King Albus slowly lowers his arm after blocking my attack.

Meanwhile...

The force from our collision continues to travel throughout my entire body as I slide backwards across the shattered courtyard.

CRRRRRRR!!!!

Stone breaks apart underneath my feet until I finally come to a stop.

Blood drips from my hand.

Drip. Drip.

My eyes slowly widen as I realize the scales covering my arm have cracked.

What? That shouldn’t be possible in the slightest... I have never seen the scales crack from any of the enemies I have fought in the past.

My dragon power immediately begins trying to repair the damage but it is taking longer than it should... Longer than usual.

King Albus notices it immediately.

"I see you’ve finally noticed," King Albus says with a smirk on his face.

His voice immediately gets on my nerves.

"Noticed what?" I ask.

The black aura around him continues to spread throughout the courtyard.

Even the air feels heavier than before.

"Your limitations," He answers.

My eye twitches.

Limitations? What the hell is he even on about right now?

The purple and black flames surrounding my arm immediately begin burning brighter.

More power surges throughout my body.

Yet the moment I force more of it out... Pain shoots throughout my entire arm.

CRACK!!!!

Another scale breaks apart.

My eyes narrow.

You need to stop forcing more power out right now until I can figure out a way around this. It isn’t worth hurting yourself over repeatedly.

This doesn’t make any damn sense to me Rika, how can he just limit me like this?!?!

The dragon power begins reacting immediately.

The scales along my arm start glowing red.

At the same time the flames from the tower continue burning black and purple.

Neither side of my powers seem to be backing down at this time. Even with Rika warning me about it.

Rokuro...

Rika’s voice suddenly becomes serious.

Do you feel that?

I don’t respond immediately.

Because I already know what she means.

The dragon power is resisting against the power I got from the tower. The very same problem I had during my fight against the puppeteer.

Hear i thought I had already gotten them to work fine without any issues.

Yet, now I’m noticing that it is the complete opposite of what I thought. Both sides are refusing when this is a life or death situation for me.

The pain throughout my arm only gets worse.

Almost like both powers are trying to tear each other apart.

King Albus starts laughing.

"You still don’t understand!" He shouts.

The pressure around him suddenly increases even more.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The entire courtyard begins shaking once again.

Aria and Velia immediately step backwards.

"You’ve been forcing powers together that were never meant to coexist!" King Albus shouts with a bit of excitement in his voice.

As much as this bastard pisses me off, he’s not wrong. Something felt off from the moment I got the power from the tower but it didn’t cause any issues then.

They just kind of fought with each other slightly until a certain fight forced them to work together.

The flames around my arm flicker violently as the scales continue cracking.

Then for the first time since obtaining the power from the tower... I realize something that I didn’t before. This is the strongest I’ve probably ever been since first obtaining the power.

The difference it made in the tower wasn’t nearly as noticeable as it is now. I’ve been withstanding a lot more in this battle than I originally realized.

I look back towards the girls to see that Eliza has some sort of bright white bubble casted around them. Keeping them a bit more protected from this insane amount of pressure.

My vision starts to fix itself as my bloodlust dies down and I start to notice that the cracks in the scales aren’t entirely a bad thing.

Rokuro what are we doing here? You haven’t talked to me at all...

We’re obviously going to fight against King Albus but I need a few moments to get this power sorted. I don’t really have the slightest clue on where to begin with it.

So just give me some time to figure it out Rika. I’ll handle everything properly here, like I always do.

"Your expression has changed completely. Did you learn something?" King Albus questions while crossing his arms.

I don’t respond to him as I finally start to move towards him.

Strong winds rush past me along with the intensity of the pressure he’s giving off, but nonetheless I push forward. The scales continue to crack the closer I get but this isn’t enough.

Not nearly enough.

CRUMBLE!!!! CRUMBLE!!!!!

The whole courtyard is going to collapse from how much of it we are breaking at this point. From the fight with the guard to the fight with the King.

"Hahahaha. Fine, don’t answer. I prefer you quiet in my presence anyway," King Albus says after laughing.

King Albus isn’t afraid of me overcoming his power or pressure, he’s stalling for some reason. Even if he is the strongest one here that I’m fighting... There is someone else he’s waiting for.

Who could he be waiting for? In a realm like this could there be more than one King?

Usually kings means there is multiple kingdoms and we only scratched the surface with the realm here.

Of course there are multiple kings but this is the one who brought darkness upon the people. That’s the whole reason we are here for him in the first place.

Yeah I know. I’m just not used to all this since my world hasn’t really had such a concept in ages. They even stopped talking about it when I was younger as well.

Regardless it doesn’t mean I’m wrong about him stalling for time right now. I can’t afford to let him do that either.

In that moment I start to force myself to run towards him as everything tries to hold me back.