9 Awakened Dragon Arc : The Dragon Awakens

What are you doing here!? Tannin!" Luke shouted those words but the dragon known as Tannin just stood there glaring down at them, there was a moment of silence that rained on them until suddenly Tannin lunged forwards and slashed at them with his claws. Thankfully they were barely able to dodge it in time. "If it's a fight you want, then fine! Orin!"

"Right!" Orin responded before he enveloped himself in a bright light changing into his dragon form, Orin spread his wings out and took to the sky and dove at Tannin. Orin slammed into Tannin's stomach but the dragon didn't flinch at all, Orin quickly backed away. "This guy is really sturdy!"

"We just have to keep attacking! Vanishing Dragons Divison Fist!" Luke stated as he threw a punch at Tannin who used his arm to block the attack, Orin came from the other side but was stopped by Tannin's other arm.

"Vanishing Dragons Roar!"

Luke unleashed his attack with Orin following along and released blue fire from his mouth, the attacks hit Tannin directly in the chest making him stumble, Tannin recovered quickly and gave a swipe of his arm sending Luke and Orin into the wall.

"Vanishing Dragons Claw Stream!" Luke continued swiping at Tannin who kept parrying every single one of them, Orin tried to get a sneak attack from the back but Tannin saw it coming and smacked Luke away before turning around and sending Orin flying with a punch. Luke got back up slowly as did Orin. "Orin, I'll weaken him. Keep attacking!"

"Right!"

"[Divide]" Luke's wings said as they glowed brighter and Orin attacked, the attack struck Tannin in the arm that looked to have caused a bit more damage than before. "[Divide]"

"Luke do you have any ideas?" Orin asked as he landed next to Luke as Tannin turned to them, he began walking towards them. "Cause this is looking bad."

"Keep attacking Orin, I have an idea," Luke stated as Orin nodded and flew towards Tannin and kept unleashing attack after attack but to no avail, Luke then stood up straight before announcing. "Balance Breaker!"

Once Luke and Albion announced the call, Luke's body began to shine as pieces of armour began to attach to his body. The armour was full bodied and had white gauntlets, chest plates, a helmet that had a dragon-like jaw, shoulder guards and also shin guard. His face was also covered with a helmet and mask that had yellow eye openings.

"Woah..." Orin muttered as he turned to Luke while also dodging a punch from Tannin. "So that's one of your abilities."

"Yeah. Now, let's beat this guy!" Luke stated as Orin nodded to the statement and began to attack again, Luke followed by flying towards Tannin beside Orin as they kept delivering blows to Tannin who was starting to be push back. "Here goes!"

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"Vanishing Dragons Roar!" Luke and Orin unleashed their breath attack nailing Tannin in the chest making him tumble over, Tannin got up quickly ignoring the pain that was running through his body and breathed fire from his mouth towards Luke and Orin who held there arms in front of themselves to defend.

The three fighters clashed with each other sending punches and kicks continuously as the lava was rumbling in the back, sparks were sent flying each time they made contact with each other. They were all moving at insane speeds breaking some rocks that were around them. "Vanishing Dragons Burst Kick!"

"Luke, this isn't going well. Just how tough is this guy?" Orin asked panting heavily as he landed trying to catch his breath.

"It makes sense that he's this tough, in our world he used to be one of the dragon kings," Luke stated making Orin go wide-eyed, Tannin charged at them as they managed to block in time as a shockwave was sent through the area that shook the lava and some rocks fell from the ceiling. "We need to finish this quickly."

"Right!" They charged at one another again sending various attack at each other, Tannin then backed away before spreading his wings and flew into the cave that he came from before. "Let's follow!"

"Right!" Luke and Orin followed after Tannin as they flew through the cave, eventually, they all made it to an incredibly large area, it was honestly terrifying. The walls were hot rock and beneath them was a humungous magma pool. "It seems that we're in the Magma Chamber."

"We still need to beat him!" Orin and Luke traded blows again with Tannin, the magma below them was bubbling badly and there were spouts of magma that shot up towards them. They kept ramming into each other continuously as they kept lowering further down getting closer and closer to the pool of magma. "Can you weaken him again Luke!?"

"Yeah!"

[Luke your reaching your limit here] Albion warned

"How is he this powerful, he wasn't this strong before." Luke wondered as he panted heavily catching his breath with Orin returning to his side.

[I'm not sure but we can't think about it right now] Albion stated

"Albion is right, we need to focus on the task at hand." Orin said as they charged again at Tannin who held his arms in a cross position blocking the punches of both his opponents, Tannin slammed the both of them straight into the magma with his hands as they created a huge splash.

They didn't stay in the hot liquid long as they emerged quickly back up panting, Orin's scales protected him from the magma while Luke's armour protected him. "Orin, I'm going to weaken him as much as I can and you'll attack him with everything you have."

"Alright, don't push yourself too hard." Orin replied as he flew in front of Tannin who narrowed his eyes at them and fully stretched out his wings preparing for battle, Luke then raised his arm at Tannin before his wings glowed intensely.

"Take this!" Orin shouted as put all of his strength into a single punch that was coated in blue fire straight into Tannin's jaw as Orin quickly aimed another at Tannin's stomach punching it so hard it cause the huge dragon to spit out blood and was sent flying into the wall.

[Luke you can't use divide again right now, your at your absolute limit] Albion stated as Luke scoffed in annoyance as his Balance Breaker timed out but his wings stayed keeping him in the air.

"Did we finish him?" Orin asked as he panted catching his breath but he got his answer as the wall that Tannin crashed into smashed to pieces and Tannin revealed to be at the centre. "How!?"

"I don't know but he's definitely a lot more powerful than the last time I met him" Luke stated as suddenly they heard a voice echo in the chamber.

'Kill them'

"What was that?" Orin asked as much to their surprise Tannin's body began to emit a powerful and dense red aura, around that red aura, was something like purple fire. His eyes glowed brighter red than ever before and he got into a power-up position and yelled as a shockwave stirred up the magma with Luke dodging the splashes. "What's happening!?"

"I don't know! He seems even more powerful!" Luke shouted as Tannin with blinding speed punched him in the stomach sending him flying into the wall as he coughed up blood.

"Luke!" Orin yelled as he threw a punch at Tannin's face but to no avail, the punch was simply caught by Tannin's hand as he threw the blue and white dragon into the wall. Luke stood in the crater that was created by the impact of his body as he panted heavily and the entire left side of his face was covered in blood and his right arm was drenched in blood and his clothes were trashed.

'Damn, I don't have much power left or any at all. I definitely can't use that in my current state, what can we do? I'm completely out of energy.' Luke thought as Orin and Albion heard him mentally as they couldn't figure anything out, Orin was thinking intensely before coming up with something.

'Luke! you can absorb any kinds of magic and refill your magical energy right?' Orin asked the bleeding boy.

'Yeah, why?'

[Do you have an idea?] Albion asked

'If you still have that lacrima, you can eat it and restore your magical energy.' Orin suggested as they widened their eyes at it.

'Really? It's the best shot we got so, we have no other choice.' Luke said mentally as he forced himself to stand properly and painfully grabbed the lacrima from his pocket, luckily it hadn't been dropped from the fighting. "Here goes."

Luke said as he dropped the lacrima into his mouth and closed his mouth before swallowing the entire orb in a single gulp, upon it entering his system. His eyes widened and magic energy began to stir around his body furiously, his eyes turned completely white as he yelled at the top of his lungs sending powerful winds everywhere.

[What's happening!?] Albion shouted

"I think the magic is being absorbed into him, it was an extremely powerful lacrima so I'm not sure if anything bad will happen," Orin stated as Luke's body then glowed a bright pale blue colour blinding everyone including Tannin who had to cover their eyes with their arms including Albion who was inside Luke.

Once the blinding light stopped, they all looked towards where Luke was and gasped upon what they saw. Orin and Albion were completely shocked at what he was seeing and Tannin had wide eyes, Luke was standing in the crater but he was... different. He had his eyes closed as he stood, he then slowly began to open them revealing them glowing blue with no pupils at all but just blue.

His white hair now has a blue bang hanging down over his right eye and he has a white horn on the left side of his head. His eyes are glowing blue and scales have now appeared over his face. His left arm had become an arm of a dragon and so did his left leg, on his back was a large wing with blue webbing. The scales that appeared on his body that covered his arms, face, legs and now wing were pure white in colour while his claws were blue in colour. Luke as he opened his eyes, inspected himself in confusion.

[What happened?] Albion asked as he stared at the new Luke in awe and slight fear of what he was seeing.

'It couldn't be' Orin thought also shocked.

'Do you know what happened to me, Orin?' Luke asked as he continued to inspect his leg and arm and felt the horn on his head.

'I'm quite certain that I know when I travelled I learnt many different things and this is something that I've read about. It's the final stage of a dragon slayer that gives the user the power of a dragon, it's called Dragon Force.' Orin answered making his teammates look at him in surprise.

'Dragon Force? Albion, how much stronger am I?' Luke asked

[From what I can sense from you, you're much stronger than in Balance Breaker but not as strong when using Juggernaut Drive. Overall, it's quite the amazing form] Albion answered.

"Really," Luke said as he clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes at Tannin which glowed even brighter making Tannin actually step back in slight fear. "I'll deal with him now, Orin take a rest."

"Sure, be careful," Orin stated as Luke nodded before turning his whole body to Tannin as he got into a powering up stance, he then yelled as his magical energy flared intensely. The amount he was releasing was petrifying, the power he had right now definitely made him much more powerful than even the four devil kings combined. Luke's teeth showed to have grown longer and sharper as he stopped yelling and glared at Tannin.

"It's time for your end, Tannin!" Luke shouted as he shot forwards at speeds that none of them could see, Luke used his dragon arm and punched Tannin right in the stomach and uppercutting him. Luke didn't stop as he continued to pummel Tannin relentlessly, Tannin was bleeding heavily from the attacks and managed to smack Luke away.

"Luke watch out!" Orin shouted as Tannin fired a huge blast of flames towards Luke who just stood there staring blankly, Luke raised his draconic arm and the blast was completely negated. Albion and Orin gasped upon seeing his strength, Luke grabbed Tannin's face and dragged him through the lava burning his scales as Tannin cried in pain.

"Finish him, Luke!"

[Finish him!] Albion shouted after Orin.

"It's your end Tannin!" Luke said as he tossed Tannin's body into the air as it was limp, Luke then held both arms in front of him as a small blue and white orb formed between his hands as it gradually grew into a size of a soccer ball. Luke then gave a final thrust and out from the orb shot a huge beam of spiralling blue and white magical energy that completely engulfed Tannin's body as Luke announced. "Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Supreme Vanishing Quazar!"

As the attacked stopped Tannin's body could be seen smoking and covered in blood, his eyes were completely dead in colour and didn't move at all, his mouth was also slightly open. Luke caught the body before it could land in the Magma as Orin flew over to him.

"Why did you catch his body?"

"I promised the villagers that I'd bring the body back to them," Luke said with a smile as Orin smiled and returned back into a cat with Luke's transformation wearing off returning him back to his normal self. "We should get back, I need some serious rest."

"Agreed."

[No kidding, he was a lot more powerful than we would have thought] Albion added as they carried Tannin's body and exited the chamber of magma and made their way out of the mountains.

Time Skip

The villagers were tidying up the scorched lands and the remains of their houses, they had managed to build some shelter for them temporarily. Misa was helping out by getting water from a nearby lake for the adults to drink as they worked. "I got the water Chief Munto."

"Thank you, Misa. You've done well." Munto replied as he took the water bucket from Misa and went over to the adults as Misa smiled before looking at the ground and thinking. 'Luke, Orin, I hope you're okay.'

Misa was thinking until a loud thud was heard and everyone was surprised by the sound and looked around until another thud could be heard, they turned to the source and were about to freak out upon seeing Tannin but they calmed down when they saw it completely bloody and lying on the ground lifeless.

"It's the dragon!"

"What happened to it!?"

'Luke?' Munto and Misa wondered as then they saw Luke emerge from the right side of Tannin's body very bloodied, Orin walked beside Luke also looking pretty injured from the attacks. Misa and Munto widened their eyes along with everyone else.

"Hey guys, I told you I'd bring the body back," Luke stated panting as he gave them a thumbs up with his signature smile, everyone ran towards Luke who went limp and began falling to the ground but was caught by two of the villagers who helped him to stand up. "I look pretty pathetic right now don't I?"

"Nonsense, you and Orin had just come back from defeating this dragon. It only makes sense for you to be this injured, we should get you cleaned up and treated." Munto stated with Luke nodding.

"Luke!" Luke heard a yell as he turned to see Misa who ran up to him and embraced him in a hug making him cringe in pain.

"Hey Misa, I completed my promise," Luke said as Misa nodded with a smile and a few tears flowing down her face.

"I was so worried!"

Luke was then brought into one of the shelters and the medics of the village patched Luke and Orin up and cleaned the blood from their bodies, Misa asked Luke and Orin to tell her about what happened and he did just that, Misa was happy and impressed by the story that Luke and Orin told her about the battle. Because of how serious the injuries were to their bodies, Munto told Luke and Orin to stay at the shelter until they were fully healed, they were hesitant but eventually gave in.

"I wonder how everyone is doing?" Luke wondered as he thought of his friends back at Cait Shelter.

"They're probably wondering what we've been doing," Orin answered as he and Luke were lying down on a bed.

[Most likely, you have been gone for quite a while. And now you'll probably be gone for another couple days for your wounds to heal] Albion stated as they sighed.

Meanwhile

The area was an empty void with nothing as much as a glowing purple circle that was on the ground, there were five figures standing on the circle from different sides. They were all looking at the centre of the circle watching the battle between Luke and Tannin and Tannin being defeated.

"It seems that Tannin failed." One of the figures stated.

"It was surprising but expected." Another said.

"He was only a small part in our plan, we'll find a way to get rid of the White Dragon Emperor somehow." Another one of the figures added.

"That much is certain, he will fall." The fourth figure added as the last one continued to stare at the image of the battle before looking up.

"He will be no problem, our master's revival will come soon." The fifth figure stated as they all then disappeared from the void as they all then said before complete silence.

"His time to rise is upon us."

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