Those two majestic creatures were like gods from myth, hidden beneath the clouds. Their forms appeared and vanished, as though they had become one with the vast sky.
The clouds were their natural cover, making their presence both mysterious and awe-inspiring.
From time to time, crimson-gold lightning tore through the darkness of the clouds, briefly illuminating those black and white scales.
Under the glow of the lightning, the scales flashed with dazzling brilliance, like stars in the night sky.
Behind them, enormous dragon wings beat with force, stirring up fierce gusts that howled past.
Ancient Dragons, a race beloved by the world, were born to stand at the peak of all life in the Lands Between.
They had powerful bodies, hard scales, intelligence no lesser than humans, and thunder like the might of gods that they commanded at will.
And the dragon who stood at the very peak of that race was none other than the first Elden Lord, Placidusax.
At that moment, Placidusax was joyfully feeling the power surging through him like a rising tide.
Every breath he took seemed to make heaven and earth resonate, as though the world itself stirred clouds and mist along with his breathing.
Though only his body had recovered, he was confident he could defeat every opponent.
No, there was one opponent he had yet to defeat. That opponent was also a majestic, unyielding, and powerful King.
It was a silver-white giant dragon.
This was not the story of a Dragonlord emerging to sweep across the world in triumphant glory. It was the story of Placidusax encountering a terrifying young dragon.
Placidusax widened his eyes and stared fixedly at the monster before him, a shock beyond words rising in his heart.
He had never seen such a perfect dragon. Every strength of dragonkind seemed gathered in Nolan, as though he were the incarnation of dragons themselves.
By comparison, he, with his four heads, looked somewhat strange instead, like an out-of-place aberration.
"How can he be so good-looking? Damn it," Placidusax sighed softly.
Nolan did not want to respond. This Ancient Dragon King was the same sort as Old Man Gwyn, nothing but an unserious old fellow.
Placidusax suddenly opened his mouth, but this time he did not let out a roar of release. Instead, he made a sound as stirring as war drums, like ordinary people shouting and yelling during a fight as if it could make them stronger.
Even in the Lands Between, where Kings and gods appeared one after another, a battle this brilliant was extremely rare.
On the ground, Josdasax looked up at the fierce battle in the sky and felt that the rolling thunder was like the end of the world descending.
Lightning split the dark clouds again and again, illuminating the sky that had suddenly grown dim.
Every bolt seemed alive, moving through the clouds and spitting out blinding thunder.
The sight was both magnificent and terrifying, enough to make one marvel at how fearsome the power of Kings truly was.
To Placidusax and Nolan, every collision was like a fierce clash of Dragon Lightning. Dragon Lightning filled with overwhelming destructive power struck back and forth like surging waves.
Several times, they swept low across the ground, crashing violently through the enormous colosseum.
The stone bricks along their path were utterly fragile before such terrifying force, cracking and shattering like torn paper.
Even after they had passed, the powerful currents they left behind could still stir up fierce winds for several seconds.
Their battlefield kept shifting, from sky to ground, then from ground back into the clouds, until they finally pierced through the thick cloud layer and flew into an even higher sky.
The dense dark clouds suddenly broke apart. Placidusax's right claw, condensed with lightning, became a massive thunder claw, while Nolan raised a Lightning Spear and charged into it.
In that instant, nothing remained between heaven and earth but a deep, thunderous roar.
Lightning intertwined and coiled in the air, forming an enormous thundercloud.
Amid the blinding light and violent energy, Nolan flew out of the dust and mist packed with electric arcs and landed on the ground.
Placidusax followed close behind. First, he turned into a mass of thundercloud, then took solid form the instant he reached the ground. His right claw gripped red Dragon Lightning like a greatsword and swept out sideways.
The moment Nolan lunged at Placidusax, he vanished from in front of him and appeared behind him. His dragon tail, wrapped in golden thunder, swept out and flipped the old dragon straight onto the ground.
"Old man, can you still hold on?"
Nolan stood in place, looking at the savage wounds across his own body. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly in a teasing smile.
"You're already this old. Don't force yourself. Why not just surrender?"
"Hiss." Placidusax rolled once on the ground, stood up, and shook his heads. The battle seemed to pause for the moment. "Brat, this fight today is to decide life and death."
"You really are a stubborn old bunch," Nolan said with a faint laugh, as though he was not speaking only of the old dragon before him.
"Young dragon, once you have lived long enough, you will understand. In a lifetime, the most interesting thing is that there are always a few things worth clinging to."
Placidusax grinned, his eyes flickering slightly from the pain in his body.
"Besides, judging by how you look, you have no right to say such things either."
The body once covered in hard scales had now lost half of them, like a fish that had just had its scales scraped away. One of his hind legs trembled slightly as he stood.
The young people of the Lands Between these days were terrifyingly strong.
"That's exactly why you old fellows are so annoying. But I really am not someone who can let everything go either." Nolan nodded. "Come on, then!"
Immediately after, a world-shaking roar rang out.
Boom, boom, boom!
Placidusax suddenly threw back his heads and roared. Crimson lightning fell from the sky and bombarded the colosseum, blasting countless huge craters into it.
The lightning's power was terrifying. It not only devastated the surface of the colosseum beyond recognition, but also sent enormous amounts of shattered stone flying up, forming a dust cloud that blotted out the sky.
The storm of lightning covered everything. After such a violent bombardment, the ground looked as though it had been melted by extreme heat, taking on the texture of lava.
Even without being struck directly by the lightning, Nolan still felt a faint numbness from the powerful residual current.
It was sealing off his movement paths.
Four golden pillars of flame mixed with red electric arcs suddenly burst through the dust, shooting out from four different directions.
The thick beams swept across the ground at tremendous speed. Wherever they passed, they carved four bottomless trenches into the earth.
The fire pillars shot out from four directions at once. This old fellow's four heads truly were not just for show.
Nolan still stood where he was, only now four deep-blue rings of light had appeared in front of him. The instant the fire pillars touched the rings, they seemed to refract like light striking a mirror.
The fire pillars burned several large holes through the colosseum walls. Nolan's dragon body crouched low against the ground and opened its mouth. This time, scorching fire and thunder gathered within his jaws.
Let this old fellow taste the power of fire and thunder too.
With Nolan's roar, a dazzling golden breath surged from his mouth.
He had only one head, so his attack could only come from one direction.
But Placidusax had just released his attack. Whether he moved his body to dodge or turned into a thundercloud, he was already too late.
But he never intended to dodge, and he certainly did not plan to take it with his body.
Placidusax's golden flame breath still poured from his mouths. His four dragon heads turned at extreme speed, and the four pillars of fire intertwined.
Breath against breath.
The golden pillar of flame collided with the golden pillar of flame, finally turning into a wave of light that churned through the clouds and tore open the sky above the Ancient Dragon Colosseum.
Josdasax, watching the battle, had no choice but to return to his Ancient Dragon form. Only by digging all four claws into the ground could he keep himself from being forced back by the impact.
He had just raised his head when he saw the two giant dragons collide once again.
***
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
[email protected]/PinkSnake (50 Chapters Ahead).
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.
***