Ice and Fire

Just then, a Flame Teleportation Gate suddenly appeared in the icy White Domain.

"This fluctuation is really interesting..."

A noble youth with black hair and golden eyes stepped out, and then his body shimmered with fragments of magical light, suddenly expanding into a huge Red Dragon nearly twenty meters long.

With the appearance of the Red Dragon, a scorching heat filled the surroundings, magma surged from the snow-covered ground, and the fierce blizzard was blocked.

The frost on Dolo's body slowly faded away, turning into water that flowed down, but he collapsed to the ground with a thud, still breathing weakly.

The Dragon's Breath

Keosius flicked his claws, and beams of light descended from the sky—the purest dragon Life Force —healing the frostbite within the Dragon Vein Hobgoblin and saving its life.

"Owner..."

"You... have arrived..."

Lying on the ground, barely alive, Dolo struggled to open his eyes and speak with difficulty. At that moment, his heart was filled with the disappointment of being easily defeated and even almost losing his life.

"Forgive me... for my incompetence..."

Seeing that Dolo was out of danger, the Red Dragon stopped paying attention to him and instead gazed thoughtfully at Grand Duke Oliver in mid-air and the snowstorm surrounding him.

"Truly powerful frost energy."

"But the person who wields this power is far too weak."

In Keosius's eyes, the horn behind Oliver was the only thing worth paying attention to, while the human with the blood of the Frost Giant was just an insignificant vessel.

When Duke Oliver saw the Red Dragon arrive, the resentment towards dragons in his Frost Giant bloodline combined with his own hatred caused a surge of anger to rise in his heart.

"Damn Red Dragon!"

"I'll show you what frost really is!"

He controlled the wind and snow to attack the Red Dragon. The storm, mixed with ice shards and carrying endless cold, raged and surged toward the Red Dragon.

[Graceful Dragon]

Keosius's wings were filled with spatial power, and his flight speed was terrifying. His whole body turned into a blur, and he easily dodged the oncoming snow storm like a ghost.

"Whoosh—"

The Red Dragon swept across the land at lightning speed, flying directly over Duke Oliver, but instead of attacking, it stopped leisurely.

Keosius looked down at Duke Oliver with disdain.

"Not bad spell."

"But... can you really control this power?"

"Pathetic bastard?"

Seeing the contemptuous look in the Red Dragon's Golden Vertical Pupils, Duke Oliver became even more enraged.

How dare you—

From a young age, he was instilled by his family with the idea of obeying the orders of the Bosque Duchy and serving them obediently.

Although the Northern Nobles outwardly addressed him as "Your Grace" out of politeness, they privately mocked him as the so-called "Loyal Dog Duke" or "Barbarian Lord."

He never had the power to make all the decisions and could only obey the Duchy of Bosque Duchy. This shaped his arrogant yet self-deprecating personality, and he could only vent his anger on his subjects.

Now, he has gained power he could never have imagined before, enough to control everything, yet he is still despised by this Red Dragon.

That contemptuous gaze—he had silently endured it all his life; it was all too familiar! Oliver's eyes gleamed with endless cold light, runes flashing across his body. He roared to the sky, "Reptile, I'll kill you!"

With his roar, ice spikes shot up from the ground and pierced the Red Dragon in mid-air.

Keosius continued to look at him with disdain, a fiery red light emanating from his chest, energy gathering in his throat before gushing out.

[Maximized Flame Breath]

The Fire Elemental, far more concentrated than the power of frost, gathered together, and the blazing white fire pillar easily tore through the wind and snow, shattered the ice pillars, and evaporated all the surrounding ice and snow.

But instead of attacking Oliver further with flames, he calmly closed his mouth and stopped, even uttering sarcastic remarks.

Is that all?

"Duke Oliver, in my opinion, you are nothing more than a good dog tied to this horn."

"Keosius said calmly."

He was provoking Duke Oliver; he just wanted to see what this Frost Giant with the blood of the horn could do with the power of the horn.

This guy's use of the Everfrost Power is too rudimentary. He can't even concentrate the elements at one point. Instead, he just expends his power everywhere like a dog in heat, wasting his strength.

Therefore, in Keosius's view, Duke Oliver posed no threat at all, but rather gave him an opportunity to experiment.

Let's test the horn's capabilities.

Whether by coincidence or design, the Red Dragon's words played right into Duke Oliver's hands, igniting his fury.

"You're asking for it!"

I will put you into Eternal Sleep!

Oliver roared furiously.

He took off the horn from his back, blew it, and extreme cold air poured out from the mouth of the horn, creating a noisy and violent snowstorm in the air.

"Buzz—"

The sound of horns resounded through the sky, and an even more violent snowstorm appeared in the air. The chill was so intense that even the Red Dragon felt threatened, as if its body had fallen into an ice cave.

Keosius spewed forth a raging torrent of fire, the flames forming a wall that blocked the chill from penetrating him. He stared at Oliver, who was blowing his horn, and his eyes lit up.

"This fluctuation has reached a legendary level."

"What an unexpected gain! I never thought that this horn could actually enable mortals to unleash legendary-level power."

"However... his time is running out."

In Keosius's eyes, Oliver was now like a bomb that could explode at any moment, his body filled with uncontrollable and powerful energy.

"Come on, attack me!"

"Let me see your strength!"

The Red Dragon continued to smile contemptuously, slowly flapping its wings in the storm, hovering in mid-air using spatial power, flames dancing in the air with each flap of its wings.

Oliver, who was nearly out of his mind, opened his palm, and extremely cold air poured out from his palm like a rushing river.

"No, it's not enough..."

"We need... more power!"

Only then can we kill that Red Dragon!

Oliver continued to greedily absorb the power from the horn, the Everfrost Power resonating with his bloodline, and the ice-blue runes on his body became increasingly bright and dazzling.

That power poured out in the form of cold air.

"Boom--"

A tidal wave of icy air washed over the Red Dragon's body, but the massive dragon body vanished into thin air, leaving behind a jagged ice pillar several meters high on the ground.

It turns out that it was just an incarnation of flames!

With Oliver's magical prowess, he couldn't even distinguish the most rudimentary Incarnation of Flame, so he poured all his power into it.

The real Red Dragon, however, had already appeared silently behind him, thanks to the terrifying speed brought by the "Graceful Dragon" technique.

"The experiment is complete, and your life should end now."

"What a pathetic guy."

Keosius simply swung his claws casually.

He only used the most basic Dragon Trick.

The reason is simple: the current Duke Oliver possesses legendary-level energy output, but lacks corresponding protective measures and control capabilities.

If it weren't for the snowstorm preventing him from getting close, even Dolo could easily chop Oliver into mincemeat.

[Scratch Spell]

A claw-shaped magical field appeared behind Oliver, easily slicing through his fragile, untrained body.

As the Red Dragon tore Duke Oliver's body apart, the Everfrost Power within him, barely maintained by his bloodline, finally lost its balance and erupted completely! "I clearly hit him—"

"No--"

A cold light emanated from his mouth, nose, and eyes.

Duke Oliver's body, which had expanded due to absorbing power, burst open like a balloon, with sharp ice spikes suddenly erupting from his wounds, and billowing white steam rising from them.

In the end, his entire body transformed into extremely cold, irregular crystals, like a glacier buried underground for millions of years.

The horn fell to the ground and lay there quietly, its runes fading as the blizzard in the sky gradually subsided.

"Tsk, a guy blinded by power, a half-blood Frost Giant whose bloodline has been diluted many times over..."

"Did they think they could take on a dragon one-on-one just because they got the racial artifact? They're really asking for trouble."

Keosius gazed at the ice crystals and couldn't help but sigh.