BOOM!
The battle continued on, but now it was less of a battle and more of a case of trying to survive as long as possible
"Shit, first I couldn't use magic and now I can't even get close enough to it to even hit it" Nero complained as he dove behind a rock formation as the dragon unleashed another breath attack, the rock behind him turning red from the heat as Nero went into his ice emperor form in order to not be burned "and there's nothing in my deck that can even hurt it, only slow it down"
As he finished complaining he felt the rock behind him start to cool and knew he had to move, the dragons tail destroying the rock pillar that he was using as a shield just after he pushed himself out of the way
"This isn't working" Nero grunted as a shard of rock cut his cheek, his body now covered in multiple cuts and bruises from the shrapnel from the dragons attacks
At first Nero had been planning to run until the dragon wore itself out, wait until it could no longer produce heat and then finish it with one of the cards from his deck enhanced with the power of destruction, unfortunately while the dragon didn't seem to be getting tired, Nero's breathing was starting to become laboured due to how focused he had to be in order to avoid any lethal hits and in order to dodge the attacks combined with each card he had to use draining him mentally
"Please buy me some time, swords of revealing light" slapping the card into his gauntlet
Swords made of pure light then surrounded the dragon, sealing its movements momentarily as Nero continued to run, knowing it wouldn't last long
With a loud roar the dragon shattered the swords, barely giving Nero anytime to get any distance, let alone catch his breath
"Alright Nero think, what can I do here, if I try to hide it will just blast everything around it, if I try to fly I will be a sitting duck, I need a distraction, something it won't be able to help but go after" Nero panted "think, is there anything in the deck that can help"
Even though due to Akiza's training Nero knew every card in his deck, due to being chased by the dragon he didn't have the focus to remember what was still in his deck as he drew his next card
"It might be worth a shot" he mumbled "Millennium shield, distract it" he shouted as he played the shield and ran to the side
Unfortunately for Nero his hastily made plan didn't work, the dragon keeping its eyes on Nero as it chased after him, the shield being destroyed in a single hit as the creatures tail sung round from the momentum of going after Nero
"Damn it, only interested in me are you" Nero swore as he drew his next card, his eyes lighting up as he saw what it was "alright then, have as many of me as you can handle, multiply"
As he activated the card a puff of smoke blinded the dragon for a moment and out of the smoke 3 more Nero's appeared, the 4 different Nero's running in a different direction
Due to the sudden appearance of more foes the dragon was momentarily confused, before choosing one of the Nero's to chase after
"So flying and hiding does work so long as it has a different target" Nero sighed in relief as he leaned back against a stalactite that he had been hiding behind during the smoke, all 4 of the Nero's being fakes created by his card and him only going so far as to give them enough mass so as to fool the dragon, but he knew that this had only brought him a small amount of time as the clones wouldn't be able to dodge the creatures attacks and it would soon return
"In the meantime I should figure out what to do" Nero thought, going through what he knew in his head "Rias said that she was able to figure out where the magic stone in the monsters where by focusing, if I do that and then hit it exactly there I should be able to one shot it, but the cards that I materialize can barely withstand the power of destruction and even if they could they would just melt if they got to close to it, the only thing that might be able to survive is" looking down at his gauntlet "and if I fuck up I'll be left with no way to attack, defend and I won't have a way to use my cards in the future"
Hearing a roar that seemed to signify that the last of his clones had been destroyed Nero opened his eyes with a determined look on his face
"All or nothing I guess" he muttered as he let his magic flow towards the dragon, signalling it of his position but also allowing him to discern where the magic stone was in it "under the chin huh, a reverse scale and the most dangerous place, lovely" Nero sighed self depreciatingly as he took a deep breath and entered his ice king mode
As the dragon got nearer to Nero it sensed the determination within Nero's gaze, taking a second to prepare itself for what both of them knew would be the final confrontation, the dragon not having the intelligence to realize that it only needed to dodge Nero's strike as he would have no more energy to do anything after he put everything into his attack
With a roar the dragon charged towards Nero, flames already forming in its throat as it prepared to fry him with its flames
With no hesitation Nero sprinted forwards, keeping low to the ground as he saw his target, a diamond scale located right on the dragons throat
"I'm not going to make it" Nero realised to his horror, the whole world seeming to slow down as the dragons maw opened and flames started to spew forth
In a final push of desperation Nero created an ice path in front of himself, unfurling his wings and even wrapping them in psychic power he pushed them and his legs as hard as he could, going from crouching forwards to leaning backwards as he slid faster than he had been running, his instincts and training having kicked in at the critical moment as the flames singed the tip of his nose
Arriving perfectly beneath the reverse scale Nero used every available muscle in his body to push his body back upright, using his aching wings and legs to launch himself off the ground as he channelled every last speck of magic that he had left into his gauntlet, the whole thing taking on a whirling combination of icy blues and destructive reds and blacks, slamming it into the dragons throat
As the punch hit the dragon right in the reverse scale it didn't even have time to scream as its magic stone was erased, its huge body turning to dust as Nero burst through it like some kind of super hero, one that unfortunately had no energy to give himself a good landing as he arced through the air and crashed onto the floor, panting with blurred vision
"If this were an anime, they would have screamed a cool attack name, but fuck that I can't be arsed" Nero flopped onto the floor "I am so glad that everything around is way to damaged to spawn monsters or I would be fucked right now" he chuckled to himself, the feeling of surviving a life or death battle causing him to want to cry out in joy
As Nero lay on the floor he heard a explosion from nearby
"Ah fuck" Nero complained, forcing himself onto his side to at least see what was coming to kill him
"The trail of destruction leads this way" claimed a calm voice
"Do you think there's something here worth fighting" cried out an excited voice
"We're only 2 floor down, what would be exciting here" retorted another
"Oh thank fuck it's other adventurers" Nero breathed a sigh of relief
"Hey there's someone over here" exclaimed the excited voice as a tanned skin young woman entered Nero's view
"They sound friendly, that's good enough for me" Nero collapsed as he finally lost conscious as a group of people gathered round him