POV Vesuvius:
Heavy snow was slowly falling from the sky, the small white flakes slowly descending from the sky. The whole sky was enshrouded by dark snow clouds that were constantly moving under the powerful cold wind.
The clouds suddenly split apart, something fast piercing through them before instantly vanishing in the distance as a tiny dot.
Endless plains covered in snow stretched as far as an eye could see, with absolute whiteness everywhere.
A loud bang shattered the silence with massive lightning in the distance splitting the sky in half.
Then another lightning struck, with blinding light illuminating the snow-filled sky, the bright light refracting in the tiny ice crystals, creating a surreal show of light.
The dragon with insanely large wings flew through the onslaught of snow, wind and lightning, elements breaking havoc all around him. Each snowflake melted before it could even get close enough.
‘The whole dragonkind is like terraforming machines with their domains. Still interesting how weird it is when the weather is at once getting affected by nature and at the same time by a domain.’
He could feel an insanely powerful source of magic in the distance. It was like a beacon that every mana-sensitive being could feel. It was pulsing and alive.
The dragon flapped his wings, sending gushes of hot air around, turning snowflakes into steam.
His massive body immediately accelerated, the magic growing in intensity with winds and lightning going berserk as he kept getting closer towards it.
The closer he got, the more worried he became.
Suddenly unimaginable thunder shook his whole body, and his sensitive ears rang in the aftermath.
A bright blue light flooded the sky, and a wyrm in a cloak of lightning blasted straight towards him, bolts of lightning striking all around their sleek and elegant body that greatly contrasted with the heavy and aggressively looking body of the dragon.
It stopped right in front of the dragon flapping its huge wings and gazing at the dragon with its eyes crackling with lightning.𝒪𝓥xt.𝑶
The wyrm was giant but only around Vesuvius’s size, giving him some confidence.
A voice that weirdly resonated with lightning whose intensity kept rising and decreasing together with the tone of the voice, “You have changed, you look different, your elements are different, yet it is still you.”
Magic washed all over Vesuvius, probing every cranny of his body. He slowly kept flapping his wings, feeling like he was drowning in the aura of the wyrm.
“What do you seek, young dragon? I doubt that you have come without any purpose.”
Thy wyrm was speaking fast, its voice sounding as if it was electrically synthesized.
‘They must have powerful connections to their storm element.’
Vesuvius refused to display any sign of weakness or hesitation as he spoke with confidence and pride worthy of a dragon, “I came here for answers. You are ancient. You must know a lot.”
The winds suddenly intensified, howling louder than jet engines as they gushed around the wyrm and the dragon, “Wery well, but I require payment for my services, in gold.”
He felt like cursing, hating how greedy the ancient wyrm was. His heart was screaming at him to refuse such a deal, as it was painful to say goodbye to even one of his precious golden coins. It was unthinkable to him.
His rational mind was telling him that it was a low price for the knowledge, but his heart was screaming even louder, telling him it was terrible.
Seeing his hesitation, the ancient wyrm erupted into laughter, with lightning striking to the rhythm of their laughter, “Hahaha, I see you are indeed still a dragon, to be so greedy. That is good, I had my doubts about you being really a dragon, but now I believe you.”
‘Was it some kind of a test?’
However, the wyrm shattered his hopes that he would get it for free almost immediately: “You still have to pay, but it will not be in gold, as I know it is too important for us to give it up. Instead, I want your blood!”
‘Everything would be so easy if dragon kind was charitable instead…’ still, he felt much better when he learned that he would not have to give up his gold, which suddenly made him realize something that he until now didn’t even notice, ‘Why do we dragons love gold so much. The wyrm even mentioned it is important. We love all of the treasures, but gold is still best. Why?’
Overall he found that price was more than just acceptable as he was eager to discover its effects on the wyrm, his curiosity peaking even higher now.
Initially, he came just for some answers but the longer he faced the wyrm, the more he realised how old and knowledgeable they were.
‘There is something more valuable than a few answers that I can get any time.’
“In that case, help me improve my magic! I need and want more power to bring the whole world under our rule!”
Wyrms were magical specialists of draconic species, and with how ancient the wyrm was, Vesuvius was more than sure that they must have developed their own unique magic while having multiple tricks at their disposal.
There was no response, only the sound of the wind howling and lightning crackling in the background.
The wyrm just kept flapping their wings leisurely as if thinking about the proposition.
Vesuvius could feel his tensions growing, secretly fearing that he might have gone overboard.
‘Is this some kind of a taboo?’
“So be it, dragon. I will help you advance your magic in exchange for your blood. Now show me what you can do.”
The dark storm and snow clouds started to rotate in one large whirl, lightning striking all around.
Complex magical diagrams formed around the wyrm’s sleek body, orbiting around it like tiny satellites.
They charged up just in a split second time, and a bright light flashed across the sky, the whole wyrm’s body transforming into an arc of lightning that jumped into the clouds, vanishing between hundreds of arcs flashing in the sky.
Vesuvius was in a panic, understanding that the wyrm would beat the hell out of him. Still, he couldn’t help but admire the complexity of the spell executed by the wyrm.
‘I have seen something similar as a racial ability of one evolution, but for it to be replicated via spell is something else.’
The dragon flapped his wings as he refused to simply give up. All of his blocks vanished for the first time after his metamorphosis, and a bright light radiated in the storm like a star enshrouded by space dust.
The air started to glow in blue from the radiation, with his senses tuning to a maximum.
Something appeared right behind him. He blindly lifted up his tail for the first time, mana flowing into the two spikes at its end, light pulsing between them.
A thick sizzling goo started forming between the two spikes. The radioactive energy from his body quickly irradiated the projectile. And then a ball of goo launched at a large speed, like an arrow out of a bow.
The dragon pushed more and more of his mana into his tail, hastening the production of his toxin and acid glands in his tail, blindly launching more and more irradiated acidic toxic shots while flapping his wings to turn around.
His massive wings propelled him into a pirouette as he turned backward, only to spot the wyrm covered in lightning. There were no traces on their scales after the dragon’s attacks, as if it was swept from the air before even reaching them.
The wyrm was opening their mouth with a gigantic whirl of wind and lightning blasting out towards the dragon. It looked like a tornado put horizontally with lightning dancing around it.
The horns on the dragon’s head radiated a light, his sub-brain pushing against the elements of the incoming attack, slowly tearing it apart.
However, they weren’t fast enough as the lightning tornado smashed right against the dragon.
Most of the lightning harmlessly washed around his body thanks to his absolute affinities, but as it was already fused into the higher storm element, it still carried an enormous punch.
It launched the dragon into a distance, his armour cracking and breaking with electricity passing through his whole body. The winds mangled his wings, their crystal structure cracking with bones snapping.
Vesuvius pushed his mana and nanites through his veins into his wings, the damage quickly repairing itself.
“Such a fast regeneration! You truly are even more perfect than previous true dragons!” the wyrm’s voice entered directly into the dragon’s ears, unhindered by the elemental onslaught happening around.
He quickly flapped his wings, stabilizing himself in the air, and opened his mouth. A volcanic explosion of blue, black and gold gushed out of his mouth, moving straight towards the wyrm.
The ancient wyrm nonchalantly rose its clawed hand with a sphere of rotating magical symbols.
The winds instantly gathered and formed a bubble around the wyrm, howling so loudly that Vesuvius felt as if he’d stuck his head into a jet engine.
The bubble quickly grew in intensity, the wyrm hiding behind it looking hazy and blurry.
The dragon’s breath smashed against the bubble, with radioactive magma and pyroclastic clouds bouncing off the wind barrier and splashing all around the sky, raining destruction upon the ground.
The bright light of flames flooded the whole sky, washing around the wyrms barrier as if it was a cliff in a stormy sea.
Still, the radiation itself passed through the shield, seeping into the wyrm’s body, its mouth opening in a massive grin, “Such an interesting affinity, yet its potential is so unused.”
The bubble of wind exploded in all directions, pushing back the dragon’s breath attack and closing towards him. All of the rain, magma and smoke was instantly blasted out of its way.
Vesuvius closed his mouth and braced for the upcoming impact.
The wave of wind smashed against him, his armour cracking with a dull bang resounding through the sky, sending him uncontrollably spinning backwards with berserk wind currents playing with his body as if it was a piece of paper.