Hitman With A Badass System

Chapter 1336  The utterly devastating Dragon's breath

The dragon's roar of pain and fury shook the very foundations of the pocket dimension. The snow-covered ground cracked and fissured, the tremors rippling outward from Malevolous's massive form.

Michael, hovering above, activated his X-ray vision just in time to see something extraordinary. Invisible waves of sound pulsed from the dragon's wounded eyes, bouncing off objects and Michael himself.

"Clever bastard," Michael muttered, realizing the dragon's strategy. Despite losing his sight, Malevolous was using echolocation to navigate and fight.

But that wasn't all. Michael's enhanced vision caught another detail - the dragon's eyes were slowly, almost imperceptibly, beginning to heal.

"Oh no, you don't," Michael growled, his resolve hardening. This was his chance to make the dragon pay for Rowena's suffering, and he wasn't about to let it slip away.

Without hesitation, Michael dove towards Malevolous, dark energy crackling around his fists. He weaved through the air, avoiding the invisible sound waves as best he could.

"This is for Rowena, you sadistic lizard," Michael snarled as he closed in.

He aimed for the dragon's most vulnerable spots - the healing eyes, the soft underbelly, the joints of its wings. Each strike was fueled by righteous anger, his godly power intensifying with every blow.

Malevolous roared and thrashed, trying to catch Michael with his claws or tail, but the Dark Lord was too quick, too determined.

As Michael continued his assault, Malevolous's echolocation suddenly pinpointed his location. With frightening speed, the dragon's massive tail whipped through the air.

"Shit—" Michael's curse was cut short as the tail connected with devastating force.

The impact sent Michael hurtling through the air like a rag doll. He crashed into a nearby ice formation, the frozen structure shattering on impact. As he slid to the ground, Michael coughed, a spray of blood staining the pristine snow beneath him.

"Damn," he muttered, wiping his mouth. "That strength... it's on par with mine, maybe even greater." The realization was sobering. Even as a Greater God, Michael found himself matched in raw power.

Cracking his neck, Michael spat out another mouthful of blood. "I need to upgrade my spells," he mused. "Maybe get some new tricks from the system."

Without further hesitation, Michael engaged his Lightning Dash, becoming a blur of motion as he charged towards Malevolous once more.

The dragon, sensing Michael's approach, lashed out with its enormous claws. Michael twisted mid-air, the razor-sharp talons missing him by mere inches. He could feel the rush of displaced air as they passed.

Malevolous, growing frustrated, snapped his jaws towards the sound of Michael's movement. He dropped altitude swiftly, the dragon's teeth clashing together with a sound like thunder directly above his head.

Michael weaved between the dragon's limbs, a deadly dance of speed and precision. He ducked under a sweeping claw, rolled to avoid a stomping foot, and leapt over the dragon's thrashing tail.

Each near miss was a testament to Michael's enhanced reflexes and the dragon's incredible speed despite its size. The air crackled with energy as god and beast engaged in this high-stakes game of cat and mouse.

As Michael darted around Malevolous, he searched for an opening, a weakness he could exploit. The dragon's healing eyes were still vulnerable, but reaching them without getting caught was proving to be a monumental challenge.

But when Michael leapt towards Malevolous's head, aiming for the vulnerable eyes, the dragon reacted with surprising speed. One massive claw swung towards him, which Michael caught with both hands, the impact sending shockwaves through his arms. Before he could capitalize on this, the dragon's other claw came at him from the opposite side. With lightning-fast reflexes, Michael managed to catch this one as well.

Now, god and dragon were locked in a stalemate, neither willing to give an inch. Michael's muscles strained against the immense strength of the dragon, dark energy crackling around him as he held his ground.

From her vantage point near the illusion-masked portal, Rowena watched the scene unfold with raised eyebrows. The sight before her was nothing short of surreal - a god and a dragon engaged in an epic struggle of strength and will. She shook her head in disbelief. Just a few years ago, the idea of witnessing such a battle would have been unthinkable. Yet here she was, watching her little brother - a sibling she hadn't even known existed until mere months ago - fighting a colossal dragon as the God of Darkness.

As she observed the titanic clash, Rowena's thoughts drifted to her other little brother, Noah. She wondered what he was doing now, how he would react to all of this. But as she pondered this, a strange feeling settled in her gut - an inexplicable sense of unease when she thought about Noah.

Little did Rowena know, the world she once knew had gone through a cataclysm while she was trapped in this godforsaken pocket dimension. If she thought the sight of her little brother fighting a dragon was mind-blowing, it was nothing compared to the storm that had hit the mortal realm.

Her baby brother Noah, the one she'd always tried to protect, was dead. And the kicker? It was Dean AKA the Dark Lord who had done the deed. The consequences of Noah's death were far-reaching and devastating. The entire mortal realm had been plunged into eternal darkness, like someone had flipped the cosmic light switch to "permanent night." Even the realm of the gods felt the ripples of this event, though they were somewhat shielded by the barrier the previous Dark Lord had put up between the realms.

As if that wasn't enough, her mother Diana Winston was now a captive of Andohr, the god of space and time. But Rowena stood there, watching the battle unfold, blissfully unaware that her family had been torn apart, that the world as she knew it had been turned upside down and inside out.

Meanwhile, Malevolous and Michael remained locked in their titanic struggle, neither willing to yield an inch.

"Well, color me impressed," Malevolous chuckled, his voice a mix of pain and devilish amusement. "It's been ages since someone made me bleed. You should be proud, little toy,"

Michael snickered, his muscles straining against the dragon's immense strength. "You're not the first dragon I'd kill, and you won't be the last."

Though Michael knew he couldn't outright kill this ancient beast right now, that didn't mean he couldn't beat the ever-loving shit out of it. As Malevolous's blind eyes locked onto him, guided by echolocation, Michael saw his chance.

Without warning, he fired his dark beams again, the obsidian energy lancing straight into the dragon's barely healed eyes. The beams penetrated deep, undoing what little healing had occurred.

"Arrrgh! You fucking bastard!" Malevolous roared, his head rearing back in agony. "I'll tear you apart for that!" n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The dragon's grip on Michael loosened momentarily as it thrashed in pain, giving the Dark Lord the opening he'd been waiting for. But suddenly as though Malevolous sensed Michael's plan, he stomped the ground with earth-shattering force. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the pocket dimension, the very fabric of reality seeming to tremble.

"Shit!" Michael cursed as he lost his footing, the unexpected tremor catching him off guard.

The force of the stomp sent him flying backwards. He managed to regain control mid-air, twisting his body to land gracefully on his feet. But before he could press his advantage, Malevolous's voice boomed across the battlefield.

"You asked for this, you little prick!" the dragon roared, his tone dripping with fury and a hint of anticipation.

Michael's eyes widened as he saw the dragon's belly and throat begin to glow an ominous shade of crimson. The light pulsed and grew in intensity, like a star about to go supernova.

"Dragon's breath," Michael muttered, recognizing the telltale signs of a dragon's most devastating weapon.

The air around Malevolous began to shimmer with heat, the snow at his feet instantly vaporizing. Even from a distance, Michael could feel the scorching heat radiating from Malevolous. The air around him shimmered, distorting his view of the enraged dragon.

"Time to move," Michael muttered, engaging his Lightning Dash.

In an instant, he became a blur of motion, dark lightning crackling in his wake as he shot away from the impending blast.

But Malevolous, despite his wounded eyes, sensed Michael's movement. With a deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the pocket dimension, the dragon unleashed its breath weapon.

A torrent of crimson and electric blue energy erupted from Malevolous's maw. The beam was massive, easily dwarfing Michael in size. It cut through the air with a sound like reality itself was being torn asunder.

Where the breath touched, devastation followed. Snow instantly vaporized, leaving scorched earth in its wake. The ground beneath liquefied, turning to molten slag. Rocks caught in the periphery of the blast didn't just melt - they sublimated, transforming from solid to gas in an instant. The sheer heat of the attack created hurricane-force winds, whipping debris into a frenzy around the battlefield. The sky above seemed to boil, clouds dissipating in the face of such raw power.

On the other hand, Michael, even with his godly speed, felt the dragon's breath nipping at his heels. The edges of his armor began to glow red-hot as he pushed his Lightning Dash to its limits, desperately trying to stay ahead of the all-consuming beam.

Michael pushed his Lightning Dash to its limits, zigzagging across the landscape in a desperate bid to outpace the dragon's breath. As the searing heat licked at his heels, he activated the Silenest spell, creating a time-slowing bubble around himself.

Within this temporal sanctuary, Michael watched as the world outside seemed to crawl. The dragon's breath, still devastatingly fast, now appeared as a slowly advancing wall of destruction. With precise movements, Michael maneuvered through the slowed time, ducking and weaving around tendrils of crimson and blue energy that threatened to engulf him.

Each time he exited a time bubble, he'd immediately create another, staying just ahead of the inferno. It was a deadly dance of speed, timing, and raw survival instinct.

Finally, Malevolous closed his maw, the dragon breath attack ending. In its wake, the once-snowy landscape was transformed into a hellscape. For a mile in every direction, nothing but scorched earth remained, the ground still glowing with residual heat.

Michael landed gracefully, his dark armor lined with glowing red streaks from the intense heat. He casually brushed a small flame off his shoulder, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Not bad," he quipped, eyeing the devastation around him. "But let's see how you handle this."

With a flick of his wrist, Michael summoned his war hammer, The Doombringer. The ancient weapon materialized in his hand, its icy core a stark contrast to the scorched battlefield.

"Time for you to chill out, lizard," Michael growled, hefting the hammer.