"But I don't remember us being love rivals. I believe a gentleman's duel is the wrong term for this," Vaan commented.

"Eh? Is that so?" Hedwig uttered with a bit of surprise before shrugging, "Well, no matter. Don't sweat the details and fight me, Vaan!"

"Alright," Vaan casually smiled with amusement.

The dragon was a little interesting. Despite all his apparent insults and provocations that infuriated the dragon, the dragon was also quick to forget all of that.

'Is this dragon a battle maniac?' Vaan mused.

At the same time, Gryme wore a gloomy look after being told to shut up by Hedwig. After all, he was the leader of the group.

How dare an underling tells him to shut up?

"This damn battle maniac" Gryme muttered darkly.

Boom! Boom!

The battle between Vaan and Hedwig raged on as the magma sea rippled and splashed due to their impactful exchange.

As both had extremely high defenses, it was very difficult for them to inflict damage on each other with just pure physical attacks.

However, because they precisely had high defenses, they could attack each other to their heart's content.

Peng!

Vaan went flying from a tail sweep before he crashed into the crowd on the edge of the battle ring formed by dragons.

Nevertheless, the dragon he crashed into didn't budge and shoved him back into the ring.

Vaan used Earth Manipulation to create solid pedestals for him to step on as he rushed back toward Hedwig's positiononly to be greeted with another tail sweep.

However, his rock pedestal quickly rose, turning into a rock pillar sticking out of the magma sea and launching him into the air.

Boom!

Hedwig's tail sweep shattered the rock pillar but otherwise missed Vaan.

At the same time, Vaan quickly reached the peak altitude of his flight before he did a flip while drawing an arc in the air and descended with even greater speed.

The power of gravity and increased kinetic movement allowed Vaan to close the distance on Hedwig in a flash.

Bam!

Vaan landed another fist squarely on Hedwig's head in the same spot he had targeted in their last dozen exchange.

Following the strong punch, he rained over two dozen quick fists on the same spot again in the next instance before Hedwig rammed his body away.

However, Vaan somersaulted in the air and shattered a levitating rock he controlled in the air with a powerful step and launched himself back at Hedwig's head again.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Vaan continued to abuse the same middle spot between Hedwig's two eyes before Hedwig cried with annoyance while shaking his head furiously to shake Vaan off him.

"Dammit, Vaan! Why do you keep hitting the same spot?! Don't you have any other moves?!" Hedwig asked.

"Aren't we returning tit for tat? You're technically hit me in the same spot as well, so I'd say this is pretty fair, Hedwig," Vaan said with a sly yet amused smile.

"How is this the same" Hedwig wanted to argue, but he quickly fell silent after giving it some thought.

Due to their sheer size difference, each of Hedwig's attacks covered Vaan's whole body. Thus, it wasn't wrong when Vaan said Hedwig had also been hitting one spot.

Vaan's whole body was one damn spot!

Although Hedwig quickly understood Vaan's meaning, it didn't mean he liked it.

"Anyway, stop that. I don't like it," Hedwig said stubbornly, like a child throwing a tantrum.

Even though their defenses were so high that they couldn't hurt each other with blunt force, that was only for the first attack.

As long as their attacks reached a certain level and targeted the same area, the defense in the area would gradually weaken and start to sting from repeated impacts.

Vaan was delivering minimum damage but maximum pain. If he continued, the damage would keep accumulating.

Nevertheless, Hedwig wasn't just starting to feel the sting from Vaan's punches; he was also feeling a little dizzy and disorientated from the consecutive blows to his head.

"Oh? If I stop hitting that same spot, then does that mean you will stop hitting me as well?" Vaan casually replied with a smile.

"Yes," Hedwig quickly acknowledged with a nod before suddenly pausing. "No, wait a minute"

Nevertheless, while Hedwig was thinking over their agreement, Vaan manipulated floating rocks to air-walk onto Hedwig's head before he rained down punches in various areas.

Even so, he mainly targeted Hedwig's nose.

Although he had agreed not to hit between the eyes, he was still going for parts of Hedwig's head for concussive blows.

Of course, Hedwig wasn't going to let himself get abused for nothing; he wanted to smack Vaan off his head with one of his front legs.

However, Vaan quickly asked him, "Are you going to go back on your words, Hedwig?"

Thus, Hedwig quickly froze. He became at a loss for words as he was stuck in a dilemma. It was true that he had said yes, but he was also tricked.

Nevertheless, while Hedwig was wasting time on thinking, which kept getting interrupted by Vaan's attacks and causing him to be unable to think, Vaan remained relentless in his attacks.

It didn't really matter to him whether his opponent fought back or not; he only needed a punching bag to get a good feel of his strength.

Eventually, Hedwig had enough. He was really enjoying their fight, but it quickly turned into something he didn't like.

Vaan was too mean.

"Alright, alright! I give up! Stop hitting my head! You win, Vaan! I don't want to fight anymore!" Hedwig conceded.

A fight where he wasn't allowed to fight back wasn't considered a fight at all!

"Alright," Vaan stopped his attacks with a grin and said, "I think we can be friends. Let's have a proper fight next time."

Hedwig rolled his eyes.

No wonder humans aren't well-liked by dragons; they were too scheming and wicked.

"I'll think about it," Hedwig replied sulkily.

"What the hell was even that?" Gryme witnessed the fight from start to end without batting an eye and became even more gloomy. "I shouldn't have sent Hedwig, that stupid muscle-brain. He's a goddamned embarrassment to us all!"