The dragon understood that this was perhaps the only way it could take Rui out firmly, thus it maintained an iron-clad grip over him. Unfortunately, although he was faster than the dragon, that creature was undoubtedly stronger than him. This was the power that came with sheer size, it was not something he could easily overwhelm, especially when he was trying to conserve his physical power.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Rui gritted his teeth as he did his best to bear the weight of the many collisions that the dragon subjected him to. He crashed through cliffs, hills, boulders, and even mountain peaks.

Even as he bore a substantial amount of damage, he wriggled within the dragon's grip, finally managing to meet his arms together while they slid across each other.

The tattoos on his arm flashed for a moment before the Thundercoil technique activated. The dragon froze for just the briefest moments as a momentary wave of paralysis and weakness flashed through his body.

"Rgh!" Rui gritted his teeth as he did his best to exploit what was perhaps his only opportunity to break free. He momentarily activated Hypertrophic Surge as he pushed through with all his might, blasting open the dragon's powerful grip as he plummeted through the sky.

He didn't even bother sky-walking to break his fall, in fact, he sky-walked to plummet down faster, he needed to get out of the air where he certainly no chance of winning and have solid ground beneath his feet.

Throughout the fight, he had been tracking all of his movements and thus tracking his position across the forest. The dragon hadn't held him for too long, a few minutes at most. Yet it was so fast that they had moved several thousands of kilometers.

Furthermore, it had taken him in the direction of the center of the forest for some reason. Which meant that it had managed to get him to where he originally wanted to go.

He didn't know how or why no cloud hornets had emerged in pursuit of the dragon, but he was glad. Dealing with those nightmares in his current state was as good as suicide, even for him.

BOOM!!

He landed heavily into the forest, uncaring to try and reduce his speed to lighten the impact. The sheer weight of his fall created an enormous crater as wide as a town, leveling the entire forest around him.

"ROOOOAAAAR!" The dragon swiftly charged down at him, racing to catch him off-guard in an uneven and non-uniform environment. Rui's damage from earlier, the disadvantaged environment that he would need to map all over again reassured the dragon of its victory.

And yet...

"You were too late," Rui murmured.

WHOOSH!

He swiftly avoided the charge of the dragon, somersaulting backward. He opened his eyes mid maneuver finding himself upside-down, staring into the dragon's eyes as it charged towards him.

SPLAT!

"ROOOOOAAAAAAR!" The dragon bellowed in pain as Rui struck the creature's eyes with a powerful palm jab, making it bleed.

The dragon felt a surge of rage, unlike anything it had ever experienced before. Not only did Rui avoid its attacks the entire fight despite falling prey to its handicaps. Not only did he make a mockery of the proud creature.

But now, he had gone as far as drawing blood from it. owns this.

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAR!" The dragon threw an enormously powerful blow at Rui, hoping to crush him.

Yet Rui raced forward into the attack, much to the creature's surprise.

WHOOSH!

The attack crashed into an empty image, dispelling it away, much to the creature's surprise.

It was a feint.

Rui was able to use Phantom Step once more now that the predictive model showed him the creature's due movements. He swiftly weaved his way through the creature's inner guard.

WHOOSH

He cleanly evaded a tail attack, before leaping at the creature's face once more. He ignored the incoming attack that threatened to crash into him, firmly aiming for the creature's eyes

SPLAT!

BAM!!

The dragon's claw swipe crashed into Rui, but not before he gouged the dragon's other eye, crippling its sense of vision before he was batted away.

"ROOOOOAAAAAAR!" The creature writhed in pain as it lost its main sense, crippling it forever.

"Rgh..." Rui grimaced as he got up, still shot with pain from taking that attack unguarded. Yet his eyes widened as he opened them.

"...The sensory blackout illusion is gone!" He exclaimed as he glanced around, able to perceive his surroundings just fine. "The phantom pain is gone too."

He glanced back at the writhing dragon, walking over to the helpless creature. "Well... the documentation did mention that you have extraordinary vision but your other senses were shit."

The dragon paused before its body shifted in various ways, and a soft growl escaped its mouth.

'Humans.'

His eyes widened as he understood what it conveyed to him.

'A truly insufferable species.' It menacingly growled even as it stared at him with its blinded eyes. 'I will never forgive you.'

'Interesting...' Rui's intrigue was peaked as he applied Fauna Flow. 'They did say you were highly intelligent. But this is truly remarkable sophistication.'

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAAR!" The dragon's face warped with even rage and hatred. 'HOW DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON ME!'

It lashed out against Rui haphazardly in vain.

BOOM!

Rui applied Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance as a powerful impact crashed into the creature's jaw, causing immense blunt force trauma.

The creature's body slackened as it collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"So intelligent and yet so bound by its instincts and irrationality," Rui murmured. "It would explain why it's still a beast in its lifestyle despite its intelligence."

Although it certainly possessed human-like intelligence, it was extraordinarily powerful and extremely instinctual. Intelligence wasn't the only factor that determined the sophistication of lifestyle. It had no need to apply its intelligence the way humans did.

Its own innate and intrinsic power was beyond the capabilities of anything that he had ever seen, it had no need for sophistication when it had such power.

Rui sharpened his hand into a flat palm jab, before rushing in to kill it. He needed food to restore his energy and the dragon would do just fine.

And yet...

WHOOSH!

His eyes widened as his attack hit empty air.

The dragon was gone.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," An elderly voice remarked.