Dragon Tale - Chapter 7.2 (Patreon)

The world around him morphed into a frenzy of blazing reds, oranges, and yellows. His equilibrium faltered as his everything shifted on its very axis, and a bolt of nausea overtook him. Overwhelmed by his newfound sensitivity to sight, smell, and hearing and more, Brody succumbed to his own sensory overload and he collapsed on his backside, clutching his stomach.

"Ah yes, I do recall the evolutionary leap towards acquiring senses akin to ours, as dragons, is quite jarring," The fiery aura surrounding Brody dispersed, and he blinked in amazement. He found himself on the summit of a colossal mountain, casting a shadow over an expanse of lush forest. Other imposing peaks surrounded him, and the mighty and powerful Atlas Flame towered beside him, emanating a mighty blaze, "Take a few deep breaths and calm yourself, immerse yourself into your senses, get a feel for them and it should pass quickly."

"…Atlas…Flame?…Urk…!" Brody mumbled, looking up at him, before clutching his mouth as he forced himself not to vomit, "How…are you….?"

"Actually, I think I'd quite rather prefer father or dad from you, or pops as you called me before, that has a good ring to it," Atlas Flame hummed contemplatively, "And why am I still here when you used your Take Over magic on me? Because I willed it. Your Take Over magic, was the perfect way to imbue my essence into you and pass upon my abilities as the Hellfire Dragon, but I do not have a body for you to Take Over, so the instinctual usage of power you can draw upon from normal targets, will not work here, because there is no existing body to draw the instincts from. Thus, I decided to to draw you into a melding of our minds, a bridging point where we could speak, and where I could teach you what you need to know to use your abilities."

Ah.

"Does that mean, you'll…be sticking around?" Brody asked, the vertigo assaulting his body beginning to lighten up bit by bit. He couldn't deny, having Atlas Flame around to learn from, would quite probably, be even better than gaining his form as a Take Over. He was hundreds of years old and would be a fount of knowledge to draw from.

"No," Atlas Flame dashed those thoughts immediately, "There is only so long I can keep this up. My power is so very finite now, the dwindling ember of a once inferno that ruled hell itself. But, I cannot allow you, my son, my legacy, to go out into the world with no training with your abilities at all."

"…I'm sure I'd figure it out eventually…Pops." Brody pointed out.

"Eventually, being the operative word, my powers as a dragon are not quite so simple as others," Atlas Flame replied with a shake of his massive flaming head, "I was one of the strongest of the fire dragons. Once a contender for the position of king of the fire dragons, though I lost in the end to my friend Igneel. But I was not always the Hellfire Dragon, once upon a time, I was simply the Flare Dragon, a dragon who used basic fire dragon magic with no special properties. To rise above my station, to ascend to the heights I sought and become powerful amongst my kin, I had to evolve my magic. And thus, I became the Hellfire Dragon, the user of a flame filled with the concept of anti magic, my flame burns magic itself and even the very soul of those I consider my enemy."

'Anti magic fire that burns even souls?' Brody blinked, before his eyes flew wide open in shock. That was insane, he thought initially it would just be a general flame type magic with dragon slaying properties, but here he was learning that his flames could burn away magic itself?

That was big. Huge even!

…For what, he didn't know. He just knew that it was an insanely powerful ability!

He turned his massive head to Brody and looked down at him, "Before our time is up, you must learn the most pivotal parts of my magic," his newly acquired dragon father proclaimed, "The flame form, and the ability to interact with souls. You will need both equally for the future."

"…Okay, I'm with you on that," Brody nodded in agreement, "But, this doesn't sound like something I'm going to be able to learn in just a few hours or something like that. Those giants that worship you aren't going to be happy when they come find me sitting in front of an empty pit where the big flame they used to worship used to be."

"That flame was not my body, it was merely a creation to hide myself within and draw energy from to keep my soul from dissipating, it will not disappear simply because I have," his dragon father shook his massive head, "And there is no need to worry. Your current perception is many times faster in here than it is outside thanks to my Thought Acceleration magic. Even should a week pass here, only minutes would pass outside your mind. Giving me plenty of time to teach you."

"Thought Acceleration magic?" Brody hummed with interest, that was kind of like the magic enchanted on his Gale Force Reading Glasses. And not to mention, amazing! "Is that part of Hellfire Dragon magic as well?"

If it was, it sure was a magic with a lot of variety, that was for sure.

"No, this is simply basic magic I picked up over the period of my life, just like many other magic disciplines, as I said, I had to evolve my innate fire dragon magic to become what I am today and that meant I needed to learn much more magic," Atlas Flame denied, shaking his head, "I after all am not a perverted fool who spent his time creating magic to strip people."

Oh.

Wait, was he talking about Zirconis? Did that guy have anything to do with the pervert Atlas Flame was talking about earlier? About who's stench was on him?

Maybe he should pay a visit to Crocus? The way he spoke abouyt the stench on him, did that mean it was possible to make a dragon lacrima from Zirconis' remains?

"Do you think you could teach me some of that?" Brody asked, putting that out of mind for the moment, "Gotta admit, this Thought Acceleration Magic seems really handy."

"…If we have time for it, I'll teach you whatever else I can," Atlas Flame nodded, "But even with this, our time is limited. So before all else, you must become a fully realised Dragon Slayer."

"Right," Brody nodded, that was true. And he did especially want to be able to use the flame form, with it, he could easily deal with most without issue because they'd never be able to hit him, "So, how about we get right down to it then pops?"

"Let us, my son," Atlas' flames burning maw curved up into a pleased smile, "Draw upon your magic. The one instinct you will have right now as far as having my magic, is the instinctive ability to form your magic power into the flames of the Hellfire Dragon."

"Gotcha." Brody nodded.

The teenager shut his eyes, delving deep into his core, drawing upon his magic, summoning it forth. An itchy heat coursed through his body, the power coiling inside him as his fingers involuntarily contorted themselves into clawed shapes. In a spark of magic, a dazzling emerald green blaze came to life, flickering and dancing in the palm of his hand.

The feel of it, was amazing. Right away, he could tell. Compared to the flame he could produce with the fire mafic he gained from the Raptor Rex's, this blazing emerald flame, was far more potent, far more powerful.

These after all, were the flames of a dragon.

"…Why is it green though?" Brody wondered, cocking his head to the side, curious.

"Hellfire Dragon magic is connected to the very soul, it is what allows your eyes, ears and more to perceive even the wandering souls of the dead and interact with them," Atlas Flame replied, "As such, the flames themselves reflect the colour of your own magic power. My own magic power simply is ironically quite similar to fire itself in colouring, while yours is not."

Oh.

'Cool.' Brody's lips curved up into a grin. Honestly, it was pretty amazing. It meant even his natural flames were pretty much unique in appearance as well as effect. Perhaps it was petty to take pride in something like that, but he couldn't help it. Everybody liked to be told they were special after all.

Wait.

He could see the souls of the dead, hear them, and even physically interact with them if his new fathers words were anything to go by?

Would that allow him to see Mavis even when he wasn't part of Fairy Tail?

"Yes, it seems I was right," Atlas Flame nodded his massive head sagely, "You really have no talent at all when it comes to magic. I have seen toddler Dragon Slayers do better on their first try."

"…Urk!" Brody grimaced, looking away, the tips of his ears burning as he did. He already knew that! Blue had already demonstrated how trash his innate ability with magic beyond Take Over was.

That didn't matter though. Smothering his embarrassment, Brody whipped around to give the huge flaming dragon a determined look, "I'll do better next time." he vowed.

"I'm sure you will, I already know how powerful you will become in the future, after all, what you lack in talent, you make up for in tenacity, which is a far better trait to have," Atlas Flame chuckled, "But, this is why I'm here remember? In this case, you must remember that Lost Magicks like dragon slayer magic, are many times more powerful than their common counterparts, but to go along with that, they need many times the magic power to fuel them properly. You instinctively used the same amount of magic you would have with normal fire magic, that I believe you got from taking over some of those fire breathing lizards running around."

"Oh…!" Brody clapped his hands together, eyes widening in realisation. So that was what it was? 'Idiot, and you were just thinking of that not long!' he scolded himself. Hadn't he told himself fire magic would still be good to use because it would take a lot less power than dragon slayer magic flames?

"Right, gotcha!" Brody nodded, "Lemme try again!"

"In a moment," Atlas Flame stopped him, raising one huge fiery claw, "It is not just the magic power you had off. It was your stance, your breathing. Your fingers are the claws of a dragon that ignite with flame, your skin that of a fire dragons scales that can diffuse and smother flame, your very lungs are those of a fire dragon. It has only been a few minutes, so it is no wonder, you haven't adapted fully yet, despite your enhanced lungs, you still breathe like a human and not a dragon. Your breathe control is important. Your enhanced lungs can take in more oxygen, enhancing the strength at which your heart beats, the rush at which your blood races through your veins, the strength that your very muscles can exude. Allow me, to give you a proper demonstration."

Atlas Flame sung his massive head back, inhaling massively as he did. The dragons huge flaming chest outright expanded before Brody's eyes, before, just like Brody before him, the giant fiery dragon snapped his head out, maw opening wide, "Hellfire Dragon's Roar!"

A titanic gout of flame erupted from his mouth with such explosive force, a shock wave blasted outwards, smashing Brody off of his feet. The world was dyed in the colours of flame as the great gout of flame tore through the air, clearing thousands of feet in the blink of an eye and slamming into one of the massive mountains in the distance. It erupted in a massive corona of explosive flame and force and the world shook around Brody as if a massive earthquake was trying to shake the world apart.

A thunderous boom drowned out all other sound and made Brody's ears ring, and the sheer brightness of the flame forced him to close his eyes as they were seared by it.

It took him a moment to even realise his heart was thundering a monstrously fast beat within his chest, going a mile a minute. With a shuddering breath as he attempted to control his breathing, Brody opened his mouth and stared in awe.

The mountain…was just gone. All that remained, were slags of molten rock at the very bottom. Automatically, Brody's head turned to look at his new adopted father and to his astonishment, the very rock the huge dragon was standing atop, had been cratered inwards and molten into sizzling glowing orange slag just from being in the vicinity of Atlas Flames roar.

"….Holy….shit." Brody gaped at the destruction in absolute awe. He'd never seen anything so crazy in his entire life.

His newly adopted dragon father, had just seared a mountain of existence with his his breath!

"Hmhmhm!" Atlas Flame puffed out his flaming chest proudly, "Such is the power of the Hellfire Dragon my son, and the power you too shall wield one day, beyond even I'm sure!"

…That sure was a whole lot of faith he was putting in him.

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Meant to have this up a few days ago, got caught up with a few things, sorry about that. Gonna try and get something else updated later as well. I'm thinking either, Shinobi, Devour or Critical, but who knows what mood I'll be in after I get up from sleeping.