Landing on the ground a distance away, I quickly leaped to the side, narrowly evading a swipe of the skeleton's claws, though I was forced to cross my arms as it swiftly continued to attack by immediately spinning around, hitting me with its tail. 'Hehe, so heavy!' Getting flung away once more, I did a flip to regain my balance before stabbing my feet into the ground, bringing myself to a halt as I glared at the dragon skeleton.
"Ahh, for a mere skeleton to be this strong, I could only imagine how strong your true self was." Feeling my heart racing at the thought of such an overwhelmingly powerful opponent, I was quickly brought out of my thoughts as it released a fierce roar, surging its dark magic, or rather, its curse. Licking my lips, I didn't falter in the slightest and charged forward into the powerful roar, pushing through it before leaping into the air once I neared the skeleton.
Punching its mouth close, I stabbed my nails into its body, latching onto its chin as I repeatedly punched the same spot, creating cracks while leaving a bloody mess from my bleeding hand. 'Break!' After several attempts, my fist finally punctured a hole through its absurdly dense bone, causing me to grin, though my excitement was quickly snuffed when I tried to retract my arm. 'D-Dammit, I can't move in time!'
Unable to remove my arm, the dragon wasted no time and slammed its chin into the ground, causing me to cough blood as I took the brunt of the attack. "S-Stupid dragon! I can't respect t–" Unfortunately, I wasn't even able to finish degrading the dragon as it slammed me into the ground several more times, leaving me dazed while I tried to remember what I was talking about. "W-What was I saying again— Urgh!"
Slapped to the ground by its palm, I slowly stood up while groaning in pain, only to be forced to dash forward, barely evading its follow-up attack. 'Fucking hell, such a resilient bastard, just like Deliora.' Wiping blood from my mouth, I flashed a grin as I lunged at its hind legs, aggressively kicking its joint, forcing it backwards as it swiped its claws at me once more, but I jumped over it and kicked its nose downwards, slamming its face into the ground.
Landing atop its head, I dashed toward its horns and punched it before following up with a kick, creating large and deep cracks, yet it remained firmly attached. Clicking my tongue, I attacked once more, intending to break it with a kick, but I was swatted into the mountainous deris by its tail. 'Are you kidding me? Tails can do that? I want a tail.'
Looking at the tip of the skeleton's tail hovering above its head, I grunted and lunged at it once more, trading several blows with the dragon as I punched its palm away, blocked its tail, and recklessly charged through its dragon roar.
'Tsk, is this why people loved playing as a necromancer in video games in my past life?' Spitting another clump of black blood from the curse seeping into my body, I took a moment to catch my breath before charging at the dragon for the umpteenth time while it swung its tail at me. However, unlike the other times where I would simply block it, I gathered a substantial amount of magic power in my arm, causing it to glow golden.
Just before the tail hit me, I punched the base of its tail, the thickest part, creating a massive crack, while I followed up by headbutting it, finally breaking the tail off from its body. With its tail missing, it lost a method of attacking, but the real reason why I aimed for the tail was to create an opening to finish it off. 'Heh, perfect; even if you're a dragon, good luck trying to balance yourself without your tail.'
Watching the dragon fall to its side, I grinned in satisfaction, but such a move wasn't pulled off easily; to get this result, I had sacrificed my left arm, and I'm no longer able to use it in battle, lest I wish to lose function permanently. 'Still, this should be plenty.' Running across the skeleton's spine, I quickly reached its skull and kicked its cracked bone once more, finally breaking it off, though I hissed as I felt my shin give way slightly.
Catching the horn, which was about the size of my whole body, I hoisted it onto my shoulder and kneed the center of its skull, causing the already faint cracks to deepen. 'Alright, this should be enough… Hopefully.' Having created my target, I raised the horn and stabbed the pointy tip into the dent, lodging it into the skeleton's skull, yet its skull was too thick.
Before I could hammer the horn into its skull, the dragon finally regained its balance and violently lifted its head, flinging me high into the sky. "Haha, perfect! This will definitely be enough!" Laughing in joy at my heaven-sent opportunity, I continued to fly into the sky until I finally reached my peak, where I was high enough to overlook the whole forest and then some.
'Looks like Lucy and Cana are about to finish dealing with the skeleton horde. It hasn't been long, but Lucy has already grown stronger, that's good… However, I can't let them beat me; I'll defeat that dragon right here.' Grinning, I felt gravity take hold of me once more as I began to rapidly fall down, and while doing so, the dragon didn't just idly wait for me as it condensed a significant amount of curse energy into its mouth.
'Heh, what was that saying about luck? It's earned, not given? Looks like I need to earn it.' Baring my fangs at the dragon, I stopped trying to spare my magic and blasted it near full-force, worsening my injuries, though ironically enough, I managed to rid myself of the curse energy inside me, alleviating my pain. "C'mon! I'm ready!"
As if to respond to my words, the skeleton released a mighty dragon roar much stronger than before, and with incredible speed, it quickly reached me, enveloping me with its powerful curse energy that sought to destroy my body. However, despite its immense power that managed to ravage my already injured body, it wasn't enough to stop me, and with a powerful kick, I dispelled the roar entirely and widely grinned.
Raising my leg, I swiftly fell to the dragon, and the instant I was above its skull, I violently kicked downwards onto the hord, forcefully penetrating its skull while slamming its entire body into the ground, which aggressively shook the ground. Landing at the bottom of the crater I had just made, I took a deep breath and blew away the thick dust that obstructed my view, only to see skeletons' skulls broken into numerous different pieces and sprawled throughout the crater, yet despite that, the horn was in one piece, lodged deep into the ground.
Spitting blood out, I walked to the horn and took a deep breath before releasing a mighty, victorious roar into the sky, letting the world know I've yet again slain a powerful enemy. "ROARRR!!"
"Ugh, w-why did he have to yell? My ears are ringing!" "You should get used to it, Lucy. He does it every time after a tough battle." Hearing Cana and Lucy, I raised my head, only to see them standing beside the crater's edge, causing me to smirk as I landed beside them with a jump. 'Hmm, they're injured and exhausted, but nothing severe.' Closely inspecting Cana and Lucy, who had just emerged victorious against a horde of hundreds of skeletons, I sighed in relief knowing they hadn't suffered anything long-lasting.
"So you won?" "Heh, of course I won, did you expect me to lose?" Glancing at Cana with a smirk, I gently flicked her head, causing her to roll her eyes before smiling. "I'm just asking since you don't look like you've won." "Heh, true, but it was a fun fight." Licking my lips, I rubbed Cana's head while walking to the mountainous debris, prompting her and Lucy to follow, though they were slow as they both were limping.
"H-How can you call that fun? That skeleton looked like it nearly killed you." "Heh, it did, but that's why it was so fun! I can only truly enjoy myself amid a battle to the death!" Glancing at Lucy, who just stared at me in confusion, she eventually shook her head, leaving me to focus as I sifted through the debris.
"What are you searching for, big bro?" "Lucy, do you know why I think Celestial Spirit Mages are weak?" Slightly taken aback by my sudden question, Lucy furrowed her brows in confusion for a few moments before hesitantly responding. "Because you're too strong?" "Heh, you're not wrong, but no. That's not why."
Smirking, I grabbed a rock and tossed it behind us, revealing the upper body of the dark mage that had been the cause of this whole incident. "W-What do you want!?" "Just like Necromancers; the moment their summons are defeated, they're nothing but lambs in a slaughterhouse. Necromancers and Celestial Spirit mages may be powerful, but they aren't strong."