CHAPTER 239(Perfectly Balanced)

Please read the author's notes.

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

"Alright, just me and you," Yang challenges. Drawing Alatreon's attention, the monster immediately snaps to look at him, glaring with its one remaining eye.

They were both battered and beaten down. With Alatreon missing his tail, half his right-front claw, both horns, and the left eye. While Yang had chunks of his armor on his arms and torso gone, a cracked helmet and visor, and not to mention most of the plating on his legs gone. What pieces of his torso were exposed could be seen rapidly trying to heal whenever the blue flames covering his body allowed it.

The Elemental Wheel at his back was pure white magic, combining all the colours and elements at his disposal. He could feel it draining him noticeably every second. Faster than he could replace the magic naturally. He had no idea why, utterly oblivious to the change, but feeling a different kind of power from his magic, still assuming his standard Elemental Wheel was at his back.

Rushing forward he flew faster than intended by a large margin, unused to the sudden increase in his magic's potency, almost too fast for his senses to properly react.

The monster swipes at him with a Dragon Energy saturated claw, and Yang swings his greatsword out to intercept it.

Where he expected his blade to have the usual different colours as multiple elements flickered across it, there was now a massive glowing white blade.

It surprised Yang for barely a moment before he cast the thought aside, focusing on the battle at hand.

"Rarrrgh!" his battle cry echoes out. Unbeknownst to him, every step, every breath, every movement of his, it all reverberated in the environment around him. While the crystals exist outside of his elements, outside of his control, the air was not.

Throughout this floor and even beyond the air shook violently with every action and every word, acting as an extension of its masters' will. Heat filled the dungeon like an oven, his friends only surviving because he kept them in mind to prevent it from attacking them, all subconsciously.

As Yang and Alatreon were clashing, the monster's ear-piercing roars began shifting, to something new, desperation.

Yang ducks a particularly heavy swipe and leaps upward, holding his weapon with both hands and slashing into the bicep of Alatreon's already hurt limb. To his surprise, his weapon cleaves through the scales and digs into the meat and bone.

With a large burst of flames from his feet he rockets toward the ceiling, following through with the full attack and leaving a massive wound on the monster.

'Wow,' was all he had time to think, sparing a split second to glance at the glowing white blade before he was at the high ceiling, well over a hundred meters above the battlefield.

Flipping through the air he adjusts himself so his feet land flat on the ceiling, crystals beneath his torn-up boots. The presumably indestructible, completely unscratched thus far, absurd dungeon crystals actually crack, and had he slowed down he may have noticed.

But he had already oriented himself and pushed off. The power of a perfected Elemental Wheel, fueling his blue mage armor and all the magic pushing him downward, combined with the glowing white greatsword, it was enough.

CRACK!

The crystals on the floor shatter as his weapon slashes almost a meter deep.

"RAARGH!"

Alatreon releases a deafening cry behind Yang as it flails about, panicked and bleeding heavily.

Yang's descent had been blindingly fast even for the monster, one inhuman horizontal slash straight down onto the left wing. The wing currently lying lifeless on the floor behind Yang.

As he's having to exert real effort to remove his blade from the floor, not even taking a second to acknowledge what he'd done, Yang looks over his shoulder to check on the dragon, only to be near blinded by the glowing white ring at his back.

"What the hell!" he yells, sword pulled free as he staggers back for a moment, quickly setting his focus back on the monster that was now steadying itself. Blood becomes red mist as it leaves the monster and hits the air, air filled with Yang's heat.

"Questions for later, fight now," Yang says, casting the mystery of his magic aside for now.

Keeping his boots on the ground to preserve what magic he can Yang rushes Alatreon. The monster sees his charge and panics, not wanting his sword to be within striking range.

With a deafening roar it releases a torrent of lightning bolts, bright blue bolts leave its mouth as Yang reacts.

Holding his weapon outward in his right, he raises his left hand and swings it forward.

'Water Dragon'

A massive water dragon, two stories tall, almost as tall as Alatreon, appears beside him and rushes forward, clashing with the lightning. Closing his hand into a fist his purple lightning manifests into the water, drawing in the blue and throwing it back at the dragon.

Alatreon stands his ground, unmoving against the Water Dragon. Ignoring the water rushing past him, but reacting to Yang who jumped into the flood.

His Mage Armor becomes blue water and purple lightning, swirling wind and water around him to keep him moving. All while the water forms a massive bubble around Alatreon.

With both hands back on his weapon, Yang surges forward, clashing dozens of times with the monster.

Yang could feel the water heating up with each clash, but he used his Cold to stop it from evaporating entirely. The lightning dancing around Alatreon was effectively countered by the water diluting it and his own lightning canceling it.

They clash in the water almost a dozen times, each clash costing Yang more magic, and Alatreon more blood. Yang was growing more comfortable with his stronger magic now, and it was clearly showing. More and more scales began settling at the bottom of the water

Eventually, Alatreon decided that this wasn't a favorable situation, and Yang abruptly found himself staring into a white glowing maw.

The broken horn protrusions glowed solid red, crackling with Dragon Energy. All of Alatreon's magic rushed to the core in the blink of an eye before blasting Yang in the face.

An Escaton Judgement, the monster's own version of a perfectly balanced elemental mixture.

"Ach-" Yang rockets all the way to the far end of the room, where he got up from not long ago. Carried by a bean of pure white elemental magic mixed and amplified by Dragon Energy.

With his back against the crystal wall he realizes that moving was impossible, the pressure was too great, at least in his hurt state, so he focused all his magic on his Mage Armor.

Focusing entirely on defense he drops his weapon, the glowing white blade reverts into its natural black form and transforms back into a greataxe from a greatsword.

As it clatters to the ground Yang closes his eyes and pushes his magic outward, rapidly feeling his reserves declining.

He hears his armor cracking and breaking, feels it melting against his skin. He feels his skin being burnt away by the second, smells his flesh burning.

Every time his flames flicker a new wave of pain assaults him, until seconds later everything stops.

Yang immediately crumples to the floor, without the attack to press him against the wall he dropped into a pile.

All his armor was gone, leaving just bits of his pants and burnt skin everywhere else. Black and red, a complete nightmare for anyone to see.

Yang's eyes are forced to stay open, eyelids and lips gone, along with his nose, his head resting on the side, staring directly at Alatreon. The monster was weak, barely awake, just like him, laying on the floor and staring directly at him.

'C'mon! Move!' he mentally shouts at his own body. 'Just fucking move!'

Blue flames burst to life across his body, spreading as if someone was cremating a half-burnt corpse. He feels it soothing him, feels his flesh growing, knitting itself back together.

"Mmmmmmm!" he groans, focusing more magic into the flames. Feeling the healing accelerate.

Moving one of his hands, the pain of the exposed nerves scraping against the floor was completely numb. All pain long numb, the only way for his brain to survive the trauma of this fight, shut off his sense of pain.

Looking at his hand helplessly laying beside him, he sees bones peeking through charred flesh, horrifying and heart-wrenching.

"C---ng," he tries to tell himself 'come on' but without a working mouth or face, talking was difficult. Instead, he flexes his fingers, just enough to activate his Inventory properly.

Summoning a single large vial of Elixir into his boney fingers, he forces his body to move and smashes the entire thing into his head.

"MMMmmmm!" he groans as pieces of glass splash across his eyes, a moment later the Elixir soothes his wounds, regrowing his eyelids and the skin on his face. He feels his magic being affected, one Elixir was nothing compared to his depth of magic, but every drop helps.

Still keeping his eyes locked onto the dragon, he sees Dragon Energy focused onto its wounds, as if it were doing the same as him.

"Ahhhh!" Yang forces himself up, feeling the muscles and flesh on his body quickly regenerating. "No, you don't" between labored words he pours another Elixir onto his body, then another, and another. Feeling the soothing liquid giving him a second wind with each passing second.

After a minute that seemed to stretch for a grueling hour, and many more Elixirs than he'll ever admit, Yang was able to force himself onto one knee.

Glaring at Alatreon, the monster takes the cue and stands up, returning the glare with his one eye. Wounds now closed, not healed, but burnt shut. Forced close by Dragon Energy.

The wind begins howling once more as Yang's Elemental Wheel blooms at his back. The bright white apparently competes with Alatreons crackling red Dragon Energy all across his body.

Yang's Chaos Mark wraps around his body in a blood-red glow before flames burst to life, setting him ablaze once more.

Yang reaches for his weapon, the moment his finger touches the handle the entire blade glows bright white and transforms into the greatsword form. Lifting it easily a vicious smile appears on his face as he rises to his feet.

Taking a deep breath he pushes more magic into his weapon and flames, his own flames burning hot enough to singe his body. Feeling adrenaline surging all over again, his Chaos Mark clouding his mind, but he welcomed his battle manic side.

Alatreon growls, rising to his full height and matching Yang step for step. Dragon Energy crackling about randomly bouncing across the room.

Yang's eyes easily track the arcs, seeing them slowly moving through the air. One rushes left, slamming into Thalie, he hears a muffled groan before she rolls over.

Another arc to his far-right, hitting Welf and bouncing off, the smith jolts awake with a scream before going back to sleep, at least what Yang hoped was just sleeping.

Yang grits his teeth, newly regrown skin all across his body tightens, lips curled into a snarl and grip tight on his weapon.

"You aren't killing my friends! And you can't stop me from going home!"

BOOM!

The sound barrier shatters as Yang rushes forward, into the storm of Dragon Energy and black scales.

Each step leaves small cracks in the crystal floor. Alatreon reacts, opening his mouth to release another Escaton judgment. The crackling of Dragon Energy compliments the bright white beam, trying to make up for the weakness of having two broken horns.

Yang doesn't care, Alatreon hurt his friends, he's in the way, and if this doesn't work, they're dead anyway.

"DIE!" he yells out, his voice sounding like a booming echo throughout the entire cave system.

The wind rages around him as he leaps up, thrusting the tip of his weapon at the dragon.

Both attacks clash and are forced into a deadlock. Yang forced more and more magic into the thrusters under his feet, trying to desperately push through it, keeping his mage armor active to protect himself.

In the corner of his eye he sees more arcs leaving the monster and firing off randomly, inching closer to his friends with every stray shot.

"NO!" he pushes harder, feeling the Escaton Judgement trying to eat away at his Mage Armor. "C'mon!" he grits out, new desperation in his voice. Fear seeping in, his plan was failing.

Make Alatreon focus on him, kill the monster, heal his friends. Simple, but it was all becoming undone.

"Raarrrgh! Get outta my way!" He cuts his Mage Armor completely and focuses only on the attack.

The blinding white beam consumes him, all the dragon energy surging toward him, a hundred red and black lightning bolts tearing into his flesh.

Yang completely disappears into the attack, a moment later Alatreon feels a sharp pain pierce the roof of his mouth, then a splitting headache, then...nothing.

Yang's greatsword pierced Alatreon's brain and the energy reacted accordingly.

A wave of heat and force, with bits of scales and flesh mixed in splashed across him. Knocking him back across the room. His body clatters helplessly against the floor as he can't even focus magic enough to steady himself.

"Agh-!" Yang groans as he rolls across the floor, for the second time in minutes his skin was almost entirely gone, using the current adrenaline rush he looks down at himself. Barely able to move his neck he manages to see his ribs showing through patches, the skin above them shredded away. He tries to close his eyes, but nothing. His eyelids are gone, again, he can't feel his lips.

'FUCK!' his inner voice screams as best it could.

Dropping his head to the side he looks for the monster, only a shallow crater remains in the crystal floor. Any bits and pieces turned to ash once the crystal broke.

At the edge of his vision, he could barely see the horns still remaining, Welf's drop items. His next big existence-breaking, his grand magnum opus will be needing those...

Craning his next to look down, past his feet, ignoring the sigh of his burnt or outright missing flesh, he sees The Angel.

Standing against her cage, hand on the glass, desperately trying to reach out for him.

"ng che angl" he tries to speak. Failing to say 'I'm coming Angel' with his missing lips. Feeling his adrenaline rush ending he quickly begins summoning what he needed into his hand, it was time to go home...

END CHAPTER---