The battle between Karna and Acnologia had elevated to a level that surpassed anything the history of Edolas had ever seen.
"My king, can we even do something?" Erza asked with a bit of fear in her voice as she guarded her slightly protruding belly, which was carrying both her and Jellal's child.
"No, we can't," he said, but then smiled. "But I have complete faith that my friend will protect us from this calamity," Jellal said as he recognised Karna covered in silver white scales and mechanical draconic wings with a sharp tail.
'I remember him using an armour of the same colour. Did he manage to fuse it to his own body? Well, not that surprising considering he is hailed as the Fairy Tactician of this generation,' Jellal thought as he saw the fight continue through his machines.
The technology given by Karna had heavily boosted Edolas's civilisation. Since the lack of magic had kicked the civilisation back by a few centuries, they were more than welcoming of the new changes brought by the technology of their prince. While researching these new technologies, they realised something amazing.
Edolas contained many resources which were discarded and ignored because they were not at all compatible with magic. But when they were used along with technology, not only were they more efficient than the original materials needed in making the machines, their rate of renewability was magnified many times over, along with their pollution footprint being almost negligible or nil.
Currently, Jellal and Erza were nowhere near the battlefield at all. They were thousands of kilometres away, watching the entire battle happen through a screen using their satellite orbiting around the planet.
The battle.
Acnologia decided not to play around this time as he knew the opponent he was facing right now required him to be completely serious. The moment the battle began, he already felt half his power disappear from his body.
And when he looked at the boy, he realised the boy had changed. Unlike the last time, where it looked like he was wearing dragon armour, the boy seemed to be fused to it completely, and the amount of energy he could sense from the boy currently seemed almost endless.
But that did not deter Acnologia at all. His grin just got wider at finally getting a prey with whom he could battle to his heart's content. And he also got a feeling that he would get his contentment today.
Immediately, as Karna flew towards Acnologia to launch the first punch, Karna was hit with a surprise.
Acnologia transformed mid-flight and turned into his humanoid form, matching his fist with Karna's.
Karna was surprised at the transformation, but realised that Acnologia had finally decided to take him seriously and had decided to fight him in a form that would deprive Karna of using the same tactics he used last time to land a blow on Acnologia.
The scar on his eye was still present on his face.
So Karna decided to go full physical force to see where he stood when compared to the apocalypse dragon, as he knew the dragon would not be holding back even in this first strike.
BOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!
The punch contained the power of a Dragon Slayer who had earned the title of the King of Dragons on one side, and on the other side contained the punch of a human who had broken through the limits of what a human could reach before a quarter of a century.
The explosion was so catastrophic that it could be considered divine luck that no living being existed within a hundred kilometres on any side of the battlefield. Even if the shockwaves of the punch would not reach a few kilometres in radius, the intensity was more than enough to indicate that there would have been innumerable civilian casualties if this had occurred near any populated area.
The exchange of strength through the punch had now revealed the strength difference between the two opponents.
Karna had moved back by four feet while Acnologia, across from him, had been dragged at least twelve feet.
Karna smiled.
He knew that Acnologia had his powers reduced by half, and that had given him a great advantage.
But even then...
He had pushed back a calamity with his physical strength alone. Without Black Flash, Accelerated Lightning, or the Rabbit and Ox Talismans.
"I think you should know, I am not going to hold back from this moment on," Karna said as he activated every talisman he had with him, along with every boost and ability. All three of his hearts began beating with more vigour, pumping his body with the required magic and energy that he needed to win this battle. His bow appeared on his left arm as he notched an arrow for the next strike.
But something unexpected happened the next moment.
"Interesting. I was thinking the same thing," Acnologia replied, shocking Karna as he never expected the Dragon Slayer to retain enough sanity to reply back.
But it did not deter him, as his aim was still the same as before.
Acnologia suddenly had dense scales appearing all throughout his body.
'Sixth Generation Dragon Slayer.'
Karna realised that Acnologia had managed to reach this level after so many centuries.
'Well, I guess I expected it already,' Karna thought as he released the first arrow.
Acnologia was about to knock it away nonchalantly, expecting the arrow to be weak as it had been made so quickly. But the moment it came close, his instincts began screaming at him to be careful. He immediately crossed both his arms to block as he knew he could not dodge the arrow completely. He could sense that some kind of tracking spell had been added to it.
But the next moment, when the arrow landed, he realised what his instincts had warned him of.
BLACK FLASH!!
Karna had finally managed to combine every type of magic he had with his archery.
The arrow he had just shot out now contained Dragon Slayer Magic, Death Slayer Magic, Rabbit Talisman speed, Ox Talisman strength, and an abundant amount of his own magic added to it.
The arrow landed, clearly damaging Acnologia's scales as they now had a clear wound in them that was slightly bleeding.
But immediately, the wound closed up and healed, showcasing the advanced regeneration of the Dragon Slayer, boosted by concentrating it into a smaller humanoid form.
"Well, no matter. I just need to do more."
THOUSAND ZAKURA: DRAGON KING ELIMINATION BARRAGE!!!!!
A/N - Hope you like it.