Chapter 99 - Dragon's Duel of Dominance (2)

I saw jagged lines running through the center of the shield. It was beginning to crack. A few more seconds passed by as my blood shield endured the unrelenting fire of the tornado. It almost seemed endless, as if the fire would never run out.

Then the tornado of fire suddenly dissipated, and Eden came flying at me. Her right hand, which was surrounded by scarlet-orange fire, punched through the already cracking blood shield and collided with my blood armored chest.

The impact of her punch sent me flying through the air. But in just two brief seconds, I quickly stabilized myself and regained my footing in the air. I had been sent more than seven feet through the air—it was a testament of her strength and the power of her fire magic.

I was undamaged, however. The defense of my Dragon Living Blood Armor was strong and Navra had estimated it to be the strongest out of my generation, which was Kiara, Eden, and a few other dragons whom I had not met yet.

Above the skies, with Elder Kronos watching from a distance, Eden and I stood face to face. I stared at Eden and Eden stared back, both of us measuring the strength of each other.

A small smile formed on Eden's lips. “Not bad, Verath.”

“Same to you,” I said with casual indifference. From my observations, I had noticed a punctured hole on Eden's left wing. A small amount of blood was seeping through from it. “Though you seem to have lost this exchange.”

“Hah! This is a mere scratch.”

“Agreed.”

I had not been utilizing the full advantage of my Dragon Living Blood Armor. The armor was not suitable for a long-range battle and exchanging magic. No! It's full potential could only be shown in close-range battles.

I summoned my threads of magic, mixing some of my blood with the magic, and soon enough, a scarlet blade made entirely out of crystallized blood materialized to my front. The blade had formed starting from the center and traveled outward in both directions, ending simultaneously at the tip of the sword and the end of the hilt.

I took hold of the blade glowing with a dull red light and grasped it tightly in my right hand. The balance of the blade, to be precise, the longsword, felt natural and smooth. With a length of three feet and a half, it was a perfect weapon for me.

At the same time, I felt weakened after creating Sangius—I had named the blade with a simple word in the Ancient language of the dragons—Blood.

The weapon was different from my Dragon Living Blood Armor. Unlike the armor, the weapon weakened my body, since I had mixed some of my own blood into making the weapon.

Blood was also mixed into my Dragon Living Blood Armor, but since the armor was deeply bound and attached to me, the armor did not weaken me. It only enhanced my defense and improved my strength a little. But if I took too much damage, the armor would consume some more of my blood to retain its shape and defense.

A rather double-edged armor and weapon, I suppose.

“Oh my, a blade now? How exciting!” Eden said with fire in her eyes. She was thirsting for battle.

The fire surrounding her hands suddenly grew brighter and more intense. The flames almost seemed to solidify one sec and the next second, uncoil itself. Eden was most likely feeding more and more magic into her hands.

At the rate she was spending her magic, she would soon run out.

Almost as if in silent agreement, we both charged at each other, our wings beating powerfully at the air. We climbed even higher above into the air in diagonal paths. Then Eden and I met each other.

Blade and fist collided with each other, causing a massive shockwave of fire and air. Her left fist was undamaged as she blocked the strike of my weapon. With her free right fist, she aimed a punch at my face.

Seeing that I could not move in time to counter with a magic shield, I manipulated my Dragon Living Blood Armor. From the chest of the armor, crystallized blood stretched out to quickly form a shield that blocked her punch.

Small pieces of the shield exploded outward to the sides from the fiery impact, and I became a little weakened as my armor consumed a blood to make up for the loss of armor mass.

It was my time to counter attack.

Using magic, I instantly manipulated Sangius—my blood longsword—to stretch and encircle Eden's left arm. The weapon coiled itself over her left arm multiple times around. Then I manipulated the weapon once more to turn it into sharp serrated edges.

The weapon had become notched with saw-like teeth and with her left arm trapped within, I attempted to cut off her entire left arm.

Eden screamed out in pain as the weapon crushed her through her armored left arm. Multiple cracks resounded in my ears and I heard the bones in her arm break.

Suddenly sensing a huge buildup of magic, I quickly moved Eden using Sangius, dragging her whole body, wings and all, down below me. Then I kicked at the fiery chest armor, which somewhat damaged my blood-armored feet. But I did not relent, and from my wings, I shot out six hardened blood spikes, each of them two feet long, and each of them mixed with blood.

They pierced through Eden's wings and parts of her armor as she went spiraling down toward the ground from the impact. At the same time, from four corners around me, huge spheres of scarlet-orange fire shot out beams. The beams from each sphere crisscrossed and connected with the other corner spheres.

At least, that was what should have occurred.

The situation, however, was that I was in the middle of all those beams of fire. But since I had been somewhat prepared for Eden's magic, I quickly moved out of range using the full extent of my physical power.

Four of the beams of fire had hit me and almost entirely pierced through my Dragon Living Blood Armor, before the holes in the armor were regenerated by the consumption of my magic and blood.

I breathed a little in pain as I felt myself weaken even more. A lot of blood had been consumed blocking Eden's magic.

Down below, Eden was still spiraling toward the ground of the arena. Then she hit the earthen floor like a fiery meteorite. Dust formed everywhere, and while this was happening, I quickly descended toward the ground of the ring.

When the dust cleared, Eden was lying inside a large crater, while coughing up some blood. The six hardened blood spikes had pierced through her shoulders, her legs, and her wings. One spike on each shoulder, one spike on each leg, and one spike on each wing. But since the spikes had entirely pierced through her body, armor and all, wings and all, the spikes were affixed to a different area of the crater.

In her fall, Eden had veered off course.

“Damn,” Eden said weakly, coughing out some blood. The blaze of her fire armor, hair, hands, and wings were losing their intensity. She had used up most of her magic in that insanely powerful spheres of fire, and some more in easing her fall.

“I guess I lose this...” Eden's voice held a small amount of resignation and bitterness.

As soon as Eden had admitted her defeat, Elder Kronos appeared inside the crater before the two of us.

“Winner, Verath.”

I proceeded to walk toward Eden, who was now entirely naked due to her magic being consumed. I was planning to carry her body.

But before I had even moved a few steps, Elder Kronos held out a palm. “Stop. You may leave now. It is disrespectful to show pity and help out the opponent after her loss. I shall handle the healing.”

Saying that, Elder Kronos picked up Eden in his arms and teleported out of the Amphitheater of Dominance.

I looked around at the spectating seats. There were a few dragons, some of them in human forms, and others in dragon forms, who had been watching the duel. Most of them were looking at me with impassive and calculating eyes. At least, that was what their eyes seemed like to me from the distance. It was hard to tell even with my dragon vision.

With my victory announced, I dematerialized Sangius and my armor, Virdus Vict Sangius. Now, I stood alone in the huge arena where some small sections of the floor had been pierced through by my blood spikes.

Then I flew toward the area of the seating where Kiara and Aqua were spectating the duel from.

“You were awesome, Verath! As expected of my husband, er...I mean protector!” Aqua said with a small squeak of delight.

Kiara, beside the flying Aqua, only looked at me in silence before nodding her head. “At least she will not underestimate you anymore, Verath.”

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With the day over, and when night had taken over, I went back toward the mountain where Navra lived in. It was an enormous mountain and looked just like any other mountain except for the huge hollowed out half-oval entrance that led to the inside of the mountain—Navra's chambers.

With Aqua flying beside me, I headed inside the chambers. Before the chambers stood an enormous black gate. I transformed into my dragon form and breathed out fire into the black gate, which greedily devoured it. Then I passed through the somewhat glowing gate. Aqua followed nervously from behind me.

“Just what is that door! How can we pass through solid objects?” she asked in an excited voice, no longer nervous.

Inside the spacious chambers, Navra Bloodseeker, Astlan Dragon King of the seven major dragon clans, and Eldest of the Arkanan clan, sat upon his black throne. With amused and somewhat impassive eyes, he looked at me with a small smile. He was in his original form, an appearance of a tall white-haired man with an impressive build.

Even from across the vast distance between the throne and from the entrance gate at which I stood at, his voice spoke as if he was just beside me. “I have a small trial for you. You will like it, or die trying.”