"You have done well to have injured this many of us... We were under the impression that your weapons and armor were of much lower quality. When we sack your city, we will torture the Magical Beings that failed to communicate how strong you were. This should give you sufficient pride when you reach the Great Beyond." The man's voice was deep but arrogant.

"Who, pray tell, are you? Could you perhaps be commanding this army of Magical Beings?" Sir Kris spoke up as he maintained his defensive positioning.

Sir Rowan carefully eyed the man in front of him, though he did not speak out of turn. He attempted to discern the strength of the enemy, but he could not see through the shroud of mystery that surrounded the red man.

"You are correct! I am the son of the Baron of the Red Reef. The wreathe of undying flames, Raj Vatra. You have the honor of basking in my flames, since my Army is too weak to deal with you." The red man slowly unbuttoned his shirt, removing his clothes to be stark naked in front of his enemies.

The Magical Beings watched in wonder as the red man's body began to explode in size. In mere moments, the man whom had only been ten feet tall had already surpassed the cyclops in height. With the change in size, it's body took a more mottled and scaled appearance.

The lizard-like demi-humans among the Magical Beings laid down their arms and began to kneel and worship the Red Dragon as it continued to transform to it's original form.

Sir Kris and Sir Rowan both removed the potions that Willem had given them, ready to drink if they lost the fight.

As the Red Dragon returned to his original form, his oppressive aura doubled compared to his human form. It became incredibly hard for the Squad to even breathe, let alone cast the spells needed to maintain the defensive formation.

"Please do put up a little resistance, or else my transformation would be for nothing." The dragon bared his fangs at the small Squad that it now towered over.

Just in height, the Dragon was well over thirty feet and had not even reached full maturity yet. Compared to Elder Dragons that spanned hundreds of feet, he was still a fledgling. However this fledgling Dragon could still lead his own small Army to deal with the humans and retake the Bastion of Hope.

The massive, crimson scaled Dragon lifted his head as he stood on his hind legs, prepared to deal the final blow to the small humans before him.

The methane that the Dragon stored within his body flowed through a small fleshy pipe leading to his mouth, where he ignited the gas and began to spew burning flames at the humans.

Under the threat of death, both the offensive teams mages combined forces with the defensive teams mages and managed to set up a last ditch weave of defensive spells to deflect the formidable flame.

As the flame hit the magical defense, the shields immediately began to melt from the sheer force of the flame. Those closest to the flame felt their faces slightly melt, though they felt no pain despite losing vision from having the flesh of their foreheads melt over their eyes.

The cyclopes, demi-humans and other Magical Beings watched in awe as the enemies they had such a hard time fighting were being destroyed with a single breathe from their leader.

The magical spell that defended the Squad slowly melted and broke away as the heat of the flame burned through everything it touched.

Sir Kris, Sir Rowan, Mark and Eli all nodded as they prepared to ingest the potion that Willem had given them.

However, as soon as the potion bottle touched their lips, they found that they could not move. Even more confusingly, the flames from the Red Dragon were being suppressed despite the defensive shields previously not holding up.

"What is this!" As the Red Dragon stopped spewing fire, he voiced his displeasure of the interference from the third party.

"I cannot have my Squad dying on our first real mission now can I." Willem retorted in response to the Red Dragon.

Though it was the first time he had ever seen a Dragon, Willem was strangely calm. He could only surmise that it had something to do with that nonsensical Great Wyrm that imparted knowledge to him. Weirdly enough to Willem, just being in the Great Wyrm's presence had been a rather insightful experience, allowing him to gain some small insight into the nature of Magic in the world. This insight strengthened the defensive magic he had just cast just a little bit, just to the point that even the Red Dragon's breathe could not completely melt it.

Willem saw the state of his soldiers as he looked at the scene of the battle. The scene was definitely strange to Willem, who saw his Squad in a full moon formation, in front of a Dragon, while the enemies stood and watched, and some others actually prayed to the Dragon.

The soldiers that had their faces almost completely melted off took no movements, but did not seem to be in any pain. The three soldiers that had been smashed by the cyclops had been restored in that they were no longer in life-threatening danger but their bodies were still mangled.

Finally, Sir Kris, Sir Rowan, Mark and Eli stared at Willem, though they could not move their bodies or their heads at all.

Willem released the black tendrils around his allies, and they quickly put away the potions that they so desperately tried to swallow moments before since they saw that Willem had returned.

"So you are the leader of these humans? You do seem different. Truth be told I could not even sense you until you appeared in my sight. You might be interesting enough to-"

Before the Red Dragon could finish speaking, Willem launched himself past his Squad and struck at the Red Dragon with the full power of his revolving magical force. The punch was quick, powerful and most importantly unexpected. The velocity with which Willem traveled even caught the Red Dragon off guard, which was the reason the strike succeeded so well.

As the Red Dragon flew backwards to negate some of the damage, he mowed down fifty trees while attempting to gain leverage.

Before the Red Dragon could gain back his balance, Willem sent an axe kick onto the head of the Dragon, breaking his left red horn and sending his head deep into the dirt. Five feet of soft earth gave way as Willem ruthlessly followed through the axe kick with another punch to crush the mouth of the Dragon.

A large fist sized indent appeared on the crushed snout of the Red Dragon, whom had finally gained his balance thanks to being punched into the ground. Unfortunately for the Red Dragon, his fighting experience was rather low since he was of some nobility and felt himself too important to fight with the lesser creatures of his homeland. The flurry of blows from Willem kept him well off his normal balance, which led to further frustration and the feeling of not being able to do anything. Shards of Dragon scales flew off in every direction while he continued to be beaten down.

Being mercilessly thrashed, the Red Dragon attempted to spew fire everywhere, with the intention of setting the whole forest aflame.

No gas came out of his mouth as he found that the pipe that allowed him to transport the natural methane in his body had been crushed when he was struck on the snout. Incapable of breathing fire and being mercilessly beaten, the Red Dragon could only attempt to defend itself against the onslaught of attacks from Willem.

From Willem's perspective, this was no more than bullying a child. Having experienced his fair share of fights, he understood exactly how one sided this bout really was. However he knew that he did not have the luxury of leaving the Red Dragon alive, especially if it was allowed to grow to the point that it might eventually be a challenge for him one day.

The more attacks the Red Dragon took, the more sloppy his guard became which lead to even more devastating abusive strikes. Even the cyclopes and Magical Beings could clearly see how outmatched the opponent of the Red Dragon was comparatively.

Willem elegantly danced in the sky as he repeatedly struck into the dense scales of the Red Dragon.

Some of the Magical Beings, seeing this scene, began to wonder if it was too late to ask for clemency.

After a minute straight of mercilessly beating the Red Dragon, Willem stopped punching and kicking the poor beast.

The rejuvenation of the Red Dragon was the only reason it was not dead at this very moment, but it's rejuvenation was barely working compared to when the fight began. Having been pushed so far to his limit, the Red Dragon slumped against the ground in submission and did not dare look at Willem.

"Please, I beg you. I will give you whatever you desire." The Red Dragon pleaded for his life.

"Would you have let me live if I had begged for my life?" Willem rebuked.

The Red Dragon closed his eyes and awaited the gentle embrace of the Great Beyond.

Willem walked over to the Red Dragon and plucked a scale from his body. The Red Dragon whom had been clearly surprised yelped out in pain.

"You can do that after you kill me, bastard!" The Red Dragon was pissed.

This human did not even have the decency to mercy kill him before using his body. The thought of being useful to the human left a sour taste in the Red Dragon's mouth, as it mixed with the sweet taste of his blood.

"Do your scale regenerate as well if they break?" Willem innocently asked.

The complete change of attitude from Willem caused the Red Dragon to become guarded as he carefully considered his answer.

The Red Dragon ultimately decided to tell him the truth and beg for mercy.

"Yes, they regenerate after a twenty five year cycle of molting and regrowing until a Dragon matures. I have told you what you want to know, please let me and my Army retreat. I swear by my ancestors of the Red Reef that I will not set foot on the mainlands again." The Red Dragon used the last of his magical energy to return to his human form.

Willem looked over the human form of the Red Dragon, with his broken horn, and smiled innocently before a servant went to the Red Dragon's side to give him his clothes back. Willem watched and did not stop the servant, which made for a very peculiar scene for everyone watching.

"At least you have the decency to allow me to clothe myself before I am killed. For that you have my thanks, if that means anything to you." The Red Dragon donned his clothes slowly as he savored the sweet fragrance of the burning food wafting in the air, the burning wood from the campfire and the musk of wet earth around the area due to a rainstorm earlier in the week.

"What is your name." Willem asked innocently.

"You have the honor of killing the son of the Baron of the Red Reef. The wreathe of undying flames, Raj Vatra." Raj gave up on leaving this forest alive as he spoke the only line he really ever needed to get what he wanted.

As Willem approached Raj, the Red Dragon began to reminisce about all the things he had regretted in his life, including passing up sparring in lieu of chasing the females of his kind. A wave of emotions came over Raj as Willem placed his hand on Raj's shoulder.

Raj looked Willem in the eyes as Willem plunged his hand through the Red Dragon's chest. However Raj did not feel any immediate pain as he closed and opened his eyes in disbelief. An uneasy feeling came over him as he looked down at the gaping black hole where his chest should have been.

"What... Ugh... WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Raj alarmingly screamed as a pain worse than the beating he received earlier blasted him from the inside outward.

Willem began to consume what was lying dormant inside the Dragon. Though he had only ever done this to a human, he now understood what he was actually doing to them.

He was not taking away their magical force, he was absorbing their potential.

What could possibly have more potential than a yet to mature Red Dragon.