The Maniac of DxD (Highschool dxd insert/ semi-crack): Chapter 44

Cliffs of Eastern Iceland.

Issei Hyoudou gritted his teeth and held onto Bastion as his opponent delivered devastating blows.

“Come now, Whelp! Stop hiding behind that shield and start fighting like the dragon that you have inherited in your soul!”

“You want a dragon!? I’ll give you a dragon! Ddraig! Scale Mail-“

“Not yet!”

With a burst of natural energy, the colossal dragon the teenager was facing cast out flames from its mouth that interrupted Issei’s transformation.

“I told you. You need to work on the speed at which you activate the balance breaker-“

“NOT HELPING SHISHOU!!”

“No distractions, Whelp!”

This time, the flames that shot out of the dragon’s mouth were more akin to a laser beam thanks to the concentrated natural energy, making the boy dodge in panic lest he be cooked alive, Touki or no Touki.

“He is right, partner. Being on the defensive might help you win many a fight, but it will not help against a fellow Dragon.”

“Then, what do you suggest?”

“Give it everything you got!”

Issei wanted to give a flat stare to his partner within the Booster Gear, but he could not do so since he was being constantly bombarded by the Dragon the size of a building.

“....Alright. Here goes nothing.”

Within a second, He condensed his Touki into a ball of energy like his master likes to do and then activated Boosted Gear to increase its lethality.

“”””””” Boost!”””””””

Thanks to the rigorous training and life and death scenarios the teenager had gone through, the number of times he could boost within a single second without breaking his body had gone up from five times to seven times, increasing his lethality and versatility in a fight.

Then, the energy ball left the boy’s palm like a cannon shot, accompanied by his shout.

“Dragon Shot!”

And yet, his opponent was not some beast driven by instinct. It was the guardian beast of the land and had intelligence rivalling, sometimes even surpassing, humans.

So it was relatively easy for the Dragon to maneuver out of the attack that could level mountains with ease.

However, the teenager had expected such a reaction and had incorporated it into his hastily made plan.

The moment the Dragon dodged the energy ball, Issei was on him with his energy claws activated along with his Scale Mail.

“Dragon Claw!”

The Dragon screamed in pain as Issei’s claws dug deep into its hide, leaving jagged marks on its torso.

But the attack was still not enough to sate the Dragon.

He reared his head back with his mouth stretched into a bestial grin.

“That’s it! That is the savagery and rage expected of a dragon! Now, hold onto that fire, channel it into your power, and match this breath with your own! only then will I, the nameless guardian of this land, acknowledge you as my equal and give you my blessing!”

With that proclamation, the Dragon, simply referred to as Dreki in the Icelandic language, which translates into ‘The Dragon’, stopped flying around like a highly maneuverable military jet and landed in front of Issei, challenging the young dragon to a duel of breath attacks.

Something that the boy replied with his own stance as demanded by his now draconian blood.

Ever since his master had started baptizing him with the essence of various different draconian creatures from across the pantheons, Issei felt like he was slowly starting to become more of a dragon than a human, something that Ddraig was extremely thrilled about.

While this gradual transformation came with its own downfalls, such as his temper becoming harder to control and his suddenly increasing need to hoard stuff in his home, there were also a lot of upsides.

Such as what he was about to do.

“Now, remember what I taught you, Issei. As a partial Dragon, you are only able to use a breath attack for a limited time and at a lower intensity compared to even a low-ranking Drake, much less a full blooded Dragon. So, you will have to be crafty and use your human traits to your advantage.”

As his master’s words rang in his ears, Issei simply nodded and took a deep breath, just like the Dragon in front of him.

For Dragons, breathing is not just for the sake of survival.

With the act of a deep breath, a Dragon pulls in absurd levels of magical energy within their lungs, compresses it to the limit, and then ignites this magical energy with their ‘inner fire’, something that all Dragons, and to a lesser extent, other draconian species, have within them.

This is what results in the ridiculously powerful flames that can burn even Ultimate-class beings to a crisp, given the right circumstances.

Remembering this lesson, Issei followed his master’s training and compressed his natural energy to the absolute limit within his lungs ( because the poor boy had so little talent in magic that he could not be trusted to handle any level of magical energy and was forced to substitute it with natural energy from his Senjutsu).

But then, instead of combining it directly with his Inner Fire, he followed a different approach he had been experimenting with for some time now.

Issei pulled this compressed energy to the back of his throat and then activated Boosted Gear, making the dragon in front of him stare at him with shock.

“….You do know you will explode like a bomb if you can’t control that energy, right?”

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence!’

Issei grumbled in his mind, but he could not spare any thought for his master as this required all of his concentration.

All of this process only took a few seconds for both sides.

And the end of the process was announced as the Dreki released its breath attack first, unleashing crimson flames that vaporized everything in its path as it headed straight for Issei and promised certain death.

It was only a split second later that Issei’s own attack was unleashed.

“Dragon Roar!”

With the name of the attack shouted out by Ddraig since Issei could not speak, the boy finally touched his inner fire to the compressed and boosted energy ball, igniting the energy and creating a deafening explosion.

What followed was more of a concussion blast than a flame thrower like the Dreki’s attack, as the colossal beast was blasted to the cliff side with the powerful concussive force behind Issei’s attack, only to be bathed in white hot flames a split second later, leaving severe burns on the dragon.

And yet, despite the grievous injuries, the dragon laughed uproariously.

“Hahaha! See that? Ren? We can make a dragon out of him yet! And here you were, doubting my ability to teach a mere hatchling!”

Maniac Ren gave an amused look at one of the four divine protectors of the landmass known as Iceland, the same ones that King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark once encountered long ago, along with his court wizard, when they went to scout Iceland.

“I never doubted that you could make the kid succeed in performing Dragon Breath. What I doubted was that if you could do it without killing him. I’ll admit, he is annoying, but I don’t think he deserves to die just yet. Not to mention that I gave my word to his parents that I would bring his sorry ass back intact from this trip.”

“Fuck you too, Shishou.”

The Guardian of the East and the Manica ignored the tired boy’s curse and his middle finger.

“So, about that blessing?”

The dragon grinned and, in a move that shocked the exhausted boy but was exactly what the Maniac had expected, bathed the two humans in flames.

However, instead of feeling pain, Issei felt relief as all the pain he had been experiencing until now due to pushing himself so far faded, replaced by newfound energy that felt nearly infinite. At the same time, he felt like his connection to Ddraig and his own inner fire had been strengthened a lot.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Ren as he did not receive many benefits from the blessing aside from gaining a little bit of an increase in his Touki reserves.

With that done, Dreki grinned at his associate and his student.

“Well then. Since you two have already gained my blessing, I suggest you head to the others-“

“Already done.”

The giant dragon comically blinked its eyes at stared at a glum-looking Ren while Issei smirked, picking up on the fact that his master had not received much advantage from the blessings, just like with the other three blessings.

“Truly? You actually managed to convince the old fellow in the south to give you a blessing? How did you do that?”

“I have my ways. It took a bit to convince Gammur, while Griðungur freely gave his blessing. As for that foolish Bergrisi? There is nothing more persuasive than some good old knuckles to the skull.”

“….GAHAHAHA! You really kicked his ass? Just like that? Damn! I wish I were there to see it!”

Ren grinned at the words of his associate.

“Well, if you give me something in return, I could give you a video-“

“No thanks! Call me the next time you want a good fight. See ya!”

Knowing that it would be detrimental to his health (and his hoard) if he stayed here any longer, the Dragon of the East, one of the four Landvættir of Iceland, along with Gammur, the Eagle of the North, Bergrisi, the Giant of the South, and Griðungur, the Bull of the West, took off into the sky and disappeared into the distance, leaving the maniac and his disciple to rest and recover their strength before they would set off to the last leg of this long adventure.

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The Landvættir (Guardian spirits of Icelandic myths) (Image source: Pinterest):