World Keeper

Chapter 358: Dragon’s Duel

In order to handle this fight properly, I asked Leowynn to stay back with the others. I might realize that she could still be considered a part of my own power, but the same might not be said for the dragon. My goal wasn’t just to beat it here, it was to make it accept its loss.

We both stood along the beach, nearly a kilometer apart. While Accalia announced the rules of the fight to the both of us, I began running through battle plans in my mind.

When it comes to physical strength, I can’t make up for the sheer muscle mass that the dragon has, so a head on confrontation was out of the question. From what I had seen in the simulated fights before, I could easily handle it in terms of speed. The issue was breaking through its scales and causing real damage without killing it. Most of my damaging attacks were… very damaging.

When Accalia gave the signal to fight, I let out a soft sigh. I allowed my chakra threads to spread out, into the area around me, and began to walk forward. As expected from the simulated fights, the dragon’s first move was to begin a frontal charge. And as I stepped forward, I began to let my divine soul seep out of my body as well.

Once the dragon got within a hundred meters, its mouth opened, a wide cone of white flame pouring out. Using the chakra strings, I stepped several times in quick succession to get out of the way, still continuing my slow advance.

Do I go with Terra, or Ryone? I thought to myself inwardly as I saw the dragon sweeping its mouth towards me, the cone of flame shifting as well. I continued to move out of the way as quickly as I could, my body flashing with every step as the world began to slow down for me.

I can’t go with Terra. I gave a small shake of my head. I’m not sure I could handle my mind suddenly working like that in the middle of the battle. Better to test it in the Admin Room first.

I knew that Terra’s mind worked differently on a fundamental level to my own, or even the other gods. So, when I formed the mirror behind myself, that left only one option. “Mirror the Archmage.”

As soon as I heard the mirror shatter, I felt an influx of information. Spell diagrams that I couldn’t remember learning. But, I knew that I did. My mirrors didn’t grant me ‘new knowledge’. No, they just worked with what I already knew. I could mirror Tubrock because I had some experience forging. I could mirror Ryone because I’ve read through the information globes, and the knowledge about the spell formulas existed within my mind.

Even if I had forgotten the information personally, it was still there. And that’s what mattered for this. As I lifted my hand, a complex spell diagram appeared above my head. Within it rested seventeen ‘diagram spheres’, marking it as a third tier spell.

The dragon seemed to notice that something was wrong, ending its breath attack. Its wings came forward, forming a physical shield in front of itself as they turned a bright gold. Yet the expected impact didn’t come as immediately as it had expected.

“I am the one who holds the laws of magic.” I spoke as the diagram began to light up. “One thought to create, one thought to banish. Come forth, ebon shackles. Twist and turn, ensnare all within my sight. Come forth, binding pillars of light. Strike down from the heavens, and form the prison.”

As the spell diagram crackled with energy, black tendrils rose up from around the dragon, latching onto its limbs, tail, and neck. With surprising strength, they dragged it down to the ground, forming what looked to be metal shackles and chains. I could see the dragon’s eyes going wide with shock as it found itself pressed to the ground.

Next came seven beams of light that fell from the sky, forming thick pillars that surrounded the dragon on all sides. Although none of the pillars directly touched the body of the dragon, they let out a field of mana between them, creating a barrier.

The ground shook and cracked as the dragon struggled, the chains slowly rising as it fought to break free. However, there was a soft smile on my face as a new diagram appeared above my head. Even as it let out a powerful breath against the barrier, shaking the pillars, I knew that I had the time I needed to finish my next spell.

“I am the one who holds the laws of magic. One thought to create, one thought to banish. Be still, be cold. Cease and freeze. With winter’s grip, I call for ruin.”

While the first spell had been a binding, this was an attack. The prison of light that held the dragon flashed blue, before everything froze. The massive body of the dragon was held within an iceberg, its eyes still focused on me.

That’s not going to hold him for long. I thought to myself, seeing how the dragon was already beginning to slowly move within the ice, melting any of it that touched him. This time, I didn’t have the luxury of being able to use elementalist abilities with my spell. He’d be free long before I finished the chant.

Instead, I created a large number of spell diagrams in the air above the light cage. Each of them was only of the second tier, but I was betting on their combined strength. That, and I didn’t have the mana for so many third tier spells.

The moment that the ice shattered, so did the binding light pillars, the dragon letting out an indignant roar. Steam rose along its skin, moments before the spells activated, and lightning engulfed the body of the dragon. Its roar turned to one of pain as dozens of lightning bolts struck against its skin at once, making it stumble to the ground.

Still, I didn’t count on the battle being over yet. But this was all that I could do as Ryone. Another mirror formed behind me, and I felt my body shrinking rapidly, lessening to half my normal size. “Mirror… the Dungeon Master.”

The moment I had finished saying that, my body flashed, and I appeared directly on top of the dragon’s snout, my hands crossed behind my back as I stared into its large eye. A wide grin flashed over my face as I spoke. “So, big guy, still want more?”

The slits of its snake-like eyes narrowed at me, and its head lifted up, bringing me with it. Clearly, it wasn’t quite done fighting yet. But, that’s why I had chosen Aurivy. Out of everyone, she had trained the most evenly across all fields to properly understand the abilities of every class.

Blue runes rose up from my skin as I waved my hand horizontally, resting in a line before me. Then when I brought it up, through that line, they formed a cross. When did I learn about how Fyor’s ninjas worked? Or is it just my mind piecing the information together, now that I was using this technique.

“Be still.” I said in a quiet voice, the runes shattering into strands of light that rushed into the dragon’s body, between its scales. As it seemed to hesitate, the previous technique striking at its mind, I crouched down, my hand glowing with the ki surrounding it.

As my hand slammed down, the ki suddenly spread out like a wide palm around my hand. When my hand slowed down, the ki palm surged ahead. However, neither palm harshly struck the snout of the dragon. The ki palm slowed down just a fraction of a second after my own hand, lightly tapping the dragon’s scales.

But then… my hand pulled back, making a gripping motion. When the larger palm made of ki reacted in the same manner, I saw a golden light forcing its way out of the dragon’s body. I was extracting its own ki, weakening it and absorbing it into my technique.

The hand made of ki grew larger as it absorbed what it had drained from the dragon. And again, it struck down. This time, it did not slow, fully smashing against the scaled body of the beast. As its head crashed downwards, scales cracking and dripping blood, I flipped back, landing softly on the sandy beach.

“So, ‘Cali~!” I called out with Aurivy’s voice, turning towards Accalia. “Mind asking if it wants to keep going for me?”

Accalia gave a dry chuckle, shaking her head as her eyes focused on the dragon. Its body shuddered, rising up before stumbling, one of its large legs starting to slip out from under it. It turned its head to look at her, and the two seemed to be holding a mental conversation.

With a small shrug, I cancelled my divine technique, returning to my normal appearance. That was actually kind of cool. Aurivy’s voice spoke up into my mind. Can’t wait to see how it works once you perfect it!

I raised an eyebrow at that. I knew that I still had to upgrade the rest of myself to divinity in order to release the true power of that technique. Well… hopefully I won’t have to cross dress as much.

Oh, come on, you make a cute me! Aurivy teased playfully. But seriously. If you plan to use a technique like that more often, you’ll need more training from anyone you want to copy. Ryone’s probably got a few tricks that you don’t know how to mimic yet.

I gave a small nod, and saw that Accalia was floating over. “It looks like he’s willing to accept the loss.” She smiled, reaching out to pat my shoulder. “Once he realized that it wasn’t just other people stepping in to fight for you… Well, let’s just say that you’ve annoyed him into submission.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I didn’t want to kill him… anyways, does this mean that we can get on with it?”

“They’re already working out the details.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, indicating the three gods that had moved closer together, talking amongst themselves. “I figure that they should be done any–”

“We’re done!” Terra called out, waving at us from her place in the sky. “Accalia, if you would act as a translator for us?”

Accalia simply rolled her eyes, moving over to stand next to the dragon, gently rubbing the scales of its lower jaw while the other three descended to the ground, From their bodies, golden light began to glow. Terra stood at their center, her hands out in front of her chest as the lights from both Bihena and Tryval rushed towards her.

“To prevent the destruction of both yourself and this world, we offer this pact. In the name of Peace and Fellowship, to bind your fates. In exchange for fair treatment and protection, you will serve as a companion to the one who has bested you in battle. This pact will last until such time when both parties choose to cancel it.”

As she spoke, strands of golden light lashed out from her body. One struck the dragon, connecting to it directly between its eyes, while the other did the same for myself. “Do you both agree to this pact? To defend this world from all threats as a single force?”

The dragon hesitated, glancing towards me one last time, before lowering its head. It seemed to let out a sigh, dark smoke flowing up from between its jaws. Accalia turned to face Terra, nodding her head. “Then by our powers, the pact is set.” Terra spoke, the light leaving her body, connecting myself and the dragon directly.

At least I can keep eating now… I heard a new voice in the back of my mind, much deeper than any I was used to, carrying a distant echo to it. The voice of the dragon’s thoughts, if I had to guess. A guess confirmed a moment later.

—

For the sake of my own sanity, I decided to ignore the constant popups, letting me know how many times the tamer class leveled up. A divine tamer pact, huh? I imagine that’ll be a bit different than a normal pact… guess we’ll explore it later.