Dragon Slayers I

*** Juliette Silver ***

Bang!!

Boom!!

"..."

My eyelashes quivered slightly, and my attention was almost broken through, thanks to the chorus of explosions and small quakes I was hearing. The battle seems amazing.

Meanwhile, eyes closed, I slightly frowned. My lips pursed in annoyance and I did my absolute best not to be tempted at all.

Bang!!

Boom!!

Boom!!

...Only to no avail. It was hard to focus when the battle taking place gave one the impression that it was not a human battling.

Yes, I know big brother Damien is from the future version of himself, but does that explain much of the feats he would be doing right now? Does it?

...I really want to watch.

Especially as he is fighting the legendary dragon. A battle between my knight, and the dragon that wants to kidnap the princess (which is me).

Who would want to miss out on that?

Worst of all, I have been battling this feeling for over forty minutes now. For forty, whole, minutes.

I am tired now.

Boom!!

I gave up, and ultimately opened my eyes.

And immediately gazed towards the direction where the ruckus was taking place, and my jaw hung open in shock at what I was seeing.

A man.

And a dragon.

Really going at it.

"..."

I had just so happened to catch big brother Damien flying towards the dragon with his almost broken pair of wings, that shimmered a brief golden radiance.

Something I believed was Mana.

He flew at speeds that I could never dream about matching, as he collided heavily into the dragon that blazed with flames and wind.

The collision led both parties forcefully moving towards the direction of the dragon, due to big brother Damien having more momentum, I thought as such from my observations.

Boom!!

The both of them collided onto the ground, slightly quaking the earth, before they slid across the ground for a few meters creating a deep trench.

Big brother Damien all the while, being above the dragon.

He then began throwing punches at the dragon, each one releasing thunderous sounds everywhere... I could hear it from here for goodness sake.

Bang!! Bang!!

Bang!! Bang!!

Four consecutive strikes, which from my perspective, seemed really painful. But the dragon thought otherwise.

During the punches, it's thick tail hurriedly rose up, and like a flash of lightning, struck towards big brother Damien as he had finished throwing his fourth punch.

He also hurriedly paused his actions and used arms to cover the sides of his head, while he slightly lowered it to his chest for protection.

Bang!!

And with that, he was struck by the giant tail and sent flying away for tens of meters, until he crashed into a small hill, and reduced it to rumbles, while his figure continued flying back until it struck a larger mountain.

"..."

The momentum at which he was thrown with seemed to be too great, as he was almost implanted onto the mountain, and his collision caused web-like cracks to spread out.

...Was this not a battle among gods?

Was this still a battle of mortals?!

I thought with my mouth still wide open, hanging agar with shock and bewilderment swimming within my eyes. Until.

"You'd better use this time for something better than just staring. You aren't gonna learn nothing... uhh, from this anyway." A voice drifted towards my ears from afar.

I hurriedly looked at big brother Damien who forcefully removed himself from the mountain, and slightly flexed his joints and twisted his neck.

He was hundreds of meters away from me, yet his voice easily reached me? I was surprised and impressed. Was he really a god?

No. Of course I know that.

He just used Mana. From my gaze, I could see a golden glow gathered around his throat, which I now believed was definitely Mana.

And if that was that, I controlled my own Mana, and circulated it out my heart through my veins, and all the way to my throat. Then I slowly opened my mouth and breathed out.

Yet my breathe that came out felt dense and heavy, and sounded as if it was tiredly panting instead. Which was a good sign. Or so I thought.

"Roger." And to prove that, I responded to his words, my Mana still within my throat.

The sound waves that were supposed to flow out of my mouth were enhanced by Mana, and managed to travel all the way to big brother Damien.

He paused, and looked towards my direction, then rushed towards the dragon a second later. I presume he was surprised? Maybe.

I watched his dashing figure sprint towards the dragon and continue their battle. And from how things seemed, they were not going to stop anytime soon.

I sighed, and was about to continue absorbing Mana when it finally downed on me. 'Wait, how did big brother Damien absorb Mana, if he has been fighting all this while?'

I thought. And it was a very rich thought.

How?

Was the question.

I set my gaze on him once again, and tried to understand what was going on. And from my vision, I could see golden hues of Mana moving towards big brother Damien.

They moved swiftly and fluently entered his nose, like oxygen. The Mana was then carried with the oxygen he inhales, and sent towards his heart.

Along the way, the Mana would cleanse his body and release the impurities held within.

And when he exhaled the carbon dioxide, it also released the impurities alongside it. He was absorbing Mana, refining his body, and breathing at the same time?

Was such a thing possible?

Or was it a thing of the future as well? It made more sense for it to be that case. I thought as I nodded to myself, and decided to try it as well.

But before that, I set my gaze on the dragon. I was also curious how this big fella was circulating his Mana.

"..."

I, as daring as I was, gazed at the dragon and its Mana intake. I was curious, and nothing can beat the curiosity of a human. Either than cats.

But upon a single glance, I was flabbergasted. Was, was this even possible? No, what the hell am I even looking at here?

I thought in shock.

From my sight, I could see something resemblant of millions of golden sparks within the body of the dragon, making up a portion of its entire being.

While the majority was just Mana veins.

If I'm correct, the millions or so golden sparks were actually cells. The dragon's cells. It pumped them up with Mana and thus transformed them into apparitions?

Or spirit cells?

I deduced, and wrecked my brain to find a solution. Yet could not arrive to a conclusion no matter how much I tried.

'Let's forget about it for now. I don't even know how much Mana each cell contains anyway.' I thought, and decided to first try the Mana breathing method.

I took a deep breathe of air, then held it, and released it a moment later. 'Alright, I got it. Let's give it a try now.'

My thoughts kept moving as I took a normal breathe of air this time. At the same time, I was concentrating and absorbing Mana.

I made sure to absorb it through my nose, which I was not sure if it was possible at first or not. Fortunately, it was very much possible as I felt Mana enter my nose.

I felt golden hues of light rush to my nose, and tried to drown them, which caused me to break concentration and stop my actions. Also breaking out into a coughing fit.

"..."

Moments later, I let out a breathe of relief and decided to try again. Yet slowly this time around, for I had learned my lesson. The hard way.

I took a breathe of air, and focused on the Mana that was rushing to my nose. I made sure to hold my breathe, and only let in a portion of the Mana to enter.

Breathe still held, I guided the Mana through my will to follow the oxygen entering my body all the way to my heart, while making sure to cleanse the impurities within my body.

It was a bit hard, but overally I managed to do so. I just had to be extra careful and delicate. This was my body after all.

The impurities were like patches of darkness within my focused state. And everytime the hue of Mana washed over it, it would decrease in color and size.

When my heart ultimately accepted my Mana, I finally let out the breathe I've been holding in. Then I repeated the process eight to nine times, before I managed to do it manually.

Then at that moment, a chime rang within my head, one that I was now more than used to hearing.

But It still did not feel right, or as fluent as it was supposed to. I frowned at such a discovery, and decided to study the two god-like monsters fighting.

My comprehension was on full alert, and I entered a trance-like state. I was comprehending the two techniques both beings were using to absorb Mana, comparing them, then filtering the errors one had, that the other did not.