Important Note:

I might take a break Friday, and not post a chapter.

Over the past month, I've written an average of 4,000 words a day, every day 🙂 An achievement I'm proud of, for managing to work in so much time to expand my story. But also one that has, admittedly, been a bit tiring and taken its toll.

So, if there is no chapter on Friday, don't be surprised! (putting this here at the top so people will see it).

— — — — — — — —

The dragon's voice was great and terrible in Dorian's ears, containing a majestic air that could not be mimicked. It looked at him, its eyes full of expectation.

Dorian kept his cool, a small smile appearing on his face. A peaceful, white Aura began to spread out from him as he focused on the Life Energy running in his veins, activating its fake Aura. He needed to remain calm.

"Words of wisdom you ask for, and words of wisdom I will share." He began, mimicking the poetic phrasing the Eleventhborn used.

"Hear as I speak to you, my fellow flock member, with care." His rhyme was similar to one the dragon had said, catching its attention.

The dragon gave him a quiet nod, its legs settling down as it waited. The entire situation felt incredibly surreal to Dorian, but he didn't let himself slip up.

This dragon only spoke in poems. It appeared to have some sort of fixation on rhythm and rhyme. He'd instantly made the decision to speak back in rhyme, figuring it would put him on good terms. As he'd realized this, and listened to the question the Eleventhborn had asked of him, an old, worn poem from Earth came to mind.

His voice full of confidence, Dorian began to speak,

"Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice."

It was a poem by the great wordsmith Robert Frost from Earth, one that had stuck with Dorian from a college literature class. He spoke confidently, giving the words a smooth flow, his sole goal to make the dragon to calm down, and stop unleashing its fiery attacks.

The dragon stared at Dorian, its eyes opened wide. It stood absolutely still, unmoving as its mind went over the words he shared.

The pulsing Life Aura Dorian had unleashed gave his words an almost mystic feel, giving them more impact than they would otherwise.

A tense moment passed as the dragon stayed still, unmoving.

A few seconds after, just as the moment was fading, something unexpected happened.

It started to rain.

Dorian blinked, keeping his focus locked on the dragon in front of him. Water dripped down his scaled face and body, soaking his arms.

The Eleventhborn turned its head up towards the sky, staring at the vast clouds that had appeared out of nowhere.

As the rain fell, a small, glowing blue light covered the trembling form of the badly injured female vampire off to Dorian's left.

The dragon in front of Dorian seemed to smile as it turned its head back towards him.

"Young brother, I must give word to say."

"It seems some rats have come out to play."

"The words you've shared have touched my heart."

"But then for now, we must step apart."

The dragon leapt backwards, its wings unfolding as its body size expanded, back to its huge, 50 meter long form. Orange flames flew from its wings, the ever-present heat around it forming a small inferno.

A split second later, a weird echo rang out. Dorian clutched at his ears, looking around as he jumped backwards, stumbling to the ground.

His vision wavered, everything around him starting to look rather… odd. He put his scaled hands on the ground, forcibly making himself shake off the disorientation.

He looked up to see a madhouse.

The rain that had started falling now seemed to be falling in hundreds of different directions. The water swirled as it moved chaotically, forming into gargantuan streams that moved in strange, ever-shifting patterns.

Before Dorian's eyes even the simple color of the rain began to change. Brilliant greens, deep blues, dark reds, and ascending yellows, a myriad of colors exploded forth, each one seeking to outdo the other.

And, all as one, these streams of water began to lash out at the Eleventhborn.

"More people have come to defend the city?" He observed, his eyes scanning the environment.

It took him only a brief moment to spot a duo of vampires that had appeared next to the injured female vampire.

–

Species: True Vampire

Class – Lord Class (Pseudo-King)

Maximum Energy Level: 101,535

–

Species: True Vampire

Class – Lord Class (Pseudo-King)

Maximum Energy Level: 105,908

–

"Two more strong ones." He muttered softly. One of them was dressed in a set of slim robes and had a small wand in his hand. He appeared to be directing the streams of water, magical energy flowing off him in waves.

The other was a warrior wearing slim, black armor that clung to him tightly, with long brown hair tied up in a bun. His hand was raised above his shoulder, holding on to the hilt of a long, gleaming blade.

Right now, with his level of strength, there was no way he could interfere in a fight.

The Maximum Energy Level of a being was highly correlated with the overall power that being held. It was a direct measure of the Soul and Soul Spell Matrix. The stronger one's Soul was, the more powerful their physique, perception of time, or Abilities would be.

Therefore, he shrugged, and skipped about 100 meters off to the side before sitting down on the ground, and waiting, analyzing everything.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

"Trajan how much longer can your Chaos Rain keep it trapped." Probus asked, his eyes narrowing as he stared at their target.

"Approxima-" Trajan began, his eyes glowing. He was immediately cut off.

ROAAAAAR

The colorful streams of rain exploded into clouds of steam as several spouts of orange fire shot out, shooting into the sky.

"Okay, you're pathetic, nevermind." Probus shrugged, stepping forward. As he did so, an Aura began to form around him, faint gray light appearing. His entire physical form seemed to become… sharper, as if he could split a mountain with a light touch.

"Listen here you little shi-" Trajan began, his eyes sparking.

Before he could finish, Probus jumped up into the air, his body soaring towards the huge, flying dragon. The grey light that surrounded him began to grow more concentrated, causing the air around him to shimmer.

"You moron! Rain Magic: Time Chained Torrent!" The Wizard yelled at Probus and cast a spell simultaneously, causing all the normal rain that was still falling to abruptly begin to fall in slow motion.

Everything that the rain touched began to slow down, the physical movements visually slowing.

Debris or rocks that were still falling from the arms of water that Trajan had spawned floated slowly downward, almost hanging in the air. The torrents of fire looked incredibly odd as their movements slowed to a crawl.

Probus was unaffected, the Wizard taking great care to exclude him. Despite the show they put on, they both moved with confidence and familiarity, signs of long practice together.

The massive dragon looked at the rain with curiosity, watching as it fell and touched him. Immediately its body began to slow, though only slightly, the flames that covered it dimming just the slightest bit.

Still, it was enough for Probus.

"I am a simple man…" His eyes began to gloss over as he stared at the beast.

"I see a lizard… I cut. I see a slimy bastard… I cut." The air around the hand clutching the hilt of his sword on his back began to tremble.

"I see a dragon…" His words carried a sense of finality.

"I cut."

WHOOSH

Without uttering a spell of any sort, Probus' arm whipped forward, moving so quickly the air he displaced with his arm's movement created a small sonic boom.

He put his full strength into this attack. This, right here, was the target they were to hunt down. A powerful, irrational King Class dragon that had killed or maimed several members of the Aurelius Family, and spread a massive amount of destruction.

He held back nothing.

After all, what kind of idiot would wait till the last second to go all out?

Such a mentality would lead to an early death.

A nearly invisible blade of light shot forth, splitting the air. This blade moved without making a sound, cutting through the slowed raindrops in an almost mystic fashion.

It seemed to move slow… but at the same time, incredibly fast.

The near-invisible blade of light slammed into the massive dragon before it had time to react.

BOOM

KSSHHHH

Probus landed on the ground hard, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the result, displeased.

The giant Transcendent Flame Dragon and been knocked backwards nearly 600 meters. A huge, gaping wound could be seen, spurting red blood drawn from its right shoulder down to its left leg.

A long, stretching crater could be seen in the ground, the power from Probus' slash slicing apart and incinerating any rock or stone it came into contact with. Dust and random rocks could be seen, shooting into the air in slow motion under the effect of Trajan's spell.

"It took your full strength slash." Trajan appeared next to Probus, several glowing blue shields shimmering in the air in front of him.

"It took my full strength slash." Probus nodded in agreement, his voice carrying a tinge of disappointment. He'd imbued his attack with everything he'd gained in his studies of the Law of Cutting, one of the more abstruse, complex laws.

There were very few things he could not cut in half.

The sheer physical durability of that dragon was on another level.

"GOOD SLASH, YOUNG WARRIOR. I COMMEND THY COURAGE."

"BUT NOW, MEET PERFECTION, LET MY FIRES FLOURISH!"

The voice of the Anomaly rang out, blasting into their ears as it shook off the remnants of Probus' slash, fires swarming around it once more. Gradually, above its head, a massive orb of fire was starting to form, growing and expanding. Deep, orange and red flames blurred together in a massive mixture, giving off an ungodly amount of heat.

"This is going to get ugly." Probus' voice was completely serious as he replaced his blade on his back, blinking slowly.

"Oh my god," Trajan stared at the attack, palefaced with a horrifying realization,

"Think of what this will do to the environment!"

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Dorian mentally cursed his good nature as he ran towards the downed female vampire warrior. Why couldn't he have been born a shameless, evil villain?

Helping her would be dangerous and could get him killed.

But even so… he couldn't just leave her to die. Not when the reason all of this was happening was partly because of him.

Off to the side, the two vampires had rushed forward to engage the dragon as it was in the midst of creating another massive fireball. They suffered no time for distraction, putting their full focus on the dragon they were facing.

He had already witnessed their incredible strength. That single slash from the sword wielding vampire had carved out a huge crevice in the earth itself, and moved faster than Dorian was physically capable of seeing at his current level.

His mind raced ahead of him as he began to adapt his plan.

When the two parties were engaging, and the reason why Dorian was rushing over, he had noticed the female vampire had fallen over from the corner of his eyesight, blood spurting from her mouth.

Her collapsed form had gone unnoticed by her comrades as they engaged the Eleventhborn, intent on stopping it.

"If only I managed to convince it to stop fighting then…" He muttered, swearing mentally.

At the least, he'd managed to talk to it. Their attack on the dragon had happened at a bad time.

Though, perhaps from the dragon's perspective, it had happened at an opportune time. It seemed to be on some sort of mad quest to show off its ideal of perfection, or to gain wisdom from others on what perfection was.

His body heaved with exertion from the instantaneous sprint as he slammed down, landing next to the body of the vampire warrior.

Now that he was up close, Dorian saw her injuries in person. He had to force himself not to gag.

Her entire body was completely seared, save for a few spots on her face and eyes. Her slim, black dress had mostly melted off, disintegrating, and long, horrifying burns covered every inch of her. A light blue aura hovered around her, giving off a cool feeling.

'Ausra! What exactly is wrong with her?' He had once aided William in healing from a fatal injury by giving up some blood from one of his draconic forms. There might be some way he could help heal this injured vampire, if he knew more about her wounds.

Vampires had a powerful ability to regenerate. Even if she was badly burned like this, she should still be able to heal from it. Her wounds must be far worse than was visible.

The only reason she got so badly wounded was because of him, and her brave sacrifice in protecting the city.

If he hadn't stayed here in a populated city, this never would have happened. This was his fault. He clenched his fists at the realization, tossing the thought to the side for now.

'She has suffered multiple degree burns on roughly 88% of her body. Her internal organs have started to fail, the extreme damage she has suffered beginning to overwhelm her natural regenerative process. She appears to have consumed multiple healing medicines in an attempt to heal the injuries, but has only managed to stave them off.'

Ausra continued,

'Some type of restorative water-based spell has been applied to her. However, the burns she's suffered seem to carry the power of Law within them, and are not ones that can be easily healed.'

'Is there anything I can do?' Dorian queried, staring at the shivering body of the dying vampire.

Ausra was silent for a moment.

'There is a possibility…' Ausra began, taking another moment as if calculating.

'Yes?' Dorian urged.

'The Fire Element Golden Apple you obtained has the condensed energy of the Universal Law of Fire within it. If you eat it now, absorbing its energy, you may also be able to draw in the remnants of Law energy in the female vampire's wounds. With the Life Energy in your Lesser Life Demon form as a counterweight, it's possible you could pull out the Fire Energy and allow her to survive.' Ausra continued,

'The Life Elemental energy from the Life Element Golden Apple has already been absorbed and transformed to your own energy. You should be safe to absorb the remaining natural treasure.'

Dorian blinked, his mind racing.

This was an absolutely awful time to sit down and absorb a rare and powerful natural treasure. He had no idea how the Eleventhborn would react, or the vampires that were now engaging it.

But it seemed there was no other way to save her unless he was willing to take this risk.

He looked down at the shivering form of the female vampire, watching her wheeze and cough, her tiny body shaking.

He sighed, feeling tired.

Without hesitation, he pulled out the Fire Element Golden Apple from his Spatial Ring, and swallowed it whole.

.

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