While there was no enemy, Jack experimented further with the controls. He tried pressing brake all the way. Normally, in flight simulation, if the plane's speed was too slow, it would stall. He wondered if it was the same here. As the red dragon's speed kept on decreasing, Jack discovered this dragon riding was different. The dragon had currently stopped advancing and just hovered in the same spot.
Yet, he didn't think he could utilize this feature in a fight. It took some time to come to a complete stop. If he wanted to use this stopping feature to make a fast turn, he would have been hit first long before that.
Jack looked around. Was that all? If it was, he was disappointed. 60 draconic essences were not enough for his bloodline to level up. He needed another 120 draconic essences to level up his bloodline to level 4.
He then saw in the distance four shadows in the cloud. He grinned and had his dragon fly over to meet the opponents.
The dogfight lasted for some time, but eventually, Jack emerged victorious.
"Two more!" Jack exclaimed as he looked around with a high expectation for the next opponents to appear.
After controlling the red dragon this long, he had also learned that the turbo speed had a one-minute cooldown before it could be used again.
Before long, Jack saw five more dragons incoming.
'Is this like the endless wave? Except this one increases the number of enemies every wave?' Jack thought. He didn't mind. The exp points were nothing much, but he welcomed the draconic essence gain. His only worry was that if these were endless waves, how would he exit this place? He didn't see any green exit portal. Should he fly to the ground and search?
He decided to deal with it later. For now, it's time for draconic essence gathering. As he flew over to meet the next wave, Peniel said to him, "Look at that."
She was pointing at the left horn. There was a broken bone similar to the one on the right horn which he used to fire the dragon's fireball.
"I remember that horn was flat," Jack remarked. When he found the broken bone on the right horn, he had looked at the left horn as well. There was no such broken bone then.
"Could it be… special attack?" Jack uttered after giving a thought.
"What kind of special attack?" Peniel asked.
"Dunno. Let's find out. Perhaps this button only comes out after a duration or after we make several fireball attacks or something. Anyway, let's try it out on these opponents."
Jack aimed the reticle as they neared. Normally in combat flight simulation, the other attack aside from the normal gun attack which shot in a straight line was missile attacks. Could this special attack be similar to missile attacks that tracked targets? Jack was excited to find out.
The five opponents were flying directly at him. He used Gold Dragon Sight this time, slowing everything in his perception. When he estimated the five yellow dragons entering his firing zone, he pressed the trigger on the left horn.
The dragon roared, then a thick fiery beam burst forth from its mouth. The beam tore through one of the yellow dragons, killing it instantly. The instant kill was not that impressive, considering the normal fireball also killed these yellow dragons in a single hit. However, Jack could feel using his mana sense that this fire beam was at least five times stronger than the fireball.
Moreover, the fire beam was still going strong. It didn't appear to end anytime soon. Jack felt lucky his vision was still in slow-motion mode, so his pondering didn't waste too much time in real-time. He immediately shifted the dragon's head as he aimed the ongoing beam at the remaining dragons.
The beam moved and tore through the dragons one by one following Jack's aim. Unfortunately, Jack failed to wipe out the entire pack with the beam. The fire beam stopped when the fourth yellow dragon fell. The fifth managed to fly away.
Jack estimated that in real-time, the fire beam lasted five seconds. He looked at the left horn and saw the broken bone had retracted into the horn. He had to wait for the horn to appear again before he could use the special attack.
He chased after the remaining yellow dragon in a dogfight. It was not a difficult battle. The fifth yellow dragon soon fell.
By then, his Divine Gold Dragon Bloodline had crossed over to level 4. This bloodline now gave a passive 32% of boosts to his attributes, HP, Stamina, and MP, increasing his massive stats even further. He didn't get a new active skill, though. Peniel informed that he would get one at bloodline level 5.
As he was marveling at his bloodline increase, he saw a shadow in the distance.
"One?" He said.
"It looked different," Peniel remarked when the shadow came nearer. "It's larger."
"The wing span is larger, the body actually looks slimmer," Jack said. His Dragon Eye allowed him to get a better look than Peniel.
"Shit! It's fast!" Jack uttered as he steered his red dragon to one side.
The red dragon rolled to the side just as a stream of dark energy zoomed past their previous position. It was the dark ball fired by the new enemy. As the new dragon flew past, Jack saw that it was a black-scaled dragon that was longer but thinner.
Jack controlled the red dragon by making a hard turn to chase after the black dragon. He came behind the black dragon but couldn't catch up. The black dragon's speed was similarly fast. The red dragon fired a few fireballs but the black dragon didn't just fly in a straight line like its yellow cousins. It moved in a zigzag pattern in the air, making it hard for Jack to land a clean hit.
"I need to close in the distance," Jack said and pressed the turbo button on his right foot. The red dragon burst forth in speed.
When the distance with his prey shortened and Jack was about to fire, the black dragon suddenly banked right. Jack tried to follow, but he was still in the effect of being propelled, so he couldn't turn sharply. As a result, he overshot his target's position while the black dragon made a loop and came up behind. Their situation had now been reversed.
The black dragon fired its dark ball. The red dragon just came out of its turbo state, so it was sluggish for a beat. This lapse caused it to get hit by the dark ball. The red dragon roared in pain as its HP bar dropped to half.
"Shit! This one's attack is also more powerful!" Jack exclaimed and steered the dragon away from the danger zone as another dark ball flew past. His dragon would be finished with another hit.
"Peniel, is your Fast Heal off cooldown?"
"Yes," Peniel replied and healed the red dragon's life back to full. "Don't worry, I can still do Group Fast Heal if we get hit again."
"Don't need it!" Jack exclaimed as he made a zigzag while the black dragon tailed them from behind and sent a never-ending stream of dark balls.
"Its rate of fire is also scarier," Jack commented. The black dragon was an overall upgrade compared to the yellow ones.
Jack sent Wind Slash at the pursuing dragon. Damage numbers appeared but the black dragon's HP bar didn't appear to go down.
"Heck! Offensive skills are worthless here," He uttered. He had given it a test to see the result. If the damage was decent, he planned to transform and go into a direct clash with the black dragon. But then again, this move also posed the risk of him losing his red dragon. He was not sure what this red dragon would do if he stopped riding it. Probably it would continue flying straight. If that was the case, he was not sure if his Supreme dragon's flight speed could catch up to it. So, he stayed on its back.
He tried two more spells, though. Magic Bind and Tracing Beams. Magic Bind broke immediately once it appeared. The Tracing Beams' knockback effect was completely not in effect. The black dragon just barreled through the beams without being slowed.
He made one last try by casting Myriad Venomous Vipers, but a notification voice was heard telling him that the spell required a surface to be cast on. He guessed up in the air was not considered the same as in an underwater situation where he could cast the spell anywhere.
"Guess Greed really wants this stage to be pure combat flight simulation. The only useful spells here are healing spells," Jack remarked. He gave up on using his skills and spells and focused on controlling the red dragon.
After trying to make a few turns to reverse the situation, the black dragon was still dogging them from behind. This opponent was equal in both speed and maneuvering ability.
"Damn it! I can't lose him with regular tricks… Peniel, ready your heal!"
"Oh? I thought you said you don't need it?" Peniel mocked.
"Just get ready!" Jack didn't have the time to entertain her.
He looked back at the black dragon position. He pressed the speed up to the maximum without the turbo effect, the black dragon also increased in speed. Jack then gradually slowed his speed down while continuing to try to dodge the enemy's attack. But when he was too close, he finally was unable to dodge, he was hit by the dark ball. Peniel cast her Fast Heal. But soon, another ball hit again.
Seeing that, the black dragon picked up in speed, trying to finish the deed.
Jack cast Accelerate on the red dragon and then made a hard pitch turn to get his dragon to go up while at the same time fully pressing the brake on his left foot. The red dragon spread its wing wide relying on the air resistance to bring its speed to fall drastically. The black dragon passed below them.
Once it did, Jack had his dragon make a slice turn, bringing its head back down to the opponent who was now in front of them.
"Yeah! Taste my cobra maneuver!" Jack exclaimed.
With the Acceleration spell still in effect, the black dragon appeared very slow. Jack fired. The fireball hit the black dragon's back, but it didn't die immediately. It only lost half its life.
Jack was not surprised. This black dragon was an overall upgrade compared to his previous adversaries. He had expected it. However, when he fired the second fireball, the black dragon sped up. Jack's shot missed. The black dragon also had a turbo mode!
Jack's turbo mode was not yet off cooldown. But luckily, the acceleration spell was still in effect. His red dragon's maximum speed under acceleration spell managed to keep up with the black dragon's turbo speed. Jack was not going to let this opponent flee.
The black dragon tried to make a turn. Jack read its intention and made the same turn, putting his aim slightly forward in lead pursuit. Jack fired again, aiming ahead of the black dragon.
The fireball flew towards where the black dragon was heading. The black dragon didn't have enough time to make another turn due to its turbo speed. It crashed into the fireball that came into its flying path. Its HP was then reduced to zero.
