From his younger years until now, the only magical beast he was truly interested in was the Dragon King that he had seen that one time. That time when, in the middle of Dragonspire Village, the Dragon King let out its terrorifying power-it seemed to be an unbeatable force. With such terrorifying power, it destroyed one house after another…
Renji could not help it; his heart quaked. At eight years old, Renji had only been a child. But at fifteen-year-old, he was a dual-element magus of the fifth rank.
"Boss! Boss! This one is mine! " The excited voice of the little Umbramouse, Echo, rang in his mind. Renji then turned towards the lake's surface to find Echo so excited that his hairs on the body had risen and were pointing upwards as straight and stiff as needles. Even all the muscles of his body were pumping. His fierce-looking claws and head had grown in size, too. The little Umbramouse, Echo, had previously been about 20 centimeters in size but all of a sudden lengthened to half a meter long. This half-meter long was the longest Renji had ever seen Echo grow to.
But despite this, the half-meter long Echo was but a speck compared to the Dragon King. The huge, lantern-like red gaze of the Dragon King coldly stared at Echo's form. It gave a furious snort which boomed through mountains. In response, little Umbramouse Echo raised his head and let out a high-pitched shriek. Its low growling snarl clashed with the shrill shriek.
Renji, who watched all this atop the tree next to the lake, suddenly felt that the Dragon King and the little Umbramouse were two evenly matched foes staring down each other.
"Raaaaaawr!" A thunderous roar!
An all-engulfing, fiercely burning flame suddenly burst out of the maw of the Dragon King, blanketing all several tens of meters in front of him in flame. The lake hisses as the water on the surface immediately begins boiling. However, Echo did not move at all, bathed in the flames; he just let the flame burn as it might. From within the burning flame, one could see that Echo was not harmed in the slightest. "Although Echo is physically small, his defensive powers are amazing. The power of this flame is about comparable to a fire-style magus spell of the fifth rank, but it isn't able to harm him in the least." Renji silently watched. Even though he had been in the Mountain of Magical Monsters for such a long time, Echo hadn't met a truly worthy opponent to fight. And Echo burning fire, was quite still,
Suddenly, movement!
"Shkkkkkkkkreeee!" With a terrifyingly high-pitched howl, Echo turned into a black shadow that sped forward with ferocious speed toward the Dragon King. The Dragon King, that had continued to breathe out flames this whole time, suddenly widened its enormous lantern-sized red eyes, while suddenly slapping forward with its long whip-like draconic tail. In fact, the incredible speed of the Dragon King's tail approached the speed of the little Umbramouse's movement. "Whoosh! " Echo's movements were very weird, but he actually managed to dodge the hyper-fast attack of the Dragon King's tail and immediately tried to bite at the Dragon King's throat. However, the Dragon King, too immediately turned his head down and then tried to bite back at Echo. But clearly, Echo was still a bit faster. It was such that a sonorous 'crack' sound could be heard when one of the thick scales on the neck of the Dragon King was actually broken while Echo gave it a vicious bite on the neck, then swallowed it whole.
Echo was a creature who could even devour stones and bones. This Dragon King scale proved to be edible by him, too. But just at this time, the Dragon King's tail swished towards Echo. "Thwack! "a high pitched slapping sound could be heard causing Renji to shiver. But Echo had long since dodged and scurried away again.
"This Dragon King has such a huge, thick neck.
That bite Echo gave it was nothing more than a light wound." Renji watched this battle between creatures of totally different sizes with bated breath. "This Dragon King's tail is so unpredictable, and it's able to twist and turn in every direction at high speeds, too." A Dragon King's tail wasn't just fast, but also agile and capricious. "Shkreee!" Echo once more turned into a vicious black shadow. Erupting out from the water, Echo once more dodged the draconic tail. But just as he dodged, the tail suddenly changed directions in a rapid, unexpected manner. With a sudden twist it struck echo a direct blow. The vicious black shadow was sent flying into the faraway woods. "Echo! " Renji's chest tightened. But the Dragon King watched only warily at the forest, half expecting some dangerous foe. Then the little Umbramouse, Echo, plunged down upon him from atop a very tall treetop. Instantly, the tail of the Dragon King writhed around to strike at him, but this time, the lesson of pain had been learned. He, too, suddenly changed direction in mid-air with a flick of his tail. The little Umbramouse was a streak. The draconic tail was also a streak!
The two silhouettes chased each other around in mid-air. At times, the little Umbramouse would be sent flying by the Dragon King, but from time to time, he would also manage to bite the Dragon King furiously as well. They continued fighting, fighting from the lakeshore all the way to the forests. This mighty tree afterwards was knocked down by the Dragon King's tail, while the Dragon King and the Umbramouse continued fighting without stopping. "From what I can see, it seems as though Echo has the slight advantage." Renji watched the fight, nervous.
By this point in time, the huge Dragon King had already lost seven or eight scales, and blood continued to flow from seven or eight wounds, covering half of its body in blood. The roaring of the Dragon King, in its rage, did not stop. Its tail whipped back and forth; whatever tree the Dragon King's tail touched was snapped in half. One huge tree after another came crashing down, and an area of approximately two hundred meters in diameter around the two fighters was completely flattened. "But can Echo continue to take attacks of that magnitude, by the Dragon King's tail?
" Renji started getting concerned. The attack power of the Dragon King's tail was quite high. If it hit a boulder, the boulder would shatter; if it hit a tree, the tree would fall. It was this kind of attack that sent a chill down Renji's spine. Renji knew that the moment that tail fell upon him even once, he would stop breathing. "Whack! " Echo was once again sent flying, but he turned in a flash into a raging black shadow as he charged once again, screeching. By now the Dragon King was covered with blood, with many damaged scales throughout its body.
It looked to be in a bad way. "Raaaawr! " With an angry roar, the Dragon King actually turned and began to leave. It ran with high speed towards the core areas of the mountains. In no time, it disappeared from Renji's vision. Echo, actually, had pursued it for a while before making a turn and coming back to Renji. Renji dropped down from his tree, and just in time the little Umbramouse, Echo ran over to him, its body shrinking back to normal size.
"Echo, are you alright? " Renji immediately asked him through their mental link. Echo jumped onto Renji's shoulder and stood erect on his hind legs, as he looked arrogantly at Renji with his beady little black eyes. "Boss, what kind of magical beast do you take Echo to be? How could I be afraid of a Dragon King? " Pride and selfdelight suffused Echo's adorable little face. But suddenly, Echo's tail began to quiver. Shaking himself, he said, "But that Dragon King's tail really is a rather nasty piece of work. My whole body hurts." Seeing this, Renji couldn't help but chuckle. The Dragon King's tail wasn't just a 'rather nasty piece of work.' It was an extremely nasty piece of work. Renji was very glad that Echo had withstood such a massive amount of his attacks without being seriously injured. "And, man, this Dragon King's scales and meat really is thick.
Even at my max size I couldn't chomp through him." Echo sighed. "But I really believe that if we kept on at it, I, Echo could have bled him to death. This Dragon King was pretty sly though. It kept on moving about and never let me bite it on the same location twice." Renji secretly laughed. There was a huge gap between the sixth rank and the seventh rank, in terms of combat ability as well as other factors. Most likely, that Dragon King's intelligence was not much less than a human being's. How could it possibly allow the little Umbramouse to bite it in the same place twice? No matter how thick the scales and flesh of the Dragon King were, it couldn't withstand being bitten by Echo multiple times. This Dragon King most likely also realized that he wouldn't gain any benefit from continuing to fight, which was why it fled.
"Echo, want to give a magical beast of the eighth rank a go? " Renji mentally teased. Echo's little eyes suddenly turned round as the moon. "Boss, don't mess with me like that. Dealing with that magical beast of the seventh rank was exhausting enough. I hear that magical beasts of the eighth rank are ten times as powerful as magical beasts of the seventh rank.". Even if their movement speeds are not as high as mine, most likely their attack speeds are higher." Movement speed and combat attack speeds were two different speeds. For example, the Dragon King was perhaps much slower in terms of movement speed, but its tail was able to attack at an astonishing speed. Although some of the larger magical beasts appeared slow and clumsy, when they really began fighting, they were as fast as lightning! After all, if they were strong enough to be labeled as an eighth-rank magical beast, then they most definitely would overpower a seventh-order beast. "Heh, looks like you know when to be humble after all." Renji chuckled while stroking Echo's little head. "Alright, my clothes should be dry by now as well. Let's go take a rest on top of the tree, then eat some food. Later on, we'll be continuing onwards." As he spoke, Renji leapt up seven or eight meters onto a branch, then continued to leap lightly upwards before leisurely coming to rest about twenty or thirty meters above ground in general.