In order to avoid a conflict that lasts several chapters, I've made it more concise. There are certain parts involving descriptions of thoughts and emotions that are too complex for the idea I want to convey, so please read with an open mind.
//
In their first encounter, Luki prevailed after striking the dragon's rear and knocking it from the sky. Although not a true victory, the others certainly didn't feel victorious.
In their second encounter, Luki was distraught over the death of soone influenced by the power of his new Skill. Even more powerful, he was still weaker and was killed, but not for much ti.
Now, in their third encounter, both sides were at their peak: Luki shining like an angel descended from heaven to cleanse the world of evil with his magnificent sword, and the dragon bathed in the dark powers of the dungeon to annihilate divine enemies
— ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAR!!!
Winds exploded from the dragon's wings as the colossal beast launched itself skyward. The ceiling could not withstand its ascent and entire sections of the Dungeon collapsed as the dragon forced a path through the rock above.
— Ugh...!
Luki was thrown backward by the sudden tempest. His body spun through the air, caught for an instant within the dragon's overwhelming wake.
Then mid air, he disappeared.
— Hah!
With both hands wrapped around his sword, he descended like a divine executioner.
BOOM!
The blade crashed against the dragon's skull with enough force to bend its massive neck downward. Cracks spread across the black scales covering its head before healing.
The dragon reacted instantly, twisting its enormous body, it launched a claw toward the space where Luki should have been.
Before the claws could even complete their arc, Luki had already appeared beneath the beast's throat, as if predicting his actions.
The small azure wings around his ankles flared and flapped. A burst of acceleration propelled him forward as his leg slamd into the dragon's trachea.
A choking roar escaped the monster's throat as its gigantic body lost balance and plumted toward the ground.
The impact shook the battlefield, chunks of rock exploded outward like artillery shells in every direction as thousands of tons of black flesh collided with the earth.
Luki did not give the dragon a mont to recover.
A cry escaped his lips as he folded his body forward and dove like a shooting star, his sword aid directly at the dragon's chest.
For the first ti, panic flashed through the beast's eyes. The dragon violently reared its head back, franticly getting up twisting its body while whipping its massive tail through the air.
Luki was forced to halt his attack midway as the dragon's tail swept through the air with terrifying speed. He brought his sword across his body, but the force behind the strike was so overwhelming that it hurled him across the battlefield.
Even so, he managed to maintain control. The small azure wings adorning his body beat furiously, stabilizing his posture while he spun through the air.
Monts later, his feet touched the ground, and he imdiately plunged his sword into the stone beneath him.
The blade carved through the floor as he slid backward. Shattered rock erupted around him while three long trenches stretching dozens of ters ford before he finally ca to a stop.
Far ahead, the dragon erged from the crater it had created.
Without giving its opponent a mont to breathe, the beast opened its jaws and unleashed a succession of explosive fire blasts while moving sideways through the labyrinth.
Luki imdiately accelerated in the sa direction, running parallel to the monster's advance as the projectiles detonated one after another behind him. The intense heat rolled across his back while shockwaves battered the surrounding area.
Neither side made any attempt to avoid the obstacles ahead. When a massive wall appeared in their path, the two crashed through it with sheer brute force, sending an avalanche of stone into the next chamber.
Chamber after chamber collapsed around them as their battle carved a path of destruction through the labyrinth. The Dungeon itself seed to groan beneath the strain of containing such overwhelming power.
As the chase continued, both combatants gradually reached the sa conclusion this wasn't going anywhere.
At the sa instant, they launched themselves, crossing the distance between them in a fraction of a second.
They collided in midair before passing one another.
The mont their feet touched the ground again, both twisted their bodies and charged back into the fight without hesitation.
The dragon struck first, driving a claw through the stone floor and ripping it apart as it surged toward him. Luki answered with a swing of his greatsword, eting the attack head-on.
Sword and claw collided, and the resulting shockwave blasted outward in all directions, pulverizing the surrounding ruins and splitting the ground beneath them.
For a brief mont, neither side moved.
Despite the enormous difference in size, they were evenly matched, neither could overpower the other through brute force alone.
The stalemate ended when both disengaged simultaneously and struck again. Their next collision shook the labyrinth, followed by another and another.
The dragon's claws tore through stone whenever they missed, while Luki's sword left glowing scars across the monster's giant body.
To an outside observer, the fight resembled less a clash between a man and a beast and more a contest between two martial artists, each reading the other's movents and responding with equal skill. No matter how ridiculous that sounds considering one of the sides is a fucking giant dragon.
However, while the dragon had fully committed itself to that exchange, Luki had no intention of limiting himself to conventional combat.
The mont the dragon launched another swipe, he vanished.
Before the beast could recover, Luki appeared directly in front of its chest and drove his fist forward with enough force to bend the colossal creature's body around the impact.
The dragon was hurled through the air, its massive fra tumbling uncontrollably, but before it could stabilize itself, Luki appeared again along its trajectory and struck it a second ti. The blow changed the monster's course entirely.
Then ca a third punch. A fourth. A fifth. And a dozen more.
The dragon found itself being battered from one direction to another, unable to predict where its opponent would appear next.
Every ti it tried to regain control of its body, another impact sent it flying elsewhere. Its wings beat furiously, its claws slashed at empty air, and its roar echoed throughout the labyrinth, growing louder and more furious with each passing second.
Eventually, its patience ended.
Before Luki could intercept it again, the dragon opened its jaws and unleashed fire in every direction. Instead of a concentrated breath attack, it flooded the everywhere with magical flas, transforming the surrounding chambers into an inferno.
Flas so hot that could even lt stone instantly, almost two thousand degrees Celsius.
Luki teleported away monts before the flas engulfed his position and reappeared at a safe distance, watching as the dragon violently beat its wings and finally stabilized itself in the air.
Hovering above the burning ruins, the beast fixed its gaze upon him and imdiately unleashed another torrent of fire, forcing Luki to teleport once more.
Yet this ti the dragon did not stop after missing its target. Keeping its jaws open, it pursued him through the labyrinth while continuously releasing flas, sweeping entire corridors and chambers beneath a relentless wave of destruction.
The dragon had finally understood the nature of its opponent. In direct combat, the advantages belonged to Luki. His teleportation made him nearly impossible to predict, and every close-range exchange favored the warrior's speed, technique and supernatural awereness.
Therefore, the dragon abandoned that approach entirely and chose to exploit the advantages that had belonged to its kind.
Every flap of the dragon's wings carried it beyond the reach of ordinary attacks, while its flas transford the surrounding labyrinth into a burning hellscape. Fire filled the space around its enormous body, creating a moving fortress of destruction that punished any attempt to approach.
— That's just ridiculous, damn it! — Luki shouted as he sprinted through collapsing corridors and teleported from one position to another, constantly searching for an opening.
Clicking his tongue, Luki suddenly leaped forward and twisted his body in midair.
The small wings around his wrists beat with all their strength as he hurled his sword with every ounce of power he could muster.
VUSH!
The weapon shot through the air like a streak of azure light, tearing through the sea of flas without slowing down.
For a brief mont, victory seed possible... then the dragon simply flapped its wings once shifted its body to the side.
The sword missed completly and continued upward until it buried itself deep within the ceiling.
Luki stared at it.
— Damn. There goes my only bullet.
The dragon seed to understand the situation imdiately, becoming even more aggressive now that its greatest threat had been removed.
Recovering the sword ant approaching the beast, and approaching the beast ant entering a zone filled with enough firepower to lt stone.
Forced onto the defensive, Luki resud running through the labyrinth while searching desperately for a solution while the dragon chased him relentlessly from above with his magical fire.
'Neither of us is going down from ordinary wounds anymore, not after those power-ups we had. If I want to kill that thing, I need to destroy its core or remove its entire head. But without my sword, my punches aren't enough.'
The realization frustrated him.
He needed more speed, more power, sothing that would give advantage.
Almost imdiately, the azure radiance surrounding his body intensified. The wings adorning his ankles, wrists, and ears grew larger, scattering countless feathers of light into the air, while a strange pressure began building across his back.
At first, it felt rely uncomfortable. Then it beca painful, unbearable.
Luki gritted his teeth as the sensation intensified with every passing second until, in the middle of another leap, his body arched involuntarily and two enormous wings burst from his back.
The sudden release of power scattered flas and debris in every direction.
For a brief mont, Luki forgot the battle entirely.
The sensation was strange, much more noticeable than the sensation of the other smaller ones, as if it didn't exist but was there, ethereal.
A torrent of fire raced toward him before he could examine the feeling any further. Luki saw it coming from afar and teleported away in advance, reappearing hundreds of ters across the battlefield.
Only then did Luki realize sothing else had changed.
The world seed slower.
Not frozen nor trapped in slow motion, but easier to follow. The dragon's movents, the flow of its flas, even the debris falling felt clearer than before, as though his mind had suddenly accelerated.
'I rember this...'
Every ti he teleported, every ti that strange power surged through his body, the world seed to briefly lag behind him.
But now he was conscious, and the sensation didn't seem to be fading.
Flap flap flap
Luki glanced over his shoulder. The massive wings answered his thoughts imdiately, moving as naturally as his own arms.
The realization sent a grin spreading across his face.
— Two can play this ga now, big lizard!
With a powerful beat of every wing, Luki shot upward so quickly that the ground beneath him exploded from the force of his takeoff.
— ROOOOOOAAAAAR!!!
The dragon answered with a furious roar and folded its wings before diving straight toward him, its jaws wide open and overflowing with magical fire. The distance between them vanished almost instantly.
The collision detonated like thunder.
His fist slamd into the dragon's skull while the dragon's montum carried enough force to shatter layers of stone behind him. The impact sent both combatants hurtling through the labyrinth, and from that mont onward the battlefield ceased to have any aning.
Walls, corridors, chambers, and even entire floors beca nothing more than obstacles in their path.
The dragon tore through the Dungeon with brute force, smashing through compacted stone as though it were paper, while Luki followed close behind.
Sotis they crossed paths for only a fraction of a second before separating by hundreds of ters. Other tis they collided repeatedly, exchanging blows so quickly that the shockwaves from one impact had not yet dissipated before another explosion erupted elsewhere.
Their battle carved a trail of destruction through the depths of the Dungeon, opening caverns where none had existed and reducing ancient structures to rubble.
Realizing once more that close combat was no longer enough, the dragon began incorporating its flas into the battle. Torrents of fire erupted from its jaws while explosive fireballs streaked through the air, creating tunnels of molten stone.
Luki answered with teleportation, vanishing from one location and reappearing in another, his movents becoming increasingly difficult to predict as his newfound wings and accelerated perception worked together.
Then he perceived an opportunity, a path opening up in the colorless, three-dinsional world within his mind.
Without hesitation, Luki teleported.
One mont he was avoiding a torrent of magical flas.
The next, his hand had already wrapped itself around the hilt buried deep within the untouched piece of ceiling.
— Co on, buddy! Let's slay this grown-ass flying gecko!
The runes carved along the blade ignited one after another as power poured from Luki's body into the weapon.
The sword trembled in his grasp before beginning to grow, its tal fra stretching into azure light that condensed into a new form.
Within seconds, the already massive weapon had transford into a colossal dragon-slaying blade nearly five ters long, its edge ford entirely from concentrated energy.
The dragon answered by flooding its mouth with magical flas. Fire spilled between its fangs as it folded its wings and accelerated forward, while Luki lowered his stance and launched himself to et it head-on.
Hundreds of ters disappeared in an instant. The dragon charged like a living furnace, determined to devour him whole, while Luki pushed his wings harder and harder, forcing even more speed from his transford body.
Neither intended to retreat.
The dragon wanted to consu him.
Luki wanted to end the battle.
Just before they collided, however, Luki twisted his body. The smaller wings attached to his wrists and ankles flapped, abruptly altering his trajectory and allowing him to slip past the dragon's flank by the narrowest of margins.
His sword followed through with the motion, and the enormous blade carved into its scales, flesh split aparr and blood spilled from the wound as the slash tore through nearly the entire length of the dragon.
The roar that erged from its throat quickly beca a scream.
Its body convulsed violently from the pain, and both wings faltered for the first ti since the battle had begun. The loss of control lasted only a mont, but that mont was enough.
Luki teleported beneath the falling monster and surged upward with the sa speed.
— This is for all the trouble you've caused !
The gigantic blade rose and fell in a single motion, severing one of the dragon's wings. Blood exploded into the air as the beast cried out once again, but before the detached wing had even begun to fall, Luki had already appeared above it.
— And that was for killing !
Another strike descended. The dragon twisted desperately in an attempt to retaliate, but it was too slow.
The blade cut through its tail, sending the severed appendage spinning into the fla hell while the wounded monster continued its uncontrolled descent.
Then Luki disappeared and reappeared directly before its chest.
For a brief instant, their eyes t.
The dragon's gaze burned with hatred.
Luki's burned with sothing far more complicated.
Not simply rage born from battle, but the frustration he had carried throughout his journey in the Dungeon. The frustration of being hunted, of suffering, of watching people die, and seeing this incredibly intelligent creature consud by senseless hatred and forcing it into his antics.
— And this is for forcing to kill you!
Luki accelerated forward and slamd shoulder-first into the dragon's body as both of them plunged toward the depths below. Luki remained pressed against it, beating his wings relentlessly and driving the dragon downward like a living teor.
Luki's roar rged with the dragon's final scream as they tore through the darkness together.
— AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The impact shook the entire Upper Labyrinth. A crater hundreds of ters wide erupted beneath them as stone, dust, and shattered debris exploded outward in every direction.
...
For several long monts, the only sound that remained was the echo of destruction rolling through the depths of the Dungeon.
The fires left behind by the battle gradually weakened as molten stone cooled and hardened once more, leaving behind a landscape so distorted that it barely resembled part of the labyrinth anymore.
Craters, collapsed walls, and rivers of cooling rock stretched as far as the eye could see, all of it evidence of the struggle that had taken place.
At the center of the devastation, the dragon groaned and attempted to rise.
The effort accomplished nothing. Its body trembled violently before collapsing back into the crater.
There was no strength left in him.
Its mana core was nearly empty, the power borrowed from the Dungeon almost completely exhausted, and the regenerative abilities that had made it so terrifying earlier in the battle had all but disappeared, he dragon could feel it.
Slow footsteps echoed across the broken stone together with the sound of tal scraping agains sothing hard.
The dragon raised its head.
Luki entered its field of vision, lazily pulling his sword behind him.
The azure energy surrounding his body had dimd considerably, no longer radiating with the sa overwhelming intensity as before, but he remained standing without a single visible injury. In a battle of attrition, the outco had been inevitable.
The dragon relied on the energy stored inside its core, a finite resource granted by the Dungeon, while Luki's power drew upon the energy surrounding him.
As long as he wanted, exhaustion simply wasn't sothing he needed to fear.
— You're a ss, bro.
The dragon answered with a low growl and once again attempted to stand. Its limbs trembled. Its muscles refused to obey. Even so, it continued trying, stubbornly forcing its broken body to move.
It wanted to keep fighting.
Luki watched in silence for several seconds before letting out a long sigh.
— You really don't know when to quit, do you?
There was sothing strange in his voice. Pity, perhaps. Frustration. Maybe both.
— You know, this doesn't have to end like this. Just stop. That's all you have to do. I can share so of my power with you. You'll recover, you'll be fine, and we can figure out the rest later. We don't have to keep going because of so stupid conflict.
The offer only made the dragon angrier.
Its eyes widened, claws dug into the stone, hatred radiated from every part of its body.
Luki couldn't understand it.
Even after being killed once. Even after everything the creature had put him through. Even after all the frustration, pain, and suffering they had inflicted upon each other, he still couldn't bring himself to kill it.
Part of that was simply who he was.
His mind remained largely untouched by trauma. The countless protections hidden within his abilities ensured that despair, hatred, and suffering never rooted themselves deeply enough to permanently change him.
The result was both a blessing and a curse. While others might have beco bitter or cruel after enduring what he had, Luki remained fundantally the sa person he had always been.
The sa idiot who still struggled to kill soone.
— ROOAAR!
The dragon suddenly released a furious roar. It lacked the power and majesty it once possessed, but the emotion behind it remained unchanged. It wasn't fear nor wasn't desperation.
It was indignation.
The roar sounded less like a dying monster and more like a man refusing to accept defeat, or to receive rcy.
— Stop resisting! Just stop! Fuck, you already lost, you can't deny it!— Luki snapped back.
— What are you even trying to prove at this point? Your pride? Your ego? You lost! That's it! Let help you and move on! Damn it, I never wanted any of this in the first place. Can't you see that? Why are you so obsessed with dying? Don't you value your own life?!
The dragon stared at him.
That was all.
No answer, no hesitation or or a supernatural exchange of thought through glances.
Just that sa burning gaze it always held when looking at Luki.
And suddenly, Luki saw sothing different. Another hallucination caused by one of his special abilities struck.
The creature before him was no longer a dragon, at least not in his mind. Instead, he saw soone lying in a pool of blood, a warrior, his body, armor and weapon broken beyond repair, dragging himself forward with sheer willpower while refusing to acknowledge defeat.
Not because he feared death, but because accepting defeat would hurt more than dying.
That was a perfect analogy for him, soone so irritating, who keeps fighting knowing he has no chance.
Then a voice echoed inside his mind. Ancient, feminine and calm, like a very wise and authoritative old lady.
He cannot endure defeat. Such a thing lies beyond the limits of his nature. Since the mont he first beheld you, he sought not victory, but validation. Every clash stripped sothing from him. First pride. Then certainty. Then the illusion of superiority upon which he built his existence. Even clothed in my power, he failed to transcend himself.
Look upon him. His wounds are not carved into flesh, but into the foundations of his being. What remains before you is a creature incapable of accepting the truth of its own weakness. To continue living is, for him, a humiliation far greater than death.
Grant him the rcy he lacks the wisdom to seek. Bring this tale to its rightful conclusion.
For a mont Luki was taken aback and found the voice strange, but he quickly understood who it was simply because of the current situation and the past plot.
— Oh, now you want to talk? — He asked indignantly while looking around.
He received no answer, but he knew he was being watched, not by soone, but by everything, as if every stone were eyes and ears.
— Don't start acting wise now. If we're standing here, it's because of you. None of this would've happened if you hadn't trapped down here in the first place, and don't even think about pretending otherwise.
I neither deny my hand in these events nor seek forgiveness for it. Regret is a luxury afforded to those uncertain of their choices. Everything that has transpired, every drop of blood spilled upon these stones, has led inexorably to this mont. Just for you. You may one day understand my grace, for now, just do your work.
— That's really cool, ma'am, the sophisticated way of speaking and all, but more especially the part about not having any say in this decision.
He received no answer and wouldn't receive one; the feeling of being watched disappeared.
— Hey, where do you think you're going? So now I'm supposed to clean up your ss because this stubborn idiot can't handle losing? Not even fucking!
With that, Luki turned around and began walking away.
The Dungeon didn't stop him. No mysterious force restrained his movents, nor did the ancient voice speak again. There was absolutely nothing preventing him from leaving that place and abandoning the dragon to whatever fate awaited it.
Yet after only a few steps, he stopped.
His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword until his knuckles turned white.
— Damn it... — The curse escaped through clenched teeth.
With a frustrated swing, he smashed apart a massive chunk of stone that had survived the battle, but the brief outburst did nothing to ease the irritation building inside him.
Any adventurer would have ended this the mont the dragon fell. Most wouldn't have hesitated for a second.
The creature behind him was dangerous, responsible for countless deaths, and had personally killed him once already. There were more than enough reasons to justify putting it down.
Luki understood all of that.
The problem was that understanding sothing and wanting to do it were two completely different things.
He could kill the dragon.
He was certain of that.
He could swing his sword, end the creature's suffering, and walk away without losing a single night of sleep. His powers protected his mind far too well for guilt or trauma to take root so easily.
But despite knowing all of that, despite every logical argunt telling him to finish the job, he simply didn't want to.
And that stubborn refusal frustrated him more than the dragon ever had.
In the end, Luki stopped arguing. There was no point anymore.
The dragon had already made its choice long ago, and no amount of reasoning, offers, or second chances would change it.
Perhaps the Dungeon was right. Perhaps this creature truly could not live with defeat.
With a bitter expression, Luki vanished and reappeared directly in front of the dragon.
The beast imdiately fixed its gaze upon him, the ruined battlefield fell silent around them, leaving only the sound of the dragon's strained breathing echoing through the shattered chamber.
— You selfish little shit... — Luki muttered, forcing a laugh that lacked any real humor. — You really gave no choice.
Slowly, he raised his sword and rested the tip of the blade against the scales beneath the dragon's throat.
— I hope you don't regret this.
The dragon's enormous eye widened slightly at the cold sensation pressing against its neck. For a brief mont, Luki thought he saw surprise there, as though so part of the beast had never truly believed he would go through with it.
Then the surprise disappeared, together with all the hatred and obsession that had driven it from the very beginning.
The dragon slowly closed its eye with a serenity that made Luki's chest tighten.
It looked relieved.
As though a burden it had carried for far too long had finally been lifted from its shoulders.
It would die, yes, but not as a re monster from those narrow underground corridors, but as a dragon, leaving its mark on the history of a hero that would endure for a long ti.
The sight left a bitter taste in Luki's mouth. He closed his own eyes for a mont because he didn't want to see what ca next.
The azure light surrounding his body surged violently toward the sword, arcs of energy crackled through the air as more and more power gathered at the tip.
BZZZZZT!
Then he thrust forward.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The accumulated energy exploded from the sword in a massive beam of azure light that swallowed the dragon instantly.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
The blast lasted only a mont before fading into countless sparks of light.
When Luki finally opened his eyes, the dragon was gone.
Nothing remained except drifting ash and the shattered fragnts of a broken mana core scattered across the ground.
For a long mont, he simply stared at the empty space where his enemy had been.
Then he released a slow breath.
— Rest in peace, brother. Hopefully you'll have better luck in your next life.
The words disappeared into the silence.
With the battle finally over, the energy surrounding Luki began to fade.
The enormous wings extending from his back dissolved into countless particles of light that drifted through the air before disappearing, while the smaller wings adorning his wrists, ankles, and ears gradually shrank.
Little by little, the overwhelming presence that had dominated the battlefield receded, leaving behind nothing more than a young man standing alone amid the ruins.
The strange thing was that he didn't feel victorious.
Without saying another word, Luki lowered himself onto the fractured stone and curled into a fetal position.
His body wasn't exhausted; if anything, he could probably continue fighting for days.
But his mind was tired, tired of fighting, of the Dungeon, of making decisions he didn't want to make.
So he simply closed his eyes, the consequences could wait.
He just wanted to sleep.
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