Chapter 1410 - Aishalstromoz vs Jake (4)

As the Dragonsbane was undoubtedly ravaging through Aisha’s system, she nevertheless soldiered through, and before Jake had the chance to land any attacks, she made her move instead. He felt his poison do its job, but that still didn’t stop her as Aisha spread her wings and three words echoed that for some reason made a shiver run down his spine.

“Grace of Gold.”

The golden veil that had been closing in around them exploded silently, turning into countless motes of golden dust that started raining down upon the world. At the same time, Jake saw runes light up on every single one of Aisha’s scales, making her look like a glowing statue.

To his shock, he also felt that the Dragonsbane was being suppressed by an overwhelming power that didn’t even seem to belong to the True Dragon herself. It was as if all his control and ownership over his toxins had been sealed away, and as the golden motes of light got closer to him and entered his Pride domain, he also got a taste of their true nature.

How is that-

Before Jake could finish his thought, Aisha moved. She appeared in front of him instantly, far faster than before, barely giving him time to dodge. Twisting his body, Jake avoided the blow; at least he thought he did, but his danger sense didn’t subside, and a second blast of golden energy echoed after the slash as a golden claw appeared, slightly larger than the first hit, but following the same movement.

It scratched Jake right before fading away as a second real claw descended upon him from Aisha, this one also echoing in the same way. Dodging one attack was already hard enough, and while it didn’t sound hard to dodge the second echo if it was just a slightly larger version of the first blow, that wasn’t the case when one considered the overlaps.

Aisha unleashed a barrage of blows, golden echoes following every single one of them, overlapping and passing through one another and even Aisha’s own body, while absolutely being capable of tearing into Jake should they strike him. Jake retreated repeatedly, forcing him through the golden motes that each consumed a lot of his energy due to Pride, but allowing them to touch him also wasn’t an option due to what they were. It sounded almost preposterous to imagine, but if he was right, every single golden mote was a soul.

The soul of a True Dragon.

It truly didn’t make any sense, but they definitely felt like souls. Not Truesouls, but the remnant souls sometimes left behind after someone's death, and their Truesoul went wherever Truesouls go. Perhaps calling them remnants of will or something like that was more accurate, but the point remained that every single one of them was a small fragment of incredible willpower that Jake really didn’t want to touch.

Clearly, Aisha didn’t need to fear this, as rather than avoid the motes, she gladly moved through them, and upon touching one, it entered her body and caused a small response as the golden glow on her body shimmered, absorbing the mote from the looks of it.

It didn’t make her stronger to absorb them, but it did allow her to keep momentum as Jake was repeatedly forced back, and despite his best efforts, he failed to avoid every blow as his armor that had been repaired after his fight with the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord was once more entirely ruined.

Counterattacking wasn’t even an option, and it didn’t look good for Jake, but despite the circumstances, he didn’t panic but stayed fully focused on his opponent. He did slowly get better at dodging, but even if he didn’t, he could clearly feel whatever was suppressing the Dragonsbane ever-so-slowly lose its hold.

Time was on his side, assuming he didn’t come out of this in a too horrible state. Granted, he did want to see all that Aisha was capable of. He had fought True Dragons before after evolving to B-grade, but all of them had been rather disappointing. This was the first time he encountered one that felt like a proper apex predator of the multiverse.

In sheer physicality, Jake didn’t stand a chance, and that was despite her effectively being a Willpower-based mage. One reason for her incredible physical prowess was enhancement magic. Buffs she applied to herself to increase her power, in many ways akin to boosting magic, but not entirely the same.

Still, it wasn’t enough, and as Jake got better at reading her movements, he also stopped taking as much damage as before. Soon, she entirely missed two dozen blows in a row, Jake’s ability to adapt certainly surpassing all her expectations. Aisha was burning through energy while Jake remained relatively calm, despite looking by now like he’d taken roughly equal damage to her.

As a genius in her own right, Aisha naturally realized that despite pushing herself, she was slowly losing momentum, making her adapt her strategy as well. The golden glow enveloping her body grew to form what looked like a projection of her entire being, roughly twice her normal size.

This far larger dragon suddenly shot forward and separated from Aisha’s body, moving like its own entity. Jake was taken aback and dodged its first attack, but Aisha herself followed up by flying to his side and unfolding her wings as a dozen beams of golden energy blasted towards him.

One of them strafed him, burning into his scales and making Jake take a small scratch from the large projected dragon, which he only now realized didn’t actually look entirely the same as Aisha herself. It looked older in ways Jake couldn’t quite tell, as he wasn’t that familiar with how dragons aged.

This seemingly older dragon also attacked with a slightly different pattern than Aisha herself, which threw Jake off initially and allowed the real True Dragon to strafe around him and shoot her magic. She didn’t attack herself, making Jake guess that this golden projection wouldn’t simply phase through her like before, making Jake attempt to adapt by moving to put the summoned dragon between himself and Aisha...

Only to learn that while she maybe couldn’t move through the projection herself, her magic sure could. Jake took a nasty bolt to his shoulder, blasting off his scales and leaving a flesh wound with golden veins around it, dealing further damage.

Despite having fought for so long, he still wasn’t entirely clear what exactly the Regalflight was all about. It was clearly some Willpower-based magic, and the golden energy also seemed to directly attack Jake’s own Willpower somehow. He felt that in the area he had been struck, his energy moved more sluggishly, as if the golden energy attempted to take control of him. Well, at least his energy.

Unfortunately for Aisha, her golden energy seemed to meet a tough opponent when Jake’s arcane energy encountered it. The two fought only briefly before the golden energy was destroyed entirely, as if having met its nemesis. He didn’t see any reaction from Aisha, but he did start to realize that some of the spells she threw his way were far more dangerous than others.

Between his scales and arcane energy seemingly countering the golden energy somehow, Jake stopped dodging some spells, allowing him to far more easily avoid the giant golden dragon that was trying to smash him to pieces. That one he still didn’t want to get hit by, as its swipes did nothing fancy but just sought to turn him into shredded meat.

Like so, about half a minute passed with Jake akin to a living shadow, dodging in seemingly impossible ways to avoid the blows of the massive dragon while only taking the magical attacks he willingly absorbed. He had taken damage from the golden dragon and magic, but nothing serious for a good while.

With momentum shifting yet again and Aisha continuing to burn through energy, barely able to keep the Dragonsbane locked down at this point, she changed her strategy one more time. Clearly, she wouldn't enjoy the grace of gold much longer, as it was evident her next shift-up would be the last, but she still wanted to take advantage of every second.

Just after dodging the large golden dragon, it exploded right in Jake’s face, turning into thousands of golden motes of energy that joined all the other ones still floating everywhere. Aisha had stopped at this point, her entire body glowing with energy as behind her, a single giant rune appeared, and just by looking at it, Jake felt a compulsion to bow his head in respect. He naturally didn’t, but the simple fact that it had that kind of power made him certain something big was coming.

All the motes floating in the air started gathering around Jake like meteors orbiting a planet. They were just outside his Pride range, and Jake prepared himself should all of them implode towards him. However, rather than attack, the motes instead started merging, and after a few moments, a golden shroud akin to the one that had been draped over the battlefield earlier formed.

Jake frowned, unsure what would happen as the rune behind Aisha started glowing, and in response, the golden cloth grew almost fully corporeal. Deciding he probably shouldn’t just sit still and watch what was going to happen – despite it being super interesting – Jake used One Step to get away and create some distance. He didn’t get far, though, as after only teleporting once, Aisha spoke yet again.

“Golden Seal.”

The thin golden cloth immediately flew towards Jake and wrapped around his body with speed so fast Jake wouldn’t have been able to dodge unless Moment of the Primal Hunter had activated. When the cloth wrapped around him, it instantly merged into his body, making golden runes appear, all while seemingly entirely ignoring the presence of Pride.

Immediately, Jake felt a sense of weakness flood his body as his energy turned sluggish. His boosting skill felt on the verge of deactivating, and he started to wonder if he should even be fighting right now. It seemed pointless to battle within a simulated world, and all Jake was doing was exerting himself. For what, a level at most, even if he somehow won? Yeah, best to just not bother and...

Yeah, those aren’t really my thoughts.

Jake cut through the bullshit as all sorts of ideas of surrender and a general lack of desire to do anything flooded his soul. It was as if the very concept of Willpower had been partly seized, and everything just seemed pointless, making him not want to do anything at all. A truly insidious kind of magic of incredible power, and all performed not as the main attack itself, but just to buy a little time.

Because while Jake was being wrapped by the odd cloth and had his willpower suppressed, the True Dragon deeply inhaled as power gathered in her gullet. Immense power that would usually make Jake react instantly, but in this instance, he didn’t outwardly do anything immediately. Instead, he stared listlessly into nothingness as a couple of seconds passed.

He stopped himself from turning his head and looking, but even without seeing it, he could feel the absolutely monstrous amount of mana gathered, and the damage his Dragonsbane was doing throughout it all, as after using that sealing ability, whatever enhancement she’d used on herself had fully expired.

Another second later, Jake felt his danger sense explode with a warning of what would soon come, making him finally react. In the same instant that the Dragon’s Breath was unleashed, a second version of Jake emerged from his body and rapidly dodged to the side. Jake, in turn, fueled all his power into breaking the seal on him as his body exploded with arcane energy.

At the same time, he turned his head as his vision was filled with a torrent of golden flames. Not a beam of golden energy as he’d honestly expected, but just potent golden fire, making it actually look like a traditional Dragon’s Breath. It was coming straight for him, but before it could hit, he broke the seal and switched places with his Eternal Shadow, allowing his other self to experience the flames instead.

Interestingly enough, Jake felt a momentary tinge of resistance before switching places with his shadow. It didn’t cause any delay or do anything; he just got the vague idea that his Eternal Shadow wasn’t fully on board. Kind of understandably, seeing what happened next.

The golden flames washed over his Eternal Shadow, and immediately he felt his connection to it be cut off as the shadow dispersed. The Dragon’s Breath continued as it momentarily filled the sky, and even from afar, Jake felt a sense of danger from those flames. They clearly burned everything they encountered, but he knew it was more than just that. It felt as if everything it touched lost something, and before his shadow died, he felt that it wasn’t simply due to taking damage, but something more. As if those flames also removed the very concept of willpower, extending even to breaking down the fundamental connection between the body and one’s mind.

A small part of Jake wanted to actually be hit by it to see if he could survive it given its odd nature, but he was fairly sure that even without that part of the Dragon’s Breath, the pure damage of the golden flames would burn him to a crisp, and the suppression of Willpower was more there to weaken the target than be the main killer. Yeah, the more he thought about it, the more he felt certain that surviving those flames would be a serious struggle.

Having seen enough, Jake took out his bow and quickly cracked his neck as the flames subsided, and a heavily breathing Aisha looked his way. He could see a hint of tiredness in her eyes, yet she didn’t seem keen to give up despite having all her strategies thus far thwarted. That last combo attack by sealing him into a Dragon’s Breath would definitely have killed most other low-tier B-grades, but Jake was just a horrible target for her.

Not only had he just gotten his Pride of the Malefic Viper upgraded, granting him increased resistance to Willpower-based attacks, but his arcane affinity also seemed disproportionately effective against her magic. Finally, his mentality was just too damn driven by instinct to have something silly like thinking affect him detrimentally. His survival instinct would always take precedence.

Having weathered the storm, so to speak, Jake was the next to make an offensive move as he nocked an arrow and started charging an Arcane Powershot with the intent of forcing a reply from Aisha. She indeed reacted, gritting her teeth through the pain of the Dragonsbane as she shot a large bolt of golden lightning his way.

Jake didn’t even move to dodge but focused on Pride as he kept charging his shot. The bolt entered the range of Pride, and while it wasn’t easy, Jake managed to weaken it enough so that it barely did anything when it struck him. Aisha prepared to do more, but she was clearly weakened after unleashing her Dragon’s Breath, so all she could do was try to muster some kind of defense as Jake loosed the string and sent the Arcane Powershot roaring forth.

Her defenses were pierced rather easily as Jake directly blew off one of her wings, sending Aisha spinning through the air, blood trailing her quick descent toward the ground.

Nocking another arrow, Jake watched her fall as it was his turn to claim momentum and go on the offensive, willing to finish the fight from here, but secretly hoping she had at least one more interesting thing to show him.