C159: Strange Dragonoid
Alt Title Teaser: Mini Rhongo
Overall Word count = 1702 on 11/13/2024.
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As the dragonoid flies to the outer edges of the dark clouds that it would have to pass by to reach the human it's targeting. It finally unleashes the abyssal grade flame breath upon the human who is consciously absorbing the ever present energies within the clouds.
Axel who had finally gotten through a small challenge section of the laws and got a breather is confused and shocked to find a powerful fire spreading out through the 'dark' law cloud of the corrupted Rhongomyniad. The laws themselves seem to harmonize with this fire, strengthening it as it seems to charge right at him.
Even though Axel just finished absorbing a chunk of laws, his body is still quite tense as he is still being ravaged by the continuously flowing laws that he has to suppress. As such he summons multiple [Doppelgangers] who escape the gray clouds and set up the spatial reflection spell that was acquired from the third stage Rimuru's inheritance.
Now the spatial spell can only be used for a single moment as otherwise it would disrupt the main body's attempts to absorb. The clones wait patiently until the last moment when the fire nearly reaches Axel himself and then the barrier appears after allowing a few licks of flame pass through so that Axel could absorb the foreign fire energy as a quick pick-me-up since he could not absorb outside energy since it's all JUST laws. Since he had just taken in some fire laws from both sides already
As for having clones gather up energy to send to him, that would also not work since the stream of energy would be contaminated by those laws and possibly injure him. If there is one good thing about this absorption so far is that his own slime physical body is getting much stronger. For normal humans it would be like undergoing a rebirth as his muscles or bones are broken and torn apart only to be remade but stronger as the laws themselves fuse with his body.
His slime body to be more precise is being filled with the laws themselves which reinforces its natural power through multiple aspects but the most prominent is his own magic growing stronger. Which then in turn enhances his physical power due to his slime physique.
But back to the reflection, once the barrier is up, and the small bit passed through which was absorbed by Axel to restore his energies, the rest was launched right back at the original attacker though in the process a few of the clones did dissipate as they used up all their energy to support the barrier.
The fire breath attack once again absorbed bits of energy from the dark clouds again as it went charging back at the original person. The flying humanoid dashes out of the way quickly with it's wings. It growls at seeing its own attack was seemingly futile and the human within the clouds getting a bit stronger instead. It can only sense Axel through a unique method as such, it was not able to detect the spatial energy or how its attack was sent back at it. It could only assume that Axel had somehow taken in it's energy and THEN returned it back at him.
The humanoid dragon flies higher into the sky, causing the normal clouds around it to split apart as it zooms up high. With the sun on its back, it then begins to drop down towards Axel. Gravity helps it pick up speed as it spreads its wings wide to control its descent to land right on top of Axel himself and knock him out of the clouds to be easier to kill. As the very clouds filled with Laws only serve as a hindrance right now. Yet as it approaches Axel's main body, the lizardman is soon caught in some sort of weird magic that pulls him through the clouds, creating a gap in the light side as he is pulled away from Axel and down to the ground.
Yet even before he could properly crash into the ground, the doppelgangers had merged into one slightly stronger one that kicks the lizard in the face, knocking him further away.
Axel himself capitalizes on the brief opening in the clouds to absorb nearby energy and refill his own supplies before the light clouds return to cover that broken region. With his energies refilled, he can restart his stronger absorption of laws as he can more confidently absorb them. [Raphael] had informed him of a common law that binds all these energies together, the pillar of heaven. By absorbing more energy, he could create his own miniature Rhongomyniad that could stabilize the current situation.
He has already formed a small tip of the spear inside his own body and that has gradually allowed the surroundings laws to be more susceptible to his own mana and increased the speed of his absorption.
As for the dragon, the reason for his spontaneous change in direction is due to the gravity well created by the clones that dragged him away before they merged and kicked him away. Now the lizard man lifts himself off the ground to face the clone body which is in a combat stance.
A sword in hand, a sort of rapier pose with the katana blade lined down along the length of his forearm as he leans against his backfoot. (example pic here)
Gravity begins to coat the katana as the lizard man approaches the clone.
Click click click click, "An entree before a main course. Another 'hero' that shall fall before me" it clicks it's tongue in amusement before a gruff raspy voice is heard. Yet the clone can't help but find that those words elicit a haunting memory of the many cloudy memories he experienced a month ago when he fought the strange dragon worm and got it's memories.
"One. Eyed. Black. Dragon." The clone states each word one by one and as if the knowledge that it's 'prey' knows it seems to elicit a tense reaction as a lizard-like grin covers it's face as it's muscles bulk up before vanishing.
CLANG
A clawed hand meets with the clone's katana as the grin on its face morphs to become more feral. Axel pushes the katana forward which sends OED (one eyed dragon since he is now a mix of black and white scales) flying a bit back before the slightlest contact with its taloned feet allows it to exert enough force to send it flying back at the clone.
SWISH CLANG CLANG SNAP.
Its next attack misses as the clone crunches its head into just being the top of its neck, the claws passing by where the head used to be but the attack still leaves a shockwave, rending the ground with claw marks.
The clone's purpose is to simply buy time as the more laws the main body absorbs the more the miniature Rhongomyniad is formed, speeding up the absorption process even more.
The clone primarily is using its energy to ensure the sword in hand is not destroyed under the dragon's powerful attacks but even it quickly turns brittle under the endless barrage of attacks of claws and punches along with limited energy in the clone. What it can absorb through its own [Great Devouring] is only 1/10th of the main body's speed since there is no Raphael to filter it for him.
As such it turns to simply modifying its body that would make a body horror fan squeamish as holes appear in his chest to 'dodge' a stab to his heart or disconnect its legs only to reconnect them a moment later. Many unconventional transformations just to buy time as the clone allows itself to be torn apart only to reform a moment later.
Yet there are still limits to its power as anything that the dragon sticks into its mouth to devour is unable to be recovered. Yet the dragon seems to have a look of disgust as it eats the clone's body until only the head remains staring at it.
"Disgusting nuisance." BOOM The dragon remarks as it lowers its taloned foot to crush the head and destroy the clone. Yet is surprised to see the head shrink and reform into a mini Axel that then jumps up onto the lizard's body only to climb into its mouth and explode.
A rush of dust envelopes the battlefield as the dragon coughs up some mouthfuls of blood. The clone actually had a bit more energy stored away but that energy was used as a barrier against the few bits of laws that seeped into each doppelganger when they were made much earlier to fight off the fire breath. Those laws now exploded inside the dragons mouth but the end result was less than fruitful as only it's throat was properly injured, making it unable to open the extra vent for unleashing its breath attack.
Coughing up the last bit of blood, it then begins to ponder how Axel's main body would taste as it walks out of the dust cloud only to tense up as multiple signatures sprout out around it. Multiple golden glows surround the dragon as he hears many voices call out and with them are
(From this point, V refers to Voice as multiple people are talking at once)
(V1)This shot shall pierce the scorpion of the heavens.
(V2)Xanthos! Balios! Pedasus!
(V3) Oh great Horn that calls upon all beasts
(V2) Let's go! Run as if your life depends on it!
(V3) Call upon thy pack
(V1)My arrow has already been unleashed!
(V2)My life is a shooting star!
(V3) Howl, oh Majestic Beasts!!
(V3) LA BLACK LUNA (V2) Troias Tragōidia!! (V1)Antares Snipe!
(Pics next chapter unless you have them then I can confirm or deny said heroes but one should be obvious)
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Alt Title: Miniature Rhongomyniad, one Eyed black Dragon, "Let Us Help"
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