"I don't understand! Why would you help them over something so small!?!"
"The hell shock wyverns saved my life when I needed it most, that is a debt I will never be able to repay." Zane responded. "Besides, Anne's happiness is not 'Small' to me. Forgive me for being arrogant with what im about to say, but if I must slay to preserve the happiness of my sisters, I will."
"A wyvern comes, slay the wyvern. A dragon comes, slay the dragon. If an immortal comes, slay the immortal. If a god comes, slay a god or die trying. I was unable to protect those close to me in the past... I won't make the same mistake."
"Life is more precious than one might think, so stop while you are ahead." Zane concluded. Inwardly he felt like what he said was very edgy and arrogant... but he wanted to say it.
He wanted his new family to know, that if it comes down to it he would lay down his life. These past couple of days he had gotten to really care about them.
The wyvern snorted "I can say the same to you."
Dark clouds gathered in the sky as golden lightning bolts crashed down from the sky as if the heavens were punishing the mortal world. The surroundings began being destroyed.
Zane chuckled.
Instantly brighter golden lightning bolts began arcing around his body and his aura soared into the sky.
*BOOM!*
A lightning pillar descended from the sky crashing into Zane striking him to the ground. This left Elaine, Aurora and the sisters with worried expressions, even the noble wyverns they brought along were tense.
*Crash!*
When the dust cleared it was found Zane was injured. Scales were cracked, mangled, and scorched flesh could be seen where the pillar hit and he was bleeding a bit. This wyvern was a 1st sky realm after all.
Furthermore, he had a noble bloodline strengthening his heaven shock lightning further.
Zane hissed in pain but shot back up.
*BOOM!* A single flap of his wings put him 300 meters in the air.
Aurora was really worried seeing this, she knew he was much faster than that. She couldn't help but tear up.
Zane saw this out of the corner of his eye.
Originally he wasn't all too mad about the injury, he kept a level head. However… Seeing her misty eyes, his blood began to boil.
He turned to the wyvern as the idea of how to kill it lingered in his mind.
[Your saint cores and skills have been sealed.]
[New mission: Use your body in this fight.]
[Info: You are too reliant on your saint cores and your skills, this is a good chance to fix that and learn to use your dragon body in a fight.]
[Conditions for completion: The fight ends, no victory, or loss is expected.]
[Win bonus: New skill: Lesser increased Regeneration (Boosts cellular regeneration by 25% for 30 seconds, 2-minute cooldown)]
Zane read the system notification and nodded.
Although it made him panic he didn't think the system would try to kill him, although he was worried he shook those thoughts aside.
With that, he took a breath and flapped his wings forward in an awkward attempt to use his claws.
*BOOM!*
He was blasted backward but stopped himself.
"Kid, take me seriously, don't hold back."
Zane simply smiled "Potential can only be brought out in a life or death battle, I've been lacking in how to use my body effectively. So how about we do this, I challenge you to a battle where we only use our bodies. We will do 10 rounds over the course of 10 days. I won't bet Anne's hand in marriage but I will bet 300 drops of lesser spiritual essence. If you doubt I have it… "
Zane waved his hand and an orb made of precisely 300 drops of lesser essence exited his claw and formed into a ball in the air.
The wyvern's eyes flashed with greed.
True spiritual essence was very beneficial even to a 1st sky realm cultivator like himself. In fact, he was close to a breakthrough… if he got even 20 of those drops…
"Deal! I'll go easy on you today since I don't want you too injured tomorrow!" The wyvern agreed laughing.
Zane chuckled dryly before moving a hundred meters back. Meanwhile, Elaine grew worried, he just turned this conflict into a tournament with a prize. Although it was clever in how it would lessen the beating he got, that was only until the 10th day…
Could he improve fast enough?
She didn't know the answer to that, but she felt Zane had a plan. Sure enough, he actually did.
"Elaine, do you wish to be the referee?" He asked and she nodded.
"When the rock falls, begin."
She grabbed a large rock from the ground and tossed it into the air. It felt like an eternity passed before…
*Thud*
Zane shot forward and tried to use his tail as a weapon but the wyvern caught it with its hind claws before swinging Zane around and sending him flying.
Zane managed to stop himself but not before the wyvern headbutted him with his horns piercing through Zane's scales into his body, luckily it didn't pierce deep. Only a few inches.
Zane was sent flying again.
*Crash*
He crashed into a boulder shattering it to pieces.
Zane hissed in pain but he shot up into the air and charged again.
The wyvern went to sweep its tail but Zane caught it with one of his 4 legs, an advantage of being a dragon over a wyvern since a wyvern's front feet are actually its wings.
However this was actually a faint from the wyvern, he turned around and used his mouth to bite a piece of Zane's flesh off.
Zane roared, as he bit back. It was a very brutal fight.
Gradually though, Zane got an upper hand, he learned to faint the wyvern from time to time. Eventually, the wyvern was brought to the ground unable to get back up. Not due to injuries but exhaustion as he had sealed his cultivation base for this fight.
"Hah, hah, you learn fast kid." The wyvern genuinely praised panting a bit.
In just 4 hours Zane went from an unorganized mess 2nd guessing himself to someone capable of actually getting a few good hits in. Not to mention his recovery, the wounds from the earliest point in the fight were scabbed over and healing already despite being reopened a couple of times.
The sun was setting behind Zane's figure.
"Thank you, you are also a really good spar partner. You taught me the importance of tricking your enemy, how to better use parts of my body to my advantage, and more. Is it really necessary for you to get her hand in marriage for your prince though?"
The wyvern sighed "Kid, I'm just a messenger. After this, they will send an elder. The prince is dead set on having Anne in his harem."
Zane sighed shaking his head and looking to the sky. "Seems that a fight is inevitable then… Anne doesn't wish to marry him so it seems a fight is inevitable. It might even scale up to a war…"
His voice turned chilly "If it comes to that… Then I won't hold back."
"It won't come to that." The wyvern assured him causing Zane to scratch his head in embarrassment.
"It won't come to a clan-wide war or a skirmish, the emperor of the clan won't allow that." He clarified.
"This is an affair between the prince and king of merely one royal line. Although 1 or 2 kings might assist my master it's not enough for the emperor to give the green light for war. Furthermore, even if all 12 of the kings supported the master… The emperor still wouldn't allow a war. Quite frankly, it's stupid to start a full-scale war between both factions over a woman that doesn't even belong to a prince. Even if that prince is from the current crown lineage." The wyvern added seeing Zane's slight confusion.
Zane nodded in understanding.
"It seems your emperor is actually pretty reasonable."
The wyvern nodded.
"It's funny, after a single fight I don't hate you that much anymore."
Zane laughed "That's just how men of most species work. They can be mortal enemies one moment and the best of friends the next after a fight. I actually have a theory as to why this is, though it's not that fleshed out."
"I'm curious, fire the arrow."
Zane nodded "Hatred can be described as frustration towards a person that has yet to be vented. This is why if you deeply hate someone, killing that person may lessen your feelings of hatred quite a bit. So when 2 men fight, it's a way of venting their dislike and frustration toward each other. Of course, that's not the only reason why men fight, but it's one of them."
The wyvern and everyone else couldn't help but nod, even the hell shock wyvern king couldn't help but agree and nod his head inside the palace.
The more the heaven shock wyvern thought about it the more he agreed.
"It seems this truly is the case. You're pretty mature for a dragon just entering adolescence. However just because I don't dislike you anymore doesn't mean I'll give up the challenge. I have to fight for my prince's honor."
Zane nodded "Come back tomorrow at high noon, we will start the 2nd match then."
"Alright, you win the 1st round, I lost to you because I ended up underestimating you and over-exhausted myself, tomorrow I won't make the same mistake."
Zane nodded.
Like this a strange relationship formed between the 2.
That night Zane focused on recovering his injuries and reflecting on the battle with the help of Amelia.
She had recorded the entire fight with a recording crystal. So she and Elaine would pause the recordings at various times and tell him what he could have done better.
He practiced a couple of times with Amelia and she of course won, but he managed to improve.
Thus, the 2nd day came, and along with it came the 2nd round. This time the wyvern brought along a 'friend', this was the prince courting Anne.
A/N: Since we're being featured as a potential starlet today, I figured I'd step up my game and provide 2 chapters, and earlier than usual at that!
Friendly reminder, this book is part of WPC#300! I would love to make the top 3 within the WPC! So if you have some power stones and want to support my dream, then I would love it if you could feed the book some power to keep the train powering ahead. If we can get to 55 power stones, I will release another chapter on Saturday (We currently have 36 power stones total)