Pov Meilin:
"Fuck!" I cursed.
"How could I have lost in such a pathetic way?", I said to myself angrily.
No, I refused to accept this outcome, so I set out to retry the battle, this time using my maximum power right away.
Unfortunately, this guy was an experienced one, as he held many cards for any kind of situations I proposed for victory.
One of them was to rely on my "flying speed" to give a precise and direct attack, but the guy responded by pulling out some dragon wings from I don't know where, with which he was able to overcome my speed and at the same time he also defended himself, as they were quite resistant.
I did not give up and went into a frenzy of continuous battles until I eliminated this bastard.
The result was a continuous streak of humiliating defeats, due to the fact that instead of crushing me with pure power, as dragons usually do, he employed very precise tactics to defeat me.
These tactics took advantage of any carelessness I had, and no matter how much I tried to cover my mistakes, the guy would always find another front to launch an effective attack through.
But I'm not one of those dragons who don't learn from defeat. I gradually adapted to the way he operated, including more efficient ways to avoid and block his particularly bizarre attacks.
Do you know how amazing this is? Well, let me tell you, I was raised with the idea that I am immune to all elements below or near my level. I'm 700 years old, so you know how deeply engraved this idea is in my subconscious.
Suddenly, changing this idea is fucking hard, especially when my subconscious recognizes that this guy is close to my level and mistakenly thinks that his elemental attacks won't pose a danger to me.
So the fact that I'm getting used to not relying on my elemental immunity could be considered my only consolation in this humiliating episode of my life.
"Let's try one last time," I mused. After a brief pause for reflection, I set out to retry the fight.
--
The battle began, and I immediately used my experiences in order to win.
My strategy basically consisted of exchanges at medium ranges, just enough to be able to attack with my spear, since I proved that I am currently much more physically powerful than that guy.
With this strategy, I was trying to prevent that guy from using his limbs, such as his tail, and being in medium range, I could chase him easily and prevent him from activating those circles that generated fireballs that affected my vision or my hands.
As for his dragon wings that he brought out in my last battle, for the moment I hadn't employed them, but it didn't hurt to pay attention to that part of his body to avoid surprises.
Boom! Boom! Clang! Clang! Clash!
The battle went perfectly, I would say, because although he was able to take out his fireball-generating circles, these practically did not do enough damage to distract me from the confrontation, while I harassed with my spear.
My efforts finally paid off when I saw the guy start to waver.
Swish!
My spear finally managed to make a substantial wound in one of his arms.
This event did not break my concentration and I immediately set out to continue attacking, taking advantage of the fact that his arm was pierced by my spear and that he would have limited mobility.
Swish! Swish!
Plop!
After many stabs with my spear, I managed to get this guy to his knees, but I didn't get confident and immediately launched attacks aimed at attacking his vital organs.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
As I sensed, the guy finally pulled out his draconic wings to defend himself from my attacks, but all he could do was buy a little more time, as I kept attacking.
Clang! Clang! Clang!… Swish!
After a while, I managed to penetrate his defenses, leaving his wings unusable due to the wounds I caused him.
But apparently, the guy gained enough time to carry out his task, as my eyes saw how the guy surrounded himself with a powerful Draconian aura, forming an egg.
Obviously, I didn't wait for this process to happen without trying to prevent it, but this egg was pretty hard….
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Seeing that this energy egg containing my enemy was unaffected, I simply stepped back a bit and examined it in detail, presuming that this was the last skill this guy would have in his repertoire.
It wasn't long, maybe about two minutes, when the energy egg began to crack and explode, revealing my enemy.
Boom!
"What the hell..." was the only thing that came out of my mouth.
The guy's appearance changed completely, he was now at least 4 meters tall, but that was the least impressive thing. I saw that his entire body was covered in crimson scales, resembling the ones he presumably possessed in his full dragon form.
His wings and tail also looked much stronger than before, and his dragon horns, which were the only thing we had in common, were much larger and glowed with an eerie red light.
"It resembles a hybrid..." I thought when I saw this form.
Human-dragon hybrids have a similar appearance, with scales and in some cases even inherit horns, not to mention their internal organs.
But obviously, this guy wasn't a hybrid, so this form must be his ultimate or desperate technique.
As I watched him warily....
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the guy arrived in front of me.
"Wha...," I couldn't even speak before this guy put his hands on my neck until what....
Crack!
I died.
--
[You have died more than 5 times! Do you want to see your opponent's card?]
[View] [Exit]
I said nothing more and simply selected "view".
[Character card]
[Name: Commander, fire dragon (magic)]
[Power level: Seventh magic Circle (Earthly Emperor in the immortal world, approx.)]
[Aptitude: Fire, Earth, Physical (Draconian)]
[Techniques: Seventh Circle Fire (fire element related techniques), Spear Technique (Expert Level), Aerial Combat (Expert Level), Imperial Discipline (Expert Level), Ultimate Combat Draconian Form (Semi-complete)]
[Observations: A disciplined commander of the magical dragon empire, proficient in all types of environments (aquatic excepted) and trained in the most dangerous dungeon on the continent. Able to deal with all kinds of creatures both terrestrial and aerial, his skills are quite balanced, being worthy of being a commander.
His only weakness might be an aquatic environment, as he was not trained in that kind of biomes.]
"…"
After seeing this file, I was convinced that the guy he was fighting was an outsider instead of a dragon who uses evil arts.
You should know that, for certain reasons, the barrier of the immortal world is in a rather deplorable state and through some places of the barrier beings from other worlds can enter. This is, in fact, the reason all Draconian generations seek to have the best possible offspring.
The last outsider who passed through this barrier was not very kind to us and even started an invasion, in which many races originating from the immortal world were eradicated. This includes the ancient Draconian clans and many other powerful races that were forced into war, such as the peace-loving phoenixes.
Thanks to this tragedy, when the war ended and the outsider was expelled, the dragons, seeing the decadent state of the immortal world due to the arts employed by that individual, decided to put aside their differences and form a gigantic empire filled with all kinds of dragons. This in order to birth new types of dragons and increase the chances that in every generation at least one super genius will be born capable of dealing with hostile aliens if they ever return.
They also established many decrees and techniques that allowed the most powerful females to force the males they desired to mate with them, until they produced offspring, as my grandmother and, later, my mother did.
Back to the fight…
"This explains a lot, like the fact that I'm not immune to his elemental techniques," I thought.
But what was that last technique? With a lot of curiosity, I tapped the name of the technique, which was: Ultimate Combat Draconian Form.
[ Ultimate Combat Draconian Form.: Combining the greatest minds of the dragon empire and some experiments on hybrids, it was possible to discover a form in which the body of a pure dragon can be optimized, in order to acquire some advantages of the full dragon form.
Function: When activated, a protective carapace is formed that resists physical and elemental attacks (depending on the level of the opponent and the individual) with Draconian aura. Once the shell is formed, an intermediate transformation between the human form and the Draconian form is initiated (see in detail the technique to avoid accidents). This form enhances all aspects of the dragon, but has a large energy drain (varies depending on the clan of the dragon and its proficiency with the technique).
Way of obtaining:
Incomplete: Clear the 30th floor of the dungeon "Draconian Life".
Complete: Clear the 50th floor of the dungeon "Draconian Life"].
"Can I get it?", I thought of that guy's form, and imagined myself using it.
"Maybe it's not a bad idea."