?Damien also crashed into a small hill, andpletely reduced it to rumbles and dust, hence triggering yet another round of notifications.


    [ TING!!! ]


    [ An achievement made!! ]


    [ Do to showing unachievable defense through sheer force and will, without the aid of Skills and Abilities, you have automaticallyprehended the Extra Ability, "Enhanced Endurance" ]


    Damien used his powerful strength to forcefully push off the boulders and rocks burying him, and stood up, his expression null, with but a single sadistic smile on his lips.


    "..."


    The dragon also stood up, and growled towards Damien''s direction. The insides of it''s mouth were orange-red, with a tinge of gold, and one could also see boilingva within its neck.


    "Grrrr..."


    The dragon, angered, pushed itself off the ground by pping its wings, kicking up a small wind storm thay pushed away at the sorounding debris and dust.


    Damien stood atop the pile of rocks he was buried in, and just stared at it unphased. And his actions, and gaze seemed to fuel the anger of the dragon even more.


    ROOOAAARRR!!!


    And angered to the extremes, it released a powerful roar, and released a turbulent st ofpressed orange-red magma towards Damien.


    And Damien just watched, with no intent of moving whatsoever.


    "..."


    BOOM!!


    The st of orange-red magma struck home, exactly at Damien and forcefully melted the sorounding rocks he was standing on.


    Yet even with how powerful the st came, it did not seem to have the strength to forcefully push Damien backwards. And he just stood there, taking the brunt of the damage.


    [ TING!!! ]


    [ An achievement made!! ]


    [ Do to bearing unbearable magic damage through sheer force and will, without the aid of Skills and Abilities, you have automaticallyprehended the Extra Ability, "Enhanced Magic Defense" ]


    [ You have been affected by "Burn". Your vitality will slowly he drained until thirty seconds are over ]


    "..."


    Damien nodded to himself as he finally allowed the torrential st of magma to push him off the piles of rocks, and throw him tens of meters away like a ragdoll.


    Without the artifacts he wore, he would not have done such an action. But luckily, he had them. And his terrifying physical defenses.


    He looked at himself, and the artifacts he wore were quite badly damaged. Though they still functioned, they were still quite damaged to an extent.


    ''It''s alright. My magic defense has increased by ten times. And if I had Mana, I could increase it once again for a certain duration of time. Unfortunately, time is not on my side.''


    Damien thought and stood up. He had had enough, and was time to take things seriously.


    Plus, AFFINITY and INTELLIGENCE could not be increased threefold the same way he increased the others, unless he manually grind by attacking with spells, or other supernatural attack methods.


    "Plus, who knew I''d be fighting a dragon?"


    Indeed. Dragons were one of the top seven major races. Their starting stats would be monstrous even at just the Advanced Realm.


    Of course, real dragons, even the newborn ones are far above such a low Realm of strength. In fact, they were natural born Third Leagues.


    Monsterspared to First League Combatant like the current them.


    *** Juliette Silver ***


    Bang!!


    Boom!!


    "..."


    My eyshes quivered slightly, and my attention was almost broken through, thanks to the chorus of explosions and small quakes. The battle seems amazing.


    Eyes closed, I slightly frowned. My lips pursed in annoyance and I did my absolute best not to be tempted at all.


    Bang!!


    Boom!!


    Boom!!


    ...Only to no avail. It was hard to focus when the battle taking ce gave one the impression that it was not a human battling.


    Yes, I know big brother is from the future, but does that exin much of the feats he would be doing right now? Does it?


    I really want to watch.


    Especially as he is fighting the legendary dragon. A battle between my knight, and the dragon that wants to kidnap the princess (which is me).


    Who would want to miss out on that?


    Worst of all, I have been battling this feeling for over forty minutes now. For forty, whole, minutes.


    I am tired now.


    Boom!!


    I gave up and opened my eyes.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    And immediately gazed towards the direction where the ruckus was taking ce, and my jaw hung open in shock at what I was seeing.


    A man.


    And a dragon.


    Really going at it.


    "..."


    I had just so happened to catch big brother Damien flying towards the dragon with his almost broken pair of wings, that shimmered a brief golden radiance.


    Something I believed was Mana.


    He flew at speeds that I could never dream about matching, as he collided heavily into the dragon that zed with mes and wind.


    The collision led both parties forcefully moving towards the direction of the dragon, due to big brother having more momentum, I thought as such from my observations.


    Boom!!


    They then collided onto the ground, slightly quaking the earth, and they slid across the ground for a few meters creating a deep trench.


    Big brother all the while, being above the dragon.


    He then began throwing punches at the dragon, each one releasing thunderous sounds everywhere. I could hear it from here for goodness sake.


    Bang!! Bang!!


    Bang!! Bang!!


    Four consecutive strikes, which from my perspective, seemed really painful. But the dragon thought otherwise.


    During the punches, it''s thick tail hurriedly rose up, and like a sh of lightning, struck towards big brother Damien as he had finished throwing his fourth punch.


    He also hurriedly paused his actions and used arms to cover the sides of his head, while he slightly lowered it to his chest for protection.


    Bang!!


    And with that, he was struck by the giant tail and sent flying away for tens of meters, until he crashed into a small hill, and reduced it to rumbles, while his figure continued flying back until it struck arger mountain.


    "..."


    The mountain which he was thrown with seemed to be too great, as he was almost imnted onto the mountain, and his collision caused web-like cracks to spread out.


    Was this not a battle among gods?


    Was this still a battle of mortals?!


    I thought with my mouth still wide open, hanging agar with shock and bewilderment swimming within my eyes. Until.


    "You''d better use this time for something better than just staring. You aren''t gonna learn nothing... uhh, from this anyway." A voice drifted towards my ears from afar.


    I hurriedly looked at big brother Damien who forcefully removed himself from the mountain, and slightly flexed his joints and twisted his neck.


    He was hundreds of meters away from me, yet his voice easily reached me? I was surprised and impressed. Was he really a god?


    No. Of course I know that.


    He just used Mana. From my gaze, I could see a golden glow gathered around his throat, which I now believed was definitely Mana.


    And if that was that, I controlled my own Mana, and circted it out my heart through my veins, and all the way to my throat. Then I slowly opened my mouth and breathed out.


    Yet my breathe that came out felt dense and heavy, and sounded as if it was tiredly panting instead. Which was a good sign. Or so I thought.


    "Roger." And to prove that, I responded to his words, my Mana still within my throat.


    The sound waves that were supposed to flow out of my mouth were enhanced by Mana, and managed to travel all the way to big brother Damien.


    He paused, and looked towards my direction, then rushed towards the dragon a secondter. I presume he was surprised? Maybe.


    I watched his dashing figure sprint towards the dragon and continue their battle. And from how things seemed, they were not going to stop anytime soon.


    I sighed, and was about to continue absorbing Mana when it finally downed on me. ''Wait, how did big brother Damien absorb Mana, if he has been fighting all this while?''


    I thought. And it was a very rich thought.


    How?


    Was the question.


    I set my gaze on him once again, and tried to understand what was going on. And from my vision, I could see golden hues of Mana moving towards big brother Damien.


    They moved swiftly and fluently entered his nose, like oxygen. The Mana was then carried with the oxygen he inhales, and sent towards his heart.


    Along the way, the Mana would cleanse his body and release the impurities held within.


    And when he exhaled the carbon dioxide, it also released the impurities alongside it. He was absorbing Mana, refining his body, and breathing at the same time?


    Was such a thing possible?


    Or was it a thing of the future as well? It made more sense for it to be that case. I thought as I nodded to myself, and decided to try it as well.


    But before that, I set my gaze on the dragon. I was also curious how this big fe was circting his Mana.


    "..."