Is there a limit to pet dragon level gain per battle?

[TinyMage]

1.3.1 build 6171.

The whole idea here was to see how fast I could cheese through the game with a warrior using high level pet dragon abilities like astral strike. I figured I could get my pet dragon up to level 23 in one battle while my warrior was still only level 8, thus being able to break through the guards to Montero and then beating that one lizard lady so I could get the flying ability, then making the rest of the game far easier to kite. It looks like this isn't possible unless I can figure out what the holdup is here. I can find no info on this game that mentions this at all, kind of frustrating.