Chapter 366: Unlikely Encounters

Tyre cursed to himself as he reinforced the stone pillar he had summoned before him, flames licked around the outside of it as he huddled close, the scorching heat enough to make him sweat in his armour.

Yet he was not afforded time to gather himself as a moment later he was forced to dive away to the side as a razor sharp feather tore through the space he had just been standing in.

He glanced to the side to watch the arrogant expression on the hipogriffs face twist as he avoided its sneak attack.

Sadly Tyre could not retaliate against the damn bird as upon exiting his dive he found himself face to face with the blasted flame boar as it charged straight towards him.

With a cry he swung his hammer, dense stone instantly covering the head of it as he swung, adding impressive mass and momentum to his swing.

The beast for its part simply snorted as it lowered its head and wreathed its body in flames.

A mighty crack rang out when the stone hammer impacted against the cranium of the boar. The stone exploding out from the force of the collision.

Tyre felt his entire being rattle from the impact, whilst the boar was stopped dead, Tyre was less fortunate. His uneven footing from the hasty the strike led to him being blasted away, swiftly finding himself sprawled on the ground a few meters away from the collision.

Thankfully for him the water boar chose that moment to strike out at the flame bore, twin snakes of water rushed forwards towards the momentarily stunned beast.

Sizzling sounded as the intense heat of the flame beast boiled away the water, still when the twin constructs struck the flame beast was sent staggering away with a whine of pain and anger.

The hipogriff, not to be left out also took that moment to strike. A wave of condensed wind blades shot out at all three fighters.

They successfully struck the chain stunned flame boar, gouging deep lacerations into the beasts hide. The water bore avoided it was deft manipulation of the water it had seirling around it.

Tyre meanwhile, he simply summoned a dome of stone to encompass his prone form and hid beneath it as he cursed once again at the blasted situation he had found himself in.

Still he refused to give up just yet, he had struggled to reach this point and refused to allow himself to back down from the challenge before him.

The word outside of his dark cocoon of safety sounded muted and distant, he could still feel the vibrations of movement through the stone so wanted to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Upon noticing that the vibrations seemed to have fallen still he figured that now was a good a time as any. So with a roar he exploded his stone shell and burst to his feet as the stone shards swirled around him, ready and willing to follow his will.

Yet upon seeing the current state of the battlefield he found himself pausing as he realised how strange everything suddenly seemed.

For one the three beasts that had moments ago been frantically trying to kill one another were all now frozen in place with their heads lowered to the ground in obvious fear and submission.

That alone should have clued him in on what was wrong with the current situation.

Yet it still took his battle ready mind a few moments longer to realise that his presence, which had previously been contesting with the other beasts was now entirely surpressed.

It was not being attacked, no, it was simply being overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of a being with much greater power than himself.

Then he noticed the final thing that sent shivers down his spine and caused him to stiffen in abject fear.

The world around him was not as it had been moments ago.

Where he had been previously fighting in a lush oasis on vegetation within a valley. Now their was no vegetation, their was no river, their was no valley. Their was simply nothing, utter and complete nothingness pervaded the world around Tyre.

His mana felt sluggish and unresponsive, his lungs fought to breath in air that did not exist.

All he could see in this dark world was the three beasts before him that trembled in fear.

Then he felt it. A presence behind him.

Not the mystical presence gained upon reaching tier 4. But the physical sense of feeling someone or something close to oneself.

And right now he could feel that someone was standing behind him, and that someone was a being that dwarfed his diminutive size in terms of both power and physical size.

He trembled in his boots, yet no sound came out in this domain of nothingness.

He didn’t want to, but knew that he had to.

So Tyre slowly turned around to behold the being that stood behind him.

At first he was confused as he failed to see anything, then he blanched as he realised that he could see something, it was just that the being he was staining at seemed to be one with the environment around him.

It was only when he craned his neck upwards that he truly took in the beast that stood before him.

Scales of onyx that seemed seeped in the nothingness around them. Massive legs supporting an equally massive torso, yet it was the long neck that led up to a majestic and terrifying head that caused Tyre to freeze.

For a spark of recognition lit up in his mind. For he had seen that face before, granted it was significantly smaller than it was right now, yet he would never forget the first dragon that he had ever laid eyes on.

That feeling of horror turned into the faintest flicker of hope as he whispered out the name of the mighty beast standing before him. "V-Violet?"

His heart stuttered when the great beast, the sovereign tilted its, no her head down and glanced down at her with her enthralling violet eyes that shone like lanterns in this void of existence he found himself in.

Then he felt a mental connection form and couldn’t hold back the chuckle of awe and relief upon hearing the voice that came through.

"Heya, how’s it going? You know we need to stop meeting like this, I cannt keep coming to your rescue every time you get into a though battle you know." Came the teasing voice of Violet.

Tyre couldn’t help but chuckle properly at those words, the tension that had built up within him upon emerging from his stone shell finally leaving him as he finally understood that he was not about to be squished to death by a sovereign level beast this day.

"So do you mind if I deal with these guys? I still need a couple tokens to pass to the next stage, I can leave one of them for you if you want?" Violet asked him.

Tyre shook his head at the casual tone in her voice, yet he responded swiftly regardless. "No, please go ahead, I have already gathered all the tokens that I need."

Tyre watched as Violet nodded, then shivered as she spoke again, this time it was obviously to everyone given how the other beast seemed to flinch.

"Surrender now or die." She said in a tone that could have frozen rivers, it was backed by the full might of her domain as it pressed down upon those three beasts with enough force to push them to their knees.

Then with a flash of light all three of them vanished without a trace.

A moment later the nothingness pealed away and Tyre once again found himself standing in the lush valley. Only this time their was a 100 meter long dragon standing besides him and grinning down at him.

Tyre couldn’t hold back the instinctive gulp that sounded out.