Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 491: Divine Punishment (4)

Dragon Raja 3

The Shinshin didn’t attack, keeping its offensive options ready. Herzog didn’t dare get too close. In an era of beyond-visual-range attacks, a dragon and a fifth-generation fighter were reenacting the oldest form of aerial combat, circling each other like warriors, probing for weaknesses.

Herzog suddenly accelerated, but Shinshin immediately performed a canard dive, narrowly escaping Herzog’s claws, which almost tore through the fighter jet’s wings. There was no time to launch a full salvo. The Shinshin twisted at high speed, evading Herzog, who tightly followed its tail. Their paths intertwined like two massive dragons coiling around each other, diving, climbing, banking, and turning at high speed. Herzog pushed himself to the limit to catch the Shinshin, but its extreme maneuverability was exactly what the designers had intended. Several times they came dangerously close, yet never collided, like skilled dancers performing a dangerous and intricate tango.

Herzog abruptly stopped, hovering midair with a flap of his wings. He realized something critical: the pilot of the Shinshin was evading his attacks not only through the advanced capabilities of the fighter jet or near-perfect flying skills but by understanding the characteristics of dragon flight. Herzog’s movements, though seemingly bizarre and gravity-defying, still had limitations. The Shinshin’s pilot exploited the nuances and weaknesses of dragon flight, repeatedly dodging Herzog’s strikes. The thought that a human could understand dragons to this extent was astonishing. Even the Secret Party had only captured a low-tier hatchling dragon. How could anyone know the vulnerabilities of a dragon in flight?

Only someone who had personally witnessed dragons flying—or perhaps even flown like a dragon—could understand this.

Such a human could not be allowed to live!

Herzog’s muscles rippled beneath his scales, and an invisible field expanded around him, drawing all the surrounding air into a highly compressed vortex. The air formed visible swirls within the spherical domain.

Slowly turning his head, Herzog’s golden eyes reflected the faint image of the black crow darting through the clouds. The humans had underestimated him. He wasn’t merely a fearsome flying beast—he could influence the tides of magma with his will alone. This entire airspace was under his control.

The domain exploded, and the compressed air burst with a thunderous roar, like the firing of a massive cannon. Winds of a magnitude impossible on Earth surged forth, akin to the gas flows in a solar corona. Herzog launched like a cannonball. In this fierce current, even he dared not spread his wings, lest the force snap his wing bones. He wrapped his membranous wings tightly around his body, spinning like a projectile toward the Shinshin at multiple times the speed of sound.

In theory, Herzog’s attack was unavoidable. He locked onto the Shinshin’s tail, and with such a speed difference, it had no time to dive, pull up, or roll away. The Shinshin might have been a swift crow, but Herzog had turned himself into a fired bullet.

No bird in the world could dodge a bullet. But the Shinshin wasn’t a bird—it was a fighter jet!

Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver! At that moment, the Shinshin’s nose sharply lifted, mimicking a cobra ready to strike. In a fraction of a second, its tail led the aircraft while the nose lagged behind, putting the entire plane in a nearly vertical position. In mere seconds, its speed dropped from nearly 900 kilometers per hour to the speed of a car. This maneuver placed immense G-forces and psychological pressure on the pilot, causing the plane to lose control briefly, akin to free-falling.

The first person to perform this extreme maneuver was Viktor Pugachev, a legendary Soviet test pilot, shocking the world. Back when dogfights were still common, this move was considered the hallmark of an ace pilot. It allowed a fighter to decelerate instantly, causing the trailing enemy plane to overshoot, allowing for an immediate counterattack—a move that could reverse the tide of battle in just five seconds. But in today’s era of beyond-visual-range combat, a fighter pilot’s skills had become secondary to advanced radar and electronic control systems, and very few dared to attempt such a maneuver anymore. Furthermore, only Soviet-designed aircraft, which emphasized extreme aerodynamic performance, were capable of executing this move.

Yet, here and now, this legendary maneuver was being performed by a Japanese-made fighter jet—an experimental prototype without a fully functional electronic control system!

Herzog shot past, barely grazing the Shinshin’s tail. As the jet plummeted straight downward… it unleashed a full barrage!

The final full salvo, a dazzling display of firepower. In reality, a fighter jet’s ammunition is severely limited. In modern aerial combat, shooting down three enemy planes in a single sortie would make you a super ace, so there’s no need for vast amounts of ammunition. The Shinshin, fully loaded, could only perform three full barrage shots. Canis Major, Hellfire, Swordfish Mark III, Vulcan—every weapon exploded on Herzog. He roared in agony, this time severely wounded, his body covered in torn scales and blood. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! How could such a human exist? And she looked like an underage girl!

As Herzog passed the Shinshin, he locked eyes with the pilot through the cockpit glass. That pale blonde hair, that frozen face, and those cold eyes—they seemed eerily familiar.

That girl dared to meet his gaze! He was the master of the Dragon Clan! He roared furiously, yet a vague unease crept over him. Why did she seem so familiar? Where had he seen such a young girl before?

Hovering above the clouds, Herzog forced himself to calm down. He could no longer underestimate her. He had been entangled with this mere human for over ten minutes, falling into her traps time and again. He was a dragon, and she was but a crow—a dragon being toyed with by a crow.

His mind raced as he searched through the Yanling abilities he had just gained, trying to find a way to win decisively with absolute force.

But to his surprise, after completing the Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver, the Shinshin didn’t climb again. Its tail nozzles tried several times to reignite, but they failed. The Shinshin had lost power and was now wobbling as it fell.

Its fuel was exhausted. One of the prototype’s flaws was its small fuel tank, making long-distance flights impossible at this stage of development. Herzog, after a moment of shock, began to laugh. The dragon hovered above the clouds, watching its enemy plummet like a bird pierced by an arrow.

He waited for the girl to activate the ejection seat, ready to swoop down and tear out her heart, letting her lifeless body drift back to the ground with a parachute!

Zero pressed the ejection button in vain, but nothing happened. The ejection system had failed—she was trapped inside the cockpit. The prototype had many issues from the start, with design flaws and small manufacturing errors that could easily be fatal. That’s why test pilots were paid so much—they were risking their lives. She had just engaged in aerial combat using a prototype. She had known her fuel was running out, but she was the only one who could keep Herzog occupied at that moment, and she had gambled everything on that final full salvo. She succeeded, but also failed—while her attack hadn’t finished Herzog, she was now the one facing death.

All the gauges flashed red, her ears filled with the blaring of alarms, and the world spun before her eyes. Giving up on saving herself, she reached for the worn-out teddy bear on the dashboard and held it close to her chest.

The first thing she did when she boarded the plane was place this teddy bear on the dashboard. Based on its age, this was an old bear, over twenty years old, having accompanied her to many places. Even now, she still slept with it at night, as it gave her an inexplicable sense of security.

The bear’s name was Zorro.

She clutched Zorro tightly to her chest, gripping the control stick in a last attempt to stabilize the aircraft. Although the fuel was gone, she could still glide for another minute or two.

Would a miracle happen in those two minutes? She wasn’t sure. Suspended in a powerless metal shell, hanging alone ten thousand meters in the sky, she wondered if she had done well enough—if she had bought enough time. She looked down at the ground… and in that moment, she witnessed a miracle—the miracle of fire rising to the heavens!

Like a meteor shooting up from the ground or a phoenix reborn from flames, a fiery figure streaked through the night sky. As it passed by the Shinshin, Zero heard the deep roar of a dragon.

A set of claws tore through the cockpit glass as if it were paper, and the burning figure held Zero tightly in its arms, enveloping her in an embrace unlike any other—an embrace hotter than any in the world!

As the Shinshin crashed into the ground and erupted into a massive fireball, Zero found herself fifteen thousand meters above, above the clouds, beneath the stars, cradled by a monstrous figure covered in scales. From the shape of his body, it was hard to recognize him, but fortunately, his face remained that of a boy.

Years ago, it was this very person who made a second contract with her, back when her name was Renata: “Along this journey, we will neither abandon each other nor betray each other, until the end of death.”

“From now on, I will always keep you by my side. I will never abandon you, nor leave you behind. And you must live well and always be useful to me.”

The boy was not one to betray his allies—he was a demon, and loyalty had no meaning to a demon. But Zero had always believed in his promise, believed unconditionally.