The appearance of the dragon caused quite an uproar, not to say an absolute freak out, among the soldiers. What walked out from behind the door was six meters tall and around fourteen long, its scaled body was bulked with muscles, looking like a man that abused strength-enhancing potions. From the sides of its head, there were small, bizarre, deer-like horns as if some random mutation halted before fully taking effect. Its middle eye was moving madly in all directions, independently from the other two, scanning the entire cave. Its tongue, now hanging from its horrific quadrupled mouth, was long, thin, and I could swear it was ended with some sort of spike. On top of that, the small garden growing on its back was also acting in a rather bizarre way, all the plants kept on moving as if having a mind of its own. Seeing our numbers, it moved back two or three steps, but not frightened, rather as if it was preparing something.

“What in Mother’s name is that abomination!” yelled one of the commanders. “How do we even fight it?! Will the Holy element be effective against this beast?!” “Calm down, maggots! We kill it the same way we killed the previous one!... Is the ballista assembled yet!?”

The head engineer at the back of the formation hearing that question while standing among a bunch of still dismantled pieces only chuckled in mockery.

“Sure, you want it loaded with an arrow of white onyx?” the old man asked sarcastically. “Great. More glory for us. WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAGGOTS!? Standard formation against the beasts! Spearmen to the front! Demolishers, prepare to break its limbs. Mages! Prepare the cover in three… two…”

But he wasn’t allowed to finish. The terra dragon let out another roar, lowering on its frontal limbs, pointing its plant-covered back in our direction. Then, several flowers unfolded into huge petals… and shot at us. Several rock-hard petals dug into the ground in several places in the knight’s formations, sending people in the air upon impact.

“Disperse! Dispersed formation, idiots! Don’t let it catch too many of you!”

At that time, the cover fire ordered earlier from the mages rained down all over the dragon - small balls of fire started dancing in the air leaving thick trails of black smoke obstructing its vision.

“Spearmen! Advance!” The Captain yelled. Hearing Godrick’s order the first line of knights charged onward, using the distraction caused by the mages, managing to approach the beast without it realizing what was going on.

They dug their weapons into the drake’s body, locking the other end of their weapon in the dirt below, restricting its movements. Then, without any additional orders, demolishers moved in. Armed with maces and axes they rushed onto its limbs, attacking its joints, hoping to cripple it.

Yet, the beast didn’t wait, idly letting the knights to do their deeds, no. All this time it was thrashing, trying to break out of their weapons’ hold. Seeing how the metal and wood bent, it wouldn’t take long. But, it wasn’t the only action it took. From its mouth, the tongue moved like a whip, hitting one of the knights with such force, that it toppled him over, pushing him into the ground, despite the fact that he blocked it with his shield. It didn’t end its attack there, as soon as the knight was lying defenseless on the ground, its tongue moved again, digging the spike at its end deep in man’s eye socket.

There was a scream of pain and surprise, and then, nothing, as the man died almost immediately.

“Improve your grip! Don’t let it escape!”

Spearmen, seeing that their weapons were about to give up, waited for another spasm, before withdrawing their weapons from its body, taking a step back and digging it back again, reducing the pressure on the dragon’s body mass. The monster did regain some of its mobility but was still held in place.

Its tongue danced again, about to attack another target, but, mages didn’t just watch passively from the backlines either. All this time, they were singing a chant, preparing another spell.

“Lady of Ice, who rules from the mountain peak,

We pray to you and your nine students,

As nine, we stand, repeating their words,

Let us be the Heralds of thy, to carry your words into this faithless land,

Make our heart cold, our minds steady,

Guide our aim, so in your name, we may punish enemies of thy, divine!

Let the fool squirm and thrash as he finishes its life in thy domain!

Ice prison!”

Combination prayers of multiple mages focused on the same goal took its final shape, freezing the ground under monster's feet. Then, pillars of ice quickly sprouted out like thin wiry flowers, piercing the monster's body in several places.

A coordinated spell. A single chant executed by many mages at the same time, greatly increasing the spell's overall power, but also putting an equal mental burden on the caster's minds. After singing that one spell, multiple people fainted, while a few barely remained standing, bleeding from their noses and eyes.

“Good job, lads, that should make it easi…” the captain was about to praise his men, but, again, the monster moved.

Somehow, the frozen pillars beneath it shattered making the dragon regain its footing, then fungi from its back exploded with clouds of red spores, for a few moments it hovered in the air like a red cloud before falling onto the first line of warriors.

For a few seconds, the knights only looked puzzled, trying to figure out what this attack was supposed to mean, then, they dropped their weapons, screaming in pain, rubbing their reddening eyes.

Their screams, by the gods, how they screamed - as if they had boiling oil poured all over their skin, and seeing how their skin started covering itself in blisters, that could indeed be the case. Indeed, even their blisters appeared to be growing blisters.

“First line! Retreat!” Captain yelled, yet almost no one listened to his call, being too focused on suffering from burning spores.

And the drake for the first time acted as the colossal brute he was, starting to massacre the knights with its huge paws, sending knights flying several meters into the air.

“That’s a fire-spore fungus growing on his back!? These are sometimes used by some dungeons as traps!” One of the mages hissed in disbelief. “How do you counter it?!” “You don’t! They aren’t that dangerous on their own! Usually, the burning sensation passes after three to five minutes! This is why they are usually paired with other traps, more as a way to reduce adventurers' perception before making them walk into a pitfall!” “Look at the blisters! Have you ever heard about fire-spores cooking the skin!?” “Must be the effect of growing on a dragon's body. Shit! The spores will remain effective in the air for quite some time! We will lose all these people… Unless… Wind magic! Now! Blow it away!” “We won’t manage to prepare spells in time! It will kill them anyway!”

I have heard enough.

“Start the chant!” I yelled at the mages as I ran into the heat of the battle, wanting to focus monster attention on me. “NO! Wait! The spores will…” the mage tried stopping me, but I was already running at the beast.

The spores damaged the tissue and only that - the fire in its name was greatly misleading, most likely being just the name for the pain that it caused after touching it - I could tell after seeing how it didn’t melt the ice on which the beast was still standing on.

I saw as the beast was about to swallow one of the knights who was still screaming on the ground, as it dove with its head, stretching all four mouth-parts wide, showing the inner set of teeth.

Pushing the man out of the way, I stood in his place, ramming my blade deep in the scaleless inner side of the monster's mouth. There was a roar of pain as the monster jumped back several paces and made its whole body turn in place, as if hiding its damaged head away, but, I knew what was coming - its tail.

You are now in the radius of effect of [Fire Spore] [User]'s race nullified [Skill]'s effects

Dropping flat on the ground I let the huge limb pass over me, missing most of the soldiers as well, as they were on the ground before me, still crying in pain. Still, the tail did manage to hit two or three more targets, that - oh the irony- were strong enough to partly shake off the poisonous powder and had decided to stand resolutely to face the beast. Their high resistance was now the reason for their doom as the one-meter thick tail hit them with the speed of a galloping horse, literally blowing them away to the other side of the cave.

The sound of bones breaking and the ‘aroma’ of life essence leaving their vessels clouded my mind for a second.

I quickly got up, standing tall, hitting my shield with my blade a couple of times, attracting the dragon's attention, trying to make it focus on me instead of my comrades as mages were preparing the spell - I had to buy them some time here.

I succeeded, for its third eye - the one that until now was madly looking in all directions, locked itself on me. Even more, its gaze was SO focused, that it stopped even blinking, its blood vessels popped out, blood shooting the eye.

Haha, looks like I am the one in danger now! Good.

The beast opened its mouth again, inhaling loudly. Its chest puffed, swelling with excessive air as its lungs filled way beyond normal capacity before it exhaled a green mist at me. Instinctively, I raised my shield blocking the air stream. It was strong indeed, but, no more than a gust of wind during a powerful storm raging on. As I quickly learned, that wasn’t the point of its attack.

[You are now in the radius of effect of [Poisonous Dragon's Breath] [User]'s race nullified [Skill]'s effects

Learning what was the real intention of the attack I quickly lowered my shield and started running at the beast.

“To you, I pray,

Oh Lord, of Flesh and Bones...!”

I sang, getting closer to the monster, still breathing out the poison. Thick, green cloud obstructed its vision, it most likely believed that I was dying right now, struggling to breathe and vomiting my guts out. I decided to use that opportunity to deliver an attack at its opened mouth - the only place which wasn’t covered in rows of thick sales, each many times harder than my armor.

“...You, who once proudly carried the name of a man,

effortlessly scratching the wall of dreams,

without knowing the sins.” Empowering chant recognized Your next spell will have an increase in effect

Your next spell will have an increase in Mana Cost

Start another [Spell] in [00h04m59s]

I jumped, raising my blade high above my head. At that moment mages unleashed their wind-based spell which was supposed to push both the fire-spores and poisonous breath away from them, it thinned the cloud covering me, letting the drake notice me.

As if time had slowed down, I could see the pupil of its middle eye narrowing in shock, not being able to understand how I could not only be standing, but also attacking after more than a lethal dose of toxin. I could see its muscles tensing, ready to dodge, but we both knew that it wouldn’t make it in time.

My blade dug deep into the inner sides of the monster's mouth, carried by my weights I kept on sliding down ripping its body.

Finally, I dropped down covered in dragon’s blood, finishing my spell

“As the Guardian, I command thy,

Bow, Break, and Die like you're destined to,

for you are nothing but dust before the Tyrants of Time.

May your spirit crumble, your body snap, and your flesh rot,

As I proclaim you my offering to Him, who slumbers beneath the veil!” 100 mana used You are using [Cursed Touch: Weakness [Low]] Successfully bypassed target’s [Lowest Magic Resistance]

Beast wobbled on its legs, moving slightly back, raising its paw and hitting me as I was finishing my chant - I couldn’t escape.

You have suffered [66] [Blunt] type of damage Your armor rating is being reduced: 82.3% ➝ 73.1%

I flew several meters before hitting the ground, still carried by the sheer strength of the blow, I kept on rolling over the dungeon’s floor for several more meters, before I slowed down to dig my blade into the dirt, stopping myself and slowly getting up.

“NIAAA! HE DID THAT AGAIN!...” I heard a scream behind me. “Agnes, calm down!” “HE WENT FULL CRAZY AGAIN!” “Calm down, damn it! I told you to… Wait, what are you doing with that axe? STOP IT! SOMEONE STOP HER!”

“LET ME GO! LET ME GOOO! I WON’T LET SOME FRESH BLOOD STEAL MY TITLE! I’M THE CRAZIEST CRAZY!”

Only now I could see what effects my actions had bred. Most of the knights managed to retreat and the huge wound on the monster's body was making it lose lots of blood. The spell has also greatly reduced the power of its blow, for normally it would snap me in two like a twig.

“Second unsupervised action, Alabaster?” Godrick only smiled with the corner of his lips “... You are aware I will have to punish you again? But how, I think that I won't be as lenient as the last time. I think I will punish you by making you my fourth lieutenant after you would become a full fledged member of Lions.” “Please. No. Mercy.” I answered with a tone completely deprived of any emotions. “You did it again, you put a spell on it, right?” “Yes, seeing how strong it is, I tried generally weakening it. It should be slightly slower now, can’t be sure by how much though.” “What exactly did you do?” “Planted a Curse Word.” “Oh. Ooooh. I shouldn’t have asked. I was better off without knowing. Still, as long as it helps save my people, you can even summon an archfiend for all I care.”

He was obviously joking, yet, I couldn’t stop myself from teasing him a little, in the end, the opportunity to talk back to an officer several ranks above you didn’t usually present itself so nicely.

“Really? Can I? That would save lots of time actually! I will start right away with the chant, oh I will also need some chalk and…” “Alabaster, I can’t tell if you are serious or joking, so I beg you - don’t.”

I sighed, pretending to be legitimately disappointed.

“Fiiine. Old fashioned axe clubbing that is. Well, it has a huge hole in the middle of its head, so it shouldn’t be that ha...”

Of course, I had to jinx it.

Drake roared, flexing muscles on its back, activating certain plants.

One of the smaller shrubs - the one which seemed to grow small purple fruits - twitched in response.

I was mistaken. These small purple things were not fruits - these were some weird external vessels gathering… something. Thick, muddy, purple semi-liquid. We watched in awe as the liquid was disappearing from the vessels, soaking into the plant which later transferred it into the monster's body, joining its blood.

Soon, the blood which was escaping via the hole I left with my blade became darker and darker, eventually becoming as purple as the liquid itself. Momentarily, the bleeding stopped and we were able to see as the wound was closing right in front of our eyes.

“Petal shooting flowers, fire-spore fungi, healing divine-liquid… What other cards does this beast have up its sleeves?” Captain asked, spitting curses. “Looking at the number of plants growing from its back, only one more.” The mage quickly analyzed its body structure “... Do you see that one, huge flower exactly in the middle of its back? I wonder what it is…” “Don’t jinx it!” one of his companions tried to cover his friend's mouth.

But, of course, the act had already been done.

The last flower started moving. Until now the ‘closed’ bud was pushing its petals to the sides, and when it finally opened fully, it revealed another pair of mouths with four thick, thorny tentacles growing from underneath it.

“Ok, who bet his money on a carnivore plant growing atop of the dragon in his apocalypse bingo?” one of the soldiers, the one that already got punished for gambling during the last boss battle asked quietly, well, not quiet enough. “ME!!!” I knew that voice. “Seriously? Agnes, how did you know?!” “Know? I just pictured something really dope, cool, and crazy!” “God damn it!” “Anyway, do you think Grumpy Godrick would let me keep it? It's sooo cute!” “One, I can hear you, Agnes. Two, we are killing it, right here and now.” Captain didn’t even bother looking in her direction.

Muffled groans were the last thing I heard from Agnes during this battle.

The monster once again took a stance, facing us head-on, eyes on its sides carefully scanning the area, but the ‘crazy eye’ on its forehead was constantly looking solely at me.

Unfortunately, this time it looks like it won't be opening its ridiculously inefficient mouth anytime soon, which means we will have to once again focus on breaking its scales.

Readying my weapon, I waited for the captain’s order.