154 4.16 Battle in the air - Part 1

'That was easier than expected.'

Till now, I had thought it would be impossible to hurt a true dragon king. But from what I saw, it was apparent that they could be harmed.

That was my initial impression based on what happened, but my perception changed when I saw a new arm growing from where his old arm was.

It was hard to believe, but it was a real miracle of magic — rapid regeneration. With this ability, it was no wonder that the dragon kings survived all those wars without even getting a single scratch on their bodies.

"Isn't that unfair? Healing your wounds, knowing that your opponent is a mortal and isn't able to do so." Flare asked.

There was indeed a point in what she said. If he kept on regenerating himself after each one of my attacks, I would never win.

"There is nothing unfair about this. If he were just a mere mortal, neither you nor I would be here."

"What do you mean? He is a mortal with a human body. The limits placed by his body on his soul and his spirits are the proof of it."

The dragon shook his head. By now, I was already aware that this meant he was annoyed by the comment.

"And what about his soul? Do you think that is a human soul? Look, spirit, you are a divine being, and I respect you. But the man you claim to be your master is dangerous to all living creatures out there. Even though I came here just to strengthen the seal I placed, if this is something that I must do, I shall do it for the welfare of all the mortal beings."

Flare changed into her lady form and stood in front of me with her arms open. It appeared as though she was trying to shield me.

"You make no sense to me. How can my master, who has never knowingly done anything to harm others, be dangerous?"

"It doesn't matter how noble his goal, ambition, or way of life is. No one can break the chain of destiny—neither you, nor me, nor him. He will do what he is born to do, and what he has inside him will cause what I resent the most. The day he climbs the Dragon god's throne and picks up that sword, the era of chaos will start. There is no way to avoid that unless I end it here and now."

I looked at Flare in confusion. I could understand most of the things he said, but I still had no clue regarding what he said about my destiny. But since she was quiet, I realized it was my time to say something in defense.

"Look, I have no intention of causing any war or such. I just want there to be peace so that I can live my days enjoying the company of my friends. If I have to fight to make that happen, I will. But other than that, I do not wish to cause anyone trouble."

"As I said, it's not your choice. It's the fate that decides what is going to happen."

There was no time to dodge like last time since he used his wings to block my vision of Flare.

My best option was to create a shield using magic ice, which I did and blocked the attack before it could reach me.

I narrowly escaped his claw by blocking it with ice, but the impact pushed me around a hundred meters backward.

Fortunately, he wasn't trying to grab me this time. That was a wise choice considering how I froze his claws last time, and thanks to that, I was able to survive this attack.

I took a long breath in an attempt to prepare myself for the next attack. During that time, Flare kept him distracted by attacking him with fire magic from behind.

During the last attack, my heart almost gave up when I saw his claws right in front of me. But now, after facing it twice, I was a little more confident that I will be able to dodge it the third time.

Flare was keeping him distracted, but he started swinging his tail at me. His tail was comparatively easier to dodge since his concentration was on Flare.

I hadn't thought of any way out of this situation till now. I was focused entirely on the battle with no backup plans on my head.

"Man! This is starting to look tougher and tougher."

I attacked him with a wave of dark flames from behind, which froze most of the scales on his back. However, even before I could come up with a follow-up attack, he shed all the scales in his body and covered himself with an entirely new layer of scales.

In the end, the attack did nothing but shift his attention from flare towards me.

He turned around, striking Flare with his tail, and attacked me with several boulders he created using earth magic.

I dodged them by jumping on one of the boulders and used it as a step to jump even higher. At that moment, I realized it was a wise decision to fight the dragon in the air. His magical abilities here seemed more limited than ours.

This region had a higher concentration of mana than the lower ground, and because of that, Flare could quickly recover from the attack earlier.

[Flare, try covering his wings with your flames!]

After giving her instructions telepathically, I tried collecting all the mana I could muster. This time, I was planning to use the same strategy that Zagan and I used to trap Olive.