The shadowy form of the demon levitated in the air, his fiery wings creating whirls of red flames with each flap. Five circles composed of orbiting red inscriptions were floating around its shadowy form.
All of them pulsed at once, their inner part turning into a red vortex as arcs of red energy erupted from them, forming glowing red lines between all five of them. Each connected, creating a large red pentagram floating in the air.
‘Gate? What is he summoning?’ it was a piece of common knowledge that pentagrams in the magic symbolized portal or gate.
Seeing it, the dragon flapped his wings, quickly rising upwards towards the burning clouds with powerful winds soaring around him.
Thick black clouds of smoke leaked out of his body, forming a trail behind his tail.
A colossal vortex of rotating red flames erupted from the pentagram, flowing forwards like a solar flare. The red flames flooded the whole sky, rushing towards the dragon like a tsunami of fire.
Vesuvius opened his mouth, and bright yellow flames with a golden centre erupted out, colliding, and clashing with the red flames. Fiery red and yellow sparks rained upon the forest on the ground, burning everything they touched.
Two waves of flames pushed against each other, the heat from their clash distorting the surrounding air. The red flames pushed forwards, their unending stream slowly overpowering the yellow flames, pushing closer and closer towards the dragon.
Vesuvius kept rising upwards, his long neck twisted backwards with a stream of yellow flames surging from his mouth like flamethrowers as he flapped his wings with all of his strength.
Finally, the red flames reached the dragon flowing and searing around his black volcanic armour, its surface turning red from the heat, cracks slowly spreading as the corruptive force of the hellfire disrupted molecular connections in it.
Vesuvius closed his eyes, his black body piercing through the layer of red fire clouds, finally escaping from the impact zone of the portal. The water oozed out of his armour, quickly cooling it to its native temperature.
“Do you surrender now? Just imagine the glory of carrying such a mighty demon as me.” the distorted voice of the demon echoed in his ears as the shadows gathered in front of him, quickly forming the demon’s body.
The rage seeped through the dragon, his heartbeat skyrocketing. He quickly breathed out, suppressing his anger as he knew it was just a provocation by the demon.
‘Yes! He is still a shadow user, and up here in the sky, I can still have a chance. They are too overconfident to fight in a disadvantageous environment.’
Vesuvius pushed his mana into his horns, bright blue and gold sparks shooting out of them in all directions, the lightning surging around them quickly growing in intensity.
The bright lightning arc shot out, a white flash of light temporarily dispersing the red light. The arc streaked across the red sky, splitting it into multiple chunks and striking the demon. Blue and gold tendrils surged around his whole body, holes filled with red flames forming in its pitch-black material woven of shadows as holes in a textile.
The arc vanished as suddenly as it appeared, revealing the quickly reforming body of the demon, the holes in his body closing so fast as if they had never even existed.
The pair of red eyes fixed upon the dragon as the demon’s coal-black face distorted, revealing the fiery red teeth, “Your debt just keeps growing and growing. I will add another million years of servitude on top of it.”
The demon once again dispersed, turning into quickly moving black clouds of shadows quickly moving towards the dragon.
Seeing its speed, Vesuvius didn’t even try to dodge with his large body, but instead, magical circles arranged in his mind, mana quickly flowing through his veins and bones.
The black clouds stopped by the dragon violently swirling around as the giant black shadow fist covered in spikes burning in red flames jumped from it. The fist turned into a black blur, wind howling around it as it punched towards the dragon.
At the same time, two magical circuits formed in the dragon’s mind, and his whole armoured body flared up in bright orange-yellow flames and lightning.
The dragon’s aura ignited, the incoming fist burning like a meteor falling through the atmosphere. The wave of lightning erupted out in all directions, forming a spherical wave of blue and gold electricity, sparking around the fist, tearing its shadowy tissue.
The fist continued and impacted against the dragon, pressing against a thin magma-like barrier that shattered into thousand of orange shards.
The fist punched the black armour that was burning in bright flames and crackling with lightning. The fist malformed, burning and dissipating. At the same time, the black volcanic armour cracked and exploded, a piece of it shattering into hundreds of sharp pieces, revealing the shiny black scales under it.
Their black surface shivered in light waves, mana flowing into them and absorbing the damage as the fist finally dissipated, burning away.
The dragon’s enormous body flew backwards from the residual force until he braced with his wings, quickly stabilizing in the air.
The black shadow cloud reformed once again into the demon. His large fire wings were leisurely moving on his back. His left arm was missing, with the shadowy strings growing from the shoulder, slowly repairing the arm.
Seeing the fast regeneration, Vesuvius didn’t panic, knowing there had to be a price paid for it, most likely in the form of lots of mana or other kinds of energy.
The cold and arrogant voice of the dragon reverberated through the sky, “Ohh, mighty dragon god, someone sullied the name of your kin, dragons. Give me strength to punish them and strike them down.”
An arc of golden light shot out from the dragon’s body, the red clouds around it dispersing as it shot towards the sky.
“A dragon priest?” the demon froze in surprise but didn’t attack, becoming wary of what will happen.
Every demon had a fear of gods encoded deep in their genes as they were the only race in Lorenia that didn’t have any patron god that watched over them. There were evil and vile gods, but they were just allies, none of them being their true patron.
The golden lightning arc descended from the sky, striking the dragon, the golden light enveloping his whole body. The new force surged through his muscles, his heart beating rapidly. It wasn’t by much, but he was sure it was at least fifteen per cent buff.
Ding!
//
Buff has been applied: [Insulted Dragon Blessing] for 30 minutes
Effects: +15% stat increase
//
The priests were different as they couldn’t just summon any ability they wanted, as every prayer had its conditions that needed to be fulfilled for it to work.
The dragon’s horns crackled one more time, and the bright arc split the sky in half, accompanied by the deafening thunderclap that shook the ground and sky. The bright blue tendrils of lightning sparkled around the shadowy demon, his whole-body distorting.
In the meantime, four magical circuits ignited in the dragon’s mouth, the brightly glowing magical symbols in them rhythmically pulsing. The powerful magic and yellow rays of light escaped from the dragon’s mouth, his whole body glowing in golden colour.
Seeing that the still regenerating demon responded likewise. Five glowing red rings of magical symbols ignited around the demon, their glow quickly increasing. Loud humming and evil energy spread everywhere.
Both dragon and the demon levitated in the air, flapping their wings as they focused on building their respective spells as fast as possible. Their red and reptilian eyes were unfocused as their mind entirely left the physical world, entering their inner one to focus on the casting.
‘Gotcha!’ the magical circles in the dragon’s mouth dispersed in colourful motes of light as he flapped his wings. The dragon launched forward, his claws igniting in both lightning a fire. The long knife-like claws were prolonged with blades made of pure elemental energy.
The demon’s red eyes and flaming wings flickered in surprise as the giant dragon launched forward. The large mass of heavy armour surrounded by smoke threw itself at the demon, threatening to crush his fragile shadow body.
Each flap of the dragon’s wings accelerated him even more, his body supported by the power of levels giving him much more agility than any volcano dragon of his age was supposed to have.
His body reached the surprised demon in the blink of an eye, his glowing claws descending towards them. The demon started to disperse, his body turning into a black cloud.
The claws cut through the cloud, lightning and fire dancing around them, annihilating and stirring all the smoke they touched. The claws’ runes glowed brightly, their brilliant radiance passing through the cloud.
Suddenly, all five glowing red rings connected, forming a pentagram-shaped portal. Dozens of black shadow tentacles burning in searing hot and corrupting hellfire launched out of it, slithering towards the dragon. They wrapped around the dragon’s body and pressed against the armour that started to crack. Bright red flames engulfed the whole dragon, quickly consuming his armour and searing his claws and horns.