Ice ants poured from the soft snow decorating a patch at the back of his cave. At first just a few tunnelled through, but a hoard over 50 strong appeared quickly. And it only continued from there on. He simply couldn’t keep count and believed there to be hundreds of the annoying bugs, all of them led by some egregiously massive ants.

These three leaders were several times their kin, bigger than the squirrel he stunned earlier. And boy did they disgust him. All three sporting shiny black mandibles with blue veins spread through their carapace.

Without hesitation a Flame bolt spell activated and hit one of the three leader ants. They might be large, but an ant is still just that in the end. His spell blew apart its carapace instantly, roasting its soft innards lightly.

When he saw the result, it barely even seemed deadly, the ant with a large fragment of its shell missing was still moving, just barely. But as he attacked… So did they.

Turning quickly, he moved outside the cave, already at the boundary in preparation for whatever they threw at him. With more open air, he quickly used a Flame bolt on another leader; it utterly failed to dodge and took the spell straight to its face. Its carapace blew a hole as well, but sustained little internal damage overall.

Were those blue veins some degree of fire resistance? How annoying.

Still, he saw the two injured ant leaders lulling behind, clearly each Flame bolt did significant damage. And he began burning alive the grouped hoard of ants behind them!

Casting Fire four times in a row, the sudden flames lit tens of the little ones aflame, some escaping just barely, the ones further away making significant distance from those alight. The leader ant was too close for him to feel safe now, and he activated one of the Jump seals to make a significant distance.

Preparing another Flame bolt, he accidentally fumbled it at the 3rd word and had to restart. Not costing a lot of time, but enough for the main ant hoard to catch up. Another attempt successfully cast the Flame bolt and left a gaping wound on the last ant leader.

Now came the hard part. Making sure his prey all stayed. Mana was limited, and he wanted this bloodline, this species of nuisances should give him something in return after all their trouble. With another Jump spell leading him further away from the cave, he saw the first opportunity instantly. The leader who took a Flame bolt head-on.

With his fleshy insides open for attack, all it took was a single Ice bolt straight to the wound. Something inside its body was torn and it fell to the ground, that was one down.

As their fastest were injured and moving too slowly to worry about, he found it easy to pick off ants behind them with Fire while Jumping away in moments of danger. Using so many bolt spells drained his mana extremely fast, and once at the 60% he slowed down.

Relying on MP regen to recover was a pointless goal, he simply wanted to win while wasting as little as possible.

Eventually, he obtained his chance with an ant leader’s leg catching on fire. It rushed away from his Fire spell, but that moment of running gave him perfect access to the broken shell on its side. A hasty Ice bolt fired into it, sending it toppling. While not dead, he doubted it could escape.

As he celebrated that, he focused back on the final one.

All of a sudden it burst forward with speed, sharp mandibles instantly aiming for his neck and just centimetres away from cutting right through. Reacting just in time, he activated another Jump seal and flung himself to the left to dodge. And right after that throwing a Flame bolt at the bastard.

It stood no chance as a large chunk of the last of the shell on its face instantly blew off, the bug barely defended. But he didn’t stop there, casting Telekinesis and pulling out an Ice bolt from the nearest collapsed leader. It flew straight into the final leader's face, but that alone was not enough.

Vicious motions jammed the blade into its head dozens of times. The ant's soft interior turning into mush and strips, only once even the twitches of its body stopped did he let go of the spell.

Watching their brethren slowly dying on snowy ground, he felt proud of the damage incurred.

Only a few tens of ants remained. As they grouped around their leaders, he saw them pick up those broken, valuable bodies and begin hauling them back.

Out of rage he cast Flame bolt twice more, instantly charring half the remaining ants trying to recover those bodies. He wasted all that mana, almost receiving an injury. And now they wanted to take away his spoils?

Was he some sort of saintly dragon!?

Several flame spells targeted the fleeing ants, picking off the remnants until just a small group of eighteen escaped. A complete slaughter of this small ant army, fueled purely by the great agility offered by his Jump seals and compressed flames.

Before recovering his condition, he pushed the ant bodies into the cave and tallied his spoils. Three leaders, and well over a hundred regular ants.

With this, he believed to have enough body mass for another complete bloodline, but instead of eating he quickly recovered to his battle-ready state. Who knew if more ants would arrive soon for revenge, and being caught off-guard could cost him this very fragile life.

Five seals decorated his belly once more, giving him a bit more confidence yet again. The Ice ant bodies all froze, but it was a minor issue for the tiny ants. He ate them all without chewing, letting the frozen, burnt carapace flow down his throat before instantly dissolving within him.

As for the battle, he earned quite a bit of experience this time.

[Killed Ice ants! Obtained 20% EXP

Killed Ice ant soldiers! Obtained 50% EXP]

Once reaching the larger ant corpses, he quickly melted the ice and cut it into small slivers with Telekinesis. Even cooked ants tasted horrible to him, and as such gulping down every mass of its gooey, yet solid, internals was a priority. Before long he received the message he’d spent weeks on…

[Consumed Ice ant! Assimilation progress 100%]

Just moments later, he breathed lightly in the pleasant warmth’s presence and laid down through the waves of tiredness. It proved to be a lot stronger than expected, not as bad as the snow gibbon but definitely far worse than all the bloodlines he assimilated since then! Still, he pushed through it and received the conclusive message.

[Ice ant bloodline assimilated! 2 new bloodline directions potentially available]

“Finally!!! No more disgusting ants!” More than ecstatic about the result, he stood up after the tiredness passed and began moving ant bodies from his cave. As expected, only two of the leaders were needed to complete this bloodline.

Unfortunately, in his high-pitched roars of glory, he came to realise too late that a deeper growl slowly approached from outside. His voice soon being cut off as its sound entered his cave and echoed frighteningly.

Since completing the battle only half an hour had passed, and the weakness had yet to completely disappear. As he walked outside to see what this new enemy was, a quick check of his status showed only 80% MP… Not bad but certainly not ideal for a second battle while weakened.

But once outside, the sight of silvery white fur left him agape.

A lone wolf. Something new challenged him for this cave.

Could he win against it? He was weak, tired, and only somewhat full in terms of mana. Jaws that can snap bone, and claws that rip through fur, this was a harsh enemy for him. Even normal hatchlings would suffer against an adult wolf like this.

It peered down on him, for some reason not underestimating its far smaller enemy. While a smidge, there was some intelligence in this wolf’s eyes, just enough to be careful against him.

Perhaps a showcase of magic would send it retreating?

As an example, he calmly cast an Ice bolt and sent it away from the wolf. It easily dug through some nearby snow and the wolf’s eyes kept track of it during the whole flight. But that caution did not vanish, and neither did it jump away from the use of magic.

There was no time to hesitate.

This time casting a Stun spell, he hit the wolf before it had a chance to dodge. Unlike the reaction to an Ice bolt, its eyes opened, almost like it entered a state of panic. But since it wanted to fight then he’d give it one!

A Flame bolt formed as the wolf’s muscles finally began contracting again and it jumped away in hope of dodging this attack, the bolt missing its face but still hitting a leg. His leg was knocked away slightly from the explosive force, but the fire only barely torched the fur. This thing’s fire resistance was impressive, but it clearly couldn’t dodge all his attacks.

It looked down at its leg and back at the hatchling, seeming to contemplate if such a battle was worth the danger. That shock which left it stunned remained vivid, and its danger was obvious. But its resolve cemented and the wolf growled once more. It needed to close the gap between them, and he wouldn't allow that to happen.

The moment its eyes sharpened, he prepared another Stun spell, the wolf tried to dodge once more but the near instant lightning spell still struck.

Its legs stopped responding and it crashed onto the floor, this time an Ice bolt spell quickly formed, aiming for its open eyes. Being slightly faster than Flame bolt, he already finished casting as the spell already left his control. And the wolf?

Pushing with all its might, his limbs simply had yet to recover, especially with the crash straining them. It closed its eyelids in fear but blood still sprayed, dripping down its face and staining the white snow.

The bolt stabbed deep, instantly ruining its eye and sealing it shut. Any resilience in the wolf turned to fear as the pain extended. It stood up, shaking a bit from the sensation, and turned to run but he would not have that.

A flame spell finished just a fast as he began, forming it at the wolf’s face and watching it flinch from the sudden burning. This would be his last stun spell, the next likely to fail.

Not that it wouldn’t stun this beast, but rather that resistance to stunning incantations builds up insanely fast. The wolf was almost moving by the time he finished that last Ice bolt. He had to get in front of it somehow, and only knew one way to do so. Activating a Jump seal, he quickly used the forward momentum to leap forwards, keeping hot on its tail.

If it ever escaped his line of sight he’d lose all this work for nothing!

In mid-air he already knew how to kill this enemy, only considering if he should enter a dangerous position for this kill. Looking at the fleeing wolf, he forfeited dodging and instead sped up further with another Jump seal, crashing into the snow afterwards. Turning his body somewhat, he activated another Jump seal to fling himself closer to the wolf, but still a fair distance behind.

He just needed to see that Ice bolt, and while turning to activate a Jump seal on the other side of his body began casting a spell to end this confrontation. The wolf began standing up too, its body more resistant to the shocks now.

But as it looked back towards the leaping dragon, fearfully checking the distance between them, that simple action cost it far too much. It proved a grave mistake in this battle. His Telekinesis activated, grabbing the Ice bolt and pushing with every bit of mental might he could grasp after these consecutive battles. The wolf howled and whimpered as the shard dug deeper and deeper…

It no longer mattered though. A shard of ice entered its brain and guaranteed its death. The fact it remained conscious was already a testament to its hidden vitality, a far more resiliant creature than he expected.

Still, such a thing couldn’t survive a large blade jammed into its brain. He doubted that anything on this mountain actually lived and recuperated from such wounds.

Barely even able to walk now, he watched the wolf swagger forward a few steps before falling over. Unsure of its demise, he maintained a distance and cast Telekinesis on the shard once in his line of sight again, using it to cut the beast’s brain to pieces, ensuring its death.

[Killed Level 8 Mutant glacier wolf! Obtained 70% EXP]

Name

Title

Nexus Aid Bonus

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Weakly- magical Ice-cream

HP

100%

MP

50%

Level

6

EXP

28%

Unallocated Stat Points: 8

Strength

0

Luck

0

Agility

0

Growth

0

Magic

5

Mutation Rate

5

A large, fresh wolf corpse now lay in front of him. For a few moments he began to think why it had been so easy to slaughter the masses of ants yet the wolf proved so tough without exploiting one of its few weak points.

“I need stronger magic… And I see why dragons call these incantations. Why was I so happy about killing some ants? Not like I wiped out their hive,” lowering his assessment of himself by several grades, he couldn’t help but continue the disparaging streak.

His priority was to survive first and foremost, and then grow into a true dragon. Killing some ants should have been easy. The fact he struggled only emphasised his weakness.

Dangerously low on mana now, he had no choice but to cover the body with some snow and hope nothing found it. Another bloodline would do him well, and perhaps it explained why this wolf attempted to capture his cave alone.