Having some extra time to himself, Ziann decided to walk to Baska City for the afternoon. He knew some people there, had an Inn he liked there, and could catch up with some of his contacts. If he wanted to, he could probably hop into one of the Great Baska Rock tournaments again. Hopefully not against children this time... As he entered the outskirts of the city, though, he smelled the stench of scorched flesh on the wind. Something was going wrong nearby. Gripping his cloak around him more tightly, he abandoned all cause for concern and headed closer to the smell. While he could barely hear it at the moment, there was also the sound of chaos coming from closer to the City.

A flash of lightning lit up the sky even though there wasn't a cloud to be seen. It wasn't a freak thunderstorm, it wasn't a natural occurrence it all. It had to be the work of Magic, and powerful magic at that for the blast to be so large. Ziann was starting to doubt his resolve, but he had to know what was going on. He just had to. His own list of spells scrolling through his mind, he made his way further into the outskirts of Baska towards the source of this magical lightning blast. What he saw nearly floored him. He came up over a hill and saw a massive creature, bigger than any animal he had ever seen in the Wilds. It was at least three times the size of the largest bear he'd ever come across, and was much nastier.

The creature had wings, a massive maw full of bladed teeth, wicked horns, and a long spiked tail. While he had heard stories of Dragons before, he'd never thought he would ever come across one in real life. This pale yellow creature was a beast of legend, a beast of terror, a beast of nightmares. And it was currently chewing on a townsperson while its body sparked and sent little arcs of lightning towards nearby objects. The woman caught in the beast's mouth was screaming bloody murder, but was soon cut short by being bifurcated by its jaw. Her life ending so abruptly was a shock to Ziann who wasn't used to the sounds, smells, and sights of death yet.

Readying his Wind Make Magic, Ziann started walking towards the creature. He didn't particularly care about the person who had just died, after all, he didn't know her at all, but he had friends and contacts here in Baska and wasn't about to let the creature run rampant until the whole City was destroyed. "Hey! This City is not your personal play thing, creature! Get out of here while you still can!" Confidence level low, Ziann was ready for combat and had to be if he was going to approach this thing. The Dragon turned its head towards the mage and just roared out defiantly. Electrical spittle scorched the grass that it touched and Ziann realized quickly that he didn't want to be close to this thing at all. Hopefully it wasn't too fast...

522/2,000 WC

Azure was finally able to get some time off, given by himself of course but time off none the less even though he didn't really need it as much this time around. The more that he looked around it seemed like he would yet again find himself in the middle of some kind of attack of sorts though just like last time he didn't see the need to really involve himself in this one. All types of smells filled the air and none were pleasant at all naturally and being the little curious cat that he is had to check out what was going on. "Why is it that every time I want to get some R&R something interesting happens in my location," he asked himself adjusting his collar and cuffs.

Work just always seemed to find its way to him but maybe this time the work would be something he liked or even find entertaining to some extent. The scholar noticed someone cloaked in red making their way towards the monster OH? maybe I can get some data from this poor soul? he thought to himself while making sure to keep a good distance away from them. With Baska quickly turning into a battleground the hiding places became the priority for the time being. Observing the enemy from afar is always the best strategy for someone like Azure who wants to see the capabilities of someone or thing that he might have to fight it also didn't hurt to have someone take a few hits before him.

From what he could see the Dragon wasn't all that happy which seemed to a common thing among them at this point. Azure watched the events unfold from behind the safety of a building though that would only help him but for so long. The damage was bound to increase once a battle broke out the only question was when. Having already seen a dragon the boi wasn't all too impressed though if this one went down faster than the last one he wouldn't need to get involved like that one time. The man was either really powerful or really stupid to talk to a dragon-like that either way it didn't matter to him. If the man proved to be weak the scholar would lend them a hand but if they could handle it on their own he would sit back and watch. Even though he had just gotten his new outfit he didn't think he would have to battle in it so soon. If the man-made the first move then it would prove that he was strong however if the dragon did then it well would have to see about his next move. In all honesty, the scholar was slightly scared to fight such a monster even though he could probably last longer than the man currently in front of it.

He took out his notepad and started to write down some details about the dragon as best he could given he wasn't that closet to it.

WC-507

Ziann was staring down a Dragon. What was he thinking? Nothing very wise, that was for sure. As he looked at the creature probably five times his size and twenty times his weight, he regretted getting involved. Sure, he had acquaintances here, but were they really worth dying for? Not really, but here he was facing a beast of legend and having no back up, it seemed. The Dragon roared again, threateningly, and Ziann just grit his teeth and advanced forwards more. Maw open, the monster inhaled and for a split second Ziann could see the innards that were generating raw lightning inside. He was about to be blasted to kingdom come if he didn't react quickly.

"Wind Make: Spring!" Ring finger pressed to his palm in his signature casting form, a weak magic circle appeared around his hand as raw mana became solid air. He threw the little ball to the ground, stepped on it, and then used it to jump five meters into the air. The Dragon seemed to calculate its angle for attack based on a normal jump (this time, at least) so Ziann's surprise high jump barely dodged the massive blast that struck the hill behind the mage and sent rocks, grass, and dirt flying everywhere. The blast was large enough to completely decimate the hill, something that Ziann knew he could not afford to be struck by full force.

In the air still, Ziann took his opportunity to fire a spell off as well. "Wind Make: Gust!" Skipping his paltry D rank projectile, Ziann threw a C rank spell using the motion of his whole arm to build up wind as he moved. The larger magic circle from the Spring was a key indicator that he was using a more advanced technique, but even still the blast barely shook the Dragon. It hit it in the side and it just sort of shrugged it off. It was more durable than that, for sure. Ziann landed safely and the Spring dissipated harmlessly allowing him to suffer no injury from jumping so high, but he chose to duck and roll as he landed to try and avoid any follow up attacks from the dragon.

He ended up just looking silly and getting his cloak all dirty. Brushing himself off, Ziann assessed the area. He was now much closer to the Dragon, but not yet close enough to use his Dagger or Sword Spells, though his Whip spell could hit from here. Breathing more heavily now than he was before, he took a moment to pause before attacking again. The Dragon was charging up another blast and he wouldn't be able to dodge this one. He'd have to block it. "Wind Make: Targe!" Sliding his right hand in signature casting form down his left arm, he gathered enough Wind to form a C ranked shield half a meter in diameter along the limb.

When the Dragon spewed lightning again, Ziann was ready for it, feet firmly planted in the ground. Still, his shield was blasted away and he was knocked over by the attack, little arcs of electricity burning holes in his clothes. He looked panicked for a moment before realizing that his cloak looked more or less okay. Standing up wearily, Ziann knew he had few options left to use and he had used up most of his strongest spells right off the bat...

382/500 Mana
-28 Spring (-10% from INT, +20% from Inferior Spell Type)
-45 Gust (-10% from INT)
-45 Targe (-10% from INT)

522+567=1089/2000 WC

Spells Used:

As he watched the two start their battle which seemed rather one-sided, to begin with, but this person did stop the dragon from doing its job so its anger was understandable but at the same time to go at it alone was a rather poor choice for them. Once the scholar saw the dragon being charging up for an attack he knew that it was time to take cover in a place that could withstand the attack and not be as affected by it. While he was looking for safety he could hear a wide range of spells being thrown back to back which meant the mage from before did some damage to it or was also running for their life. Due to Azure promoting himself and nothing else he didn't even notice that the dragon had launched its attack destroying a mountain. The Dragon seemed to be focused on the man in front of him which was good for the blue-haired boy as now he could start to plan his own attack on it accordingly without even physically getting involved or so he hoped that is.

The air felt electrified and chard with every breath he took was this a Dragon with lighting-type abilities or was it the person fighting it? Regardless of who was dealing out so much environmental damage, it had to go down and this guy wasn't going to do it by themself. It would seem that Azure would need to step in and help this poor fool after all even though he really didn't want to but at this point, his hands were tied as if this guy died then he would more than likely be the next victim of the dragon. "Blob I need some support here!!!" he shouted raising his left hand in front of them creating the grey magic circle in front of himself. What looks like a rift, in reality, appears in front and spit out Blob his trusty and fateful companion. The creature looked to his summoner for its orders and with a few points and jester Azure gave it just that. Without wasting any time the scholar rushed over to the sorry mage "To think I would be helping a random for free." he muttered to himself hoping that the dragon wouldn't bother to launch another attack at him in the process.

The Blob acted as Azure's shield while he made his way to Ziann and looked over the battlefield and came to the conclusion that he would really need to work with this random to take this thing down and study it later. Now with the scholar taking action this whole mess was about to become a lot less troublesome well that was the hope anyway. Assuming that this man was even cable of fighting this monster for a little more. "So what do you know so far Red Cloak?" he asked pushing his hair back behind his right ear while looking at the man with a semi-serious look on his face.

Blob MC- 25-950

Mana 925:

WC-505

Ziann heard some shouting in a foreign language over to the side of the dragon towards town, a language he didn't recognize. Another mage started towards him with some sort of large blue mucous like creature. Not having seen summoning magic before, Ziann was pretty impressed, to be honest. The creature itself looked pretty odd, but to conjure an entire entity had to be pretty complex magic. He was then addressed in Fiorian and called by a rather odd moniker. There being an actual rampaging Dragon in front of them, Ziann didn't have time to get bothered about being called Red Cloak, but there were worse things he had been called in the past.

"I know that it's breath hits like a flying brick wall... And it doesn't appear to need a lot of time in between blasts. I've seen it breathe out lightning three times in the last couple minutes. They seem to be getting slightly weaker though over time."

The Dragon didn't seem like it wanted Azure and Ziann to have any more time to chat, inhaling and preparing for another lightning blast. Planting his feet solidly, Ziann hoped that this other mage could take a hit as well. On second thought... Maybe he should dodge again. Jumping away from where the Dragon was aiming, since the path was so predictable so far, Ziann tried to lure the Dragon's attention away from Azure. The Wind Make mage hit the ground, rolled, then jumped again just for good measure to make sure he could avoid the majority of the blast.

It was more or less successful, as the Dragon seemed to focus on him since he had angered it. It was also more or less unsuccessful, as the Dragon wasn't completely terrible at aim and managed to catch his right leg in the blast. That hurt. A lot. The pant leg was blown clean off and the flesh was charred slightly. But that blast had been a lot weaker than the blast that had taken out the hill and a bit weaker than the blast that had taken out Ziann's shield earlier. The blasts from the Dragon, while rapid, did not appear to be as strong as they had been. Maybe that was because it was spitting them out so rapidly, maybe it was something else. But it was something that probably had saved Ziann's leg from being blown clear off.

As it was, it still hurt to the touch but because there wasn't any black leather pant leg left on there any more, not a lot was coming into contact with it. That was a plus. He tested it and could still stand and walk on it. That was a plus as well. Addressing Azure, he called out his plan. It wasn't very well thought out, but it was all that he had going for him right now. "If you can get me close, I can probably get a decent hit in with my biggest spell. I can't get all the way through its neck, but my Wind Sword might be able to cut its wing off."

1089+519=1608 WC

CDs:
Spring: 1/2
Gust: 1/2
Targe: 1/2

Almost forgetting that he even had his book with him, Azure pulled the book out of his satchel and held onto it tightly just in case the man needs some cover fire though from what he was able to see so far that wasn't the case here. "Ya this thing doesn't seem to be really smart about what it wants to do," he would say to the man as he looked over at the dragon that had started to become even more enraged with them. How he kept finding himself in situations like this was beyond his understanding at this point in his life and all he could do was just roll with the punches through the man with him didn't seem to really care about much of anything.

Within this moment the scholar's body was telling him to leave this guy to handle the Dragon on their own but at the same time, both aspects of his mind wanted him to kill this thing and bring a trophy back to hang in the hall of the guild. This could just be marked as a test of his resolve to see a probably hopeless battle to the end even if it went against everything that info brokers stood for. Could this be a change for the better or just a momentary change? this was something to be explored later once his current work had finished up and all. Now was the time to think of a plan that could keep them both alive long enough to see any weak points in the dragon and exploit them to their advantage. With Blobby with him, he could survive one hit if the dragon did attack him but at the same time Elm his magic book could be used as cover fire.

"Blobby I might need to send you back so just standby," he told his Jello-like friend to which it simply replied with gurgles as Red Cloak took the attention away from the dragon the scholar had followed right behind them. As the man dips and dogged the dragon's attacks he could tell that this could be used to their advantage if they timed their attacks just right. Azure quickly opened the Magic Book and focused on the dragon's underbelly as his notes had mentioned something about attacking their underside when able unless it was the opposite and this attack would only make the dragon even more aggressive than it already was. The mana has started to take form in front of him through it was in four parts one of the magic missiles was sure to it some part of this thing. To think my first time using this would be on you... he thought as Blob started to vanish so he could focus on actually landing at least one hit on the dragon. While Ziann just nearly survived the last blast from the dragon the missiles had finished and launched themselves at the dragon's Wing and Underbelly. Azure closed the book and made sure to keep a safe yet reasonable distance from the dragon so he could back up Red Cloak when they needed it.

C rank Missles = 725 mp

Spells:

WC-525

Ziann would take the opening Azure created for him and run with it. He watched as four missiles of pure mana streaked across the Baskan field and collided with the Dragon. Two peppered its outstretched right wing, one the side of its head, and one its underbelly. Azure had some highly impressive accuracy and these shots looked like they each had as much oomph as Ziann's biggest projectile attack, the one he had used earlier. They definitely added up into a powerful attack, but the Dragon didn't look like he was going to die from it. Nor would he be expected to, it being an attack meant to create an opening for Ziann to get in close and use his best spell. Running headlong towards the creature, the wind make mage prepared his B-rank spell.

A white magic circle measuring an entire meter across appeared at Ziann's hand where his ring finger was pressed into his palm in his signature casting form. As he ran, solid wind poured out behind him forming a long sharp blade. When it had measured two meters long, Ziann called out and clutched the rest of his fingers together to form the hilt to the Sword. "Wind Make: Sword!" The sword was sharp, two meters in length, and pretty weighty despite being made of air. He had to hold it in both hands to make sure that he could have full control over it, not having really trained in swordsmanship and only having really used this spell once. But he wasn't about to tell Azure that.

Ziann ran as fast as he could, aiming to get right up next to the Dragon. He could feel the static from the beast's spittle raising the hairs from the back of his neck and he felt on edge, but he carried on. Getting right up in its business, Ziann aimed for the joint where the wing met the body of the beast. The B ranked spell hit the weakened right wing that had already been hit by 3 C ranked projectiles so far right in the joint and managed to cut all the way through before dissipating. Ziann wasn't done though. He had to take full advantage of the pain the beast was in before he got out of dodge before he was killed by the Dragon's rage. "Wind Make: Dagger!" Forming a smaller blade this time, just one meter in length, Ziann jumped up and shoved it into the Dragon's stump where the wing had been before. It howled in pain and recoiled, giving Ziann the opportunity to back off and try to get behind some cover. "Finish it!" Leaving this up to Azure to finish, Ziann was confident he had done enough damage for the beast to be able to be felled easily enough. Hopefully that would be enough, but only time, and Azure, could tell.

247/500 Mana
-90 Sword
-45 Dagger

CDs:
Spring: 2/2
Gust: 2/2
Targe: 2/2

1608+480=2088/2000 WC

Spells Used:

Azure grinned as the missiles actually managed to hit the dragon in a few good weak points though now he had no idea as to what to do next given he didn't think the missiles would work out so well. These battles seemed to be good as won but if his information on dragons was even close to being the stone-cold fact they would have to deal with a few more attacks from it Okay Azure just stay focused on the battle and you'll be fine, he told himself as new plans had begun to formulate in the background and assuming that the dragon would allow him to act on these plans this could end in many ways. From what he could understand about Dragons with what little research that he did the more that Dragons were tough but only in certain places depending on their type and affinity that is he was just happy to have been able to hit something.

The man covered in the red cloak sure knew how to cast his spell rather well though there was room for improvement even though he himself was still getting used to his own magic at this point. Their follow-up attacks really did a number on the monster on top of the damage from the missiles that went out already. Does he think I have unlimited Mana or something?! he asked himself his last attack took a lot out of him but now that his trump card had been used he left himself with no choice but to push through the remainder of the battle to make sure that he could finally get that R&R he wanted so badly. Sleeping in for a few days would be a nice change of pace given that his none existence sleep schedule.

Regardless of what he thought in this single moment, he knew that he would need to put everything he had left into killing this thing while making sure that's inners and other parts remained intact for the most part. The only question that was really left in the scholars head was which summon to call upon to help him deal the finishing blow as now his assist was unable to do it themself at the current time I could use her but then I have to deal with the aftermath of calling her out he thought to himself as he opened Elm and held it with the pages facing the ground "I really hope this doesn't end up destroying everything." he said to himself aloud as he aimed his palm towards a Dragon while he was charging the spell he changed its element to something more suited to land a killing blow which would be the first. Once the two meters projectile was ready to fire Azure let the Bolt of Arcane energy fly aiming for its heart to make sure that it dies a quick and painless death, Assuming that the attack hit the scholar would fall to his knees from exudation from using so much mana. "Oh man I've never used this much mana before in a fight," he said in between his breaths. If by some chance the attack was deflected or missed its mark the blue-haired man would still fall to his knees and try and think of a new way to finish off the monster with his limited mana.

Bolt MC-550 (changed it to Earth Element)
MP-175

Spell:

WC-500
Total WC-2037

Tired from all the running around and using up his biggest spells, Ziann stopped running to watch what was going to happen next. The attention of the Dragon turned towards him, it didn't see the bolt of Earth Elemental magic coming that burrowed through its body, crushed its heart, and carried through out the other side. For a moment, it looked like the Dragon was going to continue to fight, its maw opening up and lightning starting to form as it placed its open face right next to the panting Ziann. Instinctively he drew his casting hand past his left arm and formed a C-ranked shield of Wind now that his Targe spell was ready to use again.

But the Dragon didn't breathe out the blast it had prepared, instead it crashed to the ground and let out a puff of smoke that smelled just awful. The A-ranked blast had been more than Ziann could have come up with at this point in time, impressing him significantly. Was this the power of the Mage itself, or just that book he carried? Regardless, it had killed the Dragon. It would trouble the people of Baska no longer, though it would take time to clean up the considerable mess it had caused of the farmlands and the hills around town.

Walking up to Azure, still not knowing his name, Ziann shook off his Targe of solid Wind and held aloft a hand. "Ziann. You're handy to have in a fight, whoever you are." And with that, Ziann just sat on the ground and began tending to his wounds, in particular the electrical burns on his legs. He wasn't the kind of guy to be good at small talk when he wasn't feeling hyper and manic, and right now his mood was feeling pretty alright. They had, after all, just killed a Dragon.

He had no idea that he could even muster so much magic for the finishing blow as he watched the dragon fall he let out a sigh of relief as now the fighting was finally over or so he hoped it was as he wasn't sure if he could handle any big spells like that again for the time being. After a few moments of rest, the scholar staggered to his feet and dusted himself off, and thought about how changing back into his old Uniform for battles for now own.

The man that had acted as a dummy during the battle made their way over to him Oh great what do they want? he asked himself as the more childlike side to him wanted to get some money out of them for doing all the work in the fight. Once they were close enough they extended their hand to say good work for a few minutes Azure just looked at their hand and could see they really do a lot of hands-on work come paired to their own hands which were soft. After the study, the scholar would tell them "My name is irrelevant just know that if I see you again it'll be for the favor you now own me," he said turning his back to the man and walking away from him. While he left the outskirts he felt as though this would not be the last time he would deal with a Dragon.