The gold is slowing down, making it easier for Everburn to inflict even more injuries. I am also able to inflict more pokes to the gold, not that I feel like it is doing much good. It is actually impressive that the gold is still able to put up a fight after taking so much damage.

  However, it is not invincible and it is definitely getting weaker as the fight goes on. The slower the gold gets, the easier it is for Everburn to get good hits in on it. I focus the attacks that I am able to land on the gold’s wings to prevent him from flying away.

  If I can keep the gold from getting into the air, then the way things are going he is doomed. It makes me really regret that I can’t gain exp, the gold is probably worth millions. I wonder if Everburn is going to be willing to let me have the gold’s essence, or his heart.

  I am not dumb enough to try and ask now, I will wait until the fight is over to discuss it. The fight ends abruptly, the gold stumbles and Everburn manages to latch onto his neck. With a good grip on his neck, the fight is quickly over as he breaks the gold’s neck.

  However, I stay perfectly still for the next few minutes until Everburn calms down. He is in battle mode and I can’t be sure he would recognize me in his current state. It is much easier to just wait a few minutes and let him calm down before I get down.

  Everburn says “Alright, I am calm. You can get down.”

  “Sure thing. So, what’s the plan now?”

  Everburn says “I can tell you want something, go ahead and ask.”

  “Well, I was wondering if I could have his essence and his heart.”

  Everburn says “You can have his entire body, but I will be taking his hoard. I take it that you will agree to that?”

  “Yes, absolutely!”

  Everburn says “I will only warn you once, do not attempt to put his essence into your core. Your core is not strong enough to contain it, it would shatter.”

  “Really? That’s depressing! How much stronger would it need to be?”

  Everburn says “It would need to be as strong as his was. Remember that dragons are one complete being, so our cores are also part of our bodies. So his core was as strong as his physical body. Do you think your core is that strong?”

  “No way, not even close! In fact, I have no idea how I could get my core to that level of strength. I would probably be better off trying to weaken the essence.”

  Everburn says “How would you go about weakening the essence?”

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  “Just off the top of my head, by using parts of it to enhance others.”

  Everburn says “That is a good idea and it might work, but you will need a conduit. Like I used my blood to allow you to have a small portion of my essence. Without a conduit, raw essence would destroy most people, except weirdos like you.”

  “Well, since I have his body, I can just preserve some blood to use.”

  Everburn says “You will have to figure out how to infuse the essence into the blood. It is not something I can teach you, I do it instinctually.”

  “That’s fine. Mulan knows how to do it, I can get her to teach me.”

  Everburn says “From what I can see of your core, you will need to reduce the essence to less than half of what it is now. Anyway, I’m going to go claim his hoard. You had better get his essence before it begins to fade.”

  “Right.”

  Everburn dives into the lava and I begin the task of cutting into the gold’s chest to get his core. As soon as I get to it I realize I am going to have another issue, the core is bigger than my head. That means that the essence is likely to be just as huge and none of my containers are that big.

  In fact, when I check my pouch I find that I only have two empty containers left to use. Even if I merge the two of them, I doubt that it will be big enough for the dragon’s essence. I quickly go through my essences and take out the two blobs left over from my last experiments.

  Then I choose a couple of the weakest beast essences and feed them all to the strongest giant essence. After that, I merge all of the empty containers into one massive one and enhance the enchantments. I add an extra stasis enchantment to keep the dragon’s essence from degrading.

  With the container ready, I finally crack open the gold’s core and extract the essence. It is a huge golden ball of energy, it looks like a small sun as I hold it in place with mana. I quickly stuff it into the container, which is barely big enough to hold it, and seal it.

  Despite the essence being a single color, it has more movement to it than any other essence I have seen. I can already tell that I would be able to sit and stare at it for hours, but I don’t have time right now. In fact, Everburn comes from the lava as I am sitting and staring at the gold’s essence.

  Everburn says “I have claimed his hoard. Can you send me back now? I shouldn’t leave my mate and egg unguarded for longer than needed.”

  “Sure, I’ll open you a gate, but I need to stay to deal with the corpse. Then I need to get back to my wife. So, I won’t be joining you.”

  Everburn says “That’s fine. You have already done enough. In fact, as much as I hate to say it, I owe you my thanks. Both for coming to my aid and healing me, and for helping me track down and kill my enemy. I owe you a debt.”

  “No you don’t. We are friends, there is no need to speak of debts between us. Although, maybe don’t eat me if I ask too many questions!”

  Everburn just laughs and is still laughing as he walks through the gate that I open for him. Once he is through, I close the gate, but even so a second crystal is almost empty. I am going to need to take them and put them on the platform to give them a chance to recharge.

  However, right now I have the gold’s massive corpse to deal with and that is going to take a lot of work. I start by removing all of the scales, although most of them are damaged or broken. It is such a waste, I wish that Everburn had done a little less damage to the gold.

  Of course, I am not about to say that to him, that would just be asking for him to eat me. In fact, after seeing him fight for real, I think I need to be a bit more polite from now on. I knew that dragons were powerful, but even what I knew from movies and anime pales next to the real thing.

  Then again, with how fast both dragons moved, it wouldn’t really make a good show. Even I had trouble keeping track of the action, a normal human would only see a blur. On the other hand, they managed to portray dragons fairly well for never having seen one.