The Red Dragon roared out in pain and anger.
Dilan's body shook wildly but he ignored everything around him as he dug the daggers deep through the scales of the humongous monster.
He wanted to get his hands on the Red Dragon but it was more important for him to make sure that it would start listening to him.
Dragons were said to be prideful existences. If that was truly the case, light injuries wouldn't be enough to subdue the Red Dragon.
The effect of the Cursed Mantra would wear off after five minutes, and that was also the highest amount of time Dilan gave himself until he would collapse due to the strain his body was currently forced to endure.
He was fine with all of that because he was ready to kill the Red Dragon if it wouldn't get tamed and keep fighting pridefully.
The Red Dragon was just a means to help him to become stronger, not a necessity.
"Succumb to me, and everyone will be happy!" Dilan shouted out loud while blazing flames surrounded him. His skin was slowly getting burned but that was the least of his worries.
His eyes were gleaming brightly and he used all his might to suppress the excitement that was bubbling inside him.
In the end, his entire existence was telling him to fight with the intention to kill the Red Dragon, but that was not actually what Dilan wanted to do.
Nonetheless, he inflicted a bunch of injuries upon the Red Dragon, whose temperature increased manifold once again.
At this point, Dilan couldn't endure the heat of the Red Dragon anymore.
The heat was on par with the searing hot temperature of the meteorite that had rained down on him.
This was more than enough to tell Dilan that he had to retreat for a moment.
He used [Short distance traveling] once again and ended up hovering up in the air 500 meters away from the Red Dragon.
Dilan activated [Undying] once again while collecting mana from the surrounding area.
"Follow me!!" He thundered, amplifying his voice with mana, and all the bloodlust he had accumulated since the Primordial Ascension.
The bloodlust was a result of all the existences he had killed, and that meant quite a lot considering that Dilan had taken the life of more than a hundred thousand monsters.
Dilan had long since stopped counting but he knew that the number was extremely high.
The Red Dragon, who was restricted by the Cursed Mantra, trembled for the first time since it had emerged on Milarn and that was more than enough for Dilan to start smiling vibrantly.
'Is it afraid?' He wondered upon seeing the monster's reaction and just a moment later the scales of the Red Dragon's head started to turn into molten lava.
Yet, instead of looking like ordinary lava, it was almost as if the scales all over the Red Dragon's head turned into tiny replicas of the sun.
Dilan instinctively retreated when he saw this but he was a tiny moment too late as some of the metamorphosed scales turned into serpentine-like pits of lava that lunged out for him.
Before he could move, the serpents dug their fangs deep inside Dilan's right arm and his stomach, injuring him severely.
Gritting his teeth as a jolt of pain shot through his body, he slashed at the serpentine-like flames by using the Blessed Blade. It was shrouded with powerful air currents and had [Holy Light] activated which allowed Dilan to free himself.
However, he also noticed that his right hand didn't work properly anymore. The attack of the Red Dragon had inflicted enough damage to his arm to temporarily incapacitate him from wielding the Cursed Dagger properly.
'Fuck this shit!' Dilan cursed in his mind before he sheathed the Cursed Dagger in the scabbard at his belt. Through this, he could ensure that he would still receive the stat amplification of Xealtron. He was in desperate need of the stats, especially now that the situation was spiraling out of control.
"Listen to me, you fucking bastard!" Dilan shouted in the Demon tongue all of a sudden as he turned into a flash. He appeared at the back of the Red Dragon and slashed right in the center of its wings, trying to inflict severe damage using the Blessed Blade.
With the Blessed Blade even the Red Dragon's powerful defense was not strong enough to block his attacks. That was also why Dilan didn't have to worry too much. He was given the opportunity to injure the Red Dragon severely, but he had hesitated to do so before.
After all, he wanted to tame the Red Dragon, not kill it. However, achieving what he had planned seemed to become more difficult the more he thought about it.
[You speak in the Demon tongue?] A hoarse, yet somewhat feminine voice resounded through Dilan's mind just when the Blessed Blade pierced through the Red Dragon's flesh and dug deep inside it.
The Dragon roared out in pain and Dilan reacted quickly to prevent any other incident from occurring.
He used his mana to conjure winds that were strong enough to blast him high in the air, and it was just a moment after he had distanced himself from the Red Dragon that its entire body had turned into molten lava.
The mountain the monster was standing on began to melt and it was only a matter of time before the entire mountainside would be flattened to ground level.
"I spoke to way too many Demons not to know the Demon tongue. If you want me to, I can even summon a Diamond Tier-3 Demon, though I don't really think that they will be strong enough to help me fight against you. Your power is simply too high!" Dilan explained and he acknowledged that the Red Dragon was a lot stronger than expected.
The true extent of the Red Dragon's power was not something Dilan had been able to comprehend until now but he could clearly tell that it had to be one of the strongest existence on Milarn…for now at least.
He was certain that the Red Dragon was the missing piece for his plan to conquer Camsun as quickly as possible, and with that in mind, he changed his plan altogether.
"Just think about it, if you side with me, we will become the strongest! I don't want to make any promises I cannot keep, but as long as you stay by my side, I will give my best to protect you, if necessary!" Dilan proposed, only to hear a burst of laughter that resounded through his mind.
[Hahahaha…you, protecting me? You cannot even fight against me head-on after putting a Curse on me! How can you be confident of protecting me if you're too weak to defeat me?!] The voice of the Red Dragon resounded in Dilan's head once again, and a bright smile emerged on his face.
"Who said that I'm too weak to kill you? I think you're forgetting that I'm trying to subdue you, not kill you right now!" Dilan thundered and a tremendous amount of killing intent emerged from all over his body, aiming straight for the monster.
"Let me show you how a Tier-2 existence like me can deal with a Mythical creature at the fourth Tier!"
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om