I moved out of the way and heard the membrane wall sizzle behind me as the hot water struck it. The flesh of the wall curled and blistered.

The bone dragon shot another blast, but I was already casting a Water Jet of my own.

Our attacks crashed in the middle and sent an explosion of water everywhere in the room. Droplets struck my barrier and it sizzled.

Then the bone dragon leapt in the air and hovered there as if suspended by magic. And then it struck down with another breath of scalding water.

I couldn’t help it. I grinned like a maniac. This creature was fighting me with magic! I was in an actual magic fight! What a day to be alive!

Not only that, the creature was using the same kinds of moves, as I did. A kindred spirit if there ever was one.

I dodged out of the way and sent a fusillade of water bullets at it.

To my surprise and delight, the water bullets struck a barrier.

“No… way…”

And so began my most exciting battle yet.

I fired a small volley of Water Bullets at the monster and watched it with my Mana Sight. The two projectiles hit consecutively around the chest area. The first one was blocked by the barrier, but the second one caused a ripple that popped the barrier. I immediately shot two more, which struck true and sent bones clattering, and I could sense surprised indignation pulsing from the creature.

I watched keenly. It was so interesting seeing another barrier work. It looked to have mostly the same structure as mine, but the dragon seemed to be reinforcing it with spiritual power, just like I reinforced mine with cultivation.

The dragon flapped its wings and took a leap. It decided to mix magic with its strength. How savage. Why not just use magic?

Either way, it moved in a fast gust and came straight at me. It landed heavily on the fleshy floor, and its claws made a gross squishy sound as they gouged the fleshy interior of the Leviathan. It was a little gross, but I needed to keep my focus on the battle.

It took a vertical swipe at me, and I pushed myself backwards with a quick Kinetic Spell.

I prepared a quick Water Jet to push it backwards. I made it rise to its rear-legs, but then it activated the barrier again. However, this gave me enough space to wrest some momentum from it.

Using kinetic magic and Mana Augmentation, I jumped and glided around and hopped on top of a broken little frigate and shot a small barrage of Water Bullets at my opponent.

The dragon’s barrier broke and it dodged the rest of my bullets, closing in on me. It went under the ship’s overturned hull. I activated my Mana Sight and saw it charge another explosive breath attack.

I leapt into the air just in time when the wood exploded below me. The dragon shot that terrifying scalding water with awesome pressure and the beam of water arced behind me as I soared through the air.

Good lord, I was having a great time!

I must have emitted this through Spirit Connection, because I felt a pulse back.

There was a distinct sense of smug satisfaction coming from the dragon.

I laughed openly. “That was a good move! But watch this!”

Dragon paused just long enough for me to put a Water Bullet into its face.

Its barrier held, but it didn't seem to appreciate that.

But that was just a diversion. I needed to create space to start hitting it with the really good stuff.

I weaved in spells using Multicasting, Lingering Casting and the cultivation of my Arcane Body Art.

I reinforced my body with Mana Augmentation and used quick bursts of kinetic energy from my cultivation to move around to dodge the scalding breaths as I kept creating pressure with Water Bullets. All the while while preparing the mother of all Water Spears.

I could sense madness, wrath and imperious disdain. But that last one was giving away to something else.

A wild excitement.

I sent a pulse of that same vibe back to it.

The wild excitement was sent back stronger, giving away to a bit of the madness the dragon was experiencing.

I smiled to myself. A kindred spirit indeed.

We fed each other and egged each other on. My Water Spear crashed into the bone dragon, and broke its barrier. It was thrown back, but then it sent a barrage of water projectiles at me, which forced me to tank a few with my barrier. Only a well timed Barrier Pulse managed to redirect a particularly nasty hit.

I laughed openly, and I could sense mirth coming back from the dragon, as if it was impressed I had survived that attack.

Then it started pressuring me with a bullet hell of scalding water. Dozens of projectiles shot at different speeds at me. A few I managed to dodge, but one struck my barrier, almost destroying it instantly. I redid it, but was then hit with a one-two combo of two more bullets. I tossed myself aside as my barrier broke with the last hurrah of a potent Barrier Pulse that sent several projectiles bouncing off. But one of them scraped my leg, and I felt the hiss of my clothes.

Oh no, I was so going to hear it from my mom.

Having been almost injured, I sought cover and pushed myself backwards with another set of quick Kinetic Pushes. I found a pile of skulls and broken planks and caught a breath, while I recast a Barrier, and refilled my cultivation with Mana Absorption and Purification. If I had tried to replenish myself a moment longer, I would have been in danger.

The breath attack fired at me with explosive speed and absolutely obliterated the pile of junk I had been taking cover behind.

I countered with a barrage of Water Bullets, which the dragon blocked using its barrier and shielding its face with its bony wings.

I fired more while running towards another cover for a quick recharge. Even if the dragon would blow my cover up, it needed a moment to charge its breath attack, which was what I needed to keep going. I did this again and it obliterated three piles with its scalding water beam.

All this time the dragon also wove in smaller projectiles of its own, that it fired at me when I needed time to charge up my next attack.

They were so numerous, that while they weren’t extremely dangerous, I constantly took hits from them, which sapped the reserves of my barrier. All of that added up in this fight that was getting pretty long.

I needed a cheaper way to deal with those shots. Rebuilding my barrier every time it landed a good hit was taking far too much attention away from the spell I actually wanted to finish. Magic combat was so difficult! Goddamn, I loved it!

I soon learned an extremely useful technique for magical combat: Redirecting projectiles.

I did it just on a creative whim, but it worked instantly. Instead of keeping more than a light barrier on me for an emergency pulse, I focused on charging heavy-ass Water Spear as I kept running from the bullet amounts of projectiles. Then two especially fast shots came at me, and an idea came to me. Then I got a little smidge of Magical Insight confirming that it was a good one.

This was no breakthrough, but just a good idea. I shot a pulse of pure kinetic energy from my cultivated hand at the projectiles. It spread out in a wave and caught three bullets which were surging at me with devastating speed. The pulse of kinetic force struck them, and sent them flying in wanton directions.

The bone dragon stopped in its tracks. I stopped too and we both just stood there silently, looking at the ground where the three bullets were sizzling and causing a trail of hot vapor to rise.

I tilted my head and grinned so widely my face hurt at the bone dragon as I beckoned it with my stubby baby hand.

“Abracadabra, you bony bastard.”

The bone dragon screeched, as if outraged by my taunt and raised its head. It changed tactics and started lobbing heavy hot-tub-fulls of water at me in high arcs, so that they came at me almost vertically.

While doing this, the dragon also started to generate gusts of wind that picked up the bone and bits of broken ships from the ground and they started whirling at me. 

I had to redo a strong barrier, that could absorb the stray oar that was flying at me like a spear while the wind was so strong it almost lifted me off my heels. All the while I kept redirecting the blobs of literal metric-ton of water that were falling towards me at high speeds.

The dragon was really pressuring me hard and I was on full defensive. I could sense a glee as it intensified the stormy wind that whipped around me. This malice the dragon was emanating was almost goading me.

Well? It seemed to ask. Where is your cockiness now?

Unfortunately for the dragon, this time my cockiness was warranted.

Naturally, all this time I had been preparing the mother of all Water Spears. I had been casting it behind my back to obscure what I was doing exactly.

It was a beautiful work of art. A true projectile, no thicker than my baby neck. A bit more water mass at the front to give it acceleration, and at least twelve feet long. I had shaped the nose to be sharp for increased aerodynamics too. The tip also had a pretty strong lingering effect to harden it with kinetic components. This was more a goddamn ballistic missile than a spear. 

I was done with the unwieldy massive blobs of water I had thrown at the Awakened beasts earlier. I was now much more skilled, and I had an opponent worthy of an upgrade.

I put a final spin on it for a bit of flair, and launched with the biggest, baddest, heaviest, nastiest kinetic propulsion with a smidge of lingering effect to improve its accuracy as it surged through the air. I watched it in awe like it was my child winning a footrace.

It didn’t splash into the enemy like my weaker Water Spears. It surged through the bone dragon, like it had against the mamba— except this one I had cast in mortal combat, instead of having minutes to prepare.

The frankenstein bonemass in the middle of the bone dragon’s chest was thick and layered. But it didn’t matter. The bone splintered and exploded into a thousand pieces of bone fragments that scattered around the room in a wide arc. The great monster flailed and flapped its membraneless wings and gusts of wind threw me off my feet. 

The monster was angry and the pulses got discordant. The glee from battle had been coherent, but now it turned mad and wild.

The dragon buffeted its bony wings and rose into flight.

It was clearly hurt and tired, and was now going for the kill.

It roared a terrible ghostly whale call, and all of the wind that was storming in the room pressed against me to push me down. It was very hard to resist it, but I cast a strong barrier on myself, and used Spiritual Presence to exert my will on the spirit mass inside the dragon. Some of the spirits tangled inside relented and gave me space. The wind eased and I got up.

But the dragon was already charging a terrible attack.

I used my Mana Sight to see what it was doing. Something special and amazing!

It was compressing water! It was using that breath attack, but instead of launching it against me, it was creating a ball of boiling water that it was overcharging with both kinetic components and kinetic energy. The water turned into that icky black tarry water that had rained on me before.

I could see that the dragon was using a ridiculous amount of mana and pouring it all into this single attack.

This wouldn’t just kill me if it hit me. This would obliterate anything near the impact point.

My opponent sent pulses of wild glee and wanton bloodlust at me. It laughed at me for attempting to challenge it, and it told me to take honor in witnessing this spell.

In fact I did. An almost irresistible part of me wanted to watch the dragon finish this spell, just so I could see what it looked like. 

Ah, but I had to act. Although I didn’t really have options. I couldn’t block this attack with anything in my arsenal. 

The attack was almost done charging, and I couldn’t counter it with a Water Spear either. But I had been in a Magical Trance this whole time, and I was full of abundant creative joy. Another crazy idea came to me.

Surely… this wouldn’t work?

I grinned to myself like a maniac and started casting the spell components. I would have enough time for this.

I wove together my cultivation and structured magic. Pure kinetic components. Just a barrier and some… adjustments.

I used my whole skillset to make this work. Continuous Casting, Lingering Casting, Multicasting, Arcane Body Art, dynamic spell components, the works.

The spell finished while the dragon was still charging its terrifying attack. 

I finished the spell formula, and double checked that the barrier would hold.

The dragon finished charging its attack and threw its head back, ready to launch devastation at me.

I released the spell and smiled. “Too slow.”

I shot up like a cannonball. My vision blurred and my head felt like it was going to pop, as I flew through the air and surged into the dragon. I was the attack!

I had created a hard barrier that was packed tightly, especially at the tip, which unconventionally was going to be the crown of my head. Then I had absolutely maxed out a Kinetic Push that I had cast below my feet.

I almost blacked out as I crashed through the dragon’s bony mass like a human cannon ball. I could feel its structure break as I surged into it, and immediately out of it, hearing the crunchiest crack of my short life.For a moment I couldn't tell which way I was going. There was bone everywhere, and I had gone much further through the dragon than I had intended.

The dragon’s breath attack went wide and almost singed my eyebrows before it crashed into the fleshy wall and caused all kinds of sizzling and bubbling.

Then I saw the floor below me. It was approaching really fast. Fortunately I still had that pouch of refined mana left. I drained it instantly into my Arcane Body Art and used a continuous kinetic push to slow me down.

Thanks, dad.

This bought me enough time to also whip up a quick and dirty structured Kinetic Push that let me descend safely.

But there’s always less time than you’d think when you’re falling. Magic or not, seemed like this world respected some variant of the laws of physics as well. I landed on the broken ribcage hard enough to knock the breath out of me. I groaned and probably inhaled a pintful of bonemeal, which sent me into a coughing fit. The bony abomination rattled under me, before it went limp and lifeless. I looked as the dark light dimmed in its eyes and its jaw hung loose.

I could still feel the furious, mad and bloodthirsty spirits swirling inside the mass of ribcages, but the spirits were even more spent than I was.

“Truce?” I whispered.

There was just more rage as an answer, but I could sense they didn’t have enough power. I had won.

For a while I just stayed there. I was completely exhausted too. I felt loopy and wanted to just pass out.

But the spirits were more tired. Half of them were barely even tethered to the world. 

I dealt with those first.

I left out a weak woop and grinned to myself. 

“I won,” I said and sent that same gleeful smug energy back that it had used on me. “Doesn’t feel good, does it?”

I coughed again. “No grudges though. You guys must have had it rough. I can tell you’re in pain. Give me a minute. It just… feels so damn good to win.”

I listened to my pounding heart and drew in a long breath and then sighed in contentment.

This had been my favorite fight ever. I wanted more. More magical monsters! More wizard battles! MORE!

I needed the full force of my meditation practice to somehow manage to calm myself. But finally I did manage, and I was ready to move forward.

“I’ll get you guys out of there okay. It’s going to suck, and it’s going to be scary. You guys are going to a better place. I promise. There will be no more fear, pain or madness.” 

I untangled them from the mass of bones and made a connection with them. Now there was a massive swirling cloud of spiritual energy swirling mid-air in front of me. There were dozens of them, and their emotions and souls were tangled in ways that I couldn’t begin to comprehend. It was like someone had put sixty balls of wool into a blender and well… you can guess the rest.

The spirits limply resisted, but I pushed it aside with my Spiritual Presence. I thanked them for the fight, because it was genuinely the most amazing fight I had ever had. I had so much fun. I had been dreaming of a magical duel since facing the Silverback.

And these spirits had finally given it to me. I impressed this gratitude on them through our connection and expressed the genuine, earnest joy that I had felt during the battle. But then I also firmly told them that they were in a bad place, and the Leviathan was sick, and I had to heal it. And they would have to let go of this world.

Most of them relented. It made them happy that I had enjoyed their play so much. Some resisted, but they were too weakened by the battle.

One by one I dealt with dozens of such spirits. Small and great. Spirits of wind and water, spirits of dead sailors, and spirits of fish and other marine beasts.

After several hours of working on nothing but sheer force of will, I untangled the last of them.

[Spirit Connection Level 16!]

[+4 Spiritual Power]

Then I finally saw her. She had been in the middle of the of the tangle, right at its core. Unlike the other spirits, who were mostly a tangle of energy of some colour, Tiamat had a form. She was like that sleeping monstrous sea serpent in the ceiling, but very small and cute.

A little sea-noodle, no longer than my arm. She was white and azure, and had little wings folded to the sides of her noodle body. A round snout and bright blue eyes opened and blinked carefully. Then they fixed on me and widened.

“Hey,” I said gently. “I came to save you.”

I could sense the little spirit send a tentative, gentle pulse back at me.

Hi.