Chapter 23: The mighty dragon
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The dragon approaches me and looks straight at my face, I wait for him to do or say something but he's just standing there, doing nothing... this is a bit awkward.

"So... are we going to fight now? Or are we just going to have a staring contest?"

"Eh!? How are you able to resist my intimidation skill!?"

Intimidation? What is he talking about? All he's doing is staring at me, is this supposed to be intimidating? I hope not, because I often stare at people in a similar way whenever I'm nervous talking to someone, did they think that I was trying to be intimidating?

"Don't you understand how strong I am? Go down to your knees and start begging already!"

He grabs me with one of his front claws and starts pushing me, but that's not enough to move me and I start pushing back.

"Eh!? What's the deal with this strength?"

Then he starts using his other front claw as well and pushes me harder.

"Ugh... go down already"

Now that he's using all his power to push me he's actually managing to overpower me, it seems like his strength stat is a bit higher than mine, in that case...

'Strength drain'

With the help from my spell, I manage to push him away from me, causing him to fall to the ground.

"How can you be this strong!? Even a powerful warrior would be no match for me, and you look like a mage!"

"I am a mage, but I'm level 508, you should probably surrender, I don't think that you can beat me"

"508? Do you think I'm going to believe that!?"

No, of course not, I would not believe it either, I guess I'll need to give him some proof, but I'm afraid of using my full power here...

I guess I'll just prove myself by beating him.

"If you really are as strong as you claim to be, you should be able to survive something like this"

He jumps into the air and flies away from me, then, a cone of flame comes out from his mouth towards me, I can already feel the heat from this distance. So this is the real 'dragon fire breath' attack, the one he used against my imps cannot even be compared to this one.

'Shadow hole'

However, the flames are dragged into a large shadow I create on the ground and disappear without a trace.

"Not bad, then let's see if you can stop this one"

He breathes another cone of fire, this one seems much more powerful than the last one, a few rocks that come in contact with it seem to be melting a little, isn't it dangerous to use such a powerful fire attack this close to a forest?

'Shadow hole'

Well, my magic is still way stronger, so I guess it's not really a problem.

"Stop wasting time and just go directly to your most powerful attack, don't worry, I can take it"

"Uh... that was actually... the strongest one"

Oh! That was it? I guess he's telling the truth because he is making a face as if he cannot believe what he's seeing, seeing a dragon with his mouth open like that is actually kinda funny.

"Hehe"

"YOU ARE LAUGHING AT ME!?"

"Ah, no, I just remembered a joke someone told me"

"I'll let you know that my greatest stat is toughness, even if you can barely manage to stop my attacks, there's nothing you can do to hurt me"

What does he mean with 'barely manage'? I stopped them completely and I didn't even have to put much effort into it.

"Does that mean that it's my turn to attack you now?"

"Go ahead, do your worst"

He's smiling with a prideful expression, he seems rather sure of himself.

"Are you certain? I might really hurt you if I do this"

"Hah! Impossible! Your pathetic magic will not be able to pierce the mighty scales of a dragon"

I'm still a bit hesitant to use attack magic against a person... but he seems confident that he can take it, so I suppose it will be fine.

'Shadow lance'

My pathetic magic is able to pierce the mighty scales of the dragon and makes him bleed from the side.

"Ouch!"

Now he's rolling on the floor in a humorous manner... maybe I should have held back a bit more, he seems to be in pain.

"See...? That... was nothing... you cannot... beat me"

He's panting so much that he's having trouble talking.

"It looks to me like that hurt you quite a bit, do you want to quit now?"

"I only got a scratch... something like this is not enough... to take down a dragon"

Is that so? Then I'll try to use a bit more power this time.

'Shadow lance'

"Ugh!"

He's rolling on the floor again, maybe it's because I've never fought a dragon before, but that really looks to me like he's hurt.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"I... yes..."

Maybe I went a bit too far... but it's not my fault! He was bragging so much about of tough he was that I cannot be blamed for thinking he could take it.

"Eh... sorry about that, let me get closer so I can heal you"

"What!? You are my opponent! I will not accept being healed by you! Stay away!"

Oh! I must have hurt his pride by saying that, since I'm not much of a fighter I didn't realize that what I said was rather rude, a true warrior would never accept help from their opponents, maybe this guy is actually worthy of some respect after all.

"You are clearly running out of power... if I let you heal me you will use that as an excuse for losing! I've seen right through your plan"

I take back what I just said, he's just an idiot.

"Now, let me show you my... "

"That's enough"

"Eh?"

"You are going to admit defeat right now, or else I'm REALLY going to hurt you, do you understand?"

To make my point clear I gather a mass of dark mana on my right hand, causing the air in the area to tremble in a strange manner.

"I... uh..."

It looks like I activated 'intimidate' again, this guy is actually able to remain conscious at least, but he still seems to be a bit scared, every time I take a step towards him he takes a step backward.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes! I surrender!"

Mmmm, 'intimidate' seems to be very effective, maybe I'll use it intentionally a few times in the future if I can figure out how.

"Good, now I'm going to heal you and you are going to tell me where you left the girl you took with you, is that clear?"

"Yes, mam!"

This dragon was much easier to defeat than the knight captain from that other time, I suppose it's true that levels are not everything.

At least it seems like his injuries were not serious, healing them was rather easy.

"But what I said earlier was true, I did not kidnap Nera, she agreed to help me look for the lost relic I was searching for by using that skill of hers"

"Nera?"

"That blue-haired girl I brought here, I thought that you were looking for her"

"Yes, I am looking for her, but... she told you her name!?"

This is just unfair, there's no way that I am less trustworthy than this guy, is there?

"Yes... like I said she agreed to help me"

"But I did not agree to that until you had already taken me here, I would say that was still kidnapping"

She's here now, I wonder if she's been watching the entire fight, let's hope that didn't scare her even more...

"But why did he take you here in the first place?"

"That was thanks to that witch friend of yours"

"My witch friend? Do you mean Arana?"

But Arana told me that she had escaped and then got taken by the dragon, how could that have been her fault?

"I was searching for a lost relic that is supposed to be really dangerous, the last time it was seen it was taken to a secret research facility that then became these ruins, but I could not find it anywhere"

Oh, so that's why this place was so well hidden and trapped.

"Then I remembered that they told me that the relic is supposed to make a buzzing noise when magic is used nearby, so I went to the town to ask if there was anyone with good hearing that could help me, that's when that pink-haired girl told me that this girl here had a skill just for that and that she was willing to help"

"Even then, you should have at least asked before grabbing me..."

Eh? Does that mean that this was Arana's fault after all? She lied to me!

"Arana!"

But it's already too late, no matter how much I look, she's nowhere to be seen, now that I think about it, I didn't see her at all during the fight.

"So she escaped..."

I had some unexpected free time today, so I decided to write another chapter.

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