Chapter 67 - Lightning Avatar

Vernie gave Dubaza a ferocious grin. Apparently he was rather eager to get back at his master for the beating he had received from him a few days ago.

Dubaza laughed and spread his arms. Dense arcs of white electricity began to appear, zapping and wriggling as they connected to form a bright, shiny armor of pure electricity. Dubaza did not hold back as he immediately unleashed his Lightning Battle Domain. He was not worried that Alexander would get hurt by the electrical discharge and mini explosions. Truthfully, Dubaza doubted that he could injure Alexander even if he attacked with his full strength, much less little zaps of electricity. 

Alexander rolled his eyes at Dubaza's competitive spirit. "This dude is so old, yet still so competitive. It's hard to imagine how he must be like when he was still young." He thought.

Vernie gave a delighted roar and he quickly took to the skies where he would be most agile. Like Dubaza, white arcs of electricity appeared and condensed into crackling white armor. The only difference was that this time, it was extremely apparent that Vernie had the stronger discharge and electrical field. 

GRAAAAAARRRRHHHH!!!

Vernie gave a full throated roar that was slightly higher in pitch compared to his previous self, but one that was much more reptilian and ferocious. 

"Are you sure you can take him on, old man? I don't want to carry you with me as we go adventuring." Alexander remarked lightly.

Dubaza's grin never left his face as he replied to Alexander. "Rest assured, Your Majesty. I will be fine. You would not have to carry me. I, however, might have to break my back carrying a half-dead Wyvern."

Alexander smiled at his confidence. However, secretly, he was betting on the Wyvern.

"Let's bet! I'll bet that Dubaza wins." Flamewing pronounced.

"You're on!" Alexander quickly agreed. He was not about to let a free win pass him by. "What should we bet on?"

"If I win, I… I want you to come visit Planet Dragonos with me." Flamewing said.

"Uhhh… Sure. It'll be an eye opener for me." Alexander agreed once more. 

"As soon as you can!" Flamewing pressed on. 

"Yes, yes, as soon as I am done with Arcanus, I'll go visit Dragonos. Happy?"

"Yes, that's good." Flamewing said in a serene voice. But Alexander knew that she was happy. God knows what she had in store for him when he finally visits Dragonos though.

"If I win… I want you to become my contract beast." Alexander made an offer of his own.

"WHAT!" Flamewing roared, her previous happiness forgotten. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, CONTRACT BEAST!!!"

"Uhhh, I mean, as partners! Partners! I'm referring to the partnership contract!!" Alexander replied hurriedly.

"Oh." 

"Yes, of course partners. LONG term partners." Alexander quickly pressed home the point once he knew it worked. "We make a really good team, don't you think? Especially once you've got your dragon body back. We'll both be Scion Lords! Nothing in the entire universe can stop us!!" Alexander got slightly excited at his own words. "We'll sweep through Symphonia and the other Universe Empires!!"

"Okay." Flamewing smiled. "That, I can do."

"Okay, we have a deal then?" Alexander asked to confirm. He was rather cautious around Flamewing when her mood was swinging as wildly as it was then. 

"Deal." Flamewing agreed easily. "It doesn't really matter, actually, since you won't be winning. I just didn't like the idea of you wanting me to be your subordinate."

"Dubaza is old. He won't be able to win against Vernie with his enhanced powers." Alexander said confidently.

"We'll see." Flamewing said mysteriously.

In front of him, Dubaza began to float and rise up majestically to the sky. He aimed his electrical discharge downwards and the resulting force propelled him upwards. It was not an efficient way to take flight, but it was the only way he knew. 

Alexander frowned. He found Flamewing's absolute confidence unsettling. Did she know something that he didn't?

GRAAAAHHHHH!!!

Vernie did not wait as he fired off a thin blast of dragon breath. It was white in colour, and extremely powerful. A horrifying amount of fire energy was condensed within that thin blast.

CRACK! BOOM!!!

Dubaza unleashed a powerful electrical discharge downwards and he shot upwards so fast that he immediately broke the sound barrier. 

BAMMMMM!!!

Vernie's fire blast hit the spot where Dubaza was mere moments ago and sent huge amounts of glass flying out. The fire was so hot that it immediately turned sand into glass.

Alexander nodded in approval. Now THAT's power. 

Flamewing giggled. Alexander frowned once more. His instincts were telling him that he was missing out on some crucial information.

"Apparently you had no idea what a Pure Lightning Body signified." Flamewing said happily. 

"What does it signify?" Alexander asked, his frown growing deeper by the second.

"Just pay attention, you'll see it soon enough." 

CRACK! CRAAACKK!!!

Dubaza's counter attack came immediately and savagely as twin lightning bolts appeared and smashed into Vernie. One came from the sky, an overwhelmingly large and eerie white lightning bolt that came out of nowhere. 

The second, larger and much more powerful bolt came from the direction where Dubaza was. 

BOOM!!

Surprisingly, Vernie went flying in the opposite direction of Dubaza's second lightning bolt. 

Alexander squinted his eyes and chuckled when he caught sight of Dubaza at the point of impact. Apparently Dubaza had launched himself along with the second lightning bolt. 

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

Came Vernie's roar of pain. 

Vernie spread both wings wide and caught himself before he flew off too far. He came flying back quickly in a haze of crackling lightning field and sent a thunderous volley of lightning at Dubaza. 

The white spheres of pure lightning energy that hurtled toward Dubaza were so powerful that they ripped the very space itself. 

Black spots began to appear along the path which the spheres had passed as space became unstable.

Alexander had to quickly send out his own power of space to stabilize the area before the entire time-space continuum collapsed where they were and something nasty came crawling out of god knows where and when.

Dubaza's eyes grew wide at the sight of such a powerful attack. He grew slightly serious, but the silly grin that he had on his face since the beginning never once faltered. 

BAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!

The white spheres of lightning energy hit Dubaza and enveloped his body in a blinding white cacoon. 

GAHHHH!!! 

Dubaza roared out. 

For a few seconds the white cocoon glowed bright, while Vernie, Alexander and Flamewing could only look away and wait for the light to dim slightly so they could find out what happened. Vernie also didn't launch anymore attacks for fear of irreversibly harming his master.

CRACK!! CRACK!! CRACKKK!!!

Suddenly, massive bolts of lightning came from the sky and hit Dubaza in rapid succession!

GAHH!!! GYAKHHH!!

Came Dubaza's roar once more. But strangely, instead of one, there were two voices. And the second voice was so otherworldly that it made Alexander's goosebumps rise a little bit.

Vernie and Alexander immediately turned to look at Dubaza. 

The light slowly faded and revealed two humanoid shapes standing quietly in the air. One was clearly Dubaza in his Red Robes that somehow survived the attack fully intact. The second was a rapidly increasing in size human-shaped energy form that looked exactly like Dubaza.

Within seconds, the energy form had reached ten meters tall. It was fully white, made of pure lightning energy and his entire body crackled with a horrifying amount of power. 

Alexander gasped in surprise. 

"Lightning Avatar!" He said.

"Yep! Lightning Avatar!" Flamewing finally burst out laughing. "And just the first one of an infinite number of Avatars he could create! Haha! You lose!!" Flamewing cackled wildly. 

The Lightning Avatar leapt forward so quickly that Alexander couldn't follow his movement with his eyes. Before anyone could even think, the Lightning Avatar had appeared on Vernie and had him in a vice-like hug.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE! 

The Lightning Avatar unleashed a massive torrent of electricity into Vernie. There was no need for anything else, just a simple hug, and pour in endless quantities of lightning energy!

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

Vernie roared angrily. He began to fly around erratically, spinning and rolling, trying to get the Lightning Avatar off him, but to no avail. He tried getting smaller to escape its vice-like hug, but it was no use too! 

The Lightning Avatar was made of energy, and could fully surround Vernie with energy no matter how small he became.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!!

Electricity continued to gush into Vernie's body. After a few long seconds, the Lightning Avatar began to dim slightly.

But by then, the damage was done. Vernie began to wail mournfully.

No matter how high his affinity was with lightning, there was still a cap on how well he could absorb and manipulate lightning. The Lightning Avatar was so powerful that Vernie soon reached that cap and he no longer could absorb and redirect the lightning energy.

After that point, his body began to take damage from the lightning energy.