Dragons are Chivalrous and Righteous (1/2)

If Dakka had challenged the archmage on his own terms, where the archmage and himself were in a field alone, pitting arm against arm and wit against wit, Dakka would've won in a heartbeat.

However, it is said that humans are modeled after Mora Arkavar – the creator God, while dragons are modeled after Drakavar – the God of power.

… Hence, humans are pretty good at building things.

Behind his high walls, expensive enchantments, and even secret weapons he was allowed to copy from the Threshold, Archmage Kalastros is, indeed, a formidable rival to Dakka.

With Dakka being in the air, thankfully there's minimal damage to the city… All the shots from both sides of the battle are flying in the sky and far past the horizon, after all.

Several mana cannons activate around the tower, with the archmage himself personally directing the main mana-ball condenser atop the tower.

This whole time, Dakka is bobbing and weaving back and forth, dodging all the large bolts while letting a few smaller ones slip past and hit his scales… though the smaller bolts do sometimes burn negligibly small holes in his fragile wing membrane.

This whole time, Dakka has his mouth agape and his tongue rolled out of his mouth as he's panting in joy – playing to his heart's content.

However… one stray bolt would change Dakka's life "forever".

Out of nowhere… an inconspicuous purple bolt of light zips through the air and directly hits the valuable painting "Seasong bird". A large hole the size of a fist burns through it, and the intense wind pressure puts out the fire and rips the hole even larger.

Immediately feeling like his soul was just shot, Dakka flies off to a safe distance while not daring to look down at his painting, lest he crash into something else and damage the treasure any further.

After the dragon sets down on the ground outside the city, the Archmage in his tower stops his fire, as he's afraid of causing collateral damage to the citizens living near the dragon's feet.

Meanwhile, Dakka is staring down at the injured painting and he strokes it softly with one of his nails. "No… This can't be…" he mutters with tragedy in his voice.

Haalfrin looks up completely baffled when a big fat teardrop lands directly on his face. Craning his neck up further, he sees a strange sight.

Like a creek trickling water through the forest, streams of salty water are pouring out of Dakka's eyes… Then comes the bawling.

Dakka holds up his head and roars out, "NOOOOO! YOU KILLED IT!! NOOOOOO!!!" Uncontrollably, the livid dragon starts slapping his tail on the ground… and the tremors alone are shaking the earth and toppling the houses nearest to the wall. Some of the guards still atop the wall stumble and fall, while the rest hold onto something for dear life.

With red in his eyes and thick plumes of black, sulfuric smoke billowing out of his mouth and nostrils, Dakka unintelligibly screams out in rage as he charges at the evil wizard's tower – the very same wizard who murdered this priceless piece of history.

… Of course… Dakka flies off… all the while carefully cupping the painting's corpse in his palm, still unable to let go of its memory in his heart. He gives one last sniff and mourns, 'I'll never let you go… even if you're dead… For forgetting you would be the worst kind of dishonor…'

With a roar that shakes the whole city and shatters windows, Dakka flies across the city… His eyes are glowing yellow, and the black smoke blowing out of his mouth is cloaking the rest of his body in ominous black fumes, giving him the appearance of a fiery demon who emerged from a bottomless pit of magma.

Once again, Dakka slams right into the spatial barrier… and once again, he slides to the ground.

This time, Dakka plants his hind legs and the claws of his wings tightly on the ground – bracing himself firmly for the impact. This time, he completely ignores the barrage of firepower – even taking a few shots from the condensed mana balls from the top of the tower.

The dragon's back smells like cooked meat when they hit, and patches of tough, mana-resistant scales are blown off.

Dakka leans his head back and starts pounding his head against the magical wall while yelling, "DIE!" in several different languages successively… as if a single language is unable to express the completeness of his hatred.

The archmage looks from atop the tower with a worried look on his face. 'What did I do to piss this dragon off?' he thinks. 'Can't it just go away now?'

Indeed, Kalastros has good reason to be worried. With all the damage his barrier is taking, his tower is running out of mana reserves.

On the other hand, if he doesn't do enough damage with his mana cannons, then the dragon can just keep pounding on the barrier until it breaks… as a dragon literally doesn't get tired until his body is worn out… unlike a human, who can exhaust their mana in seconds if they use the right spell.

Kalastros doesn't have to worry about this for much longer; within a minute of Dakka pitting his durability against the tower's… the tower loses.

With a great shattering sound, the barrier breaks apart, and Dakka's head pokes through the wall of what looks like thick, yellow glass. As he walks forward, his snakelike neck stretches further and further into the breach in the barrier, until his jaws are right next to the tower.

"Get back lizard!" the archmage unconsciously calls out as he uses the rest of the mana in the tower to make another mana blast. Of course, Kalastros had been saving his largest bolt yet for a moment when he was sure he wasn't going to miss his shot.

Just as Dakka is about to clamp his jaws around the tower and tear the base from under it, he receives the largest blast of mana yet right on top of his skull.

With a large crack, Dakka's head slams into the ground, shattering apart all the tiled walkways and crushing the rest of the beautiful courtyard.

…And everything is still for a moment. As the dust settles, Dakka lays there on the other side of the barrier. His neck that's poking through the hole in the shield is flopped limply on the ground, and low groaning sounds are escaping through his clenched teeth.

No matter how tough Dakka may be, that last attack hurt… a lot… Other than the shattered scales and cracked skull, he has a severe concussion.

Well, dragons heal absurdly quickly, so long as they have mana in their bodies. At best, they can recover from a concussion within seconds.

Even still, healing from that last attack takes almost all the remaining mana reserves out of Dakka.

Kalastros looks out through the window of his tower – his sweat soaking his robes as he looks on anxiously at the limp dragon below.

'Without my tower to help fight the dragon…,' Kalastros thinks, 'I won't be able to win, no matter how low on mana the creature is; with just the hardness of their scales and their natural physical strength, they're still a major threat so long as they can move.'

Once Dakka regains his consciousness, he looks up at the tower and growls out in the Brancotte tongue, "Wizard! Why have you stopped attacking me? You could've killed me as I lay limp!"

Kalastros gets even more hot and sweaty as he thinks of a lie. "Dragon!" he calls out a heartbeat later, "That's because I was using a spell to hide my biggest attack. You're not getting away alive! This next strike will finish you!"

Once the archmage says this, he holds up his hand and casts an illusion spell around his tower, since illusions are easy and cheap (depending on the illusion technique you're using).

Really, it's not how large an illusion is that determines how expensive it is to cast, but how many people you're trying to trick with it. After all, conventional illusion magic is about inserting images and sensations into another's mind, not creating a light show.

If Dakka had been full of mana, he'd have seen through the illusion had he looked hard enough… But alas, Dakka looks up and sees a giant purple ball of death suddenly appear above the tower… a ball of death only he can see.

Haalfrin, on the other hand, looks up with sincere confusion as Dakka trembles while looking up at… nothing really.

Of course, Kalastros is hoping Dakka would take this chance to surrender or at least run away… but Dakka has other plans.

Shamelessly, Dakka gets a clever look in his eyes. Before the "death ball" gets any "larger", the dragon holds out his left hand and opens up his palm… revealing a bedraggled Haalfrin with a broken leg.

"Wizard!" Dakka calls out while cackling like a villain, "this one is a poor, innocent little child I kidnapped in the forest! Geh heh heh! If that bolt of mana hits me… the boy dies as well! Mmm hmm hmm...!"

Acidic spit dribbles out of the dragon's mouth as it bares it teeth in pure, malicious glee.

'Chivalrous?' Haalfrin scoffs in his heart, 'Dakka dared say that dragons are chivalrous?'