I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 863: Heat

The creature's transformation finished in seconds but those seconds felt like minutes.

Its lean wiry body thickened with grotesque muscle. Sinews swelling under pale grey skin with black line and began to pulse with dark veins. Its once humanoid hands changed and hardened into jagged blade-like extensions.

Its eyes grew larger and bulging slightly out of its skull. The green flare within them intensified until they shone like lanterns.

The soul attack hit them already even thought it were not targeting them. Then when it roared again, the sound wasn't physical. It echoed in the adventurers' skulls.

They recoiled instantly while clutching their heads. The pain wasn't from any visible blow but a deep sickening pressure on their souls and brain.

Jan staggered back. "My head!"

Mark gritted his teeth. "Get back. We have to go further now!"

The others didn't need more convincing. Hund helped Esther to her feet, and Kaela grabbed Marks's arm and dragging him as they stumbled away from the clearing.

They moved deeper into the woods, away from the battle and from the source of that crawling soul-biting agony.

Erend turned his head slightly and noticed their struggle. The creature hadn't turned to them yet the power of it's green light in this form was harming them already.

His jaw clenched.

"Hey!" he barked. His voice was sharp and commanding. "I'm your opponent. Stop targeting them."

The creature didn't respond with words but it shifted. Its focus narrowed. Its head tilted toward Erend and it took one heavy step forward.

Erend mirrored it.

They closed the distance slowly at first, like two beasts sizing each other up.

Then, with a guttural snarl, the creature threw a punch. It was a fast and brutal strike aimed directly at Erend's face.

Erend caught the blow with one hand. The force pushed him back half a step. His boots scraped across the ground, carving a trail through the dirt.

He grinned. "Oh, so you can get stronger huh."

Without letting go of the creature's wrist, he shifted and brought his knee up into its stomach. The impact made a cracked sound like a cannon but the creature barely budged.

It retaliated instantly. Its bladed hand arcing down like. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Erend ducked then swept one leg, and tried to knock the creature off its feet, but it flipped midair and landing unnaturally light for something so heavy.

A flurry of attack happened after that. They both sending out punches and kicks at each other at high speed.

Erend ducked a spinning blade arm and answered with a backfist to the creature's jaw.

It turned its head at the impact but didn't fall. Instead, it drove a knee into Erend's side that was hard enough to lift him slightly off the ground.

He landed with a grunt and planted both feet, blocking the next strike with his forearm. Sparks flew as the bladed limb scraped against his skin, which shimmered faintly with residual heat.

"Is that all?" Erend muttered, twisting and driving his elbow into the creature's temple.

The blow staggered it but only for a second.

They traded punches that echoing through the forest. The ground trembled beneath their feet. Every move the creature made was jagged and wild and only driven by primal rage, but behind it was precision that feels like almost intelligence movements.

Erend matched it with effortless calm, using his strength and experience. He hitting back with clean hit after hit.

But he was holding back.

He didn't need his Dragon Scales for this. The creature was powerful but it wasn't that level.

Still, as the fight dragged on, he could feel it. This thing wasn't going to die easily. It was adapting and growing more aggressive.

Another slash came. This one grazed Erend's shoulder, cutting through his shirt and drawing a shallow line of blood.

He blinked once, then looked down at the red streak.

The creature saw it too and grinned.

Erend's smile returned.

"Alright," he said, flexing his fingers. "Let's turn up the heat."

And with that, he surged forward again.

A faint red glow shimmered beneath his skin and the air around him began to ripple with heat.

Then, without raising his arms, a wave of pressure erupted outward. The temperature soared.

The grass at his feet caught fire and a burning circle scorched into the earth beneath him.

"Let's see you handle this," he said.

With a step forward, Erend lifted his hand and unleashed a torrent of flame.

He activated the All-Fire Based Power. At his level now his fire was changing. It was white at the center, gold and red at the edge. It roared across the clearing, consuming everything in its path.

The creature raised both blade-arms in a cross to shield itself. The flames hit it dead on.

It skidded back, digging trenches into the dirt with its feet, its body glowing under the heat. But it didn't fall.

Instead, it pushed forward.

Step by step, the creature forced its way through the torrent. Its blades cracked and hissed as the fire licked over them. Its skin blistering and peeling away only to regenerate in moments.

Its green eyes still glowed more brightly.

Erend watched with mild amusement. The flames still poured from his hand, his expression calm.

"KRAAAAHHHH!!!"

The creature shrieked, now just a few feet away from Erend. Its body was scorched black, parts of it melting but it still moved forward, step after step.

Erend's flames stopped.

He looked at the thing that dared crawl through his firestorm and smiled without humor.

Then, he shook his head slowly, as if disappointed.

"I'm done playing."

The creature lunged and Erend moved.

His fist shot forward, glowing with the last ember of All-Fire wrapped around it like a comet.

The punch connected directly with the creature's face.

The shockwave shattered trees behind it. A ring of pressure blasted outward, flattening grass and blowing away debris.

The creature's head exploded become a spray of ash, bone fragments, and burning mist.

Its body collapsed a second later, twitching once before it turned to smoldering dust.

Erend exhaled, steam rising off his arms.

In the distance, the adventurers stood wide-eyed and stunned. The oppressive soul-pressure that had gripped them was gone in an instant.

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