265 Playing with fire (2/2)

”He escaped! Try using a fireball now!!”

”Quiet!! Or better yet, get lost!!”

”I'm not leaving you alone!!”

”And what do you plan to do?? You have no weapons, no magic, you are so small that the dragon barely even noticed that you are here... What exactly can you even do to help me right now??”

”I... Well... I...”

”Exactly... You are pretty much useless, so leave this place before you get yourself in danger!!”

Daren watched as Leona continued to charge at the dragon in an attempt to defeat it, but as the fight kept dragging, he began to notice that Leona's fire ape form was slowly starting to weaken, while the lizard just continued to act like he was just playing with her.

If that continued, it would result in her loss.

Daren began to remember about the time he faced a pair of dragons with the help of Marceus and how he almost got killed in the process. The only reason they managed to escape was due to his power combining with Marceus' holy energy and accessing a new form that could fight with both cursed energy and blessed energy.

Leona right now was a mage and a champion, thus she had access to blesses energy and magic energy. If he could somehow get her to gain cursed energy as well, she could beat the creature.

”Come on... Come on!! Think!! There has to be something that I can do to help!!”

The dragon began to bite on Leona's flaming body and its fangs almost managed to reach her face inside the avatar. She began to try pulling the fangs away, but her power was getting weaker and weaker.

At that moment, Daren began to search in his pockets for some kind of weapon, something that could help in the fight, and suddenly he stumbled across a small piece of diamond dyed in the color red.

”What the hell...? Oh! This is a piece of the armor that I used when I was under Mia's control!!”

He began to carefully study the diamond and an idea came to mind.

”Leona!! Use this!!” he yelled as he launched the diamond towards the woman as her fire ape finally began to vanish completely, dropping her on the ground.

Leona stared at the red diamond that landed on the floor in front of her eyes and recognized what it was, ”One of Mia's diamonds?? Why do you have that??”

”It's a leftover from the war! It contains cursed energy inside of it! use it to beat the dragon!!”

”Use this...?? How? Ah!!”

Leona suddenly felt her foot being grabbed by the tail of the dragon and raised slightly above its mouth that was now wide open.

”Ugh!!! It smells so bad!!!” she complained.

”Use the diamond!! Hurry!!!”

Leona didn't know what exactly Daren was planning but she just tried to move the red fragment closer to the absorbing crystal that was on her staff and suddenly a red mist began to flow into it from the diamond.

She felt something strange happening with her staff as if it was about to burn in a way that even she would not be able to sustain.

”What is this power...??” she whispered.

But before she could finalize her situation, the dragon released her leg and swallowed her whole.

”Leona!!!!!” Daren screamed.

He dropped on his knees as he observed the fire mage being devoured while he was completely helpless to do anything.

”What have I done... ? What have I done!!!??” he repeated while holding his own head in disbelief.

The dragon noticed his noise and finally spotted him as well. The lizard began to charge after him to devour his flesh but suddenly stopped for some reason.

Daren observed as the dragon was starting to scream in pain and agony and began to twitch slamming his head against the walls.

”Wha- What the...”

And before he could notice it, flames began to appear out of the dragon's throat, then his eyes, his wings, and finally, his entire body began to burn for some reason.

”Wraagghhhh!!!” the beast screamed in anguish as its body suddenly turned into ashes as a large ball of fire appeared to be engulfing his entire being.

Not just a regular fire thought. It was a flame that kept changing its colors from red, to green, to silver. Those were the flames of terminal energy, and in the center of it, was Leona, laying on the ground with her face down.

”Leona!!” Daren yelled in relief. Once the flames began to extinguish themselves, he rushed to her side and lifted her head to confirm if she was okay, ”Leona!! Leona, talk to me!!”

”...” the woman opened her eyes and finally noticed Daren crying face staring at her.

”Leona!! Are you okay!!?”

”Quiet down... You're being loud...” she whispered with a weak voice.

”Oh!! I'm so glad!!” Daren replied while burying her in his arms.

”Di- Did you just hugged me??” she asked with her eyes wide open.

”Oh... S- Sorry...” Daren whispered as she released her.

She began to raise an eyebrow towards his behavior, she did not expect the man who spent the last couple of hours constantly complaining about her connection with gods to suddenly show such a display of affection, ”I'm confused... Do you hate me or not...?”

”I never said I hated you. I just... Well... Ugh... I'm Sorry... ”

”...”

”I think I got a little carried away and ended up transferring some of my hate towards the gods to you...”

”Whaaaat... Noooo... I could hardly notice it... ” Leona sarcastically replied.

Daren turned his face away from embarrassment.

”Well... You did save me with your little trick... So I guess that makes us even now... Let's just get out of this- Oh no...”

Leona gasped as she began to look for her wooden staff and realized that the entire thing had been burned to a crisp by her terminal fire.