Sweat beading on my neck and forehead. My pupils dilated. Hairs all over my body stood on end. My balls shot into my stomach and bile rose in my throat. Storm clouds gathered overhead quickly, as though rushing to get prime location above the battle. Behind me, standing in the unbreakable walls of the trial tower, Naea waited on the outcome of the trial.
Thirty feet away, the human form of the Storm Dragon was stretching his legs. Squatting with one knee, the other leg extended, the man’s singular draconic features were trained on me. The eyes of an apex predator sizing up prey. There was a palpable pressure in the air, a sensation I had touched on since entering the dungeon.
I had encountered this feeling each time my life had been threatened. The standoff moment which seemed to make seconds stretch on like minutes. Against the scorepions, it had been no more intense than someone pulling a rubber band in my direction but right now, it was a railgun. My limbs felt numb and alien under the sensation. Even my thoughts were defeatist.
I hadn’t blinked in over a minute but I forced my eyes to close. If the Storm Dragon wanted to sucker punch me, what good would having my eyes open do? This whole situation was a farce designed to kill me. I could just surrender… I shook my head. These insidious thoughts were also an effect of the aura in the air. However, I had a defence.
I submerged myself into the newest feature of my inner world. Outside, a pathetic aura pressed back against the dragon’s and my thoughts were my own. I immediately felt the pool begin to drain. Another well to draw from, another reservoir to maintain. My eyes opened in the real one and I saw a confusing emotion on the face of the old man. Something like pride, perhaps? A hint of jealousy mixed in? It wasn’t intimidation, that’s for sure.
My analysis skill hadn’t worked on the humanoid form of the Storm Dragon but I didn’t need to know its level. It was suppressing its power massively to not fry me where we stood. If the clap from earlier had been genuine, a mistake in that suppression would be instantly lethal. My face had become a mask in the face of danger but now it broke into a smile.
Good.
Like the thinnest layer of air, my aura - my Dao? - covered my body. My own pride and ambition were turned into armour. I looked at my own hand with interest, but there was no visible sign of the struggle. “This is called the initiative battle.” The old man’s voice was quiet but it carried on the wind like he was speaking into my ear. He inclined his head slightly, and I felt a mountain dropping on my head. I quickly plunged deeper into my Dao pool. The quality of my own aura rose a notch.
“Good instincts,” the dragon commended as the pressure landed on my soul. I was suddenly Atlas, attempting to hold up the sky. Considering my opponent, the metaphor was doubly apt. “When a stronger Dao overpowers your own, you must fight back. I am expending much more energy to assault you like this than you are defending.”
The man’s casual voice was a taunt of its own. It made sense using the energy to attack felt like a step above my current method of existing within the Dao. Even if he was spending more power in his assault, the sources were different. My own Dao barely filled a small pond in my inner world. In contrast, the dragon’s felt like a part of nature, something which had always been felt in the back of my mind.
Like the cessation of rain, the Dao challenge abated. “If you meet someone with the same level of Dao as you, this battle becomes much more dangerous. I may be an insurmountable monster, but others won’t be.” The old man hadn’t stopped stretching during his explanation and attack, but had now finished his preparation. “Let the trial commence.”
We hadn’t started yet? The words came to mind but my body was already too busy dodging an incoming rain of blows. Acting on instinct and indignation alone, I was immediately forced to use every ounce of technique gifted to me by Staff Mastery and my own experiences. It was a strange moment where my first interaction with my own doubled Mental attribute was mathematics, instead of magic.
Before I could use Infusion to somewhat level the physical playing field, I received eighteen blows. There was an argument the Storm Dragon was holding back, but the blasts of electric pain which exploded all over my torso would argue it didn’t matter much. I was launched backwards, almost tumbling down the stairs into the tower.
“Ouch,” I moaned. I opened my eyes to see Naea hovering above me, looking worriedly from myself to the dragon. A glance showed me he hadn’t moved, he even still had his fist outstretched from the final punch. “You’re my partner, aren’t you? We come as a package, you aren’t going to break the rules by healing me.” I chose to use the word partner instead of familiar intentionally, because it was more true. She didn’t feel like some System-bound extension of myself, but the only comrade I had. A sentiment she seemed happy with.
She dropped to the stair below my head, placing her hands on either side. A delightful wave of soothing tickles passed through me. “You don’t have to beat him,” she whispered, “he told me he wouldn’t kill you. You just have to survive.”
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I smiled and booped her forehead with my index finger. “Yeah, I figured. Still going to do it, though.” The Storm Dragon barked out a laugh, deep and true. There was no derision within the sound, unlike the one Naea made. She sounded like she’d heard more believable stories from flying pigs, which was fair. It didn’t look great on balance.
I pounded the ground beneath me with my fists. The force sent me to my feet, without any conscious use of mana. I hadn’t looked at my attribute screen since my latest upgrades, but it wouldn’t tell the full story anyway. Much of my strength was bound to the percentage bonuses I had received from being an apex predator myself. This dungeon had literally been attempting to kill me, yet I still stood.
I used a charge of Infusion before stepping to pick up my dropped staff and nearly flew off the roof. My eyes widened and I quickly stopped my momentum with a second step. The dragon was kind enough not to react violently to my movement. I wasn’t dumbfounded for long, as the reason for my lack of control was simple and easily corrected.
From the acquisition of my Dao pool and the world first achievement which came with it, my Mental and Will attributes had effectively doubled. The quality and depth of my mana pool had more than doubled alongside gaining the Dao pool. The ability which had been my way to bridge the physical gap was now much more potent, and not just in a simple one to one. The full extent was hard to know, but there was one way to find out. “Thank you for your patience. I’m ready now.”
For the next encounter, I focused on understanding the limits of Infusion. A single use of the skill sent my attributes into overdrive. I was guessing but I would bet good money my Fortitude and Speed both raised to meet my Mental attribute with a single surge of Infusion. The enhancement lasted around a minute before quickly fading away but cost me nearly nothing to reapply. I could probably fight with Infusion at this level for hours.
It wasn’t enough to make me stronger or faster than the Storm Dragon, but it was a leap of hundreds of attribute points. Only hundreds. Assuming the dragon wasn’t in the hundreds of thousands would be a mistake. I dodged the incoming punches and kicks as much as possible, blocking where I couldn’t avoid them. I moved suboptimally until I managed to use the force of a kick to my advantage. As I bounced across the tower’s roof, I grabbed the Yo Staff.
I couldn’t hope to match the Storm Dragon without my weapon. Nor would my current level of strength be enough to do anything meaningful, but the old man was having fun and taking his time. He wasn’t trying to tear me apart, if anything he was training me. This was the opportunity of a lifetime and thankfully, I wasn’t going all out either.
Unlike the last time he blew me away, the dragon was on my neck the moment I retrieved the staff. I layered three Infusions on top of one another, swinging the staff like a bat. As I swung, the Yo Staff’s weight increased and arcs of lightning danced along its length. There was a noise like two trains colliding in a sound-amplified tunnel and I soared backwards from the point of impact. Spinning with the momentum, I landed well, if sore.
I was ecstatic at the result. Using multiple bursts of Infusion at a time was an incremental boost in power. Naturally, it meant the time spent with that strength was lower, too. With three at once, the energy faded in less than five seconds and the mana cost was at least five times higher. All of that was good information, filed away for later. My focus was on the old man and his half-ruined hand.
“You cheeky whelk!” With a flick of his wrist, the mangled fingers and broken skin simply was not. My brain couldn’t comprehend the technique, but it felt like a manipulation of Dao at a level which made me emotional. “Using my own techniques against me! Ha!” He looked at his hand, opening and closing the fingers. “I can’t remember the last time I felt the spark act against me.”
The old man spoke like he was happy, even looking at the damage his form had taken with nostalgia, but the aura in the air became thick with truly murderous intent. Massive bolts of energy began arcing across the sky. When he spoke again, it was not the calm voice of an elderly man, but right from the mouth of the dragon. “Try that again,” he challenged.
If there was a single thing in this universe I desired less, it was to make the Storm Dragon angry. At the same time, I felt my own aura surge with delight even before I understood my own emotions. He’s taking me seriously. In a battle like this, what more could I possibly ask for? Everything about the situation aligned perfectly with the Dao of the dragon within me.
Elders are meant to be challenged and brought low. Respect is for sycophants and weaklings. Of course, I would use the lightning against a Storm Dragon. Insane as it was, I wanted to prove I could stand in any arena with my opponent, even their home court. I tapped the Yo Staff on the floor in front of me and spun in a quick circle. The magic of my Kirin Strikes leapt onto the tower’s roof and a circle of lightning rose up around me.
The Storm Dragon licked its lips, a forked tongue poking out through sharp fangs. Its human form was losing cohesion, which only served to get me more and more excited. Show me that true form again and I’ll give you another cut. A competitiveness inherent to the dragons channelled through my veins. I laughed despite the tension. The Storm Dragon laughed, too.
For the next twenty minutes, the sky was lit up constantly by the cataclysmic combat taking place upon the trial tower. Once the thunder stopped rumbling and the dust settled, I had run all of my tanks empty. Stamina, mana, even the Dao aura which protected me from the dragon’s, all were spent. I grunted and fell to my knees as Naea zipped over to me. At some point, our battle had fallen to the sands in the shadow of the tower.
The combat was finished. Every bone in my body was cracked or broken, my consciousness was only hanging on by a thread. Only Naea’s quick healing and my own stubborn refusal to pass out again kept me from resting. On the ground in front of me was the bloody, beaten and defeated body of an old man. Not that I beat the actual Storm Dragon. The spirit within had left the Dungeon at some point during the fight, leaving me with just a fancy training dummy to finish off.
A prompt appeared and I let out a sigh of tension. I raised my head to the sky and roared, amplifying my voice as much as possible. The shout contained my released frustrations, anger and relief that the trial was truly over. Mostly over, there was still the delicate subject of looting the place empty which I’m sure the dragon wouldn’t mind now.
Dungeon Quest Complete! - Trial Of The Storm Dragon
Against the storm, you stayed strong. You weathered the onslaught and remained standing, which is enough. For now.
Reward: The Storm Dragon’s Boon