---
The fire hit me.
There was no time to move, no time to scream. No time to even breathe.
It swallowed me whole—an all-consuming torrent of white flame that should've burned me to ash.
But it didn't.
It entered me.
The heat didn't hurt. It thrummed. My skin didn't blister—it glowed. I didn't disintegrate.
I changed.
The fire wasn't trying to destroy me. No… it was testing me. Judging me. And then, somehow, welcoming me.
I felt it—searing through my veins like lightning, into my bones, into my soul. My senses expanded. My heart thundered with raw energy. Every breath I took dragged in power, like I was inhaling the sky itself.
When the flames finally died, I was still standing.
Steam rose from my shoulders, my fingers, the ground beneath me. My clothes were singed at the edges. My boots melted into the earth. But my body… my body was untouched.
I looked up slowly.
The Dragon Lord stared at me, lips parted in disbelief.
He hadn't expected this.
I wasn't supposed to survive.
"Impossible," he growled, voice low and ragged.
His dragon snarled in response, wings folding in confusion. I could feel its hesitation—like even it sensed the shift.
I didn't get time to bask in it.
With a roar, the Dragon Lord moved.
Fast.
Faster than before.
His body shimmered with aura—raw, ancient, birth force—and his fist came crashing toward me like a meteor.
I barely had time to react.
I threw both arms up and caught the blow square-on.
Pain exploded through my limbs. The impact was like a mountain slamming into me. My feet tore grooves in the dirt as I slid backward, ripping up roots and stone beneath my heels.
But I didn't fall.
Dust swirled around me, and when it cleared, I was still on my feet.
Shaking… but standing.
The Dragon Lord's eyes widened.
I blinked.
And in that blink, he vanished.
—Shit—
He reappeared in front of me, faster than thought, and drove his fist into my chest with a snarl.
Boom.
The sound was deafening. A shockwave tore outward from the impact, flattening everything behind me. Trees snapped in half. Bushes were vaporized. Earth exploded into the air.
But me?
I just stood there.
The force hit, yes. I felt it. But I didn't move.
I looked down slowly, exhaling through my nose.
Where his fist had landed… my chest had changed.
Scales.
Black. Gleaming. Interlocked like armor—dragon scales.
They pulsed faintly, alive, like they were part of me. Not a shield I wore. A shield I was.
His hand was still pressed against me.
I looked up at him with a grin I hadn't worn in years.
No fear.
No hesitation.
No doubt.
"Guess I'm not the weak boy I was a few days ago," I whispered.
His eyes narrowed, and I saw it—just for a second.
Fear.
I struck back.
My fist connected with his ribs, hard enough to make him grunt and stagger. I didn't stop. I followed up with a spinning elbow, caught his jaw, drove my knee into his gut, and hurled him backward with a roar of my own.
He hit a boulder, cracked it in half, and rolled to his feet, blood in his mouth.
We stared at each other—breathing hard, aura crackling around us both.
And then we charged.
Claws. Fists. Fire. Wings. It all became one blur.
His dragon dove from above—I leapt and slammed my fist into its snout, sending it reeling with a snarl of confusion.
He came at me again, lashing with his tail—I ducked, caught it under my arm, and flung him over my shoulder.
The ground cracked from our blows. Air trembled with every impact. The forest burned around us, white fire licking the treetops.
I didn't care.
I felt alive.
My blood sang. My vision sharpened. The fire still swirled inside me, a storm I hadn't yet learned to control—but it didn't matter.
For the first time, I wasn't surviving.
I was fighting back.
No longer prey. No longer beneath.
We clashed again, his claws meeting my fists mid-air. Sparks flew. Pressure exploded between us. My boots skidded, his wings flared.
"You… bastard," he hissed, fury burning in his eyes. "What are you?"
I didn't answer.
I just pulled my arm back—felt the fire coil around it like a serpent—and drove my punch into his chest.
Flames erupted from the point of impact, and he was sent flying again.
This time, he didn't rise as fast.
I stood over him, panting, heart pounding.
"I don't know what I am either," I said, my voice rough from the heat. "But I know what I'm not."
He glared up at me, blood dripping from his lip.
"I'm not a victim anymore."
---
The man lay sprawled against the broken earth, eyes wide with disbelief, chest rising and falling in short, ragged breaths. Dust swirled around him. The wind had gone still.
And I…
I stood above him—cracked earth beneath my feet, veins still glowing faintly from the fire that should've killed me.
He wasn't the only one stunned.
I felt it too.
The fire hadn't burned me. It claimed me.
Seeped through my skin. Rushed through my blood. It was still there, coiled like a serpent inside my lungs, thrumming beneath every heartbeat. Not pain. Not heat.
Power.
Something stirred above the ridge.
I turned my head slowly, already knowing who it was.
Vera.
She stood at the edge of the shattered clearing, silent, arms crossed beneath her cloak. Her golden eyes—always unreadable—met mine. I didn't have to say anything. She saw everything. Felt it through the bond.
The corners of her lips curved into a faint smile.
She stepped forward, boots silent despite the rubble, and with a grace that defied the chaos around us—she shifted.
Light wrapped around her, radiant and sharp like cracking glass. Her human form dissolved into flame and wings, and in a breathless moment, Vera stood before me in her full dragon form.
Majestic. Deadly. Mine.
Her scales shimmered with a gradient of silver and sapphire, catching the rising sun like polished obsidian. Massive wings beat once, stirring the wind into a frenzy.
The man on the ground looked up, jaw slack.
"A dragon… in human form…?"
His voice cracked under the weight of disbelief.
I climbed onto Vera's back, each movement fluid, natural—like I'd done it a thousand times.
I looked down at him.
"Let me show you," I said, voice low, sharp with something that wasn't quite anger anymore, "what true dragon breath feels like."
His eyes widened.
"Drex," he gasped, scrambling to his feet. "Shield me!"
His dragon—black-scaled and massive—answered the call, thundering across the sky with a roar that shattered the treeline. It landed in front of him, wings tucked protectively around its master. Its scales shimmered, thicker than armor, the infamous Impenetrable Dragon Hide.
It had taken countless lives.
But this… this was different.
Vera rose.
Higher.
Until even the trees looked like ash below.
I could feel the fire stirring in her chest, building with every wingbeat. She didn't need convincing. She wanted this.
But I gave the order anyway—low, sharp, final.
"Emdraceth."
The light in her throat began to pulse—blinding, raw, elemental.
And then she roared.
The sky itself split.
A column of blue fire—pure and absolute—erupted from her jaws, cascading down like the wrath of a forgotten god.
The man's dragon braced, its hide shimmering with layered magic.
But the fire wasn't just heat.
It was judgment.
It devoured.
There was no time to react. No way to run.
The fire reached them.
And in an instant—
They were gone.
The wings melted first. Then the black scales. Then the screaming stopped.
Even the earth beneath them turned to glass.
The clearing went silent.
Vera circled once, then landed beside the crater, her massive body folding low enough for me to slide off.
I walked forward—slow, steady, like I had all the time in the world.
The ashes still danced in the air.
Where once stood a dragon and its master… now there was only ruin.
I exhaled.
And for the first time, I truly felt it.
I wasn't the weak boy I'd been days ago.
I wasn't prey anymore.
I was the fire now.
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