I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Combined Assault

Understandably, Ergen arrived at the newly reformed Emric first as he attempted to bite down on the man's throat, which was easy seeing as Emric was now as tall as he was. However, just before he reached Emric, Ergen was suddenly sent flying backwards, thankfully narrowly missing both Asal and Sera as some type of solid gust of wind carried him through the opposite wall of the temple. After crashing into the next building, Ergen thankfully stopped before opening his right wing to catch both Asal and Sera, who had been flying even higher than he'd been from the attack.

"Incredible..." Emric chuckled as he casually walked out of the opening in the building that Ergen had made. "With so little effort... avatars truly are amazing."

Digging his claws into the stone underneath him, Ergen charged once more, and Emric simply blocked him again by holding up the two arms on his right side and blasting them all with that same wind as last time. However, thanks to Ergen preparing himself, he fought through it before clamping his teeth down on Emric's outstretched hands, violently ripping his head away as he felt the claws disconnect from their previous owner in his mouth.

"Simply incredible." Emric laughed again, and Ergen was horrified to see that two new claws regrew almost instantly from where the old ones had just been before. And after not even a second of reforming, Emric held the same hands out again before a bright blast of fire suddenly erupted between his palms, making the explosion completely engulf Ergen as he was knocked backwards through the air again and through several more buildings.

Rising off of the ground almost instantly, Ergen felt frustrated because it didn't seem like any of his attacks would work on an opponent that could simply regenerate himself. Thankfully Emric didn't seem to be able to hurt him either as simply flying through the air and landing on the fragile sandstone buildings barely even bothered him. However, the only way that Ergen thought that he could defeat his opponent would be to freeze Emric solid, and that would be difficult to do seeing as Ergen had used the last of his frost breath some time ago in his battle against Chae.

"Now!" Asal suddenly yelled in the direction of Emric, and Ergen looked forward to see that the Demon King had made some sort of giant vine grow from the ground underneath Emric which wrapped tightly around him. And once he was subdued, Sera ran forward again and attempted to strike him with her sword, only for one of Emric's claws to suddenly rip through the vines holding him before his claw's talons caught her sword in mid-swing. The nearby air blasted away from the blow, but Emric simply laughed at Sera's attempt before he brought another claw forward rapidly and wrapped his fingers around her.

Sera was trapped in Emric's grip, but now that Ergen had recovered, he sprinted forward once again as Emric attempted to blast him away with another wind spell. However, having expected something similar, Ergen used both his wings and his legs at the same time to dodge to the side at the last second, narrowly evading the magic before he spun in place, cutting Emric with both his extended wing as well as his tail before another blast of magic made Ergen roll forward on the ground. Thankfully he'd managed to cleave Emric's hand that was currently holding Sera in the process, and now that she was out of danger, Asal used the chance to launch a barrage of fireballs at Emric who soon disappeared in a large cloud of fire. The ground shook as the magic struck, though everyone could tell that it had been ineffective as Emric's roaring laughter was even louder than the explosions.

Surprisingly rushing forward through the fire, Sera moved quickly before Emric could see her, cutting at the only thing visible to her through the rising smoke which happened to be Emric's legs. And as soon as her attack had connected, Emric's laugh was instantly cut short as his legs were removed from underneath him, causing the rest of his body to fall to the ground where it was suddenly impaled by several large spikes of ice that had flown through the air from Asal's direction.

"It's probably better that you save your energy for more important things... like begging for your lives." Emric tone grew darker as he rose from the ground despite the spikes that had been holding him to the ground. Rather, he seemed to somehow phase through them before stood on his newly reformed legs and casted a wicked sneer towards Asal. And with one flick of his finger, the ground underneath Asal erupted, sending small shards of rock and other debris everywhere as the attack split apart after hitting Asal's barrier.

"You are a competent mage... most likely the best I've ever seen." Emric for some reason sounded respectful suddenly as his attack ended and Asal collapsed to the ground afterwards, panting heavily while casting Emric a glare. "But I would expect nothing less from the Demon King. And you-"

While Emric had been beginning to turn towards her, Sera ran forward again before Emric had turned around completely. However, as soon as he did and attempted to use his magic again, he suddenly seemed pained as his body shook underneath him. And as he was distracted by something, Sera used her chance, rapidly climbing Emric's legs before she attempted to pierce his heart with her sword, though it wouldn't be that easy seeing as it was covered by a large engraved metal emblem that Emric wore around his neck.

Surprisingly, instead of just taking on the damage like he did all of the times before, Emric suddenly jumped backwards to escape from Sera. And in doing so, he jumped right into Ergen who grabbed both the man's arms and legs in his own claws before biting down on Emric's entire head, which only just barely fit in his jaws. He felt the bone crush under his bite, but Ergen was surprised to still hear Emric laughing before he tore Emric's head off from the rest of his body.

Standing unsteadily as the head of still somehow laughing while rolling across the ground, Ergen suddenly stumbled in an attempt to catch himself as Emric's body became black mist in his claws until it all suddenly rushed towards the severed head. And as soon as it connected, both Emric's head and body reattached themselves and the man was whole once more, seeming to be completely fine from the experience. Though, while Emric might have been fine, Ergen winced in pain as both the scales and skin on his hands and feet had turned into stone from touching the black mist. At first he was worried about the petrification spreading, though thankfully it soon stopped and the now stone skin and scales slowly crumbled away, leaving nothing but exposed and bleeding muscle tissue beneath them.

"His heart!" Sera's words instantly ended Emric's laughter. "He jumped away when I tried to strike his heart!"

'But I struck Chae's heart a few times at least, right?' Ergen asked to himself, ignoring his pain for now as he glanced at the now serious Emric. Whether Sera was right or not, the entire atmosphere of the battle had changed now, which made Ergen wonder if Emric did really have a weak point. Though, was it his heart, or something else?