Battle with the Red-Eyed Black Dragon

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon had already made its move, so naturally Arnold had to strike back.

He deflected the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's claw and retreated dozens of meters. Arnold silently chanted a spell. For this counterattack, he directly used his strongest Double Greater Gravity Spell.

Centered on Arnold, a semi-elliptical Gravity Space five hundred meters long and wide and fifty meters high formed.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon was a hundred meters long, and even with its head raised, it stood over forty meters tall. Yet under Arnold's full-force Greater Gravity Spell, the massive dragon head was forcibly crushed to the ground by the terrifying gravity. Imagine a huge baby with its head pressed to the ground and its butt stuck up in the air...

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon flew into a rage, withdrew its claws, planted them on the ground, and prepared to stand up again.

After casting the Greater Gravity Spell, Arnold once more silently chanted a spell. Within a radius of more than ten meters around him, the ground seemed to have been pried open. Countless earth elements surged forth, gathering with the earth elements in the air to form forty enormous ochre spherical stones.

Then, those stones actually smashed toward the Red-Eyed Black Dragon at incredible speed. Seeing this, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon ignored the fact that its body had yet to straighten fully. Dark elements surged through its claws, directly forming a large protective barrier around itself.

The stones slammed into the barrier. "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"...

Countless thunderous impacts rang out in succession, and the stones did more than simply strike the barrier. After touching it, the special vibrations within the stones rapidly dismantled the barrier.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon was horrified. Its instant-cast Seventh-level defensive spell was actually about to be broken so quickly. It hurriedly placed both claws on the barrier and poured magical power into it.

The barrier was about to crack, yet it quickly recovered. But how could Arnold's Spiral Spheres be so easily dealt with?

The forty spherical stones continuously wore away at the barrier's magical power, while the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's claws supplied it with magical power without pause.

But Arnold was not idle. Holding Mooncleaver, he used the Wind Escape Technique to rapidly approach the barrier and struck it several times with Earth Rend. Earth Rend's attack power was still formidable. The Red-Eyed Black Dragon's barrier was swiftly dismantled, and Arnold immediately used his mental power to control the stones and continue bombarding the Red-Eyed Black Dragon.

As they dismantled the barrier, the stones were forced to break down into earth elements as well, steadily shrinking in size. However, when they struck the Red-Eyed Black Dragon, they still retained thirty or forty percent of their power.

Forty spherical stones rapidly smashed into the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's body. "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"...

The stones directly tore wounds into the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's body, with blood flowing from more than ten spots. The Red-Eyed Black Dragon's body was simply too tough. Some areas had not been broken open by the stones, though obvious bruising could still be seen.

Not only was he under the powerful pressure of doubled gravity, but his body had also been injured by a human's magic. The enraged Red-Eyed Black Dragon suddenly let out a furious roar, its enormous wings beating violently.

"Roar~~~"

A terrifying pressure spread out, making even Arnold's legs nearly go weak.

"Is this the so-called dragon's might?" Arnold felt as though a stone were crushing his heart, leaving him unable to breathe. But after a moment, he dispelled the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's dragon's might.

Then the Red-Eyed Black Dragon spewed several streams of black flame from its mouth. Like smoke, they reached Arnold in an instant. Arnold hurriedly activated the Wind Escape Technique and dodged at high speed. Yet several streams of black flame came at him, forcing Arnold to evade again and again.

The muscles across the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's body slowly bulged, while its bones and joints crackled. A bloodthirsty, vicious gleam flashed through its red eyes. Enduring the doubled gravity by sheer force, it slowly beat its wings and actually managed to take flight, charging toward Arnold.

As the Red-Eyed Black Dragon approached Arnold, Arnold unexpectedly unleashed the Mental Shock he had previously envisioned. His incomparably vast mental power directly surged toward the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's massive head. And sure enough, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon was affected.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon's mental defenses were actually quite high, but it was currently using all its strength to resist the doubled gravity. Caught off guard, it was struck by Arnold's attack.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon's enormous body crashed to the ground again with a tremendous bang. Arnold did not stop. He cast another Eighth-level spell—Earth Spike Spear Array. An Eighth-level Earth Spike Spear Array could instantly thrust hundreds of Earth Thrust Lances from the ground.

"Pfft!" "Pfft!"...

More than a hundred Earth Thrust Lances stabbed upward beneath the Red-Eyed Black Dragon's body, but most of them failed to pierce its skin. However, a small number pierced the wounds left by the Spiral Spheres, tearing them open further and creating even larger wounds.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon once again condensed a dark-red Fireball in its mouth—the Black Flame Bullet. The Black Flame Bullet shot toward Arnold at high speed, and Arnold hurriedly used the Wind Escape Technique to evade it.

But the Red-Eyed Black Dragon seemed to have gone mad, releasing more than ten Black Flame Bullets in one breath. Due to the Greater Gravity Spell's influence, the earth elements in the ground here were more active. Therefore, Arnold did not rely on the Wind Escape Technique to move, instead using the Earth Escape Art to move quickly.

Unfortunately, Arnold was still grazed by one Black Flame Bullet. Violent fire elements rapidly heated the surface of Arnold's body. Fortunately, Arnold kept his feet planted on the ground at all times.

He diverted most of the force carried by the Black Flame Bullet into the ground, while the earth elements within the Earthquake Sacred Armor continuously vibrated, consuming the Black Flame Bullet's fire elements. At last, even though the ochre glow of the Earthquake Sacred Armor had dimmed considerably, the Black Flame Bullet was completely destroyed.

Then the Red-Eyed Black Dragon attacked again, its pair of dragon claws striking Arnold relentlessly. Arnold's Earthquake Sacred Armor was once again subjected to targeted attacks, until the entire Earthquake Sacred Armor finally shattered and dispersed into earth elements.

While continuously dodging and enduring the dragon claws' attacks, Arnold silently chanted another spell, preparing to cast another Eighth-level Spiral Sphere.

Seeing a small portion of the surrounding ground shatter and gather in the air, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon understood Arnold's intentions. It intensified its attacks and finally shattered that annoying armor.

However, forty Spiral Spheres formed once more. Knowing their power, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon did not dare underestimate them. It stopped attacking.

First, it instant-cast a Seventh-level protective barrier in front of itself. Then, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon directly swung its hardest dragon claws at the Spiral Spheres in the air.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon intended to smash the Spiral Spheres directly, so Arnold immediately used his mental power to control their directions, making them veer aside or drop lower. Even so, more than ten were struck by the Red-Eyed Black Dragon.

After casting the Eighth-level Spiral Sphere, Arnold once more covered himself in Earthquake Sacred Armor and continued battling the Red-Eyed Black Dragon head-on.

While the Red-Eyed Black Dragon was still attacking the Spiral Spheres, Arnold cast another Eighth-level spell—Earth Golem: Earth Howling Wolf!

A furious roar sounded, and an ochre wolf over three meters tall appeared before Arnold. The giant wolf stood three meters high and nearly ten meters long, with thick, powerful limbs and muscles like lumps of iron all over its body.

With a roar, the Earth Howling Wolf charged toward the Red-Eyed Black Dragon, and the Red-Eyed Black Dragon and the Earth Howling Wolf began another fierce battle. However, Arnold could no longer fight, because he had cast several Eighth-level spells in succession and had almost no earth-element magical power left. Though he still had wind-element magical power, he had invested too little in wind magic and had barely created any wind spells.

Normally, he only used wind magic for the Flight Art, Extreme, and the like. Moreover, when used at full power, the Wind Escape Technique was even faster than the Ninth-level spell Wind Shadow Spell.

Two months later, still in this forest, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon was once again fighting Arnold.

"How about it, Red-Eyed? My Earth Rend is pretty powerful, isn't it?" Arnold laughed as he wielded Mooncleaver and sent an Earth Rend at the Red-Eyed Black Dragon.

Looking at the laughing Arnold before him, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon felt utterly helpless. Neither side had been able to do anything to the other in the battle two months ago. Since then, Arnold had come by for a fight every now and then. Even when it used Eighth-level or Ninth-level spells, it had been unable to do anything to the strange armor on that human's body.

The Red-Eyed Black Dragon greatly admired Arnold, a human who was only an Eighth-level Mage. An Eighth-level Mage could actually fight it to such a standstill, and the Gravity Spell this human used was especially strange. He could actually unleash doubled gravity. Even the Ninth-level Gravity Spell wielded by a Ninth-level Purple-Striped Black Bear it knew could only raise gravity to sixteen times normal.

After fighting the Red-Eyed Black Dragon again and again, Arnold had begun to consider taking it as his magical pet. Unfortunately, dragons truly were the proudest species in the world. Even someone like Arnold could not make the Red-Eyed Black Dragon submit.

In truth, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon had already been won over by Arnold's talent and believed that Arnold would certainly reach the Saint Domain in the future. However, Arnold was only an Eighth-level Mage at this stage. As one of the proud dragon race, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon still felt Arnold's strength was a little too low.

However, Arnold had already made an agreement with the Red-Eyed Black Dragon: once he reached the level of a Ninth-level Mage, the Red-Eyed Black Dragon would acknowledge Arnold as its master.