Eldritch Creature's Guide

The next day, Zephystrand's Citadel.

The next morning, Samiel awoke in his room with Nefertari asleep next to him in his bed; as she was purring happily due to the satisfactory sleep, she had had with her master and, most importantly, being able to sleep comfortably in his bed. It was a lovely rainy day as Samiel listened to the rain falls down on the ground.

It is common for people to associate a nice day with when the sun is shining, but Samiel was always looking forward to dark rainy days, often reflecting the depressive mood he was in at the time. As far as he could remember, he always preferred rainy days... they were more real to him.

'Hooman, hooman, hooman.'

When Samiel woke up, he was surprised to hear something tucking him and licking him on the face; as he opened his eyes, he was annoyed because he would have preferred to sleep, at least for a few hours minimally.

'What it is, Nefertari?'

The young man was quite annoyed with himself since he had been forced to wake up a few hours earlier than he normally would have in the morning. Basically, his usual schedule and morning routine were broken today.

'There will be a duel between Yvraine and Estrid that will be taking place several hours later.'

The voice of Nefertari sounded in his head, and he was forced to wake up immediately, as it was indeed time for the duel between the two of them to commence. When he heard Nefertari's voice, he groggily got up from the bed and started doing his morning hygiene.

When he brushed his teeth in the mornings, he didn't even know why he was doing it. Such an act of self-care had become obsolete for the people with Mana because such an act for taking care of oneself had become obsolete for them. However, alas, the morning habits die hard.

After he put on his armor, he exited his room, with Nefertari standing on his head as she was licking her left paw cutely. He went straight to the dining room, where he would have breakfast together with Yvraine, just like most of the mornings.

"So, how are you feeling before the big day?"

Smaiel asked while he sat down, and during the time as he waited for the servants to bring him breakfast, Samiel thought about what would be on the menu for today as he sat down and waited for them to bring it to him.

"Good, I am going to win."

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Yvraine confidently stated, because, during the one year prior to the duel, she had prepared properly for it, studied enough magic from the Grimoire Elementa Magicae to be able to win this duel for the first time in her life, and she was confident that this time, she would finally be able to defeat Estrid.

Samiel saw some variation of the typical English breakfast that was one of his favorites, as the service staff there brought their meals, and this one was of higher quality than the typical English breakfast. A minimum requirement for the meat or products is to be from Steel-Tier Magical Beast at least.

All the food in the Zephystrand City's Citadel for the VIP, was prepared by the best chefs in the city, who were working in the Citadel to make food for the important guests or even the soldiers in the Citadel.

"Then it is good... though I am doubting the benefits you have from this entire charade."

Samiel stated amid the eating as he looked at Yvraine, who was just thinking over her answer before replying to him. For him, this entire thing lacked any sort of inner logic, and it was just a useless "event" or whatever it was.

"That is for me to know and for you to find out."

She said with a smirk, while he shrugged his shoulders, not really knowing what to say. So, he just continued eating, and when they finished eating, they moved to the training yard of the Citadel because there the duel between the two of them would be taking place.

Samiel sat down in the VIP zone, where he sat on the couch watching Yvraine doing exercises with her twin swords as a form of stretching. This continued for more than thirty minutes until Estrid arrived, clearly annoyed by the sight of Yvraine exercising with her twin swords.

However, then her annoyance was overcome with battle lust as she wanted to fight with Yvraine.

"Can we start already, Elven bitch?"

Estrid looked at Yvriane and immediately cursed at her as Yvraine's brow twitched in anger.

"When you are ready, little lizard."

It was only natural that Yvraine's response didn't take long to come as soon as she smelled an opportunity to make a move, as she bit back immediately.

'That bickering between two of them is becoming increasingly annoying as the time goes.'

Samiel, though, as both of them went, entered the biggest training yard because Samiel predicted that Estrid would be using her dragon form in this single combat, which would be the first he would see it.

In spite of the fact that he had fought her several times, as he got stronger, the fight ended faster than she was able to enter her true form, and Samiel knew that it was prudent not to let her enter her dragon form, since dragons are the most powerful when they are in their true forms.

There was no time for anyone to react; without warning, Yvraine appeared next to Estrid and slashed at her with a cross-like pattern, aiming directly at her neck before anyone could say a word. Both of her twin swords were blazing with crimson flame at her, with a clear intention to kill.

'Hmm... her usage of the Elementia Magicae Spells has got way better than before.'

Samiel analyzed the combat that was going on during the observation of their duel, while the fight was going on the full go already.

Estrid just dodged to the side while sending a kick at Yvraine with her left leg, to which she bent low enough for Estrid to miss her, while at the same time, Yvraine used [Metamagic] Ultimate Ability to cast several tens of Spell simultaneously, all of them firing at Estrid.

There was only one thing the red dragon girl could do as she saw the incoming barrage of spells, and as there was no chance to dodge, she used both of her hands to shield herself as she stood up to the barrage of 2nd Level and 3rd Level Spells, with only some slight bruises and scrapes on her scales as a result.

This did not deter Yvraine from attacking once more, as she combined her sword mastery over the dual wield with various elemental spells, which she was casting one after the other, to create a devastating attack.

This was mainly due to her [Metamagic] Ultimate Ability. Nonetheless, Samiel had to admit that Yvraine's combination of her swordsmanship abilities together with magical ones was putting up a spectacular show for anyone who was watching them.

As he was somehow close to her, he knew that she had three Ultimate Abilities, one of which was already mentioned [Metamagic], which was something that a heavy majority, if not all magicians, would kill.

Then aside from that, she had two more, one of them was a sword-related one called [Dance of Blades], and another one was [Silvermoon], a Bloodline Ability only available to the Imperial Line of the Nesser Dynasty of the Silvermoon Elves.

He already had experienced the might of the [Dance of Blades], and despite finding it a frustrating Domain Ability, he did not want to have the honor of having to face it again. It was only when Yvraine was close to defeating him that she caught him completely off guard.

At the same time, [Silvermoon] was something that she could not use until she reached Legendary level, or rather, she could not use it actively until she reached Legendary level. In her own words, it was hazardous to use when being still a Mortal and not a Legendary Being.

The primary reason why Yvraine used the Water and Ice Spells was that Estrid, being a Red Dragon, was highly adept at using Fire and Heat spells, so anything that contradicted these elements was technically her weakness, and she was exploiting it at the moment.

Something that she learned from Smaiel and that was to exploit any possible weakness that your enemy has; no matter how small it was, it could lead to a change of the battle and possibly reverse even an unsalvagable situation.

'Contrary to the last time, right now the situation is developing in to entirely different way... and fortunately there is a minimal level of cursing and provocations, something I really appreciate... hearing them provoke each other is like being on a children's playground.'

During the exchange between Yvraine and Estrid, Sammiel observed something that was technically a miraculous occurrence as Yvraine started pushing Estrid back, resulting in Yvraine getting the upper hand. Throughout the fight, Estrid was slowly but steadily sustaining more and more injuries as a result of the combination of the Elementia Magicaei and swordsmanship abilities.

After forty-three minutes and fifty-five seconds, Samiel saw Estrid's eyes glowing menacing yellow color, knowing that she was going to transform into her true form. Suddenly, as Yvraine flipped backward to create space between them, Estrid started morning to her dragon form.

The red dragon that she was in the form of was a magnificent red dragon with her red-crimson scales covering her entire body; standing on her four legs, she was around 4 meters high and in terms of length, her entire body together with her tail was around 15 meters long.

On the top of her head, she had one pair of majestic dragon horns; from her nostrils, hot steam was released as her huge dragon head looked at Yvraine while firing an enormous wave of dragon breath directly at the Silvermoon Princess.

"And the real fun starts from now..."

Samiel stated quietly to himself while observing the start of the second stage of the duel between two women. He himself fought Estrid in her dragon form, several times actually, when she pestered him long enough to fight him in her true form.

In the end, he relented to her request, and he realized that their power was relatively matched when she turned to her dragon form. Or better said, she could withstand more of his Spells in that form because when he started using Void Magic on her in her dragon form, he realized that with enough power, he could break through her dragon scales due to the power of Void itself.

In the course of the dissipation of the dragon breath, Samiel had a glimpse of Yvraine there, unharmed, encased within some blueish magical barriers, as he felt the power of the Moon in it and was able to sense hints of the Divine.

Yvraine then canceled the barrier as she used Lightning Spell from the Elementia Magicae to boost up her speed and offensive prowess. At the same time, the lightning itself cracked all around her body as she disappeared in a flash.

Appeared right above Estrid's huge dragon body; she slashed two times, with her dual swords, which were enveloped by the lightning, towards her wings, creating two deep cuts into her meat as she managed to break through her dragon scales.

"Roooaaarrrr!!!"

Estrid roared in pain because right now, her mobility was cut down by at least half, as she couldn't properly use her wings due to Yvraine cutting directly to the joints which connected her wings with the rest of her body.

Not only did it hurt like hell, but it also took the ability from Estrid to use her wings. For any dragon, the ability to use its wings to their full potential was one of its strongest weapons. Not only did the dragons use them to fight obviously, but they also acted often for offensive, defensive and even supportive usages.

Dragons tended to use their wings to attack enemies if it was possible, but most importantly, their wings could be used as a defensive measure against some large-scale attacks.

Immediately after Estrid tried to get Yvraine down from her body, she jumped down. She once again started shooting spells at Estrid in her dragon form, and suddenly, Estrid found herself being weaker and weaker.

This was because, before the duel even started, Yvraine used a few tweaking curses on her swords, so even though it won't have a permanent effect, the temporary one would be okey.

And so, when Yvraine created those severely injured on Estrid's body by cutting into her flesh, she inflicted Estrid with a bunch of weakening curses from the Necromancy Arts that she learned from Samiel.

For the next ten minutes, Yvraine kept dodging Estrid's attacks, and because Yvraine was especially agile and fast, she didn't have any problem dodging Estrid's relatively clumsy attacks that were more focused on pure brute power.

'Interesting... she created semi-cursed temporary weapons to get Estrid cursed and bypass her Magic and Curse resistance...'

Samiel thought, while observing the fight, as now it was mostly just Yvraine keeping her distance, preserving her stamina and Mana, while waiting for the Necromancy Art weakening curses to take their effects and even beyond that.

She knew that in terms of raw power, she was way behind Estrid, so she needed to play this smart, not hard. And certainly, after more than half an hour, Samiel could see that the Necromancy Art curses were in their full effect, as Estrid's movements were slower, her strength was slowly leaving her body, and her Mana Regeneration was several times slower than it was before.

And this was the best strategy to defeat an enemy who was toppling you in terms of raw power by continuously weakening him and then playing it on the battle of attrition.

"And the battle has been ended."

Samiel stated after several seconds later, when he saw Estrid collapsing onto the ground still in her dragon form. This was the result of Yvriane attacking her non-stop, especially her weapon spots with Ice and Water Elemental Spells, and under the effects of the curses, it was clear that Estrid couldn't continue fighting any longer.