Reborn as a DRAGON

With our arenas set, Ember's gaze turned fiery as he looked at me with unmistakable fighting intent. 'Guess he'll finally get what he wants,' I mentally sighed, I was confident in my ability to win yet that did not mean i'll underestimate my opponent.

As we stood sizing one another up, my grandfather's clear voice suddenly boomed in our ears. "Begin!" As if on cue, Ember was the first to make a move. He dashed towards me with surprising nimbleness.

I was momentarily surprised at his speed, he had managed to close the distance between us in a matter of seconds. 'Well, let's test the waters first shall we,' I internally mumbled, a wide grin making its way into my face.

I lunged forward as well to meet him, Ember was a bit surprised at that yet his gaze only seemed to burn brighter, he opened his large maw as a fireball materialized in front of it. 'A dragon breath? No, this feeling, its mana!'

I did not sense the strange heart energy from his attack, which could only mean he was using mana. I extended my consciousness to the surrounding mana, asking for its help.

A wall of ice suddenly appeared from thin air, shielding me from the blast. Smoke rose from the point of impact, hindering our vision. Ember frowned as he looked left and right trying to find me, I, on the other hand, was using his mana to pinpoint his location.

I circled him and then lunged towards his back, sending a few Ice sickles his way. Ember's eyes widened in surprise as I emerged from the smoke, yet surprisingly, he still managed to launch a counter-attack of his own.

Four Fireballs appeared mid-air from all of my directions and rushed towards me, as soon as they almost reached me, a water bubble suddenly materialized with me inside of it, as it nullified the attacks.

By this point, I had already reached Ember close-quarters combat was inevitable. Making use of my momentum, I brandished my claws as I took aim at his neck.

Ember who was still surprised his counterattack didn't work, did not have much time to react, he unconsciously took a few steps back which caused me to narrowly miss, not before I left a small gash at his side.

Blood trickled onto the arena floor, Ember now stood with a small tear that had a few broken scales to his right side, his eyes seemed to burn with rage as he stared at his wound and then back at me.

I merely grinned as I brought my now bloodied claw to my face and licked the blood, 'That surprisingly doesn't taste bad,' I was momentarily surprised, I did not expect that as my aim was to agitate Ember.

That seemed to work as he let out a roar filled with rage, I looked at him with a haughty expression as I raised my head high in the air. Unable to take that, a sea of pointed flames, ones that looked almost like swords materialized behind him.

The flames burned in bright orange color, I could feel the fire mana leap with joy as it awaited his command. 'That's a lot,' I mumbled as I stood faced with the burning sea of orange.

'And it's too hot!' I groaned in annoyance. With but a thought, a wave twice as large as his sea of bladed flames emerged from behind me. My smirk widened as I looked at his almost unwilling expression.

Ember did not seem to have any intention of backing down, he hastily leaped to the air with a flap of his wings, his bladed flames suddenly rushed towards me trying to catch me off guard.

It was then that my giant wave moved to intercept his attacks. It appeared as if the sky was split into two sides, one red and one blue. Once our attacks collided, it became clear who was at a disadvantage.

Ember was unable to come back down to the ground as the arena became full of water, his attack was completely nullified. I calmly stood on top of the water as I glanced at his unwilling figure floating in the air.

Since the arena was bowl-shaped, the water remained which worked to my advantage as I turned the terrain in my favor. Ember let out another bellow of rage.

The fire mana seemed to follow his emotions as it burned brighter and hotter than before. I frowned as the vague shape of a burning dragon appeared behind him.

This attack was stronger than the ones that came before It, I could feel it. 'But so what? You will still lose!' My mouth curved upwards as a single spinning water orb materialized before me.

Ember sent his flaming dragon while I sent my spiraling orb to face it. Once the two clashed both attacks were nullified. I glanced at him with an almost bored expression as I taunted him. 'Is that the best you can do?'

At this point, Ember seemed to come to terms that he would not be able to beat me using mana. He closed his eyes for a second before he opened them, his jaw opened as a spinning red and blue flame appeared.

Once the flame appeared, the surrounding air began to crack and break. For a second, I almost felt like I was facing my grandfather, almost...’So since mana won’t work, you are going for a dragon’s breath huh? So be it!’

The only thing that could stop a dragon's breath is another one, I hastily willed my heart energy as a spinning clear blue orb materialized in front of my mouth. I could feel that the strength of this orb was significantly higher than any dragon’s breath I ever used.

‘Is it because of the name?’ I wondered, for some reason even the reserves of my heart energy felt as if they had expanded.

Still, I felt as if something was missing. For some reason, my mind continued to wander back to the cosmic mana I came across today. Perhaps it was a bad idea, and perhaps it wasn’t even going to work, yet maybe because of our location, I felt the need to try!

I tried to sense the peculiar mana in my surroundings, and to my ultimate surprise was easily able to find it. I didn’t order it to help, nor did I ask as a friend, I simply showed it the way and left the decision to it.

It was a strange feeling, I felt as If I had to make the mana intrigued for It to help. I had no power over it, I could feel that much, and I had a sense that It would not simply want to help me.

Luckily, my gamble paid off as the strange cosmo mana appeared to have been interested as it gently flowed towards my spinning orb, adding a dark blue color to it, before the attack lunged towards Ember leaving behind a trail of blue.

His dragon’s breath was launched at almost the same time as both met in the air. For a second, all colors seemed to dim before an ear-deafening explosion occurred, I watched in surprise as a rift in the void opened once both attacks met and swallowed Ember’s dragon’s breath whole, another rift opened and shot it out towards him!

Ember was now facing two abnormally strong attacks, his eyes widened as I could see his body freeze in shock and disbelief, ‘Shit! That’s too strong!’ I cursed, I had no doubt that if those attacks landed, Ember would not survive.

The adults must have thought the same, since both grandfather and the multicolored dragonness made their move. Grandfather’s large figure turned into a blur as it looked like he almost teleported to stand in front of Ember, he then raised a fire shield to block our attacks, while the dragonness grabbed Ember and hastily brought him away.

To no one's surprise, grandfather’s shield blocked our attacks, yet It did not go unnoticed by me that a small almost imperceptible crack appeared on it.

I was still in shock at the strength of that attack that I could only mumble. ‘Cosmic mana is overpowered...’