The dragon lay on top of his hoard, intently studying new spells he learned when his dragon magic levelled up. He quickly learned their purpose and tried to cast the first one.
Magical energy flowed through his body, quickly entering his eyes. Then the dragon’s eyes started to glow, magical symbols forming in them and arranging into rings around his irises. Two rings ignited, each in one of his eyes, and then a short flash of magical energy exploded from his eyes like a flash from a camera, lighting up the cave for a split moment.
Then nothing happened; not even air moved, ‘I guess, to test this spell, I need living subjects.’
The first spell was the psychological kind of spell manipulating the emotions of his foes as long as they were mentally weaker. He could channel his magic into eyes and inflict enemies he looked at with any emotion from anger to sadness and fear.
‘Not something destructive, but it can force enemies to make mistakes in a fight. So it is more than amazing.’
As a former experienced player, Vesuvius knew the importance of support spells. They weren’t fleshy as attack spells. However, they could still easily turn a tide of a battle.
‘Time to test the second spell.’
A new wave of magical energy erupted before stabilising into a stable current that flowed through his veins, using the dragon’s magic conductive blood. The current flowed through his body, spreading a comfortable, warm feeling all the way to his tail. Then a hot magma poured out of his tail’s tip. It didn’t drop to the ground. It instead kept pouring forwards, defying gravity as it slowly took the shape of a long blade.
Orange light shone through the smoke from a two-meter-long blade made of hot magma, illuminating up the cave. The long glowing blade made out of pure magma stuck out of the tip of his tail, the air around twisting from immense heat radiating out of its glowing surface.
The dragon moved his tail forward and turned his neck, looking at the beautifully glowing blade.
‘My tail was already a useful weapon; with this blade, its reach grew even longer, and its damaging potential grew a miles.’
His tail suddenly moved, making a loud whooshing sound as it cut towards the cave wall, the sharp magmatic blade melting through layers of rock, creating a deep glowing tear filled with molten stone.
The dragon looked happily at the result. thinking about its uses in real combat, ‘This is the real beauty of the dragon magic. It is using the already existing dragons’ strengths and making them even stronger.’
The second spell had a similar structure to the spells that covered his claws in elements. There was, however, a difference in that it formed one long elemental blade at his tail.
Vesuvius started to think he was done with magic, but then he got a great idea. He was still pouring mana into the blade on his tail. Then he cast the spell that covered his body in elements without dispelling his tail blade.
The second magical circuit flared up in his mind, and he carefully poured mana into it. The hot feeling spread through his whole body, and then flames blazed from its entire surface. Heat radiating out of his body became so immense that even the hard volcanic rock that his lair was made of gradually turned red.
However, the second magical circuit started to tremble as he couldn’t focus on both circuits simultaneously. The magical circuit trembled more with every second, and cracks spread through its surface.
Vesuvius quickly dispelled both circuits before they could collapse and injure him, ‘As I thought, dragon magic requires precise control, making it hard to maintain both spells simultaneously, and there are two spells that don’t need to be controlled for a long time.’
His mouth opened with his teeth peaking out as he grinned, ‘There is still good news. It is possible to use two spells utilising the same organ simultaneously.’
The dragon turned his head at the exit tunnel and opened his mouth filled with sharp teeth. His magical energy started to pour out into his mouth. At first, a circle consisting of many individual glowing magical runes formed, followed by a second circuit in the shape of a square.
The surge of magma came from the depth of his throat and passed through the magical circle, quickly forming into a sphere.
Both magical circuits started to tremble, and Vesuvius focused his whole will on carefully feeding mana into both of them, his control partially slipping, allowing mana to slowly deteriorate the magic circuits.
Magma finally formed a sphere that launched forward and passed through the square, quickly concentrating into a much thinner shape that looked like a spike made out of magma. Its glow intensified as the density of the magma increased.
The magma spike launched at a shocking speed much higher than that of the magmasphere. Both circuits immediately collapsed, leaving the dragon with a strong headache that felt like pins stabbing inside of his brain.
In an instant, the magma spike passed through the tunnel and flew out, quickly passing through the gap between mountains.
It hit the opposing mountain and drilled through the layers of stone, entering deep into the mountain. A moment later, the whole mountain slightly shook, and small stones fell down, rolling into a valley under the mountain.
The dragon carefully watched it with his incredible sight and grinned so widely that he exposed the depth of his throat, ‘Is it like a penetrator in armour piercing shells? Can it just pierce through the castle walls? Still, damn, it is hard. I need to practice it more. I will not even try to combine more elements now. That would be like asking for the explosion in my mouth.’
The dragon ground his teeth, suppressing his headache, and opened his mouth again. Both circuits quickly formed again, magical energy leaking out of them, spreading cracks all over them and causing surging pain through the dragon’s body. Then a magma ball formed before transforming into a spike of magma that flew out at such a speed that the nearby smoke dispersed behind in its trail.
‘Ohh my, this definitely has great potential, but it also requires lots of practice. It is hard to cast even out of the fight.’ A deep sigh leaked out of his throat, ‘This will take a while, but practice makes perfect.’