Chapter 726: First Dragon Knight

The Dragon Tooth Platform’s placement is ingenious.

It sits at the junction where the dragon’s neck meets its torso, centered between the shoulder blades of its wings. When the dragon flaps its wings to fly, the platform is perfectly shielded beneath them, keeping the rider safe. The rider’s only vulnerable when the back is exposed.

The gap between the wings and the neck becomes the Dragon Knight’s strike zone.

A dragon lance doesn’t have to be longer than the dragon itself—since Dragon Aura can be projected outward, the weapon just needs to extend through the gaps created by wing movements, allowing for attacks in any direction. For real close combat, the dragon needs to flip midair, attacking with a back-to-back maneuver.

Otherwise, the dragon handles melee while the knight pumps out mana.

That’s why dragons make perfect knight mounts. The Dragon Knight embodies the ultimate fusion of man and beast. With the dragon’s might combined with human intelligence, they become the ultimate force ruling over all.

The downed Lightgreen Gem Dragon couldn’t shield its Dragon Tooth Platform anymore.

Liszt had no clue if any Dragon Knight had ever pulled this off, but with this shot, he wasn’t about to waste it.

“Perfect—the Lightgreen Gem Dragon had gone down defenseless, leaving its Dragon Tooth Platform fully exposed. Perfect mounting position.” He leaped onto the dragon’s neck, took two steps forward to the platform, and wedged his boots into the bony grooves.

Then he sat.

His mind fogged over instantly, feeling his mana surge within, like it was reaching for the Lightgreen Gem Dragon’s magic power. But every surge sputtered out when it counted—as though the dragon’s magic could no longer sustain the connection, failing to initiate a battle of wills.

This was completely different from his first time riding Leo.

Back then, the moment he mounted Leo’s Dragon Tooth Platform, his mind dove straight into Leo’s consciousness, triggering the battle of wills.

“Is the Lightgreen Gem Dragon too weak… or is it resisting me?” Liszt went on the offensive. He burned through his mana furiously, following the same path as with Leo, forcibly seizing the dragon’s magic power to complete the link.

Crude, but effective.

Once the magic and mana connected, Liszt immediately felt an immense pressure crashing down—like fighting to pry open leaden eyelids in a hospital. The crushing fatigue nearly blacked him out, urging him to surrender to sleep.

Drawing from past experience in mental battles, Liszt gritted his teeth and forced his eyes open. In the next instant, the world around him shifted.

He stood in a world soaked in the stench of booze.

Beneath his feet lay a massive broken bone—its origin unknown—surrounded by countless others, all submerged in liquid that reeked of alcohol. Without doubt, it was wine.

At the heart of the skeletal pile rested a colossal, shattered light-green gem, its cracks leaking rivers of liquor.

Perched above it, the Lightgreen Gem Dragon lay sleeping.

The dragon was dead asleep.

“Is this the Lightgreen Gem Dragon’s mental form? If I defeat it, do I win the battle of wills?” Liszt cautiously stepped forward, puzzled at how bizarre the dragon’s inner world appeared—straight out of a drunk’s delirium.

Was the Lightgreen Gem Dragon just a lush?

And what were all these bones supposed to mean? Did it enjoy chewing on them?

But those were secondary concerns. Right now, the goal was to kill the sleeping Lightgreen Gem Dragon—just like he once beheaded the chained evil dragon in Leo’s mind.

“Come forth, my great sword!”

With a whisper, the smoke wrapped around him—leftover power from the Smoke Dragon—morphed into a flaming Frostbite Dragon Slayer Sword. A fleeting thought crossed his mind: Was this blade a projection of his soul, a manifestation of fate, or had both already fused beyond distinction?

Perhaps fate had long since merged with his spirit, inseparable.

Then he lunged.

Jumping onto the shattered remains of the massive Lightgreen Gem, he observed the slumbering Lightgreen Gem Dragon up close. The dragon showed no reaction, as if its severe injuries in the real world had left it unconscious, mirroring its unconscious state in the mental realm. Its body was riddled with cracks, appearing as though it might shatter at any moment.

"No challenge at all," Liszt said with a slight smile, raising his flaming greatsword and preparing to completely destroy the spiritual manifestation of the Lightgreen Gem Dragon.

But just then, a sudden flash appeared before him.

A fully armored knight abruptly materialized in front of him, wielding a five-meter-long dragon lance, knocking aside Liszt's flaming greatsword with a single motion.

Then, the knight charged toward him, trying to run Liszt through with one swift strike.

"What is this?"

Liszt reacted with remarkable speed, dodging and leaping away while carefully studying the suddenly appearing knight. At first glance, he seemed to recognize the knight’s identity—Abel Moonlight Silver, a royal dragon knight of the Kingdom of the Eagle from over three hundred years ago.

He was also the First Dragon Knight of the Lightgreen Gem Dragon, the one who'd imprinted his will here.

"So, you're the spiritual imprint of the dragon knight? That means killing you is the key to winning the mental battle?" Liszt didn't know how other dragon knights dealt with their spiritual imprints—whether they too had to defeat these manifestations of the past.

But he knew exactly what he needed to do—fight.

"The longer the weapon, the deadlier the reach!"

Abel Moonlight Silver's spiritual imprint was just a will projection, yet it carried all the combat experience of a dragon knight. Liszt didn’t know how powerful the knight had been in life, but anyone capable of leaving such an imprint must have reached the peak of strength—certainly no weakling.

After several clashes,

Liszt realized he couldn’t gain even the slightest advantage, being completely on the defensive against the knight's relentless lance work.

However, he soon noticed a favorable detail: Abel Moonlight Silver, wielding the dragon lance, moved awkwardly. The five-meter-long weapon was too unwieldy for quick maneuvers, let alone for executing refined mana-infused techniques. The knight mostly relied on Liszt's initial unfamiliarity with the environment to maintain the upper hand.

"He's the spiritual imprint of a dragon knight, holding a dragon lance instead of a greatsword… Perhaps he was meant to ride the Lightgreen Gem Dragon?"

The First Dragon Knight could ride a dragon, while a successor dragon knight had to face the spiritual imprint of a mounted dragon knight—making it naturally impossible to erase that imprint.

But now, the dragon knight’s spiritual imprint had lost its mount!

Grinning, Liszt had uncovered the secret behind the dragon knight's spiritual imprint. And now, it was time to finish off Abel Moonlight Silver!