Dragon Tale - Chapter 6.1 (Patreon)

Take Over magic, was peculiar.

The more Brody used it, the more creatures he took over, the greater his innate understanding of it became.

For example, why did Take Over magic enhance his physical abilities when assuming other forms, but not the volume of his magic power? Especially since, outside of Rog, he only gained a fraction of the magic power of beasts he subsumed.

Where did the rest go?

The true answer was, it did enhance the magic power of the user. It just did not add the volume of the creature taken overs magic to his own when he assumed their form.

What it did, was enhance the the density, the potency of his magic power. In a way, it was like, when he assumed the form of a taken over beast, his magic became layered, and he got more bang for his buck.

At the same time though, because it enhanced the sheer potency of his magic, it cost all the more to use.

That was why he could not assume the full form of the green wyvern he took over for very long.

As the full on wyvern, his scales were even more resistant than what its own was, because it was practically double layered.

Also a passive magical ability, much like taking in Ethernano from the world around him to refill his magic reserves. So he could not turn it off.

'Which is why, I should finish this fast.' he thought as he tore into the air after his target.

His target? A massive white scaled, winged beast, only slightly smaller than the green wyvern he'd felled just over a week ago now.

Far more wily than the beast he'd fought could hope to be though.

In the form he was in right now, Brody was larger, he was stronger, he was more durable and he was faster than it. And to add the cherry on top, he was more capable in physical movement. Where as, its arms were wings and it hunched slightly, he was completely bipedal and his wings were on his back.

His green wyvern form, was more akin to a small dragon in the looks department.

Ahead of him as they tore up through the air along the mountainside, the Blizzardvern he'd caught sight of mid-hunt and chased down, swiped one of its wide wings out, slashing it through the snow at the side of the mountain, before pushing out and with a beat of its massive wings picking up speed and ascending higher.

At the same time, just as it did, an avalanche of snow rumbled and fell in a wave of hail down towards him.

Clicking his tongue within his currently massive scaled maw, Brody shut his mouth and brought his arms up to guard his face and eyes, before shooting up through it, his vision blurring as he tore up and through it within just a few moments.

As he did though and burst out of the top, a second flash of white appeared in his vision, accompanied by a roaring maw.

The Blizzardvern had turned around as soon as his eyes were off of it, and attacked.

It smashed into him like a cannonball and he almost had the wind knocked out of him as he was ploughed into the mountain side by its immense bulk and pinned beneath it.

A taloned foot pinned his jaw, while the other smashed down on his chest and kept him weighed down by its weigh in strength as it lunged down, preparing to tear his scaled throat out with its teeth.

If he were a normal green wyvern, this would probably have been the end for him.

Just before its teeth sank into his neck, his hands shot up, grabbing its jaw from either end and stopping it in its tracks.

And then he pulled, twisting his hands in opposite directions and rolled. A nauseating crunch sound erupted from its jaw bone and a snarling howl tore from its maw as he reversed their positions and straddled its torso, the hand on its now broken lower jaw coming down to wrap around its throat and squeeze, while with the other…

He began laying a heavy bevy of rapid boulder crushing punches straight into its skull with all his strength.

It snarled, roared, howl and thrashed with all its might against him literally both choking and beating it to death.

The resemblance these creatures had to dragons, the strongest race of beings in existence of this world, was not just for show.

That was why, he lifted his spiked tail up into the air while he had it stunned and pinned with the attacks from his hands.

And brought it down with all the strength and speed he could muster out of sight, hidden by his own bulk.

The Blizzardvern froze, eyes going wide and a shuddering breath escaping its maw, as his tail spike pierced through its chest and heart.

It snarled at him, continued to thrash and fight against him, but bit by bit, the light in its eyes dimmed and it fell limp beneath him.

Brody stared at it for a moment, making sure it was dead, before releasing his magic. Light shimmered around his huge scaled body, before his scales receded and he shrunk down, returning to human form sitting atop the blizzardvern's body.

Despite the intense cold temperature around him, sweat trailed his cheeks as he panted deeply.

'Just over a minute and I feel like I'm about to keel over.' he thought with a grimace.

The blizzardvern was a great test of his maximum strength. As he thought, beyond it taking him by surprise with its guile, in a full on physical confrontation, he'd manhandled it.

But also just as he thought, it wasn't something he could use right now casually and was pretty much going to be his last resort in a fight.

He took a minute to regain his breath, before placing his hand on the snout of the massive white scaled beast beneath him, "Take Over." he incanted, directing his magic into it.

As his magic subsumed its body and he absorbed the beast within himself, he couldn't help but think, that it was no wonder Mirajane Strauss stayed in her Take Over forms long, unlike her siblings, she actively used powerful magic in this forms.

He could only imagine how monstrous her magic reserves had to be to transform into forms that powerful while using such powerful magic at the same time.

After taking over the Blizzardvern, he felt energy return to him as his body was empowered by its own strength being partially added to his own and landed on his feet in the snow as the body disappeared.

"That was lucky." he mused to himself. A day had passed since he'd set out now, and he'd more or less covered most of the mountain range of Mount Hakobe and was nearing the end.

It looked like, by his estimates, there was only a single Blizzardvern living in the mountain range. Which, was disappointing, but oh well.

Well, it was fine, while strengthening his wyvern form was all well and good, the stronger it got, the harder it got to maintain anyway, so it was good and bad he supposed.

And he was satisfied with just the one for now anyway, there would be more to find in the future he was sure.

"Well, no point really sticking around and going slow anymore." Brody mused. He'd only been traversing the mountain range on foot, because he was looking for a blizzardvern.

Now that he'd found one and taken it over, there wasn't really any point in going so slow.

With that thought in mind, he pulled on his magic, "Beast Soul: Wyvern!" he declared. In a shimmer of light, green scaled wings erupted from his back, he didn't even bring forth the tail, only the wings to keep the magic expenditure to a minimum.

He jumped and with a powerful flap of his wings, ascended high into the air and flew off, heading in the direction of his destination.

___________

While he couldn't hold even the partial form for too long, his time had increased a decent bit since he first set off from Onibus Town after he took over all those mountain vulcans and not to mention the blizzardvern.

He surprisingly hadn't hit his limit yet on vulcans, and he'd taken over a total of fifty three between the forest vulcan gorians and the mountain vulcans.

Still, while increased, his time was very limited regardless.

But despite that, flying, and especially at the speed he could fly at, meant he could cover a lot of ground before he had to rest.

Within minutes he'd cleared the last of the Mount Hakobe mountain range, and found himself flying over a wide expansive area that ranged from long plains of grass, to craggy canyons and huge forests.

"Hmm?" Brody blinked as he looked down upon hearing a commotion and there below him, noticed something odd.

It was a large herd of pig…creatures. Well, a pig was as close he could reference them to. They looked like pigs, but their skin was brown and spotted, and they were huge.

Easily twenty feet tall in size. But unlike normal pigs, had long, floppy rabbit like ears and mouths filled with razor sharp teeth belonging to a carnivore.

'Hodras, I think?' Brody thought. While he'd read quite a few books on the local fauna, he hadn't been all that too interested in the prey animals.

And despite their huge size and appearance-

They were prey out here.

And he could see why. Because behind the pack of huge spotted pigs, was a pack of dinosaurs.

A bit bigger than the pigs with their bipedal bodies, they resembled a tyrannosaurus rex. If a tyrannosaurus rex had longer arms and legs like a velociraptor while keeping all the bulk and strength of a t-rex in them.

Raptor Rex's they were called, those he had paid special attention to, and had actually hoped to run into at least one.

Though he'd expected a few since they formed hunting packs according to the books he read.

Still, when one looked down upon them and saw the fact that the pack of Hodras numbered in the twenties, twenty three actually by Brody's count, in comparison to the pack of four Raptor Rex's, one would wonder why they were the ones fleeing.

With their huge bulk and obvious weight advantage over them, not to mention their massive numbers advantage, the Hodras should just turn around and crush them in a stampede.

But, in this world, the physical and number advantage alone, did not determine everything. Because some people and some creatures, were more special than others.

'Case in point.' Brody thought, watching with interest as the Rex Raptor leading the charge opened its mouth, flames swirling into existence within its throat, before it exhaled and spat out a large stream of flame.

The stream of flames slammed into one of the huge pigs and lit it up. It topped, crashing into the ground with a squeal of pain as it was consumed by flames.

Its crashing into the ground, threw much of the herd of huge pigs off balance, bringing many down with it, while the rest slowed a bit in an effort to avoid the tumble.

And that was when the other members of the raptor pack jumped into action, fanning out around the lead one and joining it in firing large streams of powerful flame from their maws, aiming for the ones upfront that avoided the fall and lighting them up as well.

They were like a well oiled machine as they systematically roasted each and every single giant brown spotted pig alive.

The shrieked were deafening and Brody actually found himself looking a way a bit. It was that brutal.

'I better get used to it though.' he told himself, forcing his eyes to turn down to the spectacle below him.

This world, was not as peaceful as his own was.

He waited and watched right up until every giant pig fell silent as they died to the flames roasting them alive.

And only when the Rex Raptor pack moved in to chow down on their well deserved meal, did he move.