The dragon soared through the sky, gale and thunder roared as powerful shockwave spread on our surroundings.
The dragon was observing silently – It's not assessing our ability to fight us, it's way more beneath that. It knew it could easily defeat us – just like how a giant could easily trample on an ant.
The dragon opened its mouth, a massive hurricane aimed toward us, knocking everything in its path – including the bamboo around us.
"Shit."
Cedric moved his hand and built layers of ice shields. The ice cracked under pressure. Every time one of the layers cracked, Cedric built another.
But this attack was also an advantage for us, with fewer obstacles hindering our vision and movement, Patricia could finally unleash her full potential.
Once the dragon's breath was done, fire arrows swirled around Patricia.
It was only one at first, until the air around her twirled. In a blink, hundreds of them formed, scorching the air with their blaze.
"Take this!"
The sky was raining red.
"Marcello, Xain, your turn."
Ice foothold formed in the sky. Having known the drill, Xain immediately jumped on it and climbed up into the sky.
"Ahh, so that's how you do it."
Marcello followed suit, pulling out his sword from his sheath. With fire arrows as cover, they closed their distance.
The dragon, still unfazed, flicked its tail and swiped the arrow with a gale, turning and swirling the flame into a tornado that launched back into Xain and Marcello.
WHOOSHH!!
The flame engulfed the two of them.
"Think it's over? Take this then!"
A blood cocoon moved at a terrifying speed above the dragon's head, revealing the red-headed person inside. Xain dashed with his fist ready, aiming toward its snout. Marcello also came out from above, his sword in hand.
SLASH!
Instead of the sound of skull being cracked, what was heard was a deep slash that pierced through the dragon's eyes.
"Wha-"
Xain's fist missed its target, but blood spurted out from the wound Marcello inflicted.
The dragon roared in pain, causing it to thrash around and whip the two of them with its tail – launching them into the distance. A blood cocoon immediately wrapped their body, protecting them.
"Can't you drain the dragon's blood like you did to the rats?" Patricia asked me.
"I can't. With a body that big and it constantly moving around made it harder to maintain control over the blood flow."
'This is why I rarely drain blood from my enemies unless they're dead.'
The dragon descended from the sky, its mouth opened with a hurricane ready to launch.
"Cedric!"
"I know!"
Shield of ice appeared in front of us while I gathered the blood in my control and spun it like a drill. This time, I was the one on the offensive.
Both the boss and I released our attack.
BOOM!
Two forces clashed, one trying to tear through and one trying to dissipate it.
Blast of wind hit us, if not for Cedric's ice shield, we might already be blown away.
Dragon's breath was like a natural force, and a natural force couldn't be stopped easily. I stood my ground but my whole body became numb just from maintaining my ability.
I was slowly being pushed back.
To my surprise, the dragon suddenly stopped its breath, which made my attack freely commence toward it.
But the dragon, despite its large body, agilely soared upward, dodging my attack and lunged toward our side.
Too late to intercept it, I shout.
"Run!"
I grabbed Ilyas and jumped out of the way.
Cedric and Patricia landed a distance away from us.
"Argh!"
"Ugh!"
Their groans reached my ears. Within that split second, the dragon had incapacitated them.
'I need to quickly regroup with them to check their injuries.'
But the dragon had turned its gaze toward me, leaving me no chance to come close.
"I'll be with you."
Ilyas' hand grabbed mine as he said with an assuring voice, his guiding energy poured into me.
"Stand back Ilyas."
I pulled out my dagger, anticipating any attack from it.
"Ethan!"
Xain jumped down from the sky, sensing his presence, the dragon moved out of the way.
BOOM!
The impact from Xain crashing down shattered the ground beneath us. I shielded Ilyas from the debris flying toward us.
"Ethan, heal them please."
Marcello also appeared beside me, bringing Patricia while hauling the unconscious Cedric over his shoulder.
Marcello and Xain had no visible outer wound, but both Patricia's arm and Cedric's head were bleeding.
"Lay him down."
I immediately got to work and checked their wounds. Cedric's skull was fine so I could quickly patch it up, but Patricia's arm was broken, so I did a small operation by rearranging her bones sticking to her flesh, stopped the bleeding and finished it up with a bandage to hold it in place.
"It's not as effective as a healer but it would make the injury heal in a slightly better condition."
"Alright, thank you."
"So how are we going to finish that lizard?"
Marcello's question was immediately answered.
[Thou hast not the power to extinguish this life of mine.]
A majestic androgynous voice resounded in my head. I instantly locked eyes with the dragon. It leaned down, a gust of wind puffed out from its mouth.
[Thou hast proven your wisdom in thy strategy and thy will to protect each other. Thou hast indeed entertained this old soul. I shalt give thou reward.]
An azure pearl floated in the air, slowly descending before Marcello. He grabbed the pearl, its aura evoked a sense of tranquility deep inside the soul.
[Shalt thou seek the truth of these towers, challenge other guardians and gain their approval.]
The dragon's injured eye slowly opened, revealing a completely healthy blue eye underneath.
"No way, I'm sure I've cut it deep."
Marcello frowned, disbelief was clear in his voice.
The ground beneath us rumbled, the bamboo forest that had turned disarray, slowly return back to its original place – piece by piece, standing tall as if there was never a fight that destroyed it.
That just showed us the extent of its power. And all this time, it hadn't been fighting us seriously.
[Leave, the next time thou challenge this old soul, be prepared to receive no mercy.]
Bright light flashed into our eyes, turning our vision white. When we opened our eyes again, we were already standing in front of the tower. The door that was wide open had now closed tight, not allowing even a single fly to enter.
"In the end we didn't subjugate it."
Patricia murmured, a hint of frustration was detected in her voice. I understood her feeling, while we got something to progress, one of an esper's core desires was to conquer. And unfortunately, all we got from this fight were injuries.
It was an empty victory.
"Does it really matter? From what I've seen, our goal in these towers is to receive approval from the four guardians. We got one already, so let's move after a 30 minutes rest. What do you think, Ethan?"
"Yeah, that can do, we still have to wait for Cedric to wake up."
What Marcello said was right. We didn't have to win the fight, we just needed to gain their approval no matter the cost, that's the goal of these towers.