Rin looked over and immediately, her eyes were burning as she saw a dark blue light gush from the small case by Adrest’s feet. She gasped as the light formed the shape of an illusory dragon. It was only slightly smaller than the Titan, but far more imposing, with regal blue scales and bright yellow eyes that looked like they could pierce through any deceit or illusion.

As the form fully coalesced, it looked around intelligently before settling its golden eyes on Alissa. She looked back and they seemed to communicate for a few heartbeats before the illusion snorted and turned almost completely illusory as it settled on and around the figures of Adrest and Belle.

Alissa smiled and waved at the two before taking another step, she vanished. In her place was a hulking purple dragon, It was the size of a two story building and scales that resembled gems arced wildly with purple electricity. Each tree trunk sized leg ended with five glittering claws as long as Adrest’s torso and ended at impossibly sharp points.

The aura she emanated wasn’t as strong as the Earthen Titan, but there was something regal and magnetic about it, drawing the observer in and wanting to bow in obedience.

It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, Rin was in shock and horrified at the transition. The kind girl she’d been spending so much time with was actually a dirty dragon? How was that possible? She always assumed she had some sort of reptilian blood, but there were so many kinds of demi-humans that Alissa could’ve passed for over ten kinds.

As Rin took in the majestic image, a war was raging in her mind. On one side were the looping memories of the last few days together and their time in town. How Alissa was always so kind and had a warm smile, the way she would comfort Rin, and how much Alissa doted on Adrest and Belle.

On the other side was all the stories she’d grown up with, both in the orphanage and in the Adventurer’s School. Dragons were strong, violent, greedy monsters that would wipe out cities for fun, end countries for their treasure, and took pleasure in watching the lives burn beneath their flame.

She'd seen teachers with horrific burns that even the highest grade potions couldn’t heal because of dragon fire, limbs roughly cut short from their gaping maws. One teacher had even told a story about how their entire hometown was wiped out just because one wanted to turn it into a place to rest before moving on. Rin had been taught that dragons were a mortal enemy and by killing one she could save thousands.

Rin had no idea what to do, she just sat there oppressed under two maddeningly powerful auras battle for domination. She watched as the dragon opened its maw and all the hairs on Rin’s body stood on end. Out of nothing but reflex, Rin pulled out every last protective item she had. The last of the glittering barriers was erected just before everything went white.

Opening his eyes, Adrest was amazed to see a thin blue fog engulfing himself and Belle, he nearly screamed as when looking around, he found a pair of golden reptilian eyes observing him curiously.

“Ah.. Hello.”

The dragon let out an inaudible huff of air and went back to observing Alissa. Adrest did the same and saw a brilliant ball of purple light briefly gather at her mouth, then his vision was flooded mercilessly by a violent purple light for a split second.

Relief came from the illusory dragon, who used its misty form to filter the amount of coming light through. Blinking away the tears forming in his eyes, Adrest looked down to Belle making sure she was fine.

She was rubbing at her eyes for a few seconds before opening them. Looking up at him with bloodshot eyes Belle opened her mouth.

“Big Bro Ady?”

"What’s wrong Belle?”

“Will Big sis be okay? That thing is really scary.” Belle asked with a tinge of fear in her voice.

Adrest comforted the fearful rabbit, “Ali might get some new bumps and bruises but she’ll be strong-arming us into trying some bull meat before you know it.”

Belle seemed to find the idea funny and let out a few little chuckles, missing the nails biting into a clenched first behind his back.

“Now remember what Alissa said and observe as much as you can, this kind of find doesn’t happen often.”

At the chiding, Belle just nodded and gave the fight her full attention. Through the active filtering of the mist dragon, Adrest could clearly see where Alissa’s attack has landed. The monster’s shoulder was black and smoking, but didn’t seem to be impaired in anyway.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Then, Alissa charged ahead, diving and ducking through the air like a falcon through trees as she dodged many sets of limbs stabbing towards her in all directions. She wasn’t passive though as her jaws clamped down on legs, snapping them in half through awesome force, and her claws left a trail of deep gouges on steely limbs too slow in retreating.

All the while, Alissa would shoot off lightning And release roars of fire. Giant blazing cyclones would form in her wake, then move towards the Titan, attempting to engulf it. Alissa even let out crackling growls that almost sounded like chanting to Adrest, then giant magic circles would appear in the spaces around her, letting out terrifying magics that produced colors Adrest hadn't ever seen before, the power was so great that Adrest was afraid she would collapse the entire space.

The Titan wasn’t passive though, with its many metal legs constantly attacking, its upper body was coated in an Earthen and semi-sparkling armor, even harder than the yellow chitin that already covered most of its weak points. The Giant also formed huge magic circles in its hands that let loose an ominous black torrent of water. It was like a river appeared from thin air, Alissa was careful to give the rapids a wide berth as it dissolved whatever section of cave it came into contact with.

The two fought viciously, exchanging blow for blow, injury for injury. Alissa was bleeding from several stab wounds and one leg was hanging limp and distorted in the air. Though hurt, the dragon seemed to become even more reckless with every scale that was broken, attacking in a bloodthirsty frenzy that put even a being that was essentially in the S rank on the back foot.

In exchange for her battered body, the Titan was also looking increasingly rough. Almost a third of the many appendages were cut off, sharply angled, or outright shattered. The Minotaur portion of the body was constantly smoldering and crumbling, the armor unable to keep up with the incredible temperature of dragon fire, its bull like head was missing half an ear and its eyes were completely bloodshot without a hint of sanity.

The battle raged on and slowly the cave was showing signs of destruction as awesome strength and magic collided. The hardened stone was littered with cracks and boulders were constantly being sent flying through the air. The only safe spaces in the area were the spot Adrest and Belle were standing, where oncoming rubble was stopped mid-air and the area surrounding them showed no signs of damage whatsoever.

The other safe area was an opalescent shield that was just big enough for Rin to stand in, it would let out loud thunks whenever debris was sent flying towards her, but seemed sturdy enough.

The battle raged on, one side using fire and lightning and teeth. The other legs and earth and overwhelming force. Alissa was quickly accumulating more serious injuries, especially when a stone coated arm hit her side, sending her flying like an insect.

She didn’t slow down though. Through the pain Alissa used all of her power, flying back in and determined to kill the beast. The Titan roared in pain as yet more of its legs were ripped and torn and wanted nothing more than to kill this pest.

Finally, after nearly two hours of struggling, Alissa found an opportunity. The Titan was becoming tired and left a gap in its defenses near the throat. She rushed in and the Titan tried his best to stop Alissa, about to catch her within gigantic hands and crush her to bits.

Just as the hand was about to wrap her up, lightning crackled and the incoming hand swept through an afterimage, scattering it. At the same time a series of huge booms rang out from where she’d been, the air catching up with her. Adrest had no idea what just happened, Alissa simply vanished.

Then, he saw it. Alissa was making contact with the titan’s throat. Alissa savagely used her own claws and mouth to tear open the skin and Adrest balked when his friend disappeared inside the wound.

The Titan let out the loudest screams to date. If it weren’t for the barrier, Adrest eardrums would’ve been blown out. The Titan screamed and started hitting itself. Carefully looking, Adrest could see where ever the hand landed, the skin on the monster was slightly raised like it’d been irritated.

Alissa wreaked havoc on the beast’s giant frame. Skin split and blood leaked through the fur, chitin, and Earthen armor. It’s resistance became weaker and weaker until the bloodshot eyes as large as a house became dull and dim.

Shortly after the beast stilled, A lump grew on its forehead. Everyone watched as it slowly grew and grew, until finally in a rain of blood and viscera, a majestic red-purple figure appeared.

In the open and victorious, Alissa let loose a roar that vibrated the air. It was deep and long, filled with pride and a primal joy at her victory. Then, she staggered and nearly collapsed.

Not thinking about whether it was safe, Adrest ran straight out of the misty blue dragon’s protection and towards the slumped figure on the mountain of a corpse. Not caring that Rin would see, Adrest let his raven black wings spread out around himself and he took to the air.

Quickly he was at Alissa’s side worriedly looking over her battered and beaten body. There was blood everywhere, only a scant few scales that were still intact, a huge depression marred the right side of her body, and an arm was barely still attached by a single cord of sinew. Alissa looked absolutely horrible and Adrest hesitated to even touch her in fear of making unseen wounds worse.

Alissa was huffing shallowly, with blood leaking out the side of her maw. She looked triumphantly at Adrest from where she was crumpled down. Seeing the plain worry and fear on his face as he checked her over, Alissa’s heart felt warm and she used that last bit of her mana to transform back to a demi-human.

In the dragon’s place was a young woman, a horn was cracked and broken to a jagged edge, her originally purple shirt was dark and wet, she could only half kneel as too many bones were broken, and an arm dangled freely at her side.

“Haha, I did it Ady *cough* *cough*” Adrest could hear a wheeze as she spoke, it wasn't hard to guess what had gotten hit when half her rib cage was shattered.

Adrest walked up to the small form and crouched in front of her, “You really did it Ali.”

Adrest stroked the purple hair carefully straightening it for the injured woman who leaned into the warm hand, “Don’t cut it so close next time, for me?”

Alissa giggled, but was cut off from a coughing fit and wheezing.