10.7c

Felix floated within the embrace of his beloved as his mind synchronized with the countless Rituals placed down by her companion. Unlike the organic members of his extended family, he believed in the cold hard logic of Numbers.

It was why he stayed with his primary beloved, the Hut.

It was why he assisted his beloved companion, Eve.

It was why a Dragon would die.

The math added up precisely as Felix shifted gears in the timeless realm between one moment of Eternity and the next moment of Existence. From here, nothing could detect the first string of moves. It was the perfect place to perform the ambush. Numbers flowed in endless glowing streams around him before the equation stabilized.

His beloved companion watched on a silver screen in normal time as Felix activated concentric actions in the seemingly instantaneous chain.

The space beneath the swamp’s upper layer appeared as nothing so much as a giant bottle filled with water. Within this corked Ritual bottle, every single drop of liquid substance outside the Dragon’s body vanished instantly by Ritual. Felix held the Elemental Water within the infinite container of his Core stripping the hydrogen atoms ruthlessly in a single stroke. The oxygen atoms were then supercharged in Mana before being dumped back into place. Before the enormous eastern appearing female Wyrm Dragon could react to the suddenly missing fluid, Felix added a tiny touch to the prepared Alpha Strike.

A single solitary spark lit directly in the confused reptile’s sleeping face.

The explosion threw catastrophic pressure waves up against the rune-bound walls. With perfect calculation, Felix used his superior reaction speed to continuously bounce the pressure waves between all available surfaces using Rituals designed specifically for the purpose.

The effect was horrific. While the Matriarch had shielding against Mana-infused magic attacks, it wasn’t anywhere near enough to defend against the brute physical blows of repeated titanic force. Like the unending hammers of a dwarven Forge, metal scales were cracked, their protection beat into oblivion. Blood dripped from horrid gashes running the length of her body, while chunks of meat fell like raindrops.

The Wyrm roared futilely attempting to buy time against the as-yet-unknown attacker. It was futile, Felix added the force of the Dragon’s Roar directly to the continuous pressure waves raising their power by another notch. As metal scales fell from the broken bleeding body of the Wyrm raw muscled meat was exposed, while blood turned from spurts into streams on the ground.

Felix watched the Numbers moving only when they aligned. As the Wyrm activated a Perk to prevent her death reality skipped backward in time healing the wounded Dragon. Felix flexed his will and activated the next strike before she could finish healing completely. The attack used the well-known Law of Contagion.

Blood called to blood.

Within a fraction of a moment, all the Blood within the Wyrm was ripped out via the spilled blood on the Ritual beneath her. Felix stored the precious substance within his Core isolating it behind Folded Space in the frozen moment he hid within to prevent detection or retrieval.

“Alpha Strike successful. First Counterstrike successful. Commencing first Trap.” Felix said his first trap activating even as the first word was spoken in normal time.

Realizing she was under attack the Wyrm Dragon coiled into a tight mound utilizing her insane physical Stats. She was bereft of Dragon Blood but substituted Water summoned from the Plane of Water while shifting her body to a fully elemental form. It had the added benefit of filling her with Mana preventing theft or easy manipulation. Felix couldn’t stop the action, instead, he used the time the Wyrm spent shapeshift fully into Element to finish crafting his trap.

Space folded around the Wyrm Dragon creating a Möbius strip.

Felix paused to check the Numbers, and the equation didn’t change. Fourteen Perks. Two Enhancements. Two Evolutions. He had already forced the Wyrm to counter Death twice, meaning that a minimum of two Perks was burned. At best the Dragon had five more counters available. Devoting any more than seven Perks to save from dying was the highest limit, even for a Dragon. His beloved companion’s ability to return from death repeatedly was based in the Eldritch so she didn’t count to Felix.

Mana Manipulation imbued the vacuum of the bottle with Felix’s Dungeon Aura while the Wyrm was sealed in the Möbius strip. He finished at the exact moment the folded Space collapsed into particles of Ice and the Wyrm appeared missing a fourth of her watery body. The inside of the folded space strip had been sharp.

Death Counter three, spent! Water and Ice affinity confirmed!

Felix ignored the Wyrm as she screamed abuse upon sensing his Dungeon Aura. Time spent voicing such words would have better served the Dragon attempting to escape. Sadly, the creature seemed to think she had the upper hand. Water flooded into existence from a portal the Dragon ripped directly into her liquid form. Even as it flowed endlessly, Felix countered with Heat. With dual affinities in Water and Ice flame was pointless, which is why he didn’t bother. Heat on the other hand couldn’t be countered by either affinity as they both conducted it. Even worse, the Wyrm’s shapeshift into a liquid form increased the damage rather than mitigating it. The screaming creature was boiled alive by their own Water Element form.

Death Counter four, spent!

Felix struck the moment the Dragon returned from Elemental to physical form. Countless spatial tears opened in the air surrounding the Wyrm. She had a fraction of a moment to shield her form with a thick coat of Elemental Water as protection, but it wasn’t enough. Felix unleashed the fury of perfect Mana Math Calculation which had allowed him to place the railgun shots without error. The Dragon’s shield cracked, and her physical form disintegrated into meat paste.

Death Counter five, spent!

A massive golden glow enveloped the dead body flashing away to reveal a completely awake, unharmed, and pissed reptile. Felix ignored the paltry attempt to take control of the surrounding space with Dragon Aura. The day a mere dragon could counter a Dungeon Aura, even one at a lower Tier, the System would break! Felix put the stolen dragon’s blood to use imbuing the Dungeon Spawn he created. Portals opened launching a horde of creatures. Felix watched the Wyrm rampaged pulling more and more water out of the air as she killed the bait.

“Now please, Kudzu,” Felix said in normal time. At the exact moment massive green vines began to feed upon the summoned water the dragon was using to kill his creations, he removed his Dungeon Aura in a precisely allocated pattern. Were someone to be looking down from above, it would appear as if a keyhole had opened in the bottom of a glass wine bottle.

Micro-Micro Spores grew an endless army of Ice immune vines with veins filled to the brim from acid. Even as the dragon managed to rip and tear the offending vines that started to entangle her long body the acid damage mounted. Combined with the spore's own innate properties as they took root in Wyrm flesh to feed, the end was already set.

Death Counter six, spent!

“Now please, Eve,” Felix said in normal time. His companion of the Hut, Eve, teleported from the room she was in, directly into the fight. He shifted Space for a fraction to allow her entry into the fight. As soon as she arrived, the gold-scaled five-clawed shining final form of their current victim appeared slipping out from a sealed pocket dimension. Exactly as Felix had calculated with Numbers all along. He struck without care for damage to his allies. A plethora of plasma generated by massive lightning Rituals struck Eve, Kudzu, and the Wyrm. Everything was used as fuel to turn the world into a hellish nightmare of the fourth state of matter.

Kudzu disintegrated.

The Dragon melted.

Eve was cooked.

Death Counter seven, spent!

Felix watched as the Dragon’s melted golden body shimmered before appealing whole and hale once more. It was impressive and just in time for Eve’s Talisman of Dust to burst into full existence. The titanic Wyrm Dragon’s eyes were trapped by the mystic runes, even as her scaled voice screamed like a thousand dying pigs. Felix used the time to fold Space on the creature to fatal results. Seven deaths, even with Perks saving the dragon, took a toll on the immensely powerful Tier Six. No longer could the dragon's shield protect more than the metallic form it was currently within. Even worse, such a shield couldn’t stop him, it was in essence merely paper. Eve had taught Felix well before this battle so he knew a certain truth.

Paper. Folded.

There was a sickening crunch at the exact moment a soft pop caused Eve to burst into existence. It was the sound of Space being folded countless infinite times until a Tier Six dragon was reduced to dust. Felix’s beloved companion, the Hut, made a sound of disgust as dragon remains were dumped on her body in a massive pile. He figured it would be fine though since she had a Dust affinity.

Felix waited for a moment but then relaxed as the System message appeared.

Congratulations! You have attained the achievement of Dragon Slayer!

The rest of the messages passed in a rush but Felix ignored them. There were far more important things to do now, like a cuddle with the Hut, and eventually, look at the Tier Six options. He watched briefly as Kudzu vacuumed around seven-tenths of the golden dragon dust for research. Eve gathered every other piece of dust and used Sacrifice for Power upon it.

There were still countless Rituals embedded within the walls of the battlefield, but Eve would probably just sell the place to that shady drow merchant. It would make a great hideout, and the profit would be a nice nest egg for everyone involved. He scanned the area one last time and discovered a discrepancy in the Numbers.

A tiny sliver of Space vibrated slightly out of sync with the rest. Felix informed Eve about it causing everyone’s attention to focus on the singular point. A flood of Witch’s Dust wove itself into being consuming the Elements to create more. The sparkling cloud turned into liquid before forcing itself into the sliver of aberrant space. Like a hot iron brand being forced into a lock, the unknown spatial anomaly was melted open. As the spatial lock unraveled, entry into a massive treasure horde, a Dragon's Hoard to be exact, was revealed.

Felix reacted on instinct since he had yet to exit his transcendent processing state. There was an enemy within the revealed space. A creature of cold calculation that struck forward with the force of a storm. Numbers flowed endlessly as the battle was joined. Mana Cycle, Mana Manipulation, Mana Math Calculation, Dungeon Aura, Dungeon Binding all countered the enemy’s first lethal blow.

Felix flexed his Aura like a grappler going for the kill twisting Space to contain the enemy even as the opposing Dungeon Core that had been revealed by the attack fought back. Both of them utilized Dungeon Spawning, and Felix ignored the impulse to flinch as he realized the enemy was a higher Tier.

Thankfully, he wasn’t fighting alone.

Eve teleported directly next to the enemy Dungeon Core enveloping it within her Library of Dust II. Countless particles of Witch’s Dust flowed like an ever-growing stream of water splashing out from another Plane of existence. Within moments Micro-Micro Spores reinforced her, vines sprouting to reinforce the tightening net.

Felix felt the enemy Dungeon Core’s desperation. He felt the gem attempting to reach out and control Eve and knew the battle was over. His beloved Hut's companion had many terrifying weapons, but one of them shone above all to Felix. It was a fact he had learned shortly upon arriving at Tier Five.

The soul of Eve Smith was immune to Dungeon influence.

Felix witnessed the result of the enemy Dungeon Core attempting to strike at Eve’s soul. Witch’s Dust boiled like ants driven mad by an attack on their queen. Where a massive gem twenty feet tall and forty feet in diameter had existed unbroken, now an enormous bite showed. Like a devouring horde, the witch’s minions began to feed upon the audacious attacker. In less than a minute, the Tier Six gem was gone as if it had never been floating in sovereignty over the Dragon’s Hoard at all.

Thankfully she's on my side. Felix thought as the post-battle cleanup began.