Sky Dragon.

After Scrat dug up that Mana Stone which was causing the Elemental Disturbance, Talos continued to follow the directions given to him by the Squirrel. However, the journey seemed to grow even more perilous as they advanced. 

The more powerful the lightning and tornados strike the land meaning more canyons. Before long he was forced to jump from canyon to canyon to continue on his path. 

Just an hour after finding the Stone, Talos had to stop because his method of travel eventually got him in contact with more predators.  Talos towered at his full height as he began to slice his Tail Blade back and forth on the ground. The blade began to glow not a bright white as usual, but a bright purple as a result of his mutated Fire and Lightning magics. 

He leaned forward and like a scorpion brought the giant blade over his body to aim forward. His growl was deep, loud, and like always sounded as if metal was grinding against itself. 

As for what dared to challenge him here, a pack of Griffins. High in the sky 10 of the large creatures were circling. The 10 in the sky were large, each being 25 meters long, but the one on the ground was even bigger. 

It was 35 meters long and it roared back at him to match his growl. Scrat leaned down and explained what they were. 

"Griffins, specifically the Sky Sub Species. They are the second largest of Griffins, the ones in the sky are females, and this is the male. It's protecting them or something else.' 

"Not now. Hide." 

Scrat nodded and jumped off before disappearing from sight. Red Lightning began to burst from his spikes while purple flames gathered in his throat. The male Griffin which was on the ground spread its giant wings out as an orb of wind gathered in its beak. 

Talos and the Griffin locked eyes with each other as neither was willing to retreat. Talos was overflowing with energy so he had no need to feed for a time. Meaning he had no reason to hunt the Griffins, so killing them was not needed. 

It seemed that the Griffins had taken this canyon as their lair, and he knew why they were so defensive. In the distance, a cave dug into the canyon wall had a large next with several eggs in it. They were protecting their young, which was why the male had not attacked. 

It did not want to risk its young and just wanted Talos to leave. If hungry, he would have gone after the eggs, but as he was not he let it be. He powered down looked the Male Griffin in the eyes and snorted. 

He spun around, bit down into his tail blade, and ran his teeth down it to sharpen it. After each heating this had to be done to ensure his blade was always sharp. With his display done with, he turned around, braced his legs, and lept to the other side of the canyon. 

The Male Griffin also powered down and locked eyes with Talos once. It bowed its head slightly which Talos returned. With that, Talos continued on his path which Scrat commented on. He reappeared on Talos' head with a sigh. 

"I had hoped you killed those Griffins. Their parts would be valuable once we return to civilisation." 

"I am not hungry." 

"Answer me this Talos, why do you hunt so much? On our journey, I noticed you constantly stopped to hunt and eat." 

"Simply put, I am in my growth faze. I need a vast amount of calories and energy to support my accelerated growth. However, that ritual you used on me seems to have lowered by need to eat for a time. 

I am brimming with power, if I was hungry, I would have eaten them all." 

"Glad to be of help." 

Once that got sorted, they continued on the path that Talos had to stop from time to time to fight. Unlike the Griffins which were quite intelligent, he sometimes ran into creatures that were not. 

Most of them were quite powerful, but Talos rarely struggled much with them. If he killed something, Scrat harvested the useful parts and Talos ate the rest. Despite not needing to eat, he would not pass up a meal. 

However, if the amount of weaker creatures was enough to need him to fight constantly it was reasonable to find stronger creatures. Just as he was about to jump over another canyon a giant roar echoed through the canyon. 

Talos' instincts began to rage telling him this was no weak creature. However, he did not back down and took a deep breath before giving a roar back. Scrat's ears stood on end as he warned Talos. 

"Uhh, Talos. That was a Sky Dragon." 

"No matter." 

Scrat backed away and disappeared. Talos did not fault the squirrel as he braced for a battle. From the giant canyon, the dragon in question emerged from its cave. It took to the sky and flew out of its cave to gaze at Talos. 

In terms of size, it was on the bigger side as it was 40 meters long, a little smaller than it was. However, in his world, even the smallest Dragons were calamity class monsters that needed Arch Mages, or Senior Cultivators to take down. 

Talos roared at the Dragon which roared back at him. 

"You arrogant ground lizard. I will tear you limb from limb." 

"Shut up and do it then." 

Talos' mana and fire pooled in his throat, before he launched a massive stream of purple flame. This was a first for him after the mutation so when he released it he was expecting a good result. 

The Sky Dragon in the sky without bothering to use his breath, squinted his eyes and one of the tornados in the sky diverted and clashed against Talos' fire. When the tornado and the fire clashed, the purple flames exploded apart in a massive explosion. 

The tornado got disperesed the the Sky Dragon watched that in suprise. 

"Your fire is not actually fire, it's lightning that acts like flame. How unique?" 

Talos bared his fangs as his spines began to crackle and thunder with red lightning. 

"There is more where that comes from." 

The glands at the base of his spikes hummed to life while his Beast Core began to energize his blood with each beat of his heart. Massive arc of red lightning surged into the sky, but this time the Dragon did release it's breath. 

A pillar of wind and fire surged toward Talos before clashing with his lightning. This time, the clash of elementals took longer as both were holding their attacks. The Wind Dragon squinted it's silver eyes before it's Dragon Heart began to beat surging mana into it's body. 

Most nondragon beasts had Beast Cores while Dragon Heart did the work of those. As Talos was not a Dragon, he had a Beast Core, but his was special. His Lightning matched the dragon's wind flames which caused them to even. 

Not willing to lose the exchange, Talos opened his jaws and released his purple flames which joined his red lightning. This caused the exchange to change in his favor, but the Dragon was no youngster. 

Two magic circles opened beside the dragon's head and when they activated the Dragon's Wind Fire doubled in size and power. The increased power caused a massive eruption of mana which made Talos lean forward. 

At his weight he did not get pushed back as for the Dragon it flew higher to avoid the blast radius. When the raging elements dispersed the Dragon looked down as Talos was fine. 

"You are a unique creature. What is your name?"

"I am Talos The Hellblade. And you?" 

"I am Aevreor The Sky Dragon." 

Talos had yet to use his true specialty his Sword Skills while the Sky Dragon had barely used its Dragon Heart. How could a Dragon be defeated so easily? This was shown when Aevreor released its restraint on his Heart. 

"Show me what you have Hellblade. I shall give you the same courtesy." 

Talos smashed his blade into the ground behind him causing it to begin to burn bright purple. Red Lightning raged from his tail blade as he got into the zone. As he had crossed that gap, his Sword Will raged from his body. 

To the Dragon's eyes, it was like an aura of sharpness radiated from Talos making it grin. 

"Just looking at that I can tell, you are a Sword Master of special skill. Those who take the title spit in your face." 

"You are strong as well Aevreor. Your mana is like a tidal wave and pure. You will be my greatest foe yet." 

"Then, let us get to it Talos." 

He took his wings and dived toward Talos who focused on him. In quick precise movements, Talos leaned forward before lept into the air before flipping mid-air. Aevreor felt extreme danger as ethereal sword slashes were launched toward him. 

Mana surged into his scales and muscles increasing his resistance. His expertise in magic came into play as he created several multi-layered protective circles around him. When Talos' sword slashes smashed into those layers it tore them apart, but the mana held within evened out with his attacks. 

Talos lunged forward and lept into the air. He focused on what he needed at the moment and he felt his Adaptive Evolution take hold. Just as Aevreor expected him to fall like a rock, he smashed his foot down mid-air, but it held there. 

As if he was on solid ground he began to run on air toward Aevreor. The Dragon grinned as he and Talos reached each other. Both lowered their heads and butted heads causing a massive shock wave. 

Aevreor and Talos raised their front arms before they clashed with their claws. The Claws of a Dragon and the Biometal claws of Talos surged like swords. In that same movement, Talos' tail swung around gleaming with his Sword Will. 

A second ethereal blade seemed to appear over his real Tail Blade, but Aevreor did not relent. As they both clashed with their claws, heads, and even their fangs, Aevreor swung his tail around as well. 

Defensive barriers appeared on the blade, but they were warped and straight. He used defensive barriers to form blades on his tail. When both tails smashed into each other, the strength Aevreor showed matched Talos'. 

However, the weight and intent behind their clash went to Talos. His Sword Will destroyed the mana barriers put in place while his burning blade smashed directly into Aevreor's tail. 

Only through the dragon's efforts, did he not leave the exchange with more grievous wounds. A Mana Skin layer along with dense Dragon Mana in his scales caused Talos' blade to only slice a couple of inches. 

Despite that, feeling his tail being pierced caused Aevreor to squint his eyes in pain. That pain caused his anger to rise which made him lunge forward. He bit down into the side of Talos' head before shaking his head like a rag doll. 

Not to be underestimated, Talos coated his claws in Sword Will before he stabbed them into Aevreor's neck. In that same moment, the Sky Dragon released his Wind Flames which caused an explosion to rock Talos' head. 

As for Aevreor, he got a huge gash down the side of his neck as Talos dragged his claws down. Both got away from each other Talos shook his head as Aevreor flames were burning his head. 

As Aevreor tried to heal the gash in his neck he was the first to notice it. His healing was slowed down when that formless intent was used. 

"I see. Your mastery of the blade is so great that you are basically corrupting the wound with the idea of cutting. Interesting." 

A Surge of Dragon Aura surged through the gashes in his neck and tail which drove out Talos' Sword Will. Even Aevreor was surprised as it was taking him a while to get this done. 

As for Talos, he opened his mouth and drew Aevreor's flames into his mouth. When he did that he felt his Adaptive Evolution begin to dissect the flames. Unlike the Devil's hand he ate, his body actually had a use for this. 

Dragon Mana was contained in the flame which was much stronger than regular mana. Talos' Mana was far from normal, but he was unaware of that fact. His body stored the bit of mana it got after the fight. 

By now, the burns on his head healed while Aevreor had removed the Sword Will in his wounds healing them. They were now back to step one and the fight was just getting started. 

Talos and Aevreor locked eyes with grins appeared on their faces. What Dragon or Glavenus did not revel in the fight?