A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Purple flames shrouded Nisha‘s hand as she ripped through the scales of the [Six- Legged Bane Lizard] and tore off a chunk of flesh.

Thanks to the illusion of a dragon claw made from [Dragon Force] overlaid over her actual hand, it was as easy as tearing through paper for the elf.

In theory, this was the effect of [Ember Clad] applied to her own body instead of a weapon, yet Nisha did not notice in the heat of the battle that the effect of the skill had long since exceeded the nominal details of the ability and turned into a far stronger skill.

The monster screeched in pain and recoiled to create a distance from the little terror in front of it, with white bone glancing through the wound.

If it were not for the ribs beneath, offsetting part of the attack, the strike would have gone much deeper and perhaps threatened its life.

Nisha was not in a hurry and allowed the monster a small break, not stepping close to pursue and take its life while the monster was down already.

After the occupant of the room and the elf clashed for a few times cautiously, the battle heated up rapidly.

The lizard had remained wary of the wolf familiar lounging in the tunnel entrance, afraid of a conspiracy, so it kept its body facing the passage and the elf at the same time to guard its back.

On the other side, Nisha wanted to explore her own strength and find her limit in a combat situation, so she did not bring out her strongest abilities from the start and slowly increased her physical strength with each strike.

As both parties had concerns, neither of them went all out.

To dominate a room alone, the lizard was certainly not a weakling among those of the same rank.

With six strong limbs and a short but agile tail, the monster could easily switch between offence and defence and quickly move around.

The scales on its body provided protection from blunt trauma and bladed weapons, making it difficult to deal effective damage for most adventurers.

And together with a bite that was no different from a sharp vice capable of tearing through heavy plate armour as easily as twisting wax apart, it was really a bane worthy of the name.

 

Unfortunately, its opponent this time was an even bigger anomaly than itself, so the lizard underestimated the means of the dragon.

While wary of the second combatant, the monster brandished its claws and wanted to close the distance to get rid of the feeble humanoid creature first, lest there was an accident once the two cooperated to fight it.

Sadly, the threat coming from the lizard‘s bloodline did not warn it about the beast, but rather the one in front of it!

Nearly all scaled creatures had some part of dragon ancestry, making their bloodline subservient to them.

Although the Dungeon managed to prevent Nisha from commanding those with dragon blood and taking control of them, the fundamental relationship between them did not change.

As long as the elf fully released her bloodline and pressured the lizard, it would be difficult for the monster to exert its full strength, it was a kind of fear deeply engraved in its flesh and bones.

Yet Nisha did not want to rely on cheap advantages to influence the fight either, so once the [Six Legged Bane Lizard] took the liberty of closing in on her, she naturally welcomed it with open arms.

Applying aura reinforcement on her hands, she stepped into the range of the vicious claws instead of dodging away like her opponent had predicted.

With a swipe of her hand, a chunk of flesh was torn out, broken scales littering the ground.

Purple flames seared the flesh in her hand, which the elf ceaselessly tossed aside.

Shocked and in pain from the wound, the lizard no longer paid attention to the possible aggressor inside the passage and fully focused on the foe in front of it.

Swiping its front claw at the elf, the [Six Legged Bane Lizard] turned around its own centre and ignored its own safety to trade wound for wound.

Any normal adventurer would back off, because the risk would be way too high to face off a monster with their physique, yet the elf did not surrender in a fight of willpower.

It was not worth it to accept serious wounds in exchange for a negligible attack on a monster.

Driving her foot into the monster’s side, Nisha curled up one of her arms on her side, flinging the lizard back at the same time as the claw scraped from her shoulder, over her arm and finally over the leather armour covering her stomach.

A screech of pain tore from the lizard’s pain as both parties were separated from each other and flung back, the monster with an additional broken rib and the girl with holes in her leather armour near her shoulder and stomach.

Only [Midnight], clad around her back and shoulders, remained untorn by the claw.

 

Originally, the monster aimed to deliver a heavy blow with its tail when it turned, a common way for the lizard species to engage with their foes.

The species got its name from the reckless abandon with which they fought to the death against anything that intruded their space.

Each of its six legs had a sharp claw, deadly enough to tear up the hides and scales of monsters and the defence of adventurers alike.

By getting up close and personal, warriors and wizards alike had a hard time to respond against the rush attack, once the agile reptile wound itself around their body and scraped its claws against them.

Even the short tail could thump heavily against shields and vulnerable spots, breaking resistance even further.

Whether it was a monster or a human, it was a bane akin to a life ending disaster, hence the species got its name.

Nisha twisted her body and barely got out of the way of the attack, flying several spaces back.

The recoil sent the monster back too, hissing with annoyance that the sneak attack failed and that the elf managed to damage it again.

A little trail of blood seeped out of her pink lips, her organs rattled from the blow.

Thankfully, it was not to the degree of an internal injury, the blood already lost most of its energy as it sealed the tears in the organs shut and healed the tissue as it escaped the elf’s body.

Spitting out the rest, Nisha wiped the corner of the mouth with the back of her hand, staring at the lizard as it regained balance and warily returned the glare.

Neither side rushed to resume the battle and took the break to regulate their aura, the short but intense confrontation threw the dragon’s and lizard’s circulation into disarray.

Unlike the girl, who already regained a rosy hue in her face and returned to the pink of health, the lizard relied on a thin film of muddy water from the puddles on the ground to seal the gouged wound shut.

None of them noticed in the heat of battle that the trace amount of dragon blood started to eat through the rock at the bottom of a small pool of water.

While it was not nearly as fast to heal, at least the makeshift plaster prevented more lifeforce from seeping out.

 

At the fourth rank, the loss of blood was already not quite as serious as at the lower ranks, even if the injury remained untreated, it would eventually scab over and heal, even if it took time - given that the [Six Legged Bane Lizard] had access to enough fresh food to replenish its aura.

It was the loss of life and concurrently the aura that spilled from the wound that would really weaken the lizard, making it a priority to stop the drain now to stand a chance in the fight.

Flicking its tongue into the air, the lizard greedily eyed the dragon, eager to tear into her flesh, drink her blood and eat the marrow of her bones.

As long as it won the fight, there was still a chance for the reptile to turn its fate around and recover to peak condition.

Contrary to the sinister intentions of the lizard, Nisha inspected the torn portions of her leather armour and her arm.

The sharp claws had done a number on her equipment, an easily followed streak of physical violence ran from the shoulder part to the stomach, jagged uneven holes that were unlikely able to be mended in the future.

Underneath the damaged armour, angry red welts marred the otherwise pristine soft skin.

Thankfully, the skin was still intact and it was only a surface injury, which would quickly heal given the dragon’s physique.

It was a shame about the leather, yet it was not a premium piece of equipment, Nisha still had plenty of similar garments left inside her [Inner World].

At the same time, she felt pretty happy about her own strength, in the last clash both sides reached the peak of the fourth rank in terms of aura.

She had not stepped into this level of cultivation for long, there was plenty of space to grow left.

Only her other familiar, Eisen, needed to catch up to Accalia and their master, then the trio would begin their journey in the middle ranks of the cultivation realm.

Since Nisha already had the power of the late fourth rank, she was bound to get even more powerful and make way into the next rank pretty soon.

It was already pretty much unheard of that a warrior or magician was able to leap an entire rank in prowess, yet it was only the starting point for the elf.

The lull was broken as the reptile got eager to resume the battle and recover as soon as possible after the intruders were taken care of.

 

As the reptile raced towards the elf, eager to tear and claw into her, the glint in Nisha’s eyes changed.

Unless the girl started to use her spells and more abilities or brought out her better gear, it was hard for her to increase her combat power.

Given that the battle served its purpose and there was nothing more to verify, the reptile in front of her eyes transformed from a vicious monster into a precious pile of food.

A shudder went through the [Six Legged Bane Lizard], unfortunately it mistook the instinctive fear of its bloodline for eagerness to feast on its fallen enemy.

During the rush towards the elf, the reptile faked an outbreak left and right, obscuring the direction of its attack to catch her off guard.

Sadly, its hopes were bound to be dashed, as the dragon no longer had any use for it.

Just as the monster got within reach of the girl and prepared to leap and go for her throat, the girl squatted down and lunged into its path.

Completely caught off guard that the enemy would willingly enter the range of its deadly claws, Nisha got in the first blow and grappled the reptile from its back, restricting its first two legs.

The [Six Legged Bane Lizard] immediately thrashed its body and tried to get rid of the unbidden passenger and unleash all the pent up violence from its failed attempts to inflict damage to its opponent.

Tumbling over the uneven stone floor, swiping its claws at the elf, the battle devolved into a primitive melee, an exchange of punches and kicks without any sophisticated techniques or battle strategies.

Of course, without room to windup or gather strength, the effect of close quarter combat was vastly reduced and the resulting damage hardly mattered to each of them, it was the accumulation over time that really added gravity to the brawl.

Broken scales littered the cave floor as the elf dug her fingers through the lizard’s coat and added tears and wounds all over its body.

Concurrently, the reptile slashed and clawed against the tiny girl as much as possible and tore her armour into pieces.

To the monster’s regret, the extent of the damage was limited to the equipment alone, as a shadow of dragon scales flashed every time it tried to attack and deflected any damage besides skin deep scratches.

Little Lia got a little scared as the melee progressed, the ferocious beating each of them doled out was getting kind of scary.

The wolf stealthily slinked around the brawlers and picked up the piece of lizard meat.

As a result of the dragon flames that spontaneously erupted from its master before, the delicious morsel had a very spicy flavour, which the familiar happily gobbled down before returning to the cave entrance.

Its master was very scary right now, Little Lia did not want to get mixed up with those two savages!