Richard quickly began to realize the severe disadvantage he had in this fight. Multiple disadvantages actually.

  First off, he clearly oversized the avian monster, but that wasn't an advantage so much as a drawback because,

  second off, it was clearly more experienced than him and it showed. Although he was fast enough to catch up. he wasn't able to master the sky the same way, and every time he tried to pursue it, the beast swerved suddenly. quickly positioning itself out of his range. It was frustrating, especially since the beast was half his size, easily escaping his grasp each time.

  At first, Richard flew straight at it, and at first he thought he'd managed to at least nd a clean blow, but the raptor flew above him, and raked him as he flew by. It hurt for sure, but he felt his pride was hurt, more than anything else.

  It quickly became a familiar feeling multiple times, as he was scratched multiple times, all the while the avian looked at him mockingly so. He used shock and lightning pulse, hoping to catch it by surprise, but the beast reacted quickly and blew a wind ssh back at him. It didn't stop the shock, but it slowed it down, and in the same fp of the wing that caused wind ssh, the bird dodged the shock.

  Using thunder spear volley finally began yielding better results, with 10 out 5 spears in the same volley damaging the bird, despites its wind sshes and whatever caused it to go so fast. But that didn't mean anything. It was too inefficient, considering the amount of mana it burned.

  And after he stopped letting the bird antagonize him, Richard realized something: why was he chasing the bird? He should be rational, control the situation! And he did have a system and avaible skill points...

  "Took him long enough" snorted Pandemonium. "Can't believe he allowed himself to be led around by the nose like that."

  Alexandria merely watched on, commenting briefly, "Its normal for dragons have problem with prides. It's good that he's already taking steps to work on that. " She wrinkled her nose, "I hoped his human rationality would temper his innate pride. Hopefully he demonstrates some human ingenuity instead"

  "System, purchase me a cloud generation skill." commanded Richard, as he watched the hawk carefully. Richard had stopped going on the offensive, choosing to keep an eye on the hawk, anticipating any move it may make. The hawk sensed the change, deciding to take the offense. And although he couldn't avoid all the attacks, using lightning pulse and hyper sense allowed him to dodge most of the blows the hawk aimed at him while he sought a better solution.

  [The system can offer (cloud generation) for 10 points. Do you wish to purchase?]

  Richard frowned a little, considering how expensive it was, but decided to go through with it. Points are meant to be consumable after all.

  "Do it." He said, wincing at the dozens of scratches pguing him.

  [Very well. You have purchased the skill: (cloud generation)]

  Any doubt he had about the skill cloud generation faded as the info flooded his mind. He'd already had a pn to utilize the skill, but Richard had received more than he needed. Not that he minded of course, an advantage is an advantage after all.

  The hawk watched on in confusion, not understanding why the foolish creature before it had frozen up. The arrogant creature believed its size made it strong, but the hawk merely saw the lumbering size as ignorant, easy to take advantage of. Like rabbits in pins, it stood out, easy prey.

  Before it had chased the hawk foolishly, while the hawk took time whittling away at the beast. The raptor had to admit the hide was tough, but it was sure with enough time and effort, it could whittle away and finally finish the beast off.

  But it stopped chasing, and the raptor refused to give up, so it decided to take the initiative, finding it frustrating that it had to make the first move. The beast was more agile than before, and it was barely injured. Frustrating.

  And if it weren't enough, the creature started emitting gas. If the creature it could've scoffed at this vain attempt to hide from it. The raptor flew in, ready to continue its barrage, only to get quickly get lost. The gas had grown fast, and now the hawk could barely see anything with the gas so thick. Seeing a silhouette, the hawk felt confident once more, and lunged forward with fire imbued in its, cws, pouncing on its prey...

  ... Only to find that it had pounced on a cloud. Huh? It could've sworn that it had seen the cloud move.

  The creature didn't have time to think about it, because the cloud suddenly grabbed it, causing the raptor to struggle in surprise. The hawk broke free with some effort, causing the cloud to dissipate, but not fast enough for the raptor not to suffer a hard thwack to the back of the head, causing the raptor to recoil from the blow.

  Spinning before finally reorienting itself, the hawk studied the clouds all around it in an attempt to find the rge beast. It saw another silhouette, but hesitated this time, unsure if it was another illusion. To its surprise however, the cloud besides it tched onto the foolish raptor, and another surprise would soon greet it as a sharp pain went through it, and a shock would follow after. Then another, another, once more, as an unrelenting barrage of thunder spears pierced it.

  The skill cloud generation was a cheap skill, capable of generating whole expanses of clouds in a matter of minutes, and in this case, more than enough to change the battlefield to his advantage. The fact that he was capable of clouding this much, for less than 10 mana was already changing things, with the hawk being easily distracted.

  Then there was the fact that he was able to make golems.

  Not real, living golems by any means, these only able to st as long as the mana he imbued them with fueled their existence, the fact he could now create a golem on a whim, nothing more than mindless husks, allowed him to bring this fight under his control.

  Using his first golem, he uses it to pin the hawk while he deals a hard blow using his tail, imbued with static and fueled up on berserk rage, the hawk takes the blow hard, but can't focus as well thanks to static.

  Using the second golem to pin the hawk once more, this time Richard uses thunder volley to deal a finishing blow, because this time, with just a little extra mana imbued into the golem, he has the hawk nice and pinned for every spear to attack him.

  And they do, and soon...

  [Congratutions! Level 17 windboom raptor syed!]

  [Thunder dragon(hatchling) gains a level! Thunder dragon (hatchling) is now level 20!]

  ...Satisfaction is gained, and Richard feels a sense of pride having shown that hawk its pce.

  As Richard puffed his chest in satisfaction, Panda rolled his eyes. "Great," he compined, "he's going to be insufferable for the next few days. He doesn't even realize you kept everything else away." as he looked at Alexandria, who was currently nibbling on a smaller wyvern of some type.

  Alexandria didn't mind. "He's a dragon. Let him build some pride, it wouldn't do for him to be a prideless dragon. Other dragons look down on dragons without pride, and that's dangerous. Besides, I got lunch," She takes a nibble. "Mmm. Fire wyverns. Spicy just the way I like fire types."

  "Ugh, stupid lizards."

  Alexandria "affectionately" smacked him on the head.

  Note

  Wherever my master goes, the amount of children hurt decreases drastically.

  For the average person, this is nothing less of a miracle, with not only the rate of child abuse dropping to zero, but child trafficking, child murder, accidents involving children,

  all of them seemingly dropping to zero?

  A miracle perhaps?

  No, were it that simple, perhaps it'd be a nice symbol of good luck, perhaps the fortune of the gods.

  The real reason is simple. Any incident involving children is stopped. Child trafficking shuts down, abusive people feel a sudden compulsion to stop, if only for the month, day, or even hour he nears their area.

  It is because the gods fear his wrath.

  It has been long known that the man has a high fondness for children, and when you know his story, it's not hard to figure out why, though the intensity to which he cares about them is... extreme.

  My master will take the time to care for any which approach him, any that want to spend time. I've heard unscrupulous rumors why, but I ignore those stories. I know my master, and if perhaps people knew the truth, they'd be more understanding.

  Or perhaps more fearful, because they would know the depths of his inner darkness, his willingness to do what it takes to protect the things he holds dear.

  They know enough however, that they know that they do not wish his rage upon them.

  Only the truly foolish would dare oppose him.

  Speaking of foolish, I am reminded of the time someone moved the opposite way, choosing to increase child trafficking and abuse within his vicinity.

  Zeus, ever the foolish swine, felt offended that people would take this mortal more seriously than he, and in spite of the stories, chose to act in defiance, and when my master neared the location of child trafficking, the god opted to kidnap more kids, murder more, and defile more people than usual.

  I said foolish, did I not?

  Not even treacherous Gray would dare increase the number of kids harmed in front of master.

  My master retaliated with overwhelming force. He stormed all trafficking groups belonging to Zeus, gathered all of them, and Zeus, and treated them to a rather unique sight.

  Have you ever witnessed a man scream as his veins turned into maggots and fled his body? To watch a man's head betray him as it detaches itself from his body, scurrying away into the darkness, leaving nothing but an empty husk? A man turned to stone, then used to create a brand new sculpture, all the while the man can feel everything, screaming yet nobody can hear him?

  To watch as your own body is sliced thinly and neatly like pieces of sashimi, before being fed to your decapitated head? Your body, turned into a living furnace, a favorite of cultivators, but instead they use heavenly fmes to amplify the pain? Some would say a gu bottle using some of the worlds greatest poisons like the seven deadly sins, poison of the manticore, the acid which once burned Loki's face, the poison of Jormungand, the blood of an asura and more could create a horrifying gu that men could never dare dream of, lest it crawl out of the dream world?

  Sometimes being turned into a tree, chopped down, and then turned into toilet paper will suffice.

  Zeus got to witness it all, as my master took the time to slowly do each horrifying act, each an order worse than the other, all the while Zeus trembled, for he had been promised that all had been done, would be done on him next. Master had taken the time to gather every person who served Zeus in the nearby city to conduct these acts of torture on, and he wanted to make sure that the foolish deity would suffer as his subordinates had.

  They say suspense is worse than actual punishment, but I can tell you, that my master and Zeus can testify to the contrary.

  He did not kill Zeus, but that is merely because his master told him Zeus still had a purpose, so he must live.

  Perhaps living was more of a punishment rather than death.

  Whatever the case may be, from then on, Zeus made sure to follow the same custom all other beings follow.

  The most grimly amusing thing in all of this is that master did not start this tradition. He merely lets it keep going because it means that wherever he goes, children get to enjoy a bit of extra safety that day.

  Master Grant really does care a bit much for kids after all.

  -Galvanar, student of Grant the madman