That was some damage he couldn’t just shake off, and he stumbled to his feet. The pain of the burns across his scales was bad, but it was the internal damage that was the real problem. It felt like some of his guts were burning. The wyvern wasn’t slow, and it was ruthless. It closed the distance in an instant, slamming its mouth down across, his chest. It crashed into with the motion, a burst of lightning and wind crashing into him and the surrounding stone as it impacted. The whole fight so far had been deafening loud, and it was worse at such a close range. His head ached from the sound, as thunder seemed to ring in his ears. The wyvern squeezed, its teeth digging into his sides as it was obviously trying to tear a chunk out of him.

He saw the irony, and how the normal situation had been turned around. The wyvern had made a mistake though. Despite its strength, it had underestimated the durability of his scales. It couldn’t manage to break through his scales. While his bones strained, he was still able to move, and the Wyvern’s head was right before. Mash didn’t trust that he would be able to kill the wyvern in a single attack, so he aimed for a much smaller goal. Even though he was still a little stunned from the previous attack, he managed to bring his hand down on the Wyvern’s eye drilling his claws into the red gem. The monster screamed, and lightning surged across its body as it flung Mash to the side like a dog’s toy. Mash slid on his wings as he hit the ground, only stopping when his back hit a wall.

The persistent damage was affecting him more than he would have liked. Even with the necklace, he couldn’t do much more than keep the pain at bay for the moment. That would change though and pushed himself to a kneeling position to face the wyvern. Red blood was seeping from where its eye had been, it screeched in pain, turning to Mash in obvious fury. In response, he grinned lifting the red gem-like eye to his mouth. It was as big as an apple would be. He popped the whole thing into his mouth biting down on it as the wyvern charged toward him.

The wyvern’s eye squished strangely as he chewed, reminding him of overripe fruit. It had almost no flavor and he could deal with the texture. He gained more stats than he expected from such a small beast, but it was the monster's lightning affinity he really wanted a part of. Still, Mash wouldn’t make the mistake of using lightning again and started growing wood from his body. Nothing complex just spikes jutting from his body and aiming them towards the charging wyvern. The wyvern stopped a few feet away from Mash turning midair and slamming him with its tail. It smashed through the wood, but it had done its job, and Mash was able to duck the swing. He rose trying to plunge his claws into the tail. It didn’t work as a gust of wind followed the tail and slid him across the ground. Mash had to remember his positioning and found himself turning the slide into a roll. He pushed off the ground by opening his wings and jumping to his feet.

In his dragon form, he had too many extra body parts to make his normal fighting style viable. The wings and tail got in the way too often and were only making this fight harder. It made dodging things like the wind and lightning near impossible, even if he rucked his wings as close to his body as he could manage. They were a problem, but they were something he could deal with. Against lesser monsters, he could use his tail and wings more effectively as they didn’t know how to adjust for it. Against the wyvern, he realized how little he took advantage of the limbs. It was something he needed to learn, but not at the moment. Trying something dangerous, Mash grew wood inside of his body and then used his claws to break through the scales with his wings.

Thankfully the action seemed to confuse the wyvern and it hesitated. That hesitation gave him enough time to tear off his wings. The tearing sensation was horrible, and he couldn’t help but scream in pain as he did so. He considered doing the same for his tail but decided against it. Instead, he just wrapped it around his waist, treating it almost like armor.

Wooden wings, that were much smaller than the previous ones, started growing on his back. They were much more useful as he could shape them freely to avoid interfering with his movements. At the same time, he opened his storage space and grabbed a javelin and a sword staff from it. That finally seemed to break the Wyvern’s hesitation, and lightning crackled around its body again. Mash didn’t think it was hesitation anymore. It was waiting for him to finish. Grunting, he took the vial of Red’s blood as well pouring it into his mouth. The bonus was good, and he had realized that it had another benefit too. It gave him a small bonus to his stats, but it didn’t give him any affinities. He wondered if that was because of the quantity, or maybe he needed to kill his opponents for permanent gains.

It didn’t matter, he surged with power. The pain actually helped him focus his thoughts. The Wyvern roared, and Mash knew it was asking if he was done. His pride stung, and he nodded stiffly.

“You first!”

He yelled the words, his anger bleeding through his words. There was no reason behind giving it the opportunity to attack first, but he still did it. The lighting around the wyvern glowed brighter, before flashing towards him. Within his domain, he could tell when the attack was coming and threw the javelin towards it. They were designed to harness the power of lightning, and they would not discriminate against the wyvern. The lightning struck the javelin and it worked exactly as he intended. It had been pulled the lightning in, drawing it towards it. It exploded, but it had managed to block the attack, and Mash wouldn’t let the wyvern do that again. Mash jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the wyvern’s talon as it passed through the air beside him.

He had seen it move within his domain, and he spun with the dodge, sliding his sword staff across the thing's wing. The wooden blade managed to cut through the wing, much to the wyvern’s surprise. He could only grin as he attempted to continue the blow. The additional speed from the buffs helped him catch the wyvern off guard. It parried the blow with a burst of wind, and he could see that it was worried about his weapon.

The sword staff had only a single glyph repeated across it over and over. The glyph made it sharped, and there was nothing else on it. There were so many glyphs that the wood could only barely cover the energy requirements. Plus, he couldn’t do anything to change its shape or size without ruining the glyphs. Still, it had worked, and that was all he needed. The blade would break if the wyvern hit its flat side, but the edge was sharp enough that it was a risky maneuver.

Mash’s lightning could be used against him, but he did have other options. The one thing he had gained from all the dungeons and enemies was a variety of magic, and he should really take advantage of that fact. Even if wind and lightning were both off the table, he still had others. Wooden imitations of Priscilla started pouring out of his body. No real commands were given to them, they simply formed and moved. Somehow the wyvern moved faster than before despite the cut along its wing, and it appeared beside him. He was still fast enough to raise his blade’s edge against the swipe of the wyvern’s tail. The tail stopped and a gush of wind crashed into him. His blade managed to cut through the wind, but it still sent him backward.

He slid across the ground, the blood on it letting him move without lifting his legs from the ground. Imitations of Priscilla jumped at the wyvern but seemed to hit some kind of wind barrier and were torn to shreds. Mash didn’t care and more imitations fell on the ground as he jumped forward. Lightning surged around the wyvern, but Mash ignored it. The bonuses from hunt activated, and he thought that he could take the lightning better now. He didn’t think he would be immune to damage, but the added speed let him land his attack. The blade slid through one of the wyvern’s wings cutting clean through it.

The wyvern screamed crashing to the ground. Panic had set in on the monster, and it started to shoot lightning off all around it. The barrier of winding growing denser and sharper. Mash wouldn’t give it the opportunity to recover as it had, and he charged into the storm that was building around the wyvern. It was blinding, and even with his domain, it was hard to tell what was happening inside. It was easily bigger than his domain now, and Mash assumed the wyvern was using it to heal.

He ran into the lightning and wind, letting it hit his body. He felt it but just pushed deeper into the storm. His scales managed to resist most of the damage, but the rest of his body wasn’t so lucky. He had closed his eyes to avoid going blind, but his eardrums burst, and he felt the lightning surging through him. He just charged forward. He could vaguely make out the wyvern within the storm with his domain, but he was still caught off guard as the wyvern’s mouth closed around his shoulder. Its teeth dug into his back and torso. It was managing to pierce his scales after they had been worn down by the storm. It hadn’t panicked, it had been an act to get the chance to kill Mash. His scales were strong enough to buy him some time though.

One arm was pinned to his side by the monster, but the blade was in his other hand. That mistake would cost the wyvern its life. It knew it too, as it tried its hardest to bite into Mash’s heart. The anger in the creature’s eyes was mixed with fear, and Mash swung the blade down into the wyvern’s neck. It started cutting through the monster, but it jerked its body at the last moment breaking the blade into two pieces. Mash’s eyes went wide as the blade was stuck halfway through the wyvern’s neck now. For an instant, Mash thought that he would lose the fight, but then the wyvern’s grip loosened, and its head fell away. It made a soft thump as it fell against the ground unmoving.

Mash fell backward the storm vanishing as the wyvern died. Power rushed into him, but it bled away quickly. He could only imagine how many levels he was missing out on at this point, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Or about the fact that he had lost control of his body. He slumped into a seated position, managing to stare at the wyvern’s portal. The fight was over, and the aftereffects of hunt had started. If another monster walked through that portal, he would die. Not to mention, he might still die from the internal damage if he didn’t start meditating. Deciding that was more important than watching the portal, he started his meditations, feeling as his body healed slowly. The damage and energy loss would take a while to heal. He was not lucky enough to get the time, and the portal closed. Another quickly replacing it. Then what he recognized as a brown shoe stepped through the portal.