Manuel's words wormed their way into the raiders' heads. They would not forget them for the rest of their lives. It was a threat. Simple, direct, and horrifying. Of course he would wait until the very last moment to turn on them. What else could they expect from such an infamous wizard?

"Move! We're going with plan F!" the woman yelled out at her comrades and they each sprinted towards one of the godly entities.

Manuel couldn't help but feel impressed by the group. Although they were among the type of people he hated the most, he had to admit that they must've been incredibly skilled. Just the fact that they had plans all the way to the letter F and they were willing to start carrying them out at a moment's notice spoke of their experience.

The big, muscular man ran up to Manuel. A metallic sheen glistened over his muscles as he pulled back his hand and prepared his fist. Manuel blinked away as soon as it approached him. A shockwave shot out of the man's hand as it reached the place where the wizard's face was supposed to be.

"Simple. Boring," Manuel sighed. Enhancing one's strength and releasing it forward was something he'd teach kindergarteners. It was that easy to grasp.

Something swirled beside him. A second copy of the man manifested itself seemingly out of thin air. It too tried to deliver an enchanted punch but failed all the same. As soon as Manuel teleported elsewhere, the real man was already running towards him, about to deliver a powerful blow, while a third copy manifested behind him.

"Clones? No, unlikely," the wizard muttered to himself. It took him a few more seconds of dodging before he finally began to understand the technique. Every strike was automatically accompanied by another coming from behind. The man must've had an automatic spell running through his body. It accessed his muscle memory and then chose the most suitable strike, which it would then summon and carry out from the opponent's blind spot.

"This is wonderful!" Manuel exclaimed, smiling. "Nothing too complex like clones but absolutely brilliant in its uniqueness! Oh wow, you did impress me, you big beast," he said, which provoked the man even more.

The skinnier man with the anti-dragon spear rushed towards Oirun.

"Oh dear, is it time for the spear already?" the dragon said without moving an inch out of the way.

The weapon whistled through the air as its wielder enchanted his arms for one lightning-fast thrust. A metallic clink could be heard as it stopped against Oirun's aura.

"Oh dear, it seems to be so perfect for piercing through my scales that it completely forgot about my aura. Ah, bummer. What shall we do about this?"

The man growled. He heard not only the dragon's mockery but also Manuel's laughter. They were toying with them. Years worth of experience were nothing but a joke for these two demi-gods.

The man backed away and tried to stab the dragon once more.

"Oh please. Really? Twice the same? Are you the boring one?" Oirun yawned, but when he noticed the man's spear suddenly disappear, it sparked his curiosity.

It hit his aura once more, this time, however, the spear banged against his shoulder, completely away from where the man stood. Although the attacker was moving his arms like he was stabbing, the weapon was nowhere to be found. Instead, it kept on striking the dragon at various places and always from a different angle.

"Oh? I see. The weapon is gone, but the attack gets copied and transported elsewhere. Even behind me. So you can strike me from anywhere without me having any idea from where. How interesting. Now, let's see, is the weapon gone or only invisible?" The dragon reached forward at an incredible speed. He stood up on his back legs, grabbed the man's arm, and yanked the spear out of it while tossing him aside.

The raider gritted his teeth. His body was enchanted with magic to the utmost limit. His speed and strength were superhuman, yet that dragon just caught up to him and tossed him aside like he was a rag doll.

The spear's invisibility vanished as it lay in Oirun's hands.

"Only invisible? Oh, that's disappointing," he sighed and closed his hand around the metal, scrunching it up like paper.

"I'm ready!" the woman shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. Eight spears in the colours of the rainbow appeared around her, all aimed towards Oirun. Fire, water, air, earth, lightning, ice, metal, and light. The basics were all there.

The dragon's eyes widened. "You can use all of that?" he gasped as the attack flew towards him. The recoil of it tossed the short woman to the ground. All three raiders looked at their spell with hope in their hearts. The spell was homing, almost undodgeable, and no wizard would ever be able to protect themselves against all eight elements at the same time. At least not enough to remain unscathed.

The spears shattered against the dragon's aura like shards of ice. Orbs of eight same elements appeared behind the dragon just as the attack hit him.

"Oh wow, that was strong. You are extremely talented. To use all of those elements in such a powerful version? Wow, how rare. Albeit a little too simple," Oirun said as he slowly descended from his mountain of a bed.

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The woman's jaw flew open and she couldn't bring herself to close it. The dragon didn't dodge. He took the attack head-on. His aura managed to block it all. How was that possible? Was he that fast? No, he would have to adjust the element of his aura differently at all eight different points of impact. That would take immense concentration and simply too much time. No, that wasn't it. The dragon's spell was something else.

Manuel looked at his friend. He understood very well. It was simple. So simple it hurt. But he had to admit it was effective. Oirun kept extremely compressed orbs of elements nearby at all times. Only when used did they finally turn visible. They served as a template. Adjusting the element of an aura was difficult and a bit time-consuming, but much easier and faster if you had a sample of the element and simply copied it. There was no crazy secret to it. Oirun was just that good.

Shivers ran down Manuel's spine. He scratched the back of his neck as he giggled. As far as raw magical power went, the dragon was still more skilled than even him.

Oirun leaned forward and stretched his back like a cat after an afternoon spent in a hot summer light. "Okay, well, I suppose it's my turn now. Let's wrap it up." He sat up and put his front legs together.

For a moment, the entire room turned silent. The raiders could hear their heartbeats in their heads as they patiently awaited what was to come. Rushing into an attack would be unwise. Their best bet was to observe and try to find a weakness in the dragon's magic.

Oirun turned his hands to the side and without separating them, he swung them in an arc at a beautiful ornate column next to the woman. Something cut through it. An invisible force that tore through the rock like it was paper.

"No, that won't do," Oirun muttered. "I need something stronger," he scratched his neck while the muscular man tried to punch him with his technique.

"Oh? Are you that eager to die? Patience, patience. I'm working on it," Oirun replied. He spread his wings. A dark grey aura shot out of them, splashing against the walls while quickly covering them. The entire place darkened. Now it looked like they were standing in a pitch-black void with only the columns and the dragon's bed remaining unchanged. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, it all sank into endless shadow, yet for some reason, light prevailed, albeit dim.

"Dark magic!" the woman yelled out and all three of the raiders proceeded to light up their auras.

"Wrong!" Oirun exclaimed and a wide smile appeared on his face.

Something appeared on the woman's face too. A single streak of blood. She touched it with her hand, examining the liquid. Did she get cut? When? How? There wasn't a single movement of the dragon that would indicate the trajectory of the spell.

More bleeding wounds began appearing. The two men backed away from the dragon as their skin slowly ruptured. The cuts were shallow. Barely strong enough to draw blood. They caused them little to no pain, but the burning sensation was highly uncomfortable.

"To me!" the woman shouted once more. When her companions finally gathered by her side, she expanded her aura, hiding them behind a glowing yellow shell.

"Oh dear, a barrier. Now, are you trying to keep my spell outside, or inside?" the dragon lay down and propped his head up on his front leg. He smirked as he saw the raiders panic once they found out that the inside of the protective aura was just as dangerous as the outside.

The woman hissed out in pain as the cuts kept on appearing on her body. It didn't matter that they wore thick clothes. This spell wormed itself past their defences, both magical and physical.

Her light yellow aura gathered around her eyes. For her, the room lit up as she tried to detect any sort of magic flowing through the place. Whatever was hurting them must've been invisible.

"What is it? What's hitting us?" the shorter man barked at her as he and his comrade both tried to attack the air around them, hoping to score a single random hit against the dragon's spell, whatever it was.

The woman stared blankly into space. What was she even looking at? Her own knowledge of the world was failing her. It was like translucent sheets of paper. Geometrical planes that filled the entire room with such a density she couldn't see anything else. They were intersecting one another, lacking any sort of pattern. She saw that all the places where she got cut were alongside those planes. How many of them were passing through her body right now? Twenty-two? Thirty-six? No, counting was pointless. She had to figure out a way to get out of this.

"Break the room! Destroy the walls!" she yelled and her companions listened without a moment to waste. They all began trashing the place with both muscle and magic and yet, nothing changed. No matter what spell they used or how much they enchanted their strikes, they were still not strong enough to leave even a mark.

A drop of cold sweat slid down Manuel's face. Oirun was an expert at compressing magic. His barriers were among the strongest in the world. Breaking out of this one would be hard even for him.

The trio's strength and resilience quickly vanished. Their whole bodies were covered in tiny cuts. It was as if they got tossed into a cauldron filled with burning hot ants. The feeling was unbearable.

"We're sorry!" the tall man fell to his knees and pressed his forehead against the ground, bowing before the dragon. "We made a mistake! Please! Stop it! Please!"

Oirun smiled as he saw the other two join their friend. They were now finally exactly where he wanted them.

"Raise your heads," he told them. The cuts have finally stopped.

They all did as the dragon asked. Another cut greeted them. Or rather, another set of cuts. It dug into their cheeks, drawing way more blood than those before. Such a wound would certainly need some stitching. More horrifying, however, was that the dark aura finally disappeared from the room. The three found themselves sitting in front of an enormous cut that tore through the wall behind them.

"Now, you are where you're supposed to be," Oirun smirked. "You came to my home, destroyed a part of it, and killed my servants. I have every reason to take your lives. But I won't. I feel like death is a terrible consequence. In death, there is peace. Life can be far more gruelling." He walked up to the kneeling trio. "You have all received the equivalent of about three hundred papercuts. But please, do understand that those were the weakest of my attacks. I could have also diced you finer than onion for dinner. You can rest easy though. You will live. Right now, you will sign a contract bound by magic with me. I will let you leave my lair in peace and in turn, whenever someone asks you about your journey or your wounds, you will tell them everything. You will tell them of how you were three cowards who came to challenge a god. How you begged and begged and eventually, I granted you mercy." He smiled as he sat down and raised his hand covered in aura. "And the best part? All of that will happen automatically. You will not be able to control yourselves at all."