The ground beneath me wasn’t soft forest floor anymore.
It was rough, cracked earth, tinged blood-red like scorched lava. Jagged stones jutted from the ground like knives pointed at the sky.
Sulfur hung thick in the air, burning my lungs with every breath.
I rolled to my feet, my joints creaking and muscles screaming in protest.
Ahead of me, the drake was struggling to get up. Its wings were tattered, dragging limply along the ground. Its body trembled from the abuse, lightning scars still flashing intermittently along its scaly hide.
It was disoriented. Vulnerable.
I licked the blood trickling down from my cracked lips, the metallic tang sharp on my tongue.
"You really pissed me off, you overgrown lizard."
My voice was low, almost a growl.
I took a deliberate step toward it.
The drake lay sprawled across the cracked, reddish soil, its massive body twitching, broken and battered.
The earlier collision with the hardened volcanic ground had wrecked it worse than I’d thought—bone splinters jutted out near its hind legs, its wings hung limp, and it writhed in obvious agony.
Watching it struggle, gasping for breath, was...
It made something dark inside me thrum with pleasure.
For a fleeting moment, I almost thought about letting it squirm longer, savoring the sight of such a proud beast reduced to a pitiful mess.
But that would be boring, wouldn’t it?
No, the real fun was in breaking it completely.
Condensing my mana, I tried to form it into a weapon—a sword this time.
The violet energy hissed and sparked around my hand, stretching out, shaping into something solid.
For a moment, it looked like it would work.
But then—puff—the unstable construct shattered into nothingness, dispersing like mist on the wind.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance.
I forced the mana together.
And again it dissolved, refusing to obey.
Over and over, I tried, stubbornly hammering at it while the drake before me groaned, its body slowly stabilizing.
It glared at me with one bloodshot eye, the other a ruined mess still sparking from my earlier attacks.
The fury in its gaze burned hotter than the lava veins around us.
It roared, a guttural sound of hatred and pain that shook the air itself, spraying foul saliva toward me.
I sidestepped casually, the gob of spit splattering against the ground where I had just stood, sizzling as it touched the superheated soil.
But in the seconds I wasted trying to conjure my sword, I had lost the golden chance to end it cleanly.
Good, I thought, my blood heating up.
Now, I could drag this out.
Now, I could enjoy it.
The drake’s roar grew louder, almost desperate, as it tried to intimidate me.
Kicking off the ground with [Flash Step], I blurred forward, appearing right in front of its snarling maw.
Before it could react, I wreathed my fist in jagged amethyst lightning.
The spell activated instantly, mana surging into a claw-like shape around my arm.
I drove the electrified punch straight into its lower jaw.
The drake’s massive head snapped back from the impact, blood spraying in a high arc as a deep, savage claw wound ripped across its face.
It staggered, stumbling backward, its feet dragging through the cracked ground, leaving twin trenches of torn earth behind.
A fresh river of dark red blood oozed from its split jaw, staining its gleaming scales.
The drake roared again, but this time there was fear laced into it.
It stomped its legs hard onto the ground in frustration and fury, causing massive fractures to spiderweb across the rocky terrain.
Each stomp echoed like thunder, dust and molten rocks spraying into the air.
The drake staggered, its limbs quivering in broken defiance.
Then, it snapped its head toward me, blood dripping from its split jaw, and opened its mouth wide.
A deafening sonic boom erupted from its maw, warping the very air around it.
I barely had time to register it before the blast hit me like a runaway boulder.
My insides vibrated violently, my stomach twisted, and my intestines felt like they were being ripped apart.
But it didn’t end there.
The shockwave reverberated like an endless aftershock, hammering me again and again.
I was hurled off my feet like a ragdoll, slammed face-first onto the ragged, broken ground.
Pain exploded across my face as I skidded across the abrasive soil.
A thin stream of blood leaked from my mouth, dripping onto the cracked earth.
I pushed myself up slowly, my arms shaking, my breath ragged.
A vein throbbed furiously on my forehead.
This oversized lizard had lived far, far longer than it deserved.
Without even caring about the backlash or consequences, I flooded my body with mana recklessly.
I blurred forward, closing the distance between us in a blink.
Mana condensed around my arm, thick and heavy, boosting my raw power.
Crackling amethyst energy surged through me, enveloping my limbs.
"[Physical Enhancement]!"
A golden glow rippled across my muscles, reinforcing my physical strength.
The lightning around my fists sharpened into claw-like blades of pure destruction.
A maelstrom of death.
A storm of annihilation.
I rained down blows on the squirming drake, attacking before it could even react.
My clawed fist shattered its left wing at the joint.
Another strike broke through its armored chest, splintering scales like brittle glass.
A punch to the head rocked it sideways, blood spraying like a fountain onto the cracked, reddish ground.
Each hit landed with a sickening crunch, ripping through its defense and rending its flesh.
The earth around us was painted red, the ground splattered with gore and broken scales.
The drake shrieked, its roars weakening into pitiful whines.
Its wings hung shredded, its limbs quivered uncontrollably, and its body was a ruined heap of blood and broken bone.
At last, its strength gave out.
It collapsed onto the ground, its massive head falling sideways, breathing shallow and desperate.
It had lost all will to fight.
The backlash from my reckless mana expenditure hit me immediately.
It felt like my brain was freezing and burning at the same time.
An unbearable combination of numbness and searing fire.
Blood seeped from my nose, ears, and mouth.
Still, I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stay upright, maintaining a calm exterior despite the chaos raging inside my body.
Step by deliberate step, I approached the drake’s ruined body.
Each footfall sent sharp jolts of pain up my battered legs.
I crouched down beside its massive, trembling head, studying it for a moment.
The once majestic beast was now a mangled, pathetic corpse in waiting.
"You really were a pain in the ass," I muttered under my breath, almost fondly.
I placed my hand gently against its blood-slicked head.
"[Lightning]," I whispered coldly.
A surge of amethyst lightning burst from my palm, crackling violently as it burrowed deep into the drake’s skull.
The monster convulsed once—then went still, a faint curl of smoke rising from its eye sockets.
Just to be sure, a familiar mechanical chime echoed in my mind.
The neon-blue system panel flickered into view before my eyes.
I glanced at it with a slight smirk, wiping the blood from my lips with the back of my hand.
"This haul... isn’t half bad," I muttered.