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Chapter 316: Dance of Blade and Magic. [First Draft]
🕑 Added 2022-05-16 00:16:08 +0000 UTC<[Humanize (Minor)] [Various Spell Buffs] [Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro)] [Music Resonation (Moderate)] [Stage Fever (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
<32 beastmen have become your followers>
<Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 10032>
Dungeons. No matter if the place had a bright sky or could show the outer world, if it didn’t have a way to fully simulate a sun and its solar rays, then my solar core couldn’t recharge while I was within it. In this, with the Dungeon of Yeostar, that was exactly the case.
And seeing as I had to fight against 231 contestants to be one of the top eight, then it meant I needed to be conservative with my resources. This was a marathon, not a sprint. With those twelve, maybe strong, targets in my mind, I decided I couldn’t expend too much of my Stamina or Mana. One of the rules of the match also included being unable to use outside consumables, like my dragorade.
But, another problem I had to face in this whole situation was what Mother and the others told Fargryneill and me about how the audience watched the matches. You had something like a bird’s eye or even an over-the-shoulder view, like in a third-person video game, of the different combatants. The more “kills” you accumulated, the bigger this screen would become.
Which meant, I couldn’t be at zero kills! I was an idol and my job was to gain fans to reach the next [The Light] milestone. No idea if this would work, since I was in my dragonewt form and a girl, things the Principality of Yeos didn’t like at all, but I had to try. And, from how I gained 32 fans from all of this, it seemed to have worked, well, only for the beastmen I guess. Solidarity and camaraderie in race.
So, how did I do all of this, especially since I had to make sure not to kill anybody? AFK tower defense was the idea. [Levin Core] and [Cyclone Madness] were both pretty nice spells, but didn’t deal bombastic burst damage as I liked my offensive spells and attacks. They dealt them over time, through lightning blasts and sharp winds.
With how my stats, even in my moderate dragonewt form, was far superior to D and some C adventurers, I could kill them with a single punch. I normally was able to control my strength, hold back my punches… except for yesterday, when I let my temper come out. That was my bad. Even if it was self-defense, it was murder. I didn’t want to sugarcoat it, even if those two lowlives intended to do some rather nasty stuff to me if I were a normal person.
So, I strived to not accidentally cause another death today. With those two spells, I created a barrier around the forest and combined with the [Taunt] ability, I could “persuade” people to come into it, making some easy “kills” and climbing the leaderboard and allowing myself to become more well-known by the people of Elyonda.
Really smart of me to take the [Taunter] Job before entering today, if I could praise myself.
I could conserve some Mana through this plan, but I still used up about 25% of my max Mana pool after all of that. It dropped down to 65% after I had to [Purple Flash] a [Symphonie des Feuergottes] just now.
This was a necessary measure, as I didn’t expect to find somebody with a higher level than Yorshka in this tournament, this early even. I had heard the Folschreck Empire’s royal knights were strong from King Drangleic and his dukes, but never would I have expected one of them to be over level 140.
And he was an “ex” member, even.
Wind Blast. Dragoon Dive!
Using [Air Step], I stomped the very air as wind blasted me forward like a rocket. With my glaive held before me, aiming at the former knight standing before me, I planned to land a decisive blow to him, hopefully crippling him enough to end this battle fast. Unfortunately, I was a bit too naive, thinking this would be that easy.
With perfect timing, he moved his sword slightly up and used the tip to redirect my blow to his left, before jumping to his right to avoid the shockwave.
What?! I might not have used my rocket boosters there, but my speed was still too fast for most people to dodge, never mind redirect it! This guy, Larent Antonodius, just did it flawlessly and was in the position to counterattack.
Spark Crescent.
While recovering my balance and weapon, Larent charged forward with a stab, [Dragon Fire]’s automatic flame attacks activated and stopped his assault. I then stepped out, using my self-made glaive ability by slashing upwards with my weapon and tail, creating two flame crescents.
Larent parried both hits, sadly, but it gave me to the chance to leech some Mana and Stamina from him using my weapon’s [Passive Rune: Mana Drain] and [Passive Rune: Stamina Beast]. Small amounts, but much needed.
To prevent him from attacking again, I launched my [Unheilige Engel] at him in the form of obsidian spears, giving me enough time to open my [Panzer] helmet and release a stream of [Hellflame Breath]. This was something he couldn’t parry, so he decided to dodge it and use his position to flank me.
He [Gale Step]ed back into close quarters, exactly where he wanted to be against me, and launched a flurry of attacks. I couldn’t see a way to break through this with conventional means. Even after training with Yorshka and having fought decent swordsmen like Farron and Charleslyt, I couldn’t detect a single opening in his offense.
In fact, he even found a way through my defense!
Shit! I cursed in my head when he slipped through my glaive, and sliced at my stomach. I moved my scales just in time to defend myself, but it was still too close for comfort.
I was forced to release my [Dreadflare Aura], shooting him against a tree from the heat blast. Cold sweat ran down my spine as I touched my belly area, picking up some of the shattered scales used to defend me. His sword hit broke through the [Draconic Barrier] I placed on them.
“Like peeling a cepillium (onion),” he stated while dusting off the dirt on his carapace armor. “The more I move, the more you will have to reveal your abilities, my lady.”
“Uhmm…” I groaned a bit.
He was right. How much could I hide my arsenal against this guy? I wanted to hold back as much as I could until the finals or when I fought Fargryneill, but from the look of it, it seemed impossible now.
The announcer said about 30 people were still on the battlefield, so I was nowhere close to winning, yet. He had only been commentating about our fight to the crowd and I could see the crowd cheering hard. I didn’t know how many people were left.
“Look at this, everybody! A short respite before the battle continued. What a fierce early skirmish, and Sir Larent cannot even rest for a moment! The flame arena Hestia created keeps peppering him with random fire waves!” I heard the announcer speak while keeping my eyes on Larent, dodging around the periodic flame attacks from [Dragon Fire].
The spell song increased all fire and dragon type damage I did on Larent, but if I couldn’t hit him, it was practically useless. I currently had [Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro)], my second fastest phase before the finale movement. I even transformed back into my minor form, which only reduced my total stats to two-thirds of what they were, but I was still not fast enough.
This battle was in its early phase, but I could already tell the difference between us. It felt like fighting Yorska, only I was used to her fighting style and skills. I didn’t know what Larent’s profile looked like since I was doing this duel fairly. I was really tempted to use [Mana Eyes] on him, but it really felt like cheating. He was a knight; a former one, yes, but I didn’t think he would take it kindly if I appraised him now.
Not exactly someone I would like to anger.
Larent was keeping his head at me, despite dodging around. I couldn’t tell from his facial expression, but I really wondered why he wasn’t attacking me. Was he giving me a chance to figure out a battle plan, or what?
From our meeting in Estralia, he knew I was a dragon, so he probably understood I had used [Humanize] to transform into my minor form to kinda even our difference in levels and fighting experience. I hid my transformation with a fire waterfall and my form now with a bulky [Panzer] armor from the crowd, but this middle-aged guy knew. He wanted me to show more of my abilities.
Guess I can’t hold back at all. Can’t show I’m a dragon, but doing this properly should be good enough! I need to win!
From the looks of it, I was almost convinced this guy would be in the finals. He certainly had the last boss feeling around him with how competent he was, so, if he was the strongest foe I could face in this tournament, then showing everybody what I could do wouldn’t hurt too much if I kicked this guy out of the arena now!
Release.
My [Dreadflare Aura] burst forth again, however, unlike before, I was maintaining the heatwave, pushing Larent back from the sheer temperature. My sun core kicked in, beginning to maintain my body warmth.
I apologized to the forest, for I once again set another wood aflame. The ground began to melt, the trees caught on fire, and the very air felt like it could burn your lungs. Anything inside my aura was just fuel for my purple flames growing everywhere, reducing anything into a thick, semi-solid, semi-liquid form — lava.
To a human, this was slowly turning inhabitable for them. But, for a fire dragon? It was starting to feel like… home.
One thing Mother taught me when I was making the obsidian orchestra, my dragon lair, was that I should never try to fight an experienced elemental dragonkin within their home. Home advantage was pretty devastating when they could even control the very elemental mana they cultivated inside their lair.
As such, a truly strong dragon could change the very nature of the area they fought in, similar to expanding their domain. After all, mana was the fundamental pillar of this world, and with it, you could even change the very land.
Volcanic Blaze! Magmakammer! (Magma Chamber)
“S-She burned down three farmland worth of trees! It’s all gone!” The announcer’s voice quivered in astonishment. “I-It all burned down into lava! A-And, is that… obsidian?”
Any hint of a forest was gone forever, as my flame aura reduced everything it touched into ash. The land was bursting with seams of lava rivers and obsidian ground, crackling and bursting like the inside of a natural volcano.
This was not all I could do with my [Volcanic Blaze] training. I was a lavamancer now!
“Kraaagh!” I stomped the ground, spreading my mana through it to have it explode. Lava flew up, launching me into the air as I controlled them to follow me like water.
I snapped my head around as I noticed Larent’s ash-covered figure dispelling his [Auracoil]. Towering over him while standing on this stream of levitating lava, I stomped on it, launching it towards him before I activated my wing’s rocket boosters.
Larent sliced right through it but with all my buffs and the rocket boosters, I caught him right when he was recovering his swing. He blocked my glaive strike in an awkward position, causing him to become unbalanced. I then hooked his blade with my glaive and kicked him, but instead of disarming him, his grip power led me to lose my weapon momentarily.
Still, I didn’t falter. I maneuvered around him with my rocket booster as my parallel minds began preparing spells. Now behind him, I slashed at him with my tail, using [Hellblade Edge] to keep him on his toes before digging my claws into the ground and hurling a boulder-sized lava ball.
He threw away my glaive before slashing the ball into pieces, only for my glaive to shoot scale-dust bullets at him to draw his attention away as I changed not only the spell song but also activated two of my buffing spells.
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines ♫
It’s blinding my sight ♫
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls ♫
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ♫
The carnage of the blazing sun ♫
Blood rain from swords and claws ♫
The strive to pierce the sky ♫
The light that beckons you forth ♫”
The flame arena disappeared, changing into a more peppy song fighting a high-action battle scene between the protagonist and the wall standing before her. If I couldn’t hit him, then I would play into the endurance match with [The Will to Fight and Survive] for an endless amount of Stamina!
Halo of Consecration! Prayer!
<[Prayer (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
“H-Holy magic! [Prayer]!” Warm light basked me as the announcer and the crowd exploded into an uproar as I finally revealed another piece of myself. The icing on the cake was the white flaming halo above my head.
<[Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Adagio)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
Shit! I cursed, feeling my Agility disappearing with the allegro movement. At least now, if I somehow managed to hit him, I could deal more damage with adagio boosting my firepower.
Not letting it demotivate me for long, I flew right back towards him, wielding my glaive as we clashed our weapons once again. However, unlike Larent, I was also shooting him with lighting and storm spells or reorganizing the battlefield with either [Bedrock Blades] or [Rumbling Might].
Banishment Beam!
Rays of light shot forward only to be sliced apart by his strikes, making me start to understand there was something special with his strikes. Every slash could cleave through my spells with ease. This wasn’t just his skill with the sword, his sword had to be enchanted also, even if it didn’t have any runes.
Levin Core!
I produced a ball of thunder whilst meeting him head-on again. It was like a dance, honestly. His beautiful swordsmanship was defending well against my destructive battlemage style; it would be a sight to behold if I wasn’t on the other end of this match. I had to hand it to him, outside of being cooked alive by the ground and air, he was holding on this battle pretty well.
Crimson, white, and purple flames began to consume his body, and he couldn’t do anything about it as he had to defend against my spells and attack. Slowly but clearly, I was doing something as his movements started to slow down while mine continued on strong. With even the lava under my control, I was making sure he was resisting even against mother nature herself!
But, if I were to give this fight my all, then I still had a few more things to show this knight.
[“Now!”]
Kashoo!
“Urk!” Larent groaned as his sword arm suddenly stopped moving from being entangled by tendrils of dark. He was too focused on me that he forgot I had a companion!
[“Fighting against a tamer means fighting against a number disadvantage!”]
“What?!”
[“Master, now!”] It was Rajah. My virigress was hidden inside my shadow all this time, awaiting for my command to strike when I needed him to.
Attack!
Lava burst from the ground, forming into hands as they grabbed Larent’s legs while I shot my scales out to wrap them around his arms to prevent him from reacting to me kicking his chest. It unbalanced him, giving me the chance to activate my rocket boosters.
Spark Crescent!
With crimson infernos cloaking my glaive and tail, I twirled my body around, landing a deep cut into his chest armor before using the heavy momentum to shoot out a two-handed cut with my glaive right against his head, causing something to crack before sending him up into the sky.
I activated my boosters again and blasted off, tackling him as I readied myself to slam him into the ground like a comet. The velocity of our flight sped up more and more and when it reached the limit I wanted, I flew right down towards the ground. I was sure, this would defeat this guy, or even outright cripple him at the very least. He should be strong enough to survive it and I could always heal him up later on.
At this point, I knew I could win…
… but.
“Urgk! Krah!”
At the very last moment, he punched my throat, breaking the armor in the process and causing me to gasp for air. He grabbed onto me and threw my flight off-balanced, causing the attack to fail dramatically as I was the one to land directly onto the ground instead of him.
As per usual, my comet strikes always left behind a massive flame explosion and a crater, although due to the imperfect attack, everything was smaller than usual. Thanks to Shiterno’s blessing, I didn’t receive any damage from the attack since I was immune to my own fire attacks.
The landing itself did hurt a bit, but I used [Volcanic Blaze] at the last moment to just move the lava away, submerging myself in it. Using the magma to move me, I “swam” up to the surface before my white flames healed my throat and repaired my armor.
“Haaaaa, huh, haaaaaaa!” Bated breaths, no, it sounded more like someone was trying to breathe after running a marathon.
I turned around to the sound, noticing Larent standing up, helmetless. I looked down to his feet, noticing it had broken apart, probably from my glaive attack, before staring back at his face, covered completely in sweat.
He’s overheated!
“Haaaa, haaaa!” Realizing he was being cooked alive, he tore off his damaged chest plate, throwing it onto the lava floor where it began to dissolve like his helmet. My tail attack left a deep dent and gash in it, so it might have been hard to breathe with it on.
“Incredible!” He said after a few seconds of breathing, before reaching his arm out, activating the rune on his gauntlet, retrieving his sword as if he was a telepath. He wiped the sweat on his brows and beard away before smiling at me fiercely. “Let us continue, Lady Hestia!”
… This battle junkie.
He actually survived all those hits without a problem. I couldn’t even see any blood on his head after I hit him with my glaive. How sturdy, or, what sorta trick did he use to shield himself like that?
“You have granted me immense courtesy by showing off your abilities. Now, I must do the same.” With a deep breath, he lowered his stance, tightly gripping his sword horizontally. “Now, allow me to show you how I managed to earn my spot as a Hand of Heaven. Now you face ‘Auegor’s Blade!’”
A chill ran down my spine once again as I felt immense pressure coming from him, not through his [Terror Aura] or something, but it felt like his mana was trying to choke me out. I activated [Mana Eyes] and was forced instantly to squint as I showed his mana accumulating around his blade, giving it an extremely thin and razor-sharp edge.
When I deactivated the skill, I couldn't see it anymore. Pure mana, the mana flowing in the air and everywhere was usually invisible without a proper skill or tool to look at it. However, unlike Fargryneill’s version of accumulating pure mana, Larent was using the mana inside his body, instead of his surroundings.
“First Form:—”
Verdammt! Here it comes!
“— Strik—!”
His sword immediately began to glimmer blue, revealing the large mana blade it created. But, for some reason, my [Foresight] and [Danger Perception] didn’t activate in Larent’s direction. It told me to dodge what was coming from behind me.
[“Master! Turn around!”]
Huh?
Rajah’s [Dark Tendril] shot from my shadow, tugging me to the side where I saw what he wanted me to see. A cowled person with a mask, arcing their arm around as they aimed their dagger at my head. Where did they come from?
“— e!”
But before they could hit me, the air rumbled as a blue blade descended down in between us, cleaving the ground and shooting out a humongous ethereal blade. It blasted me away from the wind pressure alone, launching me about 200 yards or so away. Midair, I managed to catch the view of the person wielding that attack — Larent.
And as I was rolling on the ground, I heard an ear-throbbing explosion in the distance. When I looked at it, I saw the mana rupturing a large portion of the battlefield. The explosion was so large, it would have probably been big enough to consume three copies of me.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
I gulped. I wasn’t so sure how to compare it, but the blast probably was smaller than what I could produce with [Solar Flare]. It definitely seemed weaker than the attack I did on that demonkin during the Griffonpeak attack, but it wasn’t like I wanted to get caught by it either. If I were hit by that thing, I would have probably been kicked out of the match before I could heal myself.
Eye for an eye, huh? I guess I almost did the same to him with my comet dive.
Trembling a bit from his attack, my curiosity took hold of me as I flew back, wanting to know what exactly happened there. The moment I came close enough to hear his voice, I heard him shout “Rat! How dare you interrupt our duel, assassin!”
As the dust around him settled, I saw that same cowled person from before rearing his head around, showing off the skull mask he was using to cover his face. His whole attire was completely black, looking sleek and tactical like what a covert operative would wear.
A wicked, hook knife was in their right hand and a swordbreaker was in their other. From what happened before, it seemed like they timed their sneak attack right as Larent was about to launch his attack, almost as if they were trying to take me down with a suicide run. I couldn’t detect them. Not even in the last moment weren’t it for Rajah pulling me away in the last second, helping me dodge their attack.
This was, without a doubt, one of the twelve. But even worse, as I couldn’t even feel their presence at this very moment. It was like they were air; a ghost.
“How long have you been watching our match?” Larent asked and I wanted to do the same. It seemed he also only noticed the cowled man when they were about to attack me.
This was probably the reason why his attack just missed like that. Larent was too skilled to miss an attack while I was standing still like that, so he most likely redirected it to hit the assassin. Only, the latter seemed to have to dodge it.
“No answer?” Larent’s irritated voice was clear to hear through the commentary of the announcer, which I had driven completely out of my mind, too focus on anything else but the two people before me. “My lady, I call for a ceasefire. I do not take kindly to lurking rats like them.”
Larent readied his sword and I did the same with my glaive. I had no reason to decline. I could not only get rid of another contender, but I also felt extremely uneasy around this guy. That attack he did had no killing or malicious intent at all, but for some reason, my instincts and my skills told me if that had connected, I would have regretted it more than just losing a tournament.
“Ooooh, ‘Auegor’s Blade’ and ‘Crimson Scaled’ are teaming up! Ahh, what a death wish! Interfering in an honorable duel like that is like asking for an execution!” the announcer commentated and we did just that.
We readied our weapons as we eyed the cowled person, only for them to suddenly point at something behind them. And that something was the lone castle in the middle of the battlefield, suddenly letting out black smoke as it slowly turned in our direction.
<Hestia, I should warn you about Castle Fatalisa. The reason why I had to fight and hold this strategic point was due to a certain weapon the demons built a giant fort around it. A weapon capable of even slaughtering dragons with a single shot.>
What?!
“Oh, but we have to turn away, blood enjoyers! There is something I cannot believe is happening right now! Castle Fatalisa is moving, and alllllll Yeosians know what this means! The dragonator!” The crowd erupted in cheer. “Who was it? Who is controlling this beast? Oh, the ingenuity, the resourcefulness! The ‘Acid Killers’ brothers were the ones to unlock the secret of this mighty weapon! Wait—? What?”
<Hestia, if you get hit by the blast, then you will be automatically kicked out of the match. Avoid it at all costs.>
What?! Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?!
<Because it is rarely used during a match. This is probably the sixth time it has ever been used, and the last time it was used was five hundred years ago. The only times people can see it in action is during festivals when the dungeon itself activates the cannon.>
What?! Why did you allow such a thing to be useable for a match! What rubbish is this about fair match and so one when someone can kick you out with a an instant one-hit-kill?!
<… Well, for its historical authenticity, of course. This was an important battle for Peolynca’s history so I—>
In other words, this numbskull of a god decided to add something that could break the balance of a match purely ‘cause he thought it was cool?!
Idiot! Fuck! I accidentally cursed a god before rocket boosting myself towards Larent, grabbing hi torso before creating a ball made from scales around us.
“My lady?!” He was flabbergasted, but I could explain everything after we escaped the morbid-looking giant cannon appearing out of the castle’s walls. The black glow growing inside the barrel was causing my chest to tighten up.
[“Volcanic Blaze!”] And I dived right into the lava with Larent as the sound of death shook the entire dungeon
Today I learned, even competent-sounding gods had a sliver of “whoops, I forgot” in them.
Comments
Unexpected, just like for Hestia.
Diego Rossi
I guessed right. But the giant cannon was unexpected.
