doing well being a pest, spitting out flakes of ice, confusing the monster to the point of madness. The dragon couldn’t be seen, and Merlin could only imagine how annoying that would be.

  Merlin spun around in the air, Chief Rivale’s gaze following him, and let his eyes peruse the scenery as quickly as he could.

  The sight of the battlefield some ways away came into view quickly, and the outcome of the ongoing war was quite brutal. Several Drachens were on the floor, bleeding, hanging on to dear life. Some had lost their arms, or their legs, or both. And some were dead. His mates still had breath in their longs, but they looked exhausted, and so did their magic. It was only a matter of time before they were no longer safe.

  And that was why he had to hurry up.

  Merlin stretched out his hand, activating Reader Mage just so that it only kicked into action, as he probed the area around the Raubtier. And, just like he had predicted, hiding in the shadow of the monster was a figure in black robe, inconspicuous and unfocused on him.

  Merlin smiled.

  He focused his attention on the dragonpriest and let Reader Mage loose.