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When the freezing mist dissipated from around me, I looked at the rock that protected me and saw that the rock was so cold that ice crystals started growing out of it in my direction, and even in the cold surroundings, the supercooled rock had condensation mist flowing off of it.
The breath attack had made the surroundings so cold that the fur lining of my armor and thick insulated gambeson were not able to keep out the cold. It seems that even if a normal person were not hit directly by the breath attack, they would still rapidly succumb to the bone-piercing chill.
To show Thryz my displeasure for freezing my butt off, I severed the rock that protected me at the base by sending instinctive earth magic into it with a lazy kick, and found that it was surprisingly brittle. I guess that is what happens when the rock is supercooled.
I then took a stance, flared my Primal aura, and performed a spinning back kick at the rock. But instead of a snappy kick that would surely shatter the rock, I slowed down just enough to rest my foot on the rock and push it off at the last moment, sending the rock out of the white mist of snow.
***
From a frozen orb showing a bird's-eye view, two elder dragons were watching the fight. The only difference between them, besides their subspecies, was that one of them was vastly more smug than the other.
"Oh come on! You call that an opening attack?! I taught you better than that when you were half the size you are now!" Vruulkthaz roared at the frozen orb like an armchair coach.
Vruulkthaz then turned to Sgaer'khathz and roared, "And what was that thing your champion did? Was that Aura? Why is it purple, and how is he still alive with his mana pathways glowing through his skin?"
"It is violet in color for your information." Sgaer'khathz smugly corrected her host. "As for what it is, all I can say is that it's like Aura."
Vruulkthaz narrowed her eyes at Sgaer'khathz. "And your champion was using instinctive magic. I have only known extremely rare cases among the short-lived races to use one element of instinctive magic, two at most. I saw your champion use three… are you sure that is not one of our kin in disguise?"
Hearing Vruulkthaz's accusation of lying, Sgaer'khathz puffed up further with pride. "I swear I am telling the truth. My champion is human, born and bred. All I did was pick up the rough gem and polish it into a shining jewel."
Vruulkthaz huffed in annoyance. "I sometimes envy the short-lived races. They burn fast and bright, growing in power in such a short frame of time. And then there is my dunderhead of a son. Throwing his weight around like a maddened bull. How old is your champion? To have such martial and magical mastery, he must be halfway or close to the end of his lifespan." she asked as she was not able to see Luke's face in the helmet.
Hearing that question, Vruulkthaz did not believe that Sgaer'khathz's smirk could get any wider, but it did. "Would you believe me if my champion is not even in his second decade of life?" Sgaer'khathz said, purposely leaving out Luke's previous and current mental ages combined.
Vruulkthaz frowned, "Now I know you are definitely lying, You-"
Before Vruulkthaz could continue with her accusations, Sgaer'khathz waved her toward the orb. "Hush! Something is happening! If you still don't believe me, you can meet my champion after the fight." Sgaer'khathz said, just as the frozen orb displayed a rock flying out of the misty cloud created by Thryz's breath attack.
***
Thinking that the lone warrior was naught but an ice sculpture, Thryz snorted to clear the rest of the breath attack's freezing liquid that made its way into his nostrils before making his way toward his quarry.
But just as he took his first step, he heard the sharp sound of stone cracking, making him pause his step. A second later, his eyes went wide as a rock came flying out of the white cloud his breath attack made.
Thryz reacted just in time and swatted the rock out of the air, shattering the brittle rock into shards of cold stone, and just behind the scattering of shards was the lone warrior charging straight at Thryz.
When the lone warrior closed in, Thryz acted more on reaction than anything else and used the same arm that shattered the rock to backhand the warrior. But the warrior was more canny than any barbarian that Thryz had ever fought, and instead of standing his ground to block the blow that he could not evade, the warrior raised his spear to block and did a small hop to get off the ground to tuck in his legs.
This resulted in the warrior not only blocking the blow, but also using the momentum of the blow and letting himself be thrown away from Thryz.
Not wanting to give the irritating warrior any time to rest, Thryz chased the flying warrior, aiming to kill him the moment he hit the ground.
While chasing after the flying warrior, the warrior righted himself in midair to face Thryz and pointed his finger at him. From the warrior's finger, an arc of lightning jumped out at him, zapping him right on the nose.
This immediately seized his body and caused him to trip, falling face-first into the snow. That was another irritating thing about this warrior; he was a competent mage, and if he remembered what his mother taught him about magic, this felt like it was instinctive magic, which mortals should only have access to one element, not four.
He had faced magic users among the barbarians, and they did not even come close to matching this warrior. The warrior had proven himself powerful enough to match him in melee, and to his wounded pride, even magic.
Until this point, Thryz always grumbled when his mother forced him to practice how to circulate mana in his body to effectively use Dragon Tounge magic, and his pride stopped him from taking those lessons seriously.
Why would he ever need magic? He was a dragon! The top of the food chain by birth and by the strength of his teeth and claws. How foolish he thought himself now, being trounced by one of the short-lived races that was more than ten times smaller than he was.
But now, facing a genuine threat, he needed to beat this warrior, his pride be damned. He had to fight this small warrior like he would any wyrm his size.