Lord Xion had never seen a real dragon, nor personally felt true dragon pressure. What he felt from the black dragon in front of him was an extremely strong oppressive force. He assumed this must be dragon pressure.
Then he watched in horror as the black dragon raised its claw and charged at him at incredible speed.
"Do not come any closer!"
The fire archmage, single for decades, was so frightened he retreated at once. He pulled a faintly red crystal ball from his robe and poured magic into it, activating the finely engraved patterns inside. A basic magic framework spread out instantly around him.
This greatly shortened his casting time. At the same time, he activated the internal arrays in his robe, increasing his magic gathering speed again and triggering a defensive flame armor. Several buff spells were layered onto him in an instant, anything usable went up.
Fully entering combat mode, his eyes sharpened. Spell models were already constructed, several prepared spells ready for instant release, and his defenses were in place. He locked onto the enemy, ready to fight to the death.
Then he noticed a problem he had missed before. He stared again and realized something was wrong.
"This is a drake?"
He did not see wings on the black dragon's back. Looking more closely, its build was also different, too bulky in a strange way. That explained it, appearances could vary, and this was likely just a drake resembling a true dragon, or possibly a mindless dragon beast.
Either way, it was not a real dragon. That single word made an enormous difference. Which meant he had scared himself half to death over a black drake that only looked like a dragon.
Realizing this, Lord Xion was furious with embarrassment and immediately cast his specialty binding spell. "Flame Chain Bind!" From the magic circles, countless red chains shot out, twisting like snakes as they wrapped around the black dragon from multiple angles.
The flames forming the chains were extremely condensed, pure fire element at terrifying temperatures. Just one could carve out a sea of fire. The dense chains bound the black dragon's limbs and neck, and after confirming the hit, Lord Xion let out a breath.
Then, bang. The black dragon flexed, and every chain shattered under raw brute force. It grabbed the broken chains in midair and yanked, causing a surge of magic that tore apart his spell structure.
"What kind of strength is this?" He immediately retreated again.
He raised the crystal ball once more, and behind him appeared massive overlapping magic circles formed from geometric patterns and runes. Enormous magic and thick fire element caused the surrounding temperature to rise sharply. Then came a storm of spells, fireballs, flame lances, and enhanced variants of basic spells, along with a focused piercing beam fired from the core.
The coverage was enough to fill several football fields, yet compressed to half that area in an instant. Even an iron fortress would have been melted and blown apart. The black dragon pushed through the barrage and reached him, then swung a slap straight at his face.
"I…" Lord Xion's expression changed, then quickly relaxed. The drake had strong magic resistance and could push through his bombardment, but its magic fluctuations were weak. It likely could not use magic and relied only on its body.
With such weak magic output, its attack should not be that strong. Still, remembering how easily it broke the chains, he decided to be cautious. Several more close-range defensive spells activated around him, ready to trigger.
He was confident he could take this hit, then counterattack and win. "Come on, when you attack me up close, I will give you a decisive blow back."
You are not going to slap me to death with one slap, are you?
Belial felt frustrated. He followed the scent of the human old man he had nearly slapped to death, crashing through a small hillside along the way. When he arrived, he saw the old man unconscious on the ground behind a blonde girl wearing a robe, with a satchel, glasses, and something like a camera tripod.
Seeing a human again, and a girl at that, made him a little happier. He also knew very well how terrifying he looked right now, so he stayed still and did nothing extreme. He was afraid she would attack like the old man did, without asking any questions.
Still, Belial felt that doing nothing at all was not right, since there would be no way to start any kind of exchange. He let out what he thought was a relatively gentle roar to show goodwill. The blonde girl looked like she had severe social anxiety, her legs shaking as she babbled sounds that made no sense.
He wondered if she could even understand what he meant, or if she had any magic that could let him speak. With his current appearance and the language barrier, communicating with intelligent life felt like a huge problem. He even thought about how he had already finished compulsory schooling once, and now might need to learn another language with no teacher at all.
Belial stood still and watched as the blonde girl quickly pulled all kinds of items from the old man's robe, pockets, and even her own bag. She did not spare the tripod either, stuffing everything into a tiny ring in one motion. He immediately recognized it as a spatial ring, a standard treasure that always showed up early in stories like these.
Before he could admire how fast she was at grabbing loot, his attention was fully taken by the ring in her hand. It was the kind of item that showed up in any setting with supernatural elements, and having one would be very convenient. Her speed was shocking, though, since he felt the old man still might have survived.
When he lowered his head to look, he heard movement and raised it again, only to find that the girl had already fled with the old man to who knew where. He realized that she must have misunderstood his intent, and then noticed that he had forgotten to turn off his pressure. For weak creatures, his pressure alone could scare them to death, so her running made perfect sense.
Feeling even more frustrated, Belial stared blankly at the small ring now in his claw, which was not even as big as one of his scales. As he clenched it and wondered where to put it, his eyes moved around and he noticed something wrong nearby. When he turned back, the pit where the bleeding Earth Dragon had been lying was now just a dark tunnel.
It had escaped. Belial opened his mouth wide in shock. The creature had been bleeding badly, with possible internal damage, yet it still managed to run, which made him question what kind of beings lived in the Otherworld.
Such injuries should have made movement impossible, unless physics itself was being mocked. Then he thought that since it was an Earth Dragon, digging magic or similar abilities might be normal. That meant his prey had slipped away right under his nose while he was fighting the old man.
There was no way Belial could accept that. He spread his claws and dove straight into the tunnel, determined to chase it down. Dirt and rock were like crumbs to him, easily torn apart, and his undeveloped dorsal fins did not slow him at all.
With the lingering scent and blood trail, even underground he was confident he could track it. The tunnel left behind made his digging even faster, and even when the creature collapsed parts of it, the rubble was meaningless to him. Whether from dragon instincts or something closer to Godzilla, he had no trouble keeping his sense of direction.
After digging for a while, he suddenly thrust his head forward and smashed through the last thin layer of soil. He emerged into a faintly glowing underground cavern and immediately spotted the wounded Earth Dragon ahead, licking its injuries. Ignoring the glowing stones, he rushed forward without hesitation and delivered the final blow.
Only after the Earth Dragon was completely dead did Belial calm down and look around. The cavern was naturally formed and spacious even for his size, filled with many stones that emitted a soft glow, even mixed into the soil. That light was the only reason the underground space was visible at all.
Then he realized something was truly different this time. Back in the Otherworld, he could not find a proper core like Godzilla to eat, so he relied on absorbing ambient magic to nurture his internal Nuclear Reactor. That was why he hunted strong monsters, since the stronger they were, the more magic they contained, all in pursuit of evolving into a Cosmic Giant Monster and firing heat rays.
Now, the air itself was filled with magic he could sense without even eating. More importantly, the glowing soil and stones were packed with magic as well. Every luminous rock around him contained a rich amount of it.
Belial laughed out loud in excitement, feeling like he had struck gold. This was like a mouse falling into a rice jar, an unbelievable stroke of luck. To test it, he shamelessly scooped up a handful of dirt mixed with rock and shoved it straight into his mouth.