Lokgrod Redminer looked towards the dragon. He stood merely a dozen meters away, locking gazes with the beast. This was the end of any sway he once held over the creature—if he ever truly had. She was more cunning than he had given the young dragon credit for. It was more than just a beast’s cunning; she had looked towards her future, suppressing the rage and vengeance that now roiled through their bond until she believed she could defeat him.
He tightened his grip on his war hammer. The cold-forged steel pole and hammerhead felt too light in his powerful grasp. He was much less equipped than when he first entered the librarium; there were no master smiths or enchanters here to craft him new gear. He doubted the basic durability enchantments would withstand either his strength or the dragon’s scales. Similarly, his plate armor would not hold up well in this fight, but his skills could enhance it enough to make it more useful than going without.
Through the bond linking him to the furious dragon, he sensed that he still held the advantage in raw attributes—not by much, but it was there. Most likely, this would be balanced by the beast’s natural scales and bulk. The more muscle one had, the better the strength stat applied, and the tougher one’s natural body, the more effective vitality became. It was a natural advantage for beasts and races with scales or other defensive traits. Luckily for him, the opposite was also true: the larger a creature, the more its size hampered dexterity and movement.
He continued watching the dragon as she inspected him, her eyes flicking to his hammer and scanning his armor. It was the cold that clued him in to look for spellcraft. As he had been staring at the dragon, considering his first move, the shimmering air around her had stilled, even misting in some places, as the surroundings seemed to rapidly drop in temperature.
He could see the heat being leached from the surroundings in a dozen-meter radius around the beast. The soil grew chilly before his eyes as the warmth flowed toward the dragon, undergoing some unknown process.
[Red Dragon Lv35]
She had gained 10 levels since he last saw her—not an extraordinary amount. That wasn’t to say leveling up by 10 in less than a day wasn’t impressive, but given the carnage of goblins strewn around the clearing, she should have leveled far more. From the sheer scale of destruction and the size of some of the corpses, it looked like she had wiped out half a village.
The only thing that could halt leveling progress was the presence of a beast core. Surely, such a young creature wouldn’t possess one—beast cores were condensed only by truly powerful creatures, and even then, their formation depended heavily on the species. If she did have a beast core, it made her far more dangerous than her level suggested. The level of threat would depend on the core’s size, though she was still young, so it was likely in the early stages of growth. Unfortunately, there was no way to determine its size without killing her and cutting the core from her flesh.
Abruptly, a shimmering coat of heat reappeared, enveloping the dragon’s scales and keeping them heated far above the frigid surroundings. He realized he had to act now while the beast was distracted, seemingly pausing to consider something.
[Misty Step]
In a puff of purple conjuration mana, he vanished, reappearing a fraction of a second later to the side of the dragon, out of her line of sight. With both hands gripping his hammer, he swung downward just as the dragon’s head began to turn, her sharp eyes locking onto him.
He activated his [Heavy Blow [6]] skill, feeling his muscles explode with power. His grip tightened as the hammer accelerated toward the earth, its weight and speed multiplied by the skill’s effect.
The dragon, seeing the blow, couldn’t move sideways fast enough to avoid it. He had appeared too quickly. Instead, she stepped back, causing the strike to miss its intended target—the vulnerable lower spine—and hit her side instead. Her thick hide, armored scales, and small ridges of bone absorbed the brunt of the colossal hammer’s impact.
Lokgrod felt the hammer’s weight resist any attempt to alter its trajectory. Instead, he drove the 8-inch-wide hammerhead into her red-scaled flank. The heavy, forged steel struck with skill-enhanced force, bolstered by his immense strength stat. Scales and flesh ripped apart under the blow, and he felt a bone crack beneath his hammer before it slid, tearing and crushing down the dragon’s side. The attack left shredded scales, a rugged scrape along her flank, and likely internal damage before embedding itself into the packed forest soil.
There was no howl of pain. As Lokgrod began to heave his hammer from the dirt, he glanced at his foe. Heat and flame greeted his gaze. The dragon had spared no breath for a roar; instead, a torrent of green-and-purple mana coalesced into a white-hot jet of fire that blasted his chest.
With a mighty tug, he wrenched his hammer free just as the flames engulfed him. His body was wreathed in fire as his non-magical resistance flared briefly before failing. The mana-infused flames tore at his armor and sought out gaps to scorch his flesh. Lokgrod endured the blaze for only a second before recasting [Misty Step], teleporting a dozen meters away, back to where he had started the fight.
His body burned from where the fire had penetrated his armor, which now radiated heat like an oven. The damage was alarming; such flames shouldn’t have harmed him so severely in such a short time. His armor glowed faintly, still at a searing temperature, though it cooled quickly in the cold air.
He watched the dragon cease her magical attack as soon as he disappeared. Glancing at his hammer, he noted the damage: the once-flat steel head was now sloped by over 15 degrees, pitted and marred with scratches. His immense strength, combined with the dragon’s resilience, had deformed the metal.
Though the dragon was undoubtedly in pain, the damage wasn’t debilitating or life-threatening. No blood seeped from her torn scales and hide. The creature clearly had resistance to non-magical weapons. Even with a subpar weapon, the minimal damage caused by his primary attack skill was disappointing. He’d have to use magic-based attacks to exploit his full potential.
The dragon turned toward him and growled, a deep, threatening bass rumble that caused the ash near her head to vibrate. The growl was followed by a roar so loud it forced him to step back, covering his ears. The sound vibrated through his armor, enhanced by a skill, and he felt the pressure gnawing at his resolve.
He refused to yield so easily. Lokgrod smashed his hammer into his chest plate, producing a metallic clang. The dragon bared her teeth, the air around her shimmering ominously.
He prepared to teleport into close combat, but the air around the dragon suddenly saturated with mana. Pure energy bled into the atmosphere, rapidly heating it. Within seconds, the temperature climbed past boiling, creating visible distortions around her. At the epicenter, the heat was even more intense, the 5-meter radius shimmering with searing power.
He felt air rushing toward the dragon, feeding the phenomenon, followed by a surge of superheated air blasting outward in a rolling wave. The wave washed over him, seeping through his armor and turning it into a furnace. His 272 Vitality helped him resist the worst of the burns, but the rising heat pressed relentlessly against his limits. Lokgrod realized he had to act quickly—or risk being overwhelmed.
[Ray of Frost]
A beam of icy blue light shot from his palm, aimed at the dragon. The spell was intended to cool a spot on her heated hide, making it viable for teleportation. The beam struck her side but disappeared almost instantly, its chilling effect nullified by the intense heat radiating from her scales.
[Misty Step]
Lokgrod vanished in a flash of purple mana, reappearing at the spot where his Ray of Frost had landed. Hammer raised, he activated [Heavy Blow] again, but this time, the dragon was ready. As he materialized, her open maw greeted him, unleashing a torrent of dark blue flames infused with orange, necromantic mana.
Flames roared around his body, but he pushed through the pain, determined to strike the beast. His hammer came down, the forceful blow clipping her outstretched wing. The steel smashed into the soft membrane, tearing through it and driving it into the soil. The dragon yanked her wing free with a snarl, ceasing the deluge of flames as she leaped back with a powerful beat of her wings. The torn edge of the membrane fluttered as she retreated further.
Lokgrod prepared to pursue, but a searing, agonizing sensation stopped him. He glanced down and saw the flames still clinging to his armor. Blue fire, infused with necromantic mana, ate away at the steel and the flesh beneath it. The sickly orange energy drained vitality from his body, withering his skin and muscle. Patting at the flames proved futile.
Necromantic mana, while not inherently evil, had a unique property: it drained life from living tissue in ways no other school of magic could.
[Absorb Elements]
A thin film of mana spread across his skin, dampening the necromantic fire’s effects. He poured more of his mana into the spell, increasing its potency. This was an inefficient strategy—nearly ten times the mana cost for only triple the effect—but it was necessary. The flames were already eating away at him, and anything less would have been insufficient.
The empowered spell absorbed most of the necromantic energy, halting the worst of the damage, though faint remnants of the magic lingered in his body. The pain ebbed slightly as his vitality stabilized, but he knew he had to act quickly while he still had strength.
Lokgrod seized the opportunity to strike back, now bolstered by the energy stored in his Absorb Elements spell. He raised his hammer, swinging at an imaginary foe as he cast [Misty Step], teleporting mid-swing to appear next to the dragon’s rear leg.
The hammer struck instantly, the necromantic energy stored in the spell discharging on impact. The dragon roared in fury as the blow landed on her red-scaled thigh. The force was tremendous; scales, blood, and sparks exploded from the impact as the hammer pulverized flesh against bone. The handle of his hammer bent under the strain, unable to withstand his strength combined with the dragon’s unyielding bone.
The beast stumbled, letting out an enraged roar that echoed through the clearing. Lokgrod saw fire gathering in her throat and barely managed to teleport away with another [Misty Step] just as a wave of flame rushed toward him.
He reappeared in his previous position, and the mistake became immediately apparent. The brief reprieve from heat and flame ended abruptly as a raging inferno engulfed him. His elemental absorption spell had run its course, and now he faced the raw, unrelenting heat of white fire. This flame held no tricks, no necromantic energy—just pure, devastating heat.
He felt the searing blast penetrate his visor, burning his hair and melting his skin. For the first time in the battle, he raised a hand to shield his face, even as his gauntlet began to glow from the heat. Desperation clawed at him as he tried to activate [Misty Step], but his magic resisted—there was no clear target. In a last-ditch effort, he forced the spell to function, overriding its safety protocols with a desperate mental push: up.
The spell activated, and he materialized mid-air, halfway embedded in a tree branch. For a fleeting instant, flesh and wood occupied the same space, but his body—hardened by years of combat and unnaturally dense muscle—won out. The branch disintegrated explosively, splinters and shards of wood flying in all directions, bouncing and smoking against his red-hot armor.
He opened his eyes against the pain, his burned eyelids protesting but obeying. Scanning his surroundings, he unleashed a rapid sequence of [Misty Step] casts, teleporting in quick succession to escape Rue’s fiery onslaught. Each flash of purple mana took him further from the dragon’s line of fire until he finally landed, panting and smoldering, in a cluster of bushes. His skin screamed in agony, every nerve alight with pain.
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Breathing hard, he forced himself to focus. He needed defensive measures and healing immediately. His mana reserves had already dropped to 60% from the constant teleportation and spells, but survival took precedence.
[Cure Wounds]
He cast the spell six times in quick succession, watching as melted flesh knitted itself together, and his burned eyelids regained their function. The worst of the pain receded, and his necromantically wasted flesh regained its vitality. His breathing steadied as his health returned to near-perfect condition.
[Longstrider]
A surge of power flooded his legs, enhancing his speed and mobility—essential for evading the dragon’s attacks.
[Shield]
The shimmering barrier of force sprang to life around him. Maintaining it would drain his mana steadily, but the protection against the dragon’s relentless flames was well worth the cost.
Now, it was time to prepare for offense. Lokgrod hadn't relied on these spells in years, but necessity had brought them to the forefront. He moved quickly, knowing Rue was closing in.
[Enlarge]
He felt his body swell, muscles and armor expanding as his strength and mass multiplied. His feet sank several inches into the hardened forest floor, his immense bulk pressing down on the earth. While the spell reduced his agility, [Longstrider] and his teleportation abilities would compensate. His mana reserves dropped below half, but the trade-off was worth it.
Lokgrod roared a challenge, the sound reverberating through the forest as he thundered from the bushes. The dragon, now dwarfed by his massive form, froze for a moment before unleashing a torrent of her most potent flames yet.
The mana-laden firestorm surged toward him, the flames a kaleidoscope of colors—blue and red, oversaturated with energy. His [Shield] caught the blast, and the magical aegis split the inferno, diverting it around him. The heat drew heavily on his mana reserves, but Lokgrod pushed forward, each massive step bringing him closer to the dragon.
Rue ceased her flames, realizing the attack was futile, and attempted to dodge. But her mangled hind leg hindered her, slowing her movements. Lokgrod seized the opportunity, swinging his hammer in a wide, horizontal arc.
[Heavy Blow]
The skill-powered strike, combined with his enormous strength and size, struck Rue's side with devastating force. Her desperate attempt to use a wing as a shield failed; the fragile membrane crumpled against the hammer's impact. Flesh, steel, and scale collided with a sickening crunch, and the dragon was flung through the air, tumbling over a half-dozen times before skidding to a halt.
Lokgrod withdrew his hammer, only to hear a groaning shriek from the steel. The weapon, bent and stressed from repeated blows, finally failed. The hammerhead detached and fell to the ground with a heavy thud, leaving him holding a crude iron shaft. He grimaced, gripping the improvised weapon tightly. It’ll have to do.
With Rue momentarily downed, Lokgrod took a split second to cast a quick [Chromatic Orb: Lightning]. The low-tier spell wasn’t augmented by any additional magic, but it was effective enough. A ripple of electricity arced across Rue's scales, making her flinch.
He closed the remaining distance in a few strides, his towering form looming over the dragon. With the crude iron spear in hand, Lokgrod prepared to deliver the final, grisly blow.
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Rue felt pain everywhere, her back left leg no longer responded to her commands and her left flank was an amalgamation of blood, bone and embedded scales. The lingering necromantic energy was still eating away at her lower flank making scales darken and fall from her hide. She turned her head to look at the dwarf just as a ball of crackling energy shot a bolt of lightning at her. The pain was barely noticeable over her pulped side but the lighting caused some of her muscles to spasm. She still had plenty of fire reserved in her flame gland, but her mana was running dangerously low and only a third of her maximum remained. She had been using mana to augment her breath, trying to kill the dwarf quickly but he was remarkably resilient. She frantically pulled mana from the air, letting the boiling temperature drop. She rapidly pushed mana into her regeneration skill making it heal her vital organs and left lung which had been severely damaged.
As the dwarf stood above her and raised its broken weapon to stab her she whipped her head in its direction and let loose an un-augmented blast of flame. She squeezed her flame gland for all it was worth and the sheer volume of the flames blinded the dwarf. It was a veritable tsunami of flame and heat that washed over the dwarf while she pushed and scraped her way to avoid a now blind jab with the hammer shaft. In this regard the dwarf’s magical shield helped her, spreading the flames out into the sheet that was visually impenetrable. The iron handle of the hammer sunk a foot into the compact and burned soil instead of her flesh. She kept up the barrage of flame as she got to her feet. Her new flame reserves showing their worth, she still had plenty of juice remaining.
While she distracted and blinded the dwarf with her weak flames she was still pulling mana from the air, not letting the temperature drop to the point where it weakened her. It was clear the heat did not hurt the dwarf at the levels she could reasonably achieve. It maintained her reserves through the intense regeneration she was causing. Rue limped back a few steps and let her 20-second-long blast of flame fade to reveal a confused dwarf standing and looking at her standing form. Her deep breath and the tightening of his hand on his weapon signaled their reengagement.
He was using some kind of magic to make himself larger, now over twice the size he had been before, protected by magic and hitting harder than ever. It was a difficult situation and she decided to evade rather than fight. His lowered agility was noticeable and even with her dysfunctional leg and ruined side she was able to keep some distance from him by using the terrain. One of her wings had a huge hole in it from trying to protect her side but was still functional. She flapped her wings to correct balance and gain speed on the straight runs as she circled and dodged between trees. Every so often she would let loose a gout of flame, using no mana, just trying to whittle down his mana by buffeting his shield. Once it fell she would release all of her power in a single breath attack to try and bypass his defenses and cook him alive.
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Lokgrod was trying to hit the elusive dragon, his vision constantly blurred and obscured by flames as they rampaged through the now-burning forest. The flames constantly ate away at his shield, forcing him to expend extra mana to keep them from reaching his flesh. It was cheaper than healing the damage once it was done, however, so he persisted. The dragon was clearly buying time to regenerate. Its bloody side had stopped bleeding after a few minutes, and she was putting more and more weight on her damaged leg. She was getting faster, and he was running out of resources.
He was down to about 20% mana. Even then, he considered misty stepping in to try and get a free hit on the dragon, but she was moving around too much for him to calibrate an attack, especially such a costly one. His current weapon would not deliver a finishing blow; it was just a rod of steel, now unenchanted. With his skills, he would have to target weak points in her scales, though he wasn’t sure if the handle would bend or penetrate the dragon’s scales.
He had to feed yet another pulse of mana into his shield as a wave of dragon fire washed over him. It seemed absurd how much fire was coming from such a small creature. It had to be skill-based or augmented in some way to produce or store more liquid fire than should have biologically been possible. He applied another [Enlarge]—his third total application—as he ticked into the start of his third minute. The spell only lasted for 1 minute, so he had to keep reapplying it. He was running on dregs of mana now. He would let this cast of [Enlarge] fade rather than reapply it.
He made an especially well-calculated thrust at the dragon and scored a hit on her right shoulder, but the steel rod, with its blunt tip, only deformed the tough scaly hide slightly before the now unenchanted metal bent at the tip. He switched to a club-like grip on the pole and, using the dragon’s upset balance, scored a perfect strike right to the neck with the swinging stick of metal. He couldn’t activate his skill because of the angle of attack, but the weight and his strength still caused the dragon’s neck to bend, and a squawk of pain came from the dragon before it leaped back and darted off to his side, covered by a gout of flame that forced him to renew his shield.
He decided to attack in the lull after she landed and used her breath skill, delivering a quick jab and [Misty Step] to land an un-dodgeable thrust with the bent tip of the metal handle. He targeted her still-mangled side and found no scales or hide that could stop even the weakened metal. The pole pierced the dragon’s flesh and sank deep. He felt it scrape between her ribs and enter the soft, fleshy organs behind. A pained yet weak roar came from Rue as she swiped at his arm while releasing more flames from her jaws. He felt the impact of her claws on his wrist, and it jarred the bar inside her flesh. Deciding it would do more harm stuck inside her than in his hand, he released the bar and jumped back. Another refresh of [Shield] repelled the fire sent in retaliation.
The four-foot-long bar of iron reverted to its original size after leaving his grasp, shrinking to half its previous length. It was still embedded over a foot deep inside the dragon’s vitals. It was too far back on her body to deliver an instantly lethal blow, but it was debilitating—potentially fatal.
The dragon was wheezing, and small amounts of blood dripped from her now red-stained teeth, smoking and steaming every time she let loose a gout of flame. He just stood back and circled, watching as the weapon he left in her continued to do damage, dragging on the ground as she tried to face him.
Half a minute later, he felt the effect of [Enlarge] wear off, but with less than 10% of his mana left, he wasn’t willing to waste it while not fully engaged in combat. The extra speed and agility his regular size offered—along with the still-active [Longstrider]—would be far more useful now. He didn’t want to back off in case it gave the dragon enough space to remove the foreign object from her side.
If he waited for her to grow tired, he could teleport in and savagely twist the pole, hopefully causing enough damage that she could not heal from it—maybe even kill her outright.
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Rue breathed heavily, watching the dwarf hovering just out of effective distance for her flames. The metal rod in her side was agonizing, spearing her left lung. She could feel rivulets of blood being dragged up her throat by her labored breathing. This would be the deciding engagement of the fight, whether the dwarf attempted to finish her off by teleporting in or waited for her to die from her wounds. The latter would not currently happen; she still had 25% of her mana, and it could keep her alive and even heal the worst of her wounds if given time. He probably knew this and was waiting to be able to swiftly end her. She watched as he dropped his shield, either realizing he did not need it or wanting to conserve mana. Either way, it was good for her. He was most likely going to go for her weak side, the only place he could do real harm without a weapon or magic.
She made sure her head was in the correct position to fire her last-ditch attack if he appeared next to the handle in her side. He was smaller now, back to his regular size, and she would completely engulf him in flame. Slowly, she started to gather her mana and push it directly into her flame gland. She would not mix it while firing like she usually did; she would enhance all of her remaining fire with all her remaining mana. Mixing her mana and willing it to destroy, to burn, to make her flames so hot they melted the very air itself. Her mana took on a green tinge mixed with orange. She further willed the fire to find its way through the dwarf’s armor and magical defenses, willing it to reach his flesh. Some of her mana took on a golden hue, the first time she had seen her mana in such a color as it seeped into her liquid fire. This color seemed to have the most profound effect, with small tendrils of golden mana lacing and organizing the other colors in her fire. The chaotic swirl of untamed mana became more organized, small geometric patterns emerged and dissolved at seemingly random intervals. It was ready.
Rue refocused on her surroundings and drew in the heat of the burning forest for mana, to fuel her regeneration and keep herself alive. The magic in her flame gland was hard to keep compressed. Fearing the dwarf would not act soon, she drew in a deep breath and focused through the pain. She collected some blood in her mouth and coughed it dramatically onto the forest floor.
The dwarf disappeared, a flash of mana, and he was nearly touching the metal in her side.
She released her flame. The potent cocktail of magics and fire exploded from her maw, heating her teeth and causing even her flame-resistant gums to blister ever so slightly. From her maw shot a condensed blast of golden-red dragon fire. The cylindrical column of fire impacted the dwarf’s chest and melted the steel there, a flame so hot the air around it glowed and burned. The steel and flesh of the dwarf resisted, then failed as magic and fire ripped away at his body. Metal melted, flesh burned, and bone charred. The impact from the compressed flame and exploding air and metal blasted the dwarf away from Rue, changing the focal point as he spun to the ground. Metal melted and revealed flesh that blackened and vaporized beneath the flame’s intensity. The dwarf smashed to the blackened forest floor where he slumped to the ground, burning, a desperate hand clawing at the soil and roots, trying to escape.
She took slow, steady steps towards the dwarf, finally reaching his head. It was charred and unrecognizable black, mouth moving, trying to say words from what must have been scorched lungs. She placed a claw on his back and gripped his head in her jaws. Her powerful head muscles gripped and started to squeeze. With a sickening crunch, his head broke beneath her jaws.
The flame’s duration was short and cut out a split second later, leaving her with no fire and only a trickle of mana from her aura absorbing the heat of the burning forest. She focused on her side and felt blood gushing from the wound, the dwarf having gripped the pole, and the force of her blast having caused it to be ripped free. Ignoring the dwarf, she pulled as much heat as she could from the environment, many fires guttering in the cold, more going out as she channeled the mana into her regeneration.
It was a good skill, but it could not create flesh from mana. Muscle and fat were stripped from other parts of her body to try and fix the damage to her lung and the gaping hole in her side. More damage had been done by the object’s exit than by the initial entry wound. Many organs had been scraped and cut by the exit of the pole, the bent end ripping the huge wound in her side.
Rue settled down and began the fight to repair some of the damage. She sucked mana from the environment and desperately focused the energy to try and seal her wounds, the dwarf lying somewhere forgotten.