Right now, Izo was just like a veteran Soulsborne player, constantly on guard against the boss's windups, fast strikes, and delayed attacks.
After several thrilling dodges and weaves, he finally caught a flaw in the mad dragon's defense!
Off-balance after a ferocious charge, her head accidentally got wedged straight into the rock wall.
Izo leaped onto her back, abruptly blasting a frigid breath from his mouth. The resulting icicles wedged the already massive dragon head even tighter.
Bang, bang, bang!
At the same time, his front claws didn't stop either, furiously elbow-striking the white dragon's relatively vulnerable nape!!
Flesh and blood flew, crimson instantly staining his pristine silver-white scales. Beneath Izo, the white dragon struggled even more frantically, flailing her four claws and writhing her body.
Like a wild dance of golden serpents, the entire cave shook violently for a moment.
The solid ice above fractured as well, falling in massive chunks.
Crack!
Finally, the massive dragon head shattered the rocks and icicles obstructing her, snapping around to bite straight into Izo's wing.
Sharp dragon teeth tore through muscle in an instant!
Fortunately, his tough bones and the diamond-hard scale-feathers along the edges prevented the teeth from sinking deeper.
Thrashing her head wildly, the white dragon began gnawing on everything in her jaws like a rabid dog.
Carried by the immense momentum, Izo slammed onto the ground.
The agony forced a fierce roar from his throat!
Yet Izo's focus grew sharper and sharper; even pinned to the ground, he dodged her attacks again and again.
Before long, Izo successfully entered the "flow state"!!
In his eyes, the mad dragon's movements slowed down more and more. Now, he could even strike her joints in advance, intercepting her attacks to create even more opening opportunities.
Seizing a window between the mad dragon's attacks, Izo kicked out hard with his hind legs directly against her lower jaw!
Thud!
At the dull impact, the mad dragon was kicked straight into the air before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Izo finally broke free from his pinned position.
As the old saying goes: strike while the iron is hot—or better yet, beat them while they're down!
Now, the tables were completely turned. Izo lunged forward fiercely, mounting the mad dragon's belly.
Empowered by the flow state, Izo laid in heavy damage left and right. With punches, claws, elbows, and hammerfists accompanied by whistling wind, he pounded that massive dragon head over and over again!!
The mad dragon didn't even have time to cry out under the flurry of elbow strikes before her head was slammed into the dirt.
Izo still didn't stop his elbow strikes; under the influence of the "flow state," his elbows rained down faster and faster!
Only when her limbs stopped struggling and her breathing gradually slowed did he slowly halt his movements.
Izo had won. As a juvenile dragon, he had utterly defeated an adult white dragon nearly twice his size.
As his hands stopped, Izo gradually exited the "flow state."
The violent dark purple in the eyes of the white dragon pinned beneath him slowly faded, returning to her original ice-blue.
She slowly pulled her head out of the dirt, seemingly recovering her sanity as her weak voice sounded:
“Cough, cough, cough... It's you, Izo.”
“My child...”
“That's not what you said when you kicked me out back then, Goliya.”
Izo slowly stood up, no longer pinning the white dragon beneath him.
Goliya climbed up with some difficulty and began licking the bone-deep wounds on her wings and thighs.
The wounds hadn't scabbed over, and the flesh wasn't decaying dark red or brown, but a strange dark purple that wisped with eerie black smoke.
“Goliya, how did you end up in this state?”
“It's a long story. It started over a month ago when I went out hunting...”
“Then make it short.”
Interrupted, Goliya glanced at Izo, but given her injuries, she didn't dare say much.
After all, dragons had always been a race that respected strength. Only the strong could set the rules, while the weak could only obey—and chromatic dragons were especially so.
“Mm... I was attacked by a creature I'd never seen before, but fortunately, I managed to repel it.”
“I was afraid it would follow my scent here, and since my condition wasn't right at the time, I had Leodero and Vivian go look for you.”
“By the way, are they with you right now?”
“How have you been doing?”
“Thanks to you, we haven't starved to death, but we haven't eaten our fill either.”
“You know as well as I do that in the entire Sioni Icefield, this place is about the only bountiful spot.”
At this point, the two dragons simply stared at each other, eye to eye.
Silence descended once again. Goliya's dragon pride would not allow her to apologize; even if she felt guilty, she could never bring herself to express it.
In the end, it was Izo who broke the deadlock of silence.
“Sigh...”
“What did the creature that wounded you look like?”
“What abilities did it have? Where did it disappear?”
“It looked a bit like a leopard, pitch-black all over. I couldn't see the details clearly, but it was roughly my size—maybe slightly smaller.”
“We encountered each other in a cave at the bottom of the Great Rift, and I repelled it.”
“Its ability was very strange, seemingly related to shadows.”
Listening to the mother dragon's description, Izo was completely baffled.
A leopard roughly the size of a dragon? An ability related to shadows, dwelling in a cave at the bottom of the Great Rift?
There was no such creature in the Northern Territory at all...
“Where are Leodero and Vivian?”
Goliya's voice snapped Izo's thoughts back to reality.
“I told them to run immediately if they heard howling.”
“They're probably on the upper level of the Great Rift by now. I'll go find them. You stay here and recover from your wounds...”
Saying that, Izo headed toward the cave mouth.
Goliya watched Izo's retreating back, hesitating as if wanting to speak, but in the end, she said nothing. There were some things she planned to confess to Izo only after seeing Leodero and Vivian.
Rate on N.U.
