Page 258

A blast of shockwave razed the streets and in the midst of the destruction was Olivia. She was not the cause of the shockwave but a mere victim of it. She withstood the unrelenting force but at the great expense of her Mana and stamina. She had enveloped herself in a cage made of Arcane Aegises and more than half of them were shattered by the shockwave. The rest that withstood the shockwave didn’t persist for much longer afterwards.

“Is this your best, m’lady?” Rex taunted as he walked towards Olivia in a leisurely manner. It went without saying that he was the cause of the shockwave. More specifically, it was the result of him throwing a punch.

Olivia clicked her tongue and conjured up a spear made of ice in her hands.

“What’s this? Resorting to a weapon? Ah, I see. Trying to conserve your Mana… but for what? Are you expecting reinforcements?” Rex scoffed. “You may have wounded Varus to that degree but I am not him. Don’t think for a second that your petty tricks would work against me.”

“We shall see,” Olivia said and lunged towards Rex.

The shirtless man lazily raised his hand and caught Olivia’s spear that was aiming for his neck. He easily crushed the ice spear in his grip.

Olivia immediately materialised a sword in her free hand and thrust forward. The tip of the blade struck the left side of Rex’s chest but the blade of the ice sword snapped in half as a result.

“This is disappointing, Dragon. I expected more from you.”

Oliva huffed in silence and summoned an ice axe, which she then swung down on Rex.

He didn’t even try to dodge and let the axe strike his head. The result was the same as the sword. The head of the axe snapped off from the handle. “Surely you have other surprises for me, no?”

“Be careful what you wish for.”

“I’m not the one that needs to be careful here.”

“Are you sure?”

Just then, the shattered spear, the broken blade of the sword, and the snapped head of the axe, all shone brightly in blinding radiance. It was an abrupt development and the radiance swallowed both Rex and Olivia whole.

“Annoying!” Rex hissed and swung his arm around, shattering whatever was fencing him in. It felt like he had touched something extremely cold but it did not feel like ice. It was far too brittle to be ice and it didn’t have the moist feeling. However, that wasn’t his concern right now. “W-what the… Where is this place?”

After breaking himself out of the blinding radiance, Rex found himself in a completely foreign place. It was a field of ice with high walls of glacial surrounding him on all sides. The space he was confined in was relatively large but limited nonetheless. The markings around his right eye glowed as he appraised his surroundings but no information turned up in his Appraisal. In the stead of texts that would explain the walls surrounding him, there were only question marks.

“Unable to be appraised… Intriguing.”

He tried punching one of the walls but he only made a crack and the crack quickly mended itself.

“What in hell’s name is this…?”

He threw another punch but the results were the same as the last. He threw yet another punch, with more strength this time around, but the results were no different.

“Not possible!” Rex roared. He drove both of his fists into the wall. The damages were greater and the cracks were larger but in spite of his efforts, the wall returned to its pristine and unmarred state. “This is preposterous. My strength is unmatched in this country. There should be no barriers or cages that can withstand my strength.”

He roared louder and unleashed a flurry of punches to the wall but the cracks were mended faster than he could make them. Eventually, he ceased his bullish and foolish efforts.

“This place… could it be… an illusion?” He then burst out laughing. “Of course. What else can it be? This has to be an illusion. Elsewise, how would it be possible that a caster of your level would be able to construct such a barrier that could hold me back? Your tricks are commendable, Dragon, but they’re just mere tricks in the end!”

Rex roared upwards with all his might. He had poured Mana into his throat when he shouted. His roar shook the entire place and cracks formed all over the four walls. However, the place stood perfectly still after his roar ended and the cracks disappeared without a trace.

“Hmm… strange. Illusions usually break when I scream loud enough. It would seem I did not commend your tricks enough, Dragon, but don’t think my defeat is certain. You may be able to confine me in my head but you keep me confined forever.”

A small crack appeared on the wall beside him. The crack had appeared naturally, not because of Rex’s punch or any of his attacks. And Rex caught it in his sight.

“What do we have here? Nearing your limits, Dragon? You might as well just free me while I’m still feeling… merciful.”

The small crack began to grow and spread. Soon, the other walls also started to be covered in cracks.

“So, you don’t wish to free me of your own accord. So be it, then.” Rex snickered. “When I’m out of this illusion of a prison, you will sorely regret imprisoning in my own head.”

The cracks on the walls widened, to the point that the walls began to crumble and crumble they did. Piece by piece, the walls broke down and a blinding radiance spilt into the confines. Once all the walls had crumbled, the radiance died down and Rex found himself back on the street where he had been wreaking havoc.

“Neat trick, Dragon, but it won’t work a second time. Now, face m— huh?” Rex stared with his eyes widened. He had expected to see a girl who was a head shorter than him once he was freed from the illusion. However, he found himself standing before a beast that was thrice his size. Not just that, a cage of ice had covered a huge area of the vicinity and the ice age had runes carved into it, runes that he knew nothing about.

“You force my hand, human,” the Dragon in front of Rex spoke and he immediately recognised its voice.

“So, this is your true strength?” Rex questioned. He appraised her once more and found that she was now level seventy-two. She had been fifty-two when they first crossed paths. Her level shot up to sixty-seven before and now, her level went up again by five levels.

“You’re welcome to find out,” Olivia said and unleashed a stream of high-pressure water at Rex.

Normally, he would just stand there and take the attack head-on but this time, he dodged instead. He dove out of the way just as the high-pressure water stream razed the spot where he had been standing. “That would have hurt a lot,” he muttered to himself after seeing the destruction the water spell had caused.

Olivia beat her wings and took the air. As there was a cage encompassing the area, she could not fly far but it didn’t matter. Retreat was never her intention in the first place.

“Now this should be fun.” Rex chuckled. “Seems like I won’t be disappointed after all.” The tattoos that ran along both of his arms began to glow. He splayed his hand at Olivia and tugged at the air. The space rippled in response to his hand motion.

To Olivia’s absolute astonishment, she was pulled towards Rex by an unseen grasp and she could barely struggle herself free from the pulling force. She cast Appraisal on Rex once more after getting herself out of the bind. “Those tattoos… they paved the way for your magic aptitude,” she inferred.

“Such is the way of those who possess no aptitude for any kind of Magic Arts whatsoever. This is the most efficient method. Well, for me at least.”

“You don’t fear those precious tattoos of yours would get blemished in a fight?”

“I have yet to meet anyone who could put a scratch on my body. Varus has tried but not even he could make me bleed.”

“The world is vast. Your confidence in your defence would be your downfall.”

“Perhaps, but you will never know for sure because you won’t be alive to see it,” Rex said and clapped his hands. The shockwave produced by that single clap struck Olivia’s nerves. Her body spasmed and her wings nearly ceased to flutter.

Rex leapt high up into the air while Olivia was still dazed by the shockwave. He wound his fist and that motion alone caused the air to tremble. Olivia snapped out of her daze just as he threw his fist. She rolled to the side and the punch split the air where she had been.

Olivia countered with a beat of her wings that sent wind-moulded blades at Rex. The wind blades struck Rex but none of the blades left even a small scratch on his body.

Rex kicked off the air and flew towards Olivia but she warded him off with an Ice Breath. The freezing fog turned his body into ice but with just a simple shrug, he broke himself free. However, his movements were still dulled by the cold and Olivia smacked him to the ground with her tail.

Before he could recover his composure, she flooded him with a strong gush of water through her mouth, which she then quickly followed up with her Ice Breath. Rex leapt out of the small puddle of water that had formed before everything turned into ice. He grabbed a large piece of rubble by his foot and tossed it at Olivia. She easily kicked the rubble piece into pieces with her hind limb.

“Fool,” Rex scoffed and pushed at the air with his palm. The shockwave surged towards the pebble-sized pieces from the shattered rubble and pushed them towards Olivia as if she was bombarded by the Earth Magic spell, Stone Barrage.

Stone Barrage was just an intermediate-tier spell but the offhanded variant produced by Rex was significantly stronger than the original counterpart. Olivia could not dodge the tiny projectiles given their sizes and she could only endure the barrage in pain. She winced with her fangs gritting.

Rex seized this chance to charge at her once again. He reached her in a single leap and swung his fist. Olivia managed to dodge the first punch but not the second. His fist collided with the side of her jaws and she went tumbling in the air. When she regained her bearings, Rex was already upon her. His fist was only a few feet away from her face.

She beat her wings hard and the gust pushed him a short distance away but it was enough to dissipate his momentum and he ended up falling back to the ground.

Deep blue particles of light began converging within Olivia’s mouth. Her scales glowed the same vivid shade of blue across her whole body.

“The infamous Dragon’s Roar. Never thought I would actually find myself going up against one directly. Well then, come on. Show me the true strength of a Dragon!”

And Olivia gladly complied with Rex’s request. She unleashed the amassed energy in her mouth in the form of a striking blue beam of energy at Rex.

Rex gathered all of his strength and Mana into his fists and thrust them forward to meet Olivia's Dragon Roar. The two instances of attack crashed into one another. The air rippled in waves. The ground cratered from the force of the clash. The buildings crumbled. The brick tiles of the streets flew off in droves. The destruction echoed far and hit the dome that encompassed the vicinity. Had it not been for the ice dome that Olivia had set up, the damage would not stop just there. It would spread further beyond.

Still, the dome could not contain the destruction brought upon by the two individuals. It eventually shattered into pieces but it did its work, It reduced the spread of the destruction. However, everything within the dome was in a state of absolute ruin. The area had been turned into a small basin as a result.