Chapter 38: Overwhelming

The Northern Berserk Bear, despite lacking dynamic vision, responded instinctively as a top-tier magical creature. In the final second, it spotted Garon's form, but it was already too late to defend itself. Garon's sharp dragon claws were already inches away.

With a swish, Garon's claws pierced through the bear's shoulder, tearing through fur, flesh, and bone with brutal efficiency.

With a thunderous crash, the bear's body was hurled through the air, dragged for hundreds of meters by Garon's grip on its shoulder before creating a long trench in the snow-laden ground. The bear howled in agony as it struggled futilely.

Regaining its senses, the Northern Berserk Bear raised its paw, not to strike Garon but to slam it down heavily onto the ground.

Instantly, a massive surge of elemental power gathered, churning beneath the surface like a pre-eruptive volcano.

Hiss, hiss, hiss—several dozen massive ice spikes, each several meters long, erupted from the ground around the bear. Piercing the air, they aimed straight for Garon's form.

The thick ice spikes shattered against Garon's scales with the sound of clashing metal. Garon, releasing his claw, quickly distanced himself from the epicenter of the elemental explosion.

His defenses were strong; the scales struck by the attack only showed minor fractures without breaking.

However, his wings, being slightly less durable, had narrowly escaped injury.

Shaking off the hold, the Northern Berserk Bear stood on its hind legs, roaring angrily at Garon. However, the copious amounts of blood oozing from its shoulders made its roars sound less threatening and more desperate.

Garon frowned slightly, realizing he had underestimated his own strength.

His Time Dragon abilities were overwhelmingly powerful, and he felt that just by using his current fivefold speed acceleration, he could easily overpower many formidable magical creatures.

He didn't even need to use his newly acquired time-based abilities to handle his opponent.

As Garon contemplated, the Northern Berserk Bear, unwilling to sit idly by despite its wounds, began to move. Its body was now covered in a layer of thick ice armor, spikes jutting out menacingly from its joints, as it charged towards Garon again.

Garon was slightly surprised.

Did this creature not realize it was no match for him? True to its nature, the berserk bear didn't think to flee but rather chose to confront him head-on.

"Perhaps I should test my new abilities after all, though it feels like overkill."

Garon didn't dodge; he even retracted his wings and landed directly in the path of the charging bear.

Boom, boom, boom—each step of the massive bear shook the ground, leaving deep footprints in its wake, its momentum ferocious.

Seconds ticked by, and as the Northern Berserk Bear stepped into the zone within a twenty-meter radius around Garon, everything changed.

Garon focused his mind, his gaze intense and serious.

The next second, an invisible, intangible wave burst forth from Garon, instantly enveloping the bear and everything within a twenty-meter diameter.

In this area, all things came to a sudden halt as if a pause button had been pressed—only Garon could move freely.

Snowflakes, the howling wind, ice crystals, and even the sound itself—along with the snarling face and steamy breath of the Northern Berserk Bear—froze in place.

Outside the stasis zone, snow continued to fall and the wind howled, almost like a different world. But entering Garon's twenty-meter radius meant immediate cessation, causing an accumulation of snow at the edge of the area, forming a white arc.

Spell-like ability: Time Stop.

During the moment of Time Stop, Garon's power of time flowed swiftly away like water bursting from a sluice, his magical energy draining, albeit less so than his temporal power.

Not wasting a moment, Garon unleashed a breath of frost directly onto the immobilized Northern Berserk Bear, rapidly encasing it in ice.

The stationary bear, now nothing more than a target, took the full brunt of the dragon's powerful breath at close range.

As Garon acted, the drain on his time and magical powers increased.

He somewhat regretfully deactivated Time Stop. In an instant, the muted sounds of the wind resumed, and the small area's blizzard sprang back into motion.

As for the Northern Berserk Bear, it was none the wiser about what had transpired, its life force fading to nothing in its frozen state, quickly succumbing to death.

Such a demise was without suffering, as its consciousness remained at the moment it had approached Garon.

"I'm about two years old, and the effect of Time Stop covers a twenty-meter diameter. It seems that for every year of age, this range increases by about ten meters."

"It's a pity it can't be applied directly around a specific target; perhaps that will become possible in the future."

Garon watched the perplexed demise of the Northern Berserk Bear, his eyes thoughtful.

The expenditure of Time Stop was even greater than using his Time Drain Breath, but its effects were profoundly disruptive, allowing him to manipulate any caught within it virtually at will, provided his temporal power did not run out. It was a formidable ability capable of turning the tide of battle.

Garon smirked slightly, thinking of his next move. "Heh, White Dragon Mother, I'm coming for you soon."

With a glint in his eyes and a wide grin, Garon felt a surge of anticipation. After experiencing the true power of fivefold speed and Time Stop, he was confident that the young, not yet mature White Dragon Mother would not be able to best him.

Approaching the fallen Northern Berserk Bear, Garon was ready to feast on-site when a faint whimpering sound caught in the wind drew his attention.

He paused and turned his head.

At the spot where he had struck the Northern Berserk Bear, two barely opened-eyed bear cubs were exposed to the harsh snowstorm, whining pitifully. The cubs, about the size of large dogs, shivered in the biting cold.

"This…"

Garon's brows furrowed.

The moment he saw the cubs, he instantly understood the seemingly erratic behavior of the Northern Berserk Bear.

Even the most ferocious creature should possess a survival instinct.

Its aggressive charge towards Garon was likely because Garon had positioned himself between it and its cubs, forcing the bear into a desperate confrontation.

Realizing this, Garon shook his head, his thoughts returning to the merciless White Dragon Mother.

Under similar circumstances, she would probably have fled without hesitation to save her own life.

The familial bonds among evil dragons, after all, were incredibly tenuous.

Garon approached the two Northern Berserk Bear cubs. Extending his wings to shield them from the snow and wind, he provided some relief from the severe weather.

The cubs clumsily crawled through the snow towards Garon, nestling against his feet for warmth.

"Northern Berserk Bears aren't known for their intelligence, roughly on par with the fear lizards. I might as well raise them. There's not much meat on them to make it worth eating them right away."

Gently scooping up the cubs, Garon also grasped the frozen body of the adult bear. With a powerful flap of his wings, he headed towards the Ogre Basin.

He knew no spells for warming; the cubs might die if left in the cold for too long, as their fur was not yet thick enough to provide sufficient insulation.

The Ogre Basin, with its sheltered houses and warming fires, seemed the most suitable place to care for the Northern Berserk Bear cubs. It was also an opportunity to check on the progress of his new dragon lair's construction.