The Devouring Dragon

I bent my back unnaturally, ignoring the pain that wracked through me as I limbo under his strike. As I did, Ragnar's body blitzed past me in the air, continuing forward.

I turned around to ready myself to counterattack, then watched with wide eyes as he spun himself around mid-air, his feet planting flat on a tree he had been hurtling toward.

He pressed his feet into the tree, kicking off it and launching forward at me again. Behind him, the tree was ripped straight from the ground, roots and all, as it tumbled over.

I hastily threw myself to the side again, barely dodging the strike as he flew past me again.

"Raya!" I shouted, flinging myself to the ground again as Ragnar blitzed through the air at me, another tree being ripped from the ground as he did, "Just keep throwing them at me! No waiting!"

"S-Sure!" Raya responded, and a spear landed in my hand.

Ragnar was moving far faster than I could - I couldn't even hope to match his speed as he blitzed back and forth through the forest at me. However, he wasn't getting this speed boost for free.

Judging by the way he was crisscrossing past me in straight lines, he couldn't control the speed very well. He wasn't getting a speed boost - he was getting a momentum boost.

Once he was off the ground, he would keep going until something stopped him - as the trees were doing right now. 

He wasn't an agile cheetah - no, he was more like a rampaging rhinoceros, slamming into everything in his way without care. I could use this to my advantage.

Just as the spear landed in my hand, I was forced to swing it. 

Ragnar barreled at me again, another tree tumbling over as he kicked off of it. His claws lashed out toward me. For a split second, a pulse of anxiety hit me as it grew closer. 

In an instant, the claw was just mere centimeters from me. Then, millimeters - the sharp nail filling my entire vision.

Then, my spear slammed into his side, and I was safe. The spear broke from the impact, not managing to slow down the king in the slightest, but it did manage to shift his trajectory.

He can't control himself in the air. The spears can't do much damage, or even slow him down, but they can alter his trajectory ever so slightly. That slight alteration was all I needed.

I dropped the half of the broken spear in my hand onto the ground, the other half being flung wildly as Ragnar barreled through it.

Luckily, Raya had taken my words to heart and another spear was already on it's way it.

I caught it, spinning around and lashing out again as Ragnar blitzed through the air at me wildly. The reinforced spear slammed into him, breaking into pieces as it pushed him just millimeters to the side, causing him to miss me barely.

I quickly caught another spear, my arms tensing as I forced all strength into another hit. Within a split second, Ragnar was blitzing towards me again, and I barely managed to push his trajectory to the side.

The next half-minute felt like a lifetime, as I was constantly avoiding death by mere inches. I caught spear after spear, my arms moving as fast as I could as the spears broke time after time on Ragnar's rampaging body.

Meanwhile, the forest around us was slowly destroyed more and more. Ragnar continued bouncing from tree to tree, slicing across the air like a bullet as he barely missed me, landed on a tree, and then launched forward again.

Finally, after mere minutes, which felt more like hours to me, and nearly 50 close encounters, I heard a shout.

"T-There's no more, Valon!" Raya cried out, her voice slightly panicked.

That's fine. The plan is ready.

In the end, we were left in what looked like a wasteland. Countless fragments of spears laid around us, covering the dirt in piles of wood.

Meanwhile, I couldn't even see the son-trio anymore, nor could I actually spot Raya outside of hearing her voice. In an entire circle around us, tree after tree had fallen onto its side, trapping me and Ragnar in an almost box-like enclosure.

With all the debris and fallen trees around us, I was surprised Raya had actually managed to get all the spears to me. I had suspected that I would only be able to use about half, but she had proven to exceed my expectations.

Finally, with nothing left to alter Ragnar's trajectory, I was left with the final part of the plan. I shifted my body, angling my back to where Raya's voice was coming from, and braced myself.

This would hurt - this would hurt a lot, but I needed a moment of reprieve from his insane skill. This was, unfortunately, necessary.

A split second later, pain erupted through my body.

-15,000HP! (1,535/23,035)

+7,500 HP! (9,035/23,035)

Ragnar slammed into me full force, his claws stabbing into my chest as it exploded in a fountain of blood. 

His momentum stopped abruptly, all the force of his insane speed being slammed into me. It felt as if I'd just been hit by a semi-truck - a semi-truck that had spikes attached to the front.

The impact sent me flying backward, a sonic boom ringing out into the air from the pure force as a burst of wind shot outward. My body blitzed through the air, only stopping as I slammed into the large pile of downed trees behind me.

-5,000HP! (4,035/23,035)

+2,500 HP! (6,535/23,035)

"Fuck!" I grunted, my body surging in pain. I clutched at my chest, the regeneration only partially healing it as I coughed out a glob of blood.

"V-Valon!" Raya yelled worriedly, vaulting over two crossing fallen trees as she ran up next to me.

"Do you regret your words now, insolent mutt?" Ragnar shouted, crossing his arms as he stood in the middle of the carnage around us. 

I waved off Raya, coughing out more blood as I forced myself to my feet. My body ached, my insides felt like they would explode, and my head was pounding. 

Despite that, I looked at Ragnar, locking eyes with him as a grin slowly formed on my face.

"Raya…"I huffed, my breathing heavy as my grin got bigger, "Start running, and don't look back."

My eyes slowly looked to the side, being as subtle as I could be as I stared at one of the many fallen trees around us.

I had tested this before, but not on such a large scale, and definitely not while my body was wracked with pain. 

"W-What?" Raya asked, "I won't just leave you!"

"Trying to save my traitorous daughter, huh?" Ragnar chuckled, his eyes wide with confidence as he matched my grin, "It's useless. I'll track her down no matter where she runs."

"Just go, Raya," I said again, my grin growing even wider. She opened her mouth to argue again but stopped as I merely raised my hand. She looked down at my lips, which were twisted in a bloody grin as the red liquid flowed from my mouth.

"G-Got it…" She muttered, looking uncertain but agreeing. She turned around, giving me one last worried glance over her shoulder, and then started sprinting down the mountain in the direction we'd come from.

"Don't want her to see your last pathetic moments?" Ragnar asked, looking at me with an arrogant grin, "Admirable, I suppose."

"No, it's not that," I hummed, my grin growing even bigger. Blood flowed out from my mouth as I coughed again, stumbling forward as my body felt like it had been ripped apart. If it wasn't for my regeneration, I was sure I'd have more than a few broken bones.

My eyes trailed onto another tree, my concentration wavering slightly as another cough wracked me. 

Fuck, this was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

"Hey, Ragnar…" I asked, my grin near-psychotic as my eyes trailed to another tree, "...how are you with warm weather?"

"Hah, to think you'd become delusional in your final moments," Ragnar hummed, raising his hand as his sharp claws glinted at me. He started walking toward me, his steps ringing out through the forest.

The cocky bastard was too focused on me to realize what was happening around him.

"But, I'll grant you your last wish," He chuckled, his stride becoming filled with arrogance, "I hate it. My fur is more than enough to keep me warm - the sun is simply too much."

"Ah, that's unfortunate," I chuckled in response, looking insane as I laughed with my huge bloody grin. In a final finishing touch, my eyes glanced over the many piles of wood chips around us that had once been spears.

Finally, I glanced up. All around us, the piles of fallen trees and spears had changed. Now, they had a noticeable black tint as a thick liquid rolled down them.

I raised my hand, holding my palm out at Ragnar, and the plan all came together.

I had previously come up with an idea similar to this when I got the [Material Change] skill. If I was using a non-flammable weapon, such as a metal sword or knife, then I could abruptly change the material to wood, set it aflame, and catch my opponent off guard.

The problem with that plan came with the skill itself - changing the material of something required a lot of focus and a bit of time. In the middle of a fight, that'd be difficult. I could probably do it once, but then the element of surprise would be gone.

So, when I saw [Reinforce], this plan became a reality. As opposed to [Material Change], I could reinforce something I was touching instantly. And, the most important difference between the two skills: the reinforcement ended when I stopped touching the object.

If I wanted to use [Material Change] to turn tens of wooden spears into metal, and then change them back, that would be impossible. The time and focus I would need mid-fight to change so many wouldn't be possible.

[Reinforce], however, allowed me to do exactly that. To utilize spears that were as hard as metal, which even took on a silver glint from the skill, leading the opponent to not even think of them as wooden anymore, that would transform back into the wood the moment I dropped them. They could be useful in combat due to their toughness, and then be used to catch someone off guard abruptly.

Then came the hard part. I had tried tirelessly before venturing into the dire wolf-ruled section of the forest to learn how to use [Material Change] to create oil, but it had been a difficult endeavor.

As opposed to something like air, which I literally breathed and was surrounded by constantly, I didn't have much experience with oil. Luckily, it was still possible.

The two conditions for [Material Change]'s success - knowing the material I was changing, and knowing what I was changing it into. The better understanding I had of both, the better the result would turn out.

Finally, after countless hours of testing, I had developed a method to change something into oil. It was slow and required a lot of focus, but it worked.

Since I didn't actually have a good understanding of what oil was made of, the 'oil' I created was pretty scuffed. I changed the material into water, then added the viscosity and crudeness. It was slow, but it worked.

Ironically, because I had essentially created it through trial and error, the 'oil' wasn't really oil, but had somehow turned out even more flammable

Changing the trees was no problem - I was surrounded by trees constantly in this forest, and I had more than enough practice in altering them. Changing something as large as an entire tree was difficult, but changing just the outer layer of bark was enough.

The wooden chips that were spread around the clearing from the broken spears were child's play and could be changed with just a glance.

And so, by letting Ragnar give me a 'crippling blow,' I was given time to change all the trees and wood around us into oil-covered logs as the king arrogantly took pride in his victory.

I could've continued to dodge his attacks, but the ensuing battle would be long and difficult. Combine that with his skills, which I didn't know if he was hiding more of, and that was a risk I would rather not take.

Now came the final piece to the plan - a skill I had kept hidden. I was careful to not use it against any commanders, generals, or dire wolfs in general. A skill I needed to keep under wraps.

I knew that Ragnar was spying on me - so it was safe to assume that a lot of my triumph cards would be known. He wasn't surprised that I could change my body at will into a weapon, or that I could regenerate after taking his attacks. His spies had told him as much.

However, there was one thing his spies hadn't seen. As I pointed my palm at Ragnar, a small red light flickered on it. Then, that red light came into existence. A small flame.

I had been careful to keep both [Material Change] and [Fireball] under wraps. I didn't need them to beat the generals anyway, and I wouldn't give Ragnar a chance to plan around them.

That flame slowly grew bigger, expanding until it was larger than even my hand. I watched as Ragnar's eyes widened at the unexpected development.

The trap that I had laid out so carefully was finished. I hadn't intended for this to work out so perfectly.

All around us laid the remains of the collection of spears - various pieces of wood lying on top of each other while drowned in the flammable liquid. The dirt on the floor was barely visible anymore, covered with various different-sized pieces of wood that had once been spears.

I didn't plan for this to be my final attack - no, I expected it to be a huge blow when it caught Ragnar off guard, but I didn't expect it to take him out. Now, that had changed.

The wolf king had done it to himself. His reckless attacks had destroyed the forest around us, creating a circle around us of fallen trees. Branches, logs, the remains of spears, and entire trees themselves laid around us - most of which were now covered in thin layers of oil. All of it was perfectly laid out.

Perfectly laid out for the world's largest bonfire.

"Ragnar…" I trailed off, blood dripping from my lips as I stared into his shocked eyes. My grin stretched unnaturally wide, my teeth glinting despite the blood coating them. I swung my hand forward, the large flame shooting from my palm as I activated [Fireball].

"Burn."

The world was engulfed in flames.

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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out in about a week, or you can read ahead at Patreon.com/Koyon !