Beyond the Bloodline

“…damned dragons.”

Wanete spoke with gritted teeth at the sight of this creature, most of her annoyance coming from the fact that even if they survived and reported this attack, the Dragon race’s World Powers were all going to shamelessly deny any involvement in this even though she was 120% sure they had a hand in it.

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and ran over to the other cars where her companions were to check on them, while Jamie walked forward while studying the dragon.

‘Inferior Stage Legendary Realm. Guess we’re evenly matched… realm-wise, that is.’

Just as he thought that, the dragon turned its gaze towards their direction, before flapping its powerful wings and flying straight to them.

Kilometres of distance were crossed within seconds, with the creature arriving in front of them and landing on the ground a few metres away.

“It seems I was a bit too hasty in my attack. You also seemed to have some sort of protective artifacts with you.

Then again, that much was expected.”

The dragon spoke with a deep voice as it scrutinized them with his gaze, showing mild surprise when he noticed that Wanete did not tremble under his gaze like all the others.

He then turned his gaze towards Jamie who was trying to turn off the tablet in his hands, eventually giving up and just tossing it towards the driver and saying.

“Turn that thing off.”

He then walked towards the dragon who had now locked his gaze onto him, scanning him from head to toe as Jamie’s face was not included in the list he was given.

“Who are you, boy?

You give off the same vibe as those bloodsuckers, but at the same time, you also have the stench of those mutts.”

“It’s been over ten thousand years and you giant lizards are still as arrogant as ever.”

“You brat!!!”

The Dragon flared its aura angrily in response to Jamie’s words, using one of his race’s inherent abilities that were built for intimidating opponents; Dragon Fear!

The Vampire children and their subordinates all dropped to their knees involuntarily, pressured by the weight of the aura bearing down on them.

But Jamie, with an air of nonchalance, strolled through the oppressive atmosphere as if it were a mere breeze.

“You just called them Bloodsuckers, but when I liken you to a Giant Lizard, you get pissed?

Besides, who the hell do you think you’re calling a boy?”

Jamie’s gaze narrowed as a palpable aura of power erupted from his being, engulfing the area and neutralizing the effects of the dragon’s ability.

Seeing this, the dragon instantly understood that Jamie had power matching his, but he still felt confident, after all—

‘Dragons are far stronger than other races in the same realm!’

Such was the reason for his confidence. There was also the fact that he was a ‘Nonstandard’ type of existence, but that term would be discussed at a later date

Following the principle of the first to attack ‘wins’, the dragon moved instantly took action, swinging its forelimb at a speed unexpected for its large body.

All the young vampires saw was the dragon raising the limb in the air and before they could even shout out to Jamie, the creature’s aura-coated claws were already bearing down on him.

The dragon was sure that his attack was going to catch Jamie off guard, which was precisely why he had not expected what happened next.

**BAMM!!!

His gaze which was locked onto Jamie’s form, caught sight of what occurred with his superior kinetic vision.

Jamie casually rose his left hand, stretching it out with his palm open, just in time for the dragon’s claw to collide with it.

However, contrary to the dragon’s expectation, Jamie’s arm did not get blown to smithereens, but instead blocked the dragon’s attack with ease.

“It’s coming back to me bit by bit.”

Jamie muttered to himself as he roused his energy, controlling the law energy of space and constricting it around the dragon’s forelimb.

The spatial lock held the dragon’s limb in place, preventing it from pulling back and dodging what the Hybrid did next.

The ambient spatial laws in the area scrambled and a distorting vortex of spatial energy formed around the dragon’s wrist.

“GAAAHHHHH!!!!”

The loud scream of the dragon rang out across the island as the creature’s wrist was severed by the spiralling void, with bright red blood splattering all over the ground.

“ARHGH…you…what…how??!!”

His speech was broken as he leapt back with his large body to take distance from Jamie, glaring at the Hybrid while trying to understand how his own law energies failed to protect him.

‘This man’s spatial control is higher than mine!’

Reaching such an obvious conclusion, the dragon’s wariness towards Jamie was boosted to a new high. He took deep breaths and used magic to numb the pain, while also drawing in ambient energy of the law of life, but he knew fully well that even with that, he was still not going to be able to heal the wound completely.

“…what…are you?”

His earlier arrogance had diminished greatly, and he voiced out that question, trying to glean some information from Jamie who he had seen was quite talkative.

At the same time, he had activated recording and transmission magic, preparing to send Jamie’s reply back to his superiors, but sadly for him, the Hybrid had guessed his thoughts already.

“Nullifying Echo.”

An omnidirectional wave of energy spread out from his body and into the surroundings, nullifying all types of magic and unknowingly, also technology used to transmit information over long distances.

Seeing that Jamie had cast a spell, the dragon instantly raised his guard, only realising it was not an attack spell when his magic was nullified a second later.

Jamie’s spell was one that could be considered an ‘ancient’ spell, so the dragon had zero knowledge of it and its effects until it was cast.

It also did not know that the spell had a limited effective range too.

“Oh, I’d add a little extra just so you can’t run away.

Dimensional Lock.”

A shimmering translucent barrier panned out, covering the area around them, rendering all teleportation and transfer magic cast by anyone other than Jamie unusable.

“I’d rather not let the rest of the Lizards know I’m awake for now.”

Being called ‘lizard’ once more by Jamie ticked the dragon off, but he knew better than to let his anger get the best of him, especially after he had lost an arm.

So, he opted for a different means to vent his annoyance.

His wings spread out wide and flapped to generate air pressure, and with a little bit of magic infused, dozens of wind blades tore through the air and hurtled towards Jamie.

The dragon then jumped backwards, flapping his wings and taking flight before condensing magic power in its maw.

Within seconds, the condensed energy had turned into a beam of red light shooting through the air and towards the ground.

It was far weaker than the earlier breath attack, but this was the best he could do when given such little time to charge it up.

Even so, the power it held was still terrifying, and with the law energy infused within it, the Vampires behind Jamie would be not too far from death if it hits the ground.

Knowing this, Jamie rose his hand and formed a finger gun, condensing a ball of energy at the tip and firing it towards the incoming dragon breath.

**WHOOSHH!!!

The ball shot through the air and collided with the beam in mid-air, a dazzling display of colours erupted through the sky.

A violent explosion erupted, creating shockwaves that rippled through the surrounding area as the two energies clashed with each other, seeming like a struggle of wills between the two energies, with neither willing to give in.

The Vampires spectating from a distance all felt the intense magical turbulence and they weren’t foolish to just stand there and watch.

As they picked themselves up and retreated further, the collision of the two attacks continued for a few more seconds, with Jamie’s energy ball slowly inching forward, gradually overpowering the dragon’s breath.

With a sudden surge of power, Jamie's energy ball broke through the resistance of the dragon's beam. The ball penetrated the beam, shattering it into fragments of red light that dissipated into the air.

Though it lost more than half its energy from this, the remaining was still enough to deal a substantial amount of damage, and that it did.

It continued on its path, racing towards the dragon who just barely managed to dodge. Unfortunately, his dodge was not clean as the ball scraped the top of his shoulder, exploding on contact and releasing a shockwave that blasted against his scales.

The dragon once again roared in pain and frustration as it was knocked off its course in the sky, only barely managing to regain control of his flight after a few seconds.

“Quintuple Casting!”