As our gazes interlocked with one another, I momentarily forgot about everyone else, and the fact that we were not alone. As I stared at her deep ocean eyes, I felt as if my pride was challenged.
Ever since I first used magic, water mana had always been there with me. Although it was not long since I started, yet it already felt like an unreplaceable part of me.
Facing the blue scaled dragoness, the mana that always listened to me and has been helping me all this time was split up between us. I didn't like it at all, It felt like I was being forced to share a friend, no a lover with someone else.
My pride as a dragon did not allow me to back down. I unconsciously reached out to the energy swirling around my heart, this time I was not using it for a dragon breath or anything of sorts, no I was using it for something I had learned back when I was still at home.
The energy gently flowed from my heart making its way towards my eyes like a small stream, causing them to glow golden. As I blinked, the world around me changed in colors so pretty, so bright and vivid.
It was the stream of mana. I could still somewhat make it out without the use of the energy, yet if I focused it on my eyes, the stream becomes extremely clear allowing me to see the world in all of its different colors.
The surrounding area was filled to the brim with a strange type of mana I had never seen before. It was oozing out of the shining light that descended onto the floating platform.
The color of this odd mana was dark blue. It did not feel like water nor did it feel like any other element I was familiar with. It was then that I suddenly recalled what the strange dragon, Amanita told me about there being other elements.
'The pillars of existence?' I wondered, momentarily forgetting about the water dragoness.
She did not like me ignoring her apparently, as I could see her summoning all the water mana in our surroundings towards her and away from me.
'Hmph,' I inwardly harrumphed unconcerned, in my current state when I use my heart energy, my affinity, and control over water mana increase sharply.
It was a different matter when you can actually 'see' the stream of mana. Our blue scaled dragoness was forcing her will unto the stream, bending it to her whims.
I inwardly shook my head in disappointment. I thought she might have been different since she was also a fellow water dragon, yet it seemed like I was wrong.
Forcing 'water' is never a good idea. It's always for the best if the mana actually wants to help you. Treat it as a friend and it shall treat you the same. I did not need to force my will to change the flow of the stream.
Water always goes with the flow, taking the shape of whatever place it goes. It was a strong and free energy that shouldn't be bound, nor should It be tamed. Instead, one should learn to coexist with it.
At least that was the answer I came up with after my countless experiments back home. There were still a lot of things I did not know about when it came to magic, yet I was still confident that I wouldn't lose to this dragoness when it came to mana control.
And just as expected, once I reached out to the water mana, encouraging it to come back by my side as I pushed out my good intentions. The stream which was flowing towards the blue scaled dragoness came to an abrupt halt, as mana rushed to gather around me.
The dragoness' eyes widened in shock as she felt her grip over the surrounding water mana loosen. I did not care about her gaze any longer, as I turned away to glance at the other members in the hall.
Water materialized around my body as it began to gracefully dance in and out of existence. The water mana was excited. 'It really does feel like it's sentient.' I inwardly mumbled.
My little clash with the water dragoness did not go unnoticed, grandfather had a smug look on his face as he stared at the adult dragon that surrounded the blue scaled dragoness, I could sense the various waves through the air, they were talking yet I was unable to figure out what they were saying.
Pulling my attention away from them, I turned to scan the other occupants of the hall. An adult muscular brown dragon accompanied a hornless youngling with the same scale colors, they stood the closest to the water dragoness.
The pair that stood the closest to the door and us, was surprisingly an adult red dragon with a similarly red-scaled youngling, his eyes glared at me with defiance as I could sense his fighting intent. His eyes reminded me of Golden boy which caused me to let out a chuckle.
This did not sit well with the young red dragon as he almost lunged himself towards me but was immediately stopped by a small fire ball to the face from the adult who accompanied him.
My eyes widened in surprise at the sudden attack, yet it did not seem to do much damage to the youngling who appeared to be almost my size and merely pushed him back a few steps.
He did not attempt any more attacks and simply glared at me with hostility. I shook my head and turned towards the final participants, and perhaps the most interesting ones at that.
The adult dragoness had multicolored scales, her left side was almost pink, while her right one was the color of steel. The youngling that accompanied her was another female who had the same light pink scales.
'Pink? I wonder what element that must be,' I thought in curiosity.
'Steel should be self-explanatory, but pink is a bit...' I frowned my eyes suddenly met with the young dragoness.
In that second, I could feel my emotions stir as my heart was suddenly filled with good intentions towards her. I felt as If I was supposed to give everything I had to her.
As I blinked the sudden unfamiliar emotions disappeared as the water mana alongside my heart energy seemed to move into overdrive expelling an almost invisible thread of pink mana from my body.
'What the?! When did she get the chance to do that?!' I gulped, as I glared at her in hostility. She was dangerous.
As if surprised her spell didn't work, the pink dragoness turned her gaze towards me with curiosity. 'I think It's best If I avoid that one,' I mumbled.