"Cat's Grace!"
"Expeditious Retreat!"
As the behir gathered power for its next Lightning Breath, Cassius cast several speed-enhancing spells upon himself.
His body became extraordinarily nimble. With a few light bounds across the cavern, he closed in on the behir.
Although the red dragon possessed far less raw strength than the behir and was dwarfed by its sheer size, those were not the only deciding factors in a physical brawl.
He was confident he could best his opponent in close-quarters combat.
The behir unleashed several arcs of lightning, but the red dragon had anticipated them. Predicting their path in advance, he dodged left and right, evading them with ease.
The behir saw through Cassius's intent to engage in melee and rasped with laughter. "Foolish dragon, daring to challenge me inside these caves."
"Without the advantage of flight—"
"What are you dragons even worth?"
Its twelve pairs of legs scuttled, treating the rock walls like flat ground. It moved with blistering speed—considerably faster even than the magically enhanced red dragon.
Like a bolt of cerulean lightning, it charged straight at him.
"Bull's Strength!"
The behir meeting his charge head-on was precisely what Cassius wanted. He cast the strength-enhancing spell in an instant; blue veins bulged across his muscular frame, billows of scalding steam hissed from his scales, and raw power surged through his body.
"True Strike!"
The red dragon's golden slitted pupils gleamed with a purple magical aura. He fixed his gaze intently on the behir, seeking to anticipate its next move.
"Laughable dragon."
"You're just like those cowardly human wizards—fragile and weak!"
Seeing the spells layered upon the red dragon, the behir remained unperturbed, snapping wide its cavernous maw to bite down.
Having anticipated the move, the red dragon leapt aside to dodge, ready to strike back with tooth and claw.
Yet he had not expected the behir's bite to be a feint.
As the dragon dodged, the creature abruptly shifted its trajectory, coiling rapidly like a lasso to wrap its colossal body around him.
Constriction!
The behir gradually tightened its muscles, crushing the space Cassius had to escape and locking him in a deadly stranglehold.
Its body was more than twice as long as the red dragon's, and its physical strength was greater. Once ensnared in its coils, the battle was practically decided.
Faced with this predicament, the red dragon lashed out with sharp claws and fangs against the behir's exposed, scorched flesh, tearing chunks of meat away in a spray of blood.
The behir let out a sharp hiss of pain, yet never stopped tightening its grip.
It knew that loosening its hold meant defeat, but if the constriction held, even a red dragon would be crushed of its strength.
Yet Cassius's strikes were leagues beyond what the barbarian could muster. His razor talons sank feet deep into its flesh, ripping the behir's skin and muscle wide open.
"You are nothing more than my prey!"
Infuriated, the behir let out a shrill roar.
Despite its grievous wounds, its body shifted rapidly, winding completely around the red dragon until it bound him tight.
"You are only struggling in vain!"
It had succeeded.
The red dragon was pinned firm within the massive, elongated coils, trapped like a beast in a snare with nowhere to run.
He could not even move his forelegs, able only to thrash feebly, snapping his jaws with weakening ferocity.
To kill a red dragon...
The prospect made the behir's blood surge with ecstasy. It even forgot the excruciating pain racking its body, pouring every ounce of will and strength into tightening its crushing coils.
Such was the terrifying power of an ancient living weapon—and its bloodline-deep hatred for true dragons.
Yet in the very next breath, the tables turned.
"Misty Step!"
The tightly constricted red dragon uttered the incantation.
His Combat Casting feat allowed him to cast spells with ease even while grappled and restrained.
In an instant, the behir's coils tightened on empty air. Where its prey had just been, only a swirl of silvery-white mist remained.
The red dragon had already teleported to a ledge ten meters away.
"No!"
It hissed in shock.
Because it had exerted so much force just a moment ago, the behir's body was twisted nearly into a knot, leaving it in an extremely awkward tangle.
In truth, Cassius could have escaped the instant the behir initiated the grapple.
Instead, he had chosen to play along, letting the beast believe he was trapped so he could exhaust its stamina even further.
The red dragon let out an exhilarating roar, leapt from the ledge, and dove straight at the behir.
"Now tell me—"
"Who is the prey?"
Still knotted up and lacking any chance to dodge, the behir had no choice but to mount a frantic defense.
It strained to lift its head and snap its jaws.
Yet Cassius's agility far surpassed the behir's at this moment.
With an agile bound to the left, the red dragon easily sidestepped the strike.
Seizing the opening left by the missed attack, he darted behind the creature and sank his fangs viciously into its exposed, mangled torso.
Flesh and blood flew!
Warm blood splattered in his mouth.
His teeth sank deep into the meat, shearing through muscle fibers and driving further inward, a sensation that filled the red dragon with primal exhilaration.
"Aaargh—!"
The behir let out deafening shrieks of agony, thrashing madly in a desperate bid to tear itself free.
Yet not only did the dragon keep his jaws locked like a vice, but veins bulged along his forelegs as his talons tore directly into the monster's viscera, savagely raking through its insides.
The behir writhed and rolled frantically, but the red dragon refused to let go.
*Rumble...*
The two behemoths clashed in the most savage, primal display of raw physical violence.
The cavern's rock walls groaned and rumbled.
It was as though the entire mine were shaking and trembling, with loose stones clattering down continuously from the ceiling.
"Uuuooogh..."
At last, the behir's strength visibly waned, letting out a feeble whimper.
Yet the red dragon still dared not let up. His own stamina was nearly exhausted; if this formidable foe had another trick up its sleeve, he would have nothing left to counter it.
*Is it finally over?*
Cassius felt the rise and fall of the behir's body grow ever weaker, its struggles subsiding.
A cloud of azure blood mist suddenly erupted.
*Bang!*
It fled!
The behir had actually severed nearly half its own body, discarding its tail to escape!
Its remaining seven pairs of legs scuttled swiftly across the rock wall.
Though grievously wounded, shed of half its body's weight, the behir moved with startling speed.
"It got away after all."
The red dragon released his jaws and pulled his talons from the severed half of the corpse with visible exertion.
He watched the behir vanish into the darkness.
There was nothing he could do. The brutal brawl had drained much of his energy, and the mine was the behir's home turf.
Inside the cavern, the red dragon could not bring his advantage of flight to bear. On just four legs, catching up to a behir that still had seven pairs of legs—even with half its body gone—was virtually impossible.
Dancing Lights had already expired, though the faint flicker of torches lingered.
Cassius only watched in silence, gazing into the deep tunnel where the behir had fled.
The tapetum lucidum behind the red dragon's retinas helped him see in the dim cave, lending his eyes a faint, eerie glow in the dark.
His vision, however, was in monochrome black and white.
"That direction leads to Cinder Nest."
A red dragon's sense of direction was exceptionally sharp. Even in a pitch-black cave, they could filter environmental cues to determine their rough bearings.
"The Bottomless Pit?"
A thought suddenly struck Cassius.
Chapter 24