Before Ajax could say anything, Angil stepped from behind the bushes and stood in front the proto-drake which didn’t notice his approach. Ajax watched as Angil created three tentacles from the lake and had them wrap around the proto-drake’s body. The proto-drake thrashed around from its sudden restraint and it tried to get airborne but the tentacles limited how high it could get. Angil raised his left arm and grinned.

“Cage of darkness.” Angil said, a black ring appeared around his feet and it quickly expanded outward.

Ajax watched as the ring grew to encompass the entire area around the lake, only stopping just behind his feet. A black mass started to rise from the ring and it formed a black dome that engulfed the entire area within. It made the sky appear purplish black and the light of the sun was dimed. Angil signaled him to come over but he was hesitant to move. When he eventually stepped out of his hiding place he went directly beside Angil.

“I’ll weaken it and then it’s all yours.” Angil said, he flew off the ground and raised his right hand, “Do your best, because nothing can leave without me taking down my spell.”

A spinning blue light appeared over Angil’s hand, and the light quickly expanded. When the light was large enough, four spiraling bands of rushing water appeared around it, with all the flows interlocking at the central points at the front and back. When compared to the size of the light, Angil resembled an ant holding up the sun. Ajax stared at the light in awe and flinched when he saw Angil throw it towards the ground.

The light fell upon the proto-drake and engulfed it in its entirety, and the bands of water went inside of the light. They surrounded the proto-drake and slashed at its skin, causing it to roar in pain and thrash around inside of the light, its silhouette being all that is seem from the outside. The light faded after a few minutes, Ajax stared into the scared face of the proto-drake that snarled at him.

“He is all yours, good luck!” Angil shouted.

“Angil, I cant.…” Ajax said but stopped when the proto-drake released a burst of flames at him from its jaws.

In a panic, Ajax quickly dodged the proto-drake’s attack and rolled to the side, grabbing his pounding chest in the process. He looked at the proto-drake, that was preparing another attack, and he thought of ways out of his current problem. He heard a sound kiss his ear, saying the word mimic to him, and then he remembered what Angil told him about his mimicry skill. He took a deep breath, preparing himself to take the attack, and when the flames were released, he extended both his hands.

Ajax felt as if the world around him had become slower and he watched the flames slowly approach him. When the flames were upon him, he closed his eyes and looked away. Without him realizing, he had unleashed his own slightly smaller flame from his palms and it intercepted proto-drake’s fire. He slowly peeked to see why he wasn’t burning and his face lit up when he saw the flames he was producing. He heard clapping and looked up to see Angil applauding him, however, before he could respond, he saw Angil point away from him. By time he could look in the direction that Angil was pointing, he was flung backwards and slammed into a tree.

“That hurt.” Ajax said, he spat up a bit of blood and held onto his stomach.

“You got distracted during battle, such a mistake can be fatal.” Angil said, “Never loss focus in the middle of a fight, and as a demon, you need to fly!”

“That is easier said than done you know!” Ajax shouted as the proto-drake charged at him, “Shit, come on wings please work.”

Ajax flap his arms up and down, like wings, and looked at the pair on his back, they moved a little but not much, least of all enough to get airborne. As the proto-drake got closer, it opened its jaws and prepared to fire another attack of flames. Ajax could see down to its throat and he watched as a glowing red light rose up from within the proto-drake.

“Come on, please, come on, I don’t wanna die.” Ajax said, he started to panic once more and started to tear up.

“Shit!” Angil shouted and he quickly dived towards Ajax.

“I don’t want to die!” Ajax exclaimed.

The proto-drake was only a few inches away from Ajax when it fired off its attack.

Ajax’s eyes flashed a bright fiery glow and a burst of wind suddenly erupted around him and blow the flames into the sky. The wind was so strong that it’s stream became visible around Ajax, and when he extended his arm, the force of the wind forcefully pushed the proto-drake backwards and onto its back.

The shockwave even blew Angil away which made him gasp, he wasn’t expecting such a situation to occur when he initiated this fight. When he regained his balance he looked over at Ajax and saw a humanoid shadow, with glowing red eyes, rising from within Ajax’s own shadow. Angil’s heart skipped a beat and he slowly shook his head.

“No, how can your power be here now, there is no way can you be here.” Angil said, “What have you done to this boy?”

When the proto-drake got back to its feet, it flapped its wings and took flight. The proto-drake raised its head and then fired a larger, even stronger, breath of fire at Ajax. Angil could only watch as the flames exploded at Ajax’s feet and created a dust spout that obscured his vision. When the dust started to settle, Angil saw that Ajax was encased in a transparent black bubble that was deflecting the flames in two different directions. He landed behind Ajax and saw that Ajax was just staring into the fire while sitting on the ground with trembling arms.

“How did you manage to do this without even knowing how to use the dark element?” Angil asked and touched the bubble.

“I…don’t know, I just thought that I didn’t want to die and something just reacted.” Ajax replied with a look of disbelief while looking into the flames, “I felt this surge of power and this growing blackness.”

“That is…strange.” Angil said, “It seems I underestimated its prowess for battle, so I will help you kill it.”

“But you said I should do that on my own!” he shouted, “I will just let me catch my breath.”

“Don’t be reckless, you almost died.” Angil said, “Just let me help you, you’ve proven to me you can handle yourself.”

“I know, it just caught me off guard.” he replied and finally looked at Angil with a determined expression, “Please, I want to make you proud.”

Angil gulped and reluctantly nodded, he flew away and went back to watching, meanwhile, Ajax stood up and took a deep breath. The proto-drake landed and roared at Ajax, who gulped and then ran towards it.

The barrier started to crack the closer Ajax got to the proto-drake and when it broke, he slid under the proto-drake and released shout of his own. The sound created dents in the proto-drake’s belly, ones that looked as if it had been punched, and it swung its tail again the moment he came from under it. However, Ajax grabbed onto it and used its speed to throw himself into the air and he opened his wings.

The proto-drake flew up directly towards him and as it came closer he looked at how it moved its wings and he copied it. He felt himself start to move upwards even more and he smirked. He closed up his wings and fell towards the proto-drake, which opened its mouth that began glowing again. Once it was directly in front of him, Ajax created the black bubble, like the one he used to defend himself, around the proto-drake’s mouth.

He reopened his wings and flew back upwards in order to escape the following explosion that erupted between him and the proto-drake. Due to how close they were to the roof of the dome created by Angil, the explosion shattered it and sent a beam of light and a shockwave towards the unending sky. The proto-drake’s body fell to the ground along with the shattered remains of the dome.

The proto-drake crashed into the ground, its tail and lower half landing in the lake, and its head and upper body rest on the shore. The proto-drake’s mouth was broken; torn and burnt flesh, along with shattered bones were visible. Ajax landed in front of the proto-drake’s body, stumbling a little to catch his footing, and he stared into its lifeless eyes. Angil dusted himself off and landed right beside of him, he watched Angil examine the proto-drake’s body and was given a quick glance.

“You did it…you managed to defeat it.” Angil said in disbelief, “Congrats.”

“I remember what you told me during training, to use my opponents power to my advantage.” Ajax said, “I am glad to see that my plan worked since I can tell it was a higher level than me.”

“It certainly was.” he replied, “Your plan was still too reckless though.”

“Sorry for the mess I made around the lake.” Ajax said.

“That is fine, you were going to clean it up anyways.” he replied with an evil smirk.

“Eh!” Ajax exclaimed, “But…but…I didn’t mean to.”

“No buts, now get cleaning, I will fashion its hide into some clothes for you and use the meat for dinner.” Angil said and clapped his hands together.

Ajax sulked and walked away with tears hanging from his eyes, and he started what would be a long cleaning process. Given the vast area of damage covered the entire lake, he wouldn’t be finished for a while. While Ajax was cleaning, Angil turned to the proto-drake’s body and created tentacles of water that held it up in the air.

Angil made nine knives out of ice, he flew up to the body, and started to skin the chest as well as the tissue that connected points on the wings. When he finished this, he went about removing the claws from the feet. Simultaneously, he had two of the knives slowly cut out chunks of meat from the area that was skinned. Ajax glimpsed over at him while cleaning and he certainly took notice of each one.

Ajax’s constant looking came from how amazed he was at the level mastery it must take, to not only use so many skills at once, but to make it look so effortless while doing multiple tasks. He could tell that if he tried to replicate it, he would require an extreme level of focus that he didn’t possess. He watched Angil spread the skin against a large rock and started a new fire that was then used to cook the meat. He tensed up when he was given a sudden glare from Angil and he immediately avoided eye contact and went back to work.

“You better finish up fast if you want some.” Angil said.

“No fair!” Ajax exclaimed.