Battling A Dragon-Like Monster

And because she had Mana, the hidden effect of the cloak kicked in, and erased her presence, making her feel like a ghost.

Thus included her threat value to the dragon. She would seem as harmless as a piece of rock to it with the cloak on. Maybe even less harmless than a rock.

Damien then added, "You should focus on nothing but increasing your Mana reserves. This is not something you can try and fight with the current debuffs you have."

"Mhm." Juliette nodded, and once again glanced up at the creature one last time. Appreciating what she was seeing for the first time.

With that over, she once again closed her eyes and concentrated on absorbing more Mana. As for the status effects and the presence of the dragon, they of course did affect her.

But she had absolute trust in Damien.

It was so solidified and absolute that, her will seemed to temporarily ignore all the negative effects on her mentality.

"..."

Damien saw this, and then also gazed up at the dragon with apathy. The dragon likewise gazed back down at him with majesty.

Unlike his father, a genuine pure-blooded Gray, who probably had 100% control over the Gray bloodline, Damien and his mother had far less. The former due to his young age and lack of experience, while the latter was not a pure-blooded Gray.

But Damien did not stress about it. His minimal access to the Gray bloodline, still made him stronger as well. The only side effect was that his emotions would fluctuate depending on the threat he faced.

The weaker the threat, the less emotion he would show, like a god gazing down onto a mortal. But the stronger the threat, the hyper his emotions would fluctuate.

Such as right now.

A moment late after checking up on Juliette, Damien suddenly smiled. For once, within the current state he was in, he smiled. And it was a smile of pure madness and disdain.

Yet his gaze was still apathetic.

As if gazing at a dead creature.

"..."

The dragon also did not flinch back at Damien's silent murderous intent. Instead, as it flapped its wings, it suddenly took in a large breathe of air causing its head to reel in backwards.

This action also caused the dragon's chest to puff out, and glow in a magma-like orange-red glow.

The glow then silently, yet speedily traveled from the dragon's chest, along its neck, illuminating its neck in the same glow, then moving on to its mouth, where wisps of flames threatened to erupt out like a volcano.

Damien of course, would not just stand by and wait for pain to arrive.

He immediately kicked off the ground, and with frightening speed rivaling that of a jet traveling at full speed, he burst off forward.

Such an act was inhuman, even for the mortals of the great and large Gaea. And because it was multiple Leagues above the norm, especially for someone his level, he triggered a notification.

[ TING!!! ]

[ An achievement made!! ]

[ Do to reaching unachievable speeds through sheer force and will, without the aid of Skills and Abilities, you have automatically comprehended the Extra Ability, "Enhanced Speed" ]

Damien knew about this, and did not put much focus into it. What he focused on was his speed increasing once again thanks to the permanent boost of the Ability.

He became twice as fast thanks to the passive boost, and likewise surpassed mortal restrictions.

...!!!

The dragon did not take Damien lightly, and still, with the hazardous flames within its mouth held back, it chased after him, not being one bit slower than him.

Boom!!

Boom!!

Two sonic booms exploded out, one after another, as human, and dragon, played a game of tag around the valley.

"..."

Juliette was left behind, sitting cross legged as she did her absolute best to ignore the temptateous sounds of battle, and to just focus on her Mana.

Meanwhile, Damien ran at his top speed, being so fast, everything else around him seemed as incomprehensible blurs of light.

And the dragon itself was top on his hill, being only a few hundred meters behind him, a trail of flames seeping out of its mouth.

But that did not seem to bother the majestic dragon much, and it instead kept pushing itself forward with its wings, shattering the sound barrier from time to time.

"..."

Damien, who was still running ahead, suddenly used more strength than needed to take the next step, hence propelling himself forward at an elevated altitude.

The dragon followed his figure, and slowly loosened it's jaw, causing more flames to seep out and threatening to erupt greatly.

But Damien was an experienced fellow.

His every action was calculated. And so was this one, for as he rose up at an elevated altitude, still with the same speed, he landed at the waist level of a tall mountain stretching up for kilometers on end.

Bang!!

His speed and momentum caused him to land heavily onto the mountain, forcefully pressing it inwards within a circular range of ten to fifteen meters.

Yet Damien himself seemed unphased, and without paused, forcefully kicked off the mountain and sent himself backwards... back towards the dragon.

At the same time,

[ TING!!! ]

[ An achievement made!! ]

[ Do to unleashing unachievable strength through sheer force and will, without the aid of Skills and Abilities, you have automatically comprehended the Extra Ability, "Enhanced Strength" ]

His already terrified strength even when restricted by the multiple status effects, suddenly increased by ten times, causing his blood to boil in excitement.

...!!!

The dragon, which was flying at fast speeds was caught off guard by Damien's figure flying towards it, with his fist outstretched.

And with pure instincts, it hurriedly ducked down, and allowed Damien's terrifying figure to fly past it. But thanks to that, it heavily crashed down shoulder first as it had lost balance.

Boom!!

The dragon crashed down with its terrifying speed and large body, toppling down hills and small mountains before it could come to a halt.

Meanwhile, Damien also crashed into a small hill, and completely reduced it to rumbles and dust, hence triggering yet another round of notifications.

[ TING!!! ]

[ An achievement made!! ]

[ Do to showing unachievable defense through sheer force and will, without the aid of Skills and Abilities, you have automatically comprehended the Extra Ability, "Enhanced Endurance" ]

Damien used his powerful strength to forcefully push off the boulders and rocks burying him, and stood up, his expression null, with but a single sadistic smile on his lips.

"..."

The dragon also stood up, and growled towards Damien's direction. The insides of it's mouth were orange-red, with a tinge of gold, and one could also see boiling lava held within its neck.

"Grrrr..."

The dragon, angered, pushed itself off the ground by flapping its wings, kicking up a small wind storm thay pushed away at the sorounding debris and dust.

Damien stood atop the pile of rocks he was buried in, and just stared at it unphased. And his actions, as well as his gaze, seemed to fuel the anger of the dragon even more.

ROOOAAARRR!!!

And angered to the extremes, it released a powerful roar, and let loose a turbulent pillar of compressed orange-red magma towards Damien.

And Damien just watched, with no intent of moving whatsoever.

"..."

BOOM!!

The blast of orange-red magma struck home, exactly at Damien and forcefully melted the sorounding rocks he was standing on.

Yet even with how powerful the blast came, it did not seem to have the strength to forcefully push Damien backwards. And he just stood there, taking the brunt of the damage.

[ TING!!! ]

[ An achievement made!! ]

[ Do to bearing unbearable magic damage through sheer force and will, without the aid of Skills and Abilities, you have automatically comprehended the Extra Ability, "Enhanced Magic Defense" ]

[ You have been affected by "Burn". Your vitality will slowly he drained until thirty seconds are over. Due to your high defenses, you will experience no damage ]

"..."

Damien nodded to himself as he finally allowed the torrential blast of magma to push him off the piles of rocks, and throw him tens of meters away like a ragdoll.

Without the artifacts he wore, he would not have done such an action. But luckily, he had them. And his terrifying physical defenses.

He looked at himself, and the artifacts he wore were quite badly damaged. Though they still functioned, they were still quite damaged to an extent.

'It's alright. My magic defense has increased by ten times. And if I had Mana, I could increase it once again for a certain duration of time. Unfortunately, time is not on my side.'

Damien thought and stood up. He had had enough, and it was time to take things seriously.

Plus, AFFINITY and INTELLIGENCE could not be increased through the same way he increased the others, unless he manually grind by attacking with spells, or other supernatural attack methods.

"Plus, who knew I'd be fighting a dragon?"

Indeed. Dragons were one of the top seven major races. Their starting stats would be monstrous even at just the Advanced Realm.

Of course, real dragons, even the newborn ones are far above such a low Realm of strength. In fact, they were natural born Third Leagues.

They were genuine monsters compared to First League Combatants like the current them.