The dragon waited for the virtuous hero to make the first move, to perhaps demonstrate that he could at least use magic on the same level as lesser goblin but nothing came.
"Is this an attempt at provocation youngling? If so, it is working, I dare hope that you don't believe that enraging me is a good course of action, I'll carpet bomb this whole country! My destructive capabilities are second to none amongst the lesser sins!" growled Occult as he circled around the small human, his steps lifting the boy a slight bit of the the ground more and more as he stomped with more and more force.
"Could it be that you can't? I see you straining yourself but I can't help but imagine yourself to be trying to take a dump rather than fight, was it a fluke the first time? You managed to strike me on a fluke!? Are you a hero bound by nothing but circumstances?"
"Are the kind that are carried around by the world rather than carrying it? Are you one of those failures of heroes? Shameful! The people rely and believe in shams such as you?! They relish themselves in false security from incompetents like you!?"
The dragon shouted with strength, almost blowing the hero away with nothing but the strength of his voice.
"Ah! The fact that you people are given a shard of an actual hero's power by the system is ridiculous!"
Occult snarled, a terrifying image from the dragon as he suddenly grabbed the boy with one of his front legs, shaped much like a hand, save the terrific claws, he lifted the hero up the air as he stood as the tallest he could.
The lesser sin seemed highly unamused all of sudden, a very clear and human expression on the beast's face as he stayed silent for a few instants as Iustus kept on trying his best to actually fight.
It looked much like a worm trying to wriggle out of the grasp of a person from an outside perspective.
"Had you told me your name? No matter, I can just see it for myself..."
"Iustus, you little shame of a hero, are you really going to fail at doing something so simple? Even with twice the amount of power you exerted last time, you won't defeat me easily at all, especially with your abysmal knowledge of fighting and magic, just push your mana out and show me that element!" the dragon only wanted to absorb and study some of this unique mana for himself.
But it didn't seem to naturally present within the boy, much to Occult's annoyance, he had to have him actually use it rather than just kill him right now and use some death magic on him, he couldn't do something like that when the inner working of this hero were so unknown to him.
A hero with such a unique element could be the key to breaking through the limitation put on him by these forsaken gods after all!
Iustus turned his head to look at the ground, gritting his teeth as he searched for something with his eyes.
"That otherworlder will not come to help you, he has his own worries to attend to at the moment, you are alone in this, so grit your teeth some more and do a bullshit breakthrough already! Isn't that what you heroes are known for? Turning the tides in an unexpected way?"
Occult stared at the hero in title for a few moments before feeling like he had to force things a bit.
Ever so lightly squeezing his paw and the hero was already a bloody mess not so far from death, a bit of healing magic made sure that he would be alright but would still feel like he was going to die.
"Heroes never die so anticlimactically right? Go ahead and survive this!" shouted the dragon loud enough to rupture Iustus's eardrums before ever so gently, throwing him at the ground below as if he was a bouncing ball.
'If he dies, he dies' thought the dragon, if he was so incompetent, perhaps chasing after his own element was a waste of time, Occult didn't to waste his time studying a deadbeat's element that wouldn't help him in any way.
He watched calmly as the small figure fell straight toward the ground, it seemed like he had thrown a slight bit too hard as he saw the boy's limbs going crazy, wiggling as if they were made of jelly.
He waited with a halted breath, expecting an explosion of brightness and an incandescent aura, the kind that would make him instinctively back off.
With a plop, the boy smashed into the ground, definitely dead, the dragon made sure to check and sure, no breathing, no heartbeat, no mana, no life force, no HP, no death force either, no ancient creature bursting out of a portal and proclaiming to be the boy's ancestor or father, no nothing.
Not even a slight tremor in the ground, what was this? It was as if he had just killed a normal peasant!
'Oh... Hold on' thought Occult as he noticed the tardiness of the notification confirming his kill, indeed, the system was staying silent, it hadn't acknowledged the death of the young boy yet.
The dragon prepared for something impressive, waiting only ten seconds before his hopes were confirmed.
Here it was, the so expected explosion of power and aura! It almost brought a tear to his eye, to see something so expected and classic was a true relief for the dragon, this boy was actually a hero! A weakling that only awakened at the last possible moment! Even if 'last moment' was stretching it, it had taken even longer than that for it to happen.
"Alright! Come throw hands young one, try hitting me with that shimmering mana of yours!" spoke the dragon with a smirk as he analysed the form the boy had taken.
It looked like he had retained the same shaped as before for the most part, except that it felt like his whole being was overflowing with so much mana that it clouded his actual body.
He only ressembled a pure spirit of golden mana with white streakes going across his simple form, his face was as if it had been drawn on as it moved, drawing itself at extreme speed and changing bits by bits instead of being fluid like normal.
The extremities were similar to the edges of a fire and the surrounding mana was indeed going up in flames when getting too close to him.
Feeling the immense amount of power coming from him, Occult didn't hesitate an decided to hit him with medium powered attack, which, for the the dragon meant a full on condensed laser of pure mana straight at the boy's face.
He had been pushed by the laser into the earth and had come out almost untouched despite being hit straight on, he had managed to erect a barrier, although the quality was subpar and only able to hold thanks the inhumane amount of mana used for it.
Vaccuming a lot of the mana used for the barrier, Occult had what he wanted in ample amounts, now what was left was only to beat him up until he couldn't fight, beat to death, again, most preferably.
Though, something was quite off about the boy right now, last time, he had been full of rage and emotions but right now, he was strangely calm and sluggish.
'Is he unconscious? His powers are sentient enough to pilot themselves? How amusing, fascinating!'
In a moment, the fiery figure stood meters away from the dragon's face but its attack was blocked by a barrier.
Snarking at the lack of mana detection, the dragon punched the small figure with its mana infused paws, sending it barreling into the ground.