A long shiny sword swished through the air, its blade sizzling as it cut through the thick clouds of smoke. The sword hit something hard, its blade loudly clinging as it bounced off, the magic of dragon-slaying enchantment releasing its power.
The massive black armoured hands turned into a blur, quickly retracting back towards the mass of gasses and smoke with yellow light radiating out of it.
“Graaah!” a loud growl shook everyone, the armours clattering against each other under the powerful soundwave.
The leader fell to his knees, watching in panic as his lifeforce quickly drained, poison entering into his veins and his skin cooking under the heat and the effects of acidic gas.
“How dare you, you foolish mortal, to use your cheap tricks to injury me? You shall burn!” at the last word, magical energy spilled out, oversaturating the air, even more, the feeling akin to them looking into a nuclear reactor passing through their bodies.
‘So it worked. The boss has its weakness!’ filled with hope and joy, the leader watched as a bright yellow light ignited in the black smoke, quickly flooding everything.
The next moment powerful wave of heat swept through them, their bodies evaporating.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon flapped his massive wings, lifting from the ground, leaving behind a puddle of yellow magma with a fire burning around it.
‘Hopefully, this worked. If not, I will have to repeat with more groups.’
Vesuvius knew that there was a vast difference between an overwhelmingly powerful boss without any apparent weakness and a boss that was as powerful but had some exploitable weakness.
For the first scenario, players would likely assume that it was just above their level, thinking that they needed more raw power, but for the second case, there was a high chance that they would just think that the boss required some smart strategy to beat.
There was second problem with the dragons plan, ‘They are killing my mobs too fast. I quickly need to get more of them, but from where… hopefully from some source that I can sustain for a long time.’
Knowing where he would likely get it, the dragon tilted his wings, turning towards the mountain peak in the distance and flapped his crystal wings, quickly accelerating.
His horns flared up in bright light, powerful winds around the dragon strengthening and pushing him even faster. Then a powerful explosion of magma and pyroclastic clouds exploded from his hands and arms, his body instantly vanishing on the horizon, accompanied by loud bangs.
‘I have some time until dusk. I can take a nap.’
POV Baroness:
Tanya sat in a comfortable armchair, facing a large fireplace with fire comfortably flickering inside. Her left hand held a chalice filled to brim with an aromatic red vine while the right one tightly clenched the armrest of her chair, her fingers digging into the soft cushioning.
“So, lady Tanya, I have only one question for you.” a muffled voice entered her ears, her nervosity quickly growing through the roof as she gently smiled at the man in white robes sitting in the opposite armchair.
“Heretics are running amok through your fief, and you did nothing to stop them. Can you explain it?” the man’s calm and polite voice made her uncomfortable, squirming in her seat.
“Father, I have no experience with ruling over a barony. I was originally supposed to get married but then… these evil d-demons…” a loud sob escaped out of the young girl’s mouth, her voice slightly trembling, and tears started to flow down her cheeks” k-killed my brother and my beloved father, who laid his life to protect his people.
“I have no idea what I am even doing. My whole life changed in a few days.” the young girl erupted into crying, her face hidden behind her hands and her messy black hair.
The inquisitor stood up from his chair, his metallic armour under his robes clanging, “Calm down, child. I will punish the culprits behind this whole demon attack with my own hands. For now, you should rest to recover as soon as possible to take over properly.” he shot her one last look before leaving through the doors.
POV Vesuvius:
A large silver moon was high in the sky, littered with bright glowing stars. A chunk of the sky was obscured by a thick mass of clouds that slowly whirled.
Vesuvius, hidden between the dark smoke emitted from his body, quietly observed the dark landscape under him. Packs of neon red spots run around without any apparent destination.
His curiosity and enjoyment of experimenting from his previous life made him feel thrilled from exploring all of the possibilities of his new body and experimenting with his blood.
‘Can I even feed them my blood? They are cursed…’
The arrogance from his hearth immediately pushed back any doubts about his plan, “Haha, as if some curse could be more powerful than a noble blood of a true dragon.”
Vesuvius spread his wings widely, pointing them behind his back, his heavy body gliding towards the night-covered land under him. His body quickly closed towards a small cluster of red eyes, in a verdant green mountain valley.
Seven red-eyed pitch-black wolves turned towards the dragon, loudly howling and growling with their spikes standing straight, red energy sparkling between them.
Bright blades of neon-red energy launched from their bodies, whistling through the air before impacting all over the dragon with red light flashing through the clouds around him.
Feeling nothing, Vesuvius kept descending towards the wolves, only bracing with wings when he almost touched the ground. His reptilian eyes were predatory, looking at the wolves.
He bit his tongue and stuck it out, the glowing red liquid dripping on the ground, making a small puddle.
The wolves audibly sniffed, their snouts twitching with their bodies instinctually reaching closer towards the blood, their movements laggy as if something in them wanted to stop them. Suddenly the glow of their eyes increased, and their whole bodies froze for a second. Then at once, all turned back towards the dragon, howling with increased intensity.
‘This is good. The blood must have some effect on them, but something is stopping them from drinking it… It looks like I will have to force-feed them.’
The bright golden light flashed fro the dragon’s eyes through the valley, briefly illuminating everything, revealing every nook and cranny of it.
The wolves didn’t even flinch, unleashing another valley of red-glowing projectiles at the dragon, their red glow illuminating the whole sky around the dragon.
Vesuvius continued his observation, ignoring the pathetic attacks, ‘Mental magic has no effects on them. That leaves me only with a brute force.’
Suddenly powerful winds erupted around the dragon, howling through the valley and pressing down towards the wolves, the stone cracking and wolves’ legs trembling as they pushed against the winds.
The dragon pushed even more mana into his horns, the wolves at once falling to the ground, their legs falling to fight against the wind.
The droplets of red glowing liquid rose from the puddle, moving towards the spiky cursed wolves, the pungent odour of blood filling the air.
The wind carrying the blood pushed against the wolves, the blood punching against their eyes, mouth and nose, trying to enter their bodies.
Finally, something changed, and powerful magical energy erupted from the wolves, their black bodies spasming with red and golden light flaring up from their bodies, violently flashing. Orange flames ignited around them, their colour gradually turning from orange to neon red, making it impossible to see what was going on.
In the next moment, the energy settled down, and the flames vanished, revealing giant wolf-shaped monsters, each of their bodies big as a golf car. Their bodies looked made of unnaturally black volcanic stone, with cracks filled with neon-red magma. Smooth pitch-black spikes grew all over their bodies, their tips glowing in red light, with red lightning arcs sparking between them.
They opened their neon red eyes with golden draconic irises, evil-feeling red magma leaking out of their mouths.
A new connection opened in the dragon’s mind, making him feel all the wolves.
As he wanted to rejoice some force pushed into the wolves flowing through the connection and entering the dragon’s mind, using the wolves as bridge. Vesuvius, in panic, tried to shut down the link, but it was too late, something had already entered his mind.
As if someone had switched off the light, everything turned black. Then a massive glowing sphere of neon red light with a tendril of black oil-like substance materialised right before the dragon, energy that felt like eating upon one life radiated out.
// New unique mission:
Objective: Wrestle down the curse-heart of Azerlisian mountains for control
Reward: You fuse with the curse, and you are on top
Failure: You fuse with the curse, and the curse is on top
//
Vesuvius immediately realised what he had done, ‘Both I and the curse had a link into the wolf’s mind, creating an entrance into each other’s mind… but why fuse? Cant I just expel the curse from my mind after owerpowering it?’