Chapter 252: Lord Vs. Dragon [I]
"I’m not asking to own you," Silas said, resting his hand on his hip as his eyes scanned her lounging figure. "I’m telling you that we’re about to go to war with another territory in six days... Once we win, our boundaries will expand again, and our influence in the Sovereign Realm will skyrocket. I want to bring you along to intimidate them with your true form and if things get rough, maybe you can actually fight alongside us instead of lounging on my silk sheets all day."
Talira stared at him in utter mind-boggling disbelief with her vertical dragon pupils dilating in shock.
’A Saint?!’ Talira screamed inside her own mind, remembering Aeliana’s passionate speech back inside the sealed artifact. ’Aeliana called this guy a Saint?! He is no Saint! He’s a complete devil!’
Just because he didn’t walk around with a cackling evil villain smile plastered across his face didn’t make him any less terrifyingly ambitious.
He was actively looking to hoard dozens of new people into his territory, expand his empire, and use a primordial dragon as a giant winged vector of fear to make it happen.
"You want me to fight for you?!" Talira demanded loudly, springing off the bed as her crimson eyes flashed with fierce battle-hunger. "Then defeat me in a battle first before any of these things! Until you beat me with your own hands, I won’t move a single muscle for your petty war!"
Talira was confident in many things, but martial combat was at the very top of her list.
She was an apex predator born of ancient dragon blood.
As long as she wasn’t forced to fight Lady Eluned, Lady Morwenna, or Aeliana... the three terrifying monsters in this Keep who could manipulate divine nature, tides, or spatial freeze...Talira was 100% sure that she would be completely fine against a human Lord!
Silas looked at her fierce confident posture and let out a dry smirk.
"A duel? That’s fine by me," Silas accepted effortlessly, rolling his broad shoulders. "I’ve been needing a solid workout to test out a few things anyway."
Then, Silas paused, rubbing his chin with his calloused hand as he ran into a glaring logistical problem.
’Where the hell are we supposed to fight?’ Silas thought, scanning the bedroom. ’The underground training vault downstairs is sturdy, but can that place handle her true dragon form without collapsing the Keep’s stone foundations? There’s also the stadium outside, but I’d prefer somewhere I can move freely and unleash high-tier elemental spells without Lord Sky’s high-altitude recon drones picking up our mana signatures...’
He needed a secure isolated space where he could go all out without destroying his own property or exposing his trump cards to the outside world.
CREAK!
Silas’s sharp ears picked up a tiny hesitant sound near the doorway.
He turned his head slightly, noticing a lock of long silver hair and a single wide green eye peeking out from around the wooden doorframe.
"Aeli?" Silas called out smoothly. "Do you have a solution for this?"
Aeliana flinched violently, her entire body freezing behind the door.
She gasped softly with her pale cheeks turning bright crimson as she realized she had been caught red-handed while eavesdropping.
"I-I’m not here!" Aeli stammered out frantically from behind the wood, her voice becoming high-pitched and flustered.
She took a panicked step backward, realized how completely ridiculous that sounded, and sheepishly stepped into the room.
Aeli held her hands neatly behind her back, looking down at the floorboards with an embarrassed adorable smile.
"I... I mean... I happened to be passing by, My Lord," Aeli mumbled, clearing her throat to regain her dignified composure. "And... I actually do have a skill that can handle the battle cleanly. But..."
She peeked up at Silas through her long eyelashes, a sly, sweet glint touching her silver eyes.
"...I want a reward if I manage to do it, Lord Silas."
Silas raised an eyebrow, amused by her bold request. "What reward do you want, Aeli?"
Aeli’s cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink, her slender fingers fidgeting together behind her back.
"I... I just want to spend some quality time with my Lord," Aeli requested softly, her melodic voice dripping with sweet affection. "Maybe... the next time you go out to negotiate with the other Lord, or when you visit the outer borders... I could come along with you?"
Silas smiled warmly, stepping forward and gently tapping her nose with his finger.
"Deal," Silas agreed without a second of hesitation. "You’ve got yourself a date."
Aeli’s entire face lit up with a breathtaking, radiant smile of pure joy as she clasped her hands over her chest, practically floating on air.
"Thank you, My Lord!" Aeli beamed happily. "I have developed a brand-new, high-tier spatial domain spell... a pocket dimension dome! It will be big enough for the both of you to fight to your hearts’ content without damaging a single pebble in the territory!"
Silas patted her head, praising her genuinely. "Good work, Aeli. Lead the way."
Talira looked at the elven arcanist with her sharp dragon eyes softening slightly.
"Thank you, Aeliana," the dragoness murmured, respecting the elf’s incredible spatial mastery.
A short while later, the three of them stood inside the heavy stone training vault located in the lower basement of the Keep... the exact same vault where Silas had previously practiced his nature magic control.
Silas and Talira walked out into the spacious center of the room, standing fifty paces apart and eyeing each other down, while Aeliana positioned herself far over to the right side, near the entry archway.
Aeli took a deep breath with her silver hair lifting off her shoulders as a serene focus settled over her features.
She raised both of her slender hands into the air with her voice echoing clearly.
"Dome!"
FLASH!
The world turned completely white.
A massive blinding dome of pure spatial energy expanded outward from her palms in a fraction of a second with The damp granite walls, the stone ceiling, and the dirt floor of the basement vault vanished entirely, replaced by a boundless pristine white world that seemed to have no physical limit.
Silas blinked, looking around in utter amazement.
There were no walls, no ceilings, no environmental obstacles, and no horizon... it was just a vast solid white plane beneath their boots that felt completely unbreakable.
Aeli stood near the edge of the light with her face slightly pale from the sudden mana drain, but her eyes were filled with fierce determination.
"I will use this chance to train myself so I can maintain this domain for much longer, My Lord!" Aeli called out, her voice echoing through the endless white expanse.
Looking at the boundless spatial dimension his head arcanist had summoned out of thin air, Silas felt a deep sense of conviction.
’She’s getting insanely versatile,’ Silas thought with his golden-ringed eyes shining. ’I’m more and more convinced that I need to make her S-Rank as soon as possible.’
Silas reached into his pocket, pulling out the dark black metal disguise ring. He slipped the band smoothly onto his ring finger.
BOOM!
A dense violent surge of royal purple mana erupted around his frame, twisting his physical height, compressing his broad shoulders, dissolving his left arm into an empty rolling black sleeve, and shifting his golden eyes into a deep, luminous shade of violet.
When the light cleared, Silas was gone. Standing in the center of the white void was Vespera... the black-haired, single-armed female Lord.
Talira stared at the transformation, letting out a loud contemptuous dragon snort as red smoke curled from her nostrils.
"Hmph! What a ridiculous trick!" Talira shouted with her voice booming across the white expanse. "Even if you become a woman, your power is not increasing regardless!"
Vespera reached down with her single right hand, drawing her Tier 2 silver longsword from its sheath with a sharp ringing metallic sound.
She tilted her head, her deep purple eyes sparkling with a cold provocative smile.
"And even if you become a dragon," Vespera retorted smoothly. "your intellect is not increasing regardless!"
"WHY YOU...!" Talira shrieked in explosive rage.
CRACK! SNAP! BOOM!
Talira’s human body violently tore apart.
Her spine elongated, her pale skin burst into thousands of dense, volcanic-red scales as her jaw unhinged into a terrifying reptilian snout and two massive swept-back black horns sprouted from her skull.
Within seconds, her human form was completely gone.
Standing in the white void was the true magnificent form of the Primordial Crimson Dragon!
She was the size of a massive fortress wing, her fifty-foot wingspan spreading wide, casting a heavy shadow across the white ground as her long spiked tail whipped through the air like a wrecking ball.
ROOOOOAAAR!
Talira unleashed an earth-shattering dragon roar that sent visible sonic shockwaves tearing across the white dimension.
STOMP!
Her massive multi-ton clawed feet slammed into the ground, shattering the white space beneath her boots as she shot forward like a crimson volcanic missile, aiming to crush Vespera into the floor.
"DIE, HUMAN!" Talira screamed mid-charge with her dual-harmonic voice shaking the void as the battle had officially begun!
Talira reached Vespera in less than a second with her massive right claw sweeping downward in a lethal horizontal arc aimed to disembowel the female Lord.
WHOOSH!
Vespera didn’t try to block the multi-ton dragon claw with her blade.
Instead, she pushed off her right boot, fully utilizing her newly transformed and lightweight female body.
Because this vessel was significantly lighter than her original six-foot-two male frame, her agility and rotational speed were absolute insanity.
With zero left-arm mass to drag her balance down, Vespera spun her body like a streamlined top, slipping cleanly underneath Talira’s massive claws by a fraction of an inch.
’Whoa...!’ Vespera thought with her purple eyes widening in shock as she drifted through the air. ’Now that I think about it... The center of gravity in this body is ridiculously compact! Because I don’t have a second hand, my weight distribution is completely centralized! I can change directional angles mid-air almost instantaneously without telegraphing...’
Having realized the unique mobility advantages of her single-armed female disguise, Vespera capitalized immediately.
SWISH!
While floating mid-air beside Talira’s massive scale-armored neck, Vespera funneled a dense tide of her Gold Core mana into her single right arm, igniting her silver longsword in a blazing pillar of compressed white-hot flames.
’Blaze Strike!’ Vespera thought. ’It’s time to start using spells...!’
BOOM!
Vespera executed a single-handed high-speed horizontal slash directly against Talira’s neck scales.
The compressed fire edge detonated on impact, sending a massive shower of orange sparks and scorching heat blasting across the dragon’s neck!
CLANG!
The blade connected solidly, but Talira’s primordial crimson scales were hyper-dense.
The attack left a dark, smoking scorch mark across her neck armor, but failed to cut deep into her flesh.
"HA! IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT?!" Talira roared with her massive dragon head snapping around with terrifying speed.
SWOOSH!
Talira whipped her massive, fifty-foot spiked tail around in a wide vertical arc, smashing it down toward Vespera like a falling iron pillar.
"Not even close!" Vespera countered smoothly.
FWOOSH!
Vespera activated her next elemental spell, wrapping her entire female body in a dense, swirling cloak of roaring defensive fire.
’Mantle of the Inferno!’ Vespera thought.
The roaring fire cloak exploded around her frame, absorbing the impact of Talira’s spiked tail.
BANG!
The massive tail slammed into the fire barrier blasting Vespera backward through the air, but the aura completely deflected the razor-sharp dragon spikes from tearing her skin.
Vespera tumbled three times through the air, adjusting her footing and landing lightly on her boots eighty paces away.
She looked at her single right hand with her violet eyes gleaming as a fundamental realization about the fire element flashed through her mind mid-fight.
’Fire... huh? It doesn’t feel like just raw destruction, at least that’s what the textbooks used to say...’ Silas realized deeply inside his disguise. ’When compressed through a single conduit, fire mana acts like a pressurized liquid plasma shield! It expands outward to repel heavy physical mass... That’s the whole thing about the mantle.’
Across the white field, Talira’s glowing crimson eyes burned with fierce competitive fury.
She spread her massive wings wide, beating them violently.
FLAP! FLAP!
A terrifying superheated gale of wind swept across the arena as Talira opened her massive jaws wide.
Deep within her throat, a blinding sphere of white-hot, volcanic dragon fire began to condense at high speed.
"BURN TO ASH!" Talira screamed.
ROAR!
Talira unleashed her iconic apocalyptic dragon breath as a colossal, fifty-foot-wide river of white-hot volcanic fire erupted from her mouth, surging across the white dimension to incinerate Vespera entirely.
’Is it just me or are Dragons too overpowered? Maybe I made a mistake being reborn as a Human...’
Vespera stood her ground with her purple eyes narrowing into sharp slits.
She raised her single longsword, aligning the steel directly with her eye line as she channeled her Gold Core mana into a concentrated beam.
’Incineration Ray!’ Vespera thought.
KRA-THOOM!
A hyper-concentrated razor-thin needle of pure, blinding white laser-fire shot out from the tip of Vespera’s longsword.
Instead of trying to overwhelm Talira’s massive fifty-foot sea of flames with equal volume, Vespera’s attack acted like a high-precision scalpel.
The laser beam pierced cleanly into the center of the incoming dragon fire, cutting directly through the core of the inferno and splitting Talira’s dragon breath into two harmless streams that roared past Vespera’s left and right sides.
BOOOOOM!