Jack was catching his breath as he heard that he had received 50 draconic essences from the black dragon.
"Wow, more than twice the amount of the yellow one," Jack commented. But this black dragon's difficulty was indeed much more difficult than its yellow cousins. Heck, he would have an easier time going up against five of those yellow ones compared to one of the black.
A worry then came to him. Would this place throw two black dragons at him after this? That would be a problem. In aerial combat, fighting an equal enemy who had a wingman while he had none, his chance of winning would go down drastically.
As he was looking around in trepidation, fully expecting to see two shadows appearing in the distant cloud. The sky instead turned dark.
"Oh? The stage is changed into night setting?" Jack said and looked up.
As he did, he realized the sky didn't turn dark. It was simply being blocked, by an enormous rock that came down right above him.
"Holy mother of…"
Jack estimated the circumference of the rock was probably around one kilometer in diameter. That size could be considered an island already. Seeing such a mass falling from the cloud was mesmerizing. As he was marveling at the scene, he realized that he was directly under this rock. He would be a goner if the rock fell on top of him.
He hurriedly urged his red dragon to fly away.
As he did, he found that the rock was not exactly falling. Its descent was too slow. It was more akin to the rock floating down. Jack flew up to take a better look.
When he came close enough, all hell broke loose. Fireballs, lightning balls, ice balls, and even metal bullets came raining at him. He didn't even have time to curse when he instinctively pressed the speed-up button all the way, activating the turbo mode. The red dragon zoomed away with speed. It escaped all the big attacks, but it was still pelleted by the small bullets.
As they fled, Jack saw along the wall of the rock were multiple weapon platforms filled with guns and cannons.
"My goodness, a floating fortress?" Jack uttered.
Jack flew around circling the rock fortress while remaining outside the range of those guns and cannons.
"Well, this is definitely a boss!" Jack uttered. He couldn't inspect the rock, same as the enemy dragons before this. He had no idea of its HP, but he knew for sure he was meant to go against this enemy.
So, he had his red dragon fly forward at high speed. The guns and cannons started firing again once he was in range. The elemental balls shot by the cannons were easier to be dodged, but the bullets from the gun were not as easy. Luckily, the damage they caused was minuscule.
Jack released his dragon's fireball. The attack struck the wall of the rock. No damage. No HP bar.
"It can't be hurt?" Peniel asked. Jack, however, was not that surprised. He sorts of expected that. His dragon shot a second fireball and hit one of the guns that filled the rock. The gun exploded with one hit. A long HP bar was seen above the rock then.
"We have to take down those guns and cannons first," Jack uttered.
So, he flew around targeting the rock's weapons. The guns could be destroyed with one hit, but the cannons required two hits. After a while, Jack saw the extruded bone on the left horn appear again. So, he picked an area that was packed with cannons and had his red dragon shoot its fire beam.
The cannon was destroyed with one touch of the beam. Jack moved the beam around as it destroyed more cannons. He managed to take out seven cannons before the fire beam ended.
Peniel used her heal spells when the red dragon's HP fell below half from the bullets.
The rock was massive, but it was stationary. Jack found this fight much easier than the one against the black dragon. All he needed was patience. Hitting the weapons one by one while maintaining a safe approach. Flew away when the situation got too heated. It took a long time but he was making safe progress.
When the HP of the floating fortress fell by a third, six huge cannons suddenly bored out of several holes at the top of the rock. These cannons then fired six energy balls at Jack.
Jack made an evasive maneuver and flew away from the fortress. The six energy balls, however, turned around and followed.
"Tracing projectiles, I knew this has been too easy!" Jack uttered. He did not doubt that the power of these energy balls was also not to be underestimated. It was possible that these energy balls could kill his red dragon with one hit. He was not interested to find out.
The six energies were faster than the red dragon at its fastest speed without turbo, so they would catch up sooner or later. Jack did several acrobatic turns to dodge them, but they always came back again and again. These energy balls were not like the projectiles shot from the elemental cannons which dissolved after traveling a certain distance. It had been quite some time but the six energy balls still going strong. Jack must assume that these six would not disappear with time.
Jack used his turbo speed to put enough distance, before he made another sharp turn back, facing the energy balls. He aimed at one and fired. His fireball collided with one of the energy balls and exploded.
"It can be destroyed!" Jack exclaimed.
Jack dove and dodged the other five energy balls. He then flew back to the fortress again as the five energy balls turned and came back on his tail.
"What are you planning?" Peniel asked as he looked back at those energy balls that came nearer with each second.
"They can be destroyed," Jack answered.
"So?"
"You will see."
As Jack came into the fortress' range, the guns and cannons that were still intact started firing again. He flew to the side and kept within the fortress' range. Because of that, the fortress' weapons continued to fire at him. And because he was flying sideways, all the attacks rained behind him. As the five energy balls that were chasing Jack came near, they collided with the fortress' attacks.
Continuous explosions were heard. When the sound of explosions stopped, Jack asked Peniel, "Are all five of those balls destroyed?"
"Yes…"
With the menace of the tracing projectiles gone, Jack returned to his chore. Slowly destroying the weapons around the fortress one at a time. He was planning to destroy the large cannons at the top, but when he looked, those cannons had retracted back into the rock.
When the HP fell by another one-third, the large cannons came out again. Jack had been expecting them. He had saved his fire beam attack for them. He had also kept his flying position near the top. He used turbo speed and flew up, getting closer to those cannons. He then fired his beam before those cannons could aim at him.
Since those cannons were situated close to each other, Jack swiped his beam and managed to wipe them all out in one go.
"Yeah! Take that, sucker!"
He then returned to finish all the remaining weapons. Once they were all gone and the HP fell to zero, the top part of the rock broke apart, revealing a tunnel. A deafening roar was heard then. Jack looked into the tunnel and saw a gigantic crimson dragon in chains. It was struggling around as if trying to break away from the chains. It spotted Jack and opened its flaring maw. A thick red beam shot at Jack.
"What the…! It's not yet over?!" Jack uttered as he banked hard to dodge the beam.
"That must be the real boss," Peniel said.
"You don't say!"
Jack turned back and fired at the chained dragons. HP bar appeared when his fireball hit. The crimson dragon retaliated by shooting its own fireballs. Jack flew around dodging those fireballs and returned fire when possible. It was easy, considering he was mobile while the crimson dragon was restrained.
However, one of the chains suddenly snapped.
"Oh, shit! There is a time limit," Jack came to a realization. Once the chains restraining the crimson dragon were gone, Jack had no doubt this gargantuan dragon would make short work of his little dragon.
Jack picked up the pace, but he still took care not to get hit by the opponent's fireballs. Yet, in his haste, he was hit one time. His red dragon's HP fell by 70%. Peniel immediately sent her Fast Heal. Jack heaved a relief. Although the crimson dragon's fireballs were more powerful than the other dragons from before, it still didn't one-hit-kill his dragon.
At one time, the crimson dragon's mouth flared again. Jack was rather close at the time, so he immediately used his turbo speed to fly away. The crimson dragon swung its head to have its fire beam chased after Jack. The beam was just a couple of meters from him when its duration finally ended. Jack was having a cold sweat. He was sure that beam could kill his dragon with one hit.
Another chain snapped.
Jack made an estimation. There were originally ten chains. Now, there were only eight. At this rate, he won't be able to finish the crimson dragon before all the chains snapped.
"Peniel, can you use Invulnerability on this red dragon?" Jack asked.
"No. He is not considered as part of you like your spirit weapon," Peniel answered.
Jack thought for a bit before saying, "Peniel, ready your heals!" He decided to take a risk.
"Again? What are you planning to do this time?"
"Just get ready!"
"My heals are off cooldown already, but you need to know I can only do it two times, Fast Heal and Fast Group Heal. My other spells are useless here."
Jack nodded. He then flew up high into the sky before diving back down at the crimson dragon with high speed.
