The only positive thing about a dragon coming for Kaden was that in the center of the lake, there wasn’t enough snow for Kaden to be ambushed. It fell, and the wind swept it from the glass-like surface. Plus, the dragon needed line of sight to teleport to him, or it would have just done it to start. Then, he reconsidered. Standing on ice, while hunted by an ice dragon, was probably a bad position to be in.

  Deep in his soul, something burned like he’d fallen asleep on ice, and a beam of white light burst upward, exploding into fireworks in the sky.

  The Mark of the Immortal Hunt has activated, consuming one of 9,999,999,999 charges. Replenishing a charge will cost a (1) mana point. This point may be repaid later if insufficient mana is available.

  Kaden proceeded to arrange the words, ‘makur,’ ‘shit,’ pile’, ‘complete’ and ‘of’ into the only appropriate sentence for the situation. Then again, he’d never meant to hide from the dragon. He summoned Burny, asking only that the [Match Lizard] watch for attacks from behind.

  The snow at the edge of the lake errupted as the blunt, brute form of Kelvin emerged, clicking blunt claws on the ice in a way meant to inspire fear. Kaden used the moment to unleash a single [Mana Arrow], and was pleased to find that Kelvin dodged, letting it sizzle past him.

  For a brief moment, an uneasy standoff held. Then, as Kaden loosed another arrow, the stubby dragon raised an elbow, knocking it aside with grace he wouldn’t have expected from such a large lizard.

  Damage rounded up to one point.

  You have inflicted Poison 1x.

  You have inflicted Bleed 1x.

  In a heartbeat, the dragon exploded in a hail of ice shards Kaden blocked with the [Eldritch Shield]. But without a notification, or a mana core, he didn’t think the dragon was gone. Burney’s worried chirp drew Kaden’s attention.

  In the glassy surface of the lake, the dragon reflected, creeping forward toward Kaden. There was no hint of the dragon except its reflection. And the reflection came from every direction, a dozen of the dragon, stealthily crawling toward the man alone in the lake.

  The best choice was probably to choose one and charge.

  But only one of the reflections bled a trickle of blue blood down the elbow of the front left leg. So much rode on the sense of a lizard so small it existed at the other end of eternity from dragons. Kaden stored Thorncaster and drew Remembrance, swinging in short choppy blows toward reflections he knew weren’t real. At the same time, [Beast Soul] gave him glimpses of what Burny saw: a depressing hellscape devoid of anything that burned. Also, a dragon creeping up on Kaden, but Burny was mainly worried about the lack of fire.

  As the reflections in front of Kaden moved close enough to lunge, he focused. Usually, a wild swing with a battle hammer was more than enough. Now he pictured the attack, focused his aim. It wasn’t enough to land a blow that would carve muscle and shatter bone. Relying on Burney’s eyes, Kaden backed toward the real dragon, feigning at the illusings in front of him.

  Some battles were elegant dances and others were short and bloody. This wouldn’t be a dance, or if it was, it would be the shortest one in history. [Split Second] activated as the illusions in the front lunged from left, right, and center.

  Kaden was already leaping backwards, throwing his weight into the air so he bounced over the brutal swipe from behind. The impact rolled him, and Kaden let it, landing on his feet, the [Ulfen Boots] sure on ice.

  With [Moment of Speed] he turned the attack into an overhead strike that sheared through the dragon’s front right elbow and wedged in the joint.

  Your skill with Crippling Strikes has increased.

  You have inflicted a Crippling Strike.

  There wasn’t time to pause to appreciate the gory beauty of driving an axe head backwards into a joint that was designed to fold forwards, because the dragon whipped its head right to chomp at the space Kaden had occupied not a heartbeat before.

  The spines on its back scored through Kaden’s armor and skin, costing him five hundred health as he jumped over the beast. The [Levicon Blade] threw explosions of mana as it carved a row of spines clear, and bounced off the dragon’s spine.

  Kaden had been snatching spines with Inventory as quickly as they came off. The shock almost cost him everything.

  This was the first thing he’d encountered that the [Levicon Blade] didn’t carve like butter. It had nearly cost Kaden his life to close on the dragon, and now he wasn’t about to let it control the battle.

  It reared up and twisted to slam its good leg down on him, but Kaden dove forward toward the damaged leg, the leg that couldn’t support weight, and, with every bit of will he had, slammed the [Levicon Blade] upward, carving into the dragon’s throat.

  He never expected the dragon to throw itself on the wounded leg—or crush him under its weight for a thousand points of damage. It roared in triumph, and rose up to whip its head downward—only to find Kaden clinging to it just ahead of the ruinous frills.

  With his free hand, he carved flesh from the dragon, raking its cheek until the [Levicon Blade] caught on something—then sliced through as Kaden applied sheer Will. The dragon screamed in agony.

  Kelvin has sacrificed Core Power to purchase a reset without permission.

  The beast he wrestled with disappeared in a cloud of ice crystals.

  In the reflected surface of the lake, a single dragon raced toward the edge of the lake. Kaden fired a shot blind, and cheered as the notification rose.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Damage rounded up to 1 point.

  You have inflicted poison 1x.

  You have inflicted bleed 1x.

  In the blink of an eye the cheer died on his throat, as the Ice Dragon exploded upward in a new form. Twin-heads like a Wyvern’s twisted at the end of necks as long as Kaden was tall. No sign of its previous injuries, though he’d have sworn the dragon was smaller now.

  Sometimes, mistakes were visibile from far away, like a [Volkraken] lumbering toward a city. Sometimes they crept up on you like an undead [Tyrantor] meant to protect the city from the Volkraken who instead decided to devour an entire caravan and smash some of the wall. Challenging the dragon in the wastes, when it was in a limited form, had been an almost reasonable form of insanity.

  Challenging a dragon in a domain formed from the mana which made it was a less reasonable form of insanity. It could reform here, while Kaden couldn’t recover a single point of health.

  Too late to worry about that now. Kaden studied the dragon as it stomped closer. Like wyverns, it had massive hind legs and a thick tail meant to balance out the head, and with twin heads, it was truly a beast of a tail, thick and flat with heavy armor plates down the side. The short hind legs meant it couldn’t lose balance, each ended in six claws that gouged the ice to keep it upright. Unlike a wyvern’s thick neck, the dragon’s neck was supple and could twist so one head looked behind and the other before.

  All in all, an excellent adaptation from the previous form. But slow. It had bet on him closing the distance. Now Kaden drew Thorn Caster and loosed a full-strength [Mana Arrow]. The lumbering beast twisted but couldn’t dodge, and the arrow struck just below the split where its heads diverged—then repeated.

  Damage rounded up to 1 point.

  You have inflicted poison 3x.

  You have inflicted bleed 3x.

  Kaden backed away, using the lake as a kiting ground for a dragon whose heads took turns screaming in frustration because the perfect form for killing him had proven to be a terrible trap. Bleed and poison stacked up to five deep. Not even Remembrance of battle could match the sheer damage of poison and bleed combined, so no doubt, the dragon would ‘sacrifice some power’ which was probably like Kaden clipping toenails and choose again. “I can’t wait to leave this place once I’m done gutting you like a fish,” he called. “I have this beautiful golden fortress. I would’t try breaking in, if I were you, it could kill you. Suridev said dragons are returnal. But I think he meant real dragons, not lizards with aspirations.”

  One head screamed in frustration while the other roared with rage.

  Kaden shot the one that roared, always keeping a steady back-pace, always moving sideways. If the dragon paused, he did, too. Time passed differently in the domain, and sooner or later, the gates would erupt in the center of the lake, telling him it was time to escape.

  Arrogance was the greatest poison in existence.

  Which is why Kaden didn’t realized he’d come too close to the edge of the lake. Why he wasn’t watching as close when instead of turning as it always had, to face him, the dragon twisted sideways. One head brushed snow, and the dragon melted like water, disappearing.

  Fear had taken Arrogance’s seat at the table in that instant, and fear gave him the presence of mind to tear open a portal and dive forward as two heads emerged from the snow bank to his left like dolphins leaping from the sea.

  Teeth snapped shut a hair’s breath from his neck as Kaden fell, and it took all of his wits to remember to close the portal before the dragon used it, too. Before he could even take stock of his location, the column of light burst from his chest.

  Kelvin has sacrificed even more Core Power to purchase a reset without permission.

  He’d landed in a place he didn’t mean to, in the Fen village. The few clan members left here weren’t warriors, and they scattered as Kaden shouted warnings. Portal coordinates were slippery, and he’d failed to hold them, but in the brief moment of peace, he focused, using [Relive the Moment] to bring them back into clarity.

  The new form would be fast and agile and everything the previous compromise hadn’t been. It would dodge arrows and probably rain down breath weapon attacks, something Kaden didn’t have a good solution for. Shields were great but a cloud of freezing ice was still a cloud of freezing ice.

  With [Relive the Moment] Kaden opened a portal above the [Lurpion] and stepped out. The gate behind him wasn’t open but the goal had only been to earn time. Minutes later, the Mark errupted, telling the dragon where Kaden was. Or rather, where Kaden had been, because he already slid down the hillside, stopping just above the hidden boss, who lay deep in the snow. [Stealth Aura] engaged with a warning.

  You have been marked. Stealth skills will not function against your marker.

  That was ok.

  He picked up a rock and hurled it in an arc at the illusion of the [Skeledeer] below, and as the snow errupted, Kaden dove forward, under the boss, who pivoted left, right and stood, uneasy, for a long moment before settling back down.

  Chitinous plates threatened to crush Kaden, but he braced against the bulk of the monster, letting it push him back.

  You have taken ten points crushing damage.

  The notification repeated every few moments.

  Once more, the Mark errupted from Kaden, the harmless light passing through the boss monster. Kaden could just imagine the dragon trying to understand where, exactly, Kaden had gone.

  Then a roar shook the world, and a blast of freezing cold struck. The dragon was encasing everything in ice. Except Kaden, who was under fifteen feet of boss monster, who lay encased in snow.

  *Prey!* The Ice dragon roared. *Come. Die.*

  Neither were not on Kaden’s list of things to do. He wriggled down to lessen the crushing damage, scraping with the [Levicon Blade] and flattening himself as much as possible. He wasn’t prepared for the [Lurpion] to explode upward, tackling a dragon who’d gotten too close.

  The dragon had shifted to a wire-thin form with dozens of pairs of almost decorative wings. The dragon’s body coiled and curled dozens, perhaps a hundred times, and the edges of its inside scales glistened like Trinity’s.

  Shooting it would require immense luck, and if it closed on him, it would either crush or slice him to pieces. Except that both of the Lurpion’s claws had closed on different segments of the dragon’s body.

  With a crunch, the right claw ratcheded down, shearing off a dozen yards of dragon.

  “[Field Harvest]!” Kaden screamed as he lay a hand on it.

  You have received _NAN_ DRAGON_

  ERROR_ENTITY_INCONSISTENT

  INVOKING CONSISTENCY CHECKER…

  ENTITY ‘KELVIN {DRAGON}{ICE}’ CORE DIVIDED.

  UNSTABLE ENTITY STABILIZED.

  RESPAWN PENALTY DISABLED (TEMPORARY).

  RESPAWN ENFORCED.

  CONSISTENCY CHECKER ENDS.

  You lost an item (_NAN_ DRAGON_)

  You have received: 1x Copper Prize Token

  Kaden had seen the bolded text on too many occasions, usually stating that he wasn’t in a dungeon and yet dead. It had been what allowed him to soul-bind Trinity and what turned Cloud into a wandering champion instead of a crippled dungeon spawn. But this time, what it had done was deeply unfair.

  The Lurpion’s claws were empty, the snow where the two had battled, bare, and a rending scream echoed through the domain.

  Ice Dragon Kelvin has invoked [Final Form].

  As he prepared to open a Portal, a glittering mana dragon landed on his arm, speaking in Ashi’s voice. “Kaden Birch, where are you? Why did you not return the first, or second, or third night?”

  He waited for the beacon to errupt as he knew it would, then opened a Portal to the frozen river where he’d entered the Domain. Ashi stood by a blue Domain Gate, surrounded by the corpses of dead Domain Beasts.

  “There you are!” she said. “You need not send a message now. We have wait—”

  An avalanche on a distant mountain roared through the Domain, as a distant figure, brilliant white and blue, exploded from the frozen peak of a mountain. A beacon pulsed upward through Kaden—and another—and another as clouds boiled in the sky above and hail fell.

  “We have to leave,” Kaden said. “We have to leave now.”