The Collector knew better than even the elder and its carrier unit the imnse threat that this specin posed. The amount of magical energy pouring out from the specin, even as it attempted to suppress it to a degree, was overwhelming.
The aura poured out around the creature's floating figure in ripples of deep red.
A mana affinity of chaos, indicating that the specin fought with explosive bursts of volatile but extre strength.
The Collector, too, possessed the greatest affinity with chaos, though it was more than capable of incorporating the other affinities if needed.
All of them aside from the Void affinity, which the female daemon specin had marked as an anomaly.
This, too, the Collector believed it could harness, yet, it would require observing and devouring a specin that could utilize it in order to give the Collector a frawork to learn from.
But the possibilities of future learning beca quite dim when considering the severity of the situation at hand.
The Collector estimated that the sheer density of the magical energy emanating from the enemy specin, especially when it was fully unleashed, could dwarf that possessed by the golden winged humanoid.
This was not a threat that the Collector could face in its current state. It contemplated utilizing its newfound blessing to dive into the dinsion of shadows, but this would render the Collector immobile, rely waiting to be killed.
Instead, the Collector waited and observed, parsing the creature for any intent.
The specin's scales glowed white through the fall of black Grain. Unlike its brethren, it seed to possess snowy white scales that reflected the translucent white charge of Primal Density to incredible degree.
Beyond the coils of red chaos mana, this specin radiated a light of unblemished white that surged forth the pressure not of a storm as was the case with its lesser brethren, but of winter itself, of a snowfall that would never end until it buried the entire world in its tears.
Approximate Primal Density: 90%.
This creature would be nigh invulnerable to any tinkerer utilizing Sorcery or might from the gods.
Yet, the Collector did not rely on such tinkering tools.
There was no doubt about it.
If these specins, these 'draconids', were to ever possess a leader among them, a zenith of their kind, this specin would aptly fit under such qualifications if strength was the only trait held in regard.
"You killed him," said the creature, and the Collector noted then that it was capable of speech.
Specifically, of the Common language that most tinkerers seed to be fluent in.
Indicated so asure of familiarity with tinkerers despite likely living in areas where tinkerers were sparse.
At the sa ti, the Collector noted an accent in the specin's speech that was deviant from that spoken from most Common tongue speakers it had encountered. Suggested familiarity but not complete mastery.
The specin floated downwards, behind the corpse of his brethren, and peered down at the grey scaled body.
The creature's voice was deep. Raspy.
Laced with a guttural rattle, as if inhuman vocal cords were trying their hardest to approximate intelligence and humanoid speech. There was no real intonation in the voice, no sign of emotion at the death of its kind.
"Thur reached the end of his potential," said the specin. "So, natural he dies. Now-,"
The specin pointed a white-scaled finger at the Collector. There was no hint of malice. Only a sense of faint curiosity.
"You. You kill him. I check your potential now. Fight you."
The Collector tensed for battle, and in an instant, the new enemy specin was upon it.
The white draconid had clenched his clawed fingers into a fist, smashing it right to the Collector's side.
The attack was so quick that the Collector did not have the ti for any counterasure.
Instead, it could only deal with mitigating the damage.
Like with the golden winged humanoid, this blow was imnsely powerful, and utilizing sothing like [Guard] which took attacks head on with mana fortified skin would not be inefficient. Resisting the force was impossible. But allowing it to pass through harmlessly was in the realm of possibility.
The Collector maximized its senses to get the timing right, and used [Dispersal].
By going limp, the Collector allowed the heavy blow to smash into the side of its torso with a heavy, explosion-like impact that sent a shockwave of force driving the fall of Grain around it away.
The Collector went even further.
Even with [Dispersal] mitigating over 70% of the force, the initial blow shattered the remaining arm on its left side, but the rest of the force transferred freely through the Collector's limp body.
Now that the Collector had tamorphosed and grown significantly stronger, it had the necessary reflexes and speed to chain the [Dispersal] further. It used the imnse force coursing through its body and rolled with it, swiveling around with a backhand blow.
The very sa chanic of taking in a strike and returning the force in a counter attack that the Collector had used against the goblin elites in the Darkwoods.
The Collector's strike was fast. Fast enough that even the Collector itself could not react to its own attack, for it was a blow combined with the force of both itself and the new enemy specin.
The explosive strike of impact rattled the air once more. The Collector further enhanced this blow with bone binding drawing out shockwave force in its body.
The enemy specin flew back several dozen ters, past the cliff face, before its wings of pale blue energy flickered, halting its montum in an instant.
The specin looked at its left arm where the Collector's counter had struck. The white scales had cracked, but even with shockwave force ant to perate through scaled armor, its dense, mighty musculature mitigated most of the damage.
"Impressive," said the specin as he stared curiously at his arm.
The cracks on the arm closed up in an instant, fueled by regeneration. "I have not seen that move before."
The specin flew forwards, air gusting behind it as it returned to its spot on the cliff in a single mont, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Collector again.
The Collector sensed that the goblin swarm was inching forwards.
Specifically, the carrier unit, Thokk, had managed to suppress the primal fear of imdiate death sourced from facing this enemy specin.
Now, Thokk inched forwards with his purifying light blades.
"No!" shouted the enemy specin as it fluxed its magical energy, sending out ripples of oppressively heavy mana that kept Thokk and the rest of the goblins from moving any further.
"Weak ones will not interrupt," said the draconid. He looked at the Collector for approval. "Right?"
"Agreeable," said the Collector. It knew that it was vastly outmatched, but it could understand the sentint from the draconid.
Strangely, the Collector began to note, the glimr in the draconid's blue eyes seed faintly familiar.
A kindred energy emanated from the specin.
At first, the Collector felt as if it was in the presence of another Warrior-strain Collector, but no, that was not it.
It was rely that the Collector and this draconid's desires and purposes coincided greatly.
They had both been born and bred to fight.
And, strangely, though the Collector knew it was vastly outmatched and should have prioritized its survival at all costs, it desired to engage in battle with a likeminded specin.
At the very least, the Collector knew that this specin would not imdiately attempt lethal maneuvers to enjoy the battle.
"Again!" said the draconid as it launched another punch, this one much faster and aid at the Collector's head.
Once more, the Collector could not move fast enough to directly counter the blow, but its reflexes and ntal processing had always outpaced its physical stats. The mont it was hit, it utilized [Dispersal] again, going limp, and this ti, because the blow struck its head, it rolled back the force of the punch and back flipped.
Even so, even with almost miraculous timing, the Collector could not mitigate all damage, and two of its skulls, the one fashioned from crystal and the Flatongue Salamander's, shattered.
Yet, its main skull was still intact. Utilizing a series of skulls as decoys had paid off.
And as long as the Collector was alive, it could fight.
As the Collector completed its back flip, it lashed out its tail, transferring back the blow of the draconid.
Yet, a remarkable occurrence.
The draconid took the tail strike, comprised of the combined power of its own punch and the Collector's own muscles, with an open hand.
The blow was powerful enough to sail the specin back fifty ters again, perhaps more, but this ti, it itself utilized [Dispersal], mimicking the Collector with near pinpoint accuracy.
The draconid swayed back as the force traveled from one hand, and then as it traveled to the other, it unleashed a counter utilizing the exact sa chanisms as the Collector.
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