I’m looking at Adriana speeding up toward my shields when a thought strikes me.

[Single-Minded Focus]

In Human legends, Dragons are sometimes honorable and mystical. But the very origins of their story are different. Dragons are creatures that exemplify tyranny and evil, the representation of Humanity’s greatest fears and sins. They are the ultimate punishers, the primordial ones.

When I look at Adriana’s elongated and sharp features, I can finally see that. Her humanoid form is not protruding forward, but it’s going down like a serpent’s triangular head. Her eyes move fast with whip-like movements, not slowly and wisely. Her entire body is not imperious, just sinuous and clammy.

[Advanced Mana Sense]

As soon as the world changes to pure energy, I can see patterns of snaking bolts around her body. They criss-cross her chest and legs, going back and forth to her arms. They are primarily red and blueish, but they also have some green.

“Body enhancements,” I smile.

And with but a thought, I wipe them out. They are complex spells that require fine control to attune to your body's natural state without wreaking havoc on it.

She stumbles and almost falls forward before regaining her balance – it’s not easy to regain control after losing the strength and agility she had summoned. Her stare could probably melt rocks, but she has no idea who she’s going against. And this is definitely not hybris. I’m just conscious of where my power stands in the hierarchies of this world, especially when fighting a great evil.

I [Flash] once in her peripheral vision before launching an [Overcharged Advanced Light Lance]. She crouches to avoid being blinded, proving that her decision to come into the arena was made on the spur of the moment. Otherwise, she would have gotten some enchantment to protect herself against my blinding [Flashes]. But when my attack collides with her chest… she just shrugs it off.

And then…

ROAR

It’s deafening, and I almost fall on my back. But I move Lucinda’s body forward, using her as an anchor to stand straight. I feel ancient fear at the edge of my perception – it’s hard to describe how terrifying but also blurred it is.

“I’m a Dragon! I won’t let a lowly Human insult Master Marcus!”

And then, her maws shine.

It’s time, then.

I have not perfected this technique. I would not use it to cure anyone yet. But I can certainly kill someone with it. I won’t lie to you, it’s very cumbersome on my Mana reserves since Lord Juler and I didn’t refine the spell and we have yet to make the overall process more efficient. But I’ll be damned if I can’t take care of an arrogant bastard lizard.

I conjure twenty-three [Weighed Lights] – yeah, a new skill – all around Adriana while she’s preparing to breathe fire on me. But not knowing what will come her way, she simply ignores them.

[Light Overcharge]

[Overcharged Polarization Field]

[Light Acceleration]

[Light-Bended Reality]

I start stacking skills on top of each other to create the bremsstrahlung effect when impacting the ten [Weighed Light]. See, there are many superimposed waves of [Light] that I’m generating and amplifying through the skills, but they have to impact specifically the [Weighed Lights] to create gamma radiation. And before that—

Adriana discharges her fire, a green inferno on my [Advanced Hexagonal Three-Folded Shields], but they hold for the moment.

Good.

I create an [Overcharged Polarization Field] around Adriana and use the knowledge from our latest research we made with Lord Juler to create the guide. In the energy world, through my eyes, I can see her body much more clearly, including her vital organs. Her brain is similar to the Human one. The guide works as an extension of my [Advanced Mana Sense] – it’s basically an amplification of the natural polarity in the electromagnetic fields that Mana generates inside the body. I individuate the biggest internal vessels in her brain; then, I move the [Weighed Lights] and the rest of the other [Lights] I have looped around the correct coordinates in the energy world. One would think that this operation requires your target to stay still, right?

[Tracking]

Neat skill, if you ask me.

Usually, it’s used to keep an eye on targets and aim better. It’s not that powerful unless you have what I have. Now, all the components align on their own to follow the minute movements of Adriana.

I can feel the massive drain on my body, and I fear I’ll black out after this attack. I’ve yet to experiment with the final product in the field.

The [Advanced Hexagonal Three-Folded Shields] start disintegrating, and I can feel the insane heat around me. I’m sure that there’s also a toxic element in her fire. My breath accelerates, and my lungs start to sting. It’s weird being this close to dying, I’ll say.

The calm before the storm.

Moments before my shields totally collapse, Adriana relents, out of breath. Literally.

“I shall give you the opportunity to—”

Oh, here we go.

I push all my Mana to break the looping [Lights] and…

Adriana stumbles forward with a confused expression on her face. She looks around with a frown while I dispel all the [Lights], [Weighed Lights], and so on. My eyes are blacking out, but I can’t fall. Even though I can barely see now, missing the exact moment Adriana falls to the ground after I punched two small fissures into her brain, I still stand tall.

There are twenty-three perfectly round holes in the translucent shield that completely covered her body. Now, the shield is slowly fading away, and one can see where the gamma rays disrupted the natural flow of Mana – or better, obliterated it. Radiations generated from Mana are a natural [Mage]-killer.

In the slight reprieve from my blackened sight, I can see Adriana’s fall.

Lord Juler, a little help.

Lord Juler levitates one Mana potion after another to my mouth, and I drink three before my body begins to feel normal again. The arena is whispering. Everyone is looking at Adriana, uncomprehending. See, radiation is invisible. Also, I need to figure out how to avoid dosing myself and nearby people. Actually, I’m not sure about the dispersion since this is magically generated – further experiments are required.

But as I hear a deafening roar from above, I can also hear something in my head.

[Conditions for Unique Skill Met!]

[Creating Unique Skill: Gamma-Knife!]