One Last System

My body was screaming in pain.

Every last cell that made up my varying organs appeared to be on the verge of bursting out.

Yet, as I continued to speed up, no such thing happened.

It was as if the mana squeezed those cells of mine too damn much for them to burst open from the stress!

'That provokes quite heavy, philosophical question,' I thought, doing my utmost to somehow lift my own spirits.

Because the fight I was going for would likely result in my death.

'Well, that's not a bright perspective, isn't it?' I thought.

At my current stage, I couldn't control how much mana moved into each part of my body. It followed the initial setup without fail.

Yet, the power in my limbs continued to grow as my mana engine went into full swing.

The increase was the same for all my body.

And lowkey, I couldn't be happier with such a result.

'If not for all the mana in my cells, every last organ of my body would burst apart,' I thought, pushing myself further and further into this hell.

And then, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to happen, I reached the outskirts of the city.

And the Dragon has yet to even approach it.

'Woah,' I screamed inwardly up, forcing most of my remaining antimana into my engine.

The power within my flesh thickened... and allowed me to survive the sudden deacceleration of landing.

"UGH..." the instant my legs touched the ground, I threw out a small lake of blood.

Even with the mana reinforcing it, my body couldn't handle that much stress.

Yet, as much as I wished to just fall to my knees and continue throwing out blood, I raised my hand and wiped my mouth clean before standing up.

I then turned around and looked in the direction the dragon was coming from.

'God damn it,' I thought while clenching my fists.

The closer this monster became, the better I could feel its sharp aura. And if it could project the aura of antimana so powerful that even a mixed mage like me could feel it...

"I guess I wasn't wrong with my assessment of its power,' I thought grimly.

I then fell to my knee, a sudden bout of weakness taking over my body.

But I stood up.

Both physically and mentally.

"There is no use facing it with the mindset of going down with it," I muttered under my nose before spitting my thick saliva on the ground.

I then raised my hands and slapped my cheeks before raising them above my head.

"Raise, my mage's tower," I uttered in a dramatic voice.

'This might be the end of me, so why not?' I thought, ignoring the feeling of cringe overwhelming my soul.

A golden sigil appeared floating between my hands. Courtesy of a small, purely decorative formation I created a long time ago.

And for the very first time, I found a proper way to use it.

The dragon finally caught up. Yet, rather than landing to enter the city right away, it however high above, circling the area.

'Is it trying to sound the situation out?' I pondered while holding the golden seal high above my head.

"ROAR!" the monster finally uttered a cry. It then pulled its wings to its torso and dived down.

'How unoriginal,' I thought, watching how the dragon flew towards me at an increasing speed.

I waited until it reached just the right height...

And then I broke the seal in my hand, unleashing the surprise I prepared in my formations.

In an instant, all the formations came alive, powered by their own, tiny engines.

And then, my magical tower exploded with mana, filling the entire area with a powerful surge of energy.

The dragon... opened its wings up, rapidly losing its momentum.

Its chest raised. It then pulled its head to the back of its long neck...

'It's going to breathe flames?' I thought, condensing the mana in the part of the mage's tower that faced the oncoming attack.

And then, the dragon swung its head forward, adding the momentum of its dive into the attack.

And once again... it was pretty unoriginal.

A simplistic ball of flames erupted from the dragon's throat. It then separated from its system before crushing down towards my position.

'Wait, are you for real?' I shrugged in surprise, taking the attack head-on... Only to barely feel any pressure when it struck.

Sure, a normal cultivator of my level would likely fry to his death under the onslaught of the flames...

But rather than burning me up, dragon's flames... vanished.

'Ah, so that's what happens when two abilities of a different kind converge,' I thought, a flash of enlightenment clearing my mind.

And then, my lips curved into a smile.

The dragon used its momentum to swing right above the ground and then climb back to the skies, escaping from the reach of my mage's tower.

'Damn it,' I thought, rearranging my formations and sentinels according to the new information I got.

For the next few moments, nothing really happened. The dragon continued to circle above me, either waiting for me to go down on my own or maybe analyzing the situation?

This was my first time fighting with a sentient monster like that, so I didn't really have a clue what to expect from it next. But what was even worse, was how I couldn't tell the level of its intelligence.

'I should come up with some long-range attacks,' I thought, clenching my teeth as the anticipation of the attack started to whack my nerves.

And then, the dragon finally pulled its wings together, going for yet another dive.

This time, however, it didn't bother to utter a roar.

'What are you going to show me now?' I thought, preparing myself for the impact of the inevitable attack.

But this time, I didn't simply wait while bolstering my defenses.

This time, my sentinels flared up and started shooting as soon as the Dragon moved too fast to escape away from their range!