The Dragon King's Hated Bride
Chapter 110: What About The Core?

Chapter 110: What About The Core?

>>Draegon

I barely had time to bring my claws up before she was on us again. Drakkar grunted and swung at her, but she caught his arm mid-air with one of her new limbs and flung him into a nearby pillar. The stone cracked on impact, and he slid down, dazed but still conscious.

I countered with a burst of flame.

She ducked under it, twisting her body around. Her foot slammed into my gut with enough force to send me skidding across the ground, metal screeching against stone as I dug my claws in to stop myself. My ribs screamed in protest.

What the hell is she?

I rose again. Blood ran down my face. My throat burned raw—I didn’t know if I had another flame in me. I needed time to recover

Maybe I should shift- No. I glanced around. It might cause more damage than good.

The air cracked like a whip as the nun lunged forward, faster than before. Stronger. Her arms stretched unnaturally, clawed hands reaching for us with impossible speed.

Drakkar was first to meet her. With a roar, he slammed his full weight into her side, trying to wrestle her off balance. But she twisted, her spine bending in ways no living thing’s should, and retaliated with a sweep of her lower arm. It caught him in the ribs. I heard the crunch of bone. Drakkar flew back, crashing into the remains of a shattered pillar.

I didn’t have time to check on him. She was on me next.

I ducked her first strike, claws raised. The second came low—a new arm, one I hadn’t seen move yet. It slashed across my thigh. Blood spurted. I gritted my teeth and lunged, slamming into her chest with my shoulder and forcing her back. She stumbled but didn’t fall. I followed with a roar, bringing both claws down like twin blades.

I landed a hit—ripped into her side. Black blood sprayed, sizzling on the broken stones. She hissed, a low, feral sound, and struck back. Her nails dug into my shoulder. I roared, flames licking the back of my throat.

"Draegon!" Drakkar’s voice rang out. He was up again, limping, but not down. He threw himself into the fight beside me, his blade swinging in wide arcs, cutting through the wind.

Together, we pushed her back.

It was a dance of blood and fury. We hit her, again and again, gashing her arms, slicing into her legs, drawing that unnatural black ichor with every strike. But she just kept going. Like none of it mattered. Like pain was beneath her.

"Her core," I shouted to Drakkar between dodges. "I destroyed it. I felt it break!"

Drakkar grunted, slamming his sword into her back. "Then how the hell is she standing?!"

I didn’t know. That’s what scared me.

I had burned the core myself. I had held it in my hand, crushed it under my fire. I had watched it shrivel and die. No core, no life. That was the rule. Well, the rule I was aware of. The rule I had learned in the two year war.

And yet, here she was.

And she was stronger than ever.

She screamed and launched herself at us, all arms moving in a blur. One claw raked across my chest. Another jabbed into Drakkar’s side. We fought back with fury, desperation clawing at our throats. My claws slashed at her face, cutting deep, while Drakkar hammered her shoulder

She staggered. Just for a moment.

We pressed the attack.

Drakkar’s claw pierced her lower torso. I lunged in from behind and sank my claws into her nape. She shrieked and thrashed, kicking, punching, clawing. Pain exploded across my face as her elbow struck my jaw. My vision blurred.

"Keep going!" Drakkar bellowed.

I did. We both did.

She dropped to one pair of elbows

Then she lashed out again. Her hand caught Drakkar by the throat and slammed him to the ground. I struck her side, drawing more black blood, but she twisted and caught me with an uppercut that launched me back.

I hit the ground hard. My ribs howled. My claws twitched, numb.

I stared at her, breathing hard.

She stood over Drakkar now, blood streaming from her wounds. Her chest rose and fell like a beast’s. Her arms moved like they were part of some greater machine. She lifted one hand to strike.

I forced myself up. My throat burned, fire gathering with every step.

I sprinted.

I leapt.

With a bellow that scorched the air, I opened my jaws and unleashed my flame directly onto her.

It engulfed her.

The scream she let out this time wasn’t like the others. It was shrill. Raw. It shook the very air.

The fire consumed her, burning brighter than any I had summoned before. The smell of scorched flesh and molten blood filled my nostrils. I held the breath until my vision swam, until I couldn’t take anymore.

Then I stopped.

The wind howled with a fury that wasn’t natural.

!!!

But

She stood

A nightmare made flesh.

Something inside of me felt raw. I had used flames to burn some monsters without snatching their cores out, that is how strong my fire breath was

But she-

Some of the demon soldiers came running, attacking her and fighting her which snapped me out of my trance.

We hit her again and again, each strike fueled with desperation. I used my flames again to keep her limbs off us, but she danced between them like smoke. Drakkar flanked her from behind, his claws slashing across her shoulder and revealing sinew and bone. Still she fought

It was easy for her to slash through the already broken demon soldiers but she was having trouble fighting Drakkar.

And every minute, her body grew bigger. Wider. Her back arched and bones cracked and elongated, and soon she towered over us both, a grotesque, many-limbed monstrosity bathed in the blood of demon soldiers

She shrieked then, a soul-curdling wail that sent shockwaves across the battlefield. My soldiers behind us stumbled, some fell. The ground vibrated with her fury.

She slammed the front both fists into Drakkar’s sides, and I heard something snap as he was thrown across the battlefield, crashing into the ruined marble columns of the palace gates.

I charged her alone, fire surging from my lungs. I aimed for her face—a face that barely looked human anymore, twisted and layered with chitinous plates.

She turned her face to see and I saw it, rows of eyes blinked. Not two. Not four. Dozens

!!!

I tried to unleash my fiery breath but I couldn’t, instead, I just coughed. She took advantage of that and tried to strike me but I managed to dodge it as Drakkar slashed through her legs

She smirked as he joined me.

Drakkar and I stood back-to-back, breath heavy. No matter how many times we slashed, burned, struck, her body only grew more grotesque. I’d hit her with fire three times now, but the damage was superficial. Drakkar had gone for her throat, her chest, her legs. Nothing.

"She has to have another core," I muttered, blood dripping from my lips. "The first one... maybe it wasn’t real... maybe... she just has more."

"I figured," Drakkar growled, panting. "But where?" He glanced at me, "We’ve slashed through her so much but didn’t see anything."

"I don’t know..." I was at an utter loss.

A group of demon soldiers rushed forward, trying to flank her, but the nun barely acknowledged them. With a flick of one limb, she sent a soldier flying into the remains of a collapsed tower. Another was impaled by one of her centipede-like legs. The others tried to hold the line, but she tore through them with unnatural precision.

Drakkar lunged again, teeth bared, aiming for her midsection. She turned too quickly. Her hand caught his wing, tore through the membrane, and slammed him back-first into the ground. I tried to reach him, to block her next blow—but her other arm came for me, slamming into my ribs with enough force to break a mountain. I crashed backward, my claws digging trenches into the stone to stop myself.

"Draegon!" Drakkar shouted, but I was already back on my feet. I launched myself toward her, claws alight with flame, and went for her largest eye—set just beneath her upper limbs.

I struck.

She screeched. Not a sound of pain, but of rage. My claw had sunk into the tissue, and for a fraction of a second, behind the ruined flesh, I saw it—a glint of darkness. A glimmer of something wrong. A shadow that pulsed with power.

!!!

There!!!

That had to be it.

I opened my mouth to shout—"THE CORE!"—but before the words could leave, she descended.

With all the fury of the void, the nun slammed into me with her entire mutated form. Her limbs and bulk crushed my body beneath her. I felt ribs snap, felt the breath leave me as I was pinned beneath flesh, bone, and weight far beyond natural. Her claws plunged around me, keeping me still, pinning me like a corpse on a dissecting table.

Darkness closed in on the edges of my vision. I could hear Drakkar shouting, soldiers screaming. But all I could do was stare upward at that horrific face—grinning now, with teeth where there shouldn’t be teeth—and hope someone, anyone, saw what I saw.

The core was in her eye.

And we had one last chance to destroy it but her entire rock hard body crushed me under her and my world went black.

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