Intense dark flames came from the mouth of the black dragon, burning anything and everything in its perimeter while aiming for Uzzaran.
What shocked her most about it was the fact that a magic attack was able to harm her, a phantom. Her arms, which she used to block the attack were completely burned.
Even though she doesn't breath, you could tell that she was tied without the usual sign of heavy breathing. But the dragon didn't return her feelings. They were at it for a while and the monster didn't show any sign of slowing down.
But now, she had her suspicions about what she was fighting. Even though it didn't look like her or her kind, she had a feeling that what she was fighting was a phantom. If that's the case, she would have to take a different approach to the fight.
But how could a phantom, besides herself, be in heaven? Any being that's declared a phantom will automatically be locked away from there. That's the law, which she and only she can and already broke.
This was the reason why she doubted her suspicion. But if that monster really was a phantom, they could be in a lot of trouble.
'No.' She thought. 'I need to focus on the fight... Wait.'
When she looked at the dragon, she was confused by its behaviour.
Its entire body shook vigorously, mostly its head, like shaking of water. It did that for a few seconds then abruptly stopped.
Its head lowered, almost touching the ground, with the mouth wide open. Then some clicking sounds came from its mouth. After a short time, it released grey smoke, aimed at her.
Since she didn't know what it was, she placed a barrier around her to protect herself from it. But her barriers aren't strong.
When the smoke touched her barrier, it immediately got destroyed and she got surrounded by it.
Thinking that it was going to be another attack, she braced, not knowing what would happen to her. So she was a little shocked when nothing happened.
Instead, she got a familiar feeling. A recent one.
Her eyes widened when she realized that that wasn't smoke, it was the same fog from earlier. Now she knew where it was from.
"Ooh. So that's it. The fog has a status ailment effect... Area magic, maybe."
'It would explain why master couldn't see it, or why the barrier magic doesn't work. It is technically an area magic.'
"...Heh. It doesn't affect phantoms, does it?"
She was right. Right after confirming that all her skill could still work at a 100%, she came into this conclusion. But what about the barrier she had that got destroyed.
Her mana doesn't specialize with defensive magic like most other magic users. Phantoms have a limit set to their abilities. Not just their class or skills, but also their mana. Basically, they can only specialize with one or two abilities, capping out at four.
For Uzzaran, well...
"I have all four!"
Now she looked excited, seemingly knowing that she will win the fight.
The dragon made a loud roar, like a signal for the fight to begin. This made Uzzaran think that it may actually be intelligent.
Now she knew that this wasn't going to be a regular fight with a monster. She had to change her tactics.
The dragon's tail turned venomous, like that of a scorpion, with a giant needle at the tip. It spewed a thin stream of toxic poison directly at Uzzaran which she was barely able to dodge. The trees that got caught in its line of fire melted as if made of butter. Not only that, even the ground itself did the same.
While Uzzaran was seemingly distracted, it ran up to her, ready to bite off her head. She blocked it with her hand and turned the dragon its back. After skidding across the ground for a while, she began to hit it in the eye without giving it rest time.
Let's not forget that were talking about two giant monsters fighting.
It pierced her on the side with its claws, but she showed no signs of slowing down. Her priority was to end the fight quickly and return to me as soon as possible.
So she was just about to use her magic, infusing her physical attacks with magic that could practically blow a hole through a mountain. She did not expect it when she felt something stab her in the back. Even less for it to actually make her feel the pain.
It was the dragon's tail, and its stinger had completely gone through her to the front. A dark liquid came from the wound her mouth. Her practically useless veins bulged as the poison travelled through her body.
That tail must've been insanely strong, because it lifted her up in the air and smacked her into the ground, neck first, making it look broken.
The dragon quickly got up and bit her neck without hesitation. Then it vigorously shook her, dragging her on the ground, trying to tear her body with its claws, all while it kept biting harder and harder.
She couldn't move, most likely from the poison and other obvious reasons.
Her mind was blank. There was barely anything she could think about. These circumstances were not normal for her. Fighting a black dragon in heaven, actually getting overrun by monsters she had never seen before, actually losing a fight and even though she's not supposed to feel anything physically since she's dead, she was actually getting hurt from the dragon.
'Wait... I'm getting hurt?'
She finally made the realization.
She wasn't fighting a regular monster. No. She was fighting a phantom.
It made sense now. Everything was adding up. From the status ailment affect fog, to the painful attacks from the dragon. In fact, it wasn't only the dragon.
Every single one of those dark monsters, they're all phantoms.
Her neck was still being bit, her body getting torn to shreds. But there was something different which the dragon noticed. Its teeth couldn't sink in anymore. It was as if her skin became tighter.
Then it felt a deep penetrating aura coming from her. It made it freeze. It couldn't react when her giant hand grabbed its wing out of nowhere.
"H...Hey. How l...long where you pl...planning to keep this facade for?"
Her grip tightened, then she flung the dragon away by the wing, making twirl in the air and ragdoll for a short distance before coming to a stop.
"You never said that you were a phantom. This fight would have been over ages ago."
The dragon seemed to have noticed something. It became even more aggressive.
It stomped the ground with both of its front feet, making a wave of earth magic travelled to Uzzaran. Then it came from the ground and covered her like a ball. Inside it, a powerful explosion could be heard that shook the rocks covering her, making it crumbled.
After the dust cleared up, her undisturbed body was visible. The blast had no affect on her.
In fact, all of the injuries she had before that had all disappeared.
"I need to return to master and help him. He most likely doesn't know of this."
The dragon charged up another fire attack, a much stronger one, which exploded like a nuclear explosion, so large that the entire fog disappeared, clearing even the skies.
While waiting to see if she still survived, the dragon noticed that vines were holding it down. They were strong. Too strong for it to break free. Then it felt like it was being pulled down by something.
Hands. Lots and lots of hands were pulling on its legs. Each and every one of them.
"If I had known you were a phantom, this fight wouldn't have gotten to where it did. Luckily, it only takes one ability for me to kill anything, living or undead. Of course this does come with its limitations."
The dragon stopped struggling. It knew that it couldn't make it out of there.
"This is the power of one of your abilities." A deep voice came from the dragon, but the mouth didn't move.
"You can talk?"
"What about your other abilities? What are they like?" It slowly sunk into the ground while maintaining the conversation.
"Who are you? Where are we? Why did you attack us?"
"You wouldn't even believe me even if I told you who I was. All your questions will soon be answered. Very soon."
"Why attack a fellow phantom?"
"... That, is a different story from the rest... You... are a part of it."
Now only his head was still out. A pretty boring death if you ask me.
"A part of what?"
"The last millennium... Only a thousand years. Quite soon. Wouldn't you agree?"
"A thousand years to what?"
The dragon didn't answer, but was completely submerged into the hole, then it sealed.
Obviously the words of the dragon concerned her. But she wasn't sure if they were real. So she put them aside for now. After all, there were much much more important matters at hand.
That's right. That dragon was only the beginning of a long and tough struggle. There were still many more enemies left behind.
Enough of this. Let's go back to me.