Boom!
A massive mushroom cloud erupted from the heart of the Hogria Mountain Range.
Hitsuya had unleashed a point-blank roar directly at the ground. The blast didn't just shatter Ur's Giant Lava Claw; it leveled yet another layer off the already battered peak, significantly reducing the mountain's height in an instant.
Hitsuya was flipping the tables.
Ur's relentless assault had inflicted genuine pain, and with that pain came a burgeoning sense of crisis.
Death?
That was a word Hitsuya had never known since the day he hatched. It brought an inexplicable panic, which in turn fueled a mountainous rage, the indignity of being humiliated by a mere human.
"Human... mere livestock... how dare you challenge the majesty of Hitsuya!"
With a violent sweep of a single wing, the drake whipped up a magical maelstrom. The air rippled and surged with a terrifying intensity. Despite having fought several powerful mages in succession, followed by a brutal melee with Ur, the mana within Hitsuya still flowed as deep and vast as a river. His reserves were nothing short of monstrous.
Ur's pupils constricted.
A dragon is a dragon, he thought. Even a lesser drake possessed a daunting, natural pressure.
Wisps of white vapor swirled around Hitsuya as staggering amounts of mana radiated in every direction. The earth groaned and trembled; rocks and debris began to hover, caught in the magical field. Miles away in the dense forest, beasts and monsters fled in a frantic, chaotic exodus.
Feeling this crushing pressure, Ichiya, Natsu, and the others in the distance turned pale, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks. Their faces were masks of horror and disbelief.
"Watch out!"
"Hitsuya is going for broke!"
"That damn monster... he's wounded like that, so how does he still have such terrifying power?"
The group was paralyzed with dread. The explosion of Hitsuya's strength sent their premonitions of doom skyrocketing.
Vroom!
A colossal green magic circle manifested, glowing with a blinding light. Endless wind mana converged frantically, forming a localized hurricane right before Hitsuya's chest.
Seeing this, Ur didn't hesitate for a second.
Two deep-yellow magic circles bloomed on the ground. Compared to Hitsuya's, Ur's circles were far more intricate; this was the human advantage. Aside from their innate breath attacks, dragons were often crude in their application of magic; they relied on sheer, overwhelming volume to achieve their destructive results.
"Destruction Storm!"
"Double Giant Lava Claw!"
Three magic circles erupted simultaneously.
In the next heartbeat, a gargantuan tornado spiraled into the heavens, tearing even the clouds asunder. Under the pale moonlight, the hurricane surged toward Ur with the power to grind anything in its path to dust.
At that exact moment, two towering stone pillars erupted from the earth.
The fingers of the Giant Lava Claws interlaced, forming a rugged fortress that shielded Ur within. The remaining sections of the arms slammed upward, meeting the descending tornado head-on.
Crack! Crack!
The wind blades within the tornado were sharper than any sword. They carved countless gouges into the magma claws, sending a spray of stone shards flying, which were then caught by the storm and flung outward in a lethal "rain of boulders" across the mountainside.
"Ow! Ow-ow-ow!" Natsu and the others were caught in the crossfire. Too weakened to dodge, they were quickly pelted by the stone rain, leaving them with heads full of bruises.
The tornado acted like a massive rock crusher, swiftly devouring the two magma claws before slamming into the interlocking stone barrier.
Crack!
The moment the barrier met the storm, it splintered into a spiderweb of fissures.
Bang!
With a deafening roar, the tornado and the stone fortress exploded together. The sheer force caused half the peak to collapse; a landslide of boulders and earth thundered down the slope like a tectonic avalanche.
As the explosion cleared, Ur suddenly burst through the debris, hoisting a twenty-meter-wide fireball above his head. He hurled it directly at Hitsuya.
"ROOOAAR!!"
Hitsuya opened his maw and unleashed a roar that scattered the fireball instantly. The sky lit up as if a massive firework had been detonated, illuminating the entire mountain range.
"Kill!" Ur bellowed.
The Dark Dragon Fang flared with a fierce, hungry flame as he charged straight for Hitsuya. The drake did the same, spreading a wing and streaking through the sky like a bolt from a crossbow.
Man and dragon had both entered a desperate, final struggle.
With their mana reserves nearly spent, the battle had devolved into the most primal of tests: close-quarters combat.
Whack!
Hitsuya's claw slammed into Ur, the impact so violent it caused the capillaries in Ur's skin to burst, sending a spray of blood into the air. Ur's expression turned predatory; he tanked the hit and countered instantly.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
He left over a dozen jagged wounds across the drake's hide.
Dragon combat was devastating against giant foes, but against a human, it lacked finesse. Usually, a single claw was enough to end a human life. Now, both were blinded by bloodlust, trading blows in the sky.
Ur had lost count of how many times he had hacked into the beast. The Dark Dragon Fang was completely drenched in dragon blood, its edge jagged with countless notches. No matter how massive Hitsuya was, the sheer volume of trauma was beginning to take its toll.
"ROOOAAR!!"
Hitsuya screamed in fury. He was a drake who had once laid waste to a kingdom, yet here he was, pushed to the brink by a single human. It was an insult to his very soul.
Thud!
Hitsuya spun suddenly, his massive tail whipping around and catching Ur squarely in the ribs.
"Pfft—!" Ur coughed up a spray of blood mixed with bits of internal tissue.
By now, his Lava Beast Armor had long since dissipated. Without that protection, even with his superhuman constitution, the impact of the drake's tail snapped several of his ribs like dry kindling.
Ur's gaze turned icy as his primal instincts took over completely.
Swish!
A cold, ruthless strike caught Hitsuya's tail, severing a third of it. While the drake was still howling in agony, Ur vaulted around to the front. He drove the blade deep into the drake's neck.
Schlick!
Blood erupted like a geyser.
"ROOOAAR!!"
Hitsuya lunged backward, putting distance between them. As he felt the searing pain and the cold air hitting his throat, a flicker of genuine terror finally mirrored in the depths of his eyes. In that moment, he had truly felt the shadow of the grave.
"Human... you just wait!" Hitsuya bellowed one last time.
Then, he turned and fled.
He was terrified. Faced with the certainty of death, Hitsuya chose to cast aside his pride. He had memorized this human's scent; he swore that once he recovered, he would return to settle this blood debt.
The sight of the drake's sudden retreat left Ichiya and the others stunned. A wave of immense relief washed over them; they had been prepared to die, but no one chooses death if life is still an option.
But as the others began to breathe a sigh of relief, Ur watched the retreating silhouette. A cold glint flashed in his eyes, and a murderous intent erupted from him.
"You think you're running? Did you ask me first?" He squeezed every last drop of magic power from his core. Ur threw his hands open, and a massive, complex yellow magic circle materialized before him. Energy hummed and solidified, and a giant spear, black as obsidian and gleaming with a metallic luster, appeared in the air.
Earth Magic, Earth Spear!
SHOOOOM!
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Next Chapter: Slaying the Dragon
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