?Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Fifty-seventh Floor
Time elapsed: 0:21:22
Objectives complete: All
Assessment: EX+
Reward:
61,000 Score Points
1 Treasure Selection Reward – Peak Gold Grade?
After dealing with Akuma, the Shameless Trio returned to their base of operations. Draco rolled his eyes and jumped right into the next floor without pause.
Once back in the arena, they found themselves face to face with a strangely dressed fellow. He wore a set of banded iron armor, with a viking like helmet with two horns, a chest plate with furs for the arms, a rough iron shield, a rough iron sword and banded greaves with fur like boots.
The fellow himself had rough and average looks, nothing that would make a woman of the modern age feel much, but was definitely the type of features a man of the old era would have. The sharp look in his blue eyes told of great battle experience and wisdom.
OORAH-OORAH-OORAH-HIYAH!
What was even weirder was that a weird theme was playing as he approached from the other side, like a chorus singing the praise of the coming of a great hero foretold from the legends.
Draco and Clarent instantly fell to their knees as their bloodlines began roaring in fear, telling them to escape from this place, and especially from this fellow. They were almost crippled by this bloodline fear, wondering who this bastard could be.
Draco and Clarent narrowed their eyes with suspicion, as there was only one fellow in the myriad universes who could make a Dragon feel like a bullied kid seeing their bully.
?Name: Dovahkiin – Major Rank monster
Level: 150
HP: 50,000,000/50,000,000?
Draco and Clarent ‘s hearts fell. They knew the powers and abilities of Dovahkiin, and their bloodline fear made sense. Even for Draco, though he was a player connected to the game with a pod, he could tell instinctively that if this fellow killed him, he would suffer a terrible fate worse than death.
“Clarent, withdraw. Qiong Qi, engage him!” Draco instructed seriously. This was not a fight where they could afford to play and fool around.
Fighting Dragons was the Dovahkiin’s bread and butter, so neither Draco nor Clarent would fight him as one. Clarent withdrew back into the Inner Universe while Draco transformed into his Dark Angel True Body, a form he had only achieved recently thanks to this Tower.
Qiong Qi roared and pounced at Dovahkiin, striking with a claw infused with golden light. The light struck Dovahkiin’s shield, which he raised up in defense and cleaved it into two, much to Dovahkiin’s shock. He quickly discarded the shield and retreated from Qiong Qi.
However, he screamed and clutched his head as he felt a mental explosion, like his consciousness was about to be split into two. The Dragon Souls within him that he had absorbed roared and fought off the invading mental power, which made Draco outside grimace as blood leaked down from his nose.
To one day be done in by Dragons… Draco had the most bitter of smiles right now. Still, the distraction was potent enough for Qiong Qi to slap the fellow in the head, sending him flying. The helmet Dovahkiin wore was ruined, and half his face now bore claw marks.
What had already been average was even uglier now. He groggily got up from the ground and glared at Qiong Qi who was still charging over, then Draco who was watching and supporting. He then opened his mouth, sucking in a great volume of air, before roaring.
“FUS RO DAH!!”
A wave of unrelenting force blasted from his mouth, crashing into Qiong Qi and mangling his body before sending him flying like a ragdoll off into the distance. This shocked Draco, who was aware of the shouts but didn’t know they could be unleashed so fast.
Even worse, Dovahkiin did not stop and roared again.
“WULD NA KEST!”
Like a whirlwind, Dovahkiin sprinted over to where Draco was, swinging his iron sword overhead in an attempt to cleave his enemy in half. Draco snorted and manifested a psy-barrier which easily deflected the blade.
In this case, Dovahkiin was really done in by his equipment. Had he come with not his titular armor, but the endgame Dragon Bone armor, would he be suppressed like this?
Draco then glowed blue as a blue outline emerged around Dovahkiin’s body. Lifting him into the air like a puppet. Draco normally did not dare to use Telekinesis to hold a target directly even with his mental power, because if that backfired, the backlash was crazier than you could fathom.
Dovahkiin struggled in the air where he was, yet he proved unable to break himself out. He roared valiantly, even trying to use magic of the various schools to reverse the tide, but it was useless.
The Dark Angel was there when the first lines of magic had been written. In fact, magic had been taken directly from his songs when he had been Lucifer the most beautiful angel, so how could it easily work on him?
Draco raised a hand and clenched it cruelly, watching as the famous Dragonborn got crushed into a pulp by Telekineses, turned into a ball of meat and metal. The moment he died, 20 Dragon Souls got released from his body and flew around happily, roaring with joy and elation at their freedom.
When Draco switched off his Dark Angel True Body and released his Draconic aura, they all stopped in shock and rushed down to bow before Draco.
“WE GREET OUR LORD, THE BLACK DRAGON KING!” They roared in dragontongue so loud that various elemental and magical phenomena appeared.
Draco smiled, as these Dragons were also True Dragons, but of a slightly different breed. It was like how all humans were humans, but there were Caucasians, Latinos and Africans, etc.
Their every fundamental biology was the same to a dot, with only some slight mutations to show differences. For Draco’s breed of Dragon, the typical fantasy Western Dragon, they were separated into colors depending on their elemental affinity and they used magic like a mage, with spells and the like.
These Dragons were of the high-fantasy western type, with no distinct need for coloration as most were either gray, silver or black. They did not use magic like humans, but rather had magic expunged using various alternative means. It could be language, movement, flight patterns, thought, etc.
For this particular race, it was using their voices. They would make a great addition to the Dragon Clan once Hikari revived them. Oh, he should also ask.
“Are there any females among you?” He asked them calmly.
The Dragons shared awkward looks. “Unfortunately… no. All of our females have been slaughtered by those bastards, while the rest of us were sealed in various barrows within Skyrim. They did it so that even if we did revive, our line would end when we perished.”
Draco sighed. “Well, I’m sure I’ll be able to find you a solution. Just don’t touch my White Dragon mate or my pals Silver Dragon mate!”
Draco gave them a pointed look. “As a male dragon, I know just how horny you freaks are. Make sure to keep it in and trust that I will find you partners in due time.”
The Dragons coughed awkwardly, knowing and heeding the warning. “We hear and obey!”
Draco nodded with satisfaction as he opened a portal to the Morningstar World and deposited the Dragons on a special planet in the void with Spirit Energy. That should sustain them until he was ready to have Hikari revive them.
Of course, he wasn’t going to dump a bunch of male Dragon spirits among all his women and children when these males hadn’t seen a woman in centuries. Saying it was one thing, but who knew what temptation could make one do?
?Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Fifty-eighth Floor
Time elapsed: 0:18:34
Objectives complete: All
Assessment: EX+
Reward:
62,000 Score Points
1 Treasure Selection Reward – Peak Gold Grade?
Draco shook his head and continued right away. He expected a nonsensical enemy once more, and was not surprised in the least by who he met.
The fellow appeared with the traditional look he had and was known for. With two swords on his back, as well as a kunai attached to a rope tied to his belt, his white, demonic eyes bore into all onlookers even with his mask on.
With a yellow ninja vest and a pair of tight-fitting battle pants and yellow battle boots, the flames that emerged around this foe were certainly menacing.
?Name: Scorpion – Major Rank monster
Level: 150
HP: 10,000,000/10,000,000?
The legendary Mortal Kombat fighter had made an appearance. Draco simply looked at the fellow with a strange expression, a mixture of amusement, interest and respect. After all, this was one of his favorite character growing up!
How many times had he been beaten by bullies for carrying around his old virtual game pad to play Mortal Kombat Legends when he was 10 years old? This was the character he had only ever played, the great scorpion himself!
Before enacting what was on his mind, Draco decided to brawl him first. He took out his two swords and flourished them at Scorpion, who also silently unsheathed his katanas and readied himself.
Unfortunately, there was no back and forth banter due to studio constraints, the original arcade Scorpion only had two lines, though those had been enough to make him become famous and beloved.
Draco and Scorpion rushed each other and began an epic sword battle, using technique only with no elements or powers mixed behind it. Draco was shocked to see that Scorpion could keep up with him and even had ingenuous ways to curb his 360 Paragon Sword Skills.
(Author’s Note: Remember, Paragon Sword Skills are based on Control and sword technique/worldly energy sometimes. It is the Peerless Sword Skills that incorporate elements.)
Scorpion too was astounded. He had never faced a foe with such a detailed and well rounded style, but he could easily see flaws because it was self developed. Not to mention, they were all first generation sword techniques, so they hadn’t had time to be inherited by others for them to optimize them over years of usage.
He had the sword technique of the Shirai Ryu clan which was famed for its versatility and passed down for generation after generation, and so had received great tempering.
In this battle, Draco was objectively at a disadvantage. He was only coping thanks to Control which gave him flexibility and awareness on par with a supercomputer, so Scorpion couldn’t take him down. Right now, it rather seemed that they were on par.
Draco quickly realized his faults and began fixing them under pressure from Scorpion. He felt like he was a poor piece of iron being forged by a powerful blacksmith, which was his opponent’s effluent sword skills and his movements to bring them to life.
Scorpion also noticed that his foe was quickly learning, but he did not panic. Instead, a strange thump emerged from his chest which he knew was hollow due to the resurrection he had undergone, but he could not deny that it was more spiritual than physical.
His ‘heart’ was thumping in excitement!
It began slowly, but soon became a roaring feeling of excitement as Draco improved each second, with each clash, Scorpion was watching real time as this first generation sword users who had no teacher for his sword arts quickly began to refine his own self-taught moves using the perfect generational moves from the Shira Ryu clan, creating something that embodied both techniques.
There were clear hints of the skills of his clan’s ancestors while the distinct nature of Draco’s own self-taught style was there, creating a combination that – to Scorpion – was like two unfinished and uncompleted paintings being merged to form a perfected painting of utter beauty.
He was not mad that someone was copying his clan’s techniques, much to his own shock. His clan had been eradicated by the sorcerer Quan Chi, and he was only a revenant that existed to get revenge. Once he achieved that, he would naturally return to the afterlife as his abominable existence would not be tolerated by the world anymore.
At that point, all legacies of the Shira Ryu clan would disappear… but not anymore. If Draco perfected this new style of his, the Shira Ryu clan would exist forever in this style, and it was what Scorpion wanted to see.
What had been a battle of life and death became something like a spar between teacher and student.
