What was required was to tap into a spectrum of emotion guided only by destruction; all of the loss he had suffered, the pain he had endured, and the anger that came with it. Memories of his failures sprouted, surfacing as he honed in on that burning frustration.
Clenching his body, he stoked that flame within himself, allowing the Dragonheart blood to boil to a degree hotter than usual. The first instinct, and the only instinct that filled his mind when giving way to such corrupted power, was destruction; absolute death and destruction as azure flames poured off of his body like a natural aura.
A tail sprouted from behind him and the pitch-black scales of the Dragonheart encased his body, undergoing a monstrous transformation as his physique attempted to alter itself, but he condensed it.
"He's turning into…a monster?" Joel witnessed.
"Just wait and see," Asher said.
Though the draconic scales and sentient flesh attempted to envelop Emilio completely to transform him and engulf him in that wrath, the colossal armor shattered, leaving it only on his arms and legs before tattoos were left on his body.
'Control…it!' He urged.
BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP.
The heart of the young man could be seen through an azure glow pumping beneath his chest; the scale-like tattoos covered his body as his amethyst eyes shifted into an animalistic azure.
[Dragonheart System Awakened | Alternate]
[Current Stage: 7/??? | Draconis Monster | CONDENSED]
Around him was a temperature that kept even his companions at bay as the soil around him dried out, losing its color before rotting away entirely as steam swirled around the Dragonheart. Sweat poured from his body as if expelling a mountain of heat from himself, gasping out as his heart wildly slammed against his chest.
"...Hff…Hff…"
Catching his breath after fighting against his own internal power, he accomplished it; he condensed that monstrous wrath within himself, though it burned within him greatly with a heat unlike any other. It felt as though he himself was an oven that contained the heat of a star, burning beneath his skin and warming his muscles enough to dull any pain.
"Emilio?...Are you…you?" Asher asked.
It took a moment for any response to come as he focused on completely locking down that scorching rage within himself before giving only a thumbs-up, as opening his mouth was a struggle in itself.
Asher looked surprised, "Heh…You did it."
"He did it?! Did we almost die or something?!"
"Something like that," Asher said.
–
What was left as a result from the condensing and control of Draconis Monster was a power that flowed through the veins of the Dragonheart unlike anything he was normally used to; it felt as though a single step could burn away a forest and a single breath could turn a man to ash.
It was an intoxicating level of strength, constantly requiring his utmost will not to lose his own sentience to the avarice of such strength as he squeezed his fists tightly shut, feeling the monstrous power within his body as he curled his own muscles.
'Focus…Don't lose yourself,' he thought.
As he stood there while trying to tightly suppress the monstrous instincts, the banshee attacked him from all angles with her endless swarm of deathly hair.
"Emilio!" Joel shouted.
The snow-white hairs wrapped around his limbs, tightly binding around his body and squeezing before they attempted to pull away with the intent of ripping his own limbs from his body.
–Yet, the Dragonheart did not budge an inch as the hairs pulled from every angle; instead, he still breathed with fiery breath as he controlled himself.
Even the ghastly banshee looked perplexed by the fruitlessness of her attack, but this surprise wasn't hers alone as the companions of the Dragonheart witnessed this inexplicable development.
'Control it…and fight back,' he thought.
With a single flex of his muscles, he moved his arms and stomped down, tearing the hairs from his body with simple movements as if they were normal hairs.
Each movement he made had to be meaningful and concentrated, otherwise he'd sink straight into the depths of ancient rage spawning from the tainted dragon's blood.
A single step forward made him move across the quarry instantaneously, breaking the distance between himself and the powerful banshee. It was hard to contain and control the glitched power effectively as a single thrust of his fist unleashed a shock wave that blasted the banshee across the quarry.
The blow shook the landscape, producing a thunderous gale that swept up clouds of dirt that intermingled with the mist that laid on the outskirts of the stone quarry.
"Hot damn! That transformation is something, isn't it?!" Joel called out, witnessing the monstrous display.
"It is, but it doesn't come easy. Emilio is fighting his hardest just to maintain control," Asher explained, "He needs to make this quick–before he destroys everything–including us."
"Us!?" Joel responded.
Vandread let out a tired breath, "I should've expected he'd acquire a power like this. It's this sort of reckless strength that makes him Julius' son."
–
The banshee was quick to recover, as her body was armored in multiple layers of her mythically sturdy hair, screaming out and causing the trees around her to have their checkered leaves blown off as the ghastly witch seemed angered by the shift in power.
The Dragonheart blitzed across the quarry, once more in an instant, greeted by a bountiful wall of hair meant to impede him, however he tore through it like tall grass in a jungle. Every movement he made commanded tremendous power as if the flow of a natural disaster pulsed along with the beat of his heart.
"AAAAAAA—!"
Just as the banshee unleashed that terrible scream, the Dragonheart stomped down, firmly planting himself as he flexed his body; the blistering shock wave thundered against his flesh, yet he remained unmoving from the spot he stood.
"He's enduring it…!" Joel remarked.
It wasn't an easy feat even still, but Emilio was able to withstand the rippling force as the ground around him was torn and flung about. Even beyond simply enduring it, he slowly began to move forward while the banshee continued to scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!"
The closer he got, the more disastrous the effects of the supernatural shriek became; like facing down the eye of a storm itself as the winds howled in his ears, sharply contorting before he finally reached the ghastly woman.
As he reared his fist back, he threw it forward with a [Dragon Strike] empowered by the glitched path in his system, piercing through the barrier of sound and straight against the sable cheek of the banshee.
The impact stifled the scream and produced a powerful shock wave of its own, knocking the entity back as blackened blood dripped from the banshee's jaw. Despite the force of the strike being anything but restrained, the entity managed to yet again showcase a horrific durability. The punch had spun the banshee's neck around, wringing it like a towel, yet it only snapped back into place with the grotesque snapping of bones popping back into place.
"She's not done! Emilio, look out!" Vandread called out.
It was a battle of natural disasters; the forest of snow-white hair sprouted, imbued with the malice of the witch as it covered any sight of the land beyond which the banshee guarded.
The advantage of the environment was completely dominated by the howling woman as the hairs were as plentiful as blades of grass in a meadow, all swiping and attempting to capture the Dragonheart–dead or alive.
Even so, the quantity of attacks had no bearing on the Dragonheart as he stomped down, invoking a masterclass invocation of wind magic in the form of an ear-popping shock wave that howled out. It was as though a civilization-threatening storm had screamed out for a split-second, tearing about the hairs that attempted to grab hold of him and leaving a massive crater in the quarry.
Combined with the blistering heat natural to the Dragonheart, the shock wave left a burst of steam that inflicted burns even on the sturdy banshee, who stumbled back.
[Dragonheart: Eye of The Smoldering Storm]
The banshee screamed out in frustration, contorting her limbs before extending waves of hair forward.
A single movement of his hand ripped apart the quarry at the seams, ripping up the dormant roots beneath the dirt and manipulating them to combat the forest of hair. The amplification of magical power, thanks to Draconis Monster, could not be understated; the control it gave him and potency in magic allowed him to match the assault of hair by whipping the roots from below the quarry's crust around.
Using the roots to confront the boundless hair of the banshee, he dashed forward, pushing straight through the collision of magical roots and deathly hair, which intertwined and pulled at each other like some hellish tug-of-war match.
Even yet, the quantity of hair was supernatural as the banshee released more directly towards the rushing Dragonheart.
"Go!"
Yelling out and intercepting the assault of hair, Joel stepped in, wildly swinging his sword hard and fast enough it seemed his arms would fling right off.
"Don't worry about anything else but moving forward!"
Vandread jumped in as well, using his swift daggers to cleave a path through the endless hair as Emilio didn't stop in his rush forward, chasing after the banshee with his own monstrous speed.
The banshee was now moving back, attempting to keep the Dragonheart away from herself as she unleashed another cry while moving–
"AAAAAAAAAAAA—!"
In return, rather than opting for a defensive spell, the Dragonheart sucked in a heaping serving of oxygen into his lungs before unleashing a yell of his own. It was a burst of wind magic, amplified by his destructive lung strength while utilizing the accursed, glitched strength.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA—!"
Both of the sound barrier-shattering screams clashed in an impact that exploded throughout the quarry.
"Woah–!" Joel let out.
The resulting wind swirled violently throughout the battlefield, forcing the others back as the mystical roots and vile hair were brushed aside as well.
After the clash of screams, the Dragonheart continued forward against the ghastly woman who seemed to hold genuine fear in the face of Draconis Monster–an overwhelming force akin to a natural disaster.
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