Storm was currently having one of the hardest fights in his long life.
He had fought against many hunters before, and many of them were highly skilled, but never had he encountered an opponent that was so well trained against one of his kind.
No matter what Storm tried, The slayer had an counter to it, and at times he even seemed to know what Storm was going to do before he had decided his next move.
It was like the Slayer had rehearsed and trained how to fight him his whole life.
He was tenacious too, despite his skill, Storm managed to get a few hits in at the beginning, missteps due to underestimating Storm's skill, or due to not knowing one of Storm's newer abilities.
But no matter how hard he hit, The Slayer stood up again and rejoined the fight. Many times Storm's sheer rage at the loss of his home and his desire for retribution forced him to ignore wounds that would have killed other dragons.
The Slayer seemed to have the same drive as Storm, the same loss and desire for retribution, only now it was being directed at Storm and his species.
The man knew every weak spot in a dragon's scaly body, every blindspot in his senses, and he was currently using all of that knowledge against Storm.
Several wounds already covered Storm's hide, marks that hurt his pride as much as his body.
He realized early that if he didn't find some way of changing the pattern of combat , the Slayer would prevail.
So to throw him off, Storm shifted into his humanoid dragon form. The sudden change in fighting style, combined with the Shadow's addition to the fight was enough to break The Slayer's rhythm and Storm finally managed to land in a few good hits.
No matter how hard the hit though, the Slayer always got back up and soon they were locked in a stalemate again as he began to adjust to Storm's changed fighting style.
It wasn't just the Slayer's skill that proved a challenge however, his weapon and equipment was also designed with dragons in mind.
Storm had already been pierced a couple of times and he found that the spear was highly effective at bypassing draconic defenses.
His armor meanwhile might actually have been made from gold, because Storm found that the armor was especially effective against his lightning attacks.
The Slayer didn't seem to anticipate Storm's fire attacks however, so Storm was forced to rely on his smaller, less developed breath weapon, or in his combined high energy blasts.
Storm ducked below a jab from The Slayer's spear, before delivering a kick to his opponent that sent him flying through the far wall.
Storm spread his wings and quickly took off in pursuit, not intending to give his opponent any time to recover.
He tackled him and drove him backfirst through several more walls, before breaking through the last wall and into open space.
Storm lifted the man into the air, before kicking him back to the ground and forming a small crater where he landed.
Combining his light magic and his Shadow's dark magic, he fired a highly volatile blast at his downed opponent.
Light magic and Dark Magic were polar opposites of each other and always had a violent reaction when the two energies collided with each other.
To work around this, Storm seperated the two energies with a thin barrier that would collapse upon impact.
Releasing the energy and creating a void that first sucked in surrounding matter, before expelling it at great force in the form of a violent explosion as the void collapsed in on itself.
The cloud of dust hid his opponent from view as Storm and his shadow landed. A moment later, a blur left the cloud and kicked away his Shadow before striking at Storm's upper body.
He blocked it with his own sword before locking weapons with The Slayer with their bodies.
Unable to strike at each other, they could only glare at their opponent as they tested each other's strength.
A whistling sound as something flew though the air at high speed interrupted their staring contest. Forcing the 2 adversaries to seperate as a metallic scale flew through the air where the Slayer's head was a moment ago, striking the paving stones below them.
Chrome landed on the ground a moment later in his humanoid dragon form. Before Storm could Stop him, he closed the remaining distance between himself and The Slayer and raised his hammer overhead.
The Slayer raised his shield and blocked the incoming attack but the sheer force of the strike sent him flying back up against a wall.
Orian vaulted over his brother's back in his own humanoid dragon form and jumped high into the air.
The brightness from his scales suddenly intensified to an extreme level, blinding anyone that happened to look at him at that moment.
He drove his sword into The Slayer's shield, shockingly the shield withheld the brutal strike, but a deep glowing red trench traveled down the surface of the shield where the sword had sheared it.
"Stay back!! You cannot best him!!" Warned Storm.
His children gave no reaction and continued to engage with The Slayer. Storm realized that his children were too far consumed by draconic rage to be reasoned with now.
The sight of their father wounded by this man had pushed them over the edge and there was no pulling them back until blood was spilled.
It was well known that dragons had immense tempers, as a dragon gets older, he learns how to better control these violent urges, but young adult dragons were especially vulnerable to this.
Both Orian and Chrome were at the stage of growth where a dragon is most vulnerable to this state.
Unfortunately for them, as a seasoned Dragon Slayer with decades of experience, The Slayer knew this and had the knowledge to take advantage of this state.
Their rage would cause them to throw caution aside and dive headlong into the battle, something that the Slayer was counting on.
He'd felled many overconfident dragons this way and if Storm didn't do something quickly, then his sons might join that tally.