Chapter 1158 1158 - Tes

Noah didn't eat what was left of the Fog Demon immediately. His body was already at the peak of the lower tier, so he wanted to trigger the breakthrough only when he had enough nutrients to complete it.

The requirements in terms of energy for his body were unclear. After all, he had relied on the stuffed winged beast to push himself in the sixth rank.

Noah didn't believe the requirements would be as harsh as before, but he still wanted to prepare a few complete corpses for him to eat before taking a step in the middle tier.

Reaching the mountain chain on the other side of the old continent took him only a few days. Most of the central regions were under the alliance's control, so there were many teleportation matrices in the area.

The mountain chain didn't change either. Wolf-like and ape-like creatures filled its regions, but the fauna's average level was relatively low for someone who had experienced life in the new continent.

A few packs led by rank 5 specimens ruled over large areas, but they were nothing more than kings of ants compared to the mighty fauna of the new continent.

Noah didn't bother with the weaker beasts and went looking directly for a target that suited his needs. Anything under the sixth rank wasn't worth his time.

The search for a rank 6 magical beast took longer at that time. Noah almost believed that the mountain chain didn't have a specimen on that level at some point. Yet, he eventually found a strange-looking mountain that radiated an ancient aura.

The aura was faint, almost unnoticeable. Noah risked to miss it since he had inspected those regions from his spot high in the sky.

His instincts told him that something was there, but he couldn't quite understand the nature of the threat when it was in that state. The only thing he could do was to force a response to investigate further.

Noah launched a casual slash toward the mountain, but his black line didn't create any fissure in that rocky surface. The structure didn't even tremble after the impact.

'Is it an armor?' Noah thought before the answer appeared in his vision.

The mountain began to shake, and large boulders fell on the ground. An intense aura spread in the environment and made every pack of weaker beasts run in fear.

Roars echoed in the sky, and Noah could understand only part of those confused cries. The magical beasts announced that the king of the mountains had awakened, and it was ready to unleash its anger.

'Middle tier,' Noah evaluated when he sensed that aura. 'It's stronger than the Fog Demon. This thing is past the halfway mark of the tier.'

Some excitement built up inside Noah as the features of the beast became clear. A massive tail separated from the mountain and cracked on the ground. A pair of atrophied wings unfolded only for large boulders to fall from their surface.

A draconic roar spread in the area as a large reptilian head became visible among the falling rocks. Noah couldn't help but smile when a forty meters long dragon separated itself from the mountain and expressed its anger toward him.

'This species should be extinct,' Noah thought while he let the dragon recover from its long sleep.

That creature was a Mountain Dragon. It was different from other beasts of a similar kind since most of its tissues were hard rocks rather than flesh and bones.

That didn't allow Mountain Dragons to spit fire, but it gave them a superior defense, which was among the best in the magical beasts' world.

That species had an innate ability too. Mountain Dragons could release intense shockwaves by moving specific body parts, and they maximized those effects when they used their tail or wings.

However, the Mountain Dragon's wings that had appeared in front of Noah were relatively small compared to the rest of its body. That species didn't have large wings, but they were too small.

Noah guessed that the beast had entered a long period of hibernation. Its initial intention had probably been to limit its energy consumption while absorbing "Breath" from the mountain chain.

However, it was hard for magical beasts that didn't have an innate predisposition for long periods of hibernation to wake up. Many would enter it to wait for the arrival of new fauna and die in their sleep.

Mountain Dragons were also among the biggest dragon-type magical beasts, and their bodies were quite powerful even without their incredible defenses.

They had only two significant weaknesses. Their body healed slowly, and they often required an environment filled with rocks to replace certain destroyed parts. Also, they were quite slow compared to other flying creatures.

The dragon released a few long roars, but it didn't attack. It was more intelligent than the Fog Demon, and it could understand that Noah wasn't as simple as he looked.

Moreover, it felt something familiar in him. His scent made him appear as one of its kind, even if he had the shape of a human.

The dragon growled, and Noah's eyes lit up when he understood the meaning behind that cry. The creature had stated that the mountain chain was its hunting area.

Noah released a growl to reply to the dragon. There wasn't an exact way to translate his cries into human words. He had only told the creature that he had come to kill it.

The dragon roared in anger, and it slammed its massive legs on the mountain that had been its home for a long time. Cracks appeared on its surface and spread on the ground as it released part of its physical might.

Yet, its show of strength only made Noah more excited. His consciousness had already spread, and his aura gave birth to primary energy that amassed in the sky.

Black smoke started to come out of Noah's figure. The fuming armor formed in a few seconds, and a dark cloud engulfed the mountain peaks with its corrosive properties.

The dragon sensed the black smoke trying to consume its rocky skin and grew restless. It began to roar, but its cries carried a deep tone at that time, and intense shockwaves spread from them.

Part of the cloud shattered when the shockwaves expanded through the corrosive smoke, but Noah was busy focusing on something else.

Noah had stretched two of his claw-like fingers and had pointed them at the dragon's head while holding his wrist with his other hand. That gesture didn't appear to have any meaning, but a rune inside his mental sphere had reached the mental walls and was activating its effects.

The shockwaves continued to spread since the dragon never stopped roaring. Its tail also began to crack in Noah's direction, but the creature was too rusty after its period of sleep.

The attacks released by the tail missed Noah by a few hundred meters. The smoke on the areas of impact disappeared, but he didn't care. There were only him and the left eye of the creature in the world.

The dragon adjusted its aim as it tested its tail a few more times, but Noah had completed his spell at that point. A black line formed between his fingers and the beast's eye, and Noah slashed his hand upward when that happened.

The Mountain Dragon didn't understand anything at first, but pain soon spread from its head. When its attention finally went on its left eye, it saw that a long cut had appeared there.

Noah had taken away the eye and cut through a thick layer of skin. The improved version of his Dark Ray spell had managed to hurt a creature that had the best defenses among magical beasts. He could consider his test a success.