Chapter 90 Submergence
Brian was always acutely aware of his strengths and weaknesses.
Although he sensed a slight aura of danger from Rosha, it did not mean that he feared him. In Brian's view, any threat requiring close combat and falling within his reaction range wasn't a true adversary.
The reason was simple: the ability to stop time made him nearly invincible.
What genuinely concerned Brian were those who could cast high-level spells from a distance, instantly penetrating his soul. Once a spell was successfully cast, its speed could surpass Brian's limits, with some spells activating before the target even realized it.
However, Rosha was clearly not that type.
With a three-foot-long magic greatsword adorned with a dark green gemstone on its hilt, emitting a sharp sword aura, Rosha swung it at Brian with a shrill slicing sound.
Before Rosha even arrived, the wind-attribute sword energy rushed at Brian.
At nearly the same moment, Brian's body grew larger in a burst of magical light. He transformed into an Adult Dragon, similar in size to Salia but more muscular.
It was a fourth-ring transmutation spell, the Enlargement Spell.
This sudden transformation drew many eyes, including Salia's.
She lifted her head, staring at Brian in astonishment, her expression shifting, her thoughts unreadable.
A heavily armored knight, seizing her distraction, leapt up and struck her head with a huge shield, producing a crisp sound and a burst of sparks.
Salia, snapping back to focus, glanced away and delivered a backhand slap, smashing the knight and his armor into pieces.
On the other side of the battlefield, feeling the surge of power within him, Brian extended his claws.
His white, metallic-like claws grabbed the blue sword energy and crushed it into dissipating elemental energy.
A crack appeared on his Dragon Claws, but they did not bleed.
Not only was Brian's magic resistance high, but his physical resistance was also significantly superior to that of an ordinary True Dragon. After using the magic-consuming Enlargement Spell, this resistance further increased.
Sword energy attacks alone could not truly harm Brian.
The sword energy was merely a test. With a repressed, wild gaze, Rosha growled deeply and charged at Brian, covering the distance quickly in the rolling snow.
He twisted his waist, swinging the magic greatsword in a wide arc.
In a high-speed spin, he tried to slice through Brian's dragon scales.
Snowflakes were caught in his sword's path, instantly turning to snow dust, adding a frosted texture to the blade's glow.
Such a fierce attack belonged to the techniques of a seasoned warrior.
However, what surprised Rosha was that his enhanced speed and strength, even in a berserk state, failed to hit the target.
Brian, originally right in front of him, was suddenly thirty feet away, as if he had always been there.
The influence of Time Stop was limited, and if prolonged in a crowd, it would create an area of bizarre phantasmagoria.
Brian didn't want to expose his ability to so many beings, thus he only used it for an instant.
He had no choice; the magic greatsword's hit was something he preferred to avoid.
The wounds on Salia and the ferocious Frost Tiger were mostly caused by Rosha.
Others could only perceive the momentary halt as a glitch, unless they were knowledgeable enough to recognize time manipulation. They might just think their eyes played tricks or Brian used some kind of spatial magic.
Compared to time magic, spatial magic was rare but not mysterious.
Spatial Rings, Teleportation Arrays, and Magic Pockets all involved spatial powers, and even the sealing of the Skylock contained spatial dynamics.
As Rosha's previous force waned and new strength had yet to emerge, Brian lashed out with a dragon tail, brimming with dragon scales, slicing through the snowstorm with freezing Cold Wind, and struck Rosha.
Like hitting a baseball, Rosha's body, like a rag doll, was sent flying, crashing through dozens of heavily armored knights and several Ogres, leaving a long trench hundreds of feet away before stabilizing.
A normal spellcaster would have been turned into mincemeat from such a blow.
Brian glanced at his stinging tail.
As Rosha was being knocked back, he had swiftly managed to deliver a slash. The sharp magic sword sliced through white scales and tore the muscles beneath, causing streams of dragon blood to flow.
Without the Enlargement Spell, the wound would have been larger.
Brian's expression darkened as he observed the now-distant Rosha struggling to rise. His reddened skin, heavy breathing, and bloodshot eyes indicated suffering, yet his spirit remained unbroken. After a few deep breaths, he charged at Brian again, killing everything in his path.
He seemed to be in a state of full berserk, with enhanced resistance and a disregard for pain, but his rationality was almost entirely gone.
Besides Brian's kin, a few unlucky knights were also slaughtered by his sword swings, a spectacle to which the other knights seemed accustomed, promptly retreating and steering clear of Rosha's madness.
Meanwhile, occasional spells targeted Brian, mainly fire-based, supporting Rosha.
The human spellcasters mistakenly believed Brian, as a white dragon, was vulnerable to fire attacks, but low-level spells, regardless of their elemental type, were insignificant to Brian. He let them hit him, feeling like a mere massage.
This terrifying magic resistance disheartened all the lower-ranked spellcasters.
Watching the approaching, utterly berserk Rosha, Brian calmly opened his mouth, blue ice light rolling between his fangs, waiting for Rosha.
Plunder Time's breath was ineffective against vigorous enemies like Rosha but devastating against old Mages, unstoppable by any defense.
Rosha's rapid agility, comparable to a whirlwind, made him cover tens or even hundreds of feet swiftly. Even with Time Stop, Brian had to remain focused to keep pace.
Seconds later, Rosha stepped into Brian's Time Stop range.
Brian opens the mouth widely.
Upon noticing Brian's movement, Rosha instinctively prepared to dodge the Frost Breath.
Brian unhesitatingly activated Time Stop.
In that instant, the wind paused, snow halted.
When time resumed for Rosha, his vision filled with the icy blue frost wind and sharp ice crystals of Brian's Frost Breath.
The concentrated Dragon Breath hit Rosha head-on, engulfing his body.
