POV Vesuvius:
The huge bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, smashing against the large barrier of the rotating sphere of the water protecting the wyrm. The lightning loudly crackled, the blue electrical arcs and tendrils surging through the barrier.
The water was loudly hissing, evaporating into steam as more and more lightning bolts struck from the sky.
The blue lights constantly flashed in the dark sky, accompanied by the thunders echoing through the whole mountain range.
The wyrm couldn’t even move, the lightning raining on its barrier from all directions as it flapped its wings, hovering above the sea of bubbling orange magma.
Vesuvius flapped his wings, his huge body lifting from the ground, the shadow of his wings covering the magma-filled valley underneath him. He felt the power, and he enjoyed every single second of the encounter.
‘Finally, I am on the side that is dominating.’ He always hated that feeling when he faced the ancient wyrm when he was just a young dragon or when he faced the projection of the fallen primal dragon Satanael. However, now he was the one dominating, and he was enjoying it.
The dragon flapped his wings again and again, his huge body rising higher and higher, the shadow of his body covering the sprawling lands while the purple and golden light radiating out of him flooded the whole sky.
Vesuvius stopped the lightning, and the rumbling finally quieted down, submerging the night back into the silence.
‘I want to see its attack power. Its defense is definitely not bad…’
The wyrm, seeing its opportunity, flapped its wings, its body launching forward with the speed of a plane, and the winds loudly howled as it moved straight towards the dragon, its two eyes brightly shining with golden light.
Circle after circle formed within its widely opened mouth, all of them spinning and pulsing as it accelerated more and more, its body turning into a blue to mortal eyes.
Yet Vesuvius felt like it was moving in slow-motion, each of its wing flaps sending ripples through the clouds.
He felt pride and joy as he was sure that he was no longer weak, he was powerful, and he could protect himself and his territory.
He no longer had to hide within the shadows; he could act freely as a dragon should.
The light erupted within the wyrm’s throat, and a stream of thick, glowing, purplish, and greenish goo exploded from the depths of its throat.
It passed through the circuits, its glow increasing as it turned into a thinner but highly pressurized stream.
‘Toxic, acid and water affinity. That is a pretty standard combination, nothing too tropical, but still not entirely basic.’
The stream of hissing and bubbling chemical cocktails gushed out, heading straight toward the dragon’s armored head.
Vesuvius moved and stirred his domain, a powerful gush of wind rushing out of nowhere, smashing against the stream, slapping it away as if it were nothing but a sprinkler toy.
‘What was I even expecting? It is still just an adult wyrm… There is too big of a gap in our powers, even if I ignored my domain.’
“Hahaha, good. You might be a weakling for now, but I will turn you into a force to be reckoned with!” The dragon erupted into laughter, the toxic and acidic stream still gushing out of the wyrm’s mouth, the acidic and poisonous rain raining down towards the burning lake of magma that was his lair.
POV Wyrm:
The wyrm desperately poured its mana into its breath and the spells supporting it. Its mind was hurting, and its veins felt on fire.𝑶𝔳𝗅xt.𝒸𝑶𝐌
Its muscles were trembling with the immense amount of mana that was used with each passing second.
The wyrm just stared in terror and horror as its most powerful attack was just neutralized without any effort.
‘This the power of a domain.’ It was the power that all wyrms dreamed of and strived for, but it was just a fleeting dream for most.
The power and time needed to forge one being enough for human kingdoms to get born and then perish.
“Hahaha, good. You might be a weakling for now, but I will turn you into a force to be reckoned with!” The words hit the Venenumies straight into its weakest point.
It felt lessened, disgraced, and ashamed, all of the power that it built through the years being nothing when facing the dragon.
The next moment, the dragon vanished, leaving behind nothing but an empty sky filled with clouds. The wyrm stopped its breath and closed its mouth in surprise.
‘What the…’
The next moment an immense force smacked it from behind, launching its body into the distance as if it was nothing but a small pebble.
Pain erupted from its back, its scales bending and cracking as a massive, black mass of metal and crystals slowly hit it from behind.
The wyrm toppled and spun as it flew, desperately flapping its wings to stabilize.
Its eyes went wide in confusion and terror, seeing the dragon casually flapping its wings where the wyrm was just a blink of an eye sooner.
The remnants of magical circuits still glow and spin around the dragon’s heavily armored form.
‘This is not dragon magic… this must be space magic.’ The wyrm was shocked, even forgetting to struggle as its body uncontrollably flew through the air.
For the first time, it saw something different than just a dragon. It saw a genius, ‘To use magic that is not natural to us. To modify it and make it work. There were no innate memories of something like this. The dragon just made it just with its own effort.’
The next moment, the wyrm smashed straight into a nearby mountain, its body crashing into the mass of stone with an earth-shattering bang. Its eyes almost spun, and its head and every bone in its body hurt.
The wyrm had not time to even think about the pain, its mind filled with nothing but admiration, ‘I thought that this dragon was nothing but a brute with raw power… to think that they have so much talent for magic.’
Venenomius was sprawled on the ground, covered in rubble and stone, with clouds of ash and dust drifting around it.
It didn’t even move, not due to the striking pain, but due to its eyes opening and its worldview changing.
‘Originally, I came here just to build my lair, find minions, and build my own territory. But now I saw a new path.’
The wyrms were always fanatics into magic, generation upon generation continuing the research of their ancestors with the help of their shared memory, ‘We were still using the same approach. We have stagnated for centuries, maybe even millenniums, without any significant evolution of our ways.’
It saw how the dragon used magic that was human in its base, but it was twisted to fit with the draconic mana.
Venenomius saw a new, better path, ‘One wyrm is better than even millions of pathetic mortals… but there are too many of them. They are bound to advance fast just through the game of chance and luck allowed to them by the insane numbers.’
It saw how the draconic and mortal magic nicely fitted together, ‘Our draconic magic has one big weakness. It is extremely powerful, but at the same time, it is too predictable, as it uses our bodies and affinities. On the other hand, the human one is much weaker in raw power, but it is extremely versatile, it can do so much more as it isn’t bound by one’s body or affinity. Their weakness also forced them to optimize it, making it more efficient, while we just kept making our magic more destructive and powerful.’
There was a path right before its brightly shining eyes, ‘I will collect magic developed by other, lesser races and take the best from it to improve our own magic. Not just human magic, I will also study elven one, dwarfen, and even the vile arts of the undead. I will compile it all…’
It felt like an idiot for not seeing that potential until now, ‘If every wyrm and dragon can master spells that don’t belong to its affinity, like that space magic of the master, it will give us the needed versatility. At the same time, we can find a way to combine the best from both approaches and create something better. How far can it go if we use our supercharged mana and bodies perfect for casting and add to it the versatility of the mortal magic?’
The wyrm stood up, its legs still shaky from the impact, with its scales bent all over its body. The clouds of smoke and dust still drifted through the air, but it could still see the two massive golden eyes observing each of its moves.
The wyrm collected all of this resolved as it spoke in its clear and loud voice that reverberated through the mountains, “Your Draconic Highness, please allow me to research magi in your kingdom!”