Consumed by Resolve

Before becoming the daughter of the dragon emperor, Saramin used to be the youngest of a family of five back in the human world.

She lived her days with her three older brothers and her father, the only girl amongst four men.

The reason for that was because her mother sadly didn't survive giving birth to her fourth kid, resulting in Sarah being unable to ever truly getting to known her, and more than that, being the target of the dislike of her family.

It was never stated out loud, but she knew deep inside that each of them blamed her for the woman's death, and as a result, neither of them put on a lot of effort to grow closer to her over the years.

They would provide food, money, and shelter, but for everything else, she was on her own.

Education, communication, social skills, Sarah was forced to learn all of these things by herself in order to survive in her life.

Even when she attempted to seek help from her brothers, the best she could do was observe how they would handle situations and learn from their actions.

Each of them had a unique talent that made them a genius in their own right. A writer, an illustrator, and a programmer. They all had jobs that managed to bring a lot of money to the house even though they were so young, all thanks to their mother who passed on all the skills she knew to them.

Sarah also tried her best to follow in their footsteps, but the most she could do was understand the bare minimum from each field. Her skills paled in comparison to what her brothers could accomplish.

This was due to her trying to learn all of these skills at once in hopes of becoming like her mother, a woman able to do everything. She hoped that this would allow her family to forgive her for taking her from them.

But the message did not come across as she hoped, making it look in their eyes that she was trying to replace her, to erase her memory.

Sarah's attempts ended up making the distance between them grow even more, and naturally, making it even harder for her to know how to properly gain experience.

Despite her best effort, she was only able to do the bare minimum when asked to handle one of the jobs her brothers would take on. This situation inspired her father to give her the nickname 'little duck.'

The duck is a creature able to perform many actions, but just like Sarah, it doesn't manage to excel at any of them.

It can swim, but it isn't the best swimmer. It can fly, but it isn't the best flier. Even the sound it would make was nothing compared to the cry of a chicken when greeting the arrival of the sun.

Sarah understood that her father trying to label her as a duck was just another showcase of his coldness towards her. His way of saying she is able to do plenty, but would never be great at any of them.

Just a copycat trying her best to memorize what others could do. Never able to do anything on her own.

The only one in a family of number ones that didn't manage to become the number one.

One night, Sarah finally had enough of their attitude and ran away from home. A simple way of punishing them for never loving her.

She took as much money as she could and stayed away for a period of five nights, relying on a friend from school to take care of her.

The plan was to make the four of them sick of worry and beg her to come back. The two of them waited for the phone to ring and hear their voices going crazy wondering where she went, asking if anyone had seen her.

But the days passed, and the phone never rang.

On the fifth day, she decided to finally return home to find out what happened to them, understand why they weren't looking for her at her friend's house.

But when she arrived home they simply exchanged glances with each other with confusion in their eyes.

"Wait... You ran away from home...?" one of her brothers muttered while scratching his hair with complete indeference.

Five days...

She had left her house for five days, and not one of them had noticed.

The girl was brought to her knees and began to cry like she never cried before. Screening why they were so cold to her, why they kept acting like she didn't exist, why they didn't love her.

But each of them just rolled their eyes and asked her to get over it, as if she was just a baby throwing a tantrum.

Saramin's body began to move by itself. The moment she heard that she simply jolted out of her house while her tears continued to create a trail of black spots on the ground behind her.

Only this time, she had no idea where she was going. She just kept running and running, as far away from her family as possible, until her legs couldn't function anymore.

But the universe seemed to not be done making her its personal punching bag, for the moment she was finally unable to sprint anymore and took a moment to look at where she was, she realized she had arrived at the middle of the road.

"Look out!!" someone screamed before she could even react.

She didn't even saw what hit her. All she knew was that day was the last day she ever saw her family, and the next thing she knew, she was in the arms of a complete stranger who was drenched in sweat while talking to her in a language she didn't comprehend.

The tiny duck had finally abandoned its nest and was ready to give its first step into the process of becoming a swam.

***

Inside of Hugh's personal dungeon, all eyes were glued at Saramin who was now sporting a new look, featuring a pair of long white gloves made of dragon scales.

The girl clenched her fists and stretched her arms to get a feel of her body and started to raise the corners of her lips like a kid inside a candy house.

"This feels great!" she muttered to herself.

The possessed Leon stood up from the hole Sarah had carved him into and also began to gaze at her current state.

She simply raised her hand and began to invite him to start charging after her like he was doing before, "Bring it!"

The boy accepted her invitation and jumped towards her like a missile with his fist raised, ready to punch her.

Saramin would usually try to avoid the attack, but at that moment, she decided to hold her ground and responded by throwing her own punch at the boy.

The girl's attack ended up being faster and stronger and managed to land a hit on the boy's stomach, causing him to fly upwards like a rocket and crashing with the ceiling.

Kurt looked at the shave-head boy and saw him gasping with pain while blood started to spill from his mouth.

It was the first time one of Sarah's moves had managed to hurt him so much.

Hugh applied healing flames on his body and fixed all of his injuries as per usual.

"Hey, Trevor..." Kurt whispered while still being in a dazzle by his sister's new form, "Does Sarah look a little taller to you?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah. A bit..." the lad nodded.

The two boys noticed that it wasn't just the scales on her arms. Saramin's body had assumed a more mature appearance. Taller, more muscular, a calmer gaze, longer hair. She was looking like she had turned two or three years older than her actual age.

"Her body must be trying to adapt to her new power by giving her a shape that best suits her current strength. The dragon body truly is just full of surprises!" Trevor commented, letting a bit of his dragon-geek side escape.

Sarah got tired of waiting for Leon to drop down and began to cover her legs with scales as well, completely destroying her shoes in the process and giving her dragon legs as well.

Small traces of dragon scales were also present on her face, making it seem as if she was wearing some sort of white tattoo.

"I'm feeling super motivated right now!" she screamed while jumping all the way to the ceiling with one leap and grabbing Leon by the collar of his school uniform, proceeded by launching him against the arena.

"Guaaaghh!!" the shaved boy cried in agony as his body received all the damage Leon was supposed to take.

Hugh treated him again and caused Sarah to gain an idea.

"You sure you wanna keep this up?" she asked while falling on top of the blue-haired boy.

The force of her legs as she buried him under the stone was enough to make the entire dungeon shake.

Leon tried to fight back but Sarah was just too fast for him as she lifted him up with a small kick like a soccer ball and then smacked him against the walls once again.

Kurt and Trevor just watched as Sarh continued to fly all over the place at an absurd speed while slapping Leon everywhere and sending even more damage to the shaved boy's body as a result.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm gonna keep this up until you free Leon! I would give up if I were you!" she alerted.

The tables had completely turned at that moment. The lad possessing Leon might have been able to defeat Sarah in a battle of endurance, but it was obvious he couldn't even lay a finger on her semi-dragon form.

Each of her punches or kicks was like being hit by a truck. The oy realized he was stuck in a loop of torture, as Sarah would continue to send damage to him and Hugh would continue to heal said damage, only making way for her to hurt him once again.

Keeping this going any longer was insanity.

But even so, he knew Hugh would never forgive him if he just gave up like that, so as much as it pained him, and indeed, it pained him quite a lot, he had to continue.

After one more blow from the dragon princess, the boy received another dose of healing and stood up one more time.

"You really like getting beat up, huh?" she commented, "Fine by me then... Guess I'll just have to take you down with one single move!"

"Dream on, deadweight princess!!" Park shouted from his platform, "Even if you got a little stronger by taking advantage of your second form, most of the damage you cause will just be neutralized anyway! And soon you will run out of stamina from keeping your form up for so long! You can't win!"

Usually, Saramin would glare at Park with a not-so-secret desire to strangle him stamped on her face, but this time, she simply smiled at him.

"Wanna bet?"

"Eh? Bet?" Park repeated.

Sara began to behave like Gaby and cracked her knuckles, "What if I manage to hit him so hard that even the real body of the shaved guy ends up getting knocked out?"

The lad that was controlling Leon with his psychic ability instantly began to shiver with terror after hearing her words.

"You- You're bluffing..." Park uttered, "Even you can't be this strong!"

"I owner about that... I'm actually starting to feel a little tired from using this body so much. I think I'm about to return to normal any minute now..."

"Th- Then..."

"Then..." she interrupted, "Why not just go all out? If he manages to survive my attack, I'll be wide open for him to take me down. It will be his win...

That is...

IF he survives!"

Saramin assumed her position as she locked eyes on Leon.

The boy taking over his body began to dread the upcoming future. The impact of her attacks was already engraved into his memory. If she was able to perform an even more devastating attack, he might suffer a level of mental trauma he might never be able to recover from.

"Keep calm! She's just bluffing!" Park claimed, "Even her can't take you down with one move!"

"Oh, yeah, totally! You have nothing to fear..." Saramin mocked as she released a wide grin that revealed her fangs, "Noooooothing to feeear..."

She began to execute a mad dash towards the possessed Leon who just reacted by crossing his arms in order to take the attack as he knew he wasn't going to be fast enough to dodge it.

Each step closer she took was like the image of death itself approaching.

He kept telling himself 'It was a bluff, it was a buff, it was a bluff!' but at the very last moment, he wondered...

What if it wasn't?

Sarah had finally arrived in front of him. Her fist was fully closed and was coming faster than a bullet. All the memories of the many bruises she left of his real body flashed before his eyes.

"I SURRENDER!!!!" he shouted.

Finally, the fear was too much to bear, forcing the boy to abandon Leon's body and return to his own.

He began to breathe with relief for a second thinking he was finally freed from her grasp, but once he opened his eyes, Saramin was right there, still right in front of him.

"What!??" he cried.

He was sure he had returned to his own body on the platform, and indeed, there were Hugh and Park right by his side, looking just as shocked as he was.

He then finally understood. Saramin had leaped off from the arena and landed on their platform.

"Hi there, sitting ducks!!" she greeted while punching each of the three boys with a series of fast jabs that buried them into the walls.

"Guaaghh!!"

"Ughh!!"

"Kuaagh!!!"

Without wasting any time, Sarah grabbed Gabriella and the ponytailed girl who had been dropped by Hugh and rushed back at the arena, mere moment before her transformation disappeared and she returned to her normal form.

"Kurt!! I got all the hostages!!!" she shouted while standing next to a knocked-out Leon and the two unconscious girls, "It's your turn!!"

Hugh and Park stood up from the rubble and finally saw that Sarah had tried them. She never intended to deliver a final punch on Leon. She used the power of her new form to rescue the girls.

"Not cool, sissy... These weren't the rules of the game..." The large red-haired lad whispered while starting to cover his arms with crimson scales.

Hugh jumped out from the arena to recover all of the kids, but before he landed a small red and silver blur appeared right in front of him.

"What the-"

It was Kurt, wearing his metal gauntlets.

"You heard her!" he muttered with an intense glare before delivering an uppercut at his brother's chin, sending him flying upwards.

"Guaaaaghhh!!!"

"It's my turn!"