Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The power inside his body soared even more and vaguely approached a threshold. This threshold was like an invisible wall that restricted his stats from going any higher.

Energy surged through his body brimming it with power and might that Simon had never experienced before. Of course, activating the many augmenting skills on top of igniting his ancestral skills, strained his body to its limits.

Cracking noises came from his body and he could feel some veins and tissues snapping, indicating that his body was still not ready to hold that amount of power.

Simon took a deep breath and quietly endured the pain. This was the first time after that crazy level that he had activated his power to his limits. He wanted to see what kind of strength, his current powers could display.

BOOMM…

Leaving behind a sonic boom, Simon flapped his wings, his figure disappeared from the sight of the dragon and appeared beside its body in an instant.

Although the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon was unable to see the demon and was surprised by his speed, it did not panic like before. On the contrary, it was expecting the demon to target his weakness once again thus it was prepared.

It flailed its tail and the brown light from the stones gather on the striking head at the end of its tail increasing its heaviness and power to a new degree.

The moment, Simon appeared a few meters away from the body of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon, he saw its tail magnifying in his eyes. Simon did not panic though, he had already expected his opponent to react that way.

This time, he did not shrink away from the might of the tail and instead collided against it head on. Simon clenched his left hand into a fist and swung it towards the incoming tail with all of his power.

Mana unwittingly covered his right hand and vaguely formed a gauntlet of sorts.

BANG… when the two attacks met a harsh clanging reverberated and a ripple like shockwaves spread through the air.

The force of the two attacks was so powerful that anything that those ripples touched would be blasted into smithereens.

A fist and a gigantic tail were tightly locked in a battle, none of them could gain any ground against the other. Clearly, the force of the two attacks was equal.

The dragon who didn't expect to see his opponent not flying away like a bug, was stunned for a moment. This momentary daze, made it unable to react to what came next.

Simon utilised his battle experience from continuously fighting strong enemies to shift the force of his enemy's attack away from him. He rotated his body in an unusual manner and slipped past the tail and the earth Shattering Lower Dragon's guard.

SLASH…

Simon did not stop there, he took advantage of the momentary lapse of guard of his opponent and slashed towards its underbelly. A brilliant golden glow accompanied by an infernal heat lit up on the sword, the blade whose lethality was further enhanced by a layer of mana easily tore through its negligible defence and opened a large gash big enough to cover one-third of its underbelly.

No blood flowed out, as everything was charred by that golden infernal heat.

ROAARRRR… the unimaginable pain made the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon open its mouth wide and wail. It failed its body around in a wild and violent rampage collapsing the mountain that was its home and everything around it.

WHOOSH… Simon withdrew a few distance away and looked at the dragon with a grim light. Although he had managed to cut open a wound on his opponent, it wasn't quite deep and failed to deal it much damage.

When he looked at the dragon's HP, it had only fallen by one-tenth. From this, one could tell how powerful the body of a dragon was. The underbelly of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon had the least amount of scales and defence, unlike its top half which was covered by those dense sturdy looking stony scales.

However, even then it failed to reach its organs and deal any significant damage.

Simon glanced at his sword, it was an [A] tier weapon yet it was unable to pierce through the defence of a dragon. Just this fact was enough to tell how fearsome the dragon clan was.

ROOOAARR… the tone of Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's roar turned from agony to fury. Hatred and killing intent raged across its brown eyes that gazed at the demon.

This wasn't the first time that it was challenged, many other beings that resided in this forest had tried to attack him blinded by their greed. However, each time it showed them the vast difference between them and the might of someone who was a member of the dragon clan.

This would perhaps be the first time that it was injured by an opponent who it believed was beneath him.

ROARR… Rage covered its eyes, the pain from earlier was still throbbing in its body. Unforgivable… it wanted to tear apart that demon only then will its hatred be quelled.

How could Simon who was the recipient of those negative emotions not be able to feel it? The demon noble race was sensitive to such emotions. He could tell that the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon was completely furious now, it had stopped holding back.

The power inside its body flooded out, and a pressure that seemed to be originating from the ancient times descended onto these lands. In front of that vast draconic pressure, most of the races of this world would be instantly intimidated and cowered into submission.

However, Simon was different this change only seem to excite him further. The demonic blood within him was exhilarated by this development.

Of course, Simon did not simply give in to these instincts, he was calm-headed as his eyes roamed all around him.

Now that he had attacked the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon, that mysterious protector of its wouldn't sit still. He was wary of that individual suddenly intervening, if need be Simon was ready to shatter the golden guardian stone and use the ancient draconic compel.

Nevertheless, that mysterious adult dragon did not show its face.

"Did they perhaps adopt a wait and watch attitude?".

Simon could only guess what the other party was thinking. While these thoughts rapidly flashed in his mind, the angered Earth Shattering Lower Dragon slammed its limbs into the ground causing the land for dozens of kilometres to tremble intensely.

The trembling caused enormous cracks to appear on the ground as if a massive earthquake of more than twelve Richter scale had occurred. Big chunks of bedrock surfaced out of the earth changing the topography of the land completely.

ROAARR… the brown draconic eyes filled with fury and murderous intent, did not stop there. After pulling out the bedrocks from the ground, the biggest crystal on top of its body started shining with glaring brown light.

These brown lights contained some mysterious power that allowed it to control the bedrocks. The substrata started moving and were gradually lifted in the air.

This unexpected change made even Simon frown a little. It must be mentioned that each of these bedrocks was as big as a mountain, lifting them in the air like that must cost a ridiculous amount of mana.

Even with his mana points [MP], he reckoned that he might not be able to do something as ridiculous as that.

"Puny Ant!!… This king shall show you the might of the dragon clan" the arrogant Earth Shattering Lower Dragon who hardly bothered to talk with him since the start, finally opened his mouth at this moment.

"Regret in hell that you dared to covet the bloodline of this kind. DIE" as soon as the dragon stopped talking, all those bedrocks started moving towards Simon from all directions.

This move from him intended to crush Simon into a bloody splatter in between those bedrocks.

Simon flapped his wings and moved around, because of the weight and size of the substrata, they moved slowly but after dodging for a while, Simon realised that he couldn't escape them. No matter where he went, these bedrocks followed.

It was like he had become a magnet that attracted them. The bedrock from all around rushed towards Simon and encircled him in between. Finally, they buried him in between.

BANG… BANG… BANG...

The impacts from multiple bedrocks snapping together caused a deep muffled rumbling noises to repeatedly echo far into the surrounding.

A faint smile appeared on the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon's face. It was marvelling at its work, the advanced tier Seismic Magic Mastery. However, the faint smile on its face did not last long when it saw the bedrock suddenly pulling back and leaning vertically towards the sky.

There was nothing in between those rocks. Immediately, the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon pulled his attention up and saw the demon appear high up in the sky.

Simon using his advantage in speed to dodge the bedrocks in the nick of time, appeared in the sky and observed this dragon opponent of his who had become weirdly stationary after pulling out the bedrock from the ground.

Even the numerous crystals on its body had lost their weird brown lustre except for that single biggest one in the middle.

"Is it unable to move because it needs to focus all of its attention on that one crystal was controlling these things?" Simon postulated narrowing his eyes, a sudden thought flashed in his mind.

He did not have much time to ponder over it as the bedrocks came rushing towards him once again.

Simon hurriedly descended and sped towards the motionless Earth Shattering Lower Dragon who was observing him with its eyes. It did not move or did it do anything, only the light coming from the biggest crystal on its back brightened.