CH 024: Slathilia VS Natasha P1

"(Take this!)" Slathilia shouted, swinging a fist at Natasha. Redirecting his fist easily, she threw several punches one after the other, hitting his chest, jaw and face before kneeing him in the guts, sending him stumbling back.

Slathilia didn't think he'd be able to stand on two feet, but even he was surprised when he found out. Apparently, although reptilian, dragons could stand up like bears and engage combat. A pretty terrifying fact since according to Natasha, High-Class dragons could grow to as big as mountains while on all four. That would be a nightmarish scene.

Even now, as he stood up to fight, his height had increased by around twice, giving him more options to target when trying to attack Natasha. But after starting to spar, Slathilia had begun to understand something. Between the two, she was the actual beast.

All her movements were clear, no hesitation, second thoughts or nervousness in any of them. She moved like a clear flow of water, but attacked like a tsunami. She didn't just attack or defend, she UNDERSTOOD what she was doing. She knew by developed instincts how to move around.

Even after hitting him so many times, although it hurt even with his Durability, he hadn't received a single injury. Attacking was easy, but controlling it so perfectly definitely required her to be a master of her own body. Not just use it, but understand and control it perfectly with no problems.

It was no wonder that he couldn't get a single hit in with her monstrous Durability, her ability to defend with no fear, dodge like a super cat and even just redirect his attacks as if she could just ignore his Strength. It was beginning to get frustrating.

He knew he wouldn't be able to hit her. He knew he didn't stand a chance against her. With each Level Up, his instincts and sensitivity to danger and strength grew with his Senses Stats. And with each Level Up, he began to understand and sense it more and more, that he was living with a monster. He didn't even need to use Appraisal on her, his instincts as an SS-Class Dragon King sensed the monstrous strength she was hiding.

But even with that, it was still frustrating. He wasn't expecting to get a hit in just because he tried hard, that was stupid. Why would he be able to stand a chance against her just because he tried for a little bit while she had tried her best for years? That was one of the things he hated about anime. Just convenient plot to make the MC awesome.

'Shit, keep your focus, I can't get distracted.' He shook his head, quickly refocusing on the redhead gazing at him :'Oh, forget it. This isn't a competition, it's just training. Am I feeling like this because of being a dragon? Are my instincts as a dragon acting up? I need to keep my cool.' Taking a deep breath, he eased the frown on his face. When he looked again, he saw Natasha smiling in satisfaction.

"(What? Why are you smiling like that?)"

"It's because you calmed down. It was obvious you were getting frustrated, which is definitely bad in combat. Always remember this piece of advice, never lose your cool in a fight. Because if you do, you'll lose your awareness of the fight, and will begin to make more and more mistakes as you keep losing your cool.

Which in the worst case scenario, will get you killed. So seeing you subdue your emotions and control them put a smile on my face. It is really satisfying honestly, to see my partner realize and fix his mistakes.

Now that you've calmed down, go all out now. Your strength isn't just in your body. Your Skills and Sacred Skills, they all are deciding factors of victory. Who knows, maybe if you try hard enough, you'll manage to win."

"(No, I can't.)" He grew serious, throwing away his frustration completely :"(I know I can't, so don't try to rile me up with it. We're not sparring to see who's better or who's the winner, we're sparring so we'll both be able to win in the future, against people we need to win against.)"

"Pfthahahaha!" Suddenly, she broke into a fit of laughter. But not of mockery, but of appreciation :"Good, good! Thilia, you have no idea how good it feels to have a partner who can use his head! Good, since you've realized that fact, let's really get down to business!"

Kicking the ground, she appeared in front of him, trying to be on the offensive again. But unlike before, she had a huge smile on her face, seeming to have fun. And Slathilia found it contagious, smiling in excitement as he opened his mouth.

[Majestic Fire Breath Lv 2 (SS)]

As wisps of black and dark purple flame left his mouth, a giant breath of demonic fire was shot towards Natasha like a flame tsunami. She didn't seem to be affected at all, but it did slow her down for a moment.

"Hahahaha, breathing fire straight onto someone's face?! I really need to teach you some manners!" She laughed loudly, but was surprised to not find Slathilia in front of her. Hearing the flapping of his wings, her eyes shot up :"Taking into the sky, eh? Good plan, that would leave a lot of opponents helpless. But unfortunately for you, I'm not just any opponent!"

Squatting a bit, her leg muscles clench and tightened before she jumped. Seeing the bloodthirsty smile, a shiver of excitement ran down Slathilia's spine. But he had to focus, because she was approaching at a rapid speed. Flapping his wings, he quickly moved to go higher.

"Oh, no, you don't!" But she was already too close, with her hands mere inches away from Slathilia's tails. Taking a deep breath, he front-flipped before breathing fire, adding enough force to his flip to escape from Natasha's hands and engulf her in fire.

"Hahahaha nice move!" She laughed aloud, the force she had used to jump making her continue flying before a Magic Circle appeared :"But you're gonna need more than that!"

[1 Magic Circle Lv 1 Wind Magic: Wind Manipulation]

Flipping so she was aiming headfirst at him again, the air started to twist under her feet. As her feet landed on the twisted air, his eyes went wide when she stopped midair. 'She can fly now?!' He sweated as she jumped using the twisted air as medium.

It was amazing. It could be argued for fun that if you kick the air, it could theoretically be possible to double jump. He would speak about it for shits and giggles too with friends. But even though it made sense, it wasn't possible. Because the force needed for air to hold on was far too much. It would only be possible if the air literally exploded.

So seeing the wonders of Magic, no matter how small, was still fascinating. Especially so since his Intelligence Stats seemed to want to see things, to understand and comprehend them. It was marvelous, even though it didn't seem much. But he couldn't be amazed, because he had other jobs at hand.

"(Using external help? I can do that too!)" Letting his Mana flow to his Sacred Ring, it shone a menacing light as his 1st Sacred Ring, and both of his 1st and 2nd Sacred Skill were activated.

[1st Ring, 1st Skill) Majestic Fire Domain: Slathilia's Majestic Fire spreads in an area of 100m radius, and although not dealing massive damage, it deals continuous damage with low cost of Mana. The area of effect will increase by a digit every Sacred Level. 1km at 2nd Sacred Level.

1st Ring, 2nd Skill) Majestic Fire Orbs: creates 10 orbs of Majestic Fire that continuously fire beams and balls of Majestic Fire that can reach up to a distance of 100m. This Sacred Skill uses Mana only once when activated, and the Majestic Fire Orbs will remain for 1 hour self-sufficiently by absorbing the Mana around them. The number of Majestic Fire Orbs will increase by 10 each Sacred Level. The duration of this Sacred Skill will increase by 1 hour every Sacred Level. The area of effect will increase by a digit every Sacred Level. 20/2h/1km at 2nd Sacred Level.]

As 20 Majestic Fire Orbs appeared, he took hold of several ones. Two with his hands, two with his feet, and two with his tails, before they shot beams at the opposite direction of where he flew, accelerating his speed and helping him evade Natasha.

"Tsk, pretty nimble for a dragon." She clicked her tongue while standing on literal air. But with how she was smiling, she wasn't annoyed. In fact, it was obvious she was having fun. "You can be pretty creative. That's a clever way of using your Majestic Fire Orbs that are meant for attacking."

"(I have to be if I want to keep my distance.)" He snickered, causing her to glare playfully :"We'll see how long you can manage then!" And the game of cat and mouse in the air began. Ironically, with the actual dragon being the mouse.

As he flew around with Natasha hot on his tail, pun intended, evading her again and again, he used the rest of the Orbs for assault while he escaped. He was sloppy at first, since he wasn't used to fighting while flying, much less flying using his Orbs. But he got a hang of it pretty quickly.

Was it because of his instincts as a dragon that was fated to fly, an SS-Class monster, or because of his Talent Stats that let him learn quickly, he didn't care. He had more important things to focus on at the moment. And that was the gorgeous redhead smiling like a hungry devil that wanted to eat him.

He had to adapt quickly to fight. As he got a hang of flying, he even maneuvered in a way for the shot fire beams of the Orbs he was holding to shoot at Natasha along with the other Orbs. But he couldn't help cursing at her monstrous Durability. She was completely unharmed. Although he was happy for her awesomeness, he was still getting annoyed at not having room to breathe because of her persistence.

'This can't do. I need a single powerful blow if I want to deal damage!' With a plan in mind, he moved the Orbs behind him to shoot. They weren't meant to hurt, they were meant to block her vision. Hence why instead of being thin like always to deal maximum damage, the shot fire beams were wide to block as much vision as possible.

"It's about damn time you get a clue they don't work on me, Thilia!" She rushed forward, fearless as she struck the Orbs and sent them flying away. But when she didn't see Slathilia again, she frowned, before immediately looking up.

But it was too late. He had already prepared a powerful Majestic Fire Breath fueled with all of his remaining Mana to be enhanced to the max, and all 20 of his Orbs with him were charging for a powerful attack. "GRAAAR!!!" 21 fire beams were fired at the same time.

As they intertwined, a mighty beam of fire struck Natasha, holding enough power to finally shoot her down towards the ground, where she created a giant crater from both the force she was shot down and the power of the Majestic Fire Breath and Orbs.

[Slathilia's Mana: 0%]

Panting in the air, tired from exhausting all of his Mana, he smiled in satisfaction. What he unleashed looked pretty awesome, so of course he would be happy. What would make him even happier was Natasha finally staying down. But as the risen dust was forcibly cleared with Wind Magic, his sweat ran cold. (A/N: Is that how it's said? Advise please.)

Even with that, she was still unharmed. Looking completely unaffected by his attack. Looking up, she smirked and clapped :"Bravo, bravo! Honestly, that was one hell of an attack! Enough to make me even more excited, so get ready!"

[Natasha's HP: 99.5%]

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