Scarlet

Up until now, during our battle, I’ve managed to cut off entire limbs of the dragon. But every time I do that, it just recovers again, either regrowing those limbs or reattaching them. Even when I took out more important parts of it in its torso it still recovered.

So if it has extra defenses around its head, it must have a weakness there.

Maybe it can’t regenerate its brain like I can, or maybe that’s where some sort of core is located.

My mind blanks out at that thought as I remember the Dragon Core that I absorbed before.

Right. Dragons have cores.

Maybe its Core is in its head.

I continue our little clashes for a little while until we’re far from any sapient life before I grow larger than I’ve ever grown. Larger than the dragon. And rush straight towards it, using any skill I can think of to fight the dragon at the same time. Blood of Ruin, Bloodborne Apocalypse, Null Magic Field, Vampiric Ascendancy, Power Drain, Blood Nullification, Crimson Overdrive, and pretty much every one of my other skills.

Overwhelming it with one enormous blast of power, blood, and attacks as it falls backwards a little bit in surprise and anger.

But while my attacks do a number on its limbs and torso, it doesn’t even dent the scales on its head or neck. And the wounds begin to regenerate again.

This time though, I don’t let that happen. Instead, I rush straight to its head while shrinking down to my regular form again with my clothes forming on me as solidified blood metal instead of the usual comfortable clothes.

And I go right into its wide-open mouth, where I jump straight up to the roof of the mouth and stab into its head with my claws from within.

To my absolute shock though, all I manage to do is a small scratch. Even with everything that I used to get here.

I grit my teeth when it tries to chew me up. But then I jump down towards the back of its throat and cut at its throat instead, finding it easier to cut open here.

Interesting.

So it’s not just its scales that are stronger the closer to its head I am. But its entire body.

A faint grin crosses my face even as blood from the dragon is spraying me in the face from its body. Blood that I absorb into my own Red Plague.

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Then I try my next plan.

I point my hands downwards, palms out, and send out a flood of Red Plague straight into its throat. Filling the thing up like a water balloon.

The dragon immediately tries to kick me out through various means, but I manage to stay in.

Until blood rips out of the sides of its mouth and throat and launches itself at me, sending me flying towards the outside of its mouth. Only for its jaw to drop the moment I’m passing by, chomping me in half and soon killing me.

I let out a short grunt of irritation when I reappear several dozen meters away, quickly reforming my clothes again as I look at the dragon from here. A dragon that is currently healing the last bits of the wounds it got on the other parts of its body.

But I find its belly looking rather plump. And glowing red.

A glow that gets brighter and brighter every second as the dragon roars out in pain, rolling around in space.

All the way until its stomach pops.

Just like a water balloon.

Then I rush straight in again, moving faster than light to appear within the creature’s stomach.

But unlike the last time, I use a skill I haven’t used in a while.

Bane of Corruption.

I quickly begin erasing the corruption within its body.

The Red Plague.

A process that proves to be far easier than absorbing the Red Plague.

Even if it means I won’t grow as much stronger.

What I find most curious though is the fact that I haven’t received any sort of prompt from the System about reaching Class VI yet. Despite being at level 2500 right now.

Strange. But not my priority at the moment.

The dragon manages to send me flying out of it again before it uses its superior speed to crush me into dust. Then I reappear, get inside of it again somehow, and both absorb and erase its Red Plague blood at the same time.

Then it kills me again, repeating the process until the dragon finally seems to regain some of its senses beyond its desire to kill me.

It changes tactics from attacking me to attacking my blood all around us. Trying to absorb and devour it with the Red Plague.

Which has me narrowing my eyes before I scatter my blood even further away.

I swear this thing is getting smarter the less Red Plague it has built up. Almost like the Red Plague is harming its intelligence or something.

Then again, that could be a side effect of trying to merge with the most dangerous and powerful corruption in the universe and beyond. Just that it’s not one I face since I am the Red Plague. And I used to be its warden.

The System was also partially behind this merge for me. But I doubt the System had anything to do with this dragon.

Whether it’s trying to get rid of my blood to stop me from reviving myself or not, I continue attacking it from the inside. Tearing away its Red Plague or eliminating it bit by bit.

All the way until the dragon finally stops moving.

I pause for a moment, curious about why it stopped. But before I can start again, the dragon lets out a loud roar and I feel its body caving in around me before I’m crushed.

Then I revive again to find that the dragon quite literally stabbed its own claw into its chest to crush me along with its currently regenerating organs.

I reestablish my clothes again while narrowing my eyes at the dragon.

A dragon who is now slowly turning towards me with a look of real intelligence in its gaze.

Along with even more hatred than before.

Silence fills the space around us for a bit before I grow in size and retake on my beast form.

And we clash once more, sending shockwaves out again.

Except now, I find that the dragon is weaker than me physically.

Lacking strongly in blood at this point.

Let’s see how long it’ll last.