(I can feel it. The power within me is rising...)
After consuming all the magical prisms of the goblins, my power level spikes up again. My mana reservoir, physical strength, speed, perception, and senses have been greatly enhanced by just consuming stone. Oops, I did not intend to make it sound suspicious.
I have been eating so many of these that I am slowly becoming addicted to it. Perhaps it is really comparable to cracks. You get the feeling of massive power-ups after usage or consumption. Though I have never used them in my entire life.
Aside from physical improvement, my thinking speed seems to be running fast if I will. Together with enhanced perception, it allows me to see the world in slow motion. Currently, I can see and process things several times faster than in real time. With this, I will be able to react fast in case I am ambushed.
But my biggest stepping stone right now is yet to attain. I still cannot utilize my mana to cast or even manifest magic. Given how much my transformation basically essentially breaks laws of physics and biology, it is nearly impossible to assume that magic does not exist in this world.
Thud.
As I am in the middle of my deep thoughts, I hear something lands in front of the entrance. When I take a look at it, it appears to be a monster I have never encountered.
Grrr! The monster's low pitch growl echoes in the room.
The monster is tall and slender, around six meters in height. It has a bat-like pair of wings that is attached to its arms and stands on two talonlike hind legs. The head greatly resembles that of a dragon, and almost all of its body is covered with dark brown scales.
Since it got a pair of legs and wings, this monster is technically not a true dragon. This is a wyvern. And I have no idea how to deal with it.
Sniff.
The wyvern's snout is pointing at the mountain of goblin corpses that I refuse to eat. After confirming that this room is full of free food, it turns its dragonic eyes at me, subtly challenging me in a duel.
I can just let it have the dead goblins and exit the room without engaging in any fight. However, there is this hunger inside of me that craves to fight this powerful monster.
The power gap between us is still unknown, so I do not know if I am strong enough to defeat it. The risk is high and so are the rewards. A monster this powerful must be possessing a big and delicious magic gem, which would make me a lot more powerful.
"..."
Accelerating my mental speed, I rack my brain looking for ways to fight the wyvern. Those scales must be tough and absorb damages, so attacking it halfheartedly will not do. I notice that its belly is lighter in color and is not packed with scales like a snake. If that is its weak point, then I have to aim for it.
Before anything, I have to assess its strength. Firstly, I have to test its speed. Using my tongue, I grab a goblin's corpse and throw it as powerful as I can to the wyvern. My strength improves so well that the goblin flies faster than a fastball in baseball and it takes less than a second before it reaches the wyvern.
Splat.
With a single move of its winged arm, the wyvern quickly catches the goblin midair and slams it to the floor, scattering flesh and blood around. It then picks up the head, which did not get smashed, using its claws and swallows it whole in one gulp.
After provoking it, the wyvern starts to gaze at sharper and considers me a threat. It then raises its head extent its next, implying that it will attack. Its throat suddenly swells and seems to radiate like a red hot metal. Upon reaching the limit, the wyvern finally opens its mouth and flames spew out of it.
(Fire?!)
The wyvern breathes out fire at me and I immediately jump sideways to avoid getting hit by the flames. However, the flames are continuous like a flamethrower and the wyvern stirs its head to redirect the fire at me again, which I quickly dodges.
The fire continues to chase me until the wyvern runs out of breath when the flames are active for ten seconds. The wyvern swells up its throat again preparing for another shot.
Seeing that upclose, I believe that what the wyvern just did is magic as I senses consumption of mana within before the attack.
(This monster can do magic while I cannot. This is unfair.)
The wyvern's throat has swelled to its max before it opens its mouth and shoots flames at me again. This time, instead of a flamethrower, the wyvern fires a massive ball of flames that is flying faster than my throw just now.
With my accelerated mind, I am able to perceive it coming but I am not fast enough to completely avoid it. With no option, I reflexively transform my entire body into something that could withstand the fire right before the massive ball of flames consume me.
VHOOSH!
I take the flames head-on but I barely receive any damage. When the flames vanishes, I reveal myself to the wyvern. Right now, my body has completed turned ivory white.
Before the flames hit me, I quickly transformed my entire body into bones, specifically, orc's bones. I cover myself in makeshift exoskeleton armor. However, since I chose the densest bone, my body feels heavier and I am currently more sluggish than usual.
Seeing me unscathed, the wyvern decides not to use magic before it flaps its wings and flies towards my position. The room is so spacious something big like this wyvern can fly comfortably.
In response, I prepare myself and brace for impact. I expect for a collision but the wyvern thrust its talonlike hind legs in an attempt to snatch me.
Screech.
(Ahh! It hurts!)
Its huge razor sharp claws grip my body, which creates that sharp screech, and lifts me off the ground before it slowly soars high. If I am not wrong, the wyvern is going to drop off, which would destroy my body. But I am not going to let it do that.
(You will not kill me here. You are the one to die.)
Before we reach the ceiling, I slightly open my mouth and stick out my tongue. Since bones cannot bend, I just turn the tip of my tongue into a sharp and pointy bone knife. I then shoot and extend it like a harpoon and pierce my tongue into the soft belly of the wyvern.
"Shriek!" The wyvern cries in agony.
After piercing the bone knife, I quickly alter its sharp edge into a serrated blade, essentially turning it into a saw. Moving my tongue back and forth against the monster's flesh and scales, the teeth of the blade effectively grind the wyvern's flesh.
"Screech! Shriek!"
The wyvern's cries are now dry and high due to the pain of getting sawed. The grip of its talons are subsequently getting tighter as well. The more the cut its flesh, the more of its blood drips to my body.
Due to the pain and damages, the wyvern tries to let go and drop me to the ground. But before it can do it, I plunge my tongue deeper and coil it around its intestines. When it relaxes its claws, I end up hanging on its body.
Since my body is denser, hence, heavier, the badly injured wyvern cannot support my weight anymore and we gradually descend to the ground. I am quite surprised that its internal organs are tough enough to carry my body.
Thud.
Once I can feel the ground again, I immediately unwrap my tongue from the wyvern and use my sharp tongue blade to mess its insides.
"Shriek!!"
Afterwards, I remove my tongue and harpoon it to one of its wings. My tongue goes through the bat-like wing and runs the bone blade down to tear the wings. I will remove its ability to fly.
The wyvern then swings the other wing and bears its front claws at me. However, the weakened wyvern has become slower, which gives me the window to execute a counterattack.
Splat.
I whip my tongue as powerful as fast as I can and the edged tip slices through the base of the wing, dropping it to the ground. My tongue has gone sharp and fast and I feel like chopping a pork belly with a sharp knife.
Out of desperation, the wyvern makes its final move, which is actually charging mana into its throat in order to shoot another fire attack. Of course, I cannot allow that to happen. With a fast and fluid motion, I mightily whip my extended tongue and aim its white blade to the base of its long neck.
Splat. Thud.
The head of the wyvern drops to the ground. In the end, I have successfully managed to win my first fight since coming to this world.