Yuri laughed, flashing his teeth.
“If there’s no starting signal—then sneak attacks are valid, aren’t they?”
The spectators watching their duel grew heated.
“Hyooh!” an onlooker whistled, “Good going, rookie!”
“There are no rules in battle! The one who wins in the end is just!!”
“What’s wrong, Haring!? Conceding the first hit to a newbie!?”
Having just witnessed Haring’s overbearing attitude, the surrounding duelists began to jeer at him one after the next. As they showered him with boos, Haring slowly rose to his feet. His face had taken quite a blow, but forget falling unconscious, his nose wasn’t even broken.
One of the Dragon Tribe’s traits was their sturdy constitution. Thick skin that could repel a blade, tough muscles to catch any blow, bones hard enough to beat out metal—all combining to form a body specialized in defense.
No half-hearted attacks would get through to a member of the Dragon Tribe. And the other ability they possessed—
“You’ve got spunk, rookie. I’ll give you that.” Haring’s face turned red with anger, putting Yuri on his guard. “I was looking down on you for being a newbie, but you asked for it. I’ll crush you with all I got.”
After a quiet murmur, the air started to tremble. The vibrations spread out until the floors and walls were shaking violently, the sand born from the tremors squirming and swelling as if it had a will of its own.
Though the Field existed in a different dimension, it recreated the surrounding environment: geographical features and buildings. And, while events within the Field couldn’t impact the real world in any way, it was possible to manipulate the objects created within it.
“I’ll kill you so thoroughly—you won’t fight again!!”
The instant he clenched his fists in rage, the area around him changed. The sand grains floating in the air gathered to envelop Haring’s body. Gradually, those grains became gravel, and gravel upon gravel formed stone. Haring’s body was transforming into something grotesque as these massive boulders enveloped him.
Long ago, before the world had its rules... In the long and bloody wars among the tribes, each of the eight tribes developed their own unique skill to overwhelm the others.
These were the tribal skills—and they were still around for anyone to use in a duel.
“This is—my Dragonification!” A roar jumbled with all sorts of grating noises echoed across the hall.
To change one’s body into that of a dragon, this was the Dragon Tribe’s tribal skill: Dragonification.
A long neck of adjoined stone. A body enshrined as a single hulking boulder. Four limbs formed from complex rock formations to support a thick and massive body—a form truly worthy of being called a ‘dragon of stone.’
“You won’t die easily...you irritating brat!!”
Its crooked mouth split as the stone dragon raised a roar to the high heavens, showing off the dull color that coated the insides of its oral cavity.
Faced with the overwhelming dragonic form—
“So this is a real Dragonification...!!” Yuri muttered. No fear in his eyes, he gleefully gazed up at the beast towering before him.
“If you’re getting serious, then I should give it my all!”
With this declaration, he kicked off, practically sliding full speed at the dragon.
“A human’s all ain’t worth nothing!!” the beast roared as a tail of joined stones swung at Yuri. The marble floor was cruelly hollowed out, fine white particles scattering as the stone tail ripped its way toward him.
“You won’t know until you try!”
Yuri leaped over the tail creeping along the ground. But the tail carried right on with its momentum, colliding with the ceiling and sending a shower of rubble and debris down.
Dodging the falling fragments, Yuri continued sprinting without rest—only to come to a sudden stop, turn, and take a large leap to the side.
“Hey now, what’s wrong!!? You won’t win running around like that!” Haring scoffed as he maneuvered the massive bulk to give chase. The moment its foreleg lifted, Yuri turned to face the dragon—
“Running is—sometimes—necessary to win!” he declared as he forcefully slashed at the stone dragon’s limb. Feeling a definite sense of cutting into something, he kicked the leg and sent his own body flying back and away.
And the moment Haring slowly lowered that leg—it fell apart with the ear-rending sound of scraping stone, bringing the dragon to its knees. Its body lurched forward, as if it had no leg to stand on, and indeed the stone that had formed its forelimb crumbled away until nearly nothing remained.
“When the body is so large, an immense load is placed on the legs supporting it. In order to move them, you have to create joints—if I can just aim for that gap, my sword won’t be repelled.”
The four legs were a complicated construction of stone, but precisely because they needed to be operational as legs, they were not simply coated in solid rock. Instead, they were a complicated arrangement that allowed for joints to form.
The moment a gap was born between stone and stone—meaning, when the leg was lifted—its sturdy armor couldn’t simply repel a blade. And if he managed to deal damage to the joint, and then its bulk was set back on the ground...the weight of the body would crumble its construction, and it would consequently fall apart from the weight of the stones that formed it.
“Your size and weight are a threat, but if you lose one of the legs supporting you, it will largely throw off that body’s balance. In such a state—your tail isn’t going to go where you’re aiming.”
And right after he said this, a destructive sound erupted behind Yuri. A lowered stone tail. Unable to hit the boy, it deviated and simply smashed the marble floor.
“Hah... You fight calmly for a rookie.”