Artificial Allied Territory detected! [Dhuinn Rune: Territory] activated. [Earth Ruler’s Reign] activated
[Earth Ruler’s Protection] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
Earth Ruler’s Protection: A beneficial effect from the artificial Territory [Earth Ruler’s Reign], created through the epitome of runecrafting—the Dhuinn runes. Supported by an artificial aura, every ally inside the range of the Territory will receive a 50% increase in their vitality and wisdom, in addition, to a temporary [Terra Resistance Lv. 5]
The Ankoran King’s pumpkin-sized rune on his golden-brown armor lit up, turning him into a giant torch inside this dimly lit hallway. Another one on his axe began to glow as well. With both shining a vibrant dark brown, the area around us began to creak like dry rocks grinding against each other, creating that ear-throbbing noise you would associate with scratching a blackboard.
However, before it could finish, the dragonslayer—Galg—flourished his elegant twin blades with the white, freezing scales on the edge—the same weapon he used to cut my arm off—and vanished from our sight. His speed was at the point where it was hard to see, but not fast enough for me to not sense it. It was just that my agility wasn’t high enough yet to follow him with my eyes since I haven’t gotten my buffs up yet!
However, that didn’t matter since we had our own speedster on our side now. Someone with a far greater speed boost.
Clank!
The loud sound of steel clashing against steel erupted from my left as my head ducked instinctively to avoid an attack my sensory skills picked up. My eyes looked up, noticing my scale-dust sparks igniting as Vifi’Yok blocked Galg’s attack. The former’s red lightning and the latter’s red aura clashed against each other.
“Again?” I could hear Galg’s baffled voice, but this moment of vulnerability wasn’t ignored as two arrows flying towards him caused the dragonslayer to jump away. However, he was forced to dash back even further when he saw these arrows with drill-like stone heads twist to follow him like a pair of heat-seeking missiles.
Sadly for him, this hallway wasn’t very large; in fact, it was even far too small for me to transform into a dragon. In this small room, Galg’s body snapped around as he heard the sweeping sound of a sword leaving its sheath. The samurai dwarf, Ungi, slashed at Galg, forcing the slayer to defend himself by blocking the samurai’s attacks with his weapons.
Galg wanted to distance himself, but the samurai sent a flurry of attacks his way, keeping him close and preoccupied. Vifi’Yok immediately charged into the duel, wielding my glaive with her lightning spells to push Galg back in this dance of blade and spells.
“Low agility, good reflexes, runes aimed for fast attacks!” Ungi suddenly shouted out, catching Vifi’Yok off-guard, but she quickly caught onto the meaning behind his words.
“Very, very fast attacks, hard-hitting Abilities, but I’m one-armed.”
These two statements alone changed the rhythm between these two, as the timing of their attacks slowly changed to fit the other, synchronizing as if the two of them had fought together before. Ungi would cover for Vifi’Yok when she found it hard to keep up her momentum due to being one-armed, while the latter would hit hard and build up pressure on Galg, giving the dwarf time to land precise slashes aimed at Galg’s vital, slowing down his momentum to allow Vifi’yok and the elves to land a glancing hit here and there.
Get a hold of yourself, Hestia! Fight through the fear! Buffs! Buffs, now!
[Music Resonation (Moderate)] [Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
As my parallel minds were casting more and more spells on myself, my music began to spread around the area, buffing everybody up. The fear I felt for these dragonslayers was slowing me down, but I mustn’t freeze up when it mattered. I had to participate.
[Shield of [The Light]] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
I put on [The Heir of Hope] and [The Will to Fight and Survive] as they were my general buffing spells. The hallway was far too small to cast giant area-destroying spells or abilities, so I kept it small. I bit my lips, still feeling my heart pump not ‘cause of the action, but seeing that dragonslayer wearing armor made from my materials. Materials I’ve been using to give my friends and allies significant boosts, and he thought he could just steal them and turn that into armor?
… Honestly, yikes. I still remembered the pain of losing my arm to him.
No corrosive breath for now. Would hit the others if they breath in the fumes. Attack!
I blasted [Banishment Beams] and [Tornado Bullets] at Galg in support of Ungi and Vifi’Yok, helping them take advantage of the situation better. I then directed Tatsuya and Kyouya to rescue the unconscious woman Galg had unceremoniously thrown on the ground, while getting the dwarven earthshakers and elven rangers into position to kill this dragon slayer.
However, just as Vifi’Yok managed to knock one of Galg’s blades out of his hand, he jumped on the wall and used the blade’s chain to pull it towards him before kicking it at Tatsuya and Kyouya. Seeing this, I quickly raised a [Terra Wall] to block it, but the blade pierced right through it, forcing Kyouya to clad himself in his armor to deflect the blow.
As the blade swung around the hole it created in the earthen wall with its chain hook, my [Foresight] activated, warning me just in time as I saw Galg deftly bypass both Vifi’Yok and Ungi. He swung his arm to the side the moment he was free, retracting his blade before he dashed towards me.
I tensed up my body to dodge, but before he could get anywhere close, a giant tail erupted from my shadow, nearly turning the dragonslayer into a kebab as it pierced through the air and into the ceiling above. It was Rajah!
The hardened fur on his tail stood up as if he had goosebumps and he swung it down on the ground, shooting out the strands like a porcupine’s quill on the dragonslayer. Naturally, Galg ignored it all, tanking the damage as if it was nothing, only for him to get ganged up on by the three earthshaker dwarves—the heavily armored knight-types.
Using their shields, they pushed him away from me. When he tried to climb over them, the elves forced him back down with their arrows before I resumed my bombardment of spells. As the creaking of the Ankoran King’s Territory continued, Vifi’Yok’s voltaic lightning momentarily drowned the sounds out as she dashed over to Galg, landing a red lightning-infused kick on him, shoving him back even further.
Dammit, stop moving around and just die, you dual blader freak!
“Hmm?!” His head snapped back as he felt a presence behind him.
“Underestimate dwarven runes at your own peril, akong!”
Ungi was standing behind the dragonslayer, holding his blade’s handle and preparing to draw it from his sheath. Just as he was about to unsheath it, the ornamental markings on his katana sheath began to glow, looking a bit like runes from their design alone. After a moment, the sheath’s runes began to glow cyan and green, before Ungi unleashed a blade surrounded by ice and wind at the dragonslayer in a powerful attack.
In response, the slayer slammed his twin ice blades against the katana, unleashing a freezing blast at Ungi, pushing him back. Recoiling from the attack, he resheathed his blade once again, prompting the ornamental markings to turn completely red, allowing him to send out a slashing wave of fire when he drew the blade again. That confirmed it, that engraving was most likely a Dhuinn rune considering the more complicated effect and the size of it, similar to King Fugnarus’s.
Speaking of …
“Move.”
Ungi and the dwarven earthshakers stepped away upon the command of their king, who was raising his axe into the air. The hardened earth inside the hallway began to telekinetically gather around him like a storm, literally breaking down the floor, wall, and ceiling.
Vifi’Yok didn’t immediately react to the dwarves’ quick action and was still attacking the dragonslayer when the king was ready to unleash his attack. So, to support, I created a warp point between us, grabbing Vifi’Yok towards me just as she caused Galg to dodge, leaving him wide open as a fusillade of stones struck him right as he deployed a [Defensive Rune: Pavise] to protect himself.
In addition, the ground beneath him molded itself into tendrils, grabbing his ankles and anchoring him down, leaving him vulnerable to the near endless storm of attacks from King Fugnarus’s unexpected ability. In fact, it even looked like the very room was getting smaller around him, and my suspicion was confirmed when stalactite and stalagmite formed around Galg, making it look like the dragonslayer was about to get eaten by a stone beast.
“Reforged, rebuilt, remade, over and over again for the Ankoran Kings and Queens! This is the heirloom who will only accept the one on the throne as its master!” King Fugnarus shouted as he grabbed his axe with both hands. “MOVE!”
We all moved as far away from the dragonslayer as possible, including Tatsuya and Kyouya who managed to carry the unconscious woman away. The dwarven earthshakers immediately placed their tower shields to protect me, giving me a moment to check on the woman’s bloodied face, but that was when the room exploded in noise.
I snapped my head up, seeing brown light glow up behind the shields of the earthshakers, as the ceiling and wall broke apart and filling up my vision in a maelstrom of stone. With the thunderous sound of a stone crashing against each other in a landslide, a shockwave launched all the stone to my left—at the dragonslayer, I presumed. The impact was so strong, the earthshakers were forced to activate [Defensive Rune: Auracoil] to protect everybody.
As the noise died down, we slowly peeked out of the cover from the tower shields, only to be stunned to see the entire place was completely eradicated —
as in, the floor, wall, ceiling were gone, replaced by a crater. Even the glowing portal doors were gone. The Ankoran King had to just made the hallway large enough for Rajah to come out to fight, but it was still too small for my dragon form.
Still, while it was impressive what the Ankoran King did, I was still shocked to see that Galg was completely unharmed, only for my heart to sink when I saw how he managed to survive this. Grossed out and horrified at what he did, my mind momentarily retreated, unable to hear the loud shouts the elves and dwarves were spitting at him. Once my mind returned to reality, I was swept away by the raw emotional rage from everybody.
“YOU! YOU KILLED THEM?!” The Ankoran King’s voice thundered.
“It was pure self-defense,” a man’s voice laced with sarcasm responded as he revealed himself from behind a broken down wall made from the corpses of humans, elves, dwarves, and dragonewts. It looked like their flesh and armor had melted together, forming a single “structure” able to protect everybody behind it from the King’s attack, only it was riddled with so many holes, it looked like swiss cheese.
Oh my fucking gosh?! I grimaced as I could see bones, muscles, and so many human organs I didn’t want to look at this huge mess of gore. The King’s attack truly did a massive amount of damage, as none of the bodies, armor, or anything really, could be even properly identified.
The mage of the dragonslayer group showed himself, tapping the “wall” before it collapsed down like a block of tofu, wobbling around, causing my stomach to turn. With it down, another member of the dragonslayer group showed themselves; this time, it was the heavily armored lance warrior. He was crouching on the ground, grabbing the body of a male human from a distortion in the air—[Storage Magic].
“They attacked us first, why shouldn’t we defend ourselves, Ankoran King?” The mage smirked as he twirled his staff. “Who would have thought so many countries would want us dead? Well, it gave me easy subjects to test out some of my elixirs and embalming tricks I picked up.”
“Ready,” the lance wielder declared through his metal helmet, before pulling out his tower shield from his storage, once again showing off he was a void-touched. The shield landed right on the human corpse, decapitating him, sending his head rolling before it stopped as his helmet fell off, revealing the person’s face.
“…” King Fugnarus looked at the face as his grip tightened around his axe. I could not see his face through his helmet, but he was shaking so widely with rage, I could imagine how he looked. “By Crustacia, I swear this on my honor, this is a grudge. I will not forgive you until I see your head on a spike … Umslid kain, kawuk kaan, fie Crustacia! Tazongs!”
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Oh oh …” Vifi’Yok let out, only it was drowned out by the roars of the fury-driven dwarves.
“Umslid kain, kawuk kaan, fie Crustacia! For the Ankor-Nazta! For our fallen comrades!”
The same applied to the elves. “Falakash, leistari! Origdila haikeli, Saelari wictorii!”
“Urrgarck! Grak!” And just when I thought the fighting was about to begin once again, Tatsuya and Kyouya called out to me when the unknown woman began to cough a spasm. Dark blue lines similar to veins spread from below her neck.
Damn! White flames.
My medic senses activated as I covered the woman in white flames to heal her wounds as arrows flew and metal stomped on the ground behind me. I groaned a bit as I looked away from them as my worry for this unknown priestess made me want to prioritize her. After all, while I did not know how she looked, Franz did mention how a Saintess came with him and that she had the second half of my [Room] runes.
If this person was her, then I had an obligation from my boss-employee relationship with Aurena to at least keep her alive. I had to make sure … not to mention I couldn’t exactly let her die when I could potentially heal her.
Mana Eyes. Only the name!
Name: Fleindia Alsternich
Bingo! She was the person I was looking for!
“Guys—!” I wanted to tell the others who this was, but my [Foresight] suddenly warned me of an attack coming from behind me, following the loud alarm of my [Danger Perception] usually reserved for life-threatening attacks.
I followed my instincts and bent my knee, only for Vifi’Yok to trip me, sending me falling right on my face before she jumped and tackled the boys onto the ground. Before I could say anything, an arrow suddenly flew right over us, dragging us along it through wind pressure alone.
I activated my rocket boosters to catch the boys, the demonkin, and the Saintess. As I snapped my body around, Vifi’Yok yanked my right wing, causing me to destabilize and fly to the side, avoiding another incoming arrow. My eyes darted around, trying to find the sniper, only for two more arrows to fly, but not at me, but at the elves.
“Kuuraagh!” Both cried out as the projectiles pierced their throats, sending them flying back.
What?!
Those two arrows were strong enough to not only break through the shield from my spell song, but also whatever armor they were wearing. Not to mention, wasn’t there a 50% vitality boost from the Ankoran King’s Territory? Also my 10% stat increase from my spell song. Who was this sniper?!
Both collapsed on the ground, clutching their throats, prompting me to drop the ones I was holding on the floor before flying over to the freshly injured elves. I shot out my scales, creating a cover for myself before summoning [Hydra] as extra defense. However, just as I was about to reach them, my wings jerked back, sending me up into the air as an arrow pierced through my scale wall, passing right under me.
A couple more flew through, all aimed at the four people behind me. Kyouya barely managed to parry one with a shadow shield, Tatsuya threw Fleindia into the air, dodging one but had to tank the second, while Vifi’Yok casually caught the arrow aimed at her.
“Tatsuya!” I cried out.
“I’m fine, it’s just my hand!” he answered, showing the arrow stuck out of his right arm where his elemental armguard was. The arrow busted it! “Arghk, but I think it’s poisoned!”
“It’s that dragon venom from before!” Vifi’Yok shouted before grabbing the falling Fleindia. “This Aurena’s dog—woman here probably got it in her blood.”
“Here!” Tatsuya threw one of our two last antidotes over for the Winter’s Gift venom. He pulled the arrow out of his hand, but ‘cause I used up all our health potions to keep myself alive during the portal shenanigan, he couldn’t heal himself. “You’re the fastest. Hestia’s body can’t handle that damn venom at all, so you need to give her that the moment she even gets a scratch.
“Ya hear that, not even a scratch!” Vifi’Yok shouted at me. “We’re getting shot at and ya just have to rush in to help those rangers? Unlike when we fought, you can’t just easily take a hit and heal yourself without a big consequence!”
“I know!” I replied before turning to the elves.
They had already pulled out the arrows and were already drinking their potions and performing emergency first aid to dampen the pain and wound. Through telepathy, they told me they had heard everything from Vifi’Yok and that I shouldn’t worry about the venom. They were trained to endure strong toxins, and any dragon-specific venoms were no more effective on them than any other poison meant for humans and elves alike.
I didn’t have to worry about Tatsuya, in other words. As such, I just healed them up with my white flames, fixing them up quickly but I also realized Winter’s Gift was quite hard to remove from their body. My flames were certainly weakening the symptoms slowly, but it made me understand how important the last two vials were for me as the venom had a worse effect on me.
Even if they weren’t blocked by [Magic Breaker] this time, [White Flames] would not be able to heal me of the venom. It would take too long and that was enough for my head to feel foggy and my body to feel terribly fatigued.
“Did you two see who shot at you?” I asked the rangers, but before they could answer, a massive explosion rocked the area, filling up some of the hallway in crimson flames.
What?!
“Graaaahkkk!”
“Ca-can’t get it off!”
As I dashed around to my scale wall’s side, I saw two of the three dwarven earthshakers on fire and fleeing from a maniacally laughing mage. He held his staff up, celebrating before pulling out what looked like a bottled up vial of crimson dust.
The dwarves were trying to shake off the crimson flames but any attempt they did was futile. The flames wouldn’t die! Which made me instantly realize what was happening here, not to mention how I could smell myself there.
Don’t tell me!
I activated [Volcanic Blaze], which allowed me to control the flames, confirming that the dragonslayer turned the scale-dust they got from my severed arm into bombs! They stole my idea! Worse, they knew [Dread Burn] was still in effect ‘cause of that!
Since I was the owner of the scale-dust, I naturally could control the flames, helping the dwarves get doused. They fell onto their knees and began drinking potions with me helping their recovery with [Sacred Field].
“Ooooh, I guess that was obvious. The master can control her tools, right? If we get rid of you, though, those bombs would be fantastic!” the dragonslayer mage stated, sending a chill down my spine, as he was right. If I were to die or just not be around, bombs made from my scale-dust would be devastating! “Well, down the hatch.”
He pointed his staff at us, instantly conjuring five light blue magic circles which all shot the [Water Magic Lv. 10] spell [Aqua Beam]. The high-pressurized water laser shot out, giving him the opportunity to run away from us while drinking a green potion.
I wanted to engage him, but the last of the three earthshakers was sent flying at us. I caught him but somebody suddenly shouted “Taunt!” causing my attention to fully focus on the lance fighter. He too drank a green potion.
[Taunt] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
My animosity for this man increased to the point I couldn’t fully control myself. I charged at him with [Gale Steps], but Tatsuya stopped me after he transformed into a werewolf, pushing me back long enough for the [Taunt] to subside. He then grabbed me and jumped up, signaling Rajah to jump out of my shadow and land a tail slam directly on the spearman; sadly, it wasn’t very effective.
Rajah jumped back, shooting out his hardened fur like quills as he slipped back into a shadow, before Kyouya formed a shadow wall to block the knight from retaliating. He was slow and cumbersome as he dragged his weapon around, but he was incredibly tanky, making me realize he too was wearing armor made from my materials. He too was resistant against nearly everything I could shoot at him like that annoying Galg!
Fucking monster hunters! Stop making equipment out of my materials to counter me!
And this fact made me even more nervous, as it seemed the dragonslayer was far more prepared than before. When I fought them the first time, I was nearly able to take them out due to surprise, even to the point of nearly killing one of them. Sadly, for the rematch, they made sure they had everything: that armor, those bombs, the sniper who wasn’t in this hallway but somewhere else, and also that mysterious potion I couldn’t appraise in time before they finished it.
In addition, that trepidation of experiencing Winter’s Gift and anti-dragon blood was making me scared of fighting them. Unlike them, I haven’t had the chance to fully analyze what I would do if we fought again. I didn’t know their tricks enough; my inability to appraise them was dooming me here!
The same thing was happening with Vifi’Yok here. Her head and eyes were darting around, but she was mostly standing over me like a bodyguard. Was she that scared I might die and Franz would put his blackmail into effect? Well, I could understand that. It would be bad if her former boss were to hunt her down.
Unfortunately, this fear kept me wary and in the backline buffing people up, which meant Vifi’Yok wasn’t participating in the fight… I didn’t need to tell her since she was smart enough to do something if she wanted to. However, ‘cause of all this, the Ankoran King and Ungi were fighting Galg alone, and it wasn’t looking good.
“Ungi, support me!”
“Yes, my king!”
Acting almost like a mage with all that stone whirling around him, the Ankoran King engaged Galg, but the swift dual blader was overwhelming him with speed alone. While Ungi could keep up momentarily to protect his king, without Vifi’Yok, both had clear moments of weakness where they were vulnerable.
I wanted to help them, but my sensory skills activated once again as the arrows began flying at us again. We narrowly dodged the first wave, but the second would come soon, prompting me to use [Hydra] to body block some. This was also when we finally figured out exactly where the sniper was hiding.
“There!” Vifi’Yok pointed at a portal.
It was not the one Galg came out from!
She then readied my glaive, telling the three of us to block the arrows long enough for her to charge up her attack. As we knocked arrows down here and there, her red lightning formed around her arm before she shot out the [Voltaic Red: Thunderspeed Roar] at the portal, destroying it. However, I also noticed two silhouettes jumping out of it, landing in the hallway.
“Giehahahaha!” With a wild crackle, a deep woman’s voice echoed through this battle-ridden hallway before she appeared from within the dust veil. “We were found out. Too bad, but more fun now that the weaklings are gone.”
It was the leonid berserker. She roared like a lion as she raised her white, elegant hammer into the air. It exuded that same chill I felt on Galg’s weapons. Ice weapons? These people really were prepared.
“More dwarves, elves, and humans to kill.” The blind kaztune archer revealed himself, drinking a green potion before telling the leonid to drink hers.
“That’s right!” A boisterous cry causing my eyes to glance to my side, noticing the mage slowly walking up to us with the lance fighter next to him. “Galg might be dissatisfied when we take the prey this early, but we better end it now. A specimen of a lifetime! And nearly all her protectors are dead.”
The lance fighter nodded. “Already killed a ton, so what are a few more? A king? What is a king to the hunt?”
The leonid held her weapon with both hands, roaring like a lion again to release her tension, showing it off with a wide grin. “Krrrrruak! You did a number on all of us, dragon whelp. I had to endure that bastard mage’s insane prattling ‘cuz of you, so how about you do me a favor and give me the fight of a lifetime!”
The dwarven earthshakers and elven rangers weren’t dead, but they were heavily damaged and needed care. I haven’t really healed anybody to full yet since the hecticness of the situation didn’t allow me to. Regardless, if these dragonslayers were the reason for the extermination of the Ankoran King’s rescue party, then they had just done even further damage.
According to King Fugnarus himself, he and Ungi were the only rank As in the rescue party, with Vifi’Yok and I being the As from our side—although wasn’t the former more of a rank S? Regardless, we were still up against a party who had fought with each other for years now. Four of them were probably rank A from what I could tell, with Galg a confirmed rank S. They had synergy, a plan to kill me, and were all here in a room where I couldn’t transform into a dragon to fight back.
If only I was around Saori’s or Rajah’s size, or maybe a bit shorter like Neill. However, it was not looking good, even if I transformed into my minor form.
There was only one play left.
“Sanctuary! [Hydra], attack!” As a light barrier covered up our party, I sent my corrosive slime golem to attack the dragonslayers. Sadly, it was quickly eliminated by the leonid berserker, but I had to ignore it as I began frisking Fleindia.
“Hestia?!” Vifi’Yok cried out, but I didn’t answer and just grabbed the unconscious Saintess off her.
“We need to find the rune! Protect me while I looked through—Woah!”
That damn sniper nearly hit my head with an arrow, only taking a few strands of hair. That same missile pierced right through my barrier, making it clear even a simple arrow was enough to break through my defenses.
While my party members were confused by my sudden behavior, they quickly refocused when they heard the leonid berserker using [Gale Steps] to charge at us, aiming at me with her hammer. She jumped up into the sky, swung her weapon behind her back and was planning to slam her weapon right into my skull.
I retrieved my glaive for Vifi’Yok to reuse, while she grabbed Fleindia and me to dodge backwards with her lightning jump. Tatsuya and Kyouya, on the other hand, were hit by the shockwave and flung into the walls.
As this all was happening, I just had to hope everybody would be alright, as all I could do was pray even harder that Fleindia had what I needed! I patted down her body, trying to make sure I didn’t miss anything at all, until I finally felt something hard in one of her robe’s pockets. I touched it, noticing it felt like a stone and pulled it out, gazing at it with a smile once I confirmed it was my [Room] rune!
“Shit!” Vifi’Yok cried out before she kicked me in the back, sending me tumbling on the ground as she didn’t hold herself back. This saved me, as she had to fight both the berserker and lance fighter, all while she was holding herself back by not using [Emotion Surge] to power herself up.
Unfortunately, the archer and mage had their projectiles already aimed at me, causing my skills to distract me with my survival instincts telling me to dodge. I couldn’t waste any time before activating the runes, but I need to prioritize surviving this first.
But it was then that the surprise factor of my party happened—Rajah! Despite his massive size, he maneuvered through everybody’s attention as he used his invisibility to sneak up at the mage, almost slamming him into the ground had the archer not spotted him and unleashed a warning shot.
Rajah jumped up, shooting his hardened fur at the archer before diving back into the many shadows inside this place.
Thanks! Even if it was just a second, it was just enough for me to pull out the second [Room] rune—the one Franz gave me.
As I held these two together, I poured my mana into them, opening a portal I hadn’t been able to activate in over a week. I grabbed it, but instead of entering, as the moment I let even a finger go into the subspace, I knew the rules would disqualify me. I couldn’t flee now when everybody needed me here. I couldn’t leave when something was happening inside this dungeon that could endanger everybody.
I closed my eyes, envisioning the mana link I possessed with my [Room]. I was the owner of this subspace, and my word was law. If I could control the destination of a [Room] portal somewhere, then I could also access the nexus from outside of it! I just needed to relocate everything so I could—
“Die.”
“Huh?!”
I snapped my head around—it was Galg. With two white swords stained in blood, he swung down at my head. I couldn’t react. I didn’t even hear him approach me. I couldn—
Dreadflare—
“Just Blink.”
Clang!
My eyes widened. Metal clashed against metal—two white blades were blocked by two daggers made from dark purple metal. However, my fullest attention was drawn to the raven black-clothed person standing before me, eying Galg with blood-red eyes. A red mana mist exuded from her eyes as rage distorted her beautiful face.
“S-Saori?!” I called out to her as black lightning covered her arms.
“You are messing with my best friend here … Move.”
Thunder roared as the black wolfkin unleashed a stygian dark bolt of lightning out, blasting Galg away as he let out a loud moan. As he landed on the ground, the wolfkin turned around to me.
She smiled. “Sorry for taking so long.”
But this moment of reunion between two friends didn’t last for long before another unexpected entrance caused the room to shudder. From our side through a portal, a large beam of mana shot right through into the room at Vifi’Yok. She managed to dodge it with the leonid berserker, but the lance fighter was less fortunate as it crashed against him, sending him crashing against the wall and right through it as the attack erased everything it touched.
When the attack finally dissipated, there was now a deep hole into the wall. Darkness clouded what was inside it, but with my [NIght Vision] I could see everything—the lance fighter laid there with most of his armor melted right off him. In the next second, the air exploded like a loot pinata, sending various pieces of equipment, food, and other stuff I couldn’t make out.
He’s dead.
“W-what?!” the leonid beserker cried out as she checked her party bracelet, but her chance to recompose herself was lost as a new voice drowned out everybody’s surprised cries.
“Arrrrrrrrgrh!” Stepping out of the portal was a young woman with a unicorn horn on her forehead. Her black hair was lit up by purple highlights while her arms and legs were covered with blue lines. “Bastard! All of you! You want a dragon? HERE IS THE STRONGEST DRAGON YOU SCUMBAGS WILL EVER, EVER MEET! BE HONORED, FOR FARGRYNEILL QILINUS KARGRYXMOR IS HERE TO DESTROY ALL OF YOU FOR HURTING MY HATCHLING SISTER!”
It was Neill … and, boy, she was ever mad.