A few moments after the dragon's maw began to emit that sinister molten-yellow glow, I felt the temperature of the cavern increase. A split second later an enormous laser-like beam of fire shot out of the dragon's open mouth and sped towards me. I grinned and darted out of the beam's path, flitting through the air like some sort of ultrasonic hummingbird.
The beam of fire shot past me and struck the cavern's ceiling before the dragon closed its maw and began to glare at me again. I was a creature of almost impossible, sheer, supernatural speed. Against the dragon, under these conditions at least, I was basically invincible and certainly untouchable.
That said, for me to truly win I couldn't just defeat my foes. I needed to make an impression. I slowed down, even as the dragon kept its cold gaze locked on me, and time began to flow around me again. All around me multiple things happened at once.
The first thing I noticed was the Toreans who were closest to the dragon splitting into two separate groups. One of the groups lifted and hefted their spears at Nadri's people, while the other dashed towards their dragon. I grinned, even as the dragon began to grin, and the creature immediately scowled upon noticing that I was also grinning.
My allies froze in fear as the spears spun through the air towards them. They would only be afraid for a single moment though, as I was ready to intervene.
I didn't bother looking at the group of Toreans who had hefted their spears at the people I had at least temporarily allied with. Instead, I focused, a little, on their spears and froze them in mid-air with telekinesis. They had chucked over three dozen spears at "my people" and not a single one made it anywhere near my allies.
"That was a mistake." I uttered, speaking directly into the minds of the warriors I was fighting. I turned their spears around and pointed them back at their throwers.
So far it seemed that I was... a quick study with regards to my powers. Once I had first made use of them, using them again felt easy and natural.
Before I could hurl the spears back at my enemies my principal foe turned his gaze away from me and gazed at my allies. He opened his mouth and began to charge his foul fiery beam, which made me chuckle.
"Can't teach an old dog new tricks can you?" I muttered, even as the dragon prepared to unleash a deadly blast of fiery fury. I sped forward, vanishing from the view of my enemies as I momentarily lunged in something akin to my true speed at the dragon.
I came to a stop right beside the beast, and right as the fiery laser of burning brutality exploded out of the creature's maw I launched a devastating kick at the beast with a small fraction of my true strength. The sheer force of my blow forcibly rocked the dragon's head, sending the beast toppling to the side and making its enormously dangerous laser veer wildly away from my allies.
The dragon's head snapped back and the beast tried to speed back to me to bite into me, and I chuckled and leaped out of the way, dodging its numerous attempts to sink its gigantic jaws and sharp teeth into me. The creature was fast, but it was nowhere near fast enough to endanger me.
It was at that moment that I hurled the spears I had seized from my enemies back at them. They screamed as the spears sailed through the air, and as their weapons sailed into their throats or into their hearts their screams were almost completely, abruptly, cut off. I had captured over forty spears so it took a few moments for all of them to slay their original hurlers, and as they served me I felt myself growing stronger and faster.
The dragon continued trying to bite at me, now painfully aware that I was effectively invulnerable to its deadly heat breath. The beast was not able to take a bite out of me before I slew its... companions, and as they died I felt their power enter me and empower me. I felt myself grow stronger, faster, and overall just more powerful.
"Thank you... Dragon." I muttered, even as I dodged the beast's clumsy attempts to hit me. The creature was no doubt a powerful, overwhelming enemy but to someone like me, who effectively embodied speed, it posed no more danger than a single ant could to an elephant.
"Even now I grow stronger than ever before. The deaths of your handlers... Empower me." I uttered, gazing at the dragon, even as I used telekinesis to uplift one of Nadri's people. He landed on the edge of the cavern, near where I had entered from. A second later I placed Nadri beside him, still bound to the stake, and listened as the man dashed to free the young woman.
When the dragon next tried to bite me I didn't move out of the way. I waited as the dragon approached me and when it did I hurled a single potent punch at the beast. This was a real punch, one that made the air around me reverberate and generate a vicious shockwave. My blow exploded through the air in front of me.
My blow sailed through the air between the dragon and me, and when the beast was struck it was struck in its vicious maw. My fist not only sailed through the air into the jaws of the mythical monster, but my fist also sped so fast that when my blow struck the dragon my fist sailed through its mouth, entering it and exploding out the other side of the creature's reptile-like snout, creating a shower of blood, scales, and dragon-viscera.
"And that... is that." I uttered, even as I retracted my fist back out of the dragon's mouth. As I pulled back my fist, the dragon began to utter soft, whimpering noises but I felt the immense pain it was in. The beast was down for the count.
I gently walked to the creature's side and gazed into its scarlet eyes for a second. The creature was in immense pain and had been defeated. For a moment I considered letting it wallow in pain, but quickly realized that that was almost unthinkably cruel. I had no reason to be so mean to the beast. I walked to where its head ended and its neck began and I rose my fist into the air.
"I am the sun soul. Power incarnate. And today your people learn the consequences of attempting to harm those I have declared are to be free." I told the beast, before I brought my fist down, in a knifehand style strike. My fist cut through the air, and when I hit the dragon's neck its scales did nothing to protect it from the pure power behind my fist.
I cut the dragon's head clean off of its body, and when I was done decapitating the beast I picked up its head and felt the creature's enormous power begin to flow into me, empowering me further than anything else to date had.
"Now that... Feels good." I declared, triumphantly. Not only did I feel a general sense of the creature's enormous strength flowing into me, I felt something new: specific powers seeping into my soul. The dragon wasn't an ordinary foe, it was a creature with the power of entire groups of people and so the power I was absorbing was incomparable to the minute quantities of power I had absorbed from the humans I had slain in the past few hours.
In a silent show of power, I quietly reached out and grabbed the spears held by my enemies with my mind, effortlessly taking hundreds of the weapons they had held onto. They attempted to resist, to hold onto their spears, but I was stronger than they were and so none of them successfully held onto their weapons.
I turned around and faced the "allies" I had made through my actions. As I did I proudly displayed the head of the dragon. I smiled and began to speak, my voice exploding throughout the cavern so that I could clearly be heard by everyone present.
"Never forget this act of kindness! Today I slew this dragon and freed Nadri and the rest of your people from the cruelty of the Toreans. You entered this cavern as victims of a cruel, oppressive army and you are leaving it as courageous witnesses to history. Remember the sheer power of the sun soul!" I said, my voice echoing powerfully throughout the cavern.
A second after I spoke, I hurled the spears I had taken from the Toreans back at them. I aimed, without fail, at the heads and hearts of the warriors who had come here to oppress and terrorize people. The warriors wailed in pain as the spears first penetrated their armor, or masks, and then their skin. They stopped wailing when they fell dead, blood pouring out of their new wounds.
All in all, I slew over three hundred warriors this way, in addition to the other warriors I had slain before this. Nadri's people remained silent for a moment as they watched their oppressors die ingloriously at the ends of their own spears. But a second after the last bodies dropped to the floor, the men who had been brought here began to cheer. I grinned and left the mountain's interior in the blink of an eye.
A second after my display of power I found myself outside of the cavern, floating in the air above the entrance to the mountain that I had used mere minutes ago. It was still night, and so I was basically invisible even though I wasn't far from the mountain or the ground.
"I suppose I can be kind without asking for anything in return..." I uttered, grinning as I felt my senses expand enough that I could see and hear everything for entire kilometers beyond what I used to be able to see and hear everything for. My expanding senses brought me increasing awareness of the guards stationed throughout the mountain.
The Toreans occupied and guarded this mountain. I don't know why, but their reasons for doing this weren't important. They had made an enemy of me and I was determined to wage war against them. Honestly, that alone gave me enough reason to go ahead and do what I was about to do even without the added justification of allowing Nadri to go home and tell her people the sun soul had rescued her from despair and a dragon's maw.
I gazed at the mountain as my mind reached out across an area kilometers wide and yanked spears from the hands of surprised and alarmed Torean guards. They, just like their fellow guards from within the mountain, were helpless to resist my telekinetic powers.
I didn't bother allowing them to have a moment to be shocked as the other guards had had. I skewered them with their spears without hesitation and even began to smile as I did so because I felt their power seeping into me.
"Someone could definitely get addicted to this..." I whispered, as I studied the mountainside and looked for any guards I might have missed. I visually confirmed the existence of dozens of newly created bodies, and then closed my eyes to allow my other senses to help me pick out any stragglers. Specifically, I was interested in hearing the heartbeats of my enemies.
I floated in the skies above the entrance to the mountain my allies would be coming out of and listened intently to my surroundings. I had no qualms with killing things since it made me grow stronger and I was at war with the Toreans anyway.
I fully intended to continue killing them until our war was over. I heard no heartbeats on the mountainside and began to smile mercilessly. I reached back to Nadri's mind, as I had done before, and began to speak to her.
"Nadri... I have freed you from the terror of the Toreans and their fierce pet. As of today you and your people can live free from their influence. The Toreans are my enemy and the enemy of some of your neighbors. If you, or your people, wish to fight against the Toreans further come and seek me out in my home." I told the young woman, before giving her detailed instructions on how to arrive at my home.
I continued to float in the air above the entrance to the mountain and studied the area for a bit longer. I looked down at the entrance I had taken and chuckled as I thought about all that I had gained in coming here. It was while I was here that I felt Nadri... begin to reply to me, using her mind.
"Ackatrayelu, is it really over? Am I... really free?" Nadri asked, concern, fear, hope, and other emotions forming a volatile cocktail of emotions audible in her mental voice. I chuckled and quickly began to prepare another message to reassure the young woman.
"Nadri, your father's piety summoned me. He was in desperate need of a hero to rescue you from the clutches of the dreadful dragon the Toreans had allied themselves with. I have freed you from the dragon and the Toreans, but our conflict against them is only just beginning. Hundreds of them died tonight, and yet they will surely continue to oppress anyone they can, including your people." I began explaining to the young woman.
"I am working with the people of an empire known as 'Verdad'. They too are tired of the oppression and violence the Toreans inflict on their neighbors. The conflict continues, but you are safe from the Toreans. If you and your people wish to continue the fight... Come and find me in my home." I told the human. I transmitted the message easily, and then waited a few moments.
Nadri didn't reply to my message, but I felt her heart relax in response to my words. It seemed that I had said enough to relax the poor girl. Mere minutes ago she believed her fate was to be a dragon's meal, and instead, she found herself being rescued by a powerful "spirit" that her people seemed to worship as some sort of manifestation of power.
That said, I didn't have all night to be here. I turned around and sailed at a speed near the speed of light to return home, and did so in not even a second. I found myself floating in the air above my home mere moments after I spoke, mentally, to Nadri. My interactions with her brought a big smile to my face.
Nadri's return and her influence over her father practically ensured that I gained new followers and believers. The knowledge that I had gained so much tonight allowed me to descend to my home's roof with ease and with confidence. My escapades tonight had given me so much, and upon landing on my house I felt a wave of euphoria surge into my mind.
"I see that tonight's surprises are still not over are they?" I asked, right as a note materialized in my clenched fist.
"Huh... That's new." I uttered, as I glanced at the crumpled-up note. I opened my fist and grabbed the note so that I could begin to read it. As I did my eyes began to widen.
"Congratulations on the usage of one of your 'Species slots'! Your decision to impersonate the Ackatrayelu, or rather the sun-spirit of the Hithian continent, was a powerful one and it has granted you considerable power." The note began, and before my very eyes what was written on it continued to increase, even though no writer was in sight.
"The nameless species you are a member has a number of traits that make it so powerful. The first of these traits is its 'Species slot' ability. This ability allows you to take on the qualities, powers, and traits of a species, provided you can get people to believe you are a member of that species. You unknowingly activated this ability when you convinced the natives that you were the Ackatrayelu." The note revealed.
"The Ackatrayelu is a specific type of spirit with powers related to the sun, hence its name, which counts for the purpose of the 'Species slot'. This granted you powerful light, life, and fire abilities, powers, and traits, and the ability to gain even greater abilities provided you acquire more followers who believe you to be the Ackatrayelu." The note stated, educating me to the reasons why I had been able to gain so much power so shortly and why my body was still getting stronger, healthier, and more coordinated.