BOOM!

Nornesh grinned as he looked at the fists caught in his palms. "Good Punch," the dragon complimented. "This one was free." BOOM! A powerful pulse sent Kashi and Syèl flying back as Nornesh spread his arms out wide. "The next won't be as easy!"

Kashi and Syèl's eyes went wide with shock as hundreds of mandalas suddenly appeared behind the dragon. The daeben's hair stood on end as he gritted his teeth and shouted, "Scatter!"

The duo took off in opposite directions as hundreds of beams blasted out of the mandalas and tore through the earth. Kashi grimaced as he weaved through the endless barrage. He did not dare stop as the numbers were horrendous. A single pause would have dozens of those beams crash directly into him.

"Try harder!" Nornesh laughed, hands in his pocket as he admired the little rabbits jumping about. "Your ten minutes will fly by if this is all you have."

"You sadistic fuck!" Syèl screamed back as a slab of earth exploded in his front. "How the hell are we supposed to hit you now!?"

Nornesh glanced at Syèl, and suddenly several beams concentrated on him. "I never said I would just let you hit me, did I?"

"Goddamn it!" Syèl cursed as he watched the incoming bolts. Gritting his teeth, he stomped his foot against the earth. A giant, semi-circular wall rose from the ground, but then exploded as it was struck by Nornesh's attack. Syèl used the resulting smoke to escape in a random direction, eyes red with frustrated rage. However, he did not have time to experience this rage, as several mandalas suddenly appeared above his head.

BOOM!

"FUCK!" A loud curse emanated from a red ball that bounced out of the explosion. The ball cracked, revealing an angry, halben within. The halben glanced to his left, where Kashi wasn't faring much better, too focused on defense to launch a counterattack. "Damn it. We won't get anywhere like this!"

Kashi swore under his breath as he slid past another barrage. "I know! We have to get this into close combat!" The daeben pulled out his bow and then shouted. "I need a second!"

"Second? Gotcha!" Syèl once again stomped the ground, but this time, his mana travelled far across the earth to Kashi's position. At that point, the spell activated, causing a massive wall to shoot out from the ground, leaving only a tiny hole at its center.

BOOM! BOOM!

Within milliseconds, the wall began to show signs of cracking as it was struck by dozens of bolts, but that time was all Kashi needed. With practiced motions, the daeben swiftly notched, aimed and then shot dozens of arrows through that narrow slit.

The arrows zipped through the air, many of them struck down by the beams. Still, quite a few made it within 3 meters of Nornesh. Unfortunately, they then fell to a mana shield. However, just when it seemed all hope was lost, a slight crack appeared at the center of the mana shield, formed by dozens of bolts consecutively striking the same spot.

The arrows' sacrifices proved to be effective, as eventually the crack shattered, revealing a small hole through which the remaining five arrows zipped through. Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Grab!

Nornesh revealed a sly smile as he swatted the arrows and then grabbed the last. Looking at Kashi, he said, "Nice try."

Kashi, however, returned his gaze with a grin. "Same to you."

Nornesh's brows drew together, but then his eyes went wide as realization dawned. He quickly tried to squash the arrow, but it exploded, releasing a plume of gas that blocked his sight.

Kashi's expression turned grim as soon as the arrowhead exploded. "NOW! Don't you dare hold back!" BOOM! Black ki burst out of the daeben as he activated Ferulic's Techniques and then charged at the dragon. Across the cavern, Syèl's eyes narrowed to slits, grew fangs, and a pair of black wings tore out from his back. With a single, strong flap, he zipped across the ground, appearing before Nornesh in the blink of an eye.

Nornesh, meanwhile, cleared the dust with a calm breath, and then regarded the charging duo with intrigue. Kashi's diversion worked for the most past. Nornesh couldn't aim properly during the milliseconds he lost his sight. For these two men, that was more than enough time to dodge the randomly firing bolts and enter the attacking range.

Nornesh, pleased by their tactics, grinned as he challenged, "Alright then. Come!"

As luck would have it, Syèl arrived first, but the halben wisely chose not to engage in hand to hand combat. Instead, he channeled a wall of ice spears from the earth that the charged at the dragon.

Nornesh snorted as he met the incoming wall with a solid punch. The shockwaves from his blow shattered the wall to pieces and then sent Syèl flying. The halben cursed as he righted himself in mid-air and then swung around for another pass. However, in that brief second, Nornesh parried a punch from Kashi and then retaliated with one of his own.

Kashi, knowing he was not the dragon's match in strength, smartly deflected the blow to the right. He then made for a retaliatory punch, but Nornesh utilized the momentum from his deflected punch to twirl in place. Crack! Kashi suppressed a groan as the dragon's elbow crashed into his nose and then sent him flying.

Kashi, however, quickly raised his bow and fired off several arrows, even as he flew across the ground.

"Good reaction!" Nornesh praised, but then summoned a pillar of flames that burned the incoming arrows. He made to charge at the daeben but then was forced to stop as he sensed a threat from above. The dragon tilted his neck to the side and then smiled as a spear made from lightning and ice crashed into the ground, missed his head, by a few inches.

"Headshot?" Nornesh mused as he turned around to see Syèl charging at him from above with two more spears in his hands. The halben flung both spears at the dragon, but he easily sidestepped both throws. "Good Choice, but the body's a much larger target."

"Yeah?" Syèl roared as a spear fashioned from his blood coagulated in his hands. Lightning, fire, and ice revolved around the spear as he raised his over his head, and then swung down at Nornesh as he shouted, "Try this on!"

BANG!

Syèl's eyes went wide, a bitter smile on his face when Nornesh blocked the blow with a golden sword he seemingly conjured out of nowhere. "That's cheating."

Nornesh, however, laughed as he countered, "If you can have one, why can I not?" As he spoke, a ball of mana rapidly gathered in his left hand. Syèl's instincts blared warnings as the dragon pointed that hand in his direction. Luckily, he barely dashed off to the corner as a massive beam blasted by him.

BOOM!

Syèl's gaze narrowed as he looked at the giant crater left behind in the mountain wall. "Son of a... Are you trying to kill us!?"

"The thought has indeed crossed my mind," Nornesh replied with a laugh as he suddenly turned and swung his sword in a wide arc. Red-hot flames flew out in an arc, almost crashing into the charging daeben.

Kashi, however, dropped to his knees, gaze serious as he slid under the flames. A dozen arrows shot towards Nornesh, but the dragon rapidly parried them all and sent them flying. However, in the act of doing so, Nornesh left himself open. Seizing the opportunity, Kashi stepped into the dragon's personal space with two arrows firmly stabbing towards his throat.

BAM!

A heavy force suddenly knocked Kashi to the ground just when he seemed to be on the verge of victory. The daeben's face crashed into the earth, but Nornesh was not done. The dragon raised his foot to stomp his head in, but the earth suddenly jerked upward, sending Kashi rolling several meters away.

Kashi recovered his senses as he rolled to a stop, and then glared at the tail that danced menacingly behind the smug dragon. That was what got him! The daeben then glanced at Syèl and nodded, expressing his thanks for the save.

Syèl acknowledged the nod, even as he charged at Nornesh. Learning from his previous mistake, the vampire summoned a host of small mana spears and then bombarded the dragon, hoping to harass him to death.

Unfortunately, Nornesh was also an insta-caster and thus responded with a similar barrage of death beams. Both attacks exploded between them, which then caused snow and dust to scatter across the cavern.

A figure rapidly moved with the dust, but a loud Clang! rang out as it tried to attack its target. A pair of golden-brown eyes gleamed within the dust as it regarded the yellow eyes staring at it. "The same trick will not work twice." BOOM!

Syèl coughed up blood as Nornesh sunk his fist into the halben's midriff. The heavy blow knocked the halben a meter into the air. Nornesh, relishing in the battle, spun around and then shot out his right leg, for a high roundhouse kick.

Just as his feet were inches from making contact with Syèl's chin, Nornesh looked at the ground, where he was stunned to find Kashi sliding in for a kick to his planted leg. The daeben had hoped to hide within the smoke and snow, but Nornesh actively used his thermal vision since the first dust explosion.

'Smart!' Nornesh inwardly praised. Both the dust and Syèl were decoys. This was the true attack. If this kick landed, it would definitely destabilize Nornesh, leaving him defenseless to at least one attack. This would have certainly worked on anyone else, but unfortunately, the dragon's senses were too sharp.

Nornesh grinned and, then, in defiance of the laws of gravity and momentum, suddenly jumped. As a result, not only did Kashi miss his strike, but Nornesh's kick only scraped Syèl's head. Unfortunately, the force behind the kick was enough to send Syèl spinning in place.

Meanwhile, a flaming dragon coated the dragon's right leg as it completed its revolution and then kicked out at the sliding, stunned daeben.

BOOM!

Nornesh should have had a breather here, but his instincts suddenly went crazy. Following their guidance, the dragon reached out and grabbed hold of two arrows that burst out from the flames, while his tail caught hold of a spear that struck at his back.

Nornesh's gaze bore surprise and shock as he looked at Kashi, who stood within the flames like it was nothing. However, his lips soon curled up in a grin as he surmised, "Fire Immunity, is it? Well, then, how about th—"

"Like I'd let you!" Syèl shouted as he released the spear, and then pointed his outstretched arm at Nornesh. "You eat this!" Hundreds of lightning bolts shot out of a mandala that appeared in front of the hand.

Nornesh, however, grinned as he released Kashi's arrows. The sudden momentum shift sent Kashi careening towards him. Nornesh, then grabbed the daeben's flailing arm, and then with deft movements, switched places with him.

BOOM!

Kashi, much to the dragon's amusement, screamed as the thunderbolts crashed into his exposed back. However, just as Nornesh took a step back to dodge the next barrage, he hit something hard.

The dragon looked behind him, shocked to find a wall of stone erected behind him. Wait! Syèl was the mage! And earth magic could only be performed when one was in contact with the ground. How then?

It was then that Nornesh noticed the sly smirk on the bleeding daeben's lips. Nornesh suddenly looked directly above and was stunned to find a giant sun overhead. Because of his flame attacks burning everywhere, he hadn't noticed the giant ball forming overhead.

Syèl grinned as he made a grabbing motion. The ball then compressed into a tiny sphere in his palm, which he then flung at Nornesh with everything he had. Nornesh grimaced as he made to move forward,

Nornesh made to dash forward, but another wall shot up in front of him. This wall, which had over two-thirds of Kashi's mana powering it up, cracked, but ultimately held under the dragon's mad dash.

Half a second.

Half a second was all it would have taken for Nornesh to smash through the wall. Unfortunately, half a second was too long in a warrior's battle. As such, Nornesh was forced to bear the impact of Syèl's attack.

BOOOM!

A red flower blossomed within the cavern as the ball erupted, sending rocks and man careening across the landscape. Kashi, in particular, coughed up blood as the impact crushed his internal organs, causing blood to leak from his ears and nose. The flames themselves brushed off him, but the impact was much greater than expected, especially as he was far too close to ground zero.

BAM!

Syèl flew by and caught Kashi before the daeben crashed into the wall. The halben's face was extremely pale, even for a vampire. As a result of their time limit, Syèl could not afford to waste time probing and taking things easy against Nornesh. And so, he poured almost 70% of his blood into the previous attack.

By Syèl's calculations, that was the maximum he could spare without putting his life at serious risk. After all, although vampires had abnormal health regeneration, that too was dependent on the amount of blood in their system. Because both their magic and health relied on blood, vampires had to be wary of running out of blood, or they would become totally useless, burdens even.

Syèl grimaced as he looked at the densely packed flames near the cavern's center. He knew the flames were nothing to a dragon, but he hoped, just like Kashi, the impact at least tore off a layer of skin. After all, they were only aiming for first blood.

Meanwhile, Kashi let out a rueful smile as the halben dropped him on the ground. "Thanks," he said and then looked toward the flames with pensive eyes. "Do you think it worked?

"I don—"

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Syèl's reply was cut short as sonorous claps echoed in the region as a figure emerged from the flames. The halben's eyes grew wide, and then fell into despair as he cursed, "What the fuck? Now, that's just cheating!"

"Cheating, is it?" Nornesh laughed as he fully emerged from the flames, only in a different form. Burning red scales glistened among the flames, having grown over the previous human form. The dragon's head had also morphed into a dragon head making him stronger and a hundred times more resistant to impact. "This is just my body. You cannot consider it cheating, right? Lesson one child. A trump card is only valuable for as long as it remains hidden."

Syèl grimaced as he glared at Nornesh, unable to come up with a counter-argument. "Damn it!" he cursed, "What do we do now? We don't have much time left?"

Kashi groaned, clutching his chest as he rose to his feet. Even with Yggdrasil's help, it would still take a few minutes before he was restored to full health. Syèl's attack was as devastating as his mana was chaotic. He had to force the latter out of his body before the healing could begin in earnest. Fuck. This was why he hated fighting people who actually knew how to fight with ki and mana.

The daeben's gaze hardened as he glared at the approaching Nornesh. "Listen here, Syèl..." Kashi whispered a quick series of instructions, which caused Syèl's brow to rise in shock.

"Are you sure?" Syèl questioned, for the first time, genuinely worried.

Kashi stubbornly nodded. "It's the only way."

Syèl gritted his teeth, but then nodded and said, "Alright. I'll go soften him up a bit. Rest for now."

Nornesh's gaze sparked with interest as Syèl charged towards him. However, unlike previous occasions, the halben opted for a blood sword as he charged in for close combat. It seemed the vampire had given up on long-range attacks after seeing Nornesh's scales.

Regardless of his reason, Syèl battled valiantly against Nornesh. What the halben lacked in speed and strength, he made up for in rapid analysis and judgment. As a result, despite not posing a significant threat, he did manage not to get himself one-shotted either.

However, even with Syèl's battle skills, superior speed and strength proved to be the victor in the end. Nornesh's heavy-handed parry caused Syèl to overshoot his swing. This, in turn, exposed his right flank, which Nornesh punished with a devastating kick.

CRAACK!

The sound of several broken ribs rang out, but a soul-crushing punch cut off Syèl's subsequent shout. The punch blasted Syèl into the mountain walls. The mighty impact rendered him unconscious, and he thus fell to the ground, limp.

Nornesh grinned as he raised his hand, causing a mandala to appear above the halben. Fortunately, he suddenly stopped and spun around, intrigue and excitement in his eyes as Kashi charged towards him with a ki-image of a bloodied Asura behind him.

"Brilliant!" Nornesh praised as Kashi unleashed the 1000 arms of Asura upon him. However, he easily parried them all, punching at speeds imperceptible to the human eyes.

"Try this then!" Kashi, infuriated by Nornesh's lax expression, roared, "[Gilgamesh]!"

Following Kashi's roar, hundreds of mandalas suddenly appeared around them. Every arrow, both in Kashi's inventory and in his inner world, shot out of the mandalas like comets to the ground.

Pinned down by Kashi's Asura, Nornesh could not dodge the barrage, but at the same time, neither could Kashi. As a result, both men suffered under the seemingly endless assault.

Unfortunately, contrary to Kashi's expectations, only he suffered the consequences as the arrows harmlessly bounced off Nornesh's scales. He, however, was only alive thanks to Yggdrasil's aura as he turned into a pincushion by his own arrows. Luckily, most were concentrated on Nornesh, but because the dragon inevitably dodged some, Kashi could not prevent himself from getting skewered – especially if he wanted to keep Nornesh within range of the attack.

Several seconds later, the assault finally stopped, just as Asura finished. Kashi, bloodied and terribly weak, nearly collapsed, despair and anger in his eyes as he looked at Nornesh.

"I must praise you," Nornesh said as he looked at the daeben. "I would most certainly have lost this challenge were it not for my scales. Your will and desire to win are both commendable. Unfortunately, you overestimated your abilities."

"Hehe," Kashi chuckled, but then coughed up blood as he stumbled towards Nornesh. "Who said I've lost?" The daeben's foot got caught on a loose stone and he fell, crashing hard against the earth. Still, he crawled toward Nornesh, a determined light in his eyes as he said, "I still have twenty seconds left."

"Yes, you do," Nornesh agreed with a chuckle. "But what good will that do? You have nothing left."

"Heh, you said it yourself," mumbled Kashi as he grabbed Nornesh's ankle. "A trump card is only a trump card—"

Nornesh's sharp sensed surmised something was wrong. He made to quickly retreat, but a stone snake shot up from the earth and wrapped itself around him. "What!?"

Across the cavern, a fatigued Syèl rested against the wall, a shit-eating grin on his face as he raised his middle finger with his left hand, while his right was placed against the earth.

Nornesh grimaced as he realized Syèl had faked getting knocked out. The dragon immediately tried to get out of his restraints. Now, as previously stated, this would only take half a second to escape, but Kashi had other plans.

"—For as long as it remains hidden," stated Kashi, a wide grin on his face as he suddenly morphed into his dragon form.

"You have dragon blood!?"

Ignoring Nornesh, Kashi proclaimed with a tired grin, "We win."

Prick!

Kashi's claws stabbed into the dragon's ankle. As he was too close, there wasn't enough force to cause any real damage. However, the sharpness of a dragon's claw could not be understated. It managed to tear through the scale and prick just a tiny bit of the tough muscle beneath.

It was just a tiny bit. Barely even breaking past the skin. But it did the job.

Kashi raised his claw, revealing a drop of red blood with a slight golden hue around it. He raised his head to look at Nornesh as he boasted, "How about tha—" !!!

Kashi's heart suddenly accelerated as he stared into Nornesh's vacant expression. The dragon just silently stared at the drop of blood. But the longer he did, the worse the dread that enveloped the daeben. As he recalled Brock's warning about Nornesh's temperament, Kashi suddenly chocked as he felt the grim reaper's icy hand around his throat.

The daeben tried to resist but he was far too tired and weak to fight back as Nornesh raised him by the throat, the dragon's eyes devoid of all emotion. Kashi recognized this all too well. This was Dragon Rage. A common trait among all dragons where their consciousness got temporarily overtaken by anger. In this mode, they could not be reasoned with until either enough time passed, or they eliminated the source of their anger.

Realizing the severity of the situation, Kashi rapidly slapped Nornesh's arm, hoping to wake him up as he struggled against his grasp. "Wait! Nornesh! WA—"

BOOOOM!

"KASHI!" Syèl shouted as a giant beam exploded from Nornesh's fist and then blasted a giant hole through Kashi's chest. The halben slumped to the floor, eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at the bloody cavity where Kashi's chest should have been. The daeben's arms lifelessly dropped to his side as his eyes lost their light. "No. No. This can't be happening," stuttered Syèl, hoping against hope this was some elaborate trick by Kashi.

Unfortunately, all hope was slaughtered by the heartless notification.

A/N: Don't you just love cliffhangers?