CHAPTER 364 – DRAGON FIGHT III

Tom crouched down to wait out the coming fight. As he did so, his eyes roamed the landscape to make sure that nothing was creeping up on him. Not that the visual check served any real purpose. He had already proved himself incapable of piercing Vidja’s stealth, which meant he had no chance against those with better artefacts or stronger stealth talents. Detecting the giant, Phil, or the wador, would be beyond him.

The dragon’s brutal response to the Rahmat and wador fight seemed to have a chilling impact on everyone else. It seemed like no one wanted to take a similar risk. She appeared to be ignoring their area of the zone once more, but none of them were to be tricked. Once fooled, had been careless. Twice would take a level of incompetence that no one who had got this far would possess. The dragon was crouched and hunting humans in the opposite direction from them. It was no longer flying, and its efforts were providing a staccato of background sound effects filled with the whoosh of flames and the booms of explosions.

Tom grimaced at the noise. Any one of them could signify a human dying.

She was completely unrelenting. The blow the giant had landed might have left her with only forty seconds to live, but she was determined to spend that time killing people.

It was very on par with the personality he had observed via True Dreaming. She was fucking evil and death couldn’t come soon enough.

Another twenty seconds passed with fourteen distant explosions. With so many homing missiles launched, the teleporters had to be out of energy… at least for the majority of people. Some of those explosions were probably his decoys, but she was smart. Most of her energy would be directed against living victims. Those explosions meant death, but the time was also ticking down she did not have long. He wondered what was going to happen when she died. Would war breakout, would he make it to the open exit or would the giant find him?

Completely against all logic, in a declaration of come kill me I want a Darwin award, there was a streak of green light. It struck something invisible eight metres up in midair about half a kilometre from him.

When the energy hit, it split up with probing tentacles slithering toward the ground, while other thinner snakes curved around the invisible giant. The thicker streams reached the dirt, and it caused the power to consolidate. Ethereal mist evolved into green vines with roots digging into the earth. The restraints, while initially thin and innocuous, rapidly thickened to become restricted, and then the giant became visible with its legs and arms bound.

Tom’s eyes flicked toward the dragon. She had not noticed, and all he could conclude was that the loss of blood to the brain was finally having an impact. That her senses had been dulled, because there was no incoming globule of flames to finish the very conspicuous. The only way that she could miss it was if she was no longer paying attention. She had spotted the Rahmat, wador fight almost instantaneously. Then he remembered the question the giant had asked and realise that status quo would be maintained. She would not notice the giant. The rest of them might also be safe, but it was not a risk that Tom would take. Why someone like him would be noticed while the giant was excluded was a mystery, but he was conscious of the fact that there were many magics in the world and potentially it had something that was helping him in this specific case. That chance was significant enough that Tom did not plan on testing the dragon when his life was at risk if he did so.

There was a flash of light and an arrow that must have come from Everlyn’s bow slammed into the giant. It had futilely spun the massive club in an attempt to protect itself, but fortunately, with its arms restricted it had been too slow. The projectile had been cleverly aimed at the shoulder rather than a vital spot, which had confused the giant for a moment and was probably the only reason it had gotten through.

It had penetrated almost to the feathers on the end of its shaft and a trickle of blood ran from the wound. Practically it was little better than a splinter.

Tom stared at it suspiciously.

It had not been one of her magic projectiles, but a physical one. Given the situation and the amount of preparation time that had gone into this opening salvo he was certain that the attack was more than it seemed. It had to contain some form of poison. It was the only reason he could think of to aim for a non-critical location on the beginning arrow, which was the one most likely to land.

There were flickers of movement. This was not Everlyn and some golems harassing the giant it was the start of a broader assault. Clare was planning on killing the giant and he wondered whether he should run to join the fight. But he remembered the ring on his finger. If Clare had wanted him to participate, she would have told him to do so and while he had hypothesised the dragon wasn’t going to notice the fight. That was his assumption. It was also possible the giant could tank a breath attack or choose to flee from it. If that was why it was safe, then Tom running and joining the fight would only result in his death when the dragon struck.

Plus… he would be helpless when fighting it. None of his skills apart from maybe Chaos Bolt would help against it.

Effort creased the giant’s face. Veins that were not usually visible popped out and then with ponderous determination it attempted to lift a foot. A single vine which was as thick as Tom held it to the ground. For a long moment, a battle of strength occurred. The foot was a metre up and the vine was taunt, stretching. Then it tore. First just slightly and then catastrophic failure saw it almost disintegrate, and the leg was freed.

One leg was free and while there were still multiple vines restricting movement, and two massively thick foundation ones which holding the other leg it was clear the spell was going to be insufficient. He recognised it as one of the ones he had included in the golems he had created.

Spell: Binding Vines – Tier 7

The spell creates a network of vines to immobilise a single target for ten minutes while its integrity holds.

The design has been poorly imprinted on weak materials and contains significant instability. The use of this spell will cause a localised space of extreme decay.

It had been cheap because of its devastating curse. That invisible cloud of decay it created was the size of a house. The golem that had acted as a delivery vehicle would have been thoroughly destroyed by its use. In fact, Tom was a little surprised Clare had used it purely as a ranged attack. If he had been directing the battle, he would have attempted to get the curse effect applied to the giant as well and while it was supposed to immobilise its target for ten minutes, that was not going to happen. Its integrity had already been broken by the giant raising its foot.

Another arrow from Evelyn flashed towards a giant. This one was aimed at its throat, but the club got in the way. There was shouting from the attacking team as they communicated. They did not seem to care about the noise they generated or maybe the risk of the dragon noticing them was a feature not an issue. The entire plan, as far as Tom knew might revolve around creating a sufficient ruckus that the dragon would fire one of its deadly missiles and with the giant bound in place it would die.

It wouldn’t work. The giant had already clarified with the oracle question that the dragon would not damage it materially. Of course, Clare was also aware of that fact and might be using it as a shield for all of them. It was too complicated and with his lack of knowledge he didn’t want to think too deeply on it.

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At the edge of his domain, directly behind him Tom felt six feet land on the earth.

Wador, he thought, interpreting the pressure on the ground immediately. He tensed, wondering if he had been discovered or if this was just bad luck. He was not about to turn because to do so would reveal that he knew it was there, but if it got any closer, he would have no choice and if necessary he would fight. There was a risk that doing so would draw the dragon’s attention, but he would not remain passive and allow himself to be cut down without a fight.

The pressure of its feet changed, and he recognised the signals. It was crouching down ready to spring, and then the feet left the ground.

In a single bound, it closed to within fifteen metres of him and it was headed unerringly at him.

That was something he couldn’t ignore.

He spun around spear at the ready.

Tom positioned himself so he could watch the wador and the giant battle at the same time.

Scarred sightless eyes greeted him. “Coward I will have my revenge.”

“The dragon.” Tom reminded it. Communicating a lot with those simple words.

“I’ll wait.”

The wador conveyed almost as much with that response as Tom’s two words had. It would wait for the dragon to die, but then they were going to fight. It had come to kill him. The contract Tom knew instinctively was not going to stop it. Why the contract had not extracted a toll for such a decision was a mystery to Tom, but for whatever reason, the link between them remained inactive and even when Tom prodded it did not stir.

It was dormant because the wador had used an ability or artefact to suspend the contract for the next hour. They were not avoiding the consequences, just delaying them. It was a dangerous game to play because when it got released, all the punitive consequences would strike at once. What might have been repeated medium amounts of damage inflicted over time so easily healed instead could become a lethal amount when they all struck simultaneously.

Mentally, Tom frowned at the implications. There would be no help from the contract. They, at least for a period, were acting like it did not exist. Their willingness to attack Rahmat became clearer, and his being on the list was also expected. They were trying to hurt humans while they could by removing the more powerful champions.

The giant, meanwhile, was consolidating its gains. It stood there shaking its liberated limb to break the smaller vines that had grown to try to keep it stuck to the ground. It lowered its freed foot and attempted a step forward. The plants on the other leg held.

More veins popped on its face and arm. One of the loops restricting its arms broke. With an arm was loose. It was almost free, but the spell had brought them time and the fight had been joined in earnest. Selena and Jane were sprinting over, travelling as a pair. One of them was using a skill that caused every second step to throw them forward an additional five metres. It was like they were activating a blink spell continuously.

Tom glanced at the stationary wador. “How did you find me?” he asked. The necklace was supposed to make him invisible, and he had deliberately not used any external stone manipulation.

In the other battle, there was another magical streak. This one was blue with a whitish tinge. It had originated two hundred metres from the giant and it weaved around the club that attempted to intercept it and struck the giant on the chest. A layer of ice was added to the vines, expanding to cover all of the giant, from its knees to its ears. It was a lot of ice, enough to freeze a company of humans.

Its own club smacked into its face and the ice fell away from its mouth and nostrils presumably to let it breathe.

A third arrow, this one blazing with extra power struck it on its kneecap while it was distracted. The area deformed as a local explosion went off and cleared all the ice up to the upper thigh. Tom hoped it had damaged the joint otherwise the arrow would have been more disadvantageous than not.

“Your fault. You forced me to rely on senses other than my eyes.”

Tom’s eyes hadn’t left the giant while they talked. The wador was far enough away that he would be able to react if it tried anything. They had similar ranks and when he factored in Black Dodge, when they fought, the wador would be defeated easily enough. While he might lack the offense to defeat it quickly. He had lots of allies nearby. Hopefully, they would have beaten the giant and freed themselves to come help him before the dragon died.

And they were going to defeat the giant. He couldn’t imagine Clare committing such a large force on a mere possibility of success. The fact they were attacking meant one of those weird strategy questions must have made it clear that this apparent suicidal activity was the best outcome for humanity.

Clare ran forward her invisibility falling off her until she was just ten metres from the giant.

For a moment she stood there, a figure of arrogance, an open challenge for the person that was six or seven times taller than she was.

It finally tore the vines apart and like it had done against the wador leader it swung its club casually but with immense force.

A shield flashed into existence over Clare. The club, the weapon that Tom had no way to counter, bounced away. The single moment underlined the difference in their skill sets. There were opponents for which she was a far superior tank.

The giant seemed unperturbed by his failure. With the same casual arrogance, it just lifted its club and prepared to swing again.

A ring of metal shot at the giant, split into multiple segments, and then encased it. Tom blinked in surprise. He had not expected the spell to present like that. The metal circles started loose and then contracted and when the giant pressed back against them the sharp edges cut into it.

It threw itself to the ground as it twisted and tried to break the new crowd control spell.

Jane and Selena entered the fight with chaos bolts flying from their hands.

Both of the missiles upgraded as they flew and they did so far more violently than Tom had ever seen and he had been almost at the epicentre when a chaos bolt did so much damage they had collectively agreed to a rule that you couldn’t use the spell within six metres of an ally because the resulting explosion could be deadly at that range.

The two spells upgraded more than any of the ones he had observed. Instead of the giant facing a weak, insignificant magic effect that it could shrug off it had to contend with Chaos Bolts that had been promoted to tier eight or nine.

Tom was struck mute as his brain attempted to understand the probabilities that had to be associated with such an attack. Selena’s team had been using the technique a lot longer than he had, and he wondered how many hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of strikes they had cast to average results to support this substantial damage spike when they needed it.

The almost clear bolt struck it dead centre. There was no noticeable effect. It just faded into the giant and for a fraction of a moment the massive creature went still. An expression crossed its face and Tom wished he understood what it meant. He would like to think that it was fear or terror or pain or something like that. For a missile to have so much energy and to have so little visible impact, it meant it must have done something significant behind the scenes. Drain all its magic, inflict hard to heal soul damage, burn a skill permanently out of it. From the outside, especially from this distance, he couldn’t tell, but it would have to have been material.

The second missile, which was slightly weaker than the clear one but still stronger than anything he had seen before struck the shoulder. It did not hide what it was and for a very brief demonic moment there were multiple jaws somehow in the physical dimension with all of them biting. They reduced the creature’s upper arms to bloody strips and large chunks of skin and muscle vanished, allowing him to see the bone. The area affected by the attack would have been enough to reduce Tom’s entire party to mush. To the giant it was probably just a flesh wound.

Another arrow slammed into one of its eyes. It had been distracted by the secondary volley of chaos bolts. They had caused it to instinctively duck out of the way even through power wise they were little more than fire crackers having failed to evolve up the ranks.

It was bad luck that its judgement failed it. Everlyn’s arrow had been aimed at its ear, but it moved its head in exactly the wrong way. The projectile struck the eye and then exploded, reducing it to a mess of blood.

The giant roared and the band restricting its chest and arms shattered.

It was free to swing its club once more, and it targeted Clare. Another shield expanded around her and the weapon once more bounced away.

Now it was pissed.

“Are you going to win?”

Tom almost jumped in surprise at the wador speaking to him.

Thor appeared seemingly from nowhere. He stayed forty metres back and his first chaos bolt did not upgrade to the extreme level of the first two, but it did become significantly stronger probably hitting tier six. It struck the giant’s foot and imparted enough force to trip it over.

Once more, it crashed to the ground.

Tom’s eyes flickered to the wador, and he considered the question it had just asked. With the numbers that had already joined, this was not a distraction. “Win? yes, they will. They didn’t start this to lose.”