Guard Master Zedim stood in front of the giant dragon, and started summoning the greatest, offensive ability to his disposal; White Flames!
White Flames wasn't only a formal name of a greater ability, it was a very literal description. Fire was its hottest when it was white, this was a well known fact, purely because any mage who could shoot fireballs, wished that they could summon white fire some day as well! It was the supreme amongst supremes, and almost no creature could withstand it, especially since it wasn't a mere fireball, but rather a coating of fire instead.
Zedim didn't want to use this ability unless it was his last choice, and considering the couple of counter attacks that Iron Claw the Wicked launched against his platoon, this might as well be his last choice. If the dragon attacked again, the battle would be lost, regardless of how they had the upper hand right now.
To summon this ability, he had to sit down. He could be stepped on by the dragon if he sat down, sure, that could happen, especially since he had ran closer to the dragon just moments ago, but it was a risk that he had to take. Close proximity to one's target made the White Flames all the more effective!
Zedim sat down into a meditative position, and closed his eyes, because the amount of mana that he had to pour on this ability wasn't only great, it was unreasonable. He had to focus in order to channel great amounts of mana towards his palms!
It was unknown how deep his mana pool was, because he refused to tell anyone that wasn't up to par, but in this case, everyone could guess how much mana he was about to spend once they saw him sit down. Being well aware of the taboo topics regarding the Guard Master, not a single soul thought that he sat down because he was hurt, or that he gave up, no, everyone knew that he was about to attack with a force greater than ever!
Anyway, he summoned the ability on his palms, he successfully managed to channel it into a gaseous form. These several, tiny bits of fire danced on his palms like little kids, and once he opened his eyes afterwards, that was when the magic happened!
A coat of white flames suddenly coated a quarter of Iron Claw's body. The flames looked like a huge net once they were together, and the flames dug themselves between the very thin lines of exposed flesh that were located around each, and every draconic scale! This was no fireball, it was the greatest, and hottest net of fire that a mage could summon, this was the peak of heat!
The dragon roared in response, but Zedim showed no mercy. A second later, he moved the net of fire, and shaved the damaged scales off of the dragon entirely! As a result, a quarter of its body was now exposed to everything, even something as simple as a mosquito bite, nonetheless a fireball!
Iron claw's underbelly, and part of his left leg, looked a lot like that of a shaved cat's now. It was disgusting, but the graphic scenery didn't stop there, as blood started raining off of his raw, dark skin afterwards!
Iron Claw the wicked wasn't strong enough to roar anymore, he was close to being defeated. The dragon had been on his hind legs up until now, he had been up on his feet, and was a stunning seventy meters tall while he stood that way. No matter how terrifying it was to look at a seventy meter tall dragon, his seemingly immortal durability was nearing an end. He was forced to walk on his fours now, and he didn't seem as terrifying in comparison!
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It was time to accept defeat, and Iron Claw knew that, as he was smart. Dragons may be brutal, oftentimes, but they were smarter than the average human by a long mile, so as he realized that defeat was close, Iron Claw decided to pull out his own ace ability as a last attempt to defend himself. The only other alternative to this was death, and he didn't want to die!
Most of the platoon had recovered, what remained of them at least, so he expected another wave of fire from the platoon, he had to make a move. Between the roaring fire that was unleashed against him, he gathered his strength to roar once more, but this time, he wasn’t about to shoot a wave of fire out of his mouth, no.
Iron Claw roared, and a sort of a sonic wave shot out of this mouth in exchange. This wave didn't knock anyone off of their feet, but it dissipated the waves of fire that were launched against him.
Once the fire disappeared, they could see hundreds of these multi-colored, galaxy-like bubbles heading towards a great portion of the platoon. The bubbles were not made of fire, they weren't directly harmful, but they weren't worthless either, as then, seventy percent of the platoon disappeared out of thin air right after the countless bubbles hit them! Even the illusionists weren't so lucky!
The dragon then clawed the bunch of stones in front of him, and sent tens of rocks and boulders flying towards the platoon! He put his tough claws into use. This wave of sharp, and heavy rocks, ended up killing over fifty men and women! Most of these victims were crushed to death, while the rest were either in shock, or were about to bleed to death.
With damage like this done in just mere seconds, the survivors couldn't imagine how quickly Iron Claw would've killed them, if they hadn’t caught him by surprise ever since the start of the battle. The advantage they built in the beginning was what kept them alive for a while. However, with nearly a hundred warriors now dead, and over two-hundred simply missing, they couldn't say that the platoon got the best off of this exchange. They were about to lose!
Zedim survived these couple of recent attacks, the dragon missed the only man who could kill him, he was their last chance to end this battle once and for good. Zedim was concerned for his men, but he didn’t look back for the sake of maintaining the white fire that he had summoned! He knew that something was wrong, as the battle roars lessened along with the fireballs, but this was a problem for later on. He wanted to finish the job now!
The fifteen-thousand points of mana that he was pouring on each palm, through every second, was an effective expense as much as it was a mad one. It was effective, because after shaving the dragon's scales away, he could deliver the final blow now!
Although he couldn’t see the dragon's underbelly anymore, he still attacked it. The net of White Flames dug into Iron Claw's exposed skin, and went towards his inner organs. Finally, after such a tremendous struggle, Iron Claw fell to the ground, as his guts had spilled out.
A dragon's final breaths were sometimes depressing, but in this case, they were putting down a monster, so they were relieved, although the loss of so many troops was as depressing as things were going to get.
Zedim dispelled the White Flames ability, and approached the dying dragon. He walked over to the dragon’s meter wide eye, and stared him down, fearlessly.
“You don't deserve any mercy, you evil bastard, but my willpower is stronger than yours.” He said.
It was brutal to let a dragon die like this, slowly and painfully, so Zedim summoned the fattest laser beam he could muster, and pierced Iron Claw through the eye with it. The beam went all the way up to the dragon's brain, and granted him a quick death in return! The battle was now officially over.
Timothy would've loved to sneak in the final, killing blow here, in order to win over thousands of system points, but he couldn’t do that. Much like most of the platoon, he and his friends have disappeared!