As soon as he touched the ground, I changed the flames of Hellfire to hazz as well while landing. Without a moment to waste, I clasped my hands and focused on sensing the supernatural.
'Good, this place will do.'
One of the weaknesses of necromancy was that it wouldn't work if there were no dead souls in the area. Fortunately, most places had varying concentrations of wandering souls, including this place.
"Ha!"
As I processed these dead souls, the black flames were forced to make way for Ryan. I would have liked more time, but I managed to achieve the bare minimum with the time I had.
"Emerge, Land of the Dead."
With the ultimate magic of Necromancy, I summoned a massive amount of different types of undead which rose from the ground. While they would only last as long as I kept up the spell, there were death knights, elder liches and even undead lords among the undead.
"Impressive, but have you forgotten what magic I use?"
To face the undead, Ryan's sword was clad in strong holy light, but of course I took countermeasures. The undead before him weren't like normal undead, they were born with hazz making up their bodies which allowed them to overcome their strong weakness to holy magic.
Ryan was quick to notice this, but his face still showed no panic as he fought calmly. I had little hope that my fresh undead army could do serious damage, but I definitely wouldn't mind such a scenario.
Anyways, while he fought the hazz undead, I carefully set up the framework of a barrier around them. Since the spell I planned on using could also hurt me in the process, I had to make sure that this barrier was firm. Once it was at an acceptable level, I created the barrier and trapped Ryan in it with my undead army.
It was a suspicious move, but once he got caught there was nothing he could do anymore.
'Now then, let's hope I don't get killed by my own spell.'
With Spatial Perception, I created a ball of light inside the barrier, as well as a ball of darkness. It should have been a strange move but somehow Ryan sensed danger and quickly switched to defence.
'Not that it'll do much.'
Then, I gently tried to fuse the two balls, but the moment they made contact, ... Boom...
BOOM!
After filling the barrier with blinding multicolored light, the force of the explosion quickly caused cracks to appear. Of course I tried to fix these cracks, but I swiftly realized that it was like using a cheap plastic bag to hold back a wild dog and instead focused on my own protection.
Both the effects of the Summit of Defence title and Permeability were useless against this explosion, but fortunately my barriers could at least decrease the impact I took. Even so, when the blast broke out of the barrier I could barely hold myself on the ground for two seconds before being thrown into the air.
"Woooah!"
My wings were of little use against the force so I could only be flung around until it was over. By then, I took my time landing on the dirt ground. I was much farther away from my initial location, but the blast had still managed to leave scars here.
I hoped that this destructive power was enough, but I could still detect his breath. With his clothes torn up and his body drenched in his own blood, Ryan stood up with his sword as a cane.
His wounds were fatal, but for a vampire it should have still been a scratch, however, the technique I used changed things.
Regenerative abilities only boosted and improved natural healing ability, and just like for a normal human, complications would occur if you started healing while residue or shrapnel was still inside your body. In this case, unless he had time to purge the remnants of the magic that had entered him he wouldn't be able to recover.
If I used that technique once more my victory was assured, but I wasn't able to escape injuries either, mine were only easier to hide.
Even though it was something I intended to do, I faced a heavy backlash for failing to finish the fusion between light and dark. It was a punishment from the system of magic that scolded my shortcut method.
'I can probably use it another time but I honestly don't want to take that sort of risk in a strange place like this.'
We were both injured but I knew I was doing better so I began approaching Ryan while he struggled to raise his sword.
"It's time to bring this to an-"
"S-s-s-stop destroying, home!"
Suddenly, at the high-pitched that reached my ear, I flinched and snapped my gaze to the right of the battle.
'Was that telepathy?'
What should have been there was just the grass that managed to escape the explosion, but before I knew it there was a small red fox trembling there.
'Huh? When did it...?'
After noticing this anomaly, I checked Ryan's expression but he was just as shocked as I was and looked back at me. With this it was confirmed that neither of us knew what this fox was or why it was here. I wanted more time to think, but the second thing the fox said interrupted my thoughts.
"S-s-stop fighting, my home, stop ruining!"
As it attempted to threaten us with a shaky growl, I heard the fear and determination behind its words. As it talked about its home I remembered the time I returned to the sight of my wrecked castle. With a bit of sympathy in my heart, I turned around and that sympathy turned into guilt.
'This is... bad.'
What was around us wasn't just burnt grass and empty patches. Rather, a gigantic crater larger than a city had formed because of my fusion technique. Furthermore, even Hellfire had been forcefully extinguished.
'If this happened near my castle I would have killed the one who did it no questions asked.'
When I looked at Ryan I noticed that he also felt awkward hearing the wails of this fox. Of course we couldn't just stop fighting, but because I could sympathize with the fox child I chose to compromise.
"Um, sorry. I promise that we won't move out of this crater and destroy anywhere else so could you allow us to finish?"
I tried to give an apologetic smile, but I wasn't sure how well it was received with me still in dragon form.
"*sniff* *sniff*, really?"
"Yes, of course. Right?"
I turned to Ryan who hastily nodded with me in order to appease the little fox.
"...Okay."
The fox still stayed there with distrust in its eyes, but for now we could continue.
I thought it would be difficult to get back in the mood with the fox watching, but soon after we turned to each other again, I could no longer feel its presence. I quickly looked back to where it was but I couldn't see it either.
I saw Ryan with a similarly shocked expression, but we both just accepted that it was something to put aside for now.
Starting the battle again was my fist that appeared in front of his face. As beat up and injured as he was, Ryan was still able to dodge my punch with minimal movements and counter with a swing at my waist.
I barely managed to escape the blade by flapping my wings, but then he continued with a thrust towards my chest. This time, I parried with my hand and kicked with my leg covered in hazz. In response, Ryan used wind magic to slow down my leg while he leaped above my head and swung down.
I evaded his swing again but he landed before I could counter. We exchanged several moves but our low use of magic was proof that both of us were more tired than before. Using magic didn't necessarily make you more tired but it certainly became harder to focus on it when you were exhausted.
Once more I thrusted my claw covered in hazz, but his response was different this time. He suddenly disappeared from before me to behind me with his sword coming for my neck.
It was Blink, that was a fact I knew before he disappeared. Therefore, my defence was already prepared.
"Abyss."
Before he could finish swinging, a black circle appeared behind my back that sucked on his sword. Abyss was an ability from Darkness Magic perfect for trapping enemies but it could be escaped from using Blink. However, the second it bought me was enough for my own Blink to get me to turn 180°.
As if I had never moved, my claw went straight through his chest.