Dragon Gods Reign

[Beast continent]

Barely holding himself back from just returning to his true form and frontally storming the small village, Darganth impatiently watched as Bator's troops encircled the settlement.

“Is there still no movement?” Jennia asked.

“No, it's still the same couple fourth ranks in the tent.” Darganth said.

“Then how far is the encirclement?”

Refocusing his sight to look past the settlement, Darganth only needed to search for a moment until he found the first soldier. Even though hiding his mana presence made the draconian in question invisible to mana sense, to Darganth's eyes he appeared as something akin to a black hole amidst the mana that surrounds him.

“It's still going to take a minute or so.” Darganth estimated, already turning his focus back to the village.

The reason for this vigilance was due to the presence of Inrad on the opposing side. While other mana users could also spot someone who completely hid his presence, they would need to actively pulse out with their mana in a similar principle to an active sonar. A dragon's sight meanwhile could achieve the same without revealing the fact while also conserving the user's mana, making it perfect to counter with a surprise attack of their own.

Waiting a few minutes during which there was still no change in the situation, Darganth finally felt the build-up of mana behind their enemies that signaled the start of the battle. A fraction of a second later, the spell took form in the shape of a magic circle that hung over the enemy camp.

The reaction came swiftly, with multiple barriers springing to life beneath the center of the circle where a red mass of energy had started to build up. Only after a few seconds did the frequency with which new barriers appeared start to decrease, a time during which the energy had increased to a pulsing sphere of multiple meters in diameter.

Growing further even after the barriers stopped appearing, it took nearly twenty tense seconds before the fire energy infused mana shot at the camp in the form of a glowing red beam.
Descending with a speed that was impossible to follow, the beam shattered the defensive efforts before suddenly erupting into a blinding explosion just as it was about to strike the ground.

Turning to avert his eyes and bring his wing defensively before himself, Jennia, Serania, and Allaire, Darganth was forced to wait by the ensuing shock-wave.

Largely blind to its position due to the raging mix of mana and flames before them, he was taken by surprise when the burning air slammed into his wing with enough power that it forced him back a few steps.

Waiting for an additional second to make sure that the danger had passed, he swung his wing in a wide arc that created a small gust of wind before folding it back behind his back. Pushing dust that was thrown up by the explosion away with this, they could immediately see the attack's aftermath.

To their shock, neither the camp nor the surroundings had sustained any substantial damage, with even the grass all around being fine apart from a handful of burning patches. Additionally, the center of the camp was shrouded by a thick cloud of smoke, though the outer edges that weren't obscured stood completely untouched.

When the smoke slowly started clearing, Inrad's towering form was revealed in the middle of the camp. Standing with his wings unfurled, his body acted as a massive shield that had stopped the explosion from damaging the surroundings.

Growling in annoyance at the fact that he had to take action personally, he abruptly disappeared again as he returned to his humanoid form.

“Does he think he could escape my authority like this?” Darganth questioned in a ridiculing tone.

“Just in case he does, why don't you prove him wrong?” Jennia asked with a malicious grin.

Laughing in amusement at the prospect, Darganth didn't wait and implemented her suggestion. Taking a moment to decide on what best to do, his dragon's authority pulsed out as an invisible wave.

The moment this wave washed over Inrad, he abruptly sank to his knees as his leg gave out underneath him. Clutching his chest under the shocked gazes of the half dozen of his allies near him, he winced in pain as he felt as if his heart was being crushed in Darganth's fist.

“Stop him.” He ordered with a pained growl, his arm pointing roughly toward Darganth's location.

Dropping to the ground with an agonizing howl when the pain's intensity spiked a moment later, Inrad only heard the mixed group of beasts and beastmen rushing out of the tent while he writhed on the ground in agony.

'Get used to it, for this is only the beginning.'

Suddenly hearing Darganth's voice through a telepathic message, followed by the pain stopping, Inrad shot to his feet.

'You can take this reminder and keep cowering or you can end this charade and surrender, your choice.' Darganth said.

Not interested in answering him, Inrad closed his mind to further telepathic messages from him. Noticing this, Darganth also stopped bothering with his attempts to communicate.

Focusing instead back on the part of the wall he was slowly but surely approaching, his eyes narrowed as he saw five more fourth ranks appearing atop the wall. Meeting their gaze as they stared right at him, he grinned in anticipation.

“Seems like Inrad has sent out a group to stop me, why don't go and we test what they can do?” He asked with a smile.

“Gladly.” Jennia answered him.

Stretching out her arm and pointing toward the wall, her mana spread into the surrounding ground and ripped large chunks of earth and stone out of it. Gathering around her, these massive pieces of debris started compressing to become better projectiles.

Waiting until they reached a density she was satisfied with, Jennia swung down her arm and launched them against the wall.

Having had ample time to prepare, the defenders were quick to react with their own spells and other ranged attacks. Aiming them at the incoming attacks, they filled the air between themselves and Jennia with flashes of energy as the attacks clashed.

Before this exchange fully concluded, Jennia was already launching her next attack. Having closed the distance under the cover the colliding spells provided, she conjured a mass of darkness that tore through the dust as it spread toward the wall.

Silently impacting the wood before the defenders could react, the darkness started rapidly expanding both vertically as well as to the sides. In under a second, it had reached the upper end of the wall, seemingly being close to spilling over onto the walkway where the defenders stood.

Realizing this, a few of the defenders started backing away even though it would have been too late. But fortunately for them, the moment the first drop of darkness crossed over the wall it was blocked by an invisible force.

Thanks to Jennia sending a continuous stream of darkness at the wall, the liquid-like substance kept on piling more and more mass against this barrier. Initially achieving a slight success and pushing it back to create a small bulge, the barrier quickly stabilized which caused the inflowing darkness to spread across it and repeat the cycle.

Slowly creeping up the barrier in this manner, Jennia's spell soon obscured the defenders completely in its attempt to reach the top of the barrier.

Nonetheless continuing to fire spells and arrows at her as well as Darganth, Allaire, and Serania, their attacks kept tearing small holes into the black mass before them. But as soon as the projectiles fully passed through it, the substance closed the gap up again, with a small, wave-like ripple being the only indicator of its existence, at least until they too died down in the endless abyss of darkness.

Unperturbed by the attacks that were blindly fired through the wall of darkness, Jennia started reducing the energy she put into the spell once she realized that it wouldn't overcome the barrier. Lowering one arm, she used the other one to keep supplying enough darkness so that the wall didn't shrink.

Glancing to the sides, she took a moment to make sure she wasn't too far ahead of the troops advancing on her flanks. There, the ranged attackers among Bator's soldiers had or were still closing in on the wall as far as they could while exchanging fire with the defenders.

Using the time when the defenders couldn't divert much attention to them, the remaining soldiers that specialized more in melee combat were approaching the walls with varying success. Whereas some were already on or at least at the wall, others were kept in place by an overwhelming stream of attacks.

Seeing that the progress she made started to fall behind, Jennia decided to stop holding back. Breaking out into a full sprint toward the camp, a grayish hue encased her as she undid her transformation while running.

Not even a second later, her now nearly ninety-meter-long body broke through the slight glow that obscured her during her transformation. Carried forward by large strides and quickly approaching the camp, she started mobilizing her mana towards her heads.

Pushing through the incoming attacks and leaving them to either bounce off of her scales or inflict a shallow wound at most, she waited until she was about to hit the wall before unleashing her attacks with a roar.

Erupting out of her mouths, six beams of all the six elements she specializes in shot at the defenders. Flying through small gaps that formed in the wall of darkness just ahead of them, they collided with the enchanted wall and its barrier.

Under the horrified gazes of the defenders, her attacks were quickly proven stronger when glowing cracks started appearing around their impact points. Staring on as these slowly spread, they quickly realized that the barrier wouldn't hold for long.

“Jump down!” Hearing one of them shouting this order, they turned around and did as they were told without before they even processed to whom the voice belonged.

Without hesitation, all nine of them turned around and jumped off the wall in a perfectly coordinated maneuver. Landing densely packed, the aura users cushioned their fall only minimally and spun around nearly instantly.

In the meantime, the two mages had caught themselves in the air with flight magic and were hovering near the aura users. In the same action and before the aura users had touched the ground, they formed a barrier that protected their landing spot and themselves.

With the camp's wall now blocking their sight even as the wall of darkness was slowly eroded, the group's only warning for what was to come was the barrier flickering in and out of existence.

Seeing this, one of the aura users wrapped himself in a dark green aura as he stepped forward instead of bracing like the others. Taking another two steps as the world finished turning into slow motion for him, he was already preparing to jump up when he heard the sound of wood cracking.

Forcing himself to a stop and bringing his twin swords in front of him, could only watch in shock as fragments of the stones that served as the core of the wall were flung at him. Dodging the first couple while ignoring the wood splinters of the inner wooden wall, he was starting to get his hopes up when Jennia's body broke through the wall.

Catching herself after having thrown her weight against the wall, she came to an abrupt halt halfway through the wall. Shaking off some debris from her right forelimb that she had used to spearhead her breakthrough, her heads spread out as she observed her surroundings.