However, there was a slight problem. Compared to olive, who was in her human form, the Earth Dragon was massive. Because of that, the chance that we would be able to cover his entire body was fairly limited. So, I was only planning to cover his wings first; that way, he wouldn't be able to fly properly.

Later, while he is distracted in freeing his wing, we could launch the next wave and freeze him entirely.

It was a good plan, which, if worked, could grant us a significant advantage in this battle. However, it failed utterly when the dragon countered her magic by flapping his wings. Her flames were pushed back, and the gust of wind it created was strong enough to throw her behind.

I had no time to wait, so I used the mana that I had collected to create the largest fireball I could. But before I could attack him with the fireball, his tail unexpectedly came from my right and hit me between my right ribs.

The attack sent me flying towards the western plains. I tried to regain my balance in the air, but I couldn't. The pain that I was feeling was simply too much to handle.

I prepared myself for the crash on the ground. We were too high, and the fall from there without any precautions would naturally lead to death.

Flare was in the opposite direction, so there was no way she would be able to make it on time. That meant I had to find a way to avoid the impact on my own while still withstanding the pain from the attack earlier.

It was possible that a few of my ribs were broken, but at the moment, I had no time to think about the pain. I prepared another fireball and focused the rest of my mana into my mana cloak.

I fired the fireball at the ground right before the crash to reduce the impact's opposing force. And my mana cloak reduced the damage to a significant extent.

Despite that, this impact came off as a little challenging as I had already suffered a severe injury. I was in no position to even stand after all this. But I knew I had to, so I used holy magic to heal myself.

It wasn't a permanent solution and just a temporary relief, but anything that reduced the pain was remarkably valuable in my situation.

The pain was reduced, but I was still unable to move in my situation. There was no way I would be able to fight like this. Not to mention the fact that we were on the ground right now. If the dragon came here, he would be at a significant advantage.

I stayed there thinking of a way to escape the scenario, but nothing came to my mind. We could try running away, but how far could we run?

While my mind was clouded with negative thoughts, Flare took her divine bird form and came to me. She wrapped me around her tail and started healing me.

For once, I was relieved of all the worries that I was feeling, but that short window of time where I could rest didn't last long as the Dragon landed right in front of us, shaking the very earth.

I was expecting him to take the human form, which would give him a significant advantage on the ground, but he didn't. That made it apparent that he wasn't considering me a big enough deal to be cautious at this stage. Or it could just be that he simply felt it was unnecessary.

Whatever the reason, I had no time to wait because with a single swing of his claw, he tore apart the entire ground that we were standing at. If it weren't for Flare, who helped me lift myself in the air, I would have fallen into one of the cracks he had created.

Because of the broken ribs, breathing was hard. Whenever I tried filling my lungs with air, I could feel a sharp pain in my chest.

Flare's flames helped me recover a bit, but I was yet to recover completely. However, rest here was a luxury because the next wave of attack was coming right at us.

Using his magic, he created several spikes made up of hardened soil below us. And at the same time, he fired several mud bombs at us.

They were fired at a phenomenal speed, making it almost impossible to dodge.

At this point, the whole ground itself was a trap. Our only option to escape this scenario was to fly back to the higher air. But the way he was attacking us with one wave after another, the chance that we would be able to pull that off was extremely low.

In fact, even if we do manage to go to the high in the air, the thing that just happened before would only repeat itself. That meant there was no way to escape. No strategy would work against him at this point.

I expected nothing less from a being like him. None of our attacks would work against him, and even if it did, he would just heal himself in a blink. His mana holding capacity was probably close to infinite as well. Neither on the ground nor in the air did we have the advantage. And there was nothing left to try. There was no way we would win this time. 'Hell, just surviving this all would be nice.'

"Tch! I guess I am out of options here."

I dodged the last boulder of the wave, which gave me about a second to speak. But right as I finished my sentence, another wave started.

"You may think I can become the cause of this era of chaos or whatever. But the true enemy is out there, preparing for that."

When one's back is truly against the wall, and when there is nothing left that one can do, the only thing left is to push back and resist.

I ignored everything and charged forward while Flare covered me by destroying the boulders that were coming my way. It was a reckless move, but if we keep on staying at a distance, we wouldn't be able to avoid those attacks for much longer.

"There is Satan out there, walking free and trying to resurrect the demon lord. There are evil spirits trying to bring back the era of chaos. And here we are fighting for no reason whatsoever. How stupid can you be?"

I wasn't sure if I was making sense or not, but I was pretty annoyed at this point. If he was going to complicate things by being illogical, I think he should at least be aware of what was happening right now.

He was like a wise sage claiming to know everything about the modern world just after coming out of his cave. However, it was clear that his doings were utterly foolish.

It appeared as though my words distracted him for a bit. I used that window of time to create the biggest fireball I could and fused it with Flare's flames.

I then jumped right above him and released the fireball on his back.