Chapter 285: The Orchard 2
The Lithe Stalker looked like a black panther, only that its fur flickered between visible and invisible, meaning that it could camouflage. Apart from that, it had red eyes and teeth on the scale of a saber tooth tiger.
The Killer Boar was a huge boar that looked frenzied. It had sharp and long tusks, a mane of black hair and short but powerful legs. It was slightly frothing at the mouth due to its intense bloodl.u.s.t.
The Ferocious Charger was a large rhino-like monster with steel-like skin, a long horn for impaling foes and powerful legs that were less stubby than an actual rhino's, showing that its ability to accelerate would not be low.
The Long Snapper was a huge python that was even longer than the King Cobra. It had short wings in its back, and its scales glistened with a myriad of reflective colors. Its fangs were long and sharp, releasing a blackish poison as it hissed. When this poison hit the earth, it corroded it easily.
The Silent Spinner was a large spider that was not like the typical hairy tarantulas. It had a firmer and shinier exoskeleton which was black in color. Its legs were not fat, but slim and sharp, like the claws of a praying mantis.
There were many more that existed in the orchard who didn't join this encirclement because they were too far to care.
Draco's heart became calm, even though he was surrounded by hundreds of Rank 2 entities. Had there been Captain Rank or above, he would be extremely hard pressed to do anything, but the ones facing him were only Specialist Rank. They would be perfect to test out the powers of his Divine Class.
It was their numbers that made things look grim. Draco decided to provide support from the back, since Clarent could take to the sky and should be agile enough to avoid most attacks.
Qiong Qi agreed to act as the tank since they couldn't damage him anyway. He had kept the defense of a Rank 7 entity, so no monster below Rank 7 in the entire treasury could harm him.
The monsters slowly crept closer while the tension rose. The sounds of light breathing from the various beasts as well as their slow, gentle steps colored the atmosphere.
Suddenly, Draco fired the Phoenix Cry arrow and activated its active skill.
｢Active 1 - Vermilion Fire: Activate this skill to add a disintegration by immolation effect to the arrowhead. Cooldown: 1 minute.｣
The arrow moved so fast since he used his Star Shot Technique to power it up. While it was still at level 1, the second level was 50% complete after his fight with the Magic Hind.
Now, with his new class' passives, it boosted one of Draco's most integral skills that enhanced his talent.
｢Insight - Passive skill
Effect: You are able to acquire new knowledge and techniques three times faster when learning from someone else, and twice as fast when creating it yourself.｣
With his increased mental acuity as well as the 100% boost from Devil's Guile, he was able to create his own techniques four times faster. This, coupled with his already high talent, made him a monster.
However, this had nothing to do with the battle breaking out at the moment. The instant the arrow struck one of the Ferocious Chargers, it immediately burst into flame and roared in pain.
This was like the gunshot before a race, as conflict immediately broke out. Clarent quickly took to the sky and began firing out his flame. His targets were the monsters vulnerable to fire, like the Silent Spinners.
He might be a pureblooded Red Dragon, currently at the Medium-Rank, yet it didn't change the fact that combat wise, he was in the same situation as Draco. As a Rank 1, it was still hard to fight so many Rank 2 monsters at once.
The Silent Spinners seemed to have acknowledged him as their target as well, since they were the only monsters of this group with ranged attacks. They skittled around quickly, firing webs and nets from their spinnerets.
Clarent dodged these attacks and burned a few others with his default flame breath. Due to sheer the number of spinners, he was almost immediately trapped in a situation where he found himself unable to do anything but defend himself continuously.
Almost every moment was spent dodging or burning webs being fired at him with irritatingly sharp accuracy, so Clarent was technically out of the fight, but so were the Silent Spinners.
Qiong Qi was having an even tougher time. He had no ranged attacks like Clarent, so he had to rely on his claws and insane strength to fight.
However, since he was never supposed to leave the Flora and Fauna Unique Quest, the system had limited his strength to match Draco's Rank, so his power only increased whenever Draco Ranked up.
Qiong Qi swiped at the Lithe Stalkers, who were also a feline species, and the Killer Boars. The Lithe Stalkers were extremely agile and easily avoided his attack while putting in some of their own.
The damage they dealt Qiong Qi was non-existent, but it was irritating. He especially hated the pain, as they bit at him and scratched his fur. What was worse was that their attacks created openings for the Killer Boars to ram him.
Their sharp tusks failed to even pierce his skin, but the pain from the collision as well as the force of it knocked him back and ruined his stance. The Lithe Stalkers then jumped in to assault him heavily until he roared and smacked them away.
He only dealt 300 damage with a single swipe, and that disheartened him. He was continually suppressed by these monsters, especially the Killer Boars who timed their assaults extremely well.
This left the Long Snappers and the Ferocious Chargers for Draco to handle. He was able to do it with some semblance of steadiness. His shots were aimed at the Ferocious Chargers mostly, and since they were grouped together, the Sonic Wave passive dealt a sound damage to them.
The flat damage was 2,000 with every shot Draco fired. With his rate of fire that was 3 per second, he dealt a flat 6,000 damage to the Ferocious Chargers.
Luckily, Legendary weapons did not have stats and their damage output when using their effects was calculated differently. Otherwise, he would be lucky to deal 200 damage with his Sonic Wave passive.
While Draco was suppressing the Ferocious Chargers, he had to avoid the nimble and dangerous Long Snappers. As such, he kited the Ferocious Chargers and the Long Snappers away from Qiong Qi and Clarent.
Those two were already having a tough time, so it was best that he moved away from them to reduce the pressure. If some of the Ferocious Chargers or Long Snappers were to change targets, things would become really messy.
When he was suitably far enough, Draco stopped and released his Draconic Aura. His eyes even turned into serpentine slits as he glared at the Long Snappers and roared.
"Lower Species, obey your Ancestor!"
The aura blasted out like a wave. To the Ferocious Chargers, it was like a cool breeze that did not deter them, but to the Long Snappers, it felt like the shockwave from an explosion.
They were blasted around, being made to writhe on the floor in pain. As members of the serpent family, they were not too low on the hierarchy, but they were nothing to a Black Dragon.
This was another weakness of bloodlines. If you had a powerful one, that was great. But as long as a bloodline that was in your same category/family existed, you would be turned into a weak toy in front of them if they blasted it out.
Right now, Draco could suppress almost all serpents as a Black Dragon, but if he were to meet a Dragon God or the Dragon Primogenitor, they too could render him useless with ease. It was a double-edged sword.
With the Long Snappers dealt with, Draco focused fire on the Ferocious Chargers. Each shot was powered by the Star Shot Technique, which increased his fire rate as well as the speed of his arrows, thereby increasing the damage greatly.
Each shot also brought him closer and closer to the completion of level 2. From the initial 50%, Draco quickly reached 55% in less than 10 minutes of battle.
He had killed a large majority of the Ferocious Chargers just relying on the Sonic Wave passive, as well as the Vermilion Fire active every now and then.
The splash damage was his key to success, as the Rank suppression rendered his power much weaker. If he tried to use his swords to fight, he would not be having it nearly as easy as he was now.
It was only the Sonic Wave passive that saved him, as well as his ability to suppress the Long Snappers. Of course, no actual damage was being dealt to them, and they slowly resisted his bloodline suppression over the course of time.
Some of the stronger ones among them were already on their bellies and were trying to slither towards him in order to attack. Draco had to move away once more, as he could not afford to split his attention between them.
The Ferocious Chargers were not bothered by his bloodline, so it was only the raw power of his arrows that was able to knock them back and disrupt their momentum.
If he made a single mistake and allowed one of them to build speed, he would be forced into a passive state like Qiong Qi and Clarent, which would signal his end.
He was not going to use his Dragon, Demon or Devil Form easily, as he had only 30 seconds for each of them before he had to wait a day for it to come back. He was unsure what kind of enemies he would be facing later, so it was best to keep it as a trump card.
Seeing that Clarent and Qiong Qi were still being suppressed, Draco got closer to them and activated one of his newly acquired racial skills.
Angel's Blessing!
｢Angel's Blessing (Corrupted) - Active Skill
Effect: Send out a random debuff to every enemy within 10 miles. Cannot be dispelled.
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 30 minutes｣
A blackish pulse was emitted from his body and passed over every enemy within the range of the skill. They were all afflicted with various debuffs ranging from <Confused> to <Hungry>.
This immediately changed the situation greatly, as Clarent became able to break out of his encirclement and rush some of the weakened Silent Spinners.
He quickly used Flamepillar on them, and added a Fireball to the package. His attacks were already potent, and with the damage enhancement, he tore away more than 30% of their HP in one shot.
Clarent didn't try to fight from a distance this time as well. He swooped in and used his claws as well as his teeth to rip and tear them apart. The carapace of the Silent Spinners was far more resilient than your average arachnid, but it was like paper to a True Dragon.
Greenish blood splashed as their exoskeletons were ripped open and they thoraxes were hewn. With high pitched screeches, these Silent Spinners tried to fight off Clarent, but he proved to be too agile.
The earlier encirclement had raised his alertness to the maximum, and his stunted combat sense from being in soul form for so long was slowly being regained in his new body.
Dragons were intelligent beasts, and were treated as NPCs by the system, but at the end of the day, they were still a bestial species. As such, his ferociousness grew during battle, allowing him to act faster, smarter and crueler than usual.
Eventually, Clarent had to move away from the Silent Spinners he was attacking when the ones with relatively milder debuffs started firing at him. The good part was that the missed shots struck their allies and bound then, so Clarent smiled wickedly.
He then flapped his wings and swooped over to the now firing bunch of monsters to engage them head on. He used his flame breath wantonly, which damaged these monsters and weakened their special ability.