Erend could feel it now without a doubt that this enemy was powerful. Not the usual kind of strong. Not the kind he could overwhelm with brute force or raw flame like always. This was different.
Usually, even when facing something new, some monstrous creature or unknown sorcerer, he remained calm and confident. Because deep down, he always knew that his Dragonborn power would carry him through.
He had faced horrors and walked through them still breathing.
But this vine-clad woman wrapped in fire? She was something else. She knew about Dragonborns. Her words had weight and history about his kind that even he himself didn't have. She had fought his kind and defeated them.
This wasn't a fight he could coast through. Not this time. He couldn't afford arrogance or carelessness.
"This one's strong, Eccar. Be serious," Erend sent a quick telepathic message to Eccar, his tone sharper than usual.
On the ground, Eccar stood still and staring into the sky. He had just received Erend's message. The look in his eyes changed. His usual playfulness, his smirk, and the casual tilt of his stance was gone now.
If Erend was saying that… then the situation was worse than he thought.
Erend never sounded to worried . Even when they faced the Six Pillars of Dominion. Erend kept that unshakable center. But now? That calm had cracked.
And it brought something else back to Eccar's mind, the Rage.
That moment and power. That overwhelming loss of control that nearly tore them apart last time. Just the memory of it made Eccar's hands tremble.
He gritted his teeth and shook his head, forcing the anxiety down. No. Not now. They were stronger and smarter now. As long as they kept their heads, they would win without experiencing the Rage.
His skin shimmered as thick black and brown Dragon scales coated his body, and Dragon wings unfolded from his back.
With a blast of wind and force, Eccar took off toward the next rift. He will let Erend handle the enemy for now while he would close the rifts.
Above the forest, the battle between Erend and Orzhal-Kur lit up the sky like a second sun.
Erend's body was wreathed in red and black scales, gleaming like molten obsidian. Fire flared from his arms and back, his wings cutting through the air with every beat. His eyes glowed bright, focused, and locked onto his opponent.
Orzhal-Kur hovered effortlessly. Her form looks wild and elegant like a queen of chaos from another world. Vines twisted around her arms and legs and no longer protecting her vital parts. The vines pulsing with Magic energy from another dimension. The orange fire curled from her fingertips like serpents. Her smile was constant, mocking, and fearless.
They clashed in a storm of fire and fury.
Erend hurled waves of red flame that was so hot they hissed and exploded in the air. But Orzhal-Kur met each one with her own fire that looks brighter, wilder, and laced with something ancient. The fire feels older than Erend's fire.
The sky screamed from their power, the clouds parted and the trees below were scorched just from the heat raining down.
Erend shot forward, spinning midair and unleashing a spiral of flame from his palm, but Orzhal-Kur countered by slamming her hands together. Vines burst out in a net and absorbing the fire as if drinking the energy into their writhing form before hurling it back at him.
The blast slammed into Erend but he rolled through it and grunting. Steam rising from his shoulders.
Then he roared and launched upward. His wings snapped wide and he released a sphere of condensed fire from his chest like a burning comet that surged toward her.
Orzhal-Kur snarled. Her vines coiling together into a massive whip. With a single snap she struck the fireball mid-flight and detonated it.
The explosion rocked the sky, sending shockwaves for miles. The forest trembled.
From the smoke, Erend emerged, breathing hard with his eyes glowing bright crimson.
Orzhal-Kur's grin widened and said, "I've killed your kind before."
Then she rushed him in the next moment like a tempest of fire and vines, striking with a speed that bent the air.
Erend blocked one strike and ducked the second but the third vine lashed across his side and drew blood, even through his scales.
He retaliated with fists wreathed in flame and slamming it into her with powerful force. The impact sent both of them tumbling, fire trailing behind like comets in collision.
They spiraled downward while still locked together in battle. Wings, vines, fire, and flame. Neither yielding or holding back.
They finally crashed to the earth with a deafening explosion. The shockwave blasted outward, tearing through the forest in a ten-meter radius, flattening trees and sending dirt and ash into the sky. When the smoke cleared a deep crater marked the point of impact.
Within it, the battle keep going.
Orzhal-Kur recovered first. Her expression twisted in furious delight. She cracked her vine-whip forward and it shot out like a serpent, coiling tightly around Erend's body before he could react.
But it wasn't just to restrain him. She poured her orange fire through the vines and the flames surged across their length like liquid light, searing into his scales.
Erend grunted, the heat surging fast. It wasn't normal fire. It was something ancient, primal, and hungry. Even his Dragonborn scales began to crack and hiss under the assault.
He grimaced, his body trembling with effort, and then he roared.
A burst of raw Magic exploded from within him, fire and a little bit of lightning erupting outward. The burning vines split apart, vaporized in an instant. Steam and smoke burst into the air around him.
Then, with his wings flaring wide, Erend shot forward so fast that he blurred. In a flash, he closed the distance and slammed his fist into Orzhal-Kur's face.
The blow landed clean.
Her head snapped back and her body launched through the air, crashing into the far edge of the crater with a sound like stone shattering. Dust and debris flew in all directions as the ground trembled beneath them.
Erend stood in the center of the crater. Steam rising from his whole body, fire still flickering around his fists. His eyes glowed with fury.
He didn't stop for long and continue charging toward Orzhal-Kur and attacking.