Chapter 441: Dragon Spirit!
'This feeling… So Stella still has a trump card capable of turning the battle around.'
The warning from deep within made Luke frown, but his offensive showed no sign of slowing.
The situation was obviously overwhelmingly in his favor.
Still, Luke remembered the colossal, almost physical dragon silhouette that had appeared behind Stella during the first round.
Summoning a dragon?
That was certainly possible, but Luke felt there had to be something more.
The difference in their technique was enormous.
Before long, Stella's accumulating injuries would inevitably begin affecting her movements.
Once that happened, she would expose a fatal opening—
Wait.
Accumulating injuries?
"Pfft."
Just as Luke realized something, Stella suddenly laughed.
Facing Luke's swift and razor-sharp attacks, she not only stopped counterattacking—
She even stopped defending.
Stella simply looked at Luke and spread her hands innocently.
Her golden two-handed greatsword had been stabbed into the ground beside her.
Completely defenseless!
A gentle smile covered Stella's face, practically inviting him to attack however he pleased.
Yet faced with such an incredible opening, Luke stopped.
"Tch. So that's how it is."
"What's wrong, Luke? Why aren't you attacking?"
"I'm completely defenseless, you know~"
Seeing Luke halt his offensive, Stella's smile became even more smug.
Her voice carried an almost seductive quality, enough that Luke briefly found her strangely alluring.
Luke remained unmoved.
He merely released a rare, troubled sigh.
"Defenseless? You've really got some nerve saying that…"
"This is shameless enough that I'm wondering whether I can report you to the referee for cheating."
After seeing Stella behave like this, Luke finally understood everything.
Unfortunately, understanding the trick only made him more helpless.
There really was no convenient way to deal with it.
"Well, even I admit it feels a little unfair, but technically it's still within the rules of the Seven Star Sword Art Festival."
Stella proudly lifted her chin before speaking in a regretful tone.
"I guess waiting for you to make a mistake really wasn't realistic."
"What a shame. I genuinely thought this plan might work…"
"You're way too cautious."
"Whatever. There's no point maintaining this state now that you've figured it out."
"So I guess…"
As Stella continued complaining—
Slowly, the entire world distorted.
With Stella at the center, the surrounding temperature began rising at an astonishing speed.
Only scattered sparks emerged from her body.
Yet in everyone's eyes, the entire world itself seemed to twist beneath the incomparable heat.
The sky burned.
The earth boiled.
In moments, the arena transformed into a crimson hell.
At the same time, a sound began echoing between heaven and earth.
Thump—!
Thump—!
Thump—!
A heartbeat!
A colossal heartbeat powerful enough to shake the entire ground!
No one could possibly believe such a sound belonged to a human.
Then, alongside those booming heartbeats, Stella's body began to glow.
Endless light and heat gathered within her body before converging at her chest.
A brilliant crack appeared there, almost as though the light itself were leaking out from within.
At the same time, the dozen-plus sword wounds Luke had inflicted instantly healed.
Not even half a second passed before every injury vanished as though it had evaporated.
If not for the damaged clothing revealing small patches of smooth skin beneath, no one would believe Stella had been covered in wounds only a moment earlier.
"ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAR—!!!"
Stella threw back her head and roared!
The sound emerging from her mouth was no longer the voice of a young woman.
It was the earth-shaking roar of a dragon!
"W-What the hell is that?!"
Announcer Iida's terrified cry immediately rang out.
But no one paid attention to him.
Everyone else was equally shocked.
The figure before them was still a girl—
No.
Calling her a girl no longer felt appropriate.
Her small foot stepped onto the ground, yet what appeared beneath it was the enormous footprint of a dragon's claw.
Her appearance remained that of a beautiful young woman.
Yet to everyone watching, she now felt as terrifying as an actual dragon.
Had she summoned a dragon?
No!
Stella had used her own body as a vessel and manifested the mythical monster known as a dragon within herself.
Her appearance had not changed.
But this body no longer belonged to a human.
Every form of violence associated with the concept of "dragon" had been gathered together to create the current Stella.
This was her true power.
The true application of Stella Vermillion's conceptual interference ability—Dragon!
Noble Art: Dragon Spirit!
"It's about time we ended the warm-up, don't you think?"
Stella's transformation had not taken long.
It lasted only an instant.
For Luke, however, that instant was more than enough time to swing his sword.
Yet he had not attacked.
It had nothing to do with chivalry or giving a friend time to transform.
Luke did not move because—There was no point.
That was right.
His attacks had already lost their ability to truly threaten the current Stella.
Of course, that did not mean Luke was incapable of injuring her.
But for a dragon, ordinary wounds could heal completely in an instant.
Her regenerative ability was terrifying enough to far surpass even Luke's body enhanced by Falna.
Elemental attacks were ineffective.
All physical damage was reduced.
Even if she was injured, her body would recover instantly.
Even piercing her heart would not kill her.
She possessed nearly endless stamina and endurance.
And in Stella's case, even her mana could practically be described as limitless.
With Luke's current methods, defeating a mythical monster like this would be extremely difficult.
After all, no matter how strong Luke had become, he was currently only a world-class powerhouse within the limits of humanity.
Through countless inhuman techniques and enhancements, he could display extraordinary combat power.
But he had not truly transcended into something beyond human.
So did that mean Luke was guaranteed to lose?
Not necessarily.
Luke had encountered monsters as unreasonable as the current Stella before.
In the Dungeon, he had killed more than one.
There was actually a very simple method for defeating monsters like this.
Kill them in one strike!
In the Dungeon, that meant destroying the magic stone instantly.
Against an ordinary monster, it meant severing its head in a single slash.
However…
Even Luke could not bring himself to cut Stella's head off.
She was a friend he had spent nearly an entire year with.
And this was only a tournament, not a genuine life-or-death battle.
No matter how ruthless Luke could be, he could not bring himself to do that.
But aside from such a lethal method…
For the moment, Luke genuinely could not think of any way to inflict meaningful damage on the dragon standing before him.
…
…
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