[Beast continent]

Ignoring the buildings and tents he crashed as he let himself drop back to the ground, Tahas didn't rush back at Inrad and instead kept the distance. Focusing on the warm sensation on his neck, he frowned when he confirmed the shallow cut the latter had managed to inflict during their last exchange.

Dwelling on the wound for a moment before doing his best to ignore it, he didn't immediately return his focus on Inrad, at least not fully. Keeping one eye on his opponent, he turned his head to see how the men and women his father had given him to command were doing.

Though as his gaze wandered to the burning section of the camp to his right, he suddenly paused for a second as he realized how far he and Inrad had moved during their battle. Instead of standing nearly in the exact center of the camp, he was now over half the way from there to the walls.

In response to this discovery, Tahas's frown deepened even further. Feeling disappointed by the fact that he couldn't fully match a dragon that hadn't even reached the mythical rank even in his strongest state, the look he had toward Inrad turned to one of defiance.

When his eyes reached their target, this change only intensified. Seeing one of his half-sisters standing amidst the sea of fire she created, flanked by draconians and surrounded by both beastmen and beast corpses, he was determined to present a good example.

Noticing this shift through the spike in his mana presence, the draconians and the dragon-blooded beasts and beastmen, of whom nearly all had already won their fights, started retreating away from him. Only his half-siblings, the other half-dragons accompanying him, remained, with some even moving closer to him.

Meanwhile, Darganth was the fight with an amused smile.

Standing next to him were Allaire and Jennia, both of whom were looking in the same direction in interest. Serania, who stood directly behind Darganth and looked over his left shoulder, did the same, though her expression carried a hint of worry with it.

“Are we safe here?” She asked Darganth.

“Absolutely. We may need to dodge if an attack comes flying in our direction but otherwise, it's completely fine.” Darganth answered.

Turning around and looking behind them, he added, “Though I am not so sure about them, especially as they no longer have a mage to cast the necessary spells if the heat rises even further.”

Following his gaze, Serania and Allaire both looked at the trio of beastmen aura users currently stabilizing the fourth survivor among them. Momentarily glancing over to the footprint of Jennia's claw that was where the third order mage had dug himself in, Allaire turned back to the four with a look of pity on her face.

“Should we warn them?” Serania asked.

“If you want, it's not like I expected this and only spared them because they would soon die anyway. Even with the greatest streak of luck, they could never hope to be a danger to any one of us so I don't see a reason to still kill them after they have given up. Besides, the shadow user may become mildly useful to Bator in the future.” Darganth said.

“Intuition or did you take a look at their likely future?” Allaire asked him.

“Future. You know I don't like leaving potentially dangerous enemies around so I had to make sure that sparing them isn't a mistake. And while it's just the most likely course of events and no guarantee, it will take over a year for the first of them to fully recover from their injuries.”

This evaluation from him surprised Allaire.

“That long?” She asked shocked.

“At least when everything goes as I have seen it. If not it will take just under a month for at least three of them to make a full recovery, but that future is nearly guaranteed to have an early death in store for both them and the archer. In the more likely scenario they'll physically recover in about a week but be slowed down by the still-injured archer, leading to multiple setbacks in the time before the damage I've done to their mana pathways fully heals.”

“Yeah, This continent is merciless.” Allaire commented, knowing full well that those setbacks were beasts, monsters, or beastmen attacking them.

Pondering for a moment what to do, she turned around as she came to a decision.

“I'm going to have to sit this one out anyways so why not use that time and help them out of here.” She said.

“With what I can sense from over there I don't want to be there so I'll join you in that.” Serania said a moment later.

“Alright. Just don't try to heal them, it won't improve their situation for long.” Darganth said.

Nodding in acknowledgment, the two women walked over to the four beastmen.

“I take it you're going to join the fray?” Jennia asked him once he turned back around toward the two fighting dragons.

“I'll let Tahas try, if it doesn't work I'll intervene.” Darganth told her.

“Great, I'll join you.” Jennia said with an eager smile.

“Seems like someone still has too much energy left.” He joked in response, eliciting a small grin from Jennia.

Continuing with their teasing, the two waited and watched Tahas last ditch effort.

Standing opposite of Inrad, the half-dragon's body was fully covered in two different kinds of flames. When Darganth first turned back to him the darker red flames were by far the more dominant ones, covering most of his body, whereas the significantly lighter orange ones extended only included Tahas's head and part of his neck where they were fighting to push the darker flames back.

But as the seconds passed and Inrad didn't try to interrupt him, this balance started shifting more and more. What started as an orange speck in a sea of red soon turned into an inferno covering Tahas's entire body after having devoured the red flames nearly completely, leaving only the occasional red streak in the sea of orange.

Roaring as the change finished, Tahas charged at Inrad with renewed confidence.

Scoffing in response, Inrad spread his wings and stretched forelegs, consequently raising his chest, in preparation for their clash.

Letting Tahas close the distance, he disregarded the flames covering his opponent's body and pounced as soon as he came into range. Batting away the claw slashing at his neck, Innrad his other arm's claws into Tahas shoulder right as their bodies crashed into each other.

Sliding a couple of meters back and leaving grooves in the ground as even his claws didn't provide enough grip to stop Tahas, Inrad pushed back against him until he came to a stop. Immediately striking out with his free arm, he shifted his weight forward as he dragged his opponent by his shoulders.

Flailing as he tried to stop himself from crashing to the ground, Tahas managed to bring his forelegs back under his body just in time to catch his descent. Though as he came to an abrupt halt, Inrad's claws still pushed down, causing them to slice through scale and flesh alike as they tore bloody gashes down both of Tahas's arms.

Ignoring the pain, he reared up before Inrad could react and struck out with his wings. Striking from both sides, his right wing perfectly struck its target, with the backward bending joint crashing into Inrad's head, throwing it to the side.

The left wing meanwhile missed slightly, overshooting its target and smashing into Inrad's neck. However, instead of the claw attached to the joint sliding down along the scales, this one hit had a better angle, allowing it to puncture through the scales and dig into the flesh.

Swaying from side to side due to the sudden impact, Inrad didn't even see it coming when Tahas followed this up with a strike to the chest. Roaring in pain as the claws dug into his flesh, his mind cleared up as adrenalin flooded his system.

The moment he regained his bearing, Inrad jumped back and retreated with a couple of beats of his wings. Ignoring the pain of Tahas's claw being ripped out of his neck, he acted with far more caution than before and hunkered down, lowering his posture and taking a defensive stance.

Smirking at his opponent's wariness, Tahas didn't pursue him. Rising to his full height instead, he started drawing mana from his heart and gathering it in his throat.

A second later he let his head jump forward with his maw open and roared. Unleashing the gathered energy in the form of a cone of orange flames, he aimed his breath attack directly at Inrad.

Crossing the roughly one hundred meters separating them in an instant, Inrad was impressed by the speed of Tahas's flames but that was it. Otherwise wholly disregarding them, he stood his ground instead of using one of the ample opportunities he had to dodge them and instead trusted his fire resistance.

Melting earth and stone as they tore through and erased large swaths of the camp, the solar flames completely engulfed Inrad as they washed over him.

To his surprise, the moment the flames struck him Inrad felt his flesh sizzling. Looking down at one of his legs with wide eyes, he froze up when he saw his scales slowly warping under the heat. Bending out of shape or falling off his skin entirely, they revealed the blistering and rapidly incinerating skin below.

Howling in pain as the completely foreign feeling of extreme heat finally registered, Inrad pushed his mana outward in a panicked effort to protect himself. Forming it into ice magic, he rapidly cooled the temperature around him.

Contesting the extreme heat of Tahas's breath and slowly pushing it back, Inrad sighed in relief when the temperature on his skin dropped to a level he could endure. Taking a couple of seconds to catch his breath, he turned his gaze and stared at Tahas through the torrent of flames.

Pushing himself out of the river of lava that had formed all around, he didn't wait for his surroundings to cool down enough that the ground would stop melting and instead rose into the air. Rearing up, he roared as he rushed at Tahas.

Breaking out of the sea of flames, Inrad immediately dove at Tahas. Reaching him before the latter could raise his head to redirect his breath attack, he slammed down onto the other dragon and struck his head with his claw, knocking it down and against the ground.

Grabbing him by the base of the neck before he could recover, Inrad heaved Tahas up. Reaching back with his other arm, he struck out with his claws and dug them deep into his opponent's abdomen.

Pushing him back despite Tahas's efforts to stop him, Inrad walked out of the pool of lava he had landed in. Ignoring the claws ripping out his scales and digging into his flesh, he threw him to the side.

“I admit, I am impressed that a half-dragon like you managed to produce flames hot enough to affect me but this ends here. You barely have any mana left, you're transformation won't last for another full minute and even with it you still only have the physical power of a solar dragon your age, so just give up.” Inrad said as Tahas slowly rose from the ground, his legs shaking from exhaustion.

Opening his mouth to answer, Tahas didn't get a single sound out before he collapsed back to the ground.

“Still, you can be proud, had you been a full-blooded solar dragon I would likely have lost despite being nearly twice your age. But sadly for you, half-dragons fall short of their full-blooded counterparts in far too many aspects for you to have had a chance.”

“I've been reminded of that my whole life so are you finished?” Tahas growled in rage.

“No, far from it. Thanks to you my plan went up in smoke so at least some retribution is in order. If I could I wouldn't even have let you go this easily after having caught you, but I think we both know that the moment I try anything more my body will freeze up, becoming little more than a puppet that traps me in it.” Inrad said.

Hearing the frustration in his voice, Tahas's mood changed abruptly and he started laughing even as his dragon form dissolved into flames. Continuing even as his being was temporarily only a mass of fire that quickly condensed into his humanoid form, he didn't care for the wounds that carried over to it and freely showed his amusement and glee.

“So you really were up to something. I would love to wait and learn what, but I'll just ask his majesty once he's finished with you.” He said with a grin, his previous frustration completely gone.

Rising from the ground, Tahas nearly fell back down right away but was caught by another half-dragon that had rushed to his side. Pulling his arm over his shoulder, the man helped him stand despite the blood freely flowing from the wounds on his torso, neck, and arms as the two evacuated the area.

“Oh, and good luck. Up until now, I've only heard stories but he seemed furious when he heard about you so I'm excited for the show.” Tahas shouted back as farewell.

Frowning at those words, Inrad hesitated for a second before turning around to where Darganth and Jennia were walking toward him.