Ragios didn't hesitate the moment we decided to begin the match. He immediately unleashed a torrent of flames upon my position, bathing the clearing in ruby fire.
I initially froze the incoming flames, but Ragios wasn't playing around this time. This was no fire spell ignited out of anger or irritation but a fully-fledged one devoted to my incineration. The wall of ice instantly vaporized into boiling steam but it was still enough to buy me enough time to dive to the side and avoid the worst of the flames.
Rolling away, I sprang to my feet and conjured another ice spell that froze the edges of the flames. Ragios's serpentine head snaked about and he directed the full force of his flames at me, melting the ice, but I was already moving away.
Unlike certain idiotic characters who decided to recklessly throw themselves frontally at Ragios and try to slash him with a sword, I was being more cautious. I mean, seriously…I didn't know what the brown-skinned swordswoman in bikini armor and with red hair was thinking. Jumping straight at a Blue Demonic Dragon, only to be blown away by his dragon breath. And then there was the Hero with the holy sword who thought he could cut the Blue Demonic Dragon apart with a single strike of his sword, only for the latter to possess a cheat item that could tank damage for him, and then he almost killed the stupid Hero with his dragon breath, only for the idiot to be saved by a Deus ex Machina. Well, given that the best friend that he had betrayed was destined to take revenge on the Hero and kill him, we couldn't have the moron getting killed by a random mob character first.
…all right. Maybe I had been reading way too many trashy web novels. The fact remained that I couldn't just attack Ragios from the front, not unless I had a death wish.
Casting another ice spell, I crafted a gigantic shield that was shaped like a snowflake. The flames slammed into the snowflake shield, only for the superheated fire to disperse harmlessly. This time, I had decided to infuse more mana into my defenses so as to ensure that it didn't melt instantly from Ragios's attack. The flames were in fact being frozen, or at least the edge of the torrent of fire was turning into ice. The rest of the superheated stream continued to surge toward my snowflake shield, Ragios determined to incinerate me with his dragon breath.
"Huff…"
I struggled to maintain my defenses, but Ragios was persistent. I faintly recalled Eleanor warning me that dragons possessed more mana than more humanoid demons, including vampires, but it wasn't as if I had a choice. If I didn't summon the snowflake shield, I would have eventually been roasted by Ragios's flames. I couldn't run forever, after all.
"Ugh…!"
That said, Ragios was incredibly strong. Perspiration poured down my face despite my best attempts to freeze the flames. I could see my snowflake shield gradually melting, its immense size slowly shrinking under the heat. Steaming droplets were running off its softening edges and vanishing into white mist.
At this rate, Ragios was going to burn me to death.
Fortunately, I wasn't defending for nothing. While I struggled to withstand Ragios's flames, I was also simultaneously casting another spell.
"Kuh!"
Ragios realized the trap too late. Hundreds of blood stakes erupted from the ground and stabbed into his body. His ruby scales blocked the worst of the attack, the blood spears breaking harmlessly against his armored body, but the sheer quantity meant that he took some damage. In several places, the blood stakes succeeded in piercing through softer parts of his body – particularly his unarmored belly. Blood dripped from grievous wounds and he bellowed in pain.
That was why I had aimed to attack him with my blood stakes from below.
Taken aback by the sudden assault, Ragios withdrew and his flames ceased. I was able to dismiss my snowflake shield and continued to move along the edge of the clearing once again. My feet stamped over scorched earth, the blackened ground still feeling warm through the soles of my shoes. Ignoring the discomfort, I quickly moved to a more favorable position.
There was little point in trying to attack Ragios directly from the front, after all. Not unless I wanted to suffer the full blast of his dragon breath to the face. So instead, I conjured a hail of icicles and rained them down on him from above.
"Argh!"
Ragios snarled furiously as he twisted about. Even though the icicles failed to pierce through the armored scales that protected his body – particularly the top half – they did deliver quite some damage to his wings. The icicles tore tiny holes through the thinner membrane and even left trails of ice that rapidly expanded across his wings, weighing him down.
Clearly the Dragon King wouldn't be flying anytime soon. Or if he was still capable of flying, he would find his ability to keep aloft impaired greatly.
Bellowing, Ragios unleashed another torrent of flames from his gaping jaws. Casting a blood spell to augment my physical strength and speed, I kicked off the ground and launched myself away, speeding like a bullet. Keeping ahead of Ragios's incendiary spell for now, I hurtled to the side before hitting the ground and crashing clumsily.
This was why I rarely relied on the physical augmentation aspects of blood magic. I was a mage, not a warrior, and if I tried to fight like a swordsman, I would only embarrass myself.
Not that Ragios was in any position to laugh at me. He was looking as if he was in a sorry state, his wings frozen and full of holes and his belly dripping with blood.
Realizing that his flames couldn't keep up with me, he decided to adopt a more physical approach. Growling, he leaped from the ground with an earthshaking tremor and lunged at me. I glanced up for a moment before diving to the side, narrowly dodging a massive claw that gouged out rock, sand and earth.
Rising to my feet, I spun about and slashed with both of my swords, only for them to be deflected off Ragios's armored talons. He snarled and tried to pulverize me under his bulk, his claws stomping on the ground and leaving craters.
My enchanted glasses continued to list trajectories and highlight the possible paths of my opponent's attacks. Relying on their calculations, I took the most efficient evasive routes and barely stayed one step ahead of Ragios's crushing claws.
Then the Dragon King moved with an agility that belied his immense size, whirling about to whip his tail in my direction. The lithe appendage cracked toward me at supersonic speeds and I could actually hear the sonic boom as it surpassed the speed of sound. Realizing that I wouldn't be able to evade in time, I crossed my swords and parried his tail.
The sheer force of Ragios's attack sent me hurtling several dozen meters away. I crashed into the mountain, smashing a crater into its surface before sliding downward and finding myself buried underneath rubble of rock.
Ragios wasn't going to leave anything to chance and he immediately unleashed another torrent of superheated flames that washed over my location, melting rock into magma and turning the foot of the mountain into a molten crater of red and black.
"Klein!" Stella cried, but Silvia held her back. Placing a hand on the younger girl's shoulder, the half-elf shook her head silently.
"Ah…that looks bad," Kelvin remarked. Stryker scowled but didn't say anything, while Claude had an expression of mild concern.
Ragios watched the molten rock for a few seconds, his brow furrowed. He then spread his wings, threw his head back and let out a triumphant bellow.
…only to get crush by a titanic iceberg the next second.
"Ugh?!"
Even the armored scales protecting his body weren't able to withstand the sheer mass of an iceberg deadly enough to sink a so-called unsinkable ship. Ragios bellowed in agony as he was crushed into the ground, blood spurting from his wounds as ruby scales shattered. The spines on his back and tail were able to gouge fragments out of the plummeting iceberg, but those were mere drops when compared to the bulk of ice that dashed him to the ground.
Ruby flames ignited along the spines on his back and tail and Ragios released a stream of superheated flames from his jaws, vaporizing a good chunk of the ice within seconds. His body was shrouded in boiling steam that would have scalded him if he hadn't been a legendary fire dragon. The part of the iceberg not immediately vaporized melted into a tsunami of water that hosed him, almost drowning him in what seemed like a tidal wave.
For a moment, the clearing turned into a lake as the massive amounts of water flooded the entire place. Flames erupted around Ragios and continued to turn much of the water into steam, slowly draining it out, but much of the ground remained damp.
"I can't believe you're still alive."
Ragios turned back to the foot of the mountain, where I was slowly extricating myself by kicking away a bunch of molten debris. Admittedly, I had been severely injured, with parts of my body almost burned off. Even so, my incredible regenerative abilities had kicked in and the third degree burns were gradually healing.
"You'll find that I'm very tough to kill." I shrugged and shook my head, trying to clear my mind of the red haze of pain that clouded my vision.
"No doubt." Ragios's lip curled into a sneer and he unleashed another fire spell. I blocked it with another huge snowflake shield, freezing the tip of his flames.
This time, Ragios didn't persist on trying to incinerate me. After several seconds of bathing me in flames, he ceased fire and pounced on me. A single swipe of his claws shattered my snowflake shield and sent icy fragments raining down on me.
I deflected his claws with my swords and moved swiftly, trying to evade as best as I could. We traded a few blows, claw against blade, the tremendous impacts cracking the ground beneath our feet and throwing up rocky debris around us. Fire and ice alternated around us, with embers freezing into frost before boiling away into steam, then getting replaced by fresh sparks or snow.
Fire and ice raged against each other in a titanic battle, each element attempting to impose its superiority over the other. The beleaguered earth cracked and cried underneath their struggle, heated to the point of melting before being frozen over by ice. A ring of fire blazed around us, only to be transformed into a dazzling fence of frost, which was then melted by the heat.
From their perches high in the surrounding mountains, the dragons watched, impressed. Around the outskirts of the valley, the humanoid demons spectated in awe, amazed by the incredible battle that was taking before their disbelieving eyes.
Ragios lashed out with his tail, but I ducked under it, having been forewarned by my glasses that he was going to try that maneuver before he actually executed it. My swords left several trails of blood across his body, whereas Ragios's thunderous blows left bruises and hairline fractures on mine. Even with my vampire's regenerative abilities, I was going to run out of mana and be unable to heal myself at this rate.
Hopping to the side and narrowly avoiding getting pulverized by Ragios's tail, which whipped down from above to carve a ravine in the earth, I whirled around and slashed at the crimson dragon's flank. Blood stakes and icicles bombarded him from different directions, the former from below and the latter from above.
Ragios responded by incinerating several of the icicles into boiling steam, and vaporizing several of the blood stakes at his front. However, there were so many projectiles that he wasn't able to destroy all of them before they pierced through his body or wings, dealing even more damage. Growing in frustration, he unleashed another wave of fire to scorch the area.
Instinctively sensing his intent, I immediately jumped away and widened the distance between us. Skidding across the ground, I plunged my swords into the soil and arrested my momentum. Using them like poles, I swung myself about and into the opposite direction – just in time to escape being crushed by Ragios's massive tail.
Yanking my swords out of the ground, I continued to skid across the frozen surface – courtesy of my ice spells – and withdraw to what I hoped was a safe distance. The ice was immediately vaporized by Ragios, his rage embodied by the relentless flames that he continued to spew toward me.
Bellowing, the massive dragon closed in on me in a single bound, his massive wings spread to cast a shadow over me. I briefly entertained the idea of escaping through the shadows with Nocturne's ability, but then decided to finish this once and for all.
Rising to my feet, I steeled myself and pointed Nocturne toward the approaching Ragios. Taking a deep breath, I cast my ultimate spell.
"Absolute Zero!"