Alex immediately charged at the dragon, which had taken on a new appearance after its evolution. The dragon, still not fully accustomed to its new powers, was disoriented — its numerous eyes spun wildly, unable to focus on Alex.
This gave Alex an advantage: he leaped to the dragon's head level, preparing to deliver a devastating blow aimed at its neck.
However, just as Alex raised his sword for the strike, all the dragon's eyes suddenly focused on him. The dragon sharply retracted its head, avoiding a decapitation, and the sound of slicing air accompanied the miss.
Alex was surprised that the dragon managed to react and dodge, although the sword still left a small cut on its neck, from which black, tar-like blood began to ooze.
Teleporting to a safe distance, Alex watched with interest as the wound on the dragon's neck healed instantly, and the blood flowed back in reverse, as if rewinding. He squinted, realizing that the dragon had become significantly stronger, gained better instincts, and was now able to react to attacks that were previously fatal to it.
"Interesting... it managed to dodge but still took damage. It seems the evolution not only increased its strength but also improved its instincts. It looks like there's a struggle inside the dragon, and possibly three entities merging," Alex pondered, bringing a cigarette to his lips and observing the energy flows within the creature.
He understood that the dragon was gradually realizing its power. The immense amount of energy inside its body suggested the possibility of another evolution that could further enhance it.
Alex concluded that the dragon's strength had increased approximately tenfold compared to its previous stage. However, he did not rush to reveal his trump cards, knowing that the battle might be observed, and any lapse in vigilance could lead to an attack from a lurking enemy.
"Its regeneration has become even more absurd. I wonder what it's capable of now..." Alex continued to ponder as he watched the dragon.
Meanwhile, the dragon, regaining clarity of mind, inspected its massive claws as if not fully comprehending what had happened. Its aura flickered between flames and then extinguished, reminiscent of a character skill test in a game.
Suddenly, its numerous eyes fixed on Alex, who stood at a distance, observing the creature's actions. The dragon opened its mouth and let out a powerful roar, sending a sonic shockwave that destroyed everything in its path.
When the dust settled, the area where Alex had stood was completely destroyed, littered with debris from the walls and ceiling. But Alex was nowhere to be seen. The dragon began to search around until it heard a voice from above:
"Do you realize it's impolite to interrupt when someone is thinking?" Alex stood on the dragon's head, and all the eyes instantly turned to him.
"Up close, your face looks even more revolting," Alex continued, lifting his foot. Sensing something amiss, the dragon started violently shaking its head, trying to throw him off.
"It's too late. Seismic Step," Alex muttered, and his foot began to glow, ready to deliver a crushing blow.
When the dragon heard Alex's words and felt his foot descend on its head, it fully experienced what it meant to be crushed by an entire mountain. Alex used a combination of weight and gravity magic to intensify the pressure, aiming to crush the dragon's head.
With a dull thud, it struck the ground and began to sink into it under the unbearable weight. Alex wanted to test how much the dragon could endure and continued to increase the pressure, making its head sink deeper.
"Your body has become tougher than before," Alex noted, watching as the dragon sank into the ground under the immense weight.
"If you used to resemble slime, now you look like a skeleton with muscles swapped around," he added, lifting his foot once more and bringing it down with force.
After the second strike, the dragon's limbs, resisting the pressure, made a cracking sound, like breaking bones. Alex increased the pressure, and the cracking grew more pronounced as the bones finally broke under the force.
"If you want, you can tell me when to stop," Alex said, looking into the dragon's mad and furious eyes, which never left his figure.
The dragon let out a low growl filled with rage. Alex merely smirked and increased the pressure even more, breaking the dragon's limbs completely, which now emitted a repulsive cracking sound.
"Even though your body has become tougher and you have gained more strength, you still can't resist when the weight of your body keeps increasing. In the end, you are just killing yourself," Alex coldly remarked, looking down at the dragon.
Alex prepared to deliver another blow to maximize the effect of his magic and completely destroy the dragon's body when he noticed that energy was beginning to accumulate strangely in the creature's head. He thought the dragon was preparing to unleash another stream of flames.
But his assumption was wrong — the energy was not being directed to its mouth but was gathering in the numerous eyes focused on Alex. Suddenly, the dragon's eyes began to fire lasers, destroying everything around. From a distance, it resembled a disco, but much more destructive: lasers obliterated walls, and anything caught in their path melted and crumbled into dust.
"You're a dragon! What the hell are you doing shooting lasers from your eyes?!" Alex exclaimed, standing on a wall that was unaffected by the lasers.
The dragon ignored Alex's shout and quickly recovered. Its previously broken and twisted limbs healed immediately, becoming even stronger than before. Accumulating energy in its mouth, the dragon shot it as plasma towards Alex, who instantly teleported to a place where the dragon couldn't see him.
Alex watched as the plasma destroyed walls, realizing that the dragon was getting stronger with every second.
"It seems this monstrosity keeps evolving right before our eyes," Alex thought, standing on the ceiling directly above the dragon. He noticed that the dragon's limbs had become denser after recovery.
"I only remember one creature that shot lasers from its eyes, and it's definitely not from this genre," he mused, recalling a creature from a game he once played. "Although, if you look closely, they are somewhat similar..."
"Since I remembered, I'll have to note this down and visit that world if I get the chance," Alex thought to himself and refocused on the dragon.
The dragon continued to spew plasma, destroying walls, ceiling, and floor. The areas where molten lava flowed were covered in black miasmas, which rose like steam above the lava streams. Alex squinted at the mist settling on the floor.
"I wonder what this black mist is," Alex muttered, tossing the first object he found from his pocket to test its properties. But when he realized what he had thrown, he just sighed wearily.
"That was my last candy," he thought sadly, watching as the candy touched the floor in slow motion, its wrapper melting along with it and turning into slime.
"So, this mist has a strong corrosive effect," Alex noted, stroking his chin and sitting on the ceiling where he stood.
As Alex analyzed the situation with the dragon, it suddenly stopped spewing plasma from its mouth and froze. Its numerous eyes feverishly darted around, trying to locate the target. No corner escaped its gaze. The dragon's attention was drawn to an object that fell from the ceiling to the floor and instantly melted. All the dragon's eyes immediately focused on the spot where the object fell, and it finally noticed Alex, crouching on the ceiling and observing it. As soon as the dragon saw its target, it began to accumulate plasma in its mouth again, preparing to attack.
Alex noticed that he had been spotted and could only click his tongue in irritation, realizing he had lost his last candy and revealed his position. But as the dragon began concentrating its power for a shot, Alex instantly appeared above its head, ready to strike.
"Do you think it will work a second time?" Alex smirked, kicking the dragon's head with such force that it immediately dropped downward, causing the plasma charge it had been accumulating to fire directly at his feet, beginning to melt the ground.
"I let you fire to see what you're capable of. Don't get too conceited about it," Alex said, jumping back and, turning around, struck the dragon in the side with all his might, sending it crashing into the nearest wall.
The dragon, hitting the wall, lost its concentration, and its eyes began to move erratically, as if each had gained its own consciousness. It shook its head, trying to regain composure, and soon its eyes refocused on Alex, who stood on a stone platform he had created to avoid contact with the ground.
Alex watched as the dragon quickly recovered and noticed a small detail: when the dragon lost concentration, the other eyes on its head began to move erratically, which might mean a struggle for dominance within its body was ongoing.
"I wonder what's happening to Erebus's soul now," Alex thought, noticing that the energy, which had been chaotic after the impact, had normalized and was beginning to merge with the dark part once again.
Recovering, the dragon redirected its plasma stream at Alex. This time, it didn't accumulate energy but released it instantly, as if it no longer required time. The plasma stream was smaller, but its destructive power remained the same. The plasma raced across the floor towards Alex, rising like a directed laser.
Alex immediately leaped aside, avoiding the stream, and pushed off from the air platforms he had created. Where the plasma had passed, explosions began to occur, like a chain reaction.
"He's getting stronger and better at controlling his power. He used to need to accumulate energy for a strike, but now he can do it continuously," Alex thought, dodging another attack from the dragon.
Alex ran along the wall, evading the plasma stream that pursued him like an inevitable leech. As he fled, energy began accumulating in the dragon's body, heading towards its head. Alex noticed out of the corner of his eye that the dragon's eyes began to shine again, and its face twisted.
"Not again!" Alex shouted, continuing to run from the plasma. "You're a dragon, not a disco ball!" he yelled, watching as energy accumulated in the dragon's eyes.
The dragon ignored Alex's shouts. As the energy reached its peak, plasma streams burst from all its eyes, aiming directly at Alex. Thousands of beams covered every possible escape route.
Realizing the attack was imminent, Alex grimaced and used teleportation to appear directly beneath the dragon's belly. Once there, he glanced at the wall hit by the plasma, and his expression turned vacant.
"Does this dragon have no other attacks?" Alex thought, lighting a cigarette and ignoring his location. "Aren't dragons supposed to combine physical strength with magic?" he wondered, releasing rings of smoke.
"How to kill it so it doesn't evolve any further?" Alex pondered as a drop of viscous black liquid fell right in front of him.
Alex looked up, and what he saw made his mouth twist into a grimace and his eye twitch. A massive mouth, full of thousands of sharp teeth, opened above him, dripping with black, tar-like liquid. Instead of a tongue, the mouth contained tentacles, writhing chaotically in search of a target.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Alex exhaled, staring at the enormous mouth stretching along the dragon's entire body.
The tentacles writhing inside the massive mouth suddenly sensed something and stopped their chaotic movements, beginning to tremble in anticipation of food. In the next moment, they surged towards Alex, eager to grasp and devour him.
Alex deftly dodged the numerous tentacles, which left behind trails of black liquid that corroded everything they touched. He tried to avoid getting hit by these deadly appendages to protect his clothes. At that moment, unpleasant memories of a genre he loathed resurfaced, and the sight of these tentacles only heightened his disgust, making him shudder at the thought of his possible fate.
"Oh no-no, you definitely won't catch me. I taste terrible," Alex quipped, dodging the tentacles.
As he finished his cigarette, he threw it directly into the dragon's mouth.
"Try this for flavor," Alex said, unleashing a stream of flames after the cigarette that immediately engulfed the dragon's mouth. "You haven't tasted anything this spicy."
The dragon's mouth blackened, turning into charcoal, but even the scorched parts began to heal quickly, and teeth reappeared in place.
Sensing the damage, the dragon roared loudly and swung its tail underneath its belly, hoping to hit Alex, who had dared to set it on fire. Alex, focused on the attack, suddenly felt a powerful tug behind him and saw the approaching tail.
He managed to bring up Yamato to block the strike, but the force of the hit sent him flying at such speed that he broke the sound barrier. Alex crashed into the wall, leaving a crater with himself in the center.
Shaking off the dust, Alex continued to observe the dragon, which was undergoing strange changes.
"What's happening with this laser dragon now?" he thought, looking at the dragon, which had reared up on its hind legs, exposing a mouth on its belly. Inside the mouth, besides the teeth and tentacles, a massive eye appeared, glowing with madness.
Alex stared blankly at the scene, unable to comprehend what genre he had ended up in.
"Since when did I enter 'Resident Evil'?" he thought, gazing at the eye in the dragon's mouth. "Well, since you've exposed your weak spot, let me strike it."
A bow made of black flames appeared in Alex's hands. He drew the string, and a fiery arrow began to form. Alex shot the arrow at the enormous eye, and it immediately struck the target, enveloping the entire body of the dragon in flames. The dragon roared in pain, crashing against the walls and floor, trying to extinguish the fire, but to no avail.
Realizing it couldn't handle the flames, the dragon's wings folded around itself like a cocoon, attempting to shield it from further attacks.
Alex squinted, realizing that something was happening to the dragon's body again. Taking advantage of the moment, he cast a spell to clear all the black mist that had risen high enough to obstruct the fight.
As the mist dissipated, Alex saw the destroyed floor, covered in massive boulders and solidified lava from the dragon's attacks.
Pushing off the wall, Alex moved toward the dragon, which had sheltered itself with its wings. But as he approached, a massive mouth emerged from behind the wings, ready to swallow him.
Alex instantly leaped up, finding himself directly above the dragon's head as it extended out of its cocoon.
While Alex was in the air, the dragon's tail, which had acquired a sharp tip during its changes, shot towards him, intending to impale him. Just as the tail was about to pierce Alex, he managed to hit only an afterimage, while he himself was already at the base of the tail, ready to cut it off.
"This is for trying to turn me into a donut twice," Alex said, delivering a powerful blow to sever the dragon's tail.
The dragon felt its tail being cut off and, letting out a deafening roar, began to thrash wildly against the ground and walls, trying to vent its fury and destroy Alex.
"Hey, I'm right here!" Alex shouted, drawing the dragon's attention, which was raging with fury over the loss of its tail. "This is just the beginning. I'm going to cut you up so you can't regenerate," he added, leaping towards the dragon.
Alex continued his movement, sheathing Yamato and preparing for the next attack. The dragon, seeing his approach, let out a furious roar but chose not to use its plasma beam this time. Instead, it swung its massive paw, intending to crush the elusive opponent.
Alex accelerated as he saw the dragon's paw coming towards him. At the last moment, when the paw was about to strike him, he stopped right in front of it, and the paw slammed into the ground.
Taking a combat stance for a lightning-fast attack, Alex vanished in the next instant and reappeared behind the dragon, putting his sword back into its sheath. The dragon turned its head towards him, ready to roar, but small wounds began to appear on its body, which instantly expanded into massive gaping wounds, from which black blood poured, flooding its body and the ground beneath it.
The dragon's body crashed heavily to the ground, unable to remain standing due to the numerous wounds. Alex turned around and prepared to deliver another series of strikes, making sure the dragon wouldn't have time to regenerate the damage.
"If the damage keeps accumulating, it won't be able to recover quickly and will deplete its strength faster. Then it won't be able to undergo another evolution," Alex thought, watching as the dragon's regeneration slowed down.
"Now let's see how quickly you can regenerate your limbs this time," Alex said, drawing his sword and delivering a powerful horizontal slash.
Sensing danger, the dragon managed to move away in time but still lost one of its paws, which fell to the ground with a thud. At the same moment, tentacles began to grow from the severed paw, writhing towards the dragon as if it had gained its own consciousness.
Alex continued to strike with his sword while the dragon desperately tried to dodge, but its body was still covered in new wounds, worsening its condition. While Alex was focused on the attack, he didn't notice the unattended dragon's paw mutating into a grotesque creature covered with numerous glowing eyes and mouths making incomprehensible murmuring sounds.
Noticing this abomination, Alex shifted his attention from the dragon to the strange creature, slowly approaching him as if trying to sneak up.
"What the hell are you?" Alex muttered, looking at the vile creature.
The creature, as if sensing that it had been noticed, suddenly lunged towards Alex, trying to engulf him.
"Not gonna happen. I'm not some magical girl, that won't work on me," Alex said, striking forward with his hand, destroying the creature.
The creature exploded into tiny fragments, scattering its remains around.
"And now, just to be sure," Alex said, sending a wave of fire across the ground to incinerate the remains of the grotesque creature.
While Alex was distracted by the strange creature, the dragon seized the opportunity, flapping its wings to create a powerful gust of wind and soaring upwards, trying to leave the area and not waste any more time on the strange man fighting it. With each flap of its wings, the dragon gained height faster.
Alex felt the gust of wind and saw the dragon rising through a hole in the ceiling, heading towards the surface. He frowned, realizing that something was wrong.
"Hey, aren't you a big, scary dragon meant to kill everything you see and instill terror just by your presence?" Alex shouted, catching up to the dragon. "Come back here and fight me like a proper dragon!" he continued, following it. "You're supposed to scare me before you eat me!"
Alex noticed that the dragon wasn't responding to him and continued to flee, which made him frown. Using his teleportation, he instantly appeared on the ceiling of the 19th floor, separated by a barrier from the 18th. Standing on the ceiling, Alex watched as the dragon's body grew larger as it approached him. He took position, preparing for a powerful lunge, and waited for the right moment.
"You shouldn't have run away," Alex said coldly, watching the approaching dragon. "What was Guy's technique again? Ah yes, 'Night Butterfly Technique.'"
With those words, he made a powerful lunge, so swift that it shattered the entire 19th floor. Enveloped in the aura of a crimson dragon, Alex slammed into the dragon, driving it downward through the dungeon. The impact was so forceful that it warped the very fabric of space, sending the dragon back into the depths of the dungeon.
To an outside observer, it might have seemed like a massive crimson dragon was literally breaking through the dungeon, aiming to reach its bottom. To maximize the damage, Alex used a spell to increase the weight and gravity around the dragon during its fall.
When they reached the bottom floor, the impact was so strong that it destroyed several floors above, expanding the space. Alex jumped aside, waiting for the dust to settle to assess the dragon's condition. Lighting a cigarette, he calmly waited for the dust to clear.
To be continued...