Part 33

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Hazel Conley

Race: Dragon

Form: Young Black Dragon

Level: 2

HP: 410

MP: 260

AC: 250

DMG: 200 CURSE (+)

Rank: S

Titles: Curse Dragon, Partner of the Dungeon Master

Skills: Morph, Curse Magic, Curse Breath, Flight

Status Effects: Flame Immunity (NEGATED), Enraged

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"There's that flame immunity again. I need to find out what that's from," I mumbled, "But besides that, her stats are super high! She can kill me in one hit if she wants to!"

『 Status Effect- Enraged: The most powerful negative status effect. Otherwise known as the 'Berserker State', the Enraged status causes the affected target to lose all reason and attack anything within its view. They gain a tremendous amount of strength that they use to destroy the surrounding environment and all of their foes. The only way to defeat an Enraged foe is to beat them through combat or until their magic dwindles to nothing 』

"Shit! She'll definitely want to kill me," I sighed. Then, after I looked at the outstanding AC, I knew I only had one option.

『 Skill:『 Morph 』Activated 』

A sudden tornado of flames consumed me as my body transformed. My legs got longer and my arms got thicker. Two giant wings sprouted from my back like plants and my neck grew in size. My entire body got bigger and a bladed tail grew out of my back. I felt scales appear over my skin and horns sprout from my head as they grew out behind me. My face got longer and all of my teeth sharpened as they grew in length.

My transformation was complete in a matter of a few seconds. Once the flames disappeared, I looked to Hazel.

As I turned to Hazel, I was met with a ferocious black dragon. Hazel's dragon figure was a lot like mine, just with some differences. Her tail was a little bit longer, but she only had a single spike at the end rather than a sharp blade. Her wings were a little bit longer as well, but their color and shape reminded me of the sails of a ghost ship, deathly pale in color and full of holes. Her scales were sharper than mine and were obsidian in color, but were a little smaller in size. She had two horns on her head, in a similar shape to mine, but they were facing forward instead of backward. Her frame was a little bit smaller than my form and much slimmer.

If one were to compare our forms, I would be a tank- full of power and strength but slow. A frame like mine had one objective- destruction. Hazel's on the other hand- had a different, more sinister objective. Her body was built for death and despair. She embodied evil but didn't have as much power as me. Instead, she relied on speed and precision.

'The longer this fight goes on, the worse of an advantage I have,' I thought. Hazel was acting on pure instinct, unhindered by her memories with a human-like body, but I was different. I hadn't yet fought with my dragon body and had no skills that would help me in that regard. Against somebody like Hazel, I wasn't even sure if I could survive.

﹃

Arthur Aureys

Race: Dragon

Form: Young Red Dragon

Level: 5

HP: 460

MP: 660

AC: 250

DMG: 170 FIRE

Rank: SS

Titles: Dungeon Master

Skills: Appraisal, Morph, Summon, Flight, Dungeon Visit, Fire Breathe

Skill Sets: Flame Manipulation

Status Effects: Flame Immunity

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'Ancestral Magic and Acrobatics are gone,' I thought to myself as I looked at the skill list, 'I suppose that makes sense. I'm no longer in my human form, after all.'

Suddenly, Hazel snapped her neck forward and roared. As the roar escaped her throat, the trees around us shook and the river quaked. I looked to Hazel and lowered my gaze to kelvin, who was still alive, somehow, just injured. He had a giant dent in his chest that was the cause of the blood on him, but it wasn't severe enough to kill him.

I looked back to Hazel, then prepared myself for a fight. Hazel immediately charged forward, abandoning any sense of care as she made her way toward me. I prepared myself by strengthening my legs, then twisting my body in a giant circle as she got close.

My tail slammed against Hazel and slid against her neck. As the blade on my tail hit her scales, I noticed there didn't even seem to be a scratch. Hazel then moved to chomp down on my tail. Her teeth sunk deep into my scales for a moment before I had the time to shake her off.

『 Tail attack negated 』

『 -20 HP 』

'How? My AC is high enough to ignore any of her attacks! How!' I thought to myself as I backed away. However, before I could get enough distance between the two of us, Hazel charged forward and took another bit at my tail. I quickly twisted my body around, dodging her attack, but was met with a swipe of her tail.

『 Damage Negated 』

'Good!' I thought as I backed away again. As I did so, I used one of my skills『 Fire Breath 』. I opened my mouth, then let a stream of flame escape from my throat. The stream of flame hit Hazel's wing before exploding like an eruption.

『 85 DMG 』

'Yes!' I thought as I looked at the damage, 'Just three more of those and she'll be low.'

『 -100 MP 』

'Holy, what a huge MP cost. I'll have to make sure I have a good shot before I use it!' I thought. I turned back to Hazel, then charged. I landed against Hazel's body and pushed my claws into her shoulders as I took a bite of her neck.

She retaliated by doing the same, and our fight continued like this for a moment. None of our attacks seemed to work, other than the occasional attack. Then, after a full minute of fighting, I backed away again. Hazel began to spread her wings. Her left wing, which was a little burnt, was still on fire. Then, with a strong slam of her wings, she lifted herself into the air.

'Shit, how do I do that?' I thought as I looked at my status.

『 Flight (LVL 1): While in dragon form, you will be able to send mana into your wings to rise into the air and take flight. While in the air, gain a 150% boost to speed 』

I looked back to Hazel and attempted to activate the skill. I moved my wings away from my body, like I was stretching them, and began to channel Mana into my wings. I felt as the Mana entered my wings and began to swirl around like a whirlpool of energy.

I quickly slammed my wings into the ground and watched as my body rose into the air. I flapped my wings again and rose a little bit more, then turned to Hazel. I pushed further until Hazel and I were facing each other face to face. Then, our battle continued.

Hazel zoomed through the air like an arrow, cutting through the wind with accuracy and precision. I, on the other hand, was like a sledgehammer making my way through the air. My method of flight was strange and full of mistakes.

As our battle continued, Hazel's superiority in the air showed itself through her nimbleness. I used my breath attack two more times, wasting 200 MP in the process. Hazel easily dodged both of them, then attacked me with her own version of breath weapon.

Each of her curse breath attacks dealt me 100 damage, which was 15 more than my own. By the end of both of them, our stats looked a little bit like this.

﹃

Arthur Aureys

HP: 125

MP: 360

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﹃

Hazel Conley

HP: 275

MP: 40

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We had been fighting for almost ten minutes now, and both of us were beginning to get a little tired. My health was dangerously low, while Hazel's wasn't. Her nimbleness through the air had proved to be disadvantageous, as she was able to dodge my attacks while I wasn't able to dodge hers.

'Shit,' I thought to myself as I looked at Hazel. We were still in the air, but both of us had stopped attacking. It appeared that Hazel, even while in an enraged state, recognized that she was low on MP. With the MP that I had left, I wasn't going to end up winning against Hazel by bringing her HP down, which meant I only had a few options.

I wanted to summon Aros, but he was busy making sure the twins didn't get anywhere. I was sure that with his strength, they wouldn't be able to oppose him. Icarus was also with Aros, but Icarus wouldn't be able to get an attack in, much less fly.

I had to find some way to make Hazel use the last of her MP, but I couldn't find out how.

Hazel suddenly charged, pulling me from my thoughts. She swam through the air like a shark as she made her way to me. Her eyes were full of hatred as she flew, sending shivers down my spine.

'Shit!'

As she got closer, I felt my body move. I tried to get away from Hazel as she got close, but my body was too slow. I felt Hazel slam against my body like a locomotive, halting any attempts to dodge as we both fell to the ground below us.

When we hit the ground, my body was broken and beaten. My wings were cracked and black dragon blood was leaking from my scales. The parts of my body that Hazel had hit with her breath attack were withered away like rotten skin.

Hazel, on the other hand, was completely fine. She had a few scratches here and there, but it wasn't really bad enough to injure her.

However, she was completely still. I turned my neck to look at her, then used『 Appraisal 』on both of us.

﹃

Arthur Aureys

HP: 2

MP: 150

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﹃

Hazel Conley

HP: 265

MP: 0

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'Holy shit!' I yelled within my mind as I saw my HP. If Hazel had any more MP, I probably would have been. Suddenly, while my eyes were trained on the status plates in front of me, another one popped up.

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『 Hazel 』's enraged state has ended

『 Hazel 』has fainted

Warning: 50% reduction of XP value enforced due to opponent's living status

7,500 XP awarded!

Level up!

Level up!

﹄

I watched as black smoke suddenly covered her entire body. As the last of her scales were covered, her size began to shrink down to the size of a human. Then, once Hazel got her natural size again, the smoke disappeared and her body was revealed. Hazel was found unconscious on my stomach, with the cloak covering most of her body.

'Good,' I inwardly sighed as I transformed back into my human form. Flames enveloped my body for a moment before my form shrunk back down to normal. Once the flames disappeared, I looked down at my body.

My body was covered in bruises and scrapes. My limbs were bent in strange angles and the surface of my armor was blackened from curse magic. I suddenly began to have trouble breathing as every little injury on my body raged at me as I moved.

"Shit," I mumbled as I looked away. My consciousness began to fade, so I decided to do the only thing I could before I passed out. I lifted my arm, then casted『 Dungeon Visit 』.

A giant portal appeared in front of me, erupting like a volcano. I could only look at it for a moment before my eyelids dropped and the world went black.