Mimic Awakening

Upon facing the Dungeon God, Azrael was in deep distress, feeling small and insignificant, realizing there were a lot more powerful people out there. To top it all, Vordoth discontinued the production of monsters of the dungeon Azrael and Claire took so much effort to contain for themselves.

Finding a way to gain powers, Azrael even resorted to hunting monsters in the ocean. He not only needed mana but more abilities in his arsenal as well. Azrael decides to devour the awakeners that were sealed in ice.

He was actually in desperation and resorted to doing such things. But he would be going to eat them anyway, so he did not see it as a problem.

In his experiment to try out his newly acquired awakened abilities, he discovered that the awakened ability of the leader of the assassins can actually bypass the defenses of the archdragon’s barrier. That is why he avoids getting caught by the explosion he detonated earlier.

Vhoosh!

As the thermal pulse and shockwave of the explosion still rage on the sixth floor of the dungeon, Azrael hides in a spawn room to shield himself from the blast. Since Claire called her earlier, he has told her not to go to the sixth floor since it is not safe yet.

He actually is not sure if the assassin’s awakened ability, which he named Endless Pain, would be effective against the undead knight. He even used the life-stealing capabilities of Berserker, the awakened ability of one of Claire’s assassins, but he failed to heal since there was no life to steal.

In addition to the absence of muscles, Dareon is equipped with black armor seemingly made out of a material better than mithrill. This proves the case after his mithrill longsword snapped in half after clashing with his sword, which is also made of the same material.

If he were to fail to finish him, Azrael is sure he is done for, as he has little mana to spare. Due to the amount of mana remaining in him, he is feeling incredibly weak and exhausted and on the verge of collapsing. He prays to whatever gods or deities are out there that he will win this time.

Whish.

A minute later, the violent wind has finally come to a stop. The entire vicinity is filled with silence. Concluding that the area is now safe, Azrael finally gets out of the inoperational spawn room. He runs through the dungeon and takes a few sharp turns before he cautiously walks at the ground zero of the blast.

When he gets to the area, Azrael immediately scans for Dareon’s mana. He finds two signatures; one from the sword, and his traces can be found near the wall on the other side.

Before getting into him, Azrael picks up the black greatsword first. He inspects it and is surprised to see that it is still fine and working. He is amazed that this sentient weapon has almost the same mana capacity as the hero’s.

After that, he then runs to the location and ends up finding Dareon in the gruesome state. He lost his arms, a leg, and some of his ribs. With his helmet gone, Dareon’s skull can be seen; the light in his red eyes is still flickering. Despite taking an amplified ancient dragon fireball at point-blank range, Dareon still survives.

"You are still alive after all of that?"

In front of him, Dareon is leaning against the black wall. Azrael does not feel the aura around the body anymore.

"Hmph. You got me there, Azrael. I did not expect such a clever move at all. It’s a shame, but I lost. You can finish me now."

"Hmm," Azrael thinks for a few seconds. "I’m not sure about that. You don’t seem to have hostility to me the whole time. What are we even fighting for?"

Azrael has been thinking about that since Dareon jumped onto his floating island. He immediately went into a fight without stating his reason or motivation, which Azrael finds very strange.

"Haha," Dareon chuckles. "I have been on the floating island for thousands of years following the last order of my sire. Throughout that time, my opponents are always the monsters and the ocean. I sometimes spar with Zyren."

Zyren? Is that the mage that Claire fought? Azrael wonders.

"Being isolated over the vast ocean, I never had the chance to defend the land from invaders."

"That’s the purpose of a floating island. It’s made to greatly reduce the threats of bad neighbors through isolation," Azrael retorts. "Going with your logic, you just decided to attack us regardless of our motives?"

"Yeah, something like that. I am kind of a battle maniac. Sensing a powerful presence like you really drove my passion for fighting powerful opponents. Why would I let that pass? I feel like I was facing a supreme dragon."

Dareon has the audacity to laugh after uttering the last sentence. Out of all the things he just said, Azrael only takes interest in one thing.

"A supreme dragon? Sounds like a tough monster."

"Because it is. It’s the ultimate stage of a dragon’s life after all."

Woah. Don’t just casually drop a bomb right there.

"What? Are you suggesting that archdragons are not the most powerful dragons in this world?"

Since archdragons are the boss of this dungeon, Azrael automatically concludes that they are the pinnacle of dragon evolutions. Even Claire states that it is a matter of fact.

"Yup. An archdragon is actually nothing compared to an ancient supreme dragon."

"Wow. I could not believe that something like that exists in this world.

But for some reason, hearing of an existence greater than an archdragon’s makes Azrael feel dread and thrill at the same time. His urges to devour something new and powerful make him excited. Now he thinks that he behaves like Dareon and starts to understand him.

Suddenly, Azrael feels like someone just appeared nearby. Both Azrael and Dareon turn their heads toward the same spot. An Illumination Dome has been cast, and the light reveals the figure of Claire before she walks toward them.

"I’m glad that you are fine, Azrael."

"You, too, Claire."

Just a few seconds ago, Azrael called Claire to say that she can safely go to the sixth floor of the dungeon.

"If she is here," Dareon speaks. "Does that mean that Zyren has been defeated as well?"

"So his name is Zyren, huh?" Claire responds. "I actually did not defeat him. We both ran out of mana and silently agreed not to continue further."

"I see." Dareon turns his skull frontwards and bobs it slightly. Since he does not have a muscle, they could not see his sigh of relief.

"Let’s continue on the surface. I want some fresh air."

Azrael says as he turns his gaze to Claire. She immediately gets his cue and casts Long Teleportion, a supreme-tier spatial magic spell, to transport the three of them to the surface.

◆◇◆

A five-meter-wide magic circle lighting up somewhere on the floating island and a group of a man, a woman, and a cadaver suddenly appear on it a second later. Being under the sun again, Azrael’s vision is filled with bright lights before deactivating his night vision to normal.

Azrael and Claire look around until both of them sense the fast approach of someone from the other island. Seconds later, an undead under a dark blue robe lands a few meters from their spot.

"Zyren! I’m glad to see you fine!" Dareon immediately greets his companion upon his arrival.

"So you have been defeated, Dareon," Zyren says before turning his gaze to Claire and Azrael simultaneously. "I know that he just suddenly attacked you without a reason, but can you spare his life? We deeply apologize for this inconvenience."

"Actually, I have taken a liking to your floating island and planned to take it away," Azrael just casually reveals his intentions. "So a fight is definitely unavoidable, but if you attack first, that makes us the victim here."

"I see."

"Since there’s a draw and a victory, that makes us the winner of this battle; we have proven our strength. I would like it if you handed the island to me as reparations for the attack."

"Hoho. That is some kind of demand, kid. But unfortunately, we cannot just hand the island to you. We will protect it no matter what."

After declaring that, Zyren takes a look at Dareon and finds that his bones are not regenerating at all. Delayed and slowed healing is manageable by their undead bodies; they just have to blast it with negative energy.

But Dareon has an impressive passive regeneration for an undead. He should be regenerating to a certain extent right now, but his bones do not seem to heal a little. He suspects that the humans have something to do with that.

"First of all, I’m not a kid. My name is Azrael, and this is Claire," he introduces Claire and himself to them. "How about we talk about it further, Mr. Zyren? Have you ever considered serving me?"