Chapter 103 The Tailing Dragon Part 1

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"Niece! Give me a shield!" Alistar shouted. He put his axe on his back. Joseph and Rhegar Likewise hold their shield wall.

"Alright! Let me Join in!" Sig exclaimed," Niece! Our Big Shield!"

Niece pulled out the dwarves' and Alistar's shields from her dimensional box, and the shield wall formation that Lily learned from her Academy days was there.

Another splash of boiling water was heard from the corner of the platform. The dragon rose to the platform, and white light was gathered in its mouth.

"Edelweiss!"

"Rock Spears!"

Unlike before, the trajectory of the rock spears was curved. Edelweiss planned for her spear to dodge the beam and hit the Hydra in the face. But doing so required more concentration, and thus, her spells were late by a few seconds, and the dragon roared its beam toward us.

BOOM!!*

The beam hit Alistar's head on, but he stood his ground while shielding himself with the shield. The shield cracked before the beam, and then the beam moved erratically toward the other shield bearer. They all showed the same grit as Alistar and stood their ground, and finally, Edelweiss's spear hit home. It punctured a hole in one of its heads, and the beast roared in pain and fled again.

"Damn it. Still four more, huh?" Sig cursed. We were already exhausted, and we were just halfway there. The dragon was cunning. It fled when it knew it was at a disadvantage. We didn't know when it would show itself again. I was already out of mana, and Edelweiss would soon follow. Alistar still had his stamina, but his equipment was already showing signs of wear and tear.

"Damn! This shield was made from Elven steel. I have never seen it get broken before." Alistar cursed as the beautiful white shield cracked in various places.

"The last time I saw it broken was when shot with a ballista with the elven steel-tipped arrow." Joseph nodded. "Moreover, Elven steel was supposed to be resistant to magic."

"Well, anything man-made was bound to be broken someday. Let's use it to its fullest." Alistar sighed

“Lord Edelweiss?” Lhorne asked Edelweiss.

"No, I don't feel its presence anymore."

We waited for more than two hours, staying on guard against any possible ambushes but to o avail. The dragon was nowhere in sight. Edelweiss and Lily tried to recover their mana in the meantime by resting, and Rhander tried to fill his feystone slowly.

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"What do we do now? The beast fled." Sig asked Alistar.

"This behavior is new. I knew of the monster that retreated and took advantage of the terrain, but it seems this time it retreated completely. Should we go to that moving platform and go on? Our objective is the titan ores. Not fighting monsters or feystones."

"Let's move on!"

"W-wait a minute! If we got attacked while on that tiny platform, we are dead!" Joseph exclaimed.

"But we can't stay here forever either! We either go forward to that platform that barely fits us all, or we return to that even tinier platform that can only hold six people!" Sig made a counterargument. Both of them then groaned at their option while Alistar looked toward the platform and held his chin.

"Let's rest for several more hours. After we recovered, we had no choice but to brave through the platform." Alistar made a final decision, and everyone agreed.

Nothing happened for the duration of the rest. However, when we hopped on one of the platforms, numerous fishmen spawned from the edge of the arena, and even the tiny platform Alistar stepped on.

"I forgot that these guys exist. Where were they when we fought that dragon?" Sig sighed. But he smashed one of the fishmen straight in the head as it tried to poke him with its spear.

"Rear guard to the center! Others to the edge! Don't let them attack our center even if you have to get wounded for that. We have a minimal space to fight here."

Lily took charge of the southern edge with the other three dwarves. In contrast, Alistar took care of the northern edge with Alith, Sana, and Rhegar. Mattheus took care of the western perimeter with Helmet, Nora, and Thorek. While Sig was with Mark, Rig, and Ugrek. Joseph was at the center guarding Edelweiss, Rhander, and Lhorne.

The team was working well. No monsters went by us. The group continued killing the fishmen as we traveled slowly toward the edge of the cave. Even after Alistar hopped on to it, the fishmen continued to assault us. The last ones to jump off the platform were covered with a barrage of spells from Edelweiss, and we walked on to the next floor.

We wondered where the Hydra went after all this time. I won't question it if it was ordinary animals. Still, the dungeon monster had never fully escaped, and the group continued to ponder this question as we marched past the boiling lake. We even got three levels just by killing the fishmen that attacked us on the platform.

You have leveled up to level 25

You have leveled up to level 26

You have leveled up to level 27

"Well, that one went uneventfully." Edelweiss was puzzled.

"This dungeon sure was a surprise." Alistar chuckled.

We made jokes about the Hydra on the way. Our tension relaxed since it was already impossible for that Hydra to attack us in these narrow caves. Even if it somehow fits its giant body into the caves, we have a full advantage against it.

"So, what's next?"

"When will we reach the titan ores? It should be here, right?"

"Yeah, the last time I went with my dad, it was here. The shining cave, it was filled with crystals. Titan ores are the blue stone at the base of those crystals. It was absolutely gorgeous. By the way, I heard elves love to do art, right? Please, by all means. Paint those caves, and I will buy them at a high price!"

"You don't need to pay for that. If it is as beautiful as you say, I am willing to draw it for free." Edelweiss smiled as we trudged into the cave. The path was no longer rocky but a smooth granite with a white glow. Edelweiss was mesmerized by the pathway that seemed to meander like a milky way in the sky.

"Well then, I shall await your paintings then, Lord Edelweiss and Lord Alistar."