The instant Randall touched the brush down, it dissolved.
Then the black-and-white energy, a mixture of Qi and Armament Haki, twisted and shifted before gathering again in the dragon's two eye sockets. A pair of bright, piercing eyes appeared before them, commanding respect without a trace of anger.
With its eyes in place, the dragon naturally came to life.
Somewhere deep in his senses, Aequus seemed to hear a distant dragon's roar.
Then he saw the dragon's eyes move. A moment later, the entire dragon bared its fangs, spread its claws, and spiraled upward.
After circling nine times above the three of them, the dragon exhausted its remaining power, dispersed into a cloud of black-and-white energy, and finally vanished.
Aequus had not closed his mouth since first opening it. Now it gaped wide enough to fit his fist inside.
No, seriously, this monster actually ate the Paramecia Armament Haki Fruit, didn't he?!
Randall looked at Aequus, who was so shocked he had practically turned to stone, smiled, and said:
"Well? Aequus, do you think that dragon looked good?"
Aequus snapped back to his senses.
"Good? It looked incredible. The gap between us... sigh, it's even bigger now!"
He sighed, looking rather crestfallen.
Thinking back to what he had said to Randall earlier, he felt reality had slapped him in the face far too quickly.
It was not scary when someone was more talented than you. What was scary was when that more talented person also worked harder than you.
How had I even had the nerve to say Randall was slacking off...?
"All right, all right, stop comparing yourself to me. Even Instructor Zephyr calls me a genius!"
Seeing how discouraged Aequus was, Randall tried to console him.
Only, no matter how one listened to it, his consolation sounded like