The platoon made advancements towards Iron Claw the Wicked. They tried their best to sneak around him, and the main idea here was to attack the dragon while he was asleep, as it was one of the greatest advantages that they were going to get! It was less than ideal to waste any time, and yet they couldn't rush towards their battle positions, because they didn't want to be heard.
It took the platoon fifteen minutes to reach their battle positions, but thankfully they did so without facing any problems. Now, they were ready to launch an attack!
The illusionists were supposed to attack first. Skendus, and a couple of other guys who practiced illusion magic, had joined the thirty, adept illusionists that came from the Floating Pupil sect, because together they could deliver the first attack that was just a nudge stronger! This was more effective, because there was no point in dragging illusionists along to anywhere else, as they couldn't fight like the battle mages could. The adept illusionists decided to bind their forces like this, after the five groups of mages assumed their position, it was not the Guard Master's wish.
The illusionists located the dragon, in fact it was very hard to miss it, because he was sleeping on top of the mountain! He was sleeping on a flat-ish, rocky spot right in front of them, and that spot couldn't be comfortable at all, considering that he wasn't even protected from the wind. This place was cold, the temperatures had dropped by 15°C while they climbed the top of the mountain, it was cold, regardless of how it was the middle of summer in this universe! Sleeping like this, exposed, and without a worry in the world was beyond bold!
Then again, climbing up a four-hundred meter tall mountain to fight a forty meter tall dragon was even bolder. Plenty of people would call this platoon stupid, but they were here to finish the job, and they wouldn't have gotten help from any other domain even if they waited for them. This dragon must die today!
The illusionist focused on the four legged dragon, whose scales were pitch black, and despite how intimidated they were by its size alone, it was time to attack it!
The group of thirty-three summoned the most offensive attacks they could muster, and attacked the dragon in union! The idea was to stun Iron Claw as effectively as they could, but after they attacked, they only managed to wake him up from his slumber!
Iron Claws' meter wide eye opened, and he spotted the illusionists right after!
Of course, the group didn't want to wait until he stood up, so they launched wave after wave of attacks in response! Although these attacks were meant to be only mere illusions to the dragon, everyone else in the vicinity could see the attacks as well, purely because how amped each shot from the illusionists was! If one was none the wiser, they would assume that a rainbow was floating towards the dragon, rather than waves of attacks.
The attacks that they launched were a cue for another portion of the platoon to attack, specifically, the long-range battle mages! About forty mages, from all the five different groups, launched what could be considered a wall of fire against Iron Claw!
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These mages were mostly guards, so they were well above the God's Punishment Realm of mana, and although they were strong enough to make more accurate shots through the use of fire, they were commanded to shoot plain, huge fireballs instead! That was the plan, they were not to rely on more advanced abilities for now.
This plan was effective, because between the literal waves of roaring fire, they could hear Iron Claw roaring! He got burned a bit, as even his scales weren't indestructible, he was taking damage.
“Keep going!” The leader of the illusionists shouted, and the leaders of the other five small groups followed his example.
Every half a second or so, they could see the dragon between the flames. They noticed that it had stood up, and it was trying to flutter its pitch dark wings in order to launch a light, but very deadly counter attack!
It was less than ideal for that to happen, so everyone within the five groups of mages were ordered to attack! Every pair of hands was on board. The mages with the lowest range were commanded to use the Laser Shot ability to attack the dragon, as that would be the most effective use of them as mages, and it aided the cumulative damage that the entire platoon inflicted!
The mid-range mages were shooting both lasers, and fireballs, and all together they wanted to overwhelm their target as quickly as they could. The battle position posts that the Guard Master had found for them, allowed everyone to shower the dragon with fire, without fearing the rocky environment around them along the way!
There were rarely any thunderbolts beaming across the air, most people didn't know how to summon them, as thunder was a more complex branch of offensive magic. Timothy had tried to shoot as many bolts as he could so far, because he wanted to contribute as best as he could. The strongest mages in the platoon could shoot thunder bolts as well, but they were much more comfortable relying on fireballs.
Tim eventually stopped shooting thunder, and walked away from his group. Considering that the dragon wasn't dead yet, the use of fire and thunder may not be enough to bring it down. He didn’t want to die here, so he started doing things his own way!
Tim crouched to have a better look at the dragon, and below the waves of fire, he started casting an ability of his own. He summoned the Bone Multiplier, and tried to get a hold of the dragon's spine!
“Oh… he's a tough bastard…” Tim grunted, after he noticed that he wasn't going to move Iron Claw’s bones anytime soon.
The best idea now was to dual-wield the ability, and he did exactly so. He poured mana on both of his palms in order to charge the ability to its very limits, and kept trying to tug on the dragon's bones! His palms were oozing a black mist, but this power in its entirety, even while it was cranked up, might not be enough to as little as nudge the dragon’s bones, nonetheless break them!
“Come on you bastard… we can't have you up in the air…” He grunted, and poured five-hundred points of mana a second, in order to initiate his little plan.
Collectively, half-a-million points of mana were being poured against this beast after every beating second, because they couldn’t afford to make even a single mistake today! On top of that, they also needed every advantage they could get, and Tim was trying to make an advantage for the platoon!