Scarlet

The moment our claws meet, a shockwave is sent out all around us, sending the lava flying into the air before the sonic boom echoes across the entire arena. Meanwhile I find myself surprised by the fact that the dragon still matches me perfectly in strength. As if the two of us are equally powerful.

Seriously? Even with all of my boosts? How is it this strong? I should be stronger physically than a level 2500 so long as it’s not Gramps, who has a boatload of mythical skills… unless the dragon is stronger than level 2500 in reality?

Also, something I didn’t consider before, but if this thing does kill me with its hellfire… flames that can devour someone’s reality… will I actually end up dead? Didn’t really consider that the hidden monster might have a reality attacking magic.

The dragon and I repeatedly clash back to back, sending multiple shock waves out all around us. And I’m certain that the crowd watching us right now must be going wild with excitement.

But I can’t focus on anything but the dragon, because every last strike from it feels stronger than anything I’ve ever faced before.

We continue clashing back and forth over and over again for so long that I begin to lose track of time. And throughout this battle, neither of us take all that much damage. And the damage I do take ends up healing right away thanks to Lycan’s Regeneration. With the dragon not taking almost any damage at all, its scales proving to be too powerful for even my Red Plague to devour beyond mere scratches when I make contact.

I’m sure I’d be able to do more damage if the Red Plague had more time to devour it, probably be able to devour its scales whole in fact. But that’s the problem.

This damned dragon is faster than me, and it’s about my equal in terms of strength. So I don’t have the time to do that.

Even with all of my boosts, with me draining its life energy and mana, and even me trying to boil and nullify its blood. But I quickly realize through the fight that the creature seems to be immune to pretty much all skills below epic rarity. And even with epic rarity skills, they’re a lot less effective than they’d normally be.

It’s almost like the thing is resisting anything of System origin.

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Honestly, at this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if someone told me this thing wasn’t in the System at all.

We continue clashing back and forth for a while with the dragon releasing hellflames from multiple parts of its body every time I try to strike at it with missiles made of Red Plague. And each and every time, the two very nearly cancel each other out. Proving that hellflames are really one of the only matches for the Red Plague. Well, at least, when the owner of the hell flames is sufficiently stronger than me.

Seeing as the Red Plague’s strength is still tied to me. Or at least, the Red Plague I’m carrying’s strength.

The Red Plague planet approaching isn’t.

After we continue clashing over and over again for who knows how much longer, I finally jump back, surprising the dragon as I land back on the ground, our battle having been taken outside of the crater at some point. Then I do something I haven’t really tried before. I concentrate a massive portion of Red Plague in my mouth, condensing it more and more until it’s just a brightly glowing orb of Red Plague.

The dragon, as if knowing exactly what I’m doing, suddenly begins to do the same thing. It flies forwards and lands with its hind legs while keeping its front ones in the air as a ball of black flames suddenly begin to build up in its mouth.

But unlike the dragon who is using its mana to accomplish this, I draw in some of the Red Plague that has been multiplying all around us during our battle into my attack as well.

Then we both release our attacks in the form of two pulses shooting straight at each other. Mine a glowing red flow of blood while it’s a black jet of flames.

When the two attacks clash in between us, they send out another shockwave. But this shockwave is filled with both hellfire and Red Plague as it shoots out all around us, tearing up the terrain and sending lava splashing into the air.

We both ignore the lava as we push harder and harder, putting more and more Red Plague and hellfire into our attacks that ends up spraying all around us from their points of collision.

The dragon finally sets its front legs down, pushing its head closer towards me and making the pulses push back towards me a little.

I don’t take it sitting down though as I draw in all of the Red Plague that’s splattered around us and begun devouring the surroundings before pulling it into myself and recycling it into the attack as well, pushing the pulses right back at it.

Both pulses continue wrestling back and forth, spewing out the extra to the sides and tearing the surroundings to a bloody pulp. Literally, in the case of my Red Plague. Before said pulp turns to ash at least.

Throughout the battle I make sure over and over again to kill a monster on the other side of the arena with some of my Red Plague that I scattered there for revival purposes. Just to keep up my stacks of Blood Thirst.

And as our attacks continue to clash in between us, I begin to lose my patience.

So, since the wall of lava is still surrounding us, with no one on the other side for hundreds of kilometers, I finally activate two skills I’ve been saving.

Both skills using Red Plague for the first time in my entire life.

Both Bloodborne Apocalypse and Blood of Ruin.

My eyes narrow as the dragon’s begin to widen.

Let’s see if you can take this.