Iustus weaved left and right as he did his best to avoid every single of the spells thrown at him, knowing that getting hit by one would mean getting hit by another.
Although Occults seemed more focused on spells of the four main elements, he was mixing in a few others as well, such as the most dangerous in Iustus's eyes, lightning.
Being hit by one of these meant that he would immobilised for a moment and a moment was all the dragon would need to make all of his other spells home in on him and annihilate his body.
He tried to put into work everything he had learned but it wasn't getting him any closer to victory, his virtuous mana had no clear virtue engraved into it, making it much weaker at doing any of the old virtues techniques and Occult wouldn't be defeated by half-assed attacks.
The destruction the dragon was wrecking everywhere wasn't random as he caused a landslide to come the hero's way and also used the dust rising and his curtain of spells to somehow manage to vanish from Iustus's sight.
he virtuous hero ran to evade the landslide as he kept zig zagging through the spells that had started coming from multiple directions, meaning that Occult was most likely flying around while casting them.
'Before thinking about defeating him, I need to figure out how I can get past his barrier' thought Iustus as almost got scorched in the face by a fireball.
Analysing the way the spells were coming at him and taking into account his assumption concerning the lesser sins movements, Iustus prepared to use a technique he had only recently learned and that wasn't perfected at all.
Raising his sword above his head and focusing deeply, causing a strong gust of wind to strike him in his side, he felt a few of his ribs crack due to the relatively weak spell from Occult but he didn't waver and circulated his virtuous mana into his sword.
As he felt various spells close to strike him, he unleashed a slash of his mana through the dust, cleaving it clean and giving him a clear view of the results of his attack.
He didn't have time to linger however and jumped away to avoid getting sandwiched in between what appeared to be over twenty spells.
However, even though he had taken a hit to unleash it, the slash didn't connect with the dragon, even he should have been right in its path considering the position and timings of the spells coming at the hero.
Suddenly, all of the dust risen through Occult's destruction of the environment was blown away and Iustus looked over his shoulder, finding out where the gigantic dragon had been hiding.
Occult's head was right above him and looking down on him, his beastial face seemed to wear a slight smirk but what the hero noticed above all, were the flames escaping from his lips.
All around them in the air, slowly vanishing, Iustus saw orbs of elemental magic, these were what had been casting the spells this whole time, to think Occult had managed to cast such things in so little time on such a wide distance.
The dragon was a master of magic and his body gave him an edge even without it, it was no wonder that Iustus had failed to even slightly harm him.
No matter what the system gifted him, he couldn't overcome the dragon's years, perhaps centuries of work at honing his craft.
However, instead of giving up and letting the blue flames consume him, Iustus grasped his sword harder, a bright radiance accumulated in his sword for a last ditch effort, putting everything he had in this one attack.
He quickly turned around and thrusted his sword at the dragon's head, sending forth condensed spike of virtuous mana forth.
Occult's eyes seemed to brighten for a second, as if he was, at least, a bit surprised by the spell Iustus had just come up with.
The powerful attack pushed against the dragon's barrier in an instant, Iustus's sword started crumbling due to the overcharge but none of that was noticed as the attack had come out at a speed that none of the two could follow.
Using a good deal of its strength to drill through the barrier, the attack got through and headed straight for the lesser sin's brain.
It made contact and tried to drill through but it wasn't the dragon's head, it was but another layer of barrier and having used too much strength already, the virtuous spike bounced of, again and again, in between the two barriers until it vanished.
Iustus fell to the ground, after putting all of his mana into one attack, he felt himself losing consciousness.
Occult stayed stationary for a few moments as flames stopped sipping from his lips and his inspected the hole left in his first barrier.
For a moment, Occult really thought that it was going to hit him, the condensation had been good at first but Iustus's lack of finer mana knowledge had caused the impressive construct to lose much of its condensation by leaving its caster.
But still, such speed! Such power and such precision too! All of this with nothing but a whole lot of mana and sheer will! Not even a once of deeper mana usage, rule or restrictions, no mana arts, incantations, magic circles, sigils, rituals or talisman, nothing!
He didn't even unconsciously use other sources of power to heighten the strength of this spell, no usage of natural manipulation or mind power, not any skills either, pure mana usage!
The damage done to his barrier was quickly patched up but it didn't matter, the effort had been good and Occult couldn't help but nod his head.
Rising one of his paws, he placed a claw on Iustus's head and casted a spell, causing the drained hero to be fast asleep.
Watching from afar, the black knight rose a hand to stop PH-3 from dropping a whole part of a mountain on Occult, which he was ready to lift up using roots.
"He is acting in an unusual manner, the Godfather would be interested in such behavior, let's abort the mission and let things play out" she said and vine head had no objection.
Flapping his wings after taking a few steps away, the dragon took flight and left without killing the hero, leaving him unconscious in the middle of nowhere, which might have gotten him killed if not for those watching him from afar.
"Occult must have sensed some potential" she claimed as the two underlings arrived next to the sleeping Iustus, a third underling manifesting out of thin air from a purplish portal.
"Won't that push the master's plans back a bit?" spoke the dream dweller as he adjusted the hat on his head.
No one responded aloud.