Devouring Dragon Heir

"Then, I will go my way," Klaus said, his voice was calm but carried an underlying tone of finality.

He turned to leave, ready to continue his hunt for the EX-rank monster alone.

"What? Why is he leaving!" Julie's mind raced, a sudden wave of panic washing over her. "I have to stop him!" Almost immediately, she moved, grabbing his shirt again, her delicate hand clenched the fabric tightly.

Klaus turned around, "Hm?" He looked at Julie with a questioning gaze, his red eyes curious.

Inside, he felt a strange sense of relief, a subtle easing of the tension he hadn't even realized he held.

But a lot of confusion also crept up in his mind. "Why are my thoughts fluctuating so much?" he thought, puzzled by his unexpected emotional response.

Julie just looked at him. She bowed her head a bit forward, then continued to gently nudge his clothes, a silent plea.

Klaus was confused. Her actions were not clear. "Are you injured?" he asked.

Julie shook her head, her black hair swaying.

"Are you hungry?" Klaus asked.

Julie shook her head again.

"You want a weapon?" Klaus asked, thinking she might need one to fight.

She shook her head once more.

"Okay, let's do this," Klaus said, his voice softening slightly.

He picked up a small twig from the ground and held it out to her, gesturing for her to draw on the sand. He thought it would help her explain what she wanted.

Julie took the twig. Her fingers, small and delicate, moved carefully in the sand, forming words. She wrote,

"Can we be together?"

Klaus's heart beat quickened as he saw the words. A faint blush appeared on his face, surprising him.

The directness of the question, from a girl he had only just met, was entirely unexpected.

"Ahem! You mean you want to remain together for the competition, right?" Klaus asked, clearing his throat awkwardly.

He tried to interpret her words in a logical, non-romantic way, hoping to avoid any misunderstanding.

Julie smiled. Her eyes brightened, and she nodded, confirming his interpretation.

Klaus sweated. His initial plans would have to change.

Normally, he would have refused such a request. His pragmatic nature usually ignored such things as partnership or collaboration.

But something within him, a strange, undeniable feeling, was begging him to comply with his emotions for once, to accept this unusual companionship.

He felt that he might regret it later, that it could complicate things. But still, he thought that bringing her might be alright.

She was Magnus's daughter, after all.

"Oh, I understand," Klaus noted, hardening his tone a bit, shifting back to his more practical demeanor.

"But I cannot just let you come with me. I need to see if you would be any useful to me for the rest of the competition. This is a battle royale, not a picnic."

"So," Klaus continued, "show me something. Your skills, or your weapon techniques. Anything that might be useful to me."

Julie looked at him with an expression that clearly said,

"Really? You want to do that?" Her eyes held a mix of amusement and a hint of mischief. She understood his request fully.

But what she did next spun Klaus's whole world. His entire perspective about talents, about his own strength, and about the true nature of power in this world was about to change.

Julie internally commanded Pyro, the Fire Spirit. "I need your help," she thought, directing her will.

Pyro replied with amusement, her mental voice shimmering. "Oh, so you are not going for the 'weak, submissive woman' path anymore?"

Julie shook her head. "Well, I know he is pretending to be cold, but he asked for it, talking to me like that. He needs to understand." Her internal voice was firm, determined.

"Hehe, let's do this," Pyro agreed, a thrill of power echoing in her thoughts.

Soon, Pyro's immense powers flowed through Julie's mortal body.

The air around Julie began to shimmer, turning a faint, deep orange. Klaus could sense that she was invoking something, channeling elemental energy.

"Hmm, maybe she's activating a skill," Klaus thought, his senses alert. He waited, his gaze fixed on her, eager to see her in action.

But after a few seconds, nothing dramatic happened. Only the hue of the air around Julie changed slightly, growing more intense, a vibrant orange that deepened with every passing moment.

Klaus asked, "Umm? Well..." But he stopped midway, his voice trailing off, as a sudden, bad premonition occurred to him. He felt an immense power rapidly building far above them.

As if sensing something on cue, Klaus looked at the sky, his expression widening in shock.

His jaw dropped. A colossal, blazing orb of fire, easily the size of a blazing sun, was rapidly forming high in the atmosphere. It was a perfect, burning sphere, growing larger and larger, radiating an unimaginable heat.

Julie smirked. Her gaze shifted from Klaus's wide-eyed face to the sky, as she saw the image of the meteor being reflected in Klaus's eyes.

"Hehe, just don't go overboard, you might as well kill him with shock," Violet, the Darkness Spirit, added mentally her voice tinged with amusement.

Violet had just arrived beside Julie after she finished acting as the big grotesque monster that supposedly terrified Julie,

and then she ran towards him intending to fall into his arms. although that thought changed when she saw the sword in Klaus's hand earlier.

Julie had just created an exact copy, a perfect ditto of the meteor that Klaus had summoned during the banquet's conclusion. It was the same overwhelming size, the same devastating power.

"No fucking way!" Klaus's jaw dropped further, his mind reeling. This was unprecedented.

This meant Julie's fire affinity either matched his own, or perhaps even outclassed his. The thought of someone else possessing such raw elemental power, especially in this world, was a shock.

"System, what the fuck is this?" Klaus demanded internally, his voice filled with incredulity. "Don't tell me now that she has a Supreme Dragoness System too?"

[Ding!! Might be a possibility.] the System replied, its voice maddeningly neutral.

"Fuck you, bitch! You know shit about anything!" Klaus cursed internally, his frustration boiling over.

He was going bonkers by the fact that someone was matching his affinity level.

The colossal meteor was a perfect copy of Klaus's own Blazing Meteor, crashed at a certain distance away from them, impacting the ground with an earth-shattering BOOM! A massive explosion of fire and dust erupted, scarring the landscape, but precisely missing them.

Klaus watched the devastating impact, feeling the heat on his face. He wiped cold sweat from his brow, his mind racing.

"I fucking need to get stronger! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" All his previous thoughts about Julie, the simple desire to help her, were getting completely clouded with a sudden, overwhelming panic and a renewed drive to power.

He looked at Julie, his gaze intense. "Miss, you are already this strong, why did you need my help in the first place? Why did you act so weak?"

Julie's internal monologue went into overdrive. "Oh no, Pyro, I think I went overboard! OMG, what do I do now?" She hadn't intended to reveal that much power.

As if thinking of something, Julie immediately pointed towards him, then at herself, and then joined her small fists together, a gesture of alliance.

"You mean to say, that we are allies, so we should group together?" Klaus asked, interpreting her unspoken message. He was still trying to process the skill she had shown.

Julie smiled, her eyes bright and innocent, and nodded silently.

Klaus, still wiping sweat from his face, felt his pride struggle against his pragmatic mind.

"Ugh! I guess she might help me with hunting the EX-rank monster," he conceded, seeing the immediate utility. Her power was undeniable.

With that, Klaus nodded. "Okay, you can come with me. But only help me when I tell you to, and let me farm my points individually." He needed to maintain control of his progression.

Julie nodded, a silent agreement. She then took the twig from Klaus's hand and wrote down in the sand: "Same for you."

"Yup," Klaus nodded, understanding the implied condition.

He then extended his hand, offering a handshake. Julie took his hand with a gleaming smile. As soon as her small, soft hands touched his,

a strange current of subtle electric energy bolted through Klaus's body, a sensation that was strangely exhilarating.

"Control, Klaus, control yourself!" he mentally commanded himself. Somehow, he felt an intense, almost overwhelming desire to just pull her close, to bridge the strange gap between them, but he fought and resisted the temptation.

With that, they both started walking towards another direction together, Klaus taking the lead, navigating through the forest.

He remained quiet, leading the way, his mind processing the recent events.

Meanwhile, Julie just walked calmly behind him, her graceful yet seemingly modest figure following Klaus, her gaze now pierced Klaus's back making him sweat heavily.