Rue stood over the fallen corpses of the goblins she had killed. The small ones once again gave her no XP but one of the larger goblins had been level 25.
Ding! For Slaying [Goblin Lv25] In Combat +444xp
Total Xp Earned From Combat Encounters +444xp
It was not much but put her closer to her next level up and one step toward freedom. Well, not true freedom, but at least from the dwarf. She would start finding a way to re-emerge outside the Librarium after she had snacked on her bearded captor. Rue sat down near the bodies of her enemies and began tearing chunks of meat off their small skeletons. One of the bodies was too burned to taste very good so she ate one of the larger goblins. Overall, the meat was lean and tough, requiring her powerful jaws to shred the meat before swallowing. Most of the animals she had eaten before had much more fat and were far tenderer.
After her meal Rue turned her head to her thigh wound, it was healing quickly, with her vitality and regeneration skill speeding her natural recovery to unnatural rates. It would have been better to avoid the injury altogether but she struggled to fight multiple opponents that outclassed her in reach at the same time. She relied heavily on her tough scales and vitality to protect her from multiple opponents, but the one that had injured her had cut through her scales with some skill or magic. The one jabbing at her head had just been a distraction, threatening her vital eyes and neck to keep her attention away from the one trying to cripple her. She should have been more liberal with her fire. Had she quickly finished the one in front of her with fire first she could have beaten his reach and then divided her attention to melee with the other goblin, or simply cooked him as well.
Rue felt within herself, that she had not used too much fire, the one blast had been powerful, but she could repeat it a few dozen times, she had not needed to hold back so much. The new fire skill had increased her reserves by more than she had thought it would. Her mana reserves had also increased by a huge amount, her intelligence stat having been increased massively. That meant she could have used her flame aura to heat her surroundings, providing her a strength bonus and harming her enemies.
It was all well and good to be thinking of theis post-battle, but when an enemy was in from of her, she felt an overwhelming desire to rend them with her claws. It would work for weak opponents like the rabbits, but for intelligent foes such as these goblins, capable of far reach and powerful strikes she needed to take them out as quickly as possible.
Rue decided to rest here for a while, snacking on her defeated enemies and resting. Her leg wound was nearly closed but still sore right down to the bone. It would take a few hours to heal yet. Rue curled up on the charred grass of the clearing and settled into a comfortable resting position, laying her head on one of her paws.
Rue knew not how long she lay resting there, not falling asleep, that would be dangerous. The bushes had rustled a few times with some small red fluffy animals coming to investigate the bodies. A simple hiss in their direction had caused them to flee, allowing her to go back to resting. The Russel she heard now was probably the same. Raising her head, she turned to look in the direction of the agitating bush.
What started back at her was not a small orange-furred animal but a green face, with small white teeth in its wide-open mouth. Rue identified the green creature.
[Hobgoblin Lv15]
As surprised as the goblin looked, he had not expected to find a 500-pound dragon sitting amongst the corpses of his comrades. He was sitting in a bush about a dozen meters from where she was lying and now pointing her head towards his position. She was about to get up and crush him in her jaws when her earlier thoughts came back to her. Give it your all, don’t hold back with these creatures. So she opened her maw and loosed a torrent of flame at the offending bush and goblin hiding within. As the jet of flame shot towards the goblin, her vision was mostly obscured, but she could hear the bush and goblin catch fire with a whoosh, which was followed by a choking scream and flailing movement.
Rue got to her legs and padded over to the burning bush and trampled it, finding the cooked goblin dying in the center of the burned shrubbery. He was still breathing, the short burst of flames not enough to completely cook him, but he was unconscious and dying. Rye bent down with her neck and bit down on his neck, hearing a crunch, and after shaking it for a bit released the body to fall back to the charred earth.
Rye stretched her wings and tail; it had certainly been an easier fight than if she had engaged him in melee combat. Just as she was about to return to lazing in the clearing, she heard a shout. The meaning was undecipherable, but it had a note of panic and excitement that she understood. Perhaps it was time to vacate the clearing, even if there was undevoured food there. Her leg was still sore, but she could walk on it without too much difficulty. Just as she turned to look in the direction of shouting before heading off she saw a mass of lighter green moving through the green and brown of the forest.
It was a small mass of goblins moving in a tight group with a few small goblins leading the way. Another had entered her clearing and made a yell. They had spotted her, and this was no small hunting party, this was a nest's response to being poked by a large predator. Rue looked at the large party as they charged her. It was not the whole nest she had seen, about 50 goblins were charging at her. They were good levels as well, a lot above level 25 and a few even higher than that. If she could fight them, she would level multiple times.
It would be a difficult battle, even should she go in flames ablaze and take no chances with melee combat. They could have multiple goblins capable of harming her with skills. The group was now approaching fast, with more members of the short group spotting her and hollering. The large group of armed goblins began to charge in her direction, their tight formation looked a bit intimidating even to her. The shiny discs some of them held created a flashing wall of metal that was thundering through the underbrush toward her.
As she was preparing to meet there charge small arrows began peppering her. The smaller goblins had spread out into the forest in front of her and were losing arrows from behind trees and the occasional big rock. These small arrows were no more than a hindrance, the blunt objects bouncing off her hard scales and wings. She only had to move her head to dodge a few arrows that would have come close to her face. Deciding that she should prepare, Rue started to inject higher volumes of mana into her [Flaming Aura] the slow trickly of mana she always delivered to it became a steady stream that began to heat the environment rapidly.
The grass close to her wilted and then blackened as a heatwave rolled outwards, the boost from all of her skills making the heat very cost-effective but it still placed a drain on her mana reserves. As the rolling wave of heat reached the first of the goblin scouts they recoiled and began to flee the effects, their skin turning a red shade of green as if scalded by hot water. Even the mighty trees that stood vigil around the clearing had their leaves wilted and moisture is drawn from their bark. The humidity rapidly rose, the heat in the air turning the momentarily cool water vapor into scalding mists that quickly rose drawing in cool air from the surroundings. This was heated creating a wind-sucking air towards the dragon at the phenomenon’s center. The center of the heat zone became unbearably hot, the grass and leaves caught fire once their water had been evaporated and left behind small piles of ash on the baked soil.
The oncoming goblin army struck the outer edge of the heat zone, their surefooted charge turning to a stumbling assault as many members felt the effects of the heat. The lower-level goblins were sweating and grunting before the heat, even 30 meters away. Some of the small goblins that had braved the charge stumbled, the goblins that had not fled close range, trying to shoot more arrows at her collapsed. If not dead many of them would be soon. At the center Rue stood, watching the goblin's assault. Her aura was filtering the weak from the strong, those that remained unaffected by the high heat or could bear it were still stoically marching towards her, shoving the weak members aside to continue their march.
A few of the goblins were coated in different colored mana, that she could now see. It took the form of a cyan-blue coating that coated several individuals. Unlike many of the metal weapons-wielding goblins, they held wooden sticks and wore no metal plating. Even as she watched these individuals came into contact with the aura of heat and stopped, more mana surged from within them covering them with more cyan mana, Small crystals of ice grew off some of their clothing, radiating cold and keeping the heat at bay. Others shimmered with cyan mana and the burden of the heat seemed to lessen for them, their muscles relaxing more and they continued their forward pace.
The heavily armed goblin at the front seemed less bothered by the heat, to begin with, they simply pushed forward, bearing the scalding air with grim determination. Rue felt her mana pool, in the 20 seconds, she had been channeling into her aura a good 5% of her mana pool had been used. She would also use mana to regenerate and augment her flaming breath but that was a small burden. She could afford to keep using her aura for a good few minutes yet.
The arrows that had been peppering her had faded to the occasional one, and with the strong convection current around her position they were becoming less accurate, the feathers of the shaft being caught in the current, their pitiful impacts were even weaker. She watched as the magic users of the goblin hoard stopped and began drawing forth various colors from the bodies and shaping them.
[Goblin Shaman Lv28...39]
They varied in level but were all very high. It took no more than a second for the first spells to come flying her way. She tried to dodge and leaped to the side, but nine small silvery-green bolts of magic followed her movements before slamming into her side. It was like being stuck by nine hammers; Rue stumbled to the side as she felt the small bolts explode on impact with her tough scales. They left her side bruised but thankfully not causing serious harm to her tough body. She was then hit by a follow-up of other spells, the pain distracting her from dodging them as well. One was a beam of heat and fire that burned hotter than her aura, the flames impacted her side and washed over her scales, leaving no marks or damage. They heated her surroundings even more, so she leached some heat from the area, replenishing some of her mana and allowing it to work toward her regeneration. Already the pain from the magic missiles was lessening.
As other spells hit she felt a plethora of effects wreak havoc on her body, red energy sapped her strength slightly even as cold icicles shattered against her scales. Small bolts of fire exploded ineffectually against her scales even as a small jolt of electricity hit her shoulder causing her limit to spasm in pain. For now, she ignored the spells being rained down upon her as the warriors came within her range. Perhaps they did not know about the capability of her fire, or simply thought they were more resilient than the goblin scout, they simply ran at her.
Rue would not waste this opportunity, summoning her will she flooded her fire gland with magic willing it to imbue her flames with death, to burn her enemies from her path, and destroy her foes so she may gain power. In her mana sight, her flame organ grew bright with red and green mana, dumping a whole 50% of her mana into the attack she squeezed the fire from her maw. Opening her jaws wide, she let her fire come forth. With the roar of flames and death errupted from her jaws, the cone of destruction augmented by magic flowed over the forest for over 25 meters towards the goblin horde, at its widest the cone of flame reached a terrifying 20 meters wide and engulfed the horde of goblins attacking her nearly completely. So fast were the flames that the goblin did not even move to dodge. The white-hot flames stilled the battlefield for all but the flames, the roaring of fire drowning out any screams as spells and arrows stopped hitting Rue. Anyone who looked at the flames would have been blinded by their white glow. The torrent of flames kept pouring from her maw, Rue injecting more and more of her liquid fire into the torrent, rapidly draining her reserves. She stopped only when she had a mere 10% of her fire left, she might need it for any survivors.
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As she closed her maw, teeth red hot and even her burn-resistant flesh tingling from the magic flames she watched the lake of flames subside. The breath had lasted for about 10 seconds of concentrated fire. The goblin horde had been decimated, those that had fled from the flames lay at its edges, red hot metal and burning cloth fused to their flesh, cooking them even as the screaming reasserted itself over the roar of flames. Some of the goblins were still alive at the edges rolling on the ground trying to put out their clothing, even as red mana seeped into them, killing them slowly. Most had simply been reduced to a black lump on the ground with wax-like metal rapidly solidifying on their bodies. Amongst this carnage, some of the spell casters’ remains lay, distinguished by their lack of metal armor. Further to the side were a few untouched individuals, the magic caster that had sent the blue bolts at her and another shaman, he held a ball of crackling lightning in his hand.
Rue let out a hiss towards the surviving members of a group, preparing to rush over to them and use the remainder of her fire to finish them off. It turned out things would not be so easy. From the ashes of the flame-charred forest rose a figure, its metal armor still glowing a faint cherry red, the sound of smoldering flesh could be heard even over the distance between them. Even as Rue watched the figure rose to its impressive height, towering at nearly 2 meters it was larger than even the other hobgoblins by several inches.
[Goblin Chieftain Lv40]
He was tough, even as the hot environment and his armor became the oven that cooked him alive his skin was regaining its regular green color. The flesh and skin regrowing faster than the hot air was scalding it. The hot plates of metal on his body kept burning his newly regrown flesh but the goblin simply ignored it, getting to his feet fully he gripped the handle of a huge greatsword lying on the scorched earth. As he gripped the blade his flesh sizzled against the heated metal, he gripped it tighter hefting the blade before he raised it and gave a shout, mana filled his voice and Rue saw many of the fallen goblins gaining new strength. More pink mana rolled out from the warrior as it began to weave mana into his fellow goblins himself and even some sunk into her. She felt the pink mana stick to her scales, some of it seeping into her skin, she could not tell what purpose it had but she disliked the thought of being influenced by the mana.
Rue bared her teeth and prepared to face off against the attacks of these fearsome foes.
_______________________________________________
Gagarex looked towards the section of devastated forest and burned goblins, his fellow clan-mates cut down in but a second, even his most powerful spells could not have wrought this destruction with such speed and power. Most of the tribes’ warriors had been felled within a few seconds, only the fast or truly tough having survived. They had hoped to scare the beast away from the village with the huge mass of flesh and steel charging toward it but…flame and death had been their price. He had quickly cast [Misty Step] to avoid the fire, which would have surely killed him, even with all his defensive spells active. The only other shaman that escaped had done so by merit of his truly impressive magical defenses.
[Resistance][Absorb Elements][Armour Of Agathys][Mage Armour][Shield]
It was his signature combination, defeating many opponents simply because they could not break his defenses. It had given him enough time to flee from the blaze before it drained his defenses. He stood next to him now, watching the younger shaman as he repaired his magic defenses. His own defenses relied more upon avoidance and prevention than stopping an attack once it hit. Had he been closer, or had he had more warning he could have mitigated some of the power behind the beast’s fire but standing at the back of the group he had little warning of the flaming death that would ensue.
[Red Dragon Lv25]
For a beast so powerful it was so low leveled, what had they stumbled across?
Now only he the Chief and his fellow shaman, Sorax remained as elite warriors, a few of the middling warriors and some higher leveled goblin warlords remained but the bulk of their fighting force had been disintegrated. It was a heavy blow and reduced the numbers advantage they had once held. They would have to rely on the chief to occupy the dragon in melee while they peppered it with magic.
As the chief finished casting his buffs some of the doubt fled from his mind and he readied another set of magic missiles, the creature seemed to have no resistance tailored to pure magic.
“[Magic Missile]” he took the partially forms bolt and poured his mana into it, as he added more mana the bolt split into two bolts, he kept adding mana until he had created 9 missiles that hovered In the air. He added more mana to each of them making them fatter and more potent. Next to him, Sorax was preparing his spell barrage, a [Chromatic Orb] of lightning sitting above his palm, he was feeding the orb more energy as it greedily devoured the mana, small sparks of lightning grounding themselves on the goblin's staff and magical defenses.
As the chief charged the beast would they would unleash their barrage, the other warriors and warlords following the charge to distract the dragon. The red-scaled creature did not sit idle and wait however, seeing that they intended to surround it the creature flared its huge wings and performed a feat of agility not expected of a creature its size, turning rapidly to the side and unleashing another jet of flames towards a small group of warriors trying to flank it. Now ready for an attack like this Gagarex pulled some of his mana through his mind, the magic turning a vivid gold and he altered the threads of fate. With a fraction of a second, the small thread of golden mana flashed away toward the red beast and slipped into its flame attack. Faster than he or anyone could think the golden thread of mana flickered, disrupting mana and altering the path’s attack. Gagarex saw not how his talent accomplished what it did, all he saw was the creature's flame stutter and lose cohesion, losing much of its magic as it washed over the goblins, burning some of their skin and hair, sending them roaring in pain but very much alive.
The beast looked at the goblins for a split second as if surprised they were still rushing her way. It quickly recovered and sent the second gout of flame at the group, more intense than the first. Gagarex contemplated weakening it also but it would be his last such feat that day, the group had already divided to present less of a compact target. It was regrettable but he watched as a few of the warriors burned under the dragon’s breath.
Then the rest of the warriors struck. The regular hobgoblins that had survived entered the dragon’s immediate vicinity and collapsed. They writhed on the floor choking and clawing at their throats seemingly trying to breathe. The harder warriors took short painful breaths of what he quickly realized was superheated air.
“Use your spears”
The chief had roared his command as he engaged the beast in close combat the rest of the goblins backing off, many dropping hand axes and hammers to use their spears. This would allow them to reach through the dragon’s aura skill somewhat. The creature ignored the huge chief for a moment as it roasted another pair of goblins preparing to attack its hindquarters. The two shamans chose this moment to launch their attacks simultaneously. Gagarex released his magical bolts guiding them with his mind to strike his opponent. The beast seemed to see them coming and ignored them, turning its thick scaly shoulders to take the attack. The magical bolts blasted into the creature’s sides and it recoiled slightly as the magic detonated deforming its scales in a way that must have been painful. Where it had tanked his attacks it decided to intercept the lightning ball with a forelimb that swished out and slapped the lightning orb. It crackled and sparked as it grounded through the dragon’s forelimb and into its other limb before reaching the ground. It did not seem to cause many injuries apart from pain, but it must have caused some internal damage he was sure.
With the distraction from blocking the spells a few of the warriors had stabbed its scaly hide with their spears, few managed to cause any sort of damage to its high vitality hardened scales but a few small cuts and missing scales bore witness to their efforts. The real damage came from the chief when he brought his huge, ash-covered sword down on the creature, being harassed from so many angels it was only able to partially avoid the blade, it scraped and grated down the beast's flank, leaving a shallow but jagged cut and ripping a few scales free. The mighty warrior was rewarded for his efforts by a huge blast of concentrated flame to the face. He raised an arm to try and shield his head but the flames ate away at his flesh with alarming intensity.
Gagarex looked at the flames with his mana sight and saw the extent of their power. They were magically enhanced; the sheer quantity and quality of mana being used in the flame were astounding. They were engineered to suck the life from what they touched, fuelling the fire, making it burn hotter and stick to the flesh. It was devastating.
As the blast stopped the chief stumbled, his flesh burned away, bone revealed on his hand and skull. He had amazing regenerative skills but Gagarex was not sure even he could survive that. To buy him time to regenerate Gagarex used a quick [Misty Step] and he was casting one of his most powerful spells right in the creature's field of view. He hoped it would switch targets to him, he could teleport away again, hopefully giving his chief enough time to heal.
He summoned his mana to him, even if the creature was partially resistant to flames this spell was hopefully powerful enough to overcome it. It would take him about 8% of his mana reserves to cast the basic spell, and filling to maximum power it would double that cost. The creature looked over at him, watching as he gathered his mana, this was it he needed to prepare to teleport away before the beast game chase. The beast stalked forward and bit down on the chief’s neck, he raised a hand in silent protest as the beast gnawed and chewed through the thick muscle. Many of the warriors threw caution to the wind and rushed in. The creature quickly released and moved it its head again to bit one of them in the mid-section, lifting him clear of the ground before goring another with its claws.
Gagarex screamed the sound of hatred and warning, promising revenge. He pushed more mana faster into his spell.
“This is your doom”
Deciding he must take this shot to claim revenge and because this might be his last attack against the creature, he took his last sliver of golden mana, passing it through his mind before he willed it to make his attack strike true. The golden mana shot out in an instant spreading completely through his spell, the ball of fire hovering in his palm grew in intensity and a string of golden mana connected the ball to his target, the beast seemed to see it but made no move to flee.
“Damn you, beast, burn in the depths [Fireball]”
Gagarex sent the blazing ball of compressed fire mana hurtling towards the stock-still creature. It seemed to grin maliciously as the spell flew unerringly towards the creature. It connected with the dragon’s side and the thunderclap inferno that sprung forth consumed everything within a 20-foot radius. The fire whirled and flowed inwards creating a perfect whirlwind of fire within its radius, all within being subjected to scorching fire and the detonation. It should have lasted longer, for a half dozen seconds, but after just one second the blaze was diminishing. The fire and heat were diminishing as if being sucked inwards.
Gagarex in horror watched as the magic In the fire, and even the heat and fire itself were sucked in towards the center, soon revealing the dragon at the center, sitting unharmed and bearing its teeth maliciously at him. He watched as the dragon sucked in the last of the heat and mana returning the temperature of the surrounding forest to a much more natural degree. It was a cool relief that he would get little time to enjoy.
Gagarex watched as Sorax charged into combat, his hands ablaze with lightning he sent a rippling stream of lighting towards the creature, the attack missed, with the dragon having leaped and flapped its wings allowing the bolt to arc to a nearby tree instead of it. It then bounded towards one of the few opponents left, Sorax. It reached the shaman and began to batter at his defenses, paw swipes ripping with powerful muscles and small jets of flame so dense with magic they tore through the shaman’s magical shields. In his desperation to help Gagarex sent bolt after bolt of magic missiles at the creature, it simply ignored him, making sure none hit its face by intercepting them with its body or limbs. He could do nothing but watch as Sorax had his defenses shredded by the beast’s onslaught.
The fight ended abruptly, the shaman’s final layer of defense running dry of mana, his feeble attempts at close-range spell-slinging ceasing as well. The dragon looked down at the now rather small-looking goblin and with a sickening crunch crushed his head between its jaws.
Gagarex felt numb as he watched his fellow shaman die, he met the beast’s gaze and knew he would be next. He nearly accepted his fate, before his desire to live overwhelmed his despair.
[Misty Step] …
He did not stop casting the spell until he ran out of mana, now thousands of feet away, in an unknown section of the cavern, he collapsed.