Vadh vs Ajagar
Vadh was insanely tired, but his mind didn't want to give up, even if his body was approaching its limit. Thanks to Vadh's sudden increase in mana output, the battlefield switched to where Vadh executed most of the attacks. However, these attacks only had minimal effects on the proud dragon, which kept relentlessly attacking Vadh. More! More! More! Vadh continued to increase his output, further straining his mana in the battle. The most Vadh could do was to enhance two things simultaneously with his mana: his physical strength and magic. Both were only at a basic level, but with each strike, he proved to himself that he now stood a chance. The mana strikes proved effective, Vadh further enhancing himself with every passing second. More! More! More!
Vadh's muscles couldn't keep up with the sudden strain placed on them. His regeneration could heal them, but Vadh would ultimately lose if he was limited by something like his muscles being too weak. There was only one solution, a technique Velios had taught him way back—a technique where you focus your mana to "fill" your muscles and strengthen their abilities, including durability. Vadh had never been good at controlling magic or mana, as he had always tried to rely on his brute strength. If there was ever a moment where he would learn it, where he would grow many times stronger, now was the time. More! More! More!
Vadh reached a critical point in the battle where he had no choice but to stop trying to dodge its attacks. His speed was quickly declining, and if he had to dodge every attack, he would be worn out long before he could do anything. The final moment of the battle had begun. Every single strike, dodge, attack and moment of the battle had led up to this unique encounter. The dragon continued throwing its arms around, landing blows while channeling multiple blasts of fire from its mouth. Vadh just stood there with his feet stuck to the ground, almost with steam coming from his body. A barrage of attacks was launched, punches so fast that you could barely see them hitting the giant dragon, destroying and corrosive punches were shattering the hard scales of the dragon with every attack, exposing the dragon's weaker skin underneath.
Vadh had blood in his eyes, creating what looked like hyphema. Multiple wounds and damages on Vadh's body could easily be fixed, but he insisted on using every last bit of his energy to completely pulverize the dragon. Vadh had seen how futile it was to try and punch the dragon to death, but he had no other way to defeat it. "Aaaaahh!" Vadh let out a scream before using the remaining part of his energy towards the final part of his attacks, going berserk and giving it his all. He kept on punching and punching as if there wasn't an end. Then, suddenly, a huge cracking noise could be heard coming from Vadh's direction.
One of the biggest mistakes Vadh had never seemed to fix, no matter how much he had trained, was to always leave mana left for defense, no matter the situation. In this situation, the dragon easily caught him off guard while Vadh was punching it. In return, the dragon swung a massively terrifying punch, much similar to what the black scorpion does, connecting at the side of the unprotected Vadh, sending him flying away into and through multiple dunes of sand. Vadh coughed up mountains of blood. Realizing that the dragon had effectively crushed and broken almost every single bone in his body, he looked up in despair and pain, realizing the reason for his loss—the fatal mistake that proved to lead to failure. The dragon slowly walked up to Vadh, who was incapable of moving.
It stopped a good distance away, gathering a huge ton of mana, creating a huge ball of fire in its mouth. Vadh just looked over at Velios, who seemed to be too focused on the dragon's attack to notice that Vadh was looking his way. After only a few seconds, the sphere had stopped gaining size as the dragon directed its mouth so that it was directly facing Velios. Vadh didn't want to accept it, but he had no chance of winning. If it wasn't for the brief pause between the attacks, Vadh would have been out cold right now, more than just unconscious if it was only slightly different. Vadh had to experience death and close-to-death states all the time, but it was something that he, by nature, could never stop fearing. Even if he knew that he wouldn't die, he didn't want to.
The massive ball of fire had now been released, creating a huge beam of fire burning the already badly beaten Vadh, who would have died either way eventually, killing him and ending the current duel they had for good. "Dragon, come over here." The dragon slowly strutted away towards Velios, his master who had called for him. "Dragon. What do you say about me giving you a name?" Velios was confidently smirking while saying it, knowing that the dragon would react positively to it. "Your name... shall be Ajagar. From this day forward, I will be your master and you will be my servant." The dragon, which could be mistaken for a terrifying and death-bringing creature, showed a visible smile with the only feeling it vibrated was happiness.
"What do you say, Ajagar? Ready to fight me aga-" Velios didn't get the chance to even finish the sentence. His heartbeat felt unusually weird, and he was breathing heavily for no reason. He felt as if all the energy in his body had suddenly disappeared, leaving him with no power to even support himself as he fell down to the ground with his eyes widely open in a state of confusion. What's... happening? My body... It won't move. My mana- Velios was too tired to the point where he no longer could think. His body went into a sudden coma-like state out of seemingly nowhere. Even the dragon looked confused, searching around to see if anyone had done anything, but no one was there.
Suddenly, just after Velios had fallen asleep, the dragon started to emit light. Enveloped in light, it was capable of lighting up the surrounding night sky with a brightness so intense that the people from the tournament city probably could see them. The light was so bright that you couldn't see what was happening behind it. Vadh had died, Velios had passed out, and the dragon was now emitting some weird kind of light. What was it that had truly happened for Velios to suddenly pass out like that, and what was going on with the dragon, which had started glowing for no reason? The unconscious Velios tried to answer it but couldn't.
Where am I? It feels like I'm sinking, but where? What was I doing? Velios spent a few seconds thinking, which proved to be useless. He noticed that he could not open his eyes nor move his body in any way. He could not see anything but he could also see something. It was dark yet bright. Velios didn't know how to describe it as he got increasingly more tired. I just want to go to bed. Let me sleep a little. I feel tired. Really... tired. Velios continued to sink further but didn't know why or where. So many questions he wanted answered but none of them seemed to pique his interest enough for him to stop slowly falling deeper and deeper into a slumber, unsure if he would wake up.
Velios was uncertain if he would wake up at all. That was until he felt his eyes automatically open for him. The bright light that covered the night sky was gone. Not only was the bright light from before gone, but the night sky was too. It had been daytime when Velios woke up again. He was still tired and couldn't hear or understand the situation clearly.
"Master! Master! Wake up!" An unfamiliar voice was speaking to Velios, sitting right beside him with the head just over his own. He was still so out of it that he didn't know which language was being spoken, even though it was the language he speaks all the time. "Ughh- who is it?" Velios didn't even fully know what he said. He just guessed.
"Master! You passed out, and, and... it's all my fault!" Velios had no idea who the person in front of him was. He immediately switched on high danger mode and vanished from the position where he was lying. The individual looked up to see Velios with his Heart Piercer ability applied to his hand, just to the side of the individual's own neck. "M-Master! I know, sniff, that it was my fault! I'm sorryyy!" Velios' guard was immediately let down when he saw what was in front of him. A young black-haired girl was bawling her eyes out, sitting on the ground and looking up at Velios. "What the-" Velios had no idea what had happened when he was unconscious, but he could finally come to a conclusion. The girl was not some random little girl who was lost; no, she possessed mana many times stronger than that of Vadh. No doubt about it, that girl is...