Chapter 39: In a Team Fight, Kill the Back Line First

Samantha's roar echoed through the hemlock hills, shaking dust loose from the rock walls.

Including the first joint of its right wing, its body bristled with no few poison-tipped crossbow bolts; the bluish toxin spread across its frame, and combined with the necromancer's curse spells, waves of weakness, numbness, and sluggishness kept welling up within it.

The alchemy workshop had long since become a ruin.

Boiling black oil splashed across the ground, fusing sand and gravel into glassy scorched crusts; the hemlock trunks were scored with claw marks, and the bark was seared with the afterglow of dragonbreath.

Samantha's tail swept across the rock ledge, sending shards of stone spraying like buckshot that clattered against the warrior's armor.

The necromancer's ghostly skull-fire came streaking in again, this time aiming for Samantha's eyes.

Samantha tilted her head to dodge, but the blond warrior seized the opening to rush in, his slab-like greatsword hacking viciously into the old wound on her foreleg; dragon blood splashed, gleaming a vivid red beneath the moonlight.

"You wretched insects!"

Samantha bellowed.

The agony instead roused the ferocity in her red dragon bloodline; Samantha suddenly reared upright, her hind legs kicking off the ground to launch herself several meters into the air, slamming her full weight into the blond warrior.

Unfortunately, her form was neither proper nor swift enough.

Her menace didn't amount to a tenth of Garos's.

The blond warrior rolled aside, dodging Samantha's charge with ease.

That blunder cost Samantha dearly.

The spellcaster's binding runes took the chance to descend, stamping themselves onto Samantha's back.

It felt as though a mountain had suddenly been piled onto her back; her claws dug deep into the rock, and for a moment she could barely hold her body up.

A grappling hook came whistling through the air, its tip lodging in the seam between Samantha's dragon scales, while the other end was wrapped by the rogue around a thick hemlock trunk.

Holy Smite!

The white-robed cleric raised his palm high and brought it slamming down; a bolt of holy energy like thunder fell from midair, striking Samantha and tearing her hide open, sending up a reeking wisp of charred smoke.

Attacks of this holy nature dealt double hostile damage to an evil dragon.

Samantha grimaced in agony, her whole body shuddering violently.

The adventurers' assault came like a raging storm, wave after wave, leaving the young red dragon hard-pressed to fend them off.

The blond warrior's greatsword swung up at the same moment, the runes on its blade flaring blindingly bright as it hacked toward Samantha's hind leg.

This ferocious strike didn't aim for Samantha's neck or any other vital point; the adventurers' earlier attacks had likewise seldom gone straight for the kill, for the simple reason that they wanted to capture the young red dragon alive.

A living young dragon.

Worth several times more than a dead one.

Thinking of the staggering fortune to come, the five of them couldn't help but let smiles spread across their faces.

However.

Just as the blade was about to fall, the sky above suddenly darkened.

It wasn't a cloud covering the moon, but some living creature blotting out the starlight and moonlight, casting a shadow on the ground that swallowed the dragon and the men locked in combat.

The tension on Samantha's dragon face instantly melted away, and she smiled.

"Vile insects, now you all die."

She said.

That taut expression shifted onto the adventurers' faces, and their smiles froze and vanished at once.

Everyone heard that sound.

—Like a thunderstorm rolling along the ground, and like steel being wrenched apart.

It was the boom of dragon wings tearing the air — the death knell, heavy with menace, formed when the airflow was ripped open by the plume-like fine scales on Garos's wing membranes during his extreme-speed dive.

"Dragon — there's another dragon! Everyone be careful! Haven, use the Anti-Air Enchantment now!"

The blond warrior roared, looking up into the young red-iron dragon's dragon pupils, darker than the night itself; the gale hit him head-on, whipping his hair into a frenzy.

The spellcaster deftly wove the Anti-Air Enchantment.

This spell locked directly onto its target, a guaranteed-hit type; a young dragon's magic resistance couldn't shrug it off, and once the magical energy in its wings was dispelled, its flight would be severely disrupted, robbed of balance.

Just as they had done against Samantha earlier.

The intricate runes materialized directly upon Garos's wings.

But what the adventurers hadn't expected was that this young dragon, whose body was incomparably powerful, seemed completely unaffected; its utterly enormous, absurdly proportioned dragon wings beat, and its figure still streaked through the air with flawless agility at breakneck speed.

The instant the black-red dragon silhouette skimmed the treetops, dense branches snapped clean off and countless leaves whirled wildly into the air.

There was no time to think about why this was so.

Facing the dragon plummeting toward him like a meteor, the blond warrior — just as before — hastily rolled aside from where he stood, dodging its descending attack.

At the same instant, the black-red dragon silhouette tilted its right wing, displaying astonishing agility.

It wheeled about, not pursuing the blond warrior, but abruptly arriving directly above the spellcaster.

Shadow engulfed his body.

The spellcaster's heart clenched, and beneath the crushing pressure he nearly forgot to breathe.

In that hairsbreadth instant, the chain around his neck flared suddenly, triggering a protective spell.

Shield!

A translucent yellow shield enveloped the spellcaster, cocooning him within.

Crash! With a muffled thunderous sound, the shield shattered under Garos's claws like an eggshell; the spellcaster's eyes were filled with utter despair as his vision was completely blocked and filled by the dragon claw.

The ground then heaved violently; dust, swept up by the shockwave, billowed outward, and shards of stone sprayed in every direction.

And when the dust was scattered and blown aside by the dragon wings, a sunken crater was revealed.

Garos shook his body, shedding the rubble and dust clinging to him, and leapt out of the pit.

The body wedged in the cracks at the bottom of the pit had been pulped beyond any way to tell its gender or its race, melted into the earth as one.

Only then.

Gazing at the red iron hatchling whose scales were cast like steel, the few who had been attacked finally reacted, their spirits taut.

The hatchling's assault had come too swiftly and explosively, completely exceeding their expectations; in an instant, it had dispatched the spellcaster in their party.

And now, upon reflection.

Its initial attack targeting the warriors was merely a feint; its objective was crystal clear—it had fixed its gaze directly on the party's spellcaster core, and catching them off guard, had slain it in one blow.

Spellcasters are inferior to the blond warrior in direct combat.

Yet he was far more important and critical; Samantha's frustration stemmed mainly from him.

On the other side, the blond warrior, whose evasive rolls had proven ineffective, rose to his feet, his expression heavy and solemn to the extreme.

He tilted his head slightly, drew a deep breath, and the mana stone embedded at the heart of his armor began to glow, causing all the surrounding runes to flare to life.

The blond warrior gained greater strength, speed, reaction, and defense.

The price, however, was the consumption of a precious mana stone.

"Evil dragon, prepare to die!"

Roaring, the blond warrior charged at Garos, wielding a door-sized greatsword.

Garos tensed all four limbs, grinned at the blond warrior, then shattered the ground beneath him; dodging a single alchemical crossbow bolt, he leaped toward the white-robed priest.

In a team fight.

Kill the mage first, then the healer.

Let this brave warrior live a little longer; we'll save him for last.

(End of this chapter)