Fire Bats!

John felt his Inner World crumble as it shook again. Darkness invaded his vision, spitting him back out into the captain's room.

The ground under him shook, and the metal walls of the ship creaked and groaned. Hemet's voice projected from a magic crystal embedded in the ceiling that functioned as a kind of PA system.

"John, my young dragon friend," said Hemet, his voice crackling with static. Looked like the announcement system on this ship was pretty busted too. "We are being attacked by a group of Firebats.

Their core grades seem to be in the medial mystic level. I do not mean to rush you, but your help would greatly be appreciated, for it seems that this ship's weapon systems are, as you likely may expect already, broken."

John sighed. Of course the weapons were broken. Did anything on this god forsaken ship work properly?

He felt the ship rumble and shake again, and he hurried up to focus on finishing his Molting.

The white glow that used to cover his scales when he Molted was now a bright gold, and all of his scales had changed into a similar, brilliant shade.

But now was not the time to be admiring his new paint job.

It was time to evolve, and time to evolve fast.

John checked what Origins he had stored within him.

>>>

Stored Origins:

-Mudclaw Crab (High Earthen Grade)

-Quill Fern (Medial Earthen Grade)

-Plumed Rabbit (Low Earthen Grade)

-Verdant Panther (Low Mystic Grade)

-Nueralizer (Low Phantasmal Grade)

Body Composition:

-Mudclaw Crab: 90%

-Quill Fern: 10%

>>>

John decided to keep much of the Mudclaw Crab's armored plating, because it was still the most durable defense he could grow.

But he decided to amp up his claws, teeth, and singular horn with the Verdant Panther's Origin.

He also kept the Quill Fern's thorn spray ability on his tails.

As for new abilities, John looked at the Verdant Panther.

The panther possessed a skill called [Mana Blade] that allowed it to wreath its claws and teeth in rapidly circulating mana, turning them into mobile saws that dramatically enhanced their sharpness.

In addition, he amped up his musculature with the panther's own, enhancing his strength a bit.

The Plumed Rabbit was a weak creature, but John still decided to take its ability to grow a feathery plume on its head to detect movements because its usefulness was not tied to the rabbit's inherent strength.

It would always be useful to have an extra way to read movements to dodge or counter.

Then, for the final and biggest evolution of them all: the Phantasmal Grade Neuralizer.

By evolving, John's core grade had ascended from High Earthen to Medial Mystic, but the Neuralizer was a creature that was two full grades above John even then.

How much more power would John get with it?

Would he even be able to manifest the Neuralizer's full power?

John tried to just grow the Nueralizer's tentacles, but he realized his body could not.

A message lit up in his vision.

[The Neuralizer is a symbiotic organism that must grow with the dragonborn.

At its basic level, it is nothing but a cluster of cells. This Neuralizer possesses the potential to grow to the Phantasmal Grade, but it must first be nurtured by the dragonborn.

Creating an egg cluster for the Neuralizer will cost a first-time investment of 30% of the dragonborn's body composition.

In subsequent evolutions, this cost will be restored]

"Let's do it," said John. Even if the Neuralizer was not going to pay off now, there was no way a Phantasmal grade companion was going to be useless, especially in the long run.

John finalized the Molting selection, and all he had to do now was wait until the light surrounding his body died down and his form shifted and changed fully.

In the end, his Body Composition ended up like this:

>>>

Body Composition:

-Mudclaw Crab: 40%

-Neuralizer: 30%

Verdant Panther: 20%

-Quill Fern: 5%

-Plumed Rabbit: 5%

>>>

Because John's body was larger, it took less of his body composition to manifest abilities he maintained from prior evolutions.

As a result, the Quill Fern took up 5% of his composition even though before it took up 10%.

With this set, John waited about ten seconds before the golden light around his body died down, finalizing his evolution.

He still had the bulky, armor plating scales of the Mudclaw Crab's shell, but they were golden, appearing like radiant armor, as if light from the sun itself had been solidified and shaped into them.

[Take care, my child, your Immortality Matrix will be disabled for eight hours after Molting as time is required for the scales to properly acclimate to their newly enhanced state. This time frame will shorten with subsequent evolutions] said Mel.

'Got it. I'll be careful, and my scales are still pretty durable on their own.' John then took note at his new appearance.

He looked almost like a knight.

Or a knight if a dragon dressed up as one.

Fully armored and ready for battle. He even had a bright red plume coming up from his head like a decorated knight's helmet. His tail still had the series of six thorns from the Quill Fern, and his teeth and claws now gleamed a faint shade of magical green.

The Neuralizer cell cluster was located on top of John's head, right behind his plume. An awkward, highly visible spot for it, but that was the only place it could be grown.

It looked like a tennis ball sized lump of light purple flesh lined with veins.

Almost like a giant tumor, but that was totally gross to think about, so John shrugged the thought off and headed out to fight.

==

Out in the control room, John watched Hemet's screen.

"Quite the change, my young dragon friend," said Hemet as he eyed John. "You have grown much stronger. A full core grade ascension. And many more marvelous powers to boot. Truly, dragon kind's might lives up to their legends."

"Let's focus on ship being attacked before admiring my upgrades," said John as he saw what presumably the fire bats on the screen.

They were, as their names suggested, bats, though giant ones, easily as large as a fully grown man, and as their names again suggested, they were indeed on fire.

Flames wreathed their black wings as they fluttered around the ship, firing gouts of fire onto the metal. The fire washed over the metal but did not directly melt it, instead causing flickers of faint blue to pulse over its surface.

"Shielding?" said John.

"Indeed," said Hemet. "Though our shields are rapidly depleting. 30% capability now."

The ship rocked again.

"Oof," said Hemet, still calm. "25% now."

"Do you know why they came so suddenly?" said John.

"An energy surge," said Hemet. "Firebats are attracted to high surges of energy like moths to a flame, devouring them to fuel their own fires and growth. Especially now when winter is descending upon this part of the world.

They require energy to sustain the hibernations they must enter, for the winters of this Wild World are quite harsh."

"An energy surge? Where from? From the ship's engines?" asked John.

"Ah, from you, my dragon friend," said Hemet. "Your Molting, it seems, releases quite the energy signature. But do not blame yourself for this, it is simply unfortunate that we wandered upon firebat territory."

"Damn…" John had not realized his evolution would release an energy surge like that. Nothing like that had happened before.

[The stronger you become, the more power your evolutions will generate] explained Mel. [This time, however, the surge was due to your body completely digesting the angel's power within you. This, coupled with unlocking your Inner World and ascending to a Wyrmling, caused a surge that I could not have foreseen]

"This is still something I caused, and I like to clean up after my messes," said John as the ship rocked again, this time from an impatient firebat ramming into the ship, trying to get into the juicy energy within. If they wanted John, then they were going to get him.

All his claws, teeth, and newly developed solar beams included.

"Open up the hatch," said John as he unfurled his wings, spreading them out into a shimmer of golden light. "I'm going to toast these guys for breakfast."

"Certainly, my friend," said Hemet as he pressed a sigil on his circular control rock. The sound of howling wind echoed as the hatch of the Gravship opened up. A rectangular space on the control room floor slid open, leading out into stairs that further fed out into the outside world. "And good luck."

"Just try not to crash this broken excuse of a ship while I'm out," said John before he leaped out.

There was no hesitation. He had never flown on his own before, but his body still knew how to do it.

It was as natural to him as walking was, though only to an extent. There was still some learning involved, which he now awkwardly realized as he plummeted rapidly down.

Fear rose in John's heart as he twisted and turned in the air, surprised at how fast winds were up high like this. It took him a few seconds to stretch out his wings properly and aright himself, taking up a current and gliding, but when he did so, his fear completely faded away.

"Wow!" said John as he stared down at the world underneath him. Vast stretches of forest sprawled out, the heads of huge trees looking no larger than tiny little specks of green.

In the distance, huge mountain ranges reached into the skies, and a brilliant blue lake shimmered, its blue surface reflecting some of the warm, orange shades of the early morning sun.

High up here, with the winds flowing through John's wings, he felt like the whole world was so small.

Back when he was human, when he looked down at the ground from a plane, he thought the world impossibly big, something he could never explore fully, something he was just a part of.

But now, maybe it was because he was a dragon and his perspective was changing, but he felt the world was small enough that he could challenge it and explore it to his heart's content. He felt like the world was his to do as he pleased with.

An explosion echoed from above, and John twisted his head up to see that some of the shielding had died down on the ship, allowing a fire bat's flame breath to blow up a chunk of metal. Smoke curled out from the impact.

Not good.

John flapped his wings, surging high upwards, and gave out his best draconic battle roar.

And, surprisingly, it sounded pretty damn badass.

A proper roar echoed through the air, and the fire bats, numbering six in total, perked up their heads immediately and stared at John.

Hell yeah, thought John. I'm a dragon. You all better respect me!

Instead, the fire bats sniffed the air, their snouts flaring, and as they recognized him as the energy source they so desired, they grew almost rabid, snarling and drooling at the same time as they all started to swarm him.

So much for respect.

John was basically just a giant walking battery for them to munch on.

But whatever, he would teach these overgrown pests what a dragon's power was all about!

John flew straight upwards, and as he did so, thin, see-through membranous flaps of skin covered his eyes, shielding them from wind and dust like goggles. He gathered speed, outpacing the fire bats beneath him, though just barely.

In terms of sheer power, John was now at the medial Mystic grade, but the fire bats were still lower Mystic grade beasts comparable to John. The early morning sun was also not strong enough to significantly boost John's power through the War Angel's Hours of Glory skill.

John could not just smash his face into them and expect to win with brute strength alone. He had to use some strategy.