Reaching Limits

Drakon flew over the open sea, which was one of the only places where he could use his half-dragon form without his dragon instincts pushing his own willpower. It was calming, with the sun setting on the horizon, and the smell of sea air filling his nostrils. Suddenly, he felt a presence, an overwhelming source of power coming from a rock formation in the middle of the sea. His instincts pushed against him, as the power felt vaguely dragon-like, and he started to veer towards the formation, curious to what this power was.

When he landed, he saw what looked like a young man, laying on the rocks and napping. Even while he slept, Drakon could feel the wealth of knowledge and power that was held within him. "Amazing...this must be...an elder dragon? No..he's much more powerful than that..." Drakon instantly felt the overwhelming urge to challenge this new opponent. He walked up to him and gently shook him in an attempt to wake him up, "Excuse me, I know you must be trying to relax, but...I'd like to ask to spar with you."

I had come to love this New Zealand place. The natives took kindly to me, the sands were warm and there was more sea than I knew what to do with. Okay that's a lie. I'm the God of the Oceans and Chaos. That would be sad if I didn't know what to do with an area of my governance. But still, this place was pretty nice, and the best part being that the natives didn't complain about me, they actually worshipped me. That took a LOT of getting used to. I haven't been worshipped in...well it was before I gave Alexander the great my hoard and commanded the wolves to care for Romulus and Remus.
     I kept the tides as steady as could be, the waves crashed into the shore as if the water were being rocked in the arms of a mother. This was the life every mortal should live. I know that not all mortals could just get into my 'unique' clothing and lay on hot rocks for ever. Mortals sunburn...It's kinda funny. Anyway, this is paradise right now. I'm not sure if I could ask for anything else right now. Except for the motrals to occassionally stop walking over here to 'check him out'. I get it kids, my scaley swimsuit looks like boxerbriefs, now scurry along before I start acting like every other Dragon. Taking all your shiny things and demanding virgins as tribute. I may be a bit underdressed as a fleshy but I have my reasons.
    My fleshy exterior makes it hard for me to take a punch like I used to, but without the scales I can actually FEEL sand, I can feel warmth, I can feel the waters and the shiver they cause. It's sad that my scales have adapted over the centuries to become airtight. I spent the past three million or so years in the water, but none of it actuallly touched my skin enough for me to be able to savor the feel. So yeah, I look like I'm in tight boxerbriefs but I really don't care because I'm actually getting to FEEL things again. Besides, the sclaes make it seem less 'wrong' so it's whatever! I sniffed the air. There was a dragon here? Now why oh why would there be one here?
      "Excuse me, I know you must be trying to relax, but...I'd like to ask to spar with you." A voice asked. I opened one eye to see before me the source of the Draconian smell and aura. It was a young man, not far younger than me. physically, at least. I flopped around with a lazy groan and siled ad I kept one eye opened and trained on him. He was close to six feet, maybe a little over, then again I could be wrong. Arch-Dragons such as myself have a difficult time even normal dragons because they are smaller, so a human...yeeeeesshhh. The kid was pretty ripped for a mortal form, I'd expect no less from a Dragon. Wait..i'm not ripped, I'm lean. Once again I fail my own standards...I digress.... The kid had nice golden brown hair, green eyes and he wore jeans and a black shirt that clung to him like my 'pants' did to me. Although it was obvious that his shirt wasn't made of a slick and shiney waterproof material.
      "Hhhhmmmm...You seriously have zero idea about what you're getting into. Look you're cute and all kid, but you should probablyugo find a drake or something to play with." I said, trying to be nice. Not sure if that's how it came across or not, and I don't really care.

Drakon grinned a bit, "Yes, I know what I'm getting myself into. I've never felt this kind of overwhelming power before, you're stronger than anyone I've ever met...that's why I want to challenge you. I want to test myself against you, because...I want to become the best! No...I need to become the best." Drakon put every bit of power he had into those words, and he meant every one of them. If he was to return and stop the war, like his ancestors had tried to do before, he needed to become stronger than he was now. Now that he was awake, Drakon could sense the power even stronger than before, but he still held his ground, like a boulder in a hurricane.

I smiled at him. This kid was pretty interesting. I wonder how old he is? Hmmmm. Anyway that aside, I should probably warn him that as a Dragon of Seppam...the origin realm of Dragons...I'm likely going to win. Adding that alongside with the fact that I'm the Arch Dragon of three of the Seppam elements. Nah, he'll learn the hard way. I pushed up off the rock and walked up to him. I glared into his eyes and let the energy of the dragon inside me take over. This kid would have no idea. He would know tht I'm strong, but he'd never even know HOW strong. For all this kid knew, he was still stronger than me. Poor little guy.
   "Alright, let's make this interesting. What's the prize for winning?" I asked him. I figured the poor little guy is PROBABLY going to lose this anyway. He might as well get to pick his own punishment. Not that I's let him in on that. Sometimes I gotta wonder...why am I such an ass?

'A prize? I never actually thought about that...but maybe I can take advantage of this. He doesn't look that strong, he might be holding back his power, but...' Drakon looked around, the land seemed to be void of any humans, and there were no buildings or on of the human's precious monuments for him to accidentally destroy. 'Maybe...if I turn into my true dragon form, I'd be able to stand a good chance. I won't use it right away, though, something tells me that if I unleash my full power right away, so will he.' Drakon grinned, and held out his hand to seal a deal, "How about this, if I win, you train me so I can become stronger, I can sense a large amount of energy radiating within you, I wish to have that power so I can use it for my...problem. If you win...well, I'll serve you for one human month. Does that sound like a fair deal to you?" Drakon figured it was a win-win for him, if he won, which was a long shot, he might train to gain a large amount of strength, but if not...he would still be able to observe this creature, learn by watching, as they say.

"Come on man, have some faith in yourself! Say 'When I win' not 'If'. As a Dragon you should not wonder with trivial things such as 'IF' you should focus only on the facts at hand. worrying about IF is pointless...what if flies had machine guns? Frogs wouldn't #&$! with 'em!" I said with a smile. That was his first lesson. His next lesson was an education of humility. I stood up and sat my butt in the sand, legs out and looked up at him.
   "Well you gonna just sit here and star at me or are you gonna hit me ya pansy?" I taunted him. Hey, dragons need to have fun too.

Drake glared at the man, "My name is Drake, not 'man', and I would have preferred not to fight you while you have your a** on the ground, but I'll just have to make do." Drakon didn't even bother to get into his fighting stance, but widened his legs a bit to balance himself as he threw a kick, aiming at his target's snobby face. He would show him the true dragon inside of him, it was what he wanted, so it was what he was going to do. He started to feel his inner dragon rage, fueled by the taunts of the man. His eyes began to burn with pure primal rage, and he grinned, despite the large, overwhelming power boring into him from the man.

Kid was quicker than any human. Not as quick as me though. I used my superior reflexes and slid off to the side, his foot missing me. I was still smiling at him. This entire thing was a mockery of the poor kid. This was going to be utterly humiliating. Im just sad that im the one that's gotta do it. Eh...ill get over it. I shot up aiming to throw my forehead into his chin and make him stagger back a little. From all I've seen so far, he's pretty good, but me.... im magic. Regardless if I made contact or not I still dropped back into the sand and chuckled like a little kid mischeviously toying with him. "Slow human is slow." That should pick things up a bit...

As Drake's foot connected with empty air, he lost his balance, and was easily hit by the headbutt of the man, getting knocked back a few inches. "I'm no normal human!!!" Drake was becoming completely enraged now, and he began to feel himself change, his hands morphing into claws, with razor-sharp talons, black horns growing from under his golden-brown hair, and large, black wings unfolding from his back. "Now you've made me mad. Before I rip you apart, I'd like to know your name." He partially folded his great wings behind his back, and got into his altered stance, showing off his gleaming claws, and whipping his tail back and forth.

"You don't know my name, but you challenged me? Your mother didn't take good care of her eggs..." I retorte with a bored yawn. This was actually really entertaining, just not interesting in the way the little guy wanted it to be. He gave off this strange energy and he revealed a rather twisted draconian-human hybrid physiology. THAT was something to see, the poor little thing looked so cute, like it was actually trying to be a dragon. "My name....it's jake by the way...well that's what the humans called me.... I won't settle for this by the way. Come at me as a damn dragon or don't bother trying. I wont sully my reputation for kicking down a PART-TIME dragon." I snapped.

Now he had gone too far, "My mother...she died in the war, you DAMN DIRTY ANIMAL!!!" He took a deep breath and blew as much fire as he could at the ground, sending waves of flame over a large span of the island. He began to change as the flames wrapped around his morphing body, his skin turning darker, and eventually becoming covered in scales. His body began to grow, becoming larger than two small houses, and his wing span increasing by ten-fold. His body became ripped with scaly muscles, and stood up on his hind legs, screaming at the sky as he released a jet of white-hot flame. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- ROOAAAARRR!!" His screams turned into the roars as he smashed the ground in front of him, creating large craters in the ground where his feet, armed with talons twice the size of claymores, landed. He lowered his head toward the maggot of a dragon in front of him, and bared his sharp teeth.

This was cute. The little guy thought he was big. I wount even need my damn soulscales for this. I drew on the power of Chaos and amplified myself. (+5 Strength: Total= 7 Strength ) and yawned. This was seriosuly just another day. I noticed that he had wings. I couln't allow this cute little guy to run away now could I? Oceans as my domain I summoned forth the water and it circled us the next thing anyone knew we were both inside a large water dome Arena.
"You're trapped. Your move." I said with a calm smile

Drake looked above him, his glowing dragon eyes settling on the waves that slowly encased the island. He growled, a low sound, but it rumbled the whole island as if there were an earthquake. The rage was building inside of Drake even more, exchanging his skill for raw power. He pulled back his arm, tensing it, then swung it down at the small form of Yam, digging up a large and deep trench that extended quite a ways. He couldn't see from the dust he had kicked up, and did the thing any logical enraged dragon would do. He forced a large amount of white-hot flames from his maw, washing over everything a mile in front of him.

In the back of Drake's mind, the tiny consciousness representing his free will was overtaken by the primal rage and instinct of the dragon. 'Why...why has he done this? The dragon...it's overtaking me. If I don't fight back...' A small shine of light blinked in the darkness of the primal beast's dark mind. 'No, I have to...learn how to control this beast, not let it control me!'

The kid was untrained. It threw a punch. I could easily have avoided it; I have the reflexes to do so. Instead I decided to show this insignificant worm his place. Its strength rivaled my own. The difference was that he was large, and his ‘almighty’ fist was just intercepted by a ‘mortal’ that was less than 1/30th his size. I can only imagine the rage building up. It was almost friggin addicting to torment this little guy. The creature would probably start to lose control even more once he knew that I could match its strength in my mortal form.
   
    There was the fire. Sadly for it, it must not have known that in my Dragon form I can command oceans to do my bidding. It breathed out a celestial white fire from it’s pitch black body. The second it arched its head back a small barrier of water surrounded me. The Dragon would only see a steamy pimply of glowing blue water. The second that the fire stopped I smiled. I brought  my left arm across my chest and the water that was once my barrier was suddenly a whip of water, amplified by my strength.
   
    ”Really? This is everything you have? Can’t say I’m surprised. I mean…you are just a PART-TIME DRAGON” I laughed at it, and the second I finished my sentence the arena of water began turning into  living weapon. The top of the dome grew spikes and began charging for the dragon. There were dozens of spikes, each one scaled to size, so that the Dragon looked like a puppy and the blade was a bastard sword. They all shot out for the Dragon. Between the limited movement of the Arena, and the inability to fly, I don’t think I have to worry about missing him. The strength of his scales are another matter entirely. If this guy had scales as hard as mine…in Dragon form…then these would just be irritating jabs that proved to be little more than ‘burning distractions’. I didn’t mind tormenting him though, it was pretty amusing. So much so that I’m looking forward to a month of practically owning him.

      ”So…this is really it huh? Well I don’t think you even qualify to see me all dressed up in my Soul-gear. I’m going to finish this with my bare-hands and fleshy body.” I said, I was acting almost depressed that this was all he had. In all honesty it was actually impressive that a half-dragon managed to even access his Dragon form. I decided I was going to be a real bastard. I charged at him, superior reflexes to weave in and out, getting towards his throat. I dove, it looked like I was diving into a somersault, but when my hands hit the warm sands, I pushed off, throwing all of my strength into a kick I aimed into the underbelly of the other dragon.

The water, despite being a much larger size than Drake himself, barely fazed him. So much taunting...Drake just wanted to shut this guy up. That's what he realized something he had in common with the dragon, he didn't want to destroy everything this time, he just wanted to kill this man for insulting him. That's when it clicked, and the free will of Drake and the primal, instinctive rage of the dragon merged together partially, their minds working together somewhat. He roared again, this time shrinking until he was the size of a normal human again, with his wings still there, folded behind him. He noticed the man about to come for his underside, and mutually agreed with the dragon that it was time to match his size, so as not to be tricked. He might have the disadvantage of strength, but he now had a bigger advantage: Communication and Teamwork. The dragon spoke words of power into Drake's ear, filling him with courage this time, not rage, and he began to rise, "You'll not taunt me anymore. I am in control of myself, this is my true form, not the dragon. I am a pure-blooded HALF DRAGON!"