Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Holding a replica of his usual spear in hand and getting in a fighting stance, Darganth stood amidst the encirclement from Allaire, Jennia, and Alicia as he prepared for the start of their spar.

Under the pressure of his training and their regular spars, their strength had grown considerably over the course of the couple of months they had spent at the dragon peaks. His own growth in the same time frame was far less significant, even if it still meant being close to entering the fourth rank.

Especially the first weeks were slow for him as the main driving force behind the three women's progress was the pressure of their fights against him. The combination of adrenalin, a sense of danger, and being brought to their limits allowed rapid jumps in strength, even if the lack of mortal danger, or at least the perception of it, slightly lowered the extent of this effect.

He on the other hand had to mostly rely on the standard method of absorbing mana and repeatedly using it. As important as it was to do regularly, as relying purely on fighting would otherwise soon lose much of its effect, it was also far slower.

The combination of these factors led to their fights getting closer with each one, with Alicia having an especially pronounced impact. Not only was her physical body older than Darganth's as her dragon body had aged the amount of time she had lived as a human, but she had also spent a significant amount of time in danger from the high order.

With her finally receiving training designed for dragons and not humanoids, consequently improving her mana circuit and other factors of her mana utilization, she could now display a level of power one would expect from her.

Consequently, she alone was already capable of at least temporarily matching Darganth in power, leading to her ordering Vika and Sonita to sit out this spar. Yldra, who was the third and last spectator, hadn't even participated in any of their previous matches as she was either still being trained by Irsyr or still hadn't recovered from it, something that was also the case at that moment.

Thus it was just three against one, a fight that was still heavily against Darganth's favor.

“I'm ready.” Darganth said, half expecting Jennia to pounce on him in an instant.

But to his surprise, she didn't and instead kept her excitement in check as she circled around him together with Alicia and Allaire.

Doing so for a couple of seconds, the three waited long enough that Darganth already considered striking first when Allaire finally acted. Showing off her new status as an early fourth rank aura master, she unleashed an invisible domain that quickly enveloped the entire room.

While neither of the other three seemed affected, they themselves felt it. And though the effect it had on Darganth was stronger, Allaire's relative inexperience meant that she couldn't fully exclude certain individuals from the effects of her domain.

A moment later Alicia dashed forward. Rousing her mana as she approached Darganth, she felt Alicia's domain attempting to restrict it. Nonetheless managing to form her spell and unleash a series of projectiles, she felt annoyed by the slowdown in both casting and flight of the projectiles, as well as their weaker effect.

When Darganth saw the volley of spells flying at him, he quickly flared his aura despite the domain encapsulating him. Dodging towards Allaire, he headed straight towards and away from both Alicia and Jennia.

Domains couldn't restrict physical strength, allowing the two to fight at essentially full strength in hand-to-hand combat as neither relied much on aura. At the same time, their spells and elemental control were weakened drastically, making it in his interest to stay at a distance.

And while Allaire wasn't affected at all by her domain and would also fight at her full strength, if he could defeat her fast enough it would increase his chances against the other two.

Ducking under the first arrow heading for him, Darganth swung his spear in a wide arc as three further arrows of pure aura headed for him.

Cutting right through them and causing them to vanish in a small explosion of mana, he continued sprinting towards Allaire. Blocking two more shots from her as he did and enduring or dodging the spells coming from behind, Darganth soon managed to cross the dozens of meters between them.

Approaching her with his weapon drawn back, he let it pierce forward as soon as she was in his range.

Meeting his strike with the short sword she carried with her, Allaire dropped her bow. Using the now free hand to push back against Darganth's attack with more strength, she was nonetheless forced to call upon her aura lest she be overwhelmed.

Seeing this, Darganth stopped their contest of strength and spun around to strike again from another angle. With his spear approaching with the full momentum of his turn, he forced Allaire to jump back instead of blocking.

Pursuing, he used the range advantage of his spear to pressure her while staying out of the range of her attacks. This constant barrage of attacks slowly but surely forced Allaire back, though considering the speed with which Jennia and Alicia approached, it wasn't fast enough.

When the latter two were only around five seconds away from reaching him, Darganth knew he had to pick up the pace. Taking a quick step back, he suddenly rose into the air as a red aura avatar manifested around him.

Striking faster than Allaire could react, he thrust forward with his spear and managed to land a direct hit on her. Impacting her aura armor, the attack may have been stopped by it but it still slammed her to the ground and made her bounce and slither tens of meters back.

Dislodging the spear that had gotten stuck in the stone ground, Darganth didn't have the opportunity to pursue her as he was forced to spin around and block Alicia's massive dragon form from slamming into him.

Blocking both of her claws with the shaft of his spear, her used it as leverage to throw her to the side. Turning leftwards along with her fall, he managed to free his weapon from her grasp and take a step back.

Before he could get back into a solid stance, however, Jennia slammed into him in her true form. Impacting him with a tackle out of a full sprint, she easily smashed him to the ground.

Without leaving him time to reorient himself, her heads jumped forward and started tearing away at the aura avatar that surrounded him. Ripping away at his aura avatar, she destroyed it with such ferocity and speed that Darganth didn't even attempt to save it.

Instead deciding to dispel it and get out of her grasp, he used his control to manipulate the dispersing mana so as to not waste it completely. Directing it towards Jennia, he reconnected it with the fire energy it had previously channeled to unleash an inferno right at her.

Jumping back while Jennia was occupied with the flames that had engulfed her, Darganth used the moment of calm to assess the situation. As his gaze swept across the room, it went to his spear lying a few meters away before going to Alicia who was getting back up and ending with Allaire who had recovered and was on her way towards him.

Deciding quickly, he lifted both his hands in towards Allaire and gathered his mana. With her domain slowing down the formation of his spell, it took nearly a second before the concussive blast erupted from his palms.

Spreading in the form of a cone, the invisible waves of kinetic energy made the ground quake wherever they passed on their way to Allaire.

When it reached her, her advance was brought to an abrupt stop as the waves of energy stopped her and pushed her back. Even when she stamped on the ground and dug her feet into the small crack she had created did they continued doing so, resulting in two lines being carved into the stone.

After being forced back a few meters, Allaire decided that it was enough. Drawing upon her mana, she rose into the air as a white aura avatar with slight golden highlights formed around her.

In an instant, she found herself capable of not just resisting the force pushing her back but fighting back against it and advancing further towards Darganth.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he stopped his spell and pulled his hands back just a moment. Pushing forward with them a moment later, another spell in the form of a concentrated silvery beam shot out from them.

Having stopped Allaire once more, Darganth smiled slightly as he felt the rate at which her mana pool plummeted due to the constant cycle of damage and regeneration her aura avatar went through.

Keeping this up for a couple of seconds, he suddenly felt his instincts screaming at him and turned to his right just in time to see Alicia's claw descending onto him. Completely taken aback by the speed with which she had reached him, he didn't have to think of a way to dodge and instead acted purely on muscle memory before he even fully realized the situation.

Leaning back and jumping as hard as he could, he suddenly shot a couple of meters back as an aura avatar in the same leaned-back position flickered around him for a moment.

Once the boost from being pushed to where the avatar's torso would be had gotten him out of the way of Alicia's claw, he directly dispersed the avatar again.

Turning backward in the air to land back on his feet, Darganth looked up just in time to see Alicia repeat the same thing with the mana of his aura avatar that he had done against Jennia. And before he could react, the wave of fire slammed into him before exploding.

The dozen or so explosions that struck him threw Darganth backward until he came to an abrupt stop when he slammed into the room's wall.

“Wasn't that a bit excessive?” Allaire asked as she stared toward the cloud of dust and stone that obscured Darganth.

“I honestly didn't expect it to work this well.”

Alicia admitted with a wary smile.

Before the two could continue, their attention was drawn back to Darganth as pushed himself out of the wall and landed back on the floor.

“Ah, how I missed this.” He said with a wide grin, “Ready for round two?”

Instead of answering his question, Jennia simply rushed at him.

This time being ready for her charge, Darganth's form became covered in a silver and emerald green mix of light that abruptly expanded into his true form. A moment later it vanished again, with him and Jennia colliding not even a second later.

As their massive bodies clashed their impact sent shock waves loud enough to deafen normal humans in all directions.

A moment later Alicia also joined in, smashing into Darganth's side while he was still preoccupied with keeping Jennia's heads at bay. Her charge sent him crashing back into the wall, though the impact did far less damage to him this time around.

Instead, Darganth quickly shook it off, even managing to dodge out of the way as Allaire's aura avatar let loose an arrow at him.

Jumping forward and towards Alicia, he struck out with his fist. Impacting her at the base of the neck, it caused her head to suddenly be thrown to her right.

Before she could recover from the strike however, Darganth charged past her and towards Allaire. Barely flinching as one of her arrows struck his shoulder and pierced into his flesh, he tore through her aura avatar with his claws.

Tearing off its arm with the first swing, he didn't give her time to regenerate it as his maw clamped down on the avatar's head. Tearing it off and temporarily forcing Allaire's perspective out of the avatars, he used the sluggish movements during this period to inflict further damage on it.

While Allaire could still control the avatar, her perspective was no longer zoomed out so that it was controlled just like her body would be. Instead, she had to move it through sheer force of will and with the limited perspective that her real body had when hovering inside the avatar's torso.

Thus, before she even knew it Darganth had torn off the avatar's other arm along with a good chunk of its shoulder. Dropping it as it disintegrated, he pushed Allaire to the ground and placed his claw atop her avatar's chest.

Letting it regenerate and lower Allaire's mana pool for as long as he could, he dug his claws into the aura avatar and dragged them down its torso just before Jennia and Alicia arrived.

Spinning around and striking at Allaire with his tail, he caught Alicia's charge with his arms. Before he could start pushing her back though, Jennia took control of the stone ground and made two pillars shoot out from it and right into Darganth's torso.

Gasping from the strike, he stumbled back only to be struck by Alicia's fist. As his head was thrown to the side, he started tumbling and barely noticed the wave of darkness erupting from Jennia.

Pushing his mana to form a spell of his own in an attempt to defend himself, he realized that Allaire's domain no longer impeded him. Worrying for a moment, he reminded himself that Yldra was present and would intervene before it became dangerous.

Right as he finished that thought, the mass of darkness transformed into a series of black chains that started winding themselves around his limbs. Due to his hesitation, his spell still hadn't fully formed, with it now being useless.

Abandoning it, he was just about to go on the offensive in a last-ditch effort to turn the tides when he felt the gravity around him increasing. Wincing slightly as he was pushed down slightly, Darganth made one last push to free himself.

Gathering as much of his mana as he could in his body, he made curled himself in as much as he could before suddenly stretching out all his limbs to their maximum. Along with this, a fiery inferno exploded outwards, burning away the darkness holding him in place.

A moment later it also washed over Alicia and Jennia, burning holes into the former's wings as she used them as shields and singing the latter's two closest heads. Though as these two heads shielded the others, they were the only ones to receive any significant damage.

Looking back up when the flames slowly lost their intensity, Jennia and Alicia saw Darganth gathering flames in his opened maw.

Realizing his plans to commit to one last attack with all his strength, Alicia gathered mana for a breath of her own. At the same time, Jennia was also gathering her mana, using it to form a massive stalagmite-like rock in the air next to her.

Letting loose their attacks simultaneously, all three braced for impact as soon as they fired.

The first to strike its target was Alicia's breath, with the projectile impacting Darganth square on. Exploding on impact, it flung his massive body back tens of meters until he was just a short bit away from the wall.

While he was being thrown back, Darganth's projectile impacted the ground between Jennia and Alicia. When it did, the ball of fire exploded with a deafening roar.

In an instant, both Jennia and Alicia were being overwhelmed by an extreme heatwave that smashed into them. This was shortly followed by the force of the explosion reaching them, impacting with a force of what felt like a mountain. With it also came a shower of rocks and pebbles that were knocked loose from the ground and carried by the force of the explosion.

Amidst the sound of their enormous bodies being thrown across the ground as well as their pained outcry, Jennia's attack struck Darganth.

The massive rock mercilessly struck him while he was still shaken from Alicia's breath attack, fully driving him against the wall and still continuing further.

Wheezing in pain as the impact drove the air out of his lungs, Darganth felt multiple bones in his body breaking.

Forcing himself to at least transform into his humanoid form, he sighed a breath of relief as he no longer felt it difficult to breathe.

Collapsing against the wall, he leaned against it as he sat down and started looking around for Jennia and Alicia.

Quickly finding the two and confirming both to not be seriously injured, he felt relieved. Closing his eyes and leaning his head against the wall, he felt the exhaustion kick in.

A couple of seconds later he heard steps approaching from his right. Opening his eyes and seeing Allaire walking towards him, he smiled softly.

“How are you?” She asked concerned as she sat down facing him.

“Been better but it was worth it.” He replied with a grin.

“And you?” He added after a second.

“Also been better, your last hit really did a number on me.” Allaire said.

Moving closer and giving her a deep kiss, Darganth gently rubbed her head between her ears.

A couple seconds later Jennia also approached, sitting to the left of Darganth and leaning against his chest.

“Hehe, with a fighting chance it makes even more fun.” She said.

“Maybe if you don't have to deal with the wounds.” Alicia commented annoyed.

Looking up for Jennia, Darganth saw her limping slightly while holding her left ribs with a pained expression.

“Look at the bright sight, you've come this far in just a couple of months. And it's not like it takes long to heal, even without Yldra here you would be back to full in a few days.” He said.

Reluctantly nodding in agreement, Alicia also sat down and leaned against the wall as the four of them waited for Yldra to arrive.