The surroundings are eerily silent as if to mourn the latest victim of the dragon's overpowered technique.
'How....strange?' The dragon narrows it's eyes as it studies the unconscious Jacob.
Jacob's fingers slightly twitch as he begins to regain the energy to move his limbs.
'Damn...Can't believe that worked.' Jacob states in his mind as he recollects the events that occured before he was struck by the unnatural red lightning.
****
A FEW SECONDS AGO
As the streaks of lightning were about to strike, Jacob activated his Rhythmic Counter which guided his body to dodge to a place where he would receive the most minimal damage. In fact, Jacob had moved so fast that, he created an after image of himself which was then struck by the lightning and fireballs, causing the explosion.
****
JACOB'S INNER MIND
Ivy states at the screen in a horrified state. "Wait.....why is the dragon so strong in spite of the seals?"
"Well, decreasing one's mana capacity only limits the usage of spells, but if one constantly refines the current mana possessed, Even the most basic of attacks could prove rather lethal. Fortunately or un....fortunately, all of you that use mana have this silly notion that the greater the mana capacity the greater the mage." Jacob answers in a nonchalant manner obviously not bothered by the state his younger self is in.
"Wait...what? Did you just call one of the greatest lightning spells....a basic attack?" Hestia asks Jacob, surprise written on her face.
"Indeed." Jacob answers instantly.
"....." Hestia goes silent.
"Well.... shouldn't we go help him?" Aqua silently interjects.
"Help whom?" Jacob asks.
"Well....Jacob."
"But, I don't need help."
"I meant the young you."
"Oh....No, you'll only get in the way."
"In...the way? In the way of what?" Hestia questions Jacob, irritation evident in her voice.
"In the way of the younger me's breakthrough."
"Breakthrough?...But what if you die?" Aqua asks worried about the mental state of the devilishly handsome man that stands before him.
"Then that would be the destiny the fates have me." Jacob smiles gently.
He then looks up at the screen.
"Ah, look at that, it seems I am awakening and with that we will have to bid each other goodbye." Jacob then snaps his fingers.
"Huh?...." The spirits question in unison as they then suddenly vanish.
"This dragon..seems really familiar....no, maybe it's just my imagination."
****
THE DRAGON'S BATTLEGROUNDS
Jacob slowly gets up as he breathes with great depth.
'Damn, If it attacks like that one more time I'm done for. This would be more breathable if I could just....use the absolute constant or limit breaker technique. Even with my training effectively using aether still remains quite the problem. I barely have any stamina left....What else can I do?'
'The boy has gotten back up.....but what is this uneasy feeling I'm getting from this boy.'
The dragon creates yet another fireball.
"Fire." The fireball heads towards Jacob, and once more Jacob narrowly dodges the attack but as he dodges he notices something different about this attack.
'Is it me? Or has the explosive range decreased?'
The adult Jacob just looks on at the screen smiling before finally calling out for Jacob.
"Jacob, Jacob, Ja...cob."
'Wait...this voice I've heard it before?' The younger Jacob immediately questions upon hearing the familiar voice.
"Use Rhythmic Appraisal and all shall be revealed."
'What would me using Rhythmic Appraisal offer to this fight?'
"I believe you have noticed that her attacks got weaker."
'Yeah, so?' Jacob questions once more as he proceeds to dodge the oncoming barrage of fireballs.
"It's due to dynamic equilibrium effect of the seals placed upon it."
'The...what?'
"The more the dragon utilizes it's mana the more the seals oppose it. Now no more questions. Use Rhythmic Appraisal and your last resort technique. Good luck Jacob."
As the voice disappears Jacob dodges the relentless onslaught of the fireballs once more.
After ensuring there are no more in incoming attacks, Jacob then takes advantage of the dragon's winded state.
"Sage Art: Rhythmic Appraisal." As he activates his technique he sees massive streams of disperses energy all around.
'Cosmic...energy? in a place like this?'
Jacob smile weakly. "Let's kick this battle into overdrive."
Jacob enters into a traditional martial stance. 'With the help of the multiplier technique I can utilize cosmic energy for up to 15 seconds. Even though the dragon has been weakened from the beginning of this fight, will that time really be enough?'
As Jacob is questioning himself The dragon seems to be having its own internal conflict.
'Damn, the seal's effect is greater than I thought. I'm having a harder time regulating my mana, should I play the long game and bet on the fact I have enough mana to reinforce my body longer than the boy's monstrous endurance and strength or should I risk it by conjuring up an even greater thunderous Overdrive?'
As Jacob is questioning what to do, he recalls the older Jacob's mention of a last resort technique.
'A last resort...Thats it, why didn't I think of it, The critical booster...it's a technique that doubles the effectiveness of my multiplier technique( For example since Jacob is currently still using X500 in spite of immense energy consumption, by using the critical booster he would double the multiplier all the way to X1000.) However it drains my energy way faster than usual. Regardless I gotta give it a shot.'
"Sage Art: Critical Booster." Jacob then releases an oppressive aura which takes the dragon by surprise. Jacob's body begins to absorb the cosmic energy in the surroundings by fusing his critical booster with the Rhythmic Appraisal through use of the sage's fusion technique.
As he absorbs enough energy he then shouts out due to his renewed vigor. The energy expels from his body, forms a giant version of himeslf that compares to the dragon in size made up of light green energy, with Jacob at it's forehead (Much like the perfect susanoo from Naruto.)
The dragon stares in shock. Jacob then resummons his sword and thrusts it near his footing causing the giant to activate, sprout wings and take flight.
"Here I come, dragon."
"Bring it, boy." The dragon replies, irritated by the new problem that has arose in front of it.
The giant clashes with the dragon causing massive shockwaves. The giant punches the dragon in the abdomen, needless to say the ground shatters in response to the impact. The dragon grits its teeth and bears the pain.
'Tch, the boy already had strength, now he has the size to apply it with greater effect. How troublesome.'
As the dragon backs away It shoots a barrage of fireballs at Jacob but he just tanks it. He then grabs the dragon's neck with both hands and headbutts it, the force causing the dragon to crash to the ground.
Taking advantage of the opening, Jacob then lands on the dragon, stumping it further into the ground resulting in the dragon coughing out it's saliva. Jacob without any remorse grabs the dragon by its neck once more and proceeds to drag it on the ground by its face.
He then launches the dragon in the air , lunges at it and punches it so swift, so great that it creates a tremendous shockwave capable of levelling mountains thousands of kilometers away.
The dragon is launched by the attack onto the far off distance.
'Damn it, it seems my choice to reinforce my body with mana was the correct one after all. If not, this boy's attacks would have killed me.'
The dragon rushes at Jacob, but instead of colliding, it vanishes and reappears behind Jacob disorientating him in the process, giving enough time for the dragon to whip it's tail and strike Jacob in the back causing him to crash to the ground face first.
The dragon then quickly absorbs massive amounts of mana, inhales deeply and exhales a tsunami of flames towards Jacob. Jacob noticing the attack taps the ground with great force. 'Elemental burst: Earth' In response to Jacob's thoughts the ground rises forming a massive rock wall thick enough to diverge the flames.
As Jacob flies up into the air once more, The dragon's scales become scotching red as it then charges like a spear and strikes Jacob in the chest. As They collide a gateway that had been inactive suddenly activates creating a portal which sucks the dragon and Jacob both in.
As they exit the portal with dragon still having speared Jacob, Jacob hears wailing of villagers, He then focuses his vision at the source of the wailing, and what he sees nearly forces him to vomit the contents of his lunch.
He sees children, elderly and soldiers getting slaughtered by vicious attacks by sickly pale looking people while the buildings are either destroyed or have caught fire. Creating an atmosphere of pure anarchy. But before Jacob can fully digest what he is witnessing he crashes to into a mountain with the dragon causing a great fiery explosion, but fortunately there seems to be no life around for hundreds of kilometers meaning no casualties were made due to the aftermath of the explosion.
The energy that had formed the giant dispels and as the dust clears both Jacob and the dragon weakly get on their feet refusing to lose while obviously they no longer had the energy to prolong the fight. As to prove this point the dragon's crests vanished signifying the deactivation of it's draconic art, while Jacob's spiky hair returned into its original relaxed style and also his body receded it's aura signifying the deactivation of his multiplier technique.
Jacob's grabs his sword and stares at the dragon with great resolve, the dragon returns his gaze, without words they come to an understanding, that the next attack to land will be the decisive blow to end this fight.
'I may not have enough energy to use my multiplier technique, but I'm sure it no longer has enough mana to properly reinforce it's body.'
Jacob wills the remaining aether that he can utilize into his sword absorbing as much atmospheric mana as the sword could get at the moment. The dragon does the same as it draws in mana for its last attack.
Jacob's blade glows green as he then unleashes a green energy based slice (similar to Ichigo Kurosaki's Getsuga tenshou from Bleach) that collides with a red beam launched by the dragon from its mouth causing a weaker but still blinding explosion, taking out both Jacob and the dragon. As they are knocked out unconscious a rune underneath them activates creating a binding chain between Jacob and the dragon.
As the sun rises the next day, Jacob wakes up still exhausted. As he rises he realizes that the dragon is nowhere to be seen causing a great elation and relieving the tension his body had built up immediately.
He then notices a naked woman in the distance as he approaches the woman, he notices the woman's rather curvy figure that could make any man lose his sense of reasoning, shoulder length black hair, a well endowed chest and a face that can best be described as pretty. He then notices faint markings that travel from the woman's legs all the way to the left side of her face. Jacob's body then tenses as he realizes that he had been staring at a naked woman when his gaze lands on what could be refered to as "private parts".
As Jacob quickly averts his gaze due to embarrassment, the woman suddenly wakes up and studies her surroundings with great confusion.
"Who...who are you?" The woman asks as he notices Jacob who had suddenly found an interest in studying one of the nearby rocks.
"My name is Jacob. Uhm and...who are you?"
"Selene." The woman looks at Jacob intently, Jacob discomforted by the woman's gaze, meets the woman's gaze and notices her emerald green eyes.
"You." The woman states with a scrutinizing gazeas she recognizes Jacob's face.
"Me?" Jacob asks, confused by the sudden change in mood.
"No, no, no, this cannot be happening."
"What do you mean?"
"Boy, it's me."
"It's you?"
"Yes, it's me, the dragon you fought earlier."
"The dragon I....no, what!?"
A binding chain then reveals itself to Selene and Jacob causing Selene to go silent.
"What's this?"
"....A binding chain"
"What does it do?"
"It binds us together."
"Meaning?" Jacob asks panic evident in his voice.
"From now on I'm...your pet bond." Selene utters the last words with great reluctance.
It takes a moment for Jacob to digest the information.
"What, but how? I don't have mana so how could I have formed a binding contract with you."
"I don't know."
Silence then takes precedence as they both mull over what this will mean for them in the future.
"Then can I assign you a....task?"
Selene sighs in fraustration "Sure, what is it?"
"Can you....please put on some clothes."
Selene looks at Jacob for a few moments.
"What?"
**********
END OF MINI PROLOGUE ARC.
A/N: This minor arc was done to show Jacob's rather boring perspective on how he attained power.
JACOB'S BASIC STATS (Without multiplier technique)
RANKING: LEGEND
STRENGTH: Can carry up to ten trillion kilograms.
SPEED: Can run up to 200km/s.
DURABILITY: Could withstand an explosion equating to 10 gigatons of TNT.
STAMINA: Can easily last and function efficiently for a week without food or water.(Provided that he doesn't expend too much energy like when he is in a fight.)
ENDURANCE: Can fight on in spite of excruciating pain.
LIST OF TECHNIQUES (SAGE ARTS)
Rhythmic Appraisal
Rhythmic Counter
Elemental Burst
Elemental Overburst
Fusion technique
Critical Booster
Multiplier technique (Can currently boost up to 500 times.)
Pure energy manipulation and resistance. (Hasn't fully mastered.)
Absolute Constant (Hasn't fully mastered.)
Limit Breaker (Hasn't grasped the necessary requirement to activate it.)
**********