The burning red flames on the throne slightly flickered, its red radiance dimming together with the whole world.
Dense and massive clouds of black smoke appeared in the distance at the edge of the wasteland world. The smoke was moving and transforming as if it was alive.
Vesuvius opened his mouth, a purple flame gathering and spinning inside, quickly forming a massive rotating sphere of purple magma.
The black smoke on the horizon condensed, forming a massive shadowy body. It was quickly taking on shape. It formed enormous wings, four legs ending in long pitch-black claws and a long tail.
The beast’s size was quickly growing, its massive wings covering half of the horizon, the whole drake easly reaching at least ten floors high.
Vesuvius immediately recognised what it was. The shape and everything looked exactly like a huge dragon made of shadows, ‘No, it lacks something in its aura. It is only a drake, but a huge one.’
“Graaaah!”, The shadow drake opened its semisolid mouth, and a terrific roar swept through the dusty wasteland, accompanied by a shockwave raising dust clouds from the ground.
‘No, it isn’t even a real drake. It is just a spawn of this place like the shadows before. ‘
The dragon opened his mouth, and a massive sphere of purple flames with a ring of magic symbols rotating around it shot out.
Lightning crackled around it, quickly propelling it forwards. It crossed the speed of sound, turning into a blur, accompanied by a loud sonic bang.
It reached the drake in a blink of an eye. An explosion of purple magma enveloped the mass of shadows, tearing it apart, the shadowy tissue burning and turning into black flickering motes of smoke.
“Hahaha, this is not how you are supposed to do that!” the fallen dragon laughed, its harsh voice echoing through the wasteland.
‘What does he mean?’ Vesuvius glanced at the motes of smoke that remained out of the drake, immediately noticing that they were quickly rearranging back into their shapes of drakes.
The shocked Vesuvius just glared at as the two identical drakes stood on the horizon, their golden eyes flickering in the shadow heads.
They both flapped their massive black wings, shooting up towards the sky, the loud flapping of their wings getting closer and closer towards the dragon with each passing second.
Multiple magic circles formed around the dragon’s horns, brightly glowing. Purple lances of magma were quickly materialising in them, growing in size, their bright flickering light looking as if the dragon had a crown of miniature suns above his head.
“Graah!” The drakes kept growling, opening their mouth and showing lines of sharp teeth made of golden light.
The dragon casually swung his hand, his claws glinting as he moved forwards. At that exact moment, lightning crackled around his horns, the lances turning into blurs as they shot towards the shadows in the sky, leaving behind trails of burning air.
They loudly shrieked, passing through the air at a supersonic speed, reaching the drakes in a split second. Loud bangs resounded through the sky as the purple explosions tore the drakes into tatters, their shadowy flesh reverting into the smoke particles.
The dragon carefully watched the smoke, his eyes going wide in panic.
His attacks only dissipated the smoke, which was already regrouping once more while absorbing the energy of his attacks, quickly multiplying like a colony of bacteria.
“Do you want to try it again?” the constant taunting of the fallen dragon was making him mad, his blood almost boiling with the rage, ‘Just wait. Eventually, I will smash you down from that throne of yours!
‘Wait, maybe it isn’t meant wrong… I doubt that this trial is only about combat. It requires my domain as a base prerequisite, so maybe there is really something else that I have to do.’
He looked around, but there was nothing but the wastelands, fields full of dust and ash as far as his eyes could see.
Three pulses of magic reached his body as he finally noticed the three drakes formed in the sky, each larger than before. Golden orbs of golden light were forming in their wide open mouths, the golden light flooding the sky in its divine brilliance.
The next second, all three of them shot out, blasting straight towards the dragon, their golden luminance brightening with each meter they passed.
Vesuvius moved mana through his veins into his scales, his body becoming warmed with the brightly glowing mana crystals in his black armour.
The three golden projectiles hit his side, exploding in three bright explosions of golden energy. The shockwave passed through the dragon’s whole body, his armour and his body vibrating under sheer force.
A pain stabbed through the places of impact, the three orbs digging into his armour like a drill before they exploded again, cracks spreading through his armour.
The dragon didn’t even flinch, the attacks not even reaching his scales.
His domain expanded out of his body, dark clouds forming and condensing above high his head, the blue arcs flashing in them and concentrating into three points.
Three bright lightning pillars descended, creating lightning columns connecting the sky with the ground. The pillars passed through the drakes, their whole bodies tearing and disintegrating back into shadowy smoke.
The bright light finally dissipated, the dragon’s eyes going even wider as he noticed the black smoke multiplying faster than before, all of the energy from the lightning feeding it.
On top of that, the black dust on the ground struck by lightning moved, moving in tendrils of dust as if it was alive, quickly forming into three more monsters.
“Are you dumb or what? How many times do you need to see that it won’t work before you realise it!”
Vesuvius felt his pride hurt, it was one thing to fail the trials when he was alone, but now he had the immensely powerful dragon constantly flailing his mistakes before his face.
‘No, he is right. There must be some trick to it. Some trick that would check something important for a role of a dragon lord. Before, it was about controlling one greed. ‘
Vesuvius hurriedly flapped his wings, his gigantic body lifting from the ground, his wings creating clouds of dust, blue and gold electricity sparking around them with each flap.
The next moment he shot up towards the sky, his massive armoured body covered in crystals, metal and corium with magma brightly glowing in the crevices of his armour.
A shockwave passed through the desert under him as he quickly accelerated, rising higher and higher towards the white sky above him. He knew only one thing, ‘Attacknig these monsters will make it only harder.’
The wings flapping came from behind him. The three drakes that grew again made of shadows, followed by the three smaller drakes made of grey sand, were flapping their wings, ascending behind the dragon, the golden glow of their eyes penetrating through the smoke and clouds emitting from the dragon.
Bright golden spheres were forming in their mouth, quickly growing in size and radiance.
At once, the six orbs shot up towards the dragon, the golden energy illuminating the whole sky in the shower of golden light.
The lightning crackled around the dragon, his body shooting forwards, a sonic bang dispersing the dark clouds around him.
The six orbs harmlessly passed by him, ascending higher into the sky.
“Ohh, you are running now? Scared of the few lesser monsters?”
Vesuvius gritted his teeth, suppressing the anger, knowing he needed to keep a cool head.
Then he noticed that no matter how fast he moved, he wasn’t getting any further, as if some invisible border prevented him from getting too far.
‘Ohh, so this not a way too. I can’t fight, and I can’t run…’
The drakes behind were flapping their wings, quickly catching up towards his body, unable to move forwards, new golden orbs already forming in their mouths.
The dragon tilted his wings, diving straight down towards the ground, the world around him turning into a blur, the golden lights passing by his sides, hitting the ground under him and exploding in golden flashes.
‘Domain for what I would need my domain here? Maybe restrict them?’ Vesuvius braced his wings, stopping mid-air, hovering high above the ground, the black silhouettes of the drakes radiating golden light out of their mouth, quickly closing towards him.
The horns on his head pulsed, the black clouds around him spinning at an immense speed, with the strong winds howling through the wasteland, creating a massive sandstorm. Six massive tornadoes descended from the black clouds, spinning and sucking the dust from the ground.
“Finally trying something new?” he had not time to even care about the Satanaels provocations; his mind focused on the task before him.
‘I need to be exact. If the wind is too strong, it will tear the drakes, making them even stronger. But if it is too weak, they will simply pass through. Damn, after this whole shit, I really need to focus on magic and learn some utility and support spells.’
The drakes opened their mouth, the six golden orbs shooting straight towards the dragon, leaving behind golden lines through the sky.
Vesuvius wasn’t bothered focusing on the task before him, controlling the tornadoes and directing them towards the drakes.𝒪𝗏𝔩xt.𝗇t
The six golden orbs smashed straight into his chest, with one hitting his wing, tearing a hole in it and continuing towards the horizon.