Dragon's Tale 88 (Patreon)

I wished that I could say that I collapsed in satisfaction as the last enemy had fallen, enjoying the chance to take a breather after a difficult battle — one that, arguably, was the most difficult one I had ever experienced. 

Unfortunately, resting after such a challenging battle was not in the cards that had been dealt by the fate, as I could not only feel the pain of the transformation filling my body, triggering my pain, but also, I could feel the feeling of the scales slowly creeping up to my neck. 

“Quick,” my ally gasped. “Go and grab the resonating dragon heart,” she ordered as she pointed toward the center of the room, where the largest piece of dragon heart sat, crackling with lightning. “The resonance is getting stronger, we need to break the connection.” 

Saying that, she started moving, not even bothering to wait for me to react. That proved smart, as the moment I took a step, I moved much faster than I expected.

Much faster than my body had been capable of just a moment ago, showing the transformation was getting even worse. Worse not in terms of impact, as it was hard to argue with the incredible physical improvement my body was experiencing, allowing me to cut through enemies that were supposed to demolish me without my full magic. 

Yet, my magic was hampered by the same transformation. 

Even worse, that wasn’t even the worst thing. I could feel unfamiliar instincts growing in my heart, wild and aggressive, the kind that clearly didn’t and shouldn’t belong to a human, forcing me to act. 

I bit my lips as I passed my ally, biting my lips to suppress a more carnal aspect of my new instincts, which was a supremely difficult challenge. Luckily, my mind was still more supreme, and I arrived in front of the dragon heart without a crisis. 

I stood in front of it as it crackled with lightning, trying to suppress the sudden twinge of hesitation. Even with my elemental specialization, lightning was a scary element.

Grabbing a dragon heart crackling with an incredible amount of lightning made it much scarier. 

“It’s not as scary as turning into a monster,” I murmured as I took a deep breath, trying to gather the necessary courage. 

I still needed the voice of my ally. “Quick, before it goes out of control.” 

A lightning orb was scary, but not as scary as an out-of-control explosion powered by such a huge piece of dragon heart. I tensed as grabbed the dragon's heart in my claws. The moment my scaly fingers touched it, the lightning bolts on its surface intensified, covering my body, activating every single nerve ending in my body at the same time. 

And with that, came pain.  

It was intense, like I had been just dipped in molten lead. The pain blanketed my mind, worse than anything I had ever experienced, with the notable exception of the first time I had swallowed the first dragon heart. And, even that was a difficult comparison. 

Yet, that didn’t mean I couldn’t feel anything else. I could feel the skin of my legs crawling with the familiar sensation. The scales were spreading even faster, both down my body and up my neck. More importantly, I could feel the scales getting thicker.  

Yet, I couldn’t feel angry at that development, because as the scales spread, the pain was becoming somewhat manageable. 

“What are you doing!” my ally shouted. “Suppress the lightning, I can’t touch you like that. We need to suppress the transformation before you turn into a wild beast and die!” 

Of course, what an excellent idea! How could I not imagine such a simple solution? 

Unfortunately, with the pain, I didn’t have the luxury of wasting my breath on sarcasm. “Do—“ I managed to gasp between my clenched teeth as the sudden explosion of pain started to get more manageable. I managed to stay conscious, but only barely as the one that was buried in my chest started to throb as well, flooding my body with its power, giving me the strength to resist the overwhelming dominance of the other one. “Do I look like I’m in control?” I managed to gasp. “My magic is going wild.” 

“But that’s impossible,” I heard her gasp behind me. “Because that means that their resonance already reached the point of active radiance. It’s impossible for you to stay alive when they are resonating with active radiance.”

“Sorry for the convenience of being alive,” I said, unable to suppress the temptation of sarcasm even as I struggled to suppress my magic. As I spoke, my own voice hit unfamiliarly to my ears, with my lips giving a scaly feeling. 

I breathed hard as I tried to loosen my grip around the dragon heart, but that didn’t seem to be working because my scaly fingers refused to listen to my order, holding tight against the crystal. 

Even my tongue felt foreign in my mouth. 

I closed my eyes tightly as the sensation spread onto my face even more. And when I opened back, everything was different. 

The first thing I noticed was the colors, but it was not limited to that. The colors, the shapes, everything. No, I corrected myself as I felt a sensation crawling in my temples. It wasn’t the room that changed, but my eyes, making me see the world differently. Even my nose — the only part of my body that I could see by looking down — was different, smaller, with scales covering its surface. 

Yet, the transformation of my body was nothing compared to the way my core was reacting. It was throbbing with all the intensity of a furnace, sending its own lightning bolts outside. For a moment, I had thought that they were battling, feeling the chill of Pluto, mixed into the fires of Mercury. 

After all, as the earlier battle had shown, dragon hearts were not equal, and the one that in my hands was radiated magic that easily eclipsed the one that was responsible for my transformation, and it did so by a significant margin. 

With my magic out of control, I didn’t even have the chance to resist, watching it helplessly. With my skin — scales — still crackling with lightning, even help from my ally was not an option. She couldn’t put her hand without being shocked herself. 

To her credit, she tried. She cast several spells without touching me, but this time, the ability of lightning to destroy magic worked against me, easily demolishing the delicate structure of her healing spells. 

Yet, soon, I noticed something wrong. I wasn’t getting weaker but stronger. Feeling shocked, I opened my gaze and looked down, only to notice the crystal I was holding in my hand was getting smaller. I closed my eyes and focused on my core, only to notice another shocking thing. 

It was getting bigger, stronger, pumping my body with more and more mana in the process. 

Too late I realized that the lightning that was escaping my core was not battling against the energy of the one that I was holding in my hand, but guiding its streams. 

As the crystal holding in my hand got smaller, the process of absorption quickened, and soon, my hands were completely empty once more. 

My ally stammered as she looked at me in shock, murmuring something in her native language. Yet, I had a feeling about her question. 

“I have no idea how I’m still alive as well, sweetie. No idea at all…” I murmured as I shuffled, only to notice something behind myself. I turned to look, only to see a surprise. A pair of surprises, to be exact. 

Two big, scaly wings, sprouting out from my back…