Ever since officially becoming a Dragon of Time and Space, Alaric's dragon breath was no longer ordinary flames.
What poured out of his mouth was a semi-transparent breath, almost without color.
But that didn't mean its power was any weaker.
On the contrary, this breath that could plunder time was far more terrifying than any flame.
Of course, that was only if Alaric could strengthen it to a certain extent.
The dark green dragon managed to dodge his pounce, but was struck head-on by the breath of the Time-Space Dragon.
It had originally thought it would feel scorching flames, corrosive poison that melted everything, or bone-chilling frost…
After all, different dragons mastered different kinds of breaths.
However…
It felt nothing.
No, that wasn't quite true. It did feel something, a faint and strange discomfort, but aside from that, the dark green dragon realized it hadn't been harmed at all.
Had the opponent's dragon breath failed?
Or was this some kind of fake dragon breath?
No.
The dragon looked around, only to see that the grass and trees around it, touched by the breath, had already withered, and some had even turned to ash.
While the dragon was baffled, Alaric himself felt a little awkward.
He had deliberately used a feint of physical attack to force the other into dodging, and then followed with dragon breath precisely to test the effect of his Plundering Breath.
Yet, it seemed to have no effect on his foe, like he had breathed out nothing at all.
But Alaric had clearly felt it: he had plundered away a span of time.
Thinking it through carefully, Alaric finally understood.
A being like a dragon, whose lifespan was extraordinarily long, especially in the Type-Moon world, where dragons existed as phantasmal species, their lives could be considered infinite.
The only reason they would one day vanish was not death, but the decline of the Age of Gods and the exhaustion of mana.
So a breath that merely plundered time…
Against mortals, it was terrifyingly effective. But against these near-immortal creatures, it was no more than scratching an itch.
By extension, perhaps Plundering Breath wouldn't work on gods either.
So in truth, this Plundering Breath was more of a "bully-the-weak" ability, great for mowing down mortals, but useless against these long-lived beings, especially undead.
While Alaric was frustrated, the other dragon grew smug.
No matter what, even if his opponent's aura was frightening and his body was a size larger, from the performance of dragon breath, the pride and lifeblood of dragons.
It looked like this Time-Space Dragon was nothing more than an empty showpiece, all bark and no bite.
So what was there to fear? Attack!
Emboldened by Alaric's breath, the dark green dragon was no longer the cautious, hesitant creature from before. It lunged forward aggressively.
First came its fiery breath.
This was the most orthodox of dragon breaths, the flames, carrying heat hot enough to melt metal and stone, roared toward Alaric.
Alaric's diamond-hard scales could easily withstand such temperatures, but instead of tanking it directly, he wanted to test another facet of his Time-Space Dragon powers.
This time, spatial ability.
Since dragon breath was a kind of energy jet, like water gushing from a hose, it surpassed condensed projectiles like fireballs in terms of scale and duration, but its weakness lay in its range.
Most dragon breaths only reached a few hundred meters.
Alaric's counter was to stretch the space around himself.
This meant that while the flames surged right up to him, they could never actually reach his body, circling endlessly around his form as though blocked by an invisible wall.
From a third-person perspective, the dragon breath looked like it had slammed into some unseen barrier.
But in truth, this was simply the phenomenon of "so close yet so far."
The dragon spewed and spewed, its lungs nearly bursting, confident that with its opponent neither dodging nor defending, Alaric must either be burned alive or at least gravely scorched.
Yet when its breath finally ended, it saw its kin standing there completely unharmed, just as it itself had been after Alaric's Plundering Breath.
No burns, no singeing, not even the faintest trace of heat left behind.
Once again, the dragon was dumbfounded.
What was going on?
Why hadn't its breath worked either?
Was dragon breath banned in this battle or something?
Poor dragon, its limited intelligence couldn't comprehend the mysteries of time and space.
But at least it realized one thing: dragon breath was useless here.
That left only close combat.
So, it beat its wings and rose high into the sky, then dove down at Alaric, fangs and claws ready to teach him a lesson.
Facing the oncoming assault, Alaric thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up.
He suddenly remembered a way to use his spatial ability.
In fact, there was a certain line he'd been wanting to say for a long time.
But he'd never had the right ability or the right opportunity.
Now he did.
The power was ready. The timing was perfect. So…
From Alaric's body burst a spherical ripple, almost tangible, that spread violently outward.
Wherever the ripple passed, grass and trees were flattened, and even the ground was forced into a hemispherical crater.
As for the dragon diving from above, it was like slamming headlong into a wall.
The shockwave of the ripple, combined with the rebound of its own momentum, launched it away with even greater force.
It crashed heavily to the ground, where it lay, unable to rise for quite some time.
Its face and wings twisted at odd angles, showing clear signs of serious injury.
As expected, old Einstein had been right.
In truth, the "Almighty Push"-like technique Alaric used wasn't the direct manipulation of gravity or repulsion, but the indirect effect of manipulating space.
In Newtonian physics, everything has gravity, with more massive objects exerting stronger pull.
But according to Einstein's theory of relativity, gravity arose from the curvature of space.
Imagine space as a spring net, with massive objects like heavy weights pressing into it.
The heavier the object, the deeper the indentation.
The slopes created by that indentation became the source of gravity, lighter objects on the net would naturally slide down toward the heavy one.
Understanding this principle made it clear: so-called gravity and gravitational waves were nothing more than ripples of space.
And Alaric, by crudely manipulating space, could create distortions that produced the effects of gravity or repulsion.
Repulsion was simply inverted gravity. By shaping space into a protrusion and expanding it outward, Alaric had simulated the "Almighty Push" technique.
Although his control was still rough and limited to a radius centered on himself, this power was extremely versatile, and devastatingly effective.
Even Uchiha Madara of the Naruto world might not have been able to swat a dragon aside so easily.
Since "Almighty Push" worked, then why not try "Universal Pull" next?
Watching the dragon before him rapidly recover from its wounds, Alaric's lips curled into a mischievous smile.
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