When Alaric first saw the leyline occupied by a massive dragon, he was quite surprised. But after thinking about it, he found it reasonable.
Wasn't this the classic trope so common in novels?
Blessed lands, secret grottos, heavenly treasures, all of them were guarded by powerful beasts. Strong leylines were no exception.
And this dark green dragon before him, could it not be the very same dragon from Greek mythology, the one in Colchis that guarded the Golden Fleece?
With that thought, Alaric's heart stirred with excitement.
Dragons in the Nasuverse, even one as legendary as Fafnir, couldn't compare to the guardian dragons of Azeroth.
The dragon in front of him, judged by World of Warcraft standards, was little more than a young dragon.
The heroes of Greek myth were mostly warriors. Even if they were at the level of legends, it wasn't strange that they couldn't slay this beast.
But Alaric was different. He was a mage, one who could transform into a dragon.
What might be an insurmountable calamity for warriors was hardly more than an obstacle before him.
Since this dragon could obediently guard the Golden Fleece, that meant it could be tamed. Alaric resolved to defeat and subdue it, so it could serve as the guardian beast of his Academy.
After all, as an unprecedented magical academy, they would certainly encounter skeptics while recruiting students, people who doubted the power of magic.
In such moments, Alaric couldn't possibly lower his dignity to bicker endlessly with them about whether magic was strong, nor would he stoop to perform tricks like an actor just to prove his worth.
But with a guardian beast like this? Simply revealing a dragon would silence any doubt and inspire reverence for magic.
With that in mind, he told Pandora to stay put while he stepped forward to confront the beast.
Though the dragon slumbered, its senses were razor-sharp.
The moment Alaric approached, it awoke.
At first, it intended to casually snap up the approaching human as a snack, but suddenly, it sensed from this tiny human a breath so powerful it made the dragon's scales crawl.
That aura, it was unmistakably of its kin. Not only that, but of a kin higher in rank than itself.
Yet how could this frail creature be of its kind?
Unlike the true dragons of Azeroth, this dragon had only limited intelligence. Higher than a mere beast, yes, but only equivalent to a spiritual beast.
It raised its body in wary defiance, roaring warnings as Alaric approached, but despite its bluster, its body kept retreating.
Seeing the dragon forced back simply by Alaric's presence left Pandora stunned.
Then she witnessed something even more astonishing.
From Alaric's back sprouted dragon wings. A tail unfurled behind him. His body swelled larger and larger,
He had become a dragon.
"So… my beloved wasn't joking after all…" Pandora murmured.
Now that he had stepped into the realm of legends, Alaric's dragon form had reached the size of a true adult dragon.
And yet, compared to others of his stage, his dragon body was still noticeably larger.
With this transformation, Alaric finally began to awaken the unique abilities of his dragon bloodline.
Perhaps it was the influence of the Chaos Sea, but Alaric discovered he had awakened the power to command time and space.
In his human form, he had already noticed a tremendous leap in his mastery of temporal and spatial magic after reaching legend. But only now, as a dragon, did he realize that his human grasp of those arts had been child's play.
Dragons were truly a species favored by heaven. And when combined with the gift of time and space, the result was a chemistry never before seen.
For his dragon form, Alaric named it: the Dragon of Time and Space.
In this form, Alaric naturally radiated the passive effect of "Space Anchor."
Within its range, unless he willed otherwise, no manipulation of space could occur: no teleportation, no blinking, no pocket dimensions, no tearing of space.
What's more, he could crudely manipulate space itself around him, though this was his first transformation after becoming a legend, so the limits of his control were still untested.
As for time, Alaric could now wield abilities akin to "Time Stop," "Time Acceleration," and "Time Slow."
He even gained a breath attack similar to that of the Chrono Dragons.
A Chrono Dragon's breath could age a target, absorbing that lost time into itself.
Another variant of its breath could banish foes into the future, erasing them from the timeline for a stretch.
Alaric couldn't yet banish with his breath, but he did awaken something similar to a "Breath of Plunder", stealing time itself.
Yet unlike the Chrono Dragons, his breath could not only steal time, but also bestow it.
That meant Alaric could make someone older, or younger.
The stolen time wasn't added directly to Alaric's body. Instead, it was stored within him, fuel for granting time, for paying the cost of manipulating it, or, when accumulated to a certain threshold, to further evolve his draconic form.
Compared to a Chrono Dragon, born at the legendary level and possessing such powers from birth, Alaric's Time-Space Dragon was far less adept at temporal mastery.
After all, he only gained these powers upon reaching adulthood.
But that didn't mean his dragon form was weaker in potential.
On the contrary, rooted in the Chaos Sea, Alaric's gift transcended the limitations of any single world's Chrono Dragons.
One day, as he grew stronger, his Time-Space Dragon would surpass them, dominating even Chrono Dragons of the same rank.
But for now,
It was time to test his newfound powers.
Spreading his wings wide, Alaric charged forward, massive limbs thundering as he lunged at the dragon before him.
The dark green dragon, seeing a kin larger than itself pounce, reacted instantly, dodging aside.
Its enormous body moved with startling agility, toppling trees in its wake but still evading the diamond-like dragon's strike.
Yet there was no joy in its heart.
Because while it had evaded the brute force of the attack, it could not escape the breath of its foe.
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