With ten minutes left in the Scenario, Fen had come up with a plan to deal with the Lesser Dragon flying behind him. It probably wouldn't work, but it was his only chance to complete the Scenario. If he failed then he would die. It was that simple, which meant that Fen didn't need to stress to hard about the success or failure of the plan.
Of course he'd try his best not to die, but in the case that he did lose his life, then
Maybe it would be better to do nothing at all and simply continue running, but there was a very large issue with that idea.
This monster had wings; it could fly and catch him wherever he ran to. No matter how fast Fen was, he couldn't beat a flying creature that large without expending a massive amount of energy. Energy that currently, Fen didn't have and was unable to get without spending time that would better spent elsewhere.
So, realizing that he would be able to escape quite easily if the Lesser Dragon wasn't able to fly, Fen came up with a plan to eliminate it's flying capabilities and destroy it's wings. How he would do that? Well, it was a plan that needed a seriously ridiculous amount of luck...
He had to hope that his terrible luck wouldn't interfere with his plan again, otherwise he really would die. And his terrible luck wasn't even the largest issue with his plan either.
When he prepared for the Scenario he had only brought his Iberian short sword as a weapon, and although it was a decent weapon, it meant that he didn't actually have anything that might be able to pierce through this thing's wings... Not a big problem, probably, but Fen had some serious doubts about whether his short sword could cut through a Dragon's wings, where it was connected to the monster's shoulders.
He might be able to cut through the membrane. It was just tougher leather, right? Maybe he could cut through it with just the short sword.
If Fen was able to learn a Blade Technique and could create an edge of energy then he wouldn't even need to worry about whether his weapon was sharp enough, he could simply use his own energy to increase the piercing power. Hell, if he knew a Blade Technique then he could probably use a stick as a weapon and everything would work out fine!
Damn that useless Foundation. Couldn't even give him what he needed, even when they were the reason why he needed it in the first place!
Too bad that Gray and Qin hadn't gotten to learning how to manipulate their energy that way yet, otherwise Fen would've easily slit this being's wings and ran away as fast as his two legs could propel him.
Fen could only cry inside his heart as he thought about how much harder his life was without a Blade Technique. How was it his fault that the things he hadn't learned would became the very tool that would've saved him!? He wasn't a seer, who could tell the future! If he was able to see the future then he'd be doing a hell of a lot more than simply running away from an overgrown lizard with wings the size of a building.
As he ran Fen had to nimbly avoid hot-burning fireballs that were launched at him from behind, using his sense of touch to detect when one of the balls of flame was being thrown at him. The technique sounded fancy, but in reality all he was doing was feeling when his skin felt like he was on fire and jumped in the opposite direction.
The tactic worked though, so Fen didn't have any complaints.
Doing this quickly burned through the remnants of his energy though, and if he had to make an estimate, he'd say he was running on about twenty percent of what he had; he had to get rid of this thing's wings soon or he'd have to figure something else out if he didn't want to know what burning to death felt like.
'Fucking reptiles... I thought Dragons were cool but these things are just pissing me off now,' Despite being nearly pushed to his limits, Fen's thoughts weren't as panicked as somebody in his situation should be.
There was a very good reason for this however. He had picked out a reasonable area that might allow him to initialize his plan, a grouping of tall trees with dark green leaves that resembled an oak tree.
The top branches of the tree were extremely thick and rivaled the trunks of the surroundings trees, and were twisted enough to suit Fen's needs at the moment.
Revealing dexterous movements that'd put a gymnast to shame, Fen steered his body towards the grouping of trees.
The Lesser Dragon followed, but it was forced to land because of the dense tree canopy that blocked it from seeing Fen if it chose to remain in the sky.
Crash!
With a loud boom, the ground underneath Fen's feet trembled as the massive weight of the Dragon landed on the earth. Fen looked behind him to see the monster snaking it's body forward to rush towards him, getting closer and closer with every passing second.
Fen's heartbeat had accelerated to the point where the roar of blood and adrenaline was the only thing that he could hear, excluding the Dragon's loud footsteps of course. His tendons strained to move his body faster than the large monster chasing him. He pushed his Vital energy to the limit, nearly exploding parts of his body as the surge of energy stimulated his muscles to newfound limits.
When the burst of flame that appeared to hit Fen disappeared and the Dragon could see again, it's prey was already gone.
Fen was standing on top of one of the tree's large branches, waiting with a smirk on his face.
The Dragon snorted fire through it's mouth, before charging towards him, crashing through branches and trees alike. If Fen had hoped that the sturdy plant life would be able to hold the monster back then his hopes would have been instantly dashed as he watched the Lesser Dragon's charge.
Although his plan still might work, he would need to expend a hell of a lot more effort to achieve it, and luck. If it was just a matter of effort, Fen would probably succeed, but the luck part was worrying.
The Dragon chased him through multiple different trees, brutally crashing through them and leaving destroyed earth wherever they passed.
"Hruar!" It roared in pain.
When it broke through the umpteenth tree, Fen got lucky; a large piece of wood was wedged into the ground and impaled the monster's leg. A burst of flame incinerated the wood before it could do more damage, but it's speed was reduced.
The Dragon limping towards him was certainly a sight to see, if Fen wasn't fighting for his life it might even be comical.
Jumping from tree to tree allowed him to preserve a little of his Vital energy, but doing that came with a cost; the large space full of trees was slowly becoming more and more open as the Dragon destroyed all the trees that it's prey used to block it.
The moment was slowly approaching; the Dragon was slowly getting more and more tired as it chased him around, accumulating multiple bruised and cracked scales as well as multiple long and jagged cuts from being impaled by tree branches.
During the entire chase the Dragon kept it's wings tucked away behind it, protecting the vulnerable layer by bunching the wings up and letting it's scaled body endure the majority of the blows. Still, this protection wasn't perfect, and there were a couple cuts in the wing membrane, but not enough to prevent it from taking flight again if Fen tried to run.
Fen jumped onto another tree, but instead of continuing to lead the monster on and jumping to another tree, he used the energy he had preserved during the chase. Transferring the energy took precious seconds away from him, allowing the dragon to grow extremely close.
What the Dragon was seeing made the monster believe that it's prey had finally run out of energy, and the creature opened it's maw filled with jagged teeth wide, allowing Fen to see the back of it's throat ignite with flames.
At the very last moment however, the Dragon's senses suddenly blared and warned it against danger.
Snap!
The Dragon shut its jaws to glare at Fen, now cautious against him. Although Lesser Dragons were no where near as intelligent as true Dragons, they still possessed intelligence superior to the majority of monsters.
And it's senses were right; like a coiled up spring, Fen released the burst of energy he had been holding in his body as he exploded forward in a flash of movement, the monster almost losing sight of him as he came barreling towards it.
For the first time since entering the Scenario, Fen reached behind him while in the air and grasped the familiar handle of his Iberian short sword, placing his opposite hand in front of him to guide the swing of his weapon.
As if he entered slow motion, the world around him seemed to slow down to a crawl as Fen grew close enough to see into the Dragon's eyes (Which were a cool looking yellow-goldish color, if he might add). Fen ignored it's head and continued flying forward, sliding right next to it's long, pitch black neck, until he reached the area where it's shoulder blades should be. Where it's coiled up wings were.
He aimed his hand to it's left wing, to his right, and waited for a single heartbeat's worth of time until he was close enough to count the intricate veins that ran through the Dragon's skin.
With a savage grin, Fen threw his right arm forward with all his strength, the simple white sword flashing with light and blood as it cut through a small section of the wing. The membrane was softer than he thought it would be, letting him cut through much more of the soft tissue.
Then time resumed.
"Roar!" It roared with pain, twisting its neck to examine the damage done to it.
Thump!
A loud crash, and Fen was back on the ground, although he had a few more holes in him than he was supposed to. The plan worked though; simplicity worked best, and was always the most efficient method. Why would he have to remove its wings when he could simply poke a hole in them?
If it's wings were made from feathers rather than a membrane then Fen definitely wouldn't be able to penetrate through it with his blade, but because of the fire Dragons carried inside them, feathered wings would burn away before they could be used.
He had to grateful for evolution's imperfections.
The Scenario wasn't over yet however. What Fen had done had removed it's ability to fly, but cutting a hole in it's wings also seriously pissed it off at the same time. When it finished flexing its wing to check if any permanent damage was done, it was royally angry, pissed off that the prey it had been chasing was able to injure it.
The Dragon was able to accept the damage done by the trees, but from Fen? The candidate didn't even appear threatening to the monster, the reason why it had been chasing him around was because of his slightly larger Vital energy signature; that was what drew the Dragon's attention.
With a threatening growl , the area around the Dragon grew brighter and brighter, as Fen's face started to grow paler and paler.
True Dragons were an intelligent race. They were able to visualize different magical energies, and could even manipulate Vital energy just like the other races of the universe. What made them powerful was that they started from an entirely different point of power than the other races, being gifted with powerful bodies and a genius-level of talent with magic, a racial talent balanced out by their horrendous reproduction abilities. They would lay a single egg every dozen years, but even then there were more than enough Dragons to cause trouble for the various civilizations in the Universe.
Lesser Dragons only had a portion of a True Dragon's strength, and were incapable of using magic because of their limited intelligence. Some monsters were capable of using basic magic using their instincts, but it was still extremely difficult to find a capable mage among a monster race.
The difficulty of a monster awakening increased the stronger the monster was as it's connection to the natural energies decreased; the chances of a mouse gaining magical power was significantly larger than the odds of a Lesser Dragon, which was the apex monster of most environments. There was another reason for this; a weaker creature was surrounded by the world's energy more, and so was more capable of awakening to magical power. A Lesser Dragon was filled with strength and power from birth, and had no chance to awaken to magic if it wasn't already aware of magic and spellworks.
They could use their innate elemental energy that they were born with. This specific Dragon was born with fire in it's chest. But they weren't capable of using magic; that was the ironclad rule, very rarely was there an exception to this rule.
You would have to either be extremely luck, or very unlucky to find a Lesser Dragon capable of using magic.
In Fen's case... well, he was extraordinarily unlucky.
He had originally wanted to lay down and rest for a few moments before the Lesser Dragon started hunting towards him again, but the glow of his surroundings stimulated his survival instincts. When he raised his head and saw the fire constructs forming in the air around the monster, the blood drained out of his face.
'...Are you kidding me? Magic? A monster? How? What?' Those were the thoughts any rational person would think.
Instead, Fen thought, 'Fuck, I gotta deal with this shit? Can't I get a break?!'
He was serious earlier, he really had used up all of his Vital energy to penetrate through the Dragon's membrane to disable it's flying capabilities.
The only energy he had left was his own, at least until his two Marks regenerated enough energy for him to continue running again.
His brain rapidly thought through multiple plans, calculating his success rates and survival percentages. In times of extreme danger, humans were capable of expressing previously unseen talent and potential. You can only imagine how a Vitul, even an imperfect one, would perform when in the same situation.
With shaking arms, the young Vitul pulled himself off the small crater he had created, the blinding light created by the Dragon only getting brighter the more heartbeat's length of time passed.
Then, he threw his Iberian short sword far away from him in order to reduce the weight on his body. Fen wouldn't need the weapon for what he was about to do, so why should he carry the load when he didn't need to?
And then he ran away... not.
This time, Fen made the insane decision of running towards the Lesser Dragon, a monster that could probably eat his bones for desert and not think anything special of it.
A beast who's magical power overwhelmed his own. This of course meant that he had no choice, other than a direct confrontation!