Book 8 - Waning of the Moon Chapter 104
Killing Dragons
The wind dragon roared one last time, but that quickly faded into a mewl as it lost its life. Those from both sides paused for a moment to stare at the thunder cannons in the hands of the night elves; this was the first time that they had ever seen such a thing.
Swapping out the bullet disks, the elves put the guns back on their backs before rejoining the spellcasting. The entire group cast a flurry of bramble spells, serving to slow and annoy the dragons in the sky. This seemed to be the only magic they knew, but any spell would grow formidable when 500 powerful druids were casting it in tandem. The dragons were trapped one by one, giving those battling them an opportunity to slaughter their targets. The humans made the most of this chance, flocking towards those that were restrained and giving Richard the freedom to save his energy for the strongest enemies.
The impact of the druids on this battle turned out to be even greater than that of the rune knights. One metal dragon tried to enter their formation even after seeing what happened to its kin— it perhaps expected that its stronger body would be able to take the attacks with minimal damage— but a single volley left it riddled with injuries that brought it to the edge of life.
The dragon continued to charge through the explosions, frightened yet excited that it had survived. One more round would definitely kill it, but for now it would be able to tear into the enemy formation. That was what it thought anyway; when flames with an aura of nature formed on the hands of 200 druids that turned to face it, it quickly realised that the bramble spell wasn't the only one they knew.
That knowledge came at a price. 200 volley of grade 6 sunflames bombarded the already-injured dragons, melting its scales in seconds. It tried to escape, but after a few flaps it lost all strength and plummeted to the ground.
The dragons wasted no time in reacting, commanding thousands upon thousands of draconians to attack from the ground. This was evidently a tactic of desperation, but it quickly fell flat. The druids were so powerful as a whole that they didn't even need any knights to defend them; a full bombardment of sunflames formed an ocean of fire that swallowed the draconians in moments. Their presence changed the nature of the battle entirely, making numeric tactics obsolete.
A handful of human legends looked at the druid formation in confusion. They had already figured out the best response of having a legendary mage bombard the entire area, but they quickly dismissed the thought. Richard was still guarding in the sky, and the moment someone started casting a legendary spell he would be on them with his own frightening might. They all realised one thing immediately; the Archerons now truly had top-end battle ability!
Richard was now like a lightning bolt, destroying everything he touched. There was nothing fancy about his attacks, but blood was shed every time he drew his blades. He was showing ability that could perhaps contest even an epic being, and the strange weapons and batch of druids left even the legends feeling a chill. While those weapons weren't as strong as full-powered attacks from rune knights, they were clearly guns that didn't require excessive use of one's internal energy.
Rune knights were affected by the limits of their rune slots and carrying capacity, but from the looks of it these guns only needed the user to be strong enough to withstand the recoil. While that still meant warriors at equivalent levels, the requirements were relaxed significantly enough for it to be possible to make a thousands-strong army of them!
Having suffered grave damage, the dragons could no longer sustain the battle. Sending out a signal for retreat, they flew towards the portal one after the other and returned to their plane. Thousands of draconians who couldn't get away in time were sacrificed.
Richard suddenly shot through the sky, instantly blinking behind the largest space dragon in the group. He stretched an arm out to grab it by the tail, but the creature felt the danger and started phasing into the void. However, he activated his own control of space and locked everything down in the surroundings, slowing the creature enough for him to catch it.
The dragon only managed to get half its body into the void before it was forced back into its physical form. It was like it had hit a crystal wall, web-like cracks appearing where it had tried to escape. Bounced back from its teleportation, it was grabbed and then swung all the way to the ground.
*BOOM!* Both human and dragon crashed down, the earth sinking from the violent impact. The space dragon roared in pain, numerous bones broken in an instant that left it paralysed, but Richard quickly stood up unscathed. His body was more durable than a dragon's!
He suddenly sped up, slamming into the dragon's body and sending it flying from the impact. Thrown dozens of metres away, the lizard lost a few ribs as well as the strength to brandish its claws. Richard walked towards it slowly, his footsteps echoing in its ears as he approached.
The dragon raised its head with difficulty, glaring at Richard and opening its mouth for a breath attack, but he suddenly blinked away and appeared atop its head. Using unparalleled strength, he stomped down so hard that the dragon's horns were twisted in odd directions, head buried deep into the ground. This time, it lost consciousness.
When Richard walked off the dragon's body and towards his rune knights, the human powerhouses present could only stare blankly at him. His attacks just now had been based purely on strength, crushing his opponent in no time. While the ability to inhibit teleportation and phasing were shocking as well, at least they made sense. The rest wasn't even how a human battled; it seemed more like he was a powerful abyssal!
The rest of the dragons escaped, while the draconians left behind shouted and charged at Richard's soldiers in suicide attacks. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to take out a single person or drone; the druids split into two, half of them binding the attackers while the rest burnt them to crisps. No other large group could compare to spellcasters when it came to efficiency in a massacre.
In less than a minute, thousands of dragon disciples were turned into charred corpses. The hellish image left even some of the experienced saints and legends a little squeamish, their eyes filled with a little more fear and alarm when they looked at Richard.
Richard himself stabbed his sword into the ground, white light covering him as the armour disappeared. A handful of mages understood that this was a rune, and some even made the connection to Heaven's Armour, but they had never seen something as powerful as what he had displayed. Midren was perfect, dignified, and powerful, well beyond the power of any saint rune they knew.
Was this... beyond grade 5? An incredible thought appeared in their minds, something that left them all frightened at the mere possibility.
The portal finally died down as all the dragons retreated. More than twenty corpses were left behind, with a handful of the ones that escaped also fatally injured. Tens of thousands of draconians were killed as well.
However, the five-coloured barrier surrounding the portal was still present.
A cold light flashed in Richard's eyes as he pulled up his sword and walked towards the portal. Light flickered around his body as he summoned Midren once more, stepping through with the sacred sword in hand.
"Wait! King of War!" Nasia called from behind him, but he had already gone through. She stamped her feet in rage, "Does he want to die?!"
The rippled of Richard's departure had barely died down before the portal started glowing once more. Richard jumped out from within, staggering as he landed and almost falling to the ground. Stowing Midren away, he spat out a mouthful of blood. Waterflower and Phaser immediately appeared on both sides of him, one holding each of his arms.
"Ambushed?" Nasia scoffed as she walked towards him.
Richard smiled weakly, "She was waiting on the other side, right next to the portal in humanoid form. Ugh... she's strong."