Chapter 48 - The Main Course

*ROOOOOAAAAAAAR*

A second, louder roar ripped through the air, filled with power and might. Dorian couldn’t help but shiver slightly as he heard it, the sheer hostility in it intimidating.

Dark, almost pitch black scales covered the giant lizard, giving off an almost metallic glint. It stood just a bit shorter than Dorian at around 5 and a half meters, its beady golden eyes glaring at him. Small, grey spikes covered its body, going up and down its spine. Instead of strong, rippling muscles, it had a sinewy, lean body, with long claws that ended in a sheer edge.

‘Ausra…’ Dorian mentally noted, a frown appearing on his face.

‘I thought this was supposed to be a bulky lizard, like me?’ His tongue flicked out as his eyes met the lizards, tension building.

‘This appears to be a Pseudo-Lord Class Solar Rock Lizard that has undergone some type of mutation. Without a blood sample, I am unable to accurately judge what exactly.’ Ausra replied.

‘Damn.’ Things didn’t always go to plan. Few people had encountered this beast and lived, the only information he’d had on it was second or thirdhand.

Abruptly, the lizard launched itself into the air, hurtling toward Dorian. It’s body blurred as it moved, blasting off three different pillars in a second, stone shrapnel exploding outward as the boulders disintegrated from the weight of its leap.

‘So be it.’ Dorian’s mouth twisted. His Great Strength Ability was always on now, boosting the physical strength of his already powerful body.

The lizard slammed down on a stone boulder only a few dozen meters away from Dorian, twisting to launch directly towards him.

‘Let’s see what you can do,’ He grinned,

‘Flame Claws.’

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

“Everyone freeze! Do not move!” The vampire leader of the Hunters, Rathven, snapped his fingers, bringing his Hell Lance out of his Spatial Pouch. The powerful spear gleamed in front of him, giving off a faint red light.

Aina stumbled at his side, withdrawing a small, glowing white pill as she sat down, trying to meditate and heal.

“We’ve already been spotted by the Solar Rock Lizard. If we run now, it’ll break off from the dragon to kill us.” The creature was notoriously vindictive and brutal.

“The-then what do we do, S-sir?!” Harmen’s voice was panicky as he stared up at the two huge beasts, his arms trembling.

Rathven brought his Hell Lance out in front of him,

“What can we do?” He responded, his eyes bloodshot,

“We can only pray now, to the shattered Heavens above.”

A moment later, a veritable tsunami of boulders and rocks rained down upon them as the two giant beasts collided.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

“ARRRGH!” Dorian roared out loud as he felt the Solar Rock Lizard’s claws sink into his side, stabbing into him.

WHOOSH

His flaming claws sailed downward, slicing and missing once more as the agile lizard twisted, dodging out of range. His claws smashed into the earth, tearing out a several meter wide hole in the ground and throwing up a small storm of dust.

“Hup!” Dorian leapt backwards, his wings spreading widely as he soared into the air, gliding about 15 meters above the ground. He knocked into one of the stone pillars and leapt off it, jumping higher.

Behind him, he felt a wave of energy vibrate, seeming to condense.

“Damn.” He turned around, digging his claws into the side of the stone pillar as he faced the lizard. His body was latched on, hanging off the side of the giant boulder. He immediately took a deep breath, his chest warming.

He blasted out a column of Emerald Flames, the deadly Draconic Fire melting through the air.

Not a second later, a heavily condensed beam of white energy slammed into his Emerald Flames.

BOOM

The two energies collided, and instantly exploded on contact, a wave of green fire and white energy splitting the nearby area in two. The flames and white energy split along an even hundred meters long line, cutting several large boulders into twain. By now a haze of dust littered the air, the force of the explosions almost masking the area.

“There it is.” His chest heaved as he glared at the Solar Rock Lizard.

The powerful Ability known as Hyperion Beam. According to Ausra, it was a strange technique that allowed the Lizard to hypercondense energy in the air itself into a deadly orb of energy, and then direct this energy in what was essentially laser beam.

It was powerful enough that it could evenly match his Draconic Flames, one of the most destructive and powerful Abilities in the 30,000 Worlds.

“Grr…” The Solar Rock Lizard let out a guttural snarl as it jumped off of one stone pillar up to another, its claws sinking into the rock to give it a stronger grip.

‘It’s smart.’ He thought, shaking out his scales. This was proving to be a tougher challenge than he’d thought.

All of a sudden, something unexpected happened.

The lizard’s eyes began to glow a dark green color.

Dorian blinked and then stared in astonishment as a clump of rock morphed into the air and latched onto his right shoulder. It moved around as if it was a floating liquid, wrapping around his right arm. The instant it landed, it solidified, transforming back into solid rock.

He snarled as he raised his left arm, ripping the stone chunks off of him. They dropped downward in a shower, peltering the already largely destroyed ground.

An instant later, two more arms of stone slammed onto him, clamping on both of his shoulders. Dorian flexed his arms, causing the stone to shatter. As soon as he did, however, several more tentacles of stone wrapped on, sealing his arms and legs. One large one wrapped around his chest, trying to crush him.

*ROOAAAR*

Dorian gave a roar of his own as he twisted his entire body, virtually destroying the pillar he was standing on and the large limbs of stone that were wrapped around him. The unrelenting physical strength his body held couldn’t be constrained, the passive Great Strength Ability providing a significant boon.

THUNK

He stumbled backwards, his eyes twitching as the world around him all of a sudden seemed to twist. The sounds of his movements, the falling and breaking stones and rock, the guttural growls of the lizard, all of that faded away as a ringing noise took over.

In the instant that he shattered the stone encasing him, a smaller, more dense pillar of stone had jutted forward, slamming against the side of his jaw.

He blinked as he looked dumbly forward, his eyes unfocused.

Barely glimpsing the Solar Rock Lizard charging a white orb of energy, just a couple dozen meters away, its head leaning slightly up into the air. Streaks of white light zoomed into the orb as it finished growing, forming a meter and a half ball of raw power.

‘Focus. Analyze the situation.’ Dorian’s mind went into overdrive as he forced himself to regain control, ignoring the ringing in his head.

‘CONDENSE.’ He activated his strongest Ability. He’d originally wanted to try defeating the lizard without using it to test the prowess of his new body, but maintaining that now seemed like a bad idea. The lizard was a mutated hybrid of some sort, sticking to his first plan would be foolish.

Dorian’s brawny nearly 7 meters tall body instantly morphed, shrinking inward. Smaller and smaller, meter by meter, his body condensed on itself, dark green scales gleaming.

It took only a split second for his body size to go from almost 7 hulking meters tall to a much smaller 3 meters, smaller even than his fully grown normal Myyr Dragon form.

His scales took on a mix of red and green, giving off a vibrant, powerful feeling. His tail had slimmed out even further, while his wings had gained a beautiful, bright red coloring, stretched out above him. Tiny spikes dotted the ends of his wings, sharp edge and deadly.

An odd, red and green swirl marked his forehead where a pair of horns had appeared, his draconic face pulled up in a snarl revealing hundreds of razor-edged teeth. His arms had gained a pair of ridged spikes up and down them, growing slightly longer, ending in a set of beautiful black and green claws.

As he transformed, a small change seemed to take place in his soul. An intangible, invisible wave spread out as Dorian’s soul seemed to shift as a result of his ‘Condensing.’

WHOOSH

Just as he finished transforming, a beam of pure white light blasted through where his chest had been just a moment earlier.

“Grr…” Dorian growled, feeling a stinging pain spread through his body. His voice had taken on a throaty, deeper tone, giving off a raw, virile sensation. He glanced upward at the source of the stinging feeling.

A meter large hole had drilled directly through the top part of his right wing. When he’d finished Condensing, his wings had stretched out above him. The hole was burned completely through, faint red markings still glowing at its edges.

Dorian folded his wings down, wincing slightly.

As he did so, he noticed that the world around him seemed to have grown slower, by at least half as much.

The more powerful the energy one’s soul held, the stronger a being’s sense of perception and faster their movements became. The previously hard to track movements of the mutated Solar Rock Lizard were now made clear to Dorian as it dashed frantically toward him in a zigzag fashion, its mouth lunging for his neck.

Dorian flexed his body. Raw, physical strength flowed through him, far stronger than anything he had ever experienced in his life. He felt incredibly solid, as if nothing in existence could move him.

He glanced at the hulking lizard that was crashing towards him.

Just as its mouth was a meter away from connecting with his neck, his right arm transformed into a blur whipping up and then down.

BOOM

His arm slammed into the neck of the lizard and knocked the brute of a creature downwards, instantly cancelling its momentum. The entire body of the creature sank half a meter into the earth, a small crater of cracks expanding.

Dorian’s right arm was clamped onto the neck of the creature. He looked down at it mercilessly.

SNIP

Without a second of hesitation, he sliced the head off the lizard, killing it instantly.

‘Ausra, absorb its bloodline, and Soul Spell Matrix just to be safe.’ He ordered, his mental voice cold.

As he did so, he blinked, abruptly stopping. He took a moment to stare down at his claws, and then at the lizard. He shook his head in confusion.

“Wha-what?” He grumbled aloud, releasing his Condensed form. His body morphed and elongated back to its regular, hulking size.

As he did so, his entire mind seemed to relax, returning to normal.

“What the hell was that? I felt… my mind felt colder.” He stuttered, not understanding.

When he had changed into his Condensed form, his entire mindset felt like it had changed. His actions, the way he moved, everything seemed to become more confident, colder. He couldn’t quite articulate how it felt, but he felt as if his entire personality had shifted slightly.

Before he could dive in-depth on his feelings, an alert went off in his head.

‘Absorbing detected bloodlines…’

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

“We’re all gonna die… we’re all gonna die…” Harmen’s panicked whispers felt like a yell in the ears of the frozen Hunters as they looked at the awe-inspiring battle before them. Constant explosions, flashes of light, and shockwaves had spread out in a matter of seconds, knocking most of them down.

Rathven looked up at the haze of dust that covered his sight of the dueling creatures as the area abruptly grew silent. The battle before him was one that far surpassed anything he was capable of, even as a Grandmaster Class Hunter. His eyes couldn’t even fully track the movements of the Solar Rock Lizard.

“What the hell are they…”

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Thousands of miles away, at a spot far deeper into the oceans of nothingness, a gargantuan valley could be seen.

This valley was made up of pure, black bedrock, scarred and cut by tens of thousands of formless slashes, created by the windstorms that swept through the area randomly. Hundreds of miles of rock could be seen, all slipping downward in an almost endless hole.

This hole stretched for thousands of miles. If one were to travel down this hole, bright light would gradually start to emerge from the very bottom, shining upward. This light glowed a pale yellow color and gave off an incredible sense of heat.

As one went deeper and deeper, this light grew bright and brighter. Soon deep white flames would begin to appear, incinerating even the air itself, burning purely off magic energy. The walls of this hole were seared completely smooth, not a hint of a gap or hole.

These white flames gradually began to form together the deeper one got, creating a massive, swirling pale ocean of fire.

The burning core of the world of Taprisha. A giant orb of pure, white flames that rotated at a slow pace, spanning more than a hundred miles.

In the midst of this sea of everburning flame, a pair of dark, orange orbs could be seen.

“Oh, I do sense a feeling I know.”

“Mello again? A troublesome fellow.”

“No, it seems different. A brother that’s new!”

“I must share the news, of perfection that is true!”

“For even the brightest fire and blaze cannot burn alone!”

“Perhaps you’ll share wisdom that I find ever unknown.”