His Dragonclaw bastard sword and his Kingslayer armor grew with him, both engraved with mana crystals of seven different colors, lacking only the emerald green of Spirit Magic.
Yet instead of unsheathing his weapon, Jormun extended his hand in an unmistakable gesture and crossed half the distance separating them. Lith hung War to his hip, shapeshifting into a Tiamat as he moved forward as well.
He had already experienced it once with Xenagrosh and knew what it meant.
Dragons were creatures of cold intellect and would rarely base their decisions on emotions. It was also the reason they expressed their respective feelings through the contact of their scales rather than words.
The moment Lith shook Jormun’s hand, they could understand each other’s burden and motivations. How both of them were just doing what they considered best for their respective spouse and child.
There was no hatred between them, only understanding. The handshake lasted barely a second, yet it was as if the two of them had just had a long and honest conversation.
“I’m sorry, little brother. I really wanted to avoid this.” Jormun’s eyes became veiled with tears for a brief instant before he managed to regain his cool.
“So am I.” Lith shared none of the family bonds that the Emerald Dragon felt towards him so his eyes just turned white as he went back to being an Abomination.
At the same time, he remembered well his past meetings with Jormun.
Even when they had failed to understand each other, Jormun had never tried to harm Lith. After reaching the Headmaster’s office for the first time, if not for the Emerald Dragon’s help Lith would have been entrapped and enslaved by the Golden Griffon.
When Orpal had set up a death match for them in his secret lair, Jormun had foiled the Dead King’s plans by refusing to fight Lith and giving him the goods that belonged to Orpal. Even then, they had talked it out.
The only time they had fought it had been when Jormun was still under the slave array and because Thrud had ordered him to.
“Don’t think that our fight will go the same way as the last.” Jormun said while spreading a violet aura. “Back then, I was not Awakened and I was a prisoner of my own mind.
“This time you are not facing an unwilling slave, but a man with a reason to fight for.”
“I couldn’t have said it any better.” Lith’s body exuded a violet-black aura due that was in no way inferior to the Emerald Dragon’s.
“Kill them all.” The moment the order was given, the Forgotten jumped at the enemy and Hystar resumed his attack.
“Stay behind me!” Vladion stepped forward, activating Life Aura again to block the incoming volley of spells and not break Kalla’s eye contact with the power core.
The Firstborn Vampire cursed their bad luck.
‘Why did we have to trip right in front of the finishing line?’ He thought. ‘To make matters worse, my equipment is better, my battle experience is superior, but these bastards are many and my blood core is weakened!’
Each one of Vladion’s enemies had a violet core as well while his strength was reduced to halfway between violet and bright violet due to the sun. To make matters worse, his defensive options were limited by Static Field which hindered dimensional magic, and by the need to protect Kalla.
A blue cored semi-Lich had no chance of survival against a single opponent of that caliber.
Then, the situation got better yet worse. The first boom of thunder came with a shockwave that sent the Forgotten and the Firstborn crashing against the wall. The Wight had resisted it due to her timely use of Gravity fusion.
‘What the heck? Even though my form is human, my blood core bestows me a physical prowess on par with a Divine Beast and some of the Forgotten are Emperor Beasts. How could-‘
The Fury struck at Hystar’s shield again and a second thunder sent them flying again. Both Solus and the Headmaster now weighed like buildings, making even their exchanges dangerous.
Things only got worse when War clashed with the Dragonclaw, producing one more shockwave. The Abomination and the Emerald Dragon infused themselves with all the elements, achieving a might that further exceeded their simple mass.
To not lose ground, Lith had Double Edge shrink in size before coating War so that its weight matched Dragonclaw. With each movement they made, they weaved runes that formed spells.
Jormun used his Dragon Eyes to anticipate and counter Lith’s magic while the Abomination exploited the Eyes of Menadion to do the same. Vladion and the Forgotten had a hard time just standing against the storm of magic and shockwaves that made the castle keep quake.
The only silver lining was that everyone was too busy to even notice Kalla’s presence.
“You are amazing, little brother.” Jormun said while effortlessly dodging most of Lith’s attacks and neutralizing his magic with counterspells. “I can’t believe you’ve reached this level in a little less than twenty years.”
Lith could only grunt in reply as his repertoire of feints and attacks was quickly running out. Now that he had become a Divine Beast, the mass gap with Jormun was gone, but that was it.
The Emerald Dragon was still over 900 years old, 500 of which he had spent inside the Golden Griffon, fighting for his life. Magic, swordsmanship, and control over his bloodline abilities, Jormun had perfected them all during his imprisonment.
The academy had allowed him to put even the craziest strategy or experiment to the test since death only meant to start over. Despite the countless all-nighters that Lith had pulled, compared to Jormun he was greener than grass.
The Abomination kept stepping back to escape Dragonclaw’s edge and no matter how many feints and traps he created, the Emerald Dragons ignored them all. Lith then hurled a blast of Void Flames, hoping that from point-blank range they wouldn’t miss.
Jormun knew that Origin Flames wouldn’t be enough so he mixed them with more than a spark of his life force. The resulting jet stream of Immortal Flames blocked the attack and flabbergasted Lith.
It was his first time witnessing the Spirit Magic equivalent of Origin Flames that Jormun had mastered after countless failures inside the Golden Griffon.
The two Flames were one the opposite of the other and their clash would have generated a major explosion if not for the Emerald Dragon using the bare minimum energy necessary.
Lith exploited the resulting smoke as a cover to lunge at Jormun’s head, but even without the Eyes of Menadion to see through the mystical fog blocking his senses, he managed to block it at the last second.
He used the mid-part of the Dragonclaw to wrap around War, pushing its tip outside of his line and stepping in with a thrust. The guard of Jormun’s blade protected his hand as he pushed forward against War, shoving it further away from his body.
The tip of Dragonclaw snuck between the plates of the Voidwalker armor, piercing deep inside the Abomination. The blow would have been lethal if Lith had been in his Tiamat form whereas his current body was made of darkness and lacked vitals.
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