Dragon Gods Reign

[City of Sarcena]

As he watched Neandra heal rapidly, Arkuns was reminded of his wound. Ignoring the question of how she survived for a moment, he used the moment when she was at least slightly distracted to look at where her stinger had pierced his arm.

There, just above his wrist, it was still stuck in his flesh, its tip protruding multiple centimeters out of the opposite side from where it had entered his arm. Luckily for him, this meant that the hole ripped open by it was barely a third of the width of his forearm and thus not severing all muscles leading to his hand.

As such he immediately discarded the idea of cutting off the lower half of his arm, even if that meant that he had to act quickly. Bracing for another surge of pain, he tried not to think about the barbs that lined a wyvern’s stinger and decisively ripped his arm out from Neandra’s.

Wincing in pain but succeeding in freeing himself, Arkuns nonetheless knew that even just that situation’s danger hadn’t fully passed. So instead of turning his attention to Neandra, he trusted in the arrogance he was accustomed to from her and focused on the venom that had been injected into his arm through the barbs.

Flooding the limb with as much aura as he could muster, he first slowed its spread before starting to activate the emergence healing spell imbued into his armor repeatedly. Through it, the minimal damage the now nearly inert venom was causing to him healed rapidly, as did the gaping hole in his arm.

Watching the process for a second to make sure that his constant healing didn’t accidentally create a near-infinite supply of biological matter for the venom to propagate through, his choice of response was proven correct when he saw the dissolving parts of his flesh return to their original state before they could turn into even more Wyvern venom.

Only after making sure of this did Arkuns return his attention to Neandra.

Looking up to the middle of the six emperor’s seats where she hovered in the air, he found her watching him with an amused glint in her eyes, something he had also expected. Though to his surprise, she wasn’t alone but had fourteen other individuals standing or floating near her.

“Fifteen against one, that’s troublesome.” Arkuns said.

Dropping into a battle-ready stance despite his words, he brought up his sword in front of him as he faced down Neandra, Venrie, both their guards, as well as the entire group around Darganth and Crelvic.

“Make that sixteen.” Torrak said as he rose to hover next to Neandra.

“And I thought my job today would be pleasantly calm.” He added with a sigh.

“Well, I couldn’t have let that happen, where would’ve been the fun in that. But he’s right about the numbers, so why don’t you guys stop hiding?” Neandra said toward the empty space behind Arkuns.

“As expected, trying to hide from you was just a waste of mana.”

As he spoke those words, Rezal materialized a few meters behind Arkuns along with over a dozen humans and beastmen. Among these were their two respective guards, with the rest being from delegations of other organizations.

Immediately spreading out now that they didn’t need to stick close to the mages that had been casting the concealment spells that had hidden them, they brandished their weapons as they took up formation. Centering it around Rezal, they were ready to jump to his aid as he drew his massive broadswords and lowered it against the neck of the still-trapped lord of feral beasts.

“I hope you don't expect their help to turn this into a fair fight?” Darganth asked, amused by the confidence he was seeing before him.

“You might be underestimating them. Though I'll still take the chance to better the odds and block your helpers.” Arkuns said, prompting both Darganth and Neandra to raise an eyebrow.

Smiling at their reaction, Arkuns snapped his fingers. As soon as he did, a circular engraving in the ground that surrounded all six emperor seats flared up in a mix of every element's color. With it, the hushed sounds coming from the other attendees who had been watching with bated breaths also ceased to be audible as an invisible barrier reaching all the way to the ceiling sprang up from it.

Immediately after it appeared, three shimmering waves rippled across the barrier as just as many impacts struck it directly behind Rezal.

“Already?” Rezal said, glancing backward with a nervous smile.

There, a large circle had formed as the nearby attendees backed away from the woman who had appeared a few meters away from the barrier.

Wearing a strange armor fashioned out of shells and pieces of exoskeletons of clearly aquatic origin, she didn't look like she belonged at the conference. Combined with her physical features that weren't seen in any of the species in attendance, many were quick to assume that she was a transformed beast and the partner of Torrak that Neandra had mentioned.

The most striking of these unusual features were the numerous tentacles that grew out of the side of her torso in place of a right arm. These appendages came in three types, with the majority having suction cups running down on one side of them for their entire length. This kind simply swayed around near the woman's body, remaining inactive in contrast to the other two types.

Those two were meanwhile lashing out at the barrier. About half of them did so by raking the barbs that ran down their entire length across it, while the other half struck it with the stinger that was revealed when the small suction cup covered section at their tip opened up down its middle.

Despite this, Arkuns and Rezal didn't pay her much attention. Trusting the barrier's strength, they turned back to Darganth and those around him.

“I give it at most ten minutes before she breaks through that barrier.” Neandra said before either of the two could speak.

“Then we'll just finish this before then.” Arkuns said confidently.

“Good joke.” Darganth interrupted him with a chuckle.

Glancing toward him with an eyebrow raised, both emperors opposite of him eyed Darganth with a scoff.

“You might command enough influence to have the dragons at your beck and call, but you seem to forget that you're not even a mythic rank yourself.” Rezal said in a derisive tone.

Not letting his surprise at his knowledge show, Darganth immediately countered.

“Then you should know that no matter what happens today, even the dragons that disregard Batoim's orders will come after you.”

“We planned for that.”

Intrigued by the beast emperor's words, Darganth was interrupted by a collision near him before he could respond to him.

Raising his arm to shield his face as the shock wave of the attack that Irsyr intercepted washed over him, Darganth quickly conjured up a spear and dropped into a fighting stance. Letting his gaze sway across his surroundings, he tried to follow Irsyr as he exchanged a series of rapid blows with the assailant.

After only a short moment of hesitation, Arkuns followed this up by rushing toward Neandra. Raising his weapon as half a dozen spells from his sides mages increased his physical and magical capabilities, he stretched his arm forward to send out a volley of magical darts her way as he closed the distance.

Stepping back to better take stock of the situation, Darganth noticed Batoim trying to intervene in the fight between Irsyr and his opponent.

'Don't.' Darganth telepathically transmitted to him, using his dragon's authority to stop him momentarily so that Batoim registered his words.

'If Irsyr has this much trouble then that can only be an avatar of Ikruns, and not a hastily formed one like the one back at the dragon peaks was. Currently, he seems to be mostly focusing on limiting the destruction, so we'll deal with the others first and then leave him enough space to end this.' Darganth ordered.

Nodding without a complaint, Batoim did as he was instructed and switched targets to Rezal. Arkuns was already being pushed back by Neadra even though she simultaneously protected the lord of feral beasts so he saw no need to help her, while the beast emperor was at least holding out against the combined assault of Torrak and Venrie.

Thus dashing toward the three, Batoim immediately sent dozens of flame spears flying at Rezal, not only forcing the emperor to dodge but also scattering the aura users and mages that had been aiding him.

Watching them scatter, Darganth also lunged into action. Teleporting forward with the short-ranged blink spell, he suddenly appeared before one of the weaker enemy mages. Caught by surprise, the man only barely managed to conjure up a shield before Darganth's spear reached him.

Due to this, the strike that would have bisected him otherwise was stopped as the shield impacted the weapon just below the blade.

Quickly retreating as the rebound from the impact threw him off balance, Darganth leaned to the side just in time to let the retaliatory poison spray harmlessly pass by him.

Using the opportunity to close the distance again, Darganth let aura flare to life around him as he dashed forward. Crossing the five meters between them in an instant, he nonetheless didn't immediately attack and instead delayed for a moment.

In that fraction of a second, an arrow came flying from behind Darganth. Passing over his shoulder as he dropped down slightly just in time, it came crashing into the mage's shield where it embedded itself.

Having waited for this, Darganth didn't hesitate to strike out, aiming his spear at a spot just below where the arrow had struck and thrust out with his spear. Cleanly piercing through the already weakened shield, his attack was about to run through the mage's chest when he felt space stretching between them.

With it, a new figure appeared in front his his original target. Recognizing him as the mage he had seen fight Yldra just a moment prior, Darganth took a look around in search of the dragoness at the same time as he smoothly transitioned his attack into a defensive posture.

But before he could find success in his search, his new opponent wordlessly raised his hand and cast and released a spell so fast that it took even Darganth aback. Furthermore, he quickly realized that it wasn't even a basic spell, making this speed even more astonishing.

As a result of his surprise, Darganth reacted a fraction of a second too late. Though he had nonetheless already jumped back two meters by the time the spell fully manifested, this wasn't enough to escape the hurricane-shaped vortex of spatial energy that had carved itself into the ground.

Staring down into the eye of the storm as bands of silver energy shot out from it, Darganth managed to catch a glimpse at the other end of the spell.

'Don't worry, I got this.' Darganth quickly transmitted Irsyr through a telepathic message right as the first strand of energy managed to catch him.

Slightly slowed down due to the additional resistance, this was shortly followed by half a dozen more catching up to him. Initially holding firm despite this as even with multiple latched onto him, these constructs couldn't fully stop him from moving away from the vortex, Darganth nonetheless voluntarily stepped forward and into the spell.

Giving Allaire a reassuring nod before doing so, Darganth was dragged down the eyes of the hurricane a moment later.