[Alkelios’ point of view]

 “That’s a lot of them...” said Kataryna.

Draejan’s army was advancing with roaring dragons soaring through the skies and soldiers numbering in the hundreds of thousands marching towards us in their half-beast forms. They were all roaring for victory, making me feel a pressure on my shoulders and soul.

We can’t win this... I was led to think, but I refused to let this false thought take hold of me.

My wife had me by my side, and in her eyes, I saw the burning will to fight and push back this invading force. Next to her was Kleo, and although Iolaus was holding her hand, I could see the determination and desire in them to fight together and not let the enemy separate them.

On my right was Kataryna, and her tail was still. She was looking at the tsunami of fire-breathing enemies with serious eyes and planning on how to take them out. To say that this was nothing for her would have meant to overestimate her abilities. I knew of her past, but back then she faced a smaller number of foes, and she was lucky she did not suffer from the [Berserker’s Burst] like Brekkar did.

There was a lot of tension in the air around. There were a lot of whispers of worry, and even I felt the looming possibility of defeat.

“I really don’t like this...” I said.

Looking back, I saw the Queen surrounded by her three Breakthrough-er guards: Reyades Undrakan, Leone Sylvara, and Malavan Verona. Her Majesty was sitting on a chair while hiding her face behind the silver fan she carried. Only her eyes gazed upon the battlefield.

This white-scaled dragoness was the top figure in the Albeyater Kingdom. Her voice and will governed over everyone, including the King. Normally, I would have thought that letting her stay out here in the open was a very poor choice of strategy, but through this risky action of hers, the Queen not only showed bravery but also her will to stand by her people. This brought courage to the dragons and dragonesses who stood in front of me, the simple soldiers brought here by the orders of the nobles they were under on.

Honestly, I felt like the only reason they did not flee despite seeing the overwhelming wave approaching us was only because of Queen Elliessara Seyendraugher. How could they turn tail and run when she was here to watch over them?

They would not allow themselves to run away, but still... it was scary to look at this mass of dragons who were running towards us only with the intent to kill us.

All of us felt more or less overwhelmed and worried.

One thing was the theory, the planning, the simulation of a battle you did in your mind, and another was to stand there on the battlefield, staring in your enemy’s eyes and wondering how and when you have to pull the trigger.

“Dragons and dragonesses of Albeyater Kingdom!” the Queen called out “It is time to fight to defend your land, families, and your freedom! It is time to show those wretched fools that simple numbers are no match for our will and strength!” she folded her fan and lifted it up. The gaze in her eyes was one of absolute determination and resolution. “Children of Albeyater! March forward and bring home victory!” she shouted and lowered her fan, pointing it at the enemy wave.

“FOR ALBEYATER! FOR ALBEYATER!” the soldiers shouted at the same time, raising their swords and shields up.

“You heard the Queen! Let’s show those bastard dragons that they can’t mess around with us! Follow me to battle and glory! Follow me to victory!” Feryumstark shouted and then let out a roar.

This unique roar was powerful and felt like a rush of energy. It was a skill limited only to those few dragons from the Authority element. It boosted the morale and gave courage to those who lacked it.

“FOR ALBEYATER! FOR ALBEYATER!” the soldiers shouted again.

“MOVE OUT!” the four Breakthrough-ers tasked with leading the army of 26000 gave out the order.

All the soldiers advanced, ready to collide with the enemy forces.

Seeing so many dragons and dragonesses move out to fight a number far higher than theirs gave me a strange feeling. Maybe it was because of Feryumstark’s Authority roar, but I felt, deep down, in this soul I carried, that this battle was going to be... legendary.

It was going to be something worthy to be mentioned in history books and retold by bards all around the world as the most breathtaking battle that ever took place.

And those stories... were more than likely going to be about me and my friends here. They were going to be about those who turned the tide of this battle.

Then, as I watched the two forces approaching each other, I felt like my breath had stopped.

The shouts came from both sides.

The roars were spread all over the place.

There were no humanoid dragons, only half-beasts and full-beasts. Staying in their weaker forms would have been foolish. All of us except for the Queen were turned to half-beasts forms, clenching the hilts of our swords, ready to jump into the fight, ready to slash and show them all what we were made off.

“It started...” said Kataryna when the first swords clashed together, and the two waves met.

Blood was spilled in that moment from both sides. Yet, the enemy who outnumbered us still pushed forward.

I gulped.

“It’s time.” I said.

“Everyone, let us show them our fangs!” Seryanna said and she changed to her full-beast form together with everyone else.

They did not need to worry about my armors and weapons, they were meant to take the form of a protective layer around their more sensitive parts, while the weapons turned into a claw armor.

I was the only one who would not be able to change, but for me, this half-beast form was enough.

I unsheathed Heaven and Hell right when everyone’s transformation stopped.

Seryanna was a beautiful dragoness with rose-red scales and short spikes flowing down her spine. Her wings spread far and wide, showing that she was more than able to tame the winds, and her armor covered her chest, her stomach, her spine, and her neck. The weapon I gave her had turned into bright-red claw armor on the pointing finger of her right hand.

Kataryna was a dragoness covered in silver-scales, but with shorter spikes than Seryanna. The gaze in her eyes and the way she presented herself gave her an elegant, almost royal feel, but just like in the case of my wife, her blue and white armor covered her stomach, her chest, her spine, and her neck. The sword I gave her took the shape of a blue armor claw around the pointing finger of her right hand.

Kleo’s beast form was the first one I got the ‘pleasure’ of getting a ‘close encounter’ with and it was the same: big, majestic, scary, and completely covered in black shiny scales. Next to her was Iolaus who was looking like a surprisingly thin and scrawny dragon when compared to Kleo, but his neck and tail were longer, and his wings were a bit smaller too. He was the only one who was covered completely by my armor because his was the full-plate max protection type.

“Is everyone ready?” I asked.

Seryanna puffed a cloud of smoke. Kataryna nodded. Kleo showed a sinister smile, and I could swear I saw something moving in her shadow. Iolaus snapped his tail and nodded.

“Then...” I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes.

The sound of swords clashing and dragons fighting... Who knew I would get to see such a ridiculous scene, no... participate in this ridiculous battle? Ah, but... I am one of them now, ain’t I? I thought and opened my eyes.

From the bottom of my lungs, I let out the most powerful roar I could muster.

“ROOOAAAR!!!”

It was far more powerful than the King’s because I amplified it with [Fatty McFat] skill, which allowed it to spread all the way to the end of this battlefield. All those near me would feel its full effect. My roar would also affect those I thought of as allies and those I thought of as enemies in different ways.

One of the reasons I flew all the way up into the sky earlier was in order to mark them all as enemies and accept those on this side of the camp as allies.

My roar would boost the strength and morale of my allies and drop those of the enemy. However, I also added [Intimidation] to it, which under this amplified effect would make the strong ones stagger and the weak ones even freeze in spot for a few moments.

When it was over, I could see my friends smiling and taking flight. I followed them close behind, while I took a peek down below. My allies were fighting with an energy and determination they did not show before. Thanks to my roar, the tables had turned completely... Actually, if I were to be specific, the morale of our troops was affected first by the Queen’s speech, then by the King’s roar, and I joined last as a booster.

“That was one hell of a roar, Alkelios!” Kataryna complimented me.

“I feel like I can take on the entire army now!” Seryanna claimed.

“Please don’t... Leave some for us.” I said to her.

While we flew, I took a hop and rode on her back. It was probably the most badass image I could think off... A half-dragon who wielded two crazy powerful longswords of completely opposite elements: Darkness and Light, while wearing a powerful sleek-looking armor of black and metallic silver colors and flying through the sky while riding a powerful red dragoness and surrounded by three others.

We flew above our army like this and then clashed into the hoard of enemy flying dragons.

“LEAVE NONE STANDING!” roared Seryanna.

Kataryna let out a breath of ice which froze three dragons and Kleo shattered them with black spears. Iolaus let out a blinding flash of light at one of the dragons and then smashed into him, sending him crashing into his allied troops below. Creating a spear of light, he then tossed it at the dragon and skewered him.

I jumped off Seryanna and flew up towards a massive red dragon with dark-red scales. It opened its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and formed a barrage of fireballs which he shot at me. I dodged them all and made Hell eat all those who would have hit my friends. The dragon then prepared to roar, but I flew past his neck and with Heaven, I made a clean cut into his flesh. The massive head was separated from his body and fell to the ground.

Using [Air Jump], I pushed myself back and avoided the massive halberd aimed at me. With [Slow Time], everything moved around me much slower than it normally did, about ten times slower. I identified my target and as soon as I canceled this skill, I used [Tornado of Light Blades] on him, which was one of my most powerful attacks from [Shadow Play]. The attack created a swirling tornado of light and swords of light which engulfed the brown-scaled dragon. His screams of agony ended quickly and only pieces of chopped up meat rained down from the sky.

Looking down, I saw Seryanna jumping on one of the white-scale dragons and forcefully opened his mouth with both of her clawed hands before letting out an unstoppable breath of fire. The dragon wailed in pain before he perished carbonized from inside out. She let go of his lifeless body and then used a [Fire Sword] to cut a nearby dragon in half. Grabbing the remains with the head, she tossed it at a group of dragons on the ground who were pushing back our allies.

“I’m gonna’ kill y-” a dragon shouted at me and tried to attack me in my moment of distraction, but a huge [Ice Spike] flew from below and skewered the dragon, killing him instantly.

It was Kataryna. She showed me a smirk and then released a breath of ice on the enemies below, thousands were frozen in place, letting our allies kill them with ease.

I nodded back and then looked at several dragons flying at me.

It was my turn to use that skill...

“HYOH!” I shouted and took a fighting stance.

The next moment, I targeted one of the incoming dragon’s chest and used [100 meters long Impale]. When I released the skill, I pushed Heaven forward in a perfect martial arts strike which sent an invisible strike through the air and cut my foe’s heart in half. Of course, if he was skilled, he would have seen the clouds between us parting and avoided the strike or make it not hit a vital spot. Fortunately, he wasn’t.

With Heaven in my left hand and Hell in my right hand, I activated [Mirror Play], which caused three illusions of me to appear around me. Each of them advanced in a different direction, while the real me attacked the target at the back, a silver-scale dragon. He tried to defend himself with his claws, but Hell wouldn’t be stopped by something like this. The dragon fell to my blade and his remains crashed down on top of his allies found on the ground.

The next one was a green-scale dragon, whose wings were detached with Heaven and his heart pierced with Hell. From him, I jumped to the white-scale one, who just noticed that the one he was fighting against was nothing but an illusion. When he turned around, I scissored his neck with my swords and let his lifeless body fall on the ground.

The final one was a blue-scale dragon. When he saw himself in front of me, he trembled and then tried to flee. I lifted my hand up and thought about taking him down, but I stopped.

True, this is a battlefield... This is war... But killing someone who already lost his will to fight and only tries to flee is a cowardly act. No... it’s inhuman. Or... indragon? I thought and then shook my head and let out a sigh.

I would fight those who attacked me and kill those who crossed blades with me, but I didn’t want to take the role of the hunter for those who turned tail and flee. If I did that, I feared my heart would break and I would end up walking on a path I shouldn’t...

When I’m older, I don’t want to be the type of father who has to explain to his children why he killed in cold blood an enemy who fled. I thought.

I just did not want to be one of those guys...

 

CLANG! CRACK!

 

“Huh?” I blinked surprised when I heard that sound.

Looking back, I saw a full-beast dragon with brown-scales who was holding a big greatsword in his hands, but it was broken at the middle.

I titled my head to the left, and he showed me a wry smile.

Did he hit me with that? I thought.

I did not feel a thing...

Dropping the remains of the sword, he began to cast two lighting spells, but I aimed my hand at him and cast [Shadow Arrow] amplified with [Fatty McFat]. The projectile went straight through him, stopping him from casting.

Looking down at the hole in his chest, he began to lose strength in his wings and fall down on the ground.

“Alkelios!” shouted Kataryna as she flew over.

“I’m here!” I replied.

“There are two Breakthrough-ers incoming!” she warned me as she flew to my side and then looked in their directions.

One of them had blue scales and wielded two giant swords, while the other had light-green scales and was already charging up some sort of magic.

“What’s with these dragons and big weapons?!” I complained.

“Full-beast soldiers are the heavy units, while those on the ground are the light units.” Kataryna explained before jumping to engage the green-scaled one.

“In the name of Novarak, I’ll have you die here!” he shouted.

“And you, little one, will die by my blades!” said the blue-scaled one.

I blocked with Hell and Heaven the attack, but the power was quite something, and since I never had that many aerial battles, I did not know how to compensate for the force. Thus, I was shot into the ground. How I did not fall when that dragon smacked me with his greatsword earlier was a mystery!

“Hahaha! What a weakling!” he said as he looked down at me.

I landed in the middle of the enemy troops, but thanks to the shockwave released upon my impact, they were dispersed a bit. There was some space between me and them, so I just got back up on my feet and released an [Earth Spike Tsunami] around me. The screams of the dying dragons were soon heard, and using this moment, I used [Weakness Perception] on the enemy above me.

The skill told me where I should attack. I wasn’t shown something like an overlay over the dragon with areas marked as red or green, but rather I instinctively knew that hitting one place might inflict more damage.

Experienced warriors had no need for this skill, their instincts were already formed in regard to this, but I couldn’t be so foolish as to believe that after spending not even 2 years in this world, I already knew how spot the weak spots in my enemies.

With a serious look on my face, I jumped off and flew up straight towards the dragon I was fighting against. Our swords clashed again. A small shockwave was released, and sparks flew in all directions.

“That’s some sturdy blades you have there!” he smirked.

“You’re the mercenary, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Yeah, so what of it?” he asked with a smirk as he tried to push me back but using [Air Jump] and my own wings for stability, I didn’t let him.

“How much is Draejan paying you?” I asked.

“Oh! A business dragon! Sorry kid, but this old scale does not go by who pays more but who hires first! I have a reputation to live up to, you know?” he showed me a grin.

“Can’t blame me for trying, but may I ask what you were hired to do?” I jumped back from him.

“Well, it’s simple. I was told to kill all the Breakthrough-ers that stand in my way, the King, the Queen, and any other dragon or dragoness who stands in my way. Something like that?” he laughed.

“That’s quite an expensive sounding contract, but if you turn tail here, I won’t kill you. How about it?” I asked.

“No deal kid. Turning tail from a battle would be just an insult to me! So please... just die?” he lifted his hand up and cast [Water Spear] spells like a machine gun.

I avoided two of them and the others used my [Wind Barrier], [Shadow Barrier], and [Light Barrier] to stop them. Using fire would have been the most efficient, but it would have created steam, which would have blocked my view, giving my enemy a free shot at killing me.

As for the spears that I dodged, they struck the soldiers bellow, Albeyater’s soldiers. The results were two craters, each with an eight meters diameter. There were several killed and lots of wounded. The spears were designed to detonate upon impact as well. The only way they wouldn’t was if blocked by a magic barrier. Of course, one could also detonate them before impact, but this was not the case.

Seeing that his attack wasn’t doing anything to me, he stopped and charged me with his two swords again, but this time, he used [Mirror Play], causing three other illusions to form. I clicked my tongue, but instead of engaging them all, I used [Enraged Blade Storm], which caused me to get a bit angry and raise the temperature around me, but at the same time my swords moved at speeds which made them extremely hard to see even for those like me. After all, all of my sword skills used my Strength, Speed, and Dexterity stats as well.

“Wh-What’s this?” the dragon stopped in his tracks as he looked at me with big eyes.

“[Negate all Light]” I chanted and made it so that only my allies weren’t affected by it.

When I cast this spell, which was amplified by [Fatty McFat], half of this battlefield turned completely black. The enemy would see the world around them as if they had gone blind, while the allies would see the world around them as if someone turned off the light but forgot to tell the light not to shine or reflect off the bodies of objects.

If this wasn’t made by magic, I would think it would be absolutely impossible to replicate in real life. On a computer maybe, but definitely not in real life. The laws of physic simply didn’t work that way.

“What did you do?!” the blue-scaled dragon shouted.

“Cookies!” I replied.

“Huh?” he made a stupid sound, but the next thing I would hear from him would be a groan.

My blades slashed at his body, cutting his armor and flesh, letting his blood spill.

“T-This... is cheating...” he groaned as he tried to attack me, but I was already gone by the time he struck there.

I was smaller than him, but I was faster, and I could see. Before he focused his senses, I planned on injuring him enough to either kill him or force him to give up.

As for his remark, no, this wasn’t cheating, it was using your own skills to fight a foe with all you had.

“THERE!” he shouted and then slashed at me.

I parried and brushed the sword to my right. I slipped through the gap and pierced Heaven in his neck.

This was a split-second attack, an unpredictable moment.

“M-My... loss...” he said, and I pulled the sword back.

The attack sectioned his jugular but not his windpipe. Without immediate healing, he would die, and considering all the injuries I gave them until now, this big dragon was most likely not going to see the day of tomorrow.

Looking at his body plummet to the ground, I let out a sigh and closed my eyes for a moment. I was not praying to him, I was just... a bit disappointed. I was hoping for more from him, but maybe Kataryna and Feryumstark were in a different league than him?

“I guess I should summon her as well...” I thought and looked up.

The darkness around me was a good cover to keep everyone from seeing what I was doing, so before it expired, I raised my hand up and called out to Jophiel Thunderash, the Lightning Phoenix.

“[Lightning Chicken!]” I shouted as I cast the spell.

Normally, I would have seen a bright blinding light followed by a wave of heat, but this time, thanks to [Negate all Light], I only felt the latter. What I saw instead was a fire portal opening before me, and Jophiel stepped out of it.

“How are you doing, master? And who turned off the sun?” she asked with a bright smile on her face.

Unlike before when she looked like a bird, this time, she was a winged little girl with bright red hair flowing down her shoulders. She looked adorable, but clearly not human. Her wings were covered in beautiful feathers with gold lines at the end. Their wingspan was twice if not triple the size of her whole body, and they radiated in a strange, mesmerizing aura. The dress she was wearing was rose-red and decorated with gold markings. Her irises were gold in color, but they were surrounded by a bright red ring.

“Jophiel, good to see you. How was the Tournament of the Sacred Flame?” I asked her.

“Can’t you see?” she made twirl in the air and then showed me a bright smile “I won!”

Is the dress the proof? Last time she was wearing a blue one. I thought and then said “Good for you. So does this mean you aren’t apprentice anymore?”

“Yes! Thanks to master, I’m now a full-fledged Phoenix! This means I will be allowed to travel to other worlds and even spend more time with master!” she said with a giggle as she flew over and sat on top of my head.

“I see you still use my head as a perch.” I let out a sigh.

“Your noggin has to be good for something, doesn’t it?” she giggled.

“Anyway, I summoned you now because I’m in a war.” I told her.

“A war you say? Those guys are the allies and those are the enemies?” she asked pointing at Albeyater and then at Draejan’s forces.

“Yes, how can you tell?” she asked.

“Master already marked them as such, didn’t he? The buffs that work for your other spells work for me too, just never use [Fatty McFat] to summon me... NEVER AGAIN use that one!” she shook her head and patted my forehead with her tiny hand, but the strike was akin to a Breakthrough-er’s slap.

“Ouch! Ouch!” I complained. “I’m sorry! I’m not going to use it again! I promise!” I told her.

“Sigh! Good! I spend two hours in that hideous form because of you!” she leaned over and glared at me right in the eyes.

The incident she was talking about happened in the Seculiar forest not long after I acquired [Fatty McFat], but when I used it in combination with [Lightning Chicken!], I summoned a VERY VERY fat Jophiel.

For two hours she could not move and just literally rolled around the room while complaining and calling me names. Meanwhile, I tried my best not to laugh.

The blackout caused by [Negate all Light] reached the end of its timer, and everything returned to normal.

“Jophiel! Go!” I shouted.

“As you wish, master!” the little girl replied with a bird squeak at the end as she plunged towards the clashing armies.

When she was at about ten meters away from the ground, she spread her beautiful wings and flew towards Draejan’s soldiers, who were getting pushed back now despite their superior numbers.

The Phoenix who was of the same level as me unleashed her might and let loose a wave of inextinguishable fire. The screams of pain and horror reached out to the sky, while she ignored them and charged up in her tiny hands a spell of lightning and one of light. Targeting two different group, she let loose her spells.

To her right, the dragon soldiers who waited for their turn to kill an Albeyater soldiers were zapped by forked lightning which jumped around from one to another. Magic was what created that powerful intensity and also the ‘wire’ through which it had to travel, otherwise, I was sure it would have stopped at the first soldier. They didn’t know what hit them. The powerful electricity toasted their brains and stopped their hearts. The nauseating scent of cooked meat could be felt spreading from their dead bodies.

On her right, the dragon soldiers were pierced through their chests by powerful light spears. Each one struck its target right in the heart with pinpoint accuracy. It was a like a move executed by an expert marksman, but then again, Jophiel had the same level as I did now, and she was far from showing her true might.

After she killed the soldiers in her immediate vicinity, she flew up and then dove towards another mass of dragons. From her hands, she unleashed several fireballs of one meter diameter at them. With the last one cast, she pulled up and flew towards the sky again, repeating the dive maneuver again.

In other words, she was bombarding them because those fireballs of hers weren’t some simple New Years firecrackers. When one of those things hit a target, it alongside everything around it would be blown to bits, leaving only the burning ground behind.

The screams and shouts of the dragons reached the skies as they tried to flee from the Phoenix who looked no different than a winged child.

With her help, I was certain the number of our enemies would go down fast.

Meanwhile, I did not forget about Kataryna. She was toying around with the dragon from Novarak.

The green-scale Breakthrough-er was trying his best to attack her with wind magic, fire magic, water magic, and darkness magic combos, but she was able to skillfully dodge all of them. It was also clear that he was doing far better in Wind Magic than the others because that one was the strongest.

Now, this didn’t mean that this guy was weak. Those attacks of his ripped to shreds an unfortunate dragon who was flying to intercept our allies. He didn’t even scream. It was an instant kill. As for the fire magic attack, that one landed on top of a group of our soldiers, and they were all burnt to bits.

She’s hanging in there... What about Seryanna? I wondered as I took my eyes off Kataryna’s battle for a second and looked down at my wife, who was staring down a dark-brown scaled dragon. They were both in their half-beast forms, which meant that she was forced to revert to this size to battle him.

The reason why she was in this situation was because not long after I finished my battle with that mercenary dragon, I saw her avoiding some long-range Earth Spears attacks. The caster was the guy below.

When I cast down the darkness on the battlefield, Seryanna killed off every dragon enemy around her and then carved her way through bone and flesh all the way to him. Now, it was time for their one-on-one battle.

To my left, Iolaus and Kleo were rampaging on the battlefield together, barely staying within my 100 meters field. They were hunting down the commanders as ordered while taking out as many enemies as they could.

A bit farther to the right from where Seryanna was, the King was also in the middle of a battle with another dragon, while Brekkar covered his back from the enemy troops.

Everywhere I looked, the battle raged on, and we were steadily winning.

I don’t think they can do anything to stop us now. I thought as I saw all of them being on the verge of winning their individual battles.

Then, right as I looked ahead, I saw a dragon who wore a black and gold armor flying straight at me. There was rage in his eyes, and he was releasing a lot of killing intent aimed at me.

At first, I did not recognize him, but as he got closer, I realized who he was...

“ALKELIOS!!!” shouted the dragon.

“Draejan...” I replied in a calm tone of voice as I prepared myself for our final... confrontation.