Chapter 129: 071. Skeleton King -1 (Part One)
[Name: ??? (Black Dragon)
Age: ???
Attributes: Dragon’s Breath, wide-area magic, transcendental physique. Starving. Currently suffering from a fatal wound.]
Hey, this is so wrong, ain’t it? Wasn’t I told that there wouldn’t be a bloody dragon here?
I stared dazedly at the Black Dragon.
It was over ten metres tall and its body was even longer than its height. The way the army of mummies stood in front of the creature reminded me of an evil dragon from a fairy tale or some such.
I couldn’t help but cower from the intense pressure the dragon emitted.
I made it through all sorts of trials and tribulations up until this point, but now it seemed that I would have to fight a dang dragon of all things.
However, I was puzzled by something. A line among the attributes caught my eyes. More specifically, that bit about ‘suffering from a fatal wound’.
For sure, I noticed that the dragon’s condition was a bit weird. Its back shell was visibly cracked apart while there was a large hole on the scales covering its belly.
It was at this point that I recalled what Hans told me earlier.
…You know, that story about a traveller fighting against a dragon.
What the heck, could it be that that tale was actually true?!
Crazy son of a gun! How strong was that man that he could fight and injure the dragon to this extent before getting out of here alive?
Even though I was freaking out inside, I still didn’t forget to check out the dragon’s expression. It was cruelly distorted and its eyes were glaring straight at me as if it couldn’t control its rage at all.
Well, if I were to make a guess, its rage must be because of that wound.
The Black Dragon didn’t even hesitate for a second before mouthing roiling flames within its black maw. After sensing the flow of enormous demonic energy gathering there, I instinctively realised that there was no way I or anyone else would be able to deal with the incoming attack.
“Block that!”
While shouting out, I jumped off from the Cyclops Golem’s shoulder.
The crimson glow within the Golem’s eye intensely sizzled before the laser-like beam shot out. At the same time, the dragon fired its Breath as well.
The petrification ray and the Breath collided in the air. However, the magic that turned its victim into stone was hopelessly outmatched by the overwhelming might of the dragon’s Breath, and it got ruthlessly pushed back.
Flames enveloped the Cyclops Golem’s body, and the statue covered its hands around my body to protect me from the attack to the best of its abilities.
“Gimme a freaking break!”
The intense heat was causing thick sweat drops to flood down my skin.
While using the Cyclops Golem’s big body as a shield, I began injecting divinity into my body. My consciousness threatening to fade away from the heat finally came back to me after I did that.
What a relief it was that the armour surrounding the Golem was this metal called ‘Eltera’. It apparently had strong innate resistance against magic so it should be able to endure for a while. Any regular metal would’ve melted away in a matter of seconds, and even if I got lucky with the Breath being somehow kept away from my body, I would have still died from the intense heat.
But even with the special metal, the Cyclops Golem couldn’t seem to withstand the dragon’s Breath for too long as its surface began melting down into a goo.
Okay, now what?
“Do I need to use the relics?”
If I used Amon’s relics then I should probably be able to deal with the dragon. However, my issue would be with the side effects of using them.
Other than the toll on my physical body, there wasn’t any other major backlash to worry about when using only the skull. But the serious problems would no doubt arise by using both the grimoire and the staff.
I was already quite familiar with the severity of the overlapped side effects when using the skull and grimoire at the same time. Unless I train myself to withstand the backlash, I would have to spend at least the next three months as a vegetable again.
Just the strain of using two relics was that bad, so if I used the staff on top of that, then well, let’s just say that the possibility of losing my life would be too uncomfortably high for my liking.
It was then, the Breath suddenly stopped. I stared at the dragon through the open gaps of the Cyclops Golem’s fingers.
The Black Dragon was busy flapping its wings, and the countless balls of flames and vast quantities of icy-cold air were swirling and spinning all around the creature.
…Who the hell was it? Who the hell was the idiot that said dragons can’t use magic?!
“Bloody hell?! Buy me some time!”
The Cyclops Golem’s body creaked and stuttered like a broken doll when it turned around. It forced its melted-down torso to move and fire another ray of petrification beam.
The attack hit the Black Dragon and some part of its outer skin began solidifying into stone. But at the same time, the dragon’s magic attacks came flying in.
The flame balls heated up the Golem in an instant, then the spears of ice completely shattered its chest. The massive stone statue began crumbling down to bits and pieces.
“Seriously now?!”
I pulled out Amon’s grimoire and enhanced it with [Divine Aura].
There was no more time to worry about the backlash or whatever anymore. I mean, we were about to be turned into roasted charcoal, so what other choice did I have left at this stage?!
“Oh, dear Gaia!”
Not just [Divine Aura] on the grimoire, but I also overlapped its effects with a prayer as well.
But right at that moment, one of the stray magic attacks from the dragon came flying towards my direction. I had no time to defend against that.
I couldn’t even dodge. If that thing hits me, I’d either get grievously injured or worse, instantly kick the bucket!
As I stood there frozen, plants broke through from the ground and their stems quickly wrapped around my body before yanking me towards the rear.
The spear of ice summoned by the dragon barely missed me by a hair’s breadth.
I looked behind and spotted Tina using magic to control the plants that were currently moving me around. The mummies in my surroundings tried to pounce on me, but the plants sealed their movements in order to protect me.
Thanks to her, I managed to live through that.
While I got dragged on the ground, I began pouring out divinity from my body. Holy water was generated in the place I was in. At the same time, my army of undead began crawling out from the surfaces of the water.
I called out. “Stop the dragon!”
The holy skeletons rushed towards the Black Dragon while the banshees nocked energy arrows on their bowstrings.
Since they were merely low-level undeads, I knew that they wouldn’t last a couple of seconds against the dragon.
The plant stems carried me over to where Tina and the rest of the group were. Once I reached the destination, the plants broke down and I regained my freedom of movement.
I sighed with relief and spoke to Tina, “Thanks. You saved my life just now.”
Even though Tina looked exhausted, she still flinched from my compliment and began nodding her head energetically.
While gripping her staff tightly with both of her hands, she spoke up valiantly. “I-I do not know if I can be any use to you, but I’ll do my best to assist you.”
“In that case, I’ll leave the mummies to you. Stop them as long as possible and buy me as much time as you can.”
My undead legion would only be able to hold up the dragon for a little while. To stop the mummies, I required help from both Tina and Damon.
The two of them nodded while looking clearly determined.
Hans stood behind them with a deeply-scared face. He asked me nervously. “W-what about me? What should I do, sir?”
“Warp Scrolls.”
“…”
“Hand over all the scrolls you have.”
Hans hurriedly rummaged through his bag and pulled out four Warp Scrolls before passing them onto me.
I used the warp magic to teleport near the Cyclops Golems as quickly as possible. As soon as reaching the statues, I placed my hand on their torsos and began activating them one at a time.
While doing this, I couldn’t move my body, so this was where Tina and Damon’s assistance came to play. She used the plants to tie down the approaching mummies while Damon swung around and smacked the undeads with his staff permeating with divinity.
The Cyclops Golems began activating and standing up one by one. Ten of them shuffled towards the Black Dragon.
The Golems spread around and fired out their rays at once. While doing that, they didn’t forget to grab the weapons found all around the tomb’s interior.
The dragon tried to shoot another Breath out, but the petrification rays solidified the creature’s mouth into stone first.
The Golems, now wielding massive double-edged broadswords, advanced towards their target.
Bang! Bang!
The ground rocked from their march.
The Golems leapt up and took mighty swings with their broadswords at the dragon.
The huge weapons collided against the hard scales of the lizard. It initially seemed like the blades were successfully repelled, but the Golems continued to force down with brute strength and crushed its scales instead.
-Ku-oooooh!
The Black Dragon flapped its wings and flew up in the air.
The holy skeletons didn’t miss that opening. They utilised the siege weapons left lying around to fire ballistas and catapults at the airborne dragon.
However, the dragon simply flapped its wing to deflect away the incoming siege weapon projectiles.
It finally got to shoot another Breath and stopped the holy skeletons dead in their tracks, while its thick arms and legs ruthlessly stomped down on the Cyclops Golems.
The dragon even used another round of wide-area magic and flung the balls of flames and ice spears in all directions.
While staring at this unfolding spectacle, I could only click my tongue in amazement. As I feared, never mind killing that dragon, we wouldn’t be able to survive for long at this rate.
