My shadow shot forward and carried all the bacteria I’ve developed. Since I’ve started to understand devour more and more, I realised it worked on a similar principle as my bacteria. No matter where we went in the world, there were bacteria on every item, body and even a blade of grass.

Devour used one of the smallest forms of life which were all around us. It took control of those tiny lifeforms and transformed their composition and turned them into parasites. These parasites killed the cells they connected to and replicated infinitely while they also sent back my targets’ genetic structures.

My body had to process that information when I finished fighting, but after selecting the devourer specialization, my body evolved. Thanks to that, I can process the information and increase my powers even when on the move.

Padinyss shot two earth-spikes towards me from his mouth and moved his wings to cover his back. While I avoided the spikes, I saw Dred’s claws sink into his wings and tear out a part of it. Padinyss whipped his tail, but Dred jumped back and in time and avoided his retaliation.

“My poison is in his body, but his resistance is probably high,” he remarked.

Seeing that his wings sizzled and then started to heal at a visible speed, I understood Dred would have to pour more of his poison into Padinyss’s body to make it work.

“This cursed ability,” Padinyss clicked his tongue, seeing a few smaller scales fall off of his claws. “I should take you out first since your devour is stronger than his,” he said as he opened his jaws a ball of energy the shape of a dragon’s head formed in front of it.

The sand flew into the air as his spell flew through the air.

A thick wall of earth raised out of the ground under my command, but his attack broke through it as if it wasn’t even there, as expected. I spun on my heels and cut his attack into two halves.

“That was delicious,” I smiled at him.

“Tsk, I’ll see how you devour the next one,” he was about to use another one of his innate abilities when Dred grabbed his tail and threw him into the air. My daggers melted down and turned into a bow in my hands. I gathered all the mana in my surroundings and fed my bacteria with it.

A huge black arrow formed in my bow while Padinyss already had a green coloured dragon in front of him. His mana control was definitely perfect since he finished before me. As soon as that energy dragon started to move, the air pressure raised to a level where the trees simply blew up and even the ground exploded below.

I used earth magic to move backwards and upon reaching the sea, I mixed wind and water magic to freeze the water below my feet. The little time I earned was enough for me to finish my arrow and release it. Seeing that the explosion would be too close to my body, I also used the water around me and formed a wall reaching a height of ten meters.

My arrow passed through his dragon and my bacteria greatly weakened its strength. The dragon blew up on the spot and destroyed the whole island, except for the stone building.

The light is getting weaker, so the seal is about to be opened, I thought as I peeked at it from the corner of my eye. The wall of water I created got destroyed on the spot and even I flew back from the shockwave. I spun in the air and created a smaller ice land below me before I reached the ground.

Padinyss flew out of the thick fog that was formed by the destroyed water wall, his claws reaching towards my face. Dred came from his right and thrust a metal pole towards Padinyss’s belly.

Knowing that he couldn’t afford a wound like that, he let down his right paw and flew to the side. But I wasn’t just looking. I was waiting for him to dodge and put my hand on his side. My whole palms turned black as I activated inner-devour and devoured a large chunk of his scales. A few of them appeared on my elbows, knees, and shoulders.

“You shitty bitch! You aren’t worthy of these scales!” he shouted upon noticing them and spun in a circle. He was too quick for me to avoid, so I just raised my bow and my rock-covered arms in defense.

I smashed into the sea below and had to use the water to rise out from below. When I returned to the surface, I saw Dred bite into Padinyss’s side where his wing connected to his body. His teeth sank into Padinyss’s body and the scales around his jaws started to fall off like rotten pieces. His left wing fell into the sea along with a few of his scales, but the bone in my arm cracked thanks to his fucking tail.

“Dred, we should get rid of his tail somehow. It’s too dangerous.”

“I know, but I can’t cut it because of his scales and tearing it off would be impossible as well. The most I could do is focus on the base of his tail and use inner devour until it rots and falls off,” he replied as he turned into his wyvern form and flew higher into the air.

Padinyss raised his head and spat a dragon-head-shaped spell towards Dred’s back. It was too quick for him to avoid and struck his tail which was torn off on the spot.

“I’m telling you, this would feel lovely if my sense of pain was on…”

“I think I’m better off not knowing the condition of my arm either,” I chuckled while I used the water to shoot me up. The bow reformed in my hands and I prepared another arrow, though much weaker than before and shot it towards the wound on his back. He raised his claw while attacking Dred and shot five claw-shaped spells to respond to my attack.

Although my arrow weakened his spell, it still flew towards me, so I had to use a bit more energy to stop it. Dred reverted to his bear form and fell towards Padinyss. Noticing it, the latter opened his jaws.

His teeth would tear Dred apart in the blink of an eye, so he pushed himself to the side with the help of wind magic. This place is too large for us, we need some cover.

After a quick thought, I used nature magic. Huge trees grew out of the sea floor and grew to hundreds of meters above the sea.

“What a nice forest you summoned here!” Padinyss shouted, visibly unhappy with me. “But as long as your devour is connected to me, I will sense where you are.”

I heard his voice getting closer to me, so I quickly shot an arrow and then jumped onto another tree. The tree I stood on, blew up, and Padinyss appeared while the arrow I shot went down his throat. Every legendary creature, except for us, had spatial spaces in their bellies where they could store things and nothing could damage them. His jaws were like black holes and as long as he turned his head towards the spell, he could gulp down as much as he wanted.

“Are you running out of time by any chance?” I provoked him, seeing that his claws had no scales left on them and even his claws were only dangling. Just as I finished my sentence, all his claws fell into the sea.

“Tsk, this is why I didn’t want to fight you bastards. Despite my resistance to magic and my physical protection, you just crap on that and make my body rot. Fucking bastards,” he grumbled as he used wind magic to fly into the air. He probably didn’t enjoy standing on his paws in his current state.

“Where is the other bastard?” he looked around, realising that Dred wasn’t leeching off of him and disappeared altogether.

“My, I wonder,” I smiled at him. The more time I wasted, the better it was for us since he couldn’t heal while devour was active and just lost more and more of his scales.

“He’s going to attack me when I attack you anyway, might as well do something against it,” he rolled his eyes. A layer of mana coiled around his body and destroyed my bacteria.

Shit, this is no good.

“A bit expensive, but worth it against you. This is called Dragon Qi, which is hundreds of times better than normal mana, you like it? Your shitty devour can’t stay active in this layer, it seems.”

That’s only because your mana control is better and your mana is more powerful thanks to your level, but that’s beside the point. “Dred, we must get rid of that somehow.”

“I think if both of us latches onto him, it’s going to break soon, but I’ll have to reveal myself earlier than planned,” he replied in my mind.

You have levelled up to Lv. 590!

“Oh, I levelled up. My body probably finished processing the last genes that returned. My arm also healed, how is your wound?”

“It just burned my ass a bit… nothing big if I stay in my bear form.”

“Okay.”

“Mind if I dance with you?” Padinyss asked.

I waved my hand and controlled the trees to coil around his body and made another arrow in the meantime.

“Why don’t you come closer?” he shot forward all of a sudden, his jaws opened wide.

Damn it, if I hit his shoulders or arms, my attack wouldn’t amount to anything and he could gulp it down anytime. Realising I was in a bad spot to attack, I turned around to run. He still got closer and closer and his wings cut every tree in two halves as if they weren’t even there.

While jumping from one tree to the next, I cut one of them into two halves and pulled it towards me with wind magic. I barely had enough time to pass under the falling tree and when I turned around for a moment, I saw it was about hit Padinyss.

It was out of my expectations that he used another paw-shaped spell which made the tree explode. I waved my hand and formed a wall of wind in front of me since I didn't want to be skewered by the splinters.

“Run, I can’t catch up with him,” Dred warned me.

“I’m trying, but he is too quick. I’m afraid I’ll get wounded, but we can use that moment to take in a blow,” I replied. I knew it was very dangerous, but since we had no way to run away from him.

Two daggers formed in my hands as I lunged at Padinyss. Right before reaching him, I used a strong gust of wind to push him to the left while a branch of a tree on my left extended and pushed me to the right. Since he was in the air, his strength didn’t amount to much against the wind and all he could do was flap his wings. Knowing that I’d get away like this, he flapped his wings and used my wind to spin in the air.

I saw death in the tail that was flying towards me since unless I managed to avoid, its axe-like tip would definitely cut me in two halves. As his tail collided with my dagger, the latter broke into two halves and his tail continued on its way towards me. Knowing that it was less important than my life, I raised the other dagger in defense. I managed to stop his tail, but a long crack appeared on my dagger in return.

“Move aside, now!” Dred shouted in my mind.

I put my foot on Padinyss’s tail and kicked off to another direction and used wind magic to speed up even more. By the time he turned around, I was hundreds of meters away.

“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” He grumbled.

While he was chasing me and trying to kill me, Dred prepared to use the eon element. Mana started to split one by one, destroying every tree and even the tiniest forms of life in the area. Padinyss turned around in a hurry, realising that he was about to be engulfed and die.

He bolted off like lightning towards me, but his tail was caught and got disintegrated. He didn’t even stop until he reached me and snapped his jaws on my left arm. His teeth sank into my flesh and tore off my arm.

“Careful, he is using a bit of his life force to gain strength!” I warned Dred and used that moment to thrust my cracked dagger into his shoulder. I was met with great resistance and heard the sound of metal snapping as soon as the dagger passed through his scale.

Although I lost both my weapons, at least my dagger got stuck in his body, adding another wound. A colourful ball appeared next to him, while I hid behind the closest tree and used my shadow form. It came as a surprise when I heard his jaws snap once again and the explosion I expected never came.

“Get out of there, it went down his throat!” Dred shouted in my mind.

I used the shadows the trees cast upon the sea to move further from Padinyss and took out my bow once again. In a year’s time, I collected quite a lot of weapons from the murdered kings’ treasuries. It’d take some time, but with symbiosis, I’ll be able to regenerate both my daggers, just like the arm I’ve just lost.

I held the bow with my right arm and used nothing but my will to control the arrow. It’s not like I used a type of arrow that had to be pulled up. I was about to release it when Dred jumped onto Padinyss’s back in his bear form and dug his claws into his back. Padinyss roared out in pain for the first time, which meant my dear hit a lovely spot.

“Shoot now.”

Dred used his favourable position to raise up Padinyss’s front half and show his belly to me. The arrow struck his belly and broke the energy layer around his body. It also wounded him slightly and I sent my bacteria to start devouring from that point as well.

I was preparing the next arrow when Padinyss turned his neck around and bit into Dred’s right shoulder. He tore out his arms with a few veins and threw it into the sea below. Dred sealed his wound with a quick mix of fire and earth magic.

It’ll be slower to heal, but he’ll lose less blood. I should stop wasting my focus and mana on it as well, I can heal later. After a quick change of thoughts, I did the same to my arm and stopped the bleeding.

“ROAAAAAAAAAAAR”

“What was that?” I asked.

“I smell something new, it must be the kobolds,” Dred replied. Seeing that Padinyss’s attention averted, I released my arrow. It embedded into his body right where the first hit and the rotted part grew much bigger. His scales fell off of his chest, revealing his flesh.

“We don’t have time, we must finish this,” I whispered to Dred, knowing he would understand me even from that much. Padinyss was about to retaliate when I used Ekilsta to block his brain. His body stopped moving for a moment, which was enough for Dred to bite his neck. He reverted to his panther form and dug his claws into Padinyss’s rotten wound.

“ARGH! FUCK YOU!” A huge eight coloured ball appeared behind Dred, which would definitely blast both of them into pieces.

I stopped blocking Padinyss’s movements and stopped his spell instead. The ball faded into nothingness, but Padinyss also used that time to bite into Dred’s other shoulder. Before he could tear off his other arm, Dred managed to bite his neck and separate his head from his body.

But in the meantime, a strange, dark grey ball formed in front of his head which shot towards me. Space was breaking into splinters in its path and the same dark grey coloured matter was left through broken space. It touched only the side of Dred’s arm before he jumped to the side, but it was enough for him to get another serious wound.

Since I was quite far away, I avoided the ball easily, but if not for Dred’s quick reflexes, he’d have died on the spot. When space broke, the material beyond flowed out to repair it, which was called the Dark Flow. It was very unusual to see something like that at our level of battle, yet this cursed dragon had an innate ability like that.

Anything that came in contact with that dark grey material was destroyed instantly. Seeing a part of Dred’s arm missing, I shook my head in my helplessness. Seeing his tattered state, I found my lips quivering and my hands shaking, but I still pulled my lips into a small smile since I knew he’d stay alive. And wounds weren’t something we couldn’t heal.

Our enemy’s lifeless body fell towards the sea and I froze the water below to stop it from sinking. Every part of his corpse was a treasure, there was no way I’d let go of it. Dred hissed as he opened Padinyss’s jaws and pulled out his teeth from his body. He threw it onto the icefield below and hopped off of the huge branch.

“Store it, for now, I’m afraid we don’t have the time to go through a bigger evolution,” he said when I caught up and landed on the ice.

Nodding my head, I stored Padinyss’s corpse in my storage ring and then looked up, hearing strange sounds. “Let’s get his claws as well, we have a few seconds,” Dred muttered and then bolted off. I followed his nose and after reaching a destroyed part of the forest, he dived into the water. With the help of water magic, we reached the sea floor in the blink of an eye where I found Padinyss’s claws.

“These are going to become great weapons!”

“Eh, sure, if we survive that,” Dred pointed forwards.

I blinked a few times upon seeing something strange in the dim light of the water. I went to the surface with a frown on my face. A huge body was connected to the pair of legs below the sea and its owner happened to turn a few of the ‘bushes’ to the side.

One of the trees landed next to me, but it seemed tiny compared to the kobold that appeared in front of us. The water started to freeze and many human-sized kobolds appeared in the far. They had short and light brown fur and long claws, reaching at least ten centimeters. Although they weren’t carrying anything, their sheer number was threatening.

The big one looked the same, except for that it was at least a thousand meters tall. It was a moving mountain!

“Let’s retreat and help our friends in case they need it,” Dred advised.

“Mhm,” I nodded my head, but before I could move, I saw the giant kobold look down, its huge red eyes focused on me.

Raising my hand, I couldn’t help but wave it like an idiot, “Hello, friend.”

“ROAAAAAAAAAAAARR!” Its roar made even the planet tremble and the trees were torn out of the sea floor and blown away.

“He doesn’t seem to be a friendly type,” Dred muttered.

“You think so?” I rolled my eyes.