Percy couldn’t be certain about what was happening, but he had a fair share of theories flashing through his mind as he bolted toward the Snakeman. His mind went blank as if on command and he moved instinctively.
Percy accelerated, his blood boiling and his mana ciruclating frantically through his body in a desperate attempt to regulate his body temperature, but he noticed none of that. His only focus was the Snakeman ahead of him.
The Essence of the Azure Dragon surged through him, or so Percy guessed, as he activated several Augmentation. They were stronger than usually, but again, Percy was too absentminded to realize what was happening. He appeared before the Snakeman, twisted his body to an uncomfortable degree when the Beastman lunged at him, and reached for the Snakeman’s face.
He could have punched the Snakeman in the stomach or use [Cyromancy] to gain an advantage against the Snakeman, but Percy did none of that. His hand shot toward the Snakeman’s face and reached it. His fingers dug into the Smakeman’s scales, cracking several scales with brute force before squeezing even tighter. The Snakeman hissed in pain, coated his claw-like fingers in mana before adjusting them to replicate a spear blade and thrust it toward Percy’s arm.
The counterattack came to no surprise, but instead of pulling away, Percy infused more power into his arm. [Dragonblood] was triggered and more of the Azure Dragon’s Essence he had awakened surged toward his arm. The Essence reached his fingers and Percy would have groaned in pain if not for the adrenaline filling his entire beings as the bones underneath his skin shifted like worms.
Something was happening to his hand, but Percy focused on the Snakeman’s attack instead. The mana blade coating the Snakeman’s claws were just about to reach his elbow and pierce neatly through it when his skin shifted. Mana surged to his elbow, triggering a response from his body and dragon blood.
His skin all around his elbow seemed to transform into scales, dyed in the purest mana within Percy’s mana reservoir. They were dyed vibrant azure.
The Snakeman’s attack impacted and should have crushed Percy’s elbow, but instead of hitting his elbow first, the mana blade pierced through a thick layer of ice growing out of Percy. It grew explosively and expanded rapidly, deteriorating the impacting force. As the mana blade pierced through the ice, it lost stability. The deeper it pierced through the ice, the more freezing properties it released into the surroundings, into the mana blade.
But that wasn’t enough. The mana blade pierced through the layers of ice and struck Percy’s scaled elbow.
Then…Then there was nothing. The blade impacted heavily and its tip pierced through the vibrant azure scales, but that was about it. The Snakeman’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits as the mana blade came in contact with Percy’s blood. The mana used to create the mana blade rebelled suddenly and went against the Snakeman’s will. It dispersed, destroying the mana blade at once.
“Dominion!?” The Snakeman hissed in what Percy would label as pure shock.
However, Percy couldn’t hear him properly. His attention diverted to his hand which seemed to shapeshift into a claw. His hand seemed to expand, scales growing from his skin, while pointed bones, as black as the eternal night, burst through the skin of his fingertips.
In the Seven Hells!
Percy’s eyes widened, the shock pulling him out of the fully-focused state.
What is happening to me? Am I transforming?
His expression distorted in confusion as he recalled a familiar picture of the Azure Dragon hovering above the dining hall. His Azure Dragon. The black claws growing from his fingertips weren’t as eerie as the claws of his father’s dragon, but that didn’t matter. He was growing claws. Dragon claws!
The shock should have affected him, yet his body kept moving instinctively.
He tightened his grip around the Snakeman’s face, the black claws digging into his skull until a cracking sound devoured all other sounds. Percy heard a few gasps around him and saw a glimmer of fear in the Snakeman’s eyes for the first time.
What am I doing? I never planned to kill him. I wanted to overwhelm and crush him to gain the Beastmen’s respect, but not kill him!
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Percy willed his body to stop. His instincts fought against his mental command, but it was to no avail. Percy regained full control of his body and stopped. He removed the claws from the Snakeman’s skull and looked into his serpentine eyes.
The glimmer of fear left the Snakeman’s eyes, confusion and a trace of respect replacing it, yet Percy got distracted when something within him radiated pure dissatisfaction. Not against the Snakeman. No. The dissatisfaction was aimed toward Percy.
Something within him loathed Percy for his action.
The Azure Dragon Essence receded and his claws retracted, returning his hands to its original shape and appearance. His hand was in pain, unbearable pain that drained his willpower rapidly. He would have loved to rush to Fiona and request her aid, but the brawl was not yet over. Percy had just gained a trace of respect from the Snakeman. There was no way Percy would throw it away just because he was in a ‘little’ pain.
He tapped into his mana reserves and pulled them out of the mana reservoir without leaving a single trace behind, and circulated it through his body. Mana oozed out of his skin, coating it thickly before spreading outward, pushing his presence farther into the surroundings.
The Snakeman conjured a mana blade again, but once Percy’s mana reached the Snakeman, it crumbled again. The Snakeman stared at Percy, disbelief flickering in his eyes.
A moment later, Percy shot forward, his hands clenched tightly into fists, coated in several layers of mana.
The bloody brawl had just begun.
***
“Is…Is that normal?” Mathis asked Melissa, his face drained of all color.
“That? You surely don’t mean Percy’s barbaric fight with that Beastman?” Melissa responded curtly after a few seconds. She didn’t even look at Mathis, her eyes drawn to Percy, who was covered in cuts and bruises. However, the oddity was that Percy’s smile never ceased. If anything, Percy was smiling more vibrantly than ever since they engaged in a proper brawl.
Percy and the Snakeman had been engaged in a fierce brawl of punches, kicks, tail sweeps, and a bite, which Percy evaded in the last moment, avoiding the Snakeman’s highly potent venom stream.
It was bloody, to say the least, but the Snakeman looked worse than Percy. That was their greatest fortune. Percy was not well off, his cheeks bust open and his arms and legs covered in claw marks and bruises – some bones in his body must have broken as well – but the Snakeman’s left arm was limply attached to his shoulder and he had only two or three intact scales left in his face. Blood gushed uncontrollably through the broken scales, indicating more serious injuries underneath the destroyed scales.
“If you ever consider something like this as normal, you should go to the Healers. They will help you get your act together, right Fiona?” Melissa patted Fiona’s shoulder, but her friend didn’t respond.
Fiona’s milky-white eyes were glued to the battlefield ahead, beads of sweat trickling down her temples.
“Is he really human?” Fiona murmured instead.
“Percy? I would guess so. King Phillip and Queen Reina are certain he is their child. Devil’s Touch might have done something to him, but the Healers at the royal palace said Percy is perfectly fine. In fact, your grandmother checked him out. She verified his identity as a rightful heir to the Azure Dragon’s throne.”
“Dragon?” That was the only thing Fiona seemed to have heard. She nodded slowly as if the pieces in her mind were finally coming together.
“Is that how he comprehended Dominion? Because he awakened the blood of his ancestors…?”
Melissa had no idea what her friend was talking about, but she wasn’t given the luxury to ask about it. A loud crash rang through the surroundings and a cacophony of roars and exclamations erupted.
The guards on the settlement walls, alongside the nobles and Imperials who’d cheered on Percy, were over the moon.
Melissa’s head flicked to Percy, who was towering above the Snakeman, his foot pressed tightly on the Snakeman’s chest.
“Do you surrender?” Percy asked with an icy voice.
He didn’t wish to drag the battle on for much longer. They had a lot to do and couldn’t waste their time with mundane fights like this. However, the Snakeman didn’t surrender. He looked Percy straight in the eyes.
“Is that really necessary?” Percy asked, while applying more force on his foot. The scales underfoot cracked and shattered, but the Snakeman remained silent. Percy sighed deeply and was about to reconsider his decision, when an unfamiliar voice rang out.
“Knocking him out is enough.”
It was one of the Snakeman’s five direct subordinates. The Snakeman hissed, but he couldn’t turn his head to find out who’d exposed the tradition because Percy’s fist crashed into his face one last time, knocking the Snakeman unconscious.
He turned to the Beastman and nodded politely.
“Thanks. I didn’t want to kill him.”
The Beastman swallowed hard but nodded. He was glad their enemy didn’t resort to killing their leader.