Chapter 150 Fourth Evolution, part 2/2 [Bonus]
Vesuvius looked at all of the options in front of him, his mind working at full speed.
Deciding to leave the volcano dragon option for last, he focused on the divine dragon evolution.
‘Divine fire, for it to scale with both magic and faith, the damage it causes must be insane and with it burning for hours, I could probably set insanely large area on fire to form an impenetrable barrier.’
The imagery of a giant golden pillar of flames erupting from his mouth and descending towards a large army on the ground showed up in his mind. Ranks upon ranks of tightly packed soldiers was marching forwards, the golden inferno falling towards them.
The huge explosion of golden flames hit the middle of their formation, erupting out and burning everything in its path. Hundreds of soldiers evaporated in a golden flash, leaving only burning black ground and golden coins behind.
The next moment the dragon turned into pure golden fire, flapping his large wings made of flames as he descended into the army, his body passing through their ranks like a wave of flames, incinerating them all. Dozens of large bolts were launched from large ballistae, the bolts melting the moment they entered the flaming body.
‘It would be great if I could just get this fire for other evolutions…’ he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that it was a variant of the holy dragon from before, just focused on solo fighting, not on leading large armies.
‘It is not bad, but it would again be not my power but one borrowed from the dragon god…’ the dragon within him shuddered just from the thought of not owning his own strength. How could he call himself rich when even his power would be just borrowed?
He quickly jumped to the tetra-elemental dragon, his eyes quickly reading through its description.
‘The description misses one crucial piece of information… How fast is the transformation? Is it fast enough so I can just do it in the middle of a battle, or do I have to do it before the battle?’
Not being sure about it, he continued with his analysis, ‘The ability to change the strength of any of the four elements affecting properties of the tetra-element sound more than great. Just the thought of the versatility that it could offer is great.’
An image of a dragon opening his mouth and unleashing a breath that began as flames flowing like water, quickly turning into a thick magma-like substance appeared in Vesuviuse’s mind. The breath was changing each second, its shape, colour and even element transforming.
However, another thought made Vesuvius really consider it: ‘ I would be able to transform between different elemental forms, possibly changing my looks. Wouldn’t that give me the ability to look different when in need to do something more flashy or evil?’
The dragon inwardly nodded, ‘Yeat lets, keep this one on the table.’
Filled with enthusiasm, Vesuvius skipped right to the third option, the three-headed dragon and his mind became really confused.
‘How would three brains and heads work? Will each have a different personality, or will it be more like a modern CPU having multiple cores, each working on different tasks while still behaving like one?’
Confused, he resumed his analysis, carefully thinking about its abilities, an image of a humongous three-headed dragon in his mind.
The dragon opened all three of his mouth, each filled with sharp teeth, bright, magical circles igniting in each of them. Bright, explosive beams erupted out, each containing a different element, one being bright orange magma, with the second concentrated lightning and the last one being a super pressured stream of water. All heads were turning, each aiming to a different side, their beams flashing around.
‘This one also has some strong advantages! Three heads would give me much broader coverage. Also, my mana pulse would be the bane of mages. Thy psychic powers would also be great, covering my weaknesses… or maybe it would create a weakness? What if someone used them to get into my mind?’
His enthusiasm kept growing more and more as he thought about this dragon, his skimming over and over through the description.
‘If I would learn some defensive magic, with so much mana from cores and the secondary mana veins and the addition of psychic force fields, it would also have incredible defensive potential. Except for something like spell breaker totally destroying me.’
He couldn’t help but be conflicted with being forced to read through all of the options when he was mostly decided upon his path. He hoped he would slowly eliminate options one by one, but sadly he only crossed out one.
‘Alright, let’s check the last one to have a complete image.’
As he read through it, the scene of a huge volcanic dragon that crashed houses with his legs, geysers of magma erupting from all over his body, the fiery rain raining upon everything under his incredibly bulky and armoured body spitting magma, lightning and volcanic gasses in all directions.
The ground shook with each step of the enormous dragon, and then he opened his mouth, light flickering inside. The next instant, as if an overpressured bomb exploded, a tremendous amount of magma, smoke crackling with lightning and fire erupted out, mixing together. The flammable and explosive gasses around it ignited and increased the destruction even more.
The powerful shockwave, accompanied by a loud bang, pushed the destructive mass forwards, everything in its path disintegrating.
The long horns on the dragon’s head glowed, magma and lightning rotating around the dragon, explosions of explosive gas capsules shaking the land.
Seeing it, Vesuvius knew what he had to do, ‘Why am I even thinking so much about this? Yes, other options are powerful, but so is the volcano dragon. I invested so much into a style of heavy armoured large and relatively slow dragon. Yes, the tetra-elemental could do that too, but I doubt that it would be as good at it as an evolution dedicated to it, like volcano dragon!’
His decision got even more reinforced as he thought about more implications of changing his evolution path into something different.
‘I already know lots about how to fight as a volcano dragon, and there is still plenty of combination of powers that I don’t know. If I choose now a completely different path, most of my previous combat experience will go down the drain.’
As he thought about it, even more realisations hit him.
‘Well, the mage dragon is also strong, there is no doubt about it, but I am sure that there will be options in the future to gain more heads, mana cores and special veins as a more advanced evolution of volcano dragon without losing all of the powers I got used to. These two evolutions don’t feel like mutually exclusive like the other two but more like something that will eventually meet together, merging into one line.’
Vesuvius continued, his brain going in override, analysing all of the possibilities, his mind in a frenzy, knowing that he had the truth right in front of him.
‘Well, volcano dragons may lack mobility, but their offence, defence and raw physical combat abilities are overwhelming. I already invested much to reinforce these, so changing it now would only break my build. They also have versatility closing towards that of tetra-elemental dragons and mage dragons with their wide array of affinities and multiple ways of attacking besides magic and their breath. The volcano dragon is just perfect for my needs.
‘There would also be a problem of me changing my looks too much when I am considered a saviour. That would erase all of my efforts.’
Making his decision, Vesuvius collected his resolve and chose to continue on his path, not falling to the system’s tempting him with sweet and powerful alternative paths. He would not lose his path when he was just before the finish.