'I can understand feeling cold because of the ice mana, but why am I feeling the heat? This lava surely isn't capable of that.'
In fact, on top of his superhuman defense, Varian was also maintaining an invisible layer of macrokinetic layer.
Combined with these two, he shouldn't feel any heat from the lava.
If he did…
'The lava…it's hiding something.' Varian's eyes glowed and he pondered over a crazy decision.
However, he didn't go for it immediately but waited.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
For the next thirty minutes, Varian kept teleporting from the ice dragon's attacks while confirming his hypotheses.
The lava had something that emitted a strong fire mana. Without it, just a single attack from ice dragon would've frozen the entire lava.
The Ice Dragon was indeed emitting fire mana. Precisely from its wings. In fact, the wings were also damaged and the ice dragon was struggling to keep flying.
From time to time, there'd be a sudden outburst of fire mana from its wings and the ice dragon would groan in pain.
It's almost like it's suppressing something inside those wings.
Despite its condition, the ice dragon never landed. Even on the frozen lava.
Flap! Flap!
The ice dragon continued to flap its wings as it breathed out beams of ice.
'This is like a chess game I used to play.' Varian unsheathed two swords and gripped them tightly.
'There is one right move for checkmate.'
Whoosh!
He kicked the ground and shot up.
As a level 8 creature, the ice dragon already noticed his movements and spat out dozens of ice spears at him.
Szzz!
Varian used the one advantage he had against the ice dragon.
Teleportation.
He teleported right above the creature's back, to be precise, at the thinnest point on its back. From that position, both of its wings were at arm's reach.
"Roarr!" The ice dragon sensed his intentions and hurriedly tried to flip in mid-air.
Varian was also hoping for it as he channeled his space power again and teleported below.
Since the dragon flipped, he happened to reach the same position as before.
And since the dragon just made a hurried movement, it couldn't react quick enough at Varian changing his location.
But it instinctively released a breath of coldness from its back to freeze Varian.
Thankfully, Varian covered himself with an ice armor that prevented him from being frozen.
While doing that, he used his psychic powers to mess with the creature's mind.
The dragon was thus frozen for a moment.
Then…
Swish! Swish!
Varian's muscles bulged and he swung the swords with a tyrranical force.
Shockwaves swept the area and the still lava turned into waves.
As they approached the wings, a golden light shone from the swords as lightning arcs surrounded the blades.
"Rooar!"
As the blades were about to touch its wings, the creature finally regained its senses.
Its huge body shook fiercely and it was about to throw Varian out.
"Hmph!"
Right then, an invisible force bound its body while the space around it froze. These two were futile against a level 8 dragon, but they still managed to stop it for a split second.
That was enough.
Swish! Swish!
The moment the blades pierced into the wings, a huge ice mana shot out from the ice dragon's back and blasted Varian into the sky.
"…It's fucking cold." Varian felt his skin freeze as a bone-chillilng coldness spread in his body.
He instinctively wrapped his arms around his shoulders and coiled. He channeled his auras to get rid of the cold, but the ice mana wrecking havoc in his body was too much.
Little by little, Varian began to freeze.
His legs, his hands, his torso and finally his head.
Clang!
The frozen mana fell into the lava.
Varian was still conscious. So, despite being in such a state, he used his space sense to observe the situation outside.
There were big wounds on the ice dragon's wings. But they weren't enough to cut off his wings.
Varian knew that he wouldn't be able to do that anyway. He wasn't even a peak level 7 to attempt that feat.
But he did what he wanted.
He gave a significant injury to the wings.
Significant enough that—
Booom!
"Rooaa!"
The ice dragon shrieked as fire mana started to seep out if its wings. Its wings started to burn from the inside.
It couldn't flap them anymore.
Swwish!
The ice dragons started to fall.
"Roa…r!"
It tried to create ice wings usings its powers, but these ice wings were quickly destabilized by the fire mana that was escaping its original wings.
As a result, the ice dragon fell in the lava.
Splash!
The ice dragon didn't want direct contact with lava, so it created a layer of ice around itself.
The lava couldn't melt the dragon's ice layer, but—
Szzz!
The fire mana started to seep into the ice dragon's wings and wrecked havoc in its body.
"Roaaa!"
The ice dragon struggled as the temperature of its body shot up.
Before it could register what was happening, it began to drown.
Hundred meters…
Two hundred meters…
Three hundred meters…
Boom!
A huge explosion occured in the depths of the lake and the lava split into two.
Under Varian's incredulous gaze, a giant fire dragon emerged from the lava.
It was three times the size of the ice dragon. Its body, however, was riddled with injuries. Large chunks of its flesh were missing and its red bones were showing at several places.
But what it did was…
'…Wings?'
The fire dragon was biting onto the wings of the ice dragon's corpse and greedily absorbing something.
With each gulp, the fire dragon's injuries began to heal and its aura rose..no, it recovered.
"Gulp."
Varian gulped his dry saliva as he felt a terrifying aura.
Level 9.
'So that's why it could kill the ice dragon so easily.' He sighed inwardly.
Even though he deduced that the ice dragon must fall inside the lava to be killed in one attack, he didn't know how it'd die.
'I passed, right?' Varian tried to get up, but he was completely frozen.
Even with all his powers, he couldn't break the ice given by a level 8.
'…What now?' As he wondered, the fire dragon turned its gaze to him.
Varian's hair stood on its end and he felt his heart drop.
'Son of a bitch! Don't tell me…'
The red dragon tapped its giant finger in his direction and Varian got ready to jump into the ghost ship.
There was a risk that he wouldn't be able to come out, but that was better than dying here.
As he was about to do that, he realized that the dragon wasn't trying to attack.
'Huh?'
Szz!
The ice began to melt and in surprise, Varian forgot to maintain the telekinetic barrier.
As a result, his skin came in direct contact with lava.
"Ouch!"
Varian quickly teleported into the air and created lightning wings to float.
His body turned into plantae form and his burns healed in the blink of an eye.
The fire dragon jumped back into the lava and Varian waited for the announcement.
But what came first was a familiar blue screen
[Water Path Level 7: 3k/10k (+500 XP)]
'That's generous.' Varian clicked his tongue.
[If that fire lizard didn't save you, you had no chance of breaking out of that ice.]
'I could've escaped to ghost ship.'
[It's suppressed in the ruins. So, you won't be able to come out until someone enters this place and takes it out.]
'…' Varian's excitement dropped.
{You passed the test.}
The voice announced.
{Welcome to the Prince's Throne Hall.}