Chapter 18

  I didn't move after Oden rushed off shouting his battle cry of "For the biscuits!" and turned my thoughts inward. Smog, you still don't want to come out and play?

  Smog says no. Smog no like fire.

  Okay, I understand, but I can put protection spells on you.

  Smog, no fire.

  It seems he's not budging on this one.

  "Smog doesn't want to come out still?" Jessica asked.

  "Yeppers. He fears only one thing." The ping of arrows and bursts of lava rocks bouncing off my mana shield reminded me it was time to fight. At the start of this thing, I had dropped my superhero illusion, but now I thought unleashing my true form would be fitting for a gratuitous killing.

  "Wuaahhh… geez Jacik, you startled me. I almost forgot you looked like that at night."

  I snapped my fingers, dropped her illusion, and then smiled at her sudden, shocked cry. "Guess you forgot your appearance has changed a bit too." Her hair was pure white, and her skin matched my charcoal gray. However, she didn't have the tiny scales. Her eyes usually glowed red when hungry or angry but were a cool glowing amethyst hue now. Jessica observed her nails, which were pitch black and nearly two inches long with quite a sharp point. She practiced retracting them like a cat, and I was amazed at how easy it was for her. Mine is too much effort and requires some pain to reduce their size. "Well, let's get to it. Otherwise, Oden might beat us."

  "Ha, no way in hell."

  Unlike Smog's gaseous form, my fog was more like smoke, and I didn't mind the fire. As it stretched over the mountainside, I vanished into it and began to kill my enemies systematically. At first, it was just using my talons, but I found the rock creatures to be highly resistant, and when I chipped a nail, I withdrew a Warhammer from my Item Box and channeled some mana into the enchantments to activate its magic. Now, the weapon would hold up to my formidable strength as I pulverized enemies into dust and mist.

  I found that blood in the air was gravitating towards me as if it had a life of its own. The blood would seep into my skin and just vanish. This is strange. I used to manipulate blood with magic to get a similar effect, but now it's just doing it independently.

  Despite the speed at which we were murdering these foes, three hours passed, and we barely made it halfway up. Jessica appeared next to me, a little out of breath. "Are these guys regenerating or respawning somehow? I feel like there is no end to them."

  "I'm starting to get that feeling as well. Tell you what, go grab Oden and take to the sky. I'm going to try something."

  "Something awesome or something stupid?"

  "Probably that last one," I replied. Jessica blurred across the battlefield, snatched up Oden with a yelp, and took to the skies with the most amazing black angel wings with purple energy on the tips of the feathers. I shook my head and flew into the sky with my much more significant, scarier-looking wings.

  Alright, I've done this before, but now I wanted to up the ante. I took my time building up the power in my right hand while also casting several magical focusing lenses in front of me. The lenses would help focus my power, like turning the sun into a laser beam, and amplify the magic by magnitudes. The plan was simple: I wanted to scorch the entire face of this mountainside and turn it into slag. The execution was anything but simple.

  After my atomic beam sliced right through the volcano and then cut upward to split the mountain in half, the roar of whatever creature from inside shook the foundations of the dungeon right before the volcano exploded lava, rock, and ash everywhere. The lava didn't go upward like typical volcanos due to the new opening I gave it, and also due to that, the two halves burst violently outward, sending chunks of rock the size of houses across the landscape.

  But I remember most of the sound. I went deaf, then healed, and went deaf again. If my heart was beating, I'm sure the concussive force would've stopped it. As it were, I was struggling to stay airborne. I turned to find Jessica tumbling wildly out of the air, and Oden, some distance away, was sparling chaotically. Time froze as I pushed my speed to the limit to catch them.

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  By the time we touched down, the rumbling finally died, but a new rumbling took its place. Oden was up already and growling, and I turned to check at what when I saw something I never thought possible. It was a lava dragon larger than even the largest dragon back in Talip'etatu. "This is nuts. No way this is S-rank. Nothing short of a team of triple S-rankers." Then I noticed one of the wings was missing, and a large gash across its shoulder left the dragon's left arm dangling. It seems my attack did severe damage.

  "Yeah, if we get back, I'm going to wring their necks on this one."

  "Don't bother. While they lost one good team, they incidentally sent us, and I'm sure we'll get back just fine."

  "You gonna blow up the volcano again?"

  "Ha. No. You were right on that. Here, hold my beer," I replied while pulling a beer out of my Item box and handing it to her. She shook her head, opened the can, and downed the contents in one go while muttering something about men under her breath.

  "That… nevermind." Then I was off flying low to the ground, dodging large boulders along the way. As I neared the mountain's base, or what was left of it, I spotted three lava elves with arrows notched being aimed at Jessica and Oden. The first elf fired, and Within two feet of the arrow leaving the bow, I caught it, closed the distance, and stuck the arrow through an eye socket and deep into the brain. Spinning around the dead elf, I summoned a sword into my right hand and cleaved the next elf in half before unleashing eyebeams about ten feet away at the third.

  After using the power, I got a mental pang and mentally checked my mana reserves. I was nearly empty. Usually, the supernatural powers I gained through feeding didn't rely on my mana supply. That was generally for magic alone. However, it seemed my eyebeams did tap into mana, and I had received a bit of pain as a reminder that I needed to refill the tank soon. Running on fumes was dangerous, especially since I had a five-hundred-ish-foot tall dragon to slay still.

  I need to learn restraint. That atomic beam was far too powerful, I thought to myself.

  Smog, I know you hate fire. But if you could attack the dragon from behind while I take on the head, I'd really appreciate it, buddy, especially since you're not safe inside me if I get caught up in that dragon's breath with low magic to shield me from.

  Grrr… Smog says fine. Smog will do it. He exited through my boot and into the ground, carefully avoiding lava streams, and approached the beast's tail. I took to the sky once more and aimed for the dragon's throat. Swapping the sword for an eight-foot axe with a blade about half my height and nearly as heavy and with another ping of pain, I channeled what little mana I had left into the hilt's runes.

  I was surprised that the dragon saw me coming, considering how small I was to it and how fast I could travel. It's like a cracked-crazed fly buzzing around your head. Not my head because I have super perception and speed, but your head. You might get glimpses of it, but you'd find tracking extremely difficult. Yet this dragon easily kept track of me. His one good arm that moved quickly swept horizontally toward me, and I barely flew above his talons in a barrel roll. I nearly got caught up in the wind currents of the displaced air.

  Completing my maneuver, I flew under the arm and slashed upward along the chest and neck. The scale plates were thick and tough as titanium, but the magic-infused axe cleaved through with some effort. The chest wound wasn't deep enough to cause any meaningful damage, but the neck sprung a rather large blood leak that my body was eager to soak up.

  The neck damage was enough to slow the dragon, and I couldn't fly around fast enough to continue the attack. The dragon took a step back and went to bite me or perhaps shoot fire at me, and I was forced to veer away, at least until I found out which was which.

  Smog grew to his largest size and engulfed about a third of the tail, and though it took nearly a minute for the damage to be noticed when it did, the dragon cried out in pain, jerked suddenly to the left, and tripped over a chuck of leftover mountain and crashed hard to the ground. The tail had a sickly green appearance, and gleaming white bone could be seen through patches of decaying flesh. Black veins of various toxins were also spreading up the tail through the bloodstream.

  I wanted more fresh blood before it became tainted, so I replaced my axe with a ten-foot spear with, you guessed it, a spearhead far too large to be practical. Only someone with super strength would even entertain such a weapon. I plummeted out of the sky like a meteor and drove the spear deep into the side of the neck, so much so that I was waist-deep inside the wound. With my lower half sticking out of the wound, I soaked up as much blood as I could.

  Then suddenly, I felt a deep gash in my side nearly rip me in half as I was forcibly carved out of the dragon's neck and tossed rag dog style hundreds of feet away at speeds that would've made my vamp speed envious. I struck the cracked, scorched earth, bounced, skidded, and cartwheeled dozens more feet before stopping.

  I looked down and realized half of my stomach was split open by a good foot, and I couldn't heal until I was brought back together correctly. So, painfully, I pulled my body back together and breathed a sigh of relief when I healed. "Ugh… that hurt."

  Jessica and Oden arrived at my side, and she extended a hand to help me up even as Oden's licking mouth threatened to keep me pinned down. Once freed and on my feet, I saw the dragon thrashing as more and more of his scaly flesh was being eroded from the inside out.

  I noticed my mana was nearly fully topped off. That was some potent blood. Then, my body exploded in pain, and I blacked out.

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