Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Simon instead of dodging the attack decided to take it head-on. His attitude seemed to have delighted the other, the respect in the eyes of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon increased. It gave a ferocious smile like that of a wild beast and opened its mouth wide.

If one looked carefully, in the depth of its mouth, amidst those sharp spear like teeth, there was a faint light slowly accumulating. That light slowly became stronger and stronger until it was as glaring as the sun hanging in the middle of the sky itself.

Breath Attack... one of the strongest attacks of the dragon clan. Its might was so powerful that it was enough to flatten the lands and crumble mountains.

Whether it be its power or lethalness, everything was on a different level compared to all the other attacks the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon had thrown at him. It was its magnum opus.

This attack by the dragon indicated that their battle had come to a finale. Whoever would survive this, would be the winner of this bout.

Simon took a deep breath and conditioned his body. He gulped down a few vials of elixirs and focused his attention on the attack. The last time he had seen that attack, it had raised all the hairs on its body. It was like an omen of death, one that he had no chance of surviving if it hit him.

Yet after over a year he was back in the same lands, facing the same enemy and the same attack. Simon felt some nostalgia. However, he was done running away this time.

Although he sensed danger from that attack and his senses screamed at him to dodge it, Simon was after all under the effects of pride. He wouldn't do something as cowardly and spineless as dodging it when the other party has clearly issued a challenge.

Dodging was out of the option, if he did that, he might win the battle but he would lose the war. Thus there was only one option from the start, endure the attack and assert who was the superior one.

"Here it comes… huff… [Thermal Breath]".

While Simon was preparing himself, the light inside the wide open mouth of the earth shattering lower dragon became extremely intense and soon after, a wide beam of light was spat out.

That beam of light was glaring and packed a ridiculous amount of power and heat behind. It travelled in a straight line, decimating and evaporating everything around it and in the blink of an eye, it was upon Simon.

Simon grit his teeth, his body was covered by the infernal fire and a small golden stone was held in his hand. When the [Thermal Breath] was just upon him, he broke the stone and a golden halo quickly enveloped him.

BOOMMM…

The breath enveloped the demon and continued its advent in a straight line. Be it mountains or forest, everything exploded apart in front of its might. The beam continued for dozens of kilometres before coming to a stop after crashing into the cliff face far into the distance.

Dust and smoke were razed in the path where the beam travelled and settled down only after a while.

"Did it work?" the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon watched the crumbing mountains in the distance and wondered aloud. Its body shook heavily from the exhaustion and drowsiness could be seen in its eyes.

Just as it was observing, the dust in the distance was swept away by a gale and a bloody figure slowly emerged from underneath the debris.

The state that the figure was in could only be described with one word, horrendous. His skin was burnt, blood flowed out from every part of his body dying him a colour of red, his wings were almost just bones and deformed greatly.

Even the pair of horns that Simon was proud of and that decorated his head like a crown, only one of them could be seen intact on his head, the other one had broken apart and fallen off.

No matter how one looked at him, he appeared to be extremely miserable at his moment. Yet amidst his hurriedly growing hazy mind, there was this faint smile of victory on his face.

"Now my turn—[Infernal Sword]"...

As those words fell from his lips, the sun in the sky blazed and a light dropped down from it. It quickly descended and finally appeared in front of the astonished face of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon.

The light that came from above, was an enormous golden sword wrapped in flames. BZZZZ… it carried an infernal amount of heat powerful enough to distort the air and leave behind a trail of golden light.

The sword slowly dropped down, its target the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon.

"It looks like it's my defeat" the dragon closed its eyes and accepted its defeat. Since it was a challenge, it couldn't avoid the attack.

There was no way it would be able to stay standing after that attack. The dragon prepared to take on the infernal sword when suddenly the space around him distorted and a middle aged man with a pale yellow clothes appeared on top of him.

They clenched one of their hands and a gigantic draconic claw made of yellow gold energy formed in the air and collided heavily with the descending [Infernal sword].

RUMBLE… RUMBLE… just the sound erupting from the two attacks, were like deafening thunderclaps resounding across dozens of kilometres of land.

A wild surge of fire erupted from the infernal sword and slowly chipped away at the strength of the yellow gold claw. However, this stalemate didn't last long, when the middle aged man clenched his hand, the gigantic claw also followed his actions and clenched shut.

CRACK...

Immediately,  numerous cracks appeared on the golden sword and after a while, with a bang it burst apart.

A powerful heat swelled out from the explosion and blanketed the sky in fire. The might of advanced magic was in full display.

After stopping the Infernal sword, the yellow gold claw also disappeared. The middle aged man standing in the sky on top of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's head also placed his hand back at this moment. There was some shock in his eyes with which he used to observe the demon.

"So you are finally willing to show up huh?".

Simon commented, he had already flown back. Numerous runes covered his right index finger and he was riding on a gigantic pale grey finger.

Valdris was startled for a moment when he heard the words of the demon and couldn't help but ask "You were aware of my presence?".

Simon simply smiled, he quickly chugged down the contents of the vials in his hand one after another.

There was an additional shock in the eyes of Valdris as he watched the demon's unafraid attitude. Not only the latter was aware of his presence, he still dared to approach him while knowing that. This demon who looked extremely injured was for some reason giving him a faint sense of danger.

The shock in Valdris' heart couldn't be any more intense. However, he was somehow able to suppress it and appear calm on the surface.

"You have won this bout. Since that is the case, let's end this here" Valdris spoke in a stern manner that left no room for discussion.

The earth shattering lower dragon on the ground frowned when their battle was interrupted; nonetheless, he knew better than to anger this elder. Although unwilling the dragon promptly nodded.

Seeing that one party has shown their agreement, he turned towards the other. However, the demon only had a faint smile on his face.

"I cannot do that" Simon did not appear frightened in front of the yellow robed man who had intervened in their battle.

"Just because you said that the fight is over, doesn't mean that I have to accept it. This fight won't be over unless one of us submits" Simon declared, his crimson eyes stared resolutely at Valdris.

He was here to subdue the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon, how could he simply back away after all the effort and time he put into it? The latter would become quite an asset in the upcoming defence of the dungeon. Thus he must get him on his side no matter what, even if it meant offending an adult dragon.

Simon could feel a vast pressure boring down on him just by looking at his person, it could be imagined how powerful he was. However, Simon wasn't like he was completely out of options. He was ready to use the [Ancient Draconic Compel] if the need be at any moment.

This legacy technique was passed onto him by Lucine and created by Adalinda. According to what Lucine said, this legacy technique has a strong compelling effect on dragons or on beasts having dragon bloodline.

As could be seen from the behaviour of the lightning draconic serpent, this technique was the bane of the dragons. Even if his opponent was an adult dragon it should have some effect right? Simon was ready to put his fate into this one technique

"Young fellow, you shouldn't be too impulsive. Sometimes it is good to take a step back when the other side is giving you a way. If you continued to stay inflexible and headstrong like that, you might end up reducing your lifespan".

Valdris spoke, a gloomy light flashed inside those yellow gold draconic eyes as a dangerous aura started fluctuating out of his body.

Even after appearing in person, Valdris never thought that the other party wouldn't give him face and withdraw in his presence. Naturally, he was somewhat displeased. Given his status, how many people in this world can speak him to like that? At the very least, this demon in front of him wasn't qualified.