For Evan, the dragon flicked his tail on the ground, transforming the earth into quicksand that trapped and slowed Evan who was dashing towards him from behind.
'Crimson Pheonix Blaze!'
Summoning a majestic phoenix engulfed in white flames, Faldo let it soar through the air, leaving behind a trail of intense heat that crystallized the sand of the earth as it beelined towards Evan.
David teleported in just in time, using his anti-magic barrier to block and send the phoenix back to Faldo, at two times the speed.
The Dragon just barely evaded the phoenix, before leaping backwards and activating multiple magic spells.
[White Inferno! Crystal Shard Barrage! Meteorite Forge!]
Except for the White Inferno, the other two spells were tier 3. Faldo gritted his teeth as the pain from the earlier Terra Strike + Collapse combo wrecked his body, but he still channelled energy into his maw.
'Annihilus Ascendance: Ephemeral Cataclysm'
Activating stage two, the dragon's body began to undergo a more pronounced transformation. The annihilation energy in the breath he was charging increased in concentration and his scales began to radiate a brighter glow.
His new defensive capabilities were quickly put to the test when David nullified the Crystal Shard Barrage and Meteorite Forge spells, before countering the White Inferno and sending it back to him.
The widespread conflagration burned everything within the crater, sweeping over Faldo's body as he was in its path, but the dragon emerged with only a few burns on his scales.
"No shit." Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs NovєlFіre.net
The two heroes quickly recognized the power-up that Faldo had just gained, but while David still had his Inner Beast's Second Awakening, Evan was running out of juice…very quickly.
He had been seeing that notification in his field of view for the last minute, and he knew what it was without having to open it.
His time for BoD was running out.
David punched the air in front of him consecutively, moving so fast his fists blurred as he sent shockwaves flying towards the dragon.
Faldo cast a spell to block the shockwaves as he moved to avoid Evan's slashes.
'It didn't disappear?! I see! So that's his power!!'
The dragon came to an understanding when he saw that the energy he had been intending to use to heal himself but had redirected to cast a defensive spell at the last moment was unaffected by whatever it was David did to mess with magic.
'He doesn't mess with 'Spells' he messes with 'Magic Spells' alone!'
Coming to this realisation, Faldo unleashed a breath to push Evan away, before turning his focus to David and launching multiple magic spells.
Everything that was Tier 3 and below was quickly nullified with a gaze from the boy, but when it came to the White Flame Inferno, a Tier 4 spell, David used Counter spell.
'Is it by choice…or that he has no option?'
Such was his thought as he moved his claws coated in annihilation essence to exchange strikes with Evan at supersonic speed, tearing apart the ground beneath their feet.
The dragon then drew upon the minimal etheric reserves that he usually kept for healing alone, and then activated three spells with it.
[Celestial Vortex! Light of Frost! Quasic Surge!]
He conjured a swirling vortex of light and darkness, creating a massive storm that surged towards the two heroes. The light of Frost released a burst of freezing light that emanated from the dragon's body, creating a shockwave that froze and damaged anything in its range.
To top it off, the dragon condensed his ether and released a surge of powerful light waves to disintegrate anything in its path.
Faldo was sure they would have no choice but to either dodge or block.
Until David activated his skill once more.
Seeing his spells still countered even after he was sure he had deduced the workings of the skill delayed Faldo's reaction just enough for him to be struck by the Frost Light, causing his forelimbs to freeze.
But this wasn't something that couldn't be handled with a bit of fire, heating up his body to melt the ice as he looked at David with shock.
The young hero saw the look in the dragon's eyes and he couldn't help but laugh as he spoke.
"My skill is 'Counter Spell', not 'Counter Magic Spell', stupid lizard."
Indeed, Faldo had assumed that David's skill worked on magic spells alone, since he seemed to have the ability to nullify magic spells of a certain level.
But that assumption turned out to be wrong and if it wasn't for his ridiculously fast reaction speed, it would have been a lot worse.
The dragon inhaled deeply before drawing up the annihilation aura that surrounded him and exhaling a full-powered breath.
[Breath of Annihilation.]
'Vindiction's Strike.'
The formidable torrent of annihilation energy surged forth, while Evan sent a beam of Mesarthim's flames to counter it with the two attacks colliding mid-way and igniting in a catastrophic explosion.
The two heroes fled the crater and let the explosion engulf Faldo alone, giving Evan time to down a few energy and strength-enhancing potions.
But before he could even open up the potion bottles, his shadow expanded and his favourite battle priestess emerged from within, placing her hands on his back and transferring her magic power into him to replenish his.
"I have too much life energy drained from hundreds of monsters, if I don't release the excess, I'll overload myself."
While she spoke, she cast spells on Evan to heal his strained muscles, but her expression quickly turned dark when she noticed the state of the Destruction energy in his body.
"It's more volatile than usual…! Evan! How long do you have left?!"
The boy refused to answer her when she asked, but Eliza certainly wasn't going to accept Evan's silence at this point.
She turned his body around and grabbed him tightly before repeating her earlier question.
David looked on with confusion as he didn't seem to understand the reason for her agitation, but when he appraised Evan and looked at the Blessing skill the boy had, he quickly figured out why.
"Enough to finish this fight without having my soul wounded too much."
"Cut the bullshit, Evan. Just tell me how many minutes are left on that thing!"
Unfortunately, Eliza wasn't given the time to get her answer as a giant iron meteor engulfed in white flames descended from above, and Evan blinked out of her hold, teleporting right above the meteor and activating Vindiction's strike below it.
The beam of flames surged outward and collided with the meteor, triggering a blinding explosion in the air that pushed Evan back a great deal.
The boy created a void step at his back to kill his momentum, but this made him a perfect target for Faldo's magic.
A towering spire of ice emerged from the ground and grew towards Evan's back, intending to impale him, on it but the hero turned around faster than David could even activate counter spell and used his signature unique skill.
The spiralling mass of crimson gold energy shredded the spire to pieces, before whirling through the air and down to where Faldo blocked with his Imperial Scales.
'Elemental Destruction Fusion.'
Evan infused his sword with the power of three unique skills, swirling the energy of a fourth around it as he took a deep breath and charged towards Faldo.
David charged in alongside him and the two rapidly blinked away to avoid the barrage of luminous beams the dragon sent their way as they dashed in his direction.
Faldo slammed his tail to the ground and sent out seismic waves to disrupt their movement, but David nullified them with his own skill, before jumping up in the air and pulling back both fists.
He was about to use his shockwave skill when he noticed that Faldo was gathering huge amounts of ether in preparation for a spell.
The dragon should have known that it didn't matter even if he used another energy, but he still did it either way.
'Did he see through my limit? No. If he did, then he'd be using a Tier 4 Magic spell instead.'
David sent flying shockwaves to the dragon but Faldo leapt to the side to dodge, before constructing an ether spell circle and launching a giant spear of flames at him.
Evan tried to stop David from using his skill but it was already too late. The giant spear of flame hit the barrier surrounding David and rebounded towards Faldo.
However, unlike before, Faldo did not jump away and instead let the spell hit him.
David was confused by this strange behaviour, but when he saw what the white flames were doing, his eyes widened in shock.
Everywhere the tongues of flames licked over the dragon's body, David could see his flesh wounds healing in real-time. Even the tissues in the wing that Evan had destroyed began mending themselves back.
It was then that Faldo, with an expression that could only be called a grin, spoke.
"Ignis Vitalis is a 'healing spell', not an 'attack spell', stupid Cat."
Today, David learned something first-hand.
Not to underestimate a dragon's intelligence.
Especially one holding a grudge because of something you said, as they'd pay you back in ways you least expected.