Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Joining Irsyr on the way to the training hall, the group around Darganth was greeted by a massively expanded space once they stepped into the room. In it stood a jungle-like environment, with massive trees growing from the soil-covered floor and into the layer of fog that hid the ceiling.

Amidst these densely packed trees, flashes and waves of mana moved about as Edylia effortlessly toyed with Yldra, Alicia, as well as the latter's two followers. Upon realizing this, the group proceeds with care to not accidentally stumble into the spar and disturb them.

"That should be a good spot." Irsyr said after around one or two hundred meters, pointing toward an especially stable branch far up toward the fog-covered ceiling.

Jolted out of his conversation with his wives, Darganth turned toward where Irsyr was pointing.

"Yup, seems good." Darganth agreed.

Spreading his wings with a quick jolting motion of his shoulders, he stepped back before lifting off from the ground with a beat of his wings. Hovering in place for a moment, he was already reaching out telekinetically to bring Jennia, Serania, and Allaire with him when he was interrupted.

"You carried us so much over these past weeks of travel, I need this opportunity to get active myself." Jennia said, not choosing to let the spell affect her.

Instead walking forward, she rolled her shoulder and stretched a bit as she made her way toward the base of the tree.

"I'll be waiting for you at the top." She said before jumping up.

Easily ascending ten meters in one go, she used her clawed fingers to punch holes into the bark of the tree at the zenith of her trajectory. Using them as holds, she pressed her feet against the tree and took a quick look at the lowest hanging branch before launching herself toward it.

Watching from below as she landed on it with pinpoint accuracy, Darganth chuckled in response to her words.

"In moments like these I wonder where she gets her energy from." Allaire mused as they watched Jennia climb the tree.

"No idea, but it's infecting isn't it." Darganth said and focused his gaze on the branch Irsyr had already teleported to.

Smiling lightly as she saw through his intention, Allaire got a head-start by escaping his telekinesis spell with a short burst of mana that exploded outward from her and propelled herself into the air. Carried by an updraft of wind created by her ability as a peak fourth rank aura user, world connection, her small initial jump was extended. Finally, she formed two feathered wings of light with aura manifestation, allowing the winds that moved with her and stayed in her vicinity to carry her completely so that she flew.

"Let's not be left too far behind." Serania said a moment later.

Nodding in agreement with her, Darganth completely dropped his telekinesis spell as he felt her cast a flight spell on herself. Due to this spell, the layer of mana that kept the elemental energies separate allowed the air element to shine through with such intensity that to Darganth's eyes, Serania was covered in a millimeter thin layer of green light that clung to her skin.

Other mana users would meanwhile only sense a strong concentration of this energy and see her rise into the air as the air element lifted her up without any visible effect around her.

Hovering in place for a second, she slowly started accelerating, prompting Darganth to also rise further up. With each flap of his wings, he gained multiple meters of altitude, allowing him and Serania who followed closely after him to slowly catch up to Allaire and Jennia.

Thus, all four rapidly closed in on their shared destination, with Allaire being the first to come close after only a few seconds. Already slowing down to gracefully float onto the branch, her flight was abruptly disrupted as Jennia let an aura domain burst forth.

Despite her aura cultivation being two whole stages below Allaire's, Jennia's domain managed to disrupt her continued usage of world connection. She did this by bridging the gap in efficiency between the stages and mana quality through the usage of vastly more mana, something made possible by Allaire not going all out and Jennia taking her by surprise so that she couldn't increase the amount of mana she channeled into the ability in time.

Thus finding herself suddenly without an updraft of wind and with her aura wings flickering in and out of existence as they struggled to keep their form under Jennia's domain, she suddenly started plummeting.

Reacting quickly and increasing the amount of mana she was using to fuel these two abilities, Allaire was flying again just a moment later. But even with such a swift reaction, Jennia managed to overtake her, landing on the branch as Allaire just managed to stop herself from falling.

Momentarily hovering in place as she threw an annoyed glare up toward Jennia, Allaire soon followed after her by propelling herself onto the branch with a strong beat of the wing constructs she had conjured.

"Low move." She commented annoyed as she landed next to Jennia.

"I know." Jennia freely admitted with a grin.

Shaking her head with a sigh, Allaire made a swiping motion toward Jennia. From it, a largely harmless burst of kinetic energy sprang forth. Pushing everything in its path a few meters back, it shot past Jennia as she dodged it by leaning to the side.

"I deserved that." Jennia said as she returned to her previous posture.

Walking forward to get a good view of the ground below, Allaire and Jennia just spotted Edylia when Darganth joined them.

"How are Alicia and Yldra faring?" He asked as he stopped next to them.

"They, the vampire, and the high order girl do work together quite well, but it's still as one-sided as one would expect." Allaire said and pointed toward where the spar was happening.

There, Alicia had just unleashed her dragon's breath on Edylia. Sending ripples across the shield surrounding the latter as the wave of gravitational energy pushed against it, the cone of repulsing force caused the dragoness's advance to come to an abrupt stop as it threw her back.

Leaving two grooves in her path as she slid across the ground, Edylia managed to stop herself again after just a few short meters despite limiting her power for the spar. But with this restriction this was all that she could manage in the face of Alicia's breath attack, rooting her into place as it carried a shower of foliage and dirt past her.

Though this was diverted to the side by the shield of hardened space protecting her, it did limit her vision enough that she failed to notice Yldra use the opportunity to rush in closer.

Dashing into Alicia's attack in a daring maneuver, she broke through the pressure pushing her to the side and into the shadow that her mother's shield left in the breath attack. Immediately after she turned to the right, charging at Edylia while she was being restrained by Alicia's attack.

Conjuring two distinct swords of space energy into her hands and reeling them back, she aimed her first strike not at Edylia but at the shield covering her.

Slashing at it with the blade in her left, she caused it to vanish as the shield of hardened space came into contact with its opposite in the form of the weakening effect the sword had on the spacial layer at its location.

And before the short time frame when both effects largely canceled each other out ended, Yldra struck out again, this time aiming directly at Edylia.

Thrusting forward with the weapon in her right hand, she accurately pierced her sword through the gap in the shield.

Missing as Edylia anticipated it and moved to the side, Yldra immediately continued with a second strike. Changing the direction of her weapon's momentum with a speed only possible due to the weightlessness the sword benefits due to its lack of physical form, instead relying on hardening the space at its location to achieve an effect just like the shield had done, she swung it horizontally in a wide arc.

Again only swinging through empty air, Yldra didn't slow down at all and spun around to pursue Edylia.

Though before she could make even one strep, a torrent of flames came flying at Edylia from the side. Covering her completely, the raging inferno fully obscured her form and left Yldra to only watch and hope that it was enough for them to win.

Proving her wrong just a moment later, Edylia vanished from inside the flames as she teleported away. Only realizing it when she reappeared on her mana sense a few meters away from Alicia, Yldra didn't have the chance to react as the shield holding the former's breath attack at bay vanished.

Bracing herself as well as she could, she barely managed to dispel her conjured sword to prevent accidents before the wave of gravitational force slammed into her and sent her flying into a nearby tree.

At the same time, Edylia clashed with Vika who had stayed next to Alicia. Slashing at the vampire with her claws, she used the moment of surprise to land three hits in rapid succession.

First aiming at her arms by tearing through her shoulders, she disabled most of Vika's offensive potential before punching a gaping hole straight through her gut to slow down her healing.

Leaving the vampire as she collapsed onto one knee from the damage she had taken, Edylia quickly tried to continue to her main target. Though as she stepped forward, she didn't notice the small push that brought Vika closer to her leg, allowing the vampire to catch her by surprise and sink her fangs into her shin right as she moved it forward.

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem for her as her momentum alone was enough to break the vampire's fangs off with minimal trouble, but just as she was brought ever so slightly off balance, Alicia struck.

Drawing Edylia closer with a gravitational pull, she simultaneously launched herself at her and struck out with her fist.

Landing a strike at the other dragoness's torso, the combination of her momentum and Alicia's punch blew the air out of Edylia's lungs.

Stepping closer to follow up on this opening, Alicia lifted her other fist and channeled mana into it. Letting her aura flare to life around it, she brought it down onto the seemingly stunned Edylia.

However, as her strike reached Edylia it met no resistance, instead phasing through her without connecting with her body.

At the same time, Edylia recovered at a far too perfect moment for it to be by chance, immediately dashing forward and literally stepping into Alicia. Still intangible as she had partially sunk her body into the foundation of space through a spell, Edylia stepped through her and appeared behind her back.

Conjuring a glowing silver sword into her hand as she became tangible again, Edylia immediately spun around and pressed the weapon against Alicia's neck.

"Great improvisation but any combination of two tactics I taught you, you can assume I've already thought of them. Still, it's an improvement." Edylia said as Alicia lifted her arms in surrender.

"I've learned, next time it'll be even harder for you." Alicia answered her.

"That's the spirit." Darganth interjected at that moment, stepping through the portal he had conjured to return to the ground.

Noticing his arrival only then, Alicia's expression immediately brightened.

"How have you been?" Darganth asked as a greeting and opened his arms for a hug.