Vesuvius kept looking at the burning camp with the content that his enemies were burning.
“Die, you beast!” suddenly, a group of mercenaries with capes formed up under him and untangled long chains with hooks from their shoulders, throwing them towards the dragon at an incredible speed. The chains glowed in slightly blue light, magically wrapping around the dragon’s body. The group of ten mercenaries pulled down, and the chains dragged him down from the sky. Not expecting such strength from the hunters, Vesuvius fell to the ground, his wings immobile under the chains, crushing stones under him.
Vesuvius quickly analyzed one of the hunters.
//
Analyze result:
Name: [Elite] Frank Berg
Species: Human
Occupation: NPC/Mercenary/Dragon Hunter
Level: 26
Danger level: highly dangerous
//
‘Their level is higher than these before. Is this why they were so confident even without their balistae?’
The chains were tightly wrapped around his body, preventing him from standing back up. The hunters seeing that rushed forward with heavy-looking two-handed axes covered in glowing runes. They moved so fast that rocks under their legs crumbled, turning into gravel.
Vesuvius poured mana through his veins all the way into his tail, and a beautiful glowing blade of magma formed on its tip. Immense heat radiated out of it, melting stones close to it. The tail with the blade moved and cut towards one of the chains. The runic chain and the blade met, their contact creating a firework of blue and fiery sparks. Runes started to glow violently before the blade cut straight through the chain.
The elite hunters had already reached the dragon swinging their heavy axes blindly as they couldn’t see through the thick smoke at the hard volcanic stone. Vesuvius wrenched his face as he felt a disgusting aura of dragon slaying weapons coming out of the axes. The axes impacted the armour piercing deep as a lumberjack into a tree.
“Hahaha, we pierced its scales.”
Vesuvius wanted to laugh at them as they only cut through his armour, not his scales. Hot magma gushed out, the incoming heat making the hunters instinctively retreat a few steps back. Vesuvius swung his tail again, cutting another chain and freeing his legs. His wings were still chained, but he could already stand up.
The dragon stood up, glaring at the hunters with eyes full of hatred. He opened his mouth and released a wave of black pyroclastic cloud under him. The cloud crashed to the ground and moved in all directions swapping away the hunters. Runes on their armours immediately flared up, cooling down their armour and dampening physical shock. The hunters still flew a few meters backwards through the air from the immense force behind the strike. All of them elegantly landed on their legs, quickly getting back to balance.
“Quickly, now is our chance!” two more hunters arrived and threw their chains at the dragon. However, they were much slower than those thrown by the elite hunters, and Vesuvius had already ready a countermeasure.
He swung his tail with the blade towards incoming chains, cutting both of them in half while still in the air. The destroyed chains harmlessly hit the ground, clanging on the hard rocks.
The elite hunters used that time, once again launching themself towards the dragon-like arrows. They swissed through the air and pierced through the veil of dark smoke. The weapons fell once on the hard volcanic stone. Their blades split the stone and spread cracks through its surface. From the cracks gushed out a hot magma slowly mending them.
The dragon swung his clawed hand at the nearby hunter, his claws hitting the hard runic armour and cutting through with their unnatural sharpness. The hunter flew back, leaving a trail of blood behind him. The injured hunter still stood up, his legs wobbly.
‘Hahaha, humans are such a weak race.’
In Lorenia, humans were considered one of the weakest intelligent races in both physical and magical potential. Their only saving grace was high fertility and their intelligence. With both of these, they managed to dominate a large part of the world. Their high population also gave them many deviants that were much stronger than the rest of humans. Still, most of the players decided to play as humans even with their low stats due to their familiarity and bonuses to levelling speed that was given to them to make them competitive.
Vesuvius tried to spread his wings; however, the tightly wrapped chains that were out of the reach of his tail stopped him. Irrational rage exploded from deep within him, “How dare you to bound me. I will burn you all!”
The glowing blade on his tail lost shape, falling to the ground and turning into a puddle of bubbling lava. Then his body ignited in bright flames that mixed with smoke, illuminating his whole surroundings. The hot flames started to turn the surrounding stone red and forced the elite hunters to retreat, runes in their armours wildly flashing.
“Dammit, what is this? The temperature of these flames is unnaturally high.”
The chains around him quickly turned red, but they still didn’t melt. Then Vesuvius got a new idea, ‘If I can use two spells of a different kind at the same time, can I use two same spells?’
It was one of the skills practised by all of the advanced mages. He knew that it was possible with normal magic, but he had no idea if his veins could’ sustain more magical energy flowing through them.
‘I am a dragon, and dragons are sturdy.’
In a blind rage, a second magical circuit formed in the dragon’s mind, trembling as another mana surge spread through the dragon’s body. Following that, pain spread through his whole body, but it was at a manageable level.
The flames around his body instantly intensified, growing in brightness and size. Already red stone around him started to melt, creating ponds of lava. Runes on the chains wrapped around him flickered, and enchanted metal they were made of melted, flowing down from the dragon’s body.
“What…” the surrounding hunters retreated, their armour almost turning red from the intense heat.
Cracks have already started to spread through the magical circuits. Vesuvius quickly dispelled both of them to prevent injury, ‘Damnn, this is strong as hell, but I need more intelligence to control so much mana for longer.’