Nancy's jaw tightened, but she stayed silent, wings half-spread, watching him with the cold focus of a predator.

Togi, however, was too drunk on the feeling of his new body to notice anything but himself.

"I got the same material now.. the same shit he used to make your bone-hands with, that little white-haired bastard. Hahaha! he should've never let me touch it! I don't know where the hell he got this metal from, but damn turning your bones into this? Smart. Very smart." He nodded to himself, tapping his steel chest with ringing clinks. "And thanks to him, I got it too nowww…"

His laughter came again loud, unhinged, triumphant.

Of course, he had no idea that he hadn't absorbed the actual material. He only absorbed the microscopic surface layer of mutated skin barely 0.000001 millimeters thin. A tiny, pathetic imitation of the real Obsidian Agony coating Razeal body makes around his bones.

But Togi didn't know. If he had known, he would've gone insane from greed and probably died instantly just trying to fully absorb the real thing afterall real thing cant be that easy of a thing.

But ignorance made him confident.

"So fucking smooth… so hard… and so light… It's just perfect," he murmured, stroking his arm like a lunatic admiring his reflection. "This is the strongest thing I've ever touched. What the hell is this metal… Anyways?"

He paused then blinked.

As if finally noticing he wasn't alone.

"Ohhh… you. You're that girl." His glowing eyes narrowed on Nancy. "How are you still standing? Didn't we give you that paralysis poison? …Where's Ranguard?"

Nancy didn't answer.

Togi waved his hand dismissively. "Nevermind. Forget him. How about you tell me where that white-haired boy went? I need to ask him something important." He pointed at his chest with a proud smirk. "Like what this material is called."

Nancy was expressionless ofcourse. Her wings twitched.

She was done listening.

"Shut up," she said, voice dropping into a chilling growl. "And just die, you disgusting bastard."

The air snapped.

Her ice wings flared wide then flapped, sending a barrage of razor-sharp ice feathers shooting out at lightning speed. Hundreds of them. A storm of translucent blades slicing through the air with lethal precision.

They hit Togi like a rain of bullets

PING PING PING PING!

Every single feather shattered into glittering fragments the moment it touched his black skin. Shards exploded into the air like shattered glass, sparkling before disappearing into the snow.

Nancy's brows knitted into a fierce frown.

Togi didn't flinch. He didn't even bother to brush the shards off. He just looked down at the tiny white fragments on his chest… then smiled slowly… proudly… mockingly.

"Hey now…" He tapped his chest twice clang, clang. "This isn't going to do anything. You're gonna need something stronger than that, girl."

He spread his arms as if inviting her to try again.

"Come on," he laughed, leaning forward tauntingly. "Don't disappoint me. Show me what you've got. I wanna see what this new skin is worth. Surely you have something… worth using against me?"

Nancy's eyes narrowed, a sharp glint cutting through the frost-filled air as she stared at Togi. Her senses were screaming warnings at her danger, danger, danger. The fact that he had taken her ice feather barrage head-on, without dodging, without defending, without even feeling it, was insane enough. But the reality was even worse.

No scratches.

No dents.

Not even frost collecting on his skin.

Her feathers were an A-rank technique, one of her strongest sharp enough to slice through the hide of monstrous snow behemoths, strong enough to sever limbs from creatures ten times her size. It was the skill she kept for life or death battles.. Like normal she would never use it unless she wanna kill someone.

And he took them like snowflakes.

Her jaw clenched.

This wasn't someone she could test or play with. He was a danger, and in front of a danger like this, hesitation meant death.

Nancy's fingers twitched once then curled around the hilt at her waist.

If the feathers did nothing…

Then she needed to escalate straight to her killing moves.. Like actual ones.

She exhaled sharply, breath coming out in freezing mist. Then with the sound of a clear metallic click she unsheathed her sword.

A long, gleaming blade emerged, shimmering with frozen sigils etched into the steel. An S-rank blade dragon-forged. A weapon that could cut through fortress walls and was one of the finest gifts chosen for her on her eleventh birthday. She had trained with it ever since. This was no ordinary sword; it could be used to fight real dragons.

She held it firmly in her right hand, grip tightening.

A chill swept across the crater as dangerous intent pumped off her body in tangible waves. Togi's expression shifted just for a moment as if his instincts whispered something his brain couldn't quite understand yet.

Nancy didn't waste a breath.

"Dragon's Breathing," she whispered.

Her lungs expanded, ribs cracking slightly under the pressure as mana surged violently inside her. Veins lit up beneath her skin like glowing ice-blue rivers. Her muscles tightened, hardened, strengthened her entire body beginning to overflow with enhanced draconic force.

Her voice came again stronger, deeper, tinged with ancient power.

"Dragon's Scale."

Icy blue scales erupted across the right half of her body thick, layered, overlapping armor reminiscent of a white dragon's natural plating. They shimmered in the pale light, edges razor-sharp.

Immediately following

"Dragon's Arm."

Her right arm distorted bones shifting, reshaping, thickening. Scales crawled all the way down to her fingers as her arm fully transformed into a dragon-like limb built to channel devastating power. Her sword pulsed in her grip, reacting to the monstrous mana now flowing through her.

And she didn't stop.

Not even close.

"Dragon's Wings. Dragon's Strength. Dragon's Might. Dragon Frenzy. Dragon Muscle Burst. Dragon's Aura.."

Her voice was relentless.

With each incantation, her body surged with another wave of power. Runic lights flickered around her. Air trembled. Snow blasted outward. Mana rippled in shockwaves, cracking the crater floor beneath her boots. Her aura expanded wildly becoming ancient, oppressive, suffocating, like the breath of a primordial being.

Her wings exploded into existence behind her massive, white, crystalline wings formed entirely of compressed ice and condensed mana. They caught the wind instantly, lifting snow and shards in spiraling storms around her.

Even Togi, who had been cocky until one second ago, felt a jolt run through him.

His smirk thinned.

His posture straightened.

His eyes sharpened ever so slightly.

This wasn't physical pressure. It was life-level pressure the kind that dragons naturally imposed onto lesser beings. His body was tough, yes. But instincts didn't care about that. They reacted to what her aura represented: a higher predator.

Still, ego made him stand his ground… though he swallowed once, throat clicking audibly.

Nancy didn't notice or didn't care.

She was too focused, too absorbed in the flood of power rushing through her limbs, in the calm rage simmering inside her chest. She wouldn't waste time. She wouldn't give him a chance.

"Pathetic," she muttered coldly.

"You think a bit of stolen metal makes you invincible?"

Her wings trembled, each feather glowing like sharpened frost.

In front of her, Togi's blackened body reflected her image small against him, but burning brighter than ten suns with killing intent. His stomach tightened as he met her gaze.

He hadn't expected this.

He hadn't expected her to hold such power.

But Nancy wasn't done not even close.

She bent her knees slightly, her body settling into a stance so polished and practiced that the air itself seemed to pause in recognition. Her dragon arm tightened around the sword's hilt, talons scraping lightly against the guard.

Snow stilled.

Wind froze mid-gust.

Nancy inhaled slow… deep… and the world trembled.

"Dragon's Sword Style" Her voice echoed like a temple bell struck at midnight.

"Breath of the Ancients."

Her eyes lowered

Then closed.

For a heartbeat, her aura vanished completely like a dying flame extinguished in an instant. Togi blinked, confusion flashing across his metallic features.

Then

Her eyes opened again.

Icy blue.

Focused.

Lethal.

"Fourth Form:"

Her wings snapped wide.

The air cracked.

Snow erupted violently off the ground.

"Sky-Talon Drop."

The moment the words left her mouth, the crater itself reacted as if struck by a divine hammer ground shuddering, cold air spiraling, pressure forming at the tip of her blade like compressed death.

Her wings flapped.

Once.

A single, impossibly fast motion.

Wind didn't move it detonated.

The force flung snow outward in a swirling white explosion, the sky above the crater warping from the sheer mana density. Nancy shot forward like a comet her dragon-arm gripping the sword so tightly the hilt groaned under the pressure.

And in the very next instant before even a gust of displaced air could settle Nancy appeared directly in front of Togi, her body flickering through space like a pale blue streak. She was just inches away from him, close enough to see the faint metallic sheen on his pitch-black skin and the eerie stillness in his unbothered eyes.

Her sword was raised high above her head, both hands gripping it with perfect form, dragon scales glimmering along her transformed arm.

Togi simply stood there.

Not because he chose to.

Because he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

Nancy's speed was beyond what his newly formed senses could track. She was already mid-swing before his mind fully registered her arrival.

With lightning-fast ferocity, Nancy brought her sword down her entire body channeling the terrifying, heavy, destructive draconic aura that coated her blade. The crushing weight behind the strike distorted the very air around her, the aura snarling like a living beast.

Her strike landed.

The sword's edge met the center of Togi's chest.

And in that exact fraction of a second

Nancy's eyes widened.

Because she saw it. She saw the impossible happening in slow motion.

Her blade her precious S-rank dragon-forged blade did not cut.

Did not pierce.

Did not even scratch.

Instead

Crack.

A thin fracture line crawled along the surface of the sword.

Then

KRRRRRSHHH.

Her blade shattered.

Like fragile glass.

Like brittle ice.

Like a weapon striking something far beyond its league.

Shards of the sword scattered in the frozen air, glinting like dying stars as they fell.

Her heart dropped.

But the strike wasn't meaningless not entirely.

Because the physical force behind the attack was monstrous, even without a blade. The raw kinetic power of a dragon-amplified blow was enough to distort the crater beneath them.

BOOOOM!!!

The moment the broken hilt connected with his chest, an earth-shattering shockwave exploded outward.

The ground caved in under the impact.

The crater expanded violently. Snow burst into the air in a massive white plume. Trees bent and snapped like twigs. The land itself split open, groaning from the force.

Togi's body was launched backward like he had been fired out of a colossal cannon. One moment he was standing right in front of her

The next, he became a black streak disappearing into the distance, tearing through the air with frightening velocity.

But not before Nancy saw it the expression that twisted across his face.

A smile.

He had noticed or felt it.

The proof.

His body had not been cut.

Not even a little.

Her sword broke first.

A smile mixed with insanity and satisfaction curled on his metallic lips before he vanished into the sky.

The aftershocks ripped across the land, making the entire crater vibrate and pushing everything aside with ruthless power. Snow was flung far away. Trees uprooted. Ice shattered.

A long, deep gash carved itself across the ground, stretching tens of meters in both width and length cutting through the landscape like a wound left by a divine beast.

Nancy hovered in the air now, dragon wings beating slowly, her entire body trembling from the recoil. A violent vibration ran through her draconic arm.

Then

"ghkk…!"

Blood splattered from her mouth, spraying into the cold air before freezing into red crystals.

The backlash hit her like a hammer. A B-rank person forcing out an S-rank attack especially one enhanced by countless draconic augmentations wasn't something the body could endure casually. Even with dragon blood in her veins, her muscles strained, her bones creaked, her organs shook inside her.

Her draconic heritage kept her alive.

Barely.

She coughed again, blood staining her chin.

She was still conscious…

But dangerously overexerted.

Her vision sharpened as she glanced down at her hand At the broken hilt still clutched tightly in her dragon claw.

Then she noticed something else.

The storage ring on her finger.. It had exploded from the sheer force that passed through her body.

Fragments of enchanted metal fell from her hand like glittering dust.

Her expression sank.

If she didn't have draconic scales protecting half her body… If she hadn't stacked spell after spell… If her bloodline didn't reinforce her muscles…

She would've been unconscious now.

Or crippled.

Or dead.

She inhaled sharply, chest burning, wings trembling as she tried to steady herself. Slowly, she looked down at the massive wound she created in the land the widened crater, the devastation stretching outward like a scar carved by an angry god.

Then she finally looked at her broken sword.

Pieces.

Nothing left.

"It… broke," she whispered, disbelief and fury twisting her voice.

She stared at the shattered hilt for a heartbeat longer before her expression hardened.

"He's alive."

Her lips parted in a bitter, frustrated breath.

"That was my strongest attack… and it didn't even give him a scratch…"

The reality sank in like ice-cold water.

She had thrown everything.. everything into that one strike. Her bloodline, her skills and spiells, her sword, her best form she could do. A perfect attack.

And it wasn't enough.

Not even close.

She clenched her jaw, anger and fear twisting together in her chest.

Togi was alive. And worse

He was unharmed.

And he would be coming back for her.

Nancy wasn't stupid. She wasn't delusional. She wasn't pride-blinded.

She was in danger.. Severe danger a very Lethal one.

No matter how much she wanted to kill him, she had to admit

She could not win.

Not in her current state.

Not at her current rank.

Not even with her strongest techniques.

She needed to run.

Her eyes narrowed, breath shallow but controlled, as she tensed her wings behind her.

"I need to leave," she muttered, voice tight with frustration she couldn't hide.

Her wings flared, shimmering with dragon aura.

"And hide."

Togi would recover from the impact in seconds. She couldn't be here when he returned. She wasn't injured too severely, but she was definitely not in a condition to fight again not against someone she couldn't damage at all.

So she made the only decision that could keep her alive.

With one powerful flap of her wings, Nancy launched into the air, shooting upward through the cold snowy wind. Frost trailed behind her like a glowing comet tail.

Then she turned sharply

And sped away in the opposite direction from where Togi had been launched.

Into the dense, freezing forest of the Land of Ice. Far away from the crater. Far away from the point of danger.

Where she could hide, recover, and most importantly contact her mother through the secret emergency method only she could use.

She didn't look back.

Looking back would slow her down.

Her wings beat harder, faster, carving through the chilling storm as she vanished into the white wilderness

breathing heavily, furious, scared, alive.

And painfully aware

This was only the beginning.

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