Dragon Gods Reign

[Crowned mountains]

Standing opposite of them, Jennia and Allaire carefully watched the group of dwarfs. While Jennia had fought the group of aura users with even a person more before, she had no idea about the capabilities of the mage. And the reverse of this held true for Allaire, though neither seemed particularly bothered by this.

Jennia herself was confident in overpowering them all five if she went all out, contrary to what Allaire's previous words had implied, but it would result in some significant wounds that she would like to avoid.

Allaire meanwhile was similarly confident and while it wasn't towards winning against all five, the addition of her abilities as a mage would make it hard for her to lose. That isn't even considering the fact that she could always fall back onto the armor she was wearing as according to Darganth's words it would bridge the gap between her and the average peak third rank.

Thus neither of the two was worried, it was more so the case that they saw no need to take the initiative.

The group of dwarfs meanwhile was growing increasingly restless by the second. A large part of this is that four of them had already experienced Jennia's power and were justifiably wary of her. And while the mage didn't, he could feel the caution his comrades had towards her.

This factor made it an easy decision for them to target Allaire first, though none had an idea how to. Dwarfs were stronger than most other humanoids but their smaller statue limited their speed somewhat.

Allaire meanwhile was a beastmen descended from a wolf-type beast, meaning she would likely be quite a bit faster than normal for her rank. And while she was also stronger than the average human in her rank even before practicing physical aura, dwarfs were still above that so they ignored it. But this is where their problem stemmed from.

In their mind, the second order aura expert was the only one among them with the chance to overpower her, while the rest could at most hope to match her strength. But there came the problem as she was naturally faster while also specializing in the light element, making it nigh impossible for anyone of them to catch up to her.

The only one who would have a chance would be the mage but in a similar manner, he was also the only one who could fight Jennia alone for any meaningful time.

Faced with this problem the group looked at each other somewhat helplessly. And with Allaire and Jennia in no hurry to attack, the area ground to a halt for a few seconds.

“Fuck it.” The second order aura expert said after a while and without consulting the others he dashed forward.

While she was intrigued by the purpose behind it, Allaire reacted calmly and fired an arrow at the approaching enemy. Just as her target swatted it away the rest of the dwarfs moved. While the mage started bombarding Jennia, the other aura users stormed toward Allaire.

Drawing two more arrows, she backed away in a controlled manner while firing them one after another. Focusing these attacks on the first orders among her opponents, she slowed them considerably and split them into three groups.

Allowing the second order one to draw close to her position, she waited until the distance between them was at its greatest before drawing her sword and rushing towards him. While this surprised the man, he quickly reacted and swung one of the two axes he was using in an attempt to intercept her.

But just as she was about to enter his striking range Allaire activated one of the enchantments on the shin plate of her armor. Teleporting past her opponent, she arrived before the two first orders with her sword already mid-swing.

Her new target clearly didn't expect this and with his weapon of choice being a heavy two-handed warhammer, he could do little to defend himself. Cleaving through a gap in the armor, Allaire left a large gap on his left side before vanishing again in another teleport.

The other aura user who had been near him similarly failed to react, only processing what had happened when she was already gone again. Rushing to his colleague, he didn't even try and follow where she arrived next.

“Ramir, behind you.” The second order shouted, prompting the mage to duck purely on instinct.

The next instant Allaire's blade passed by above him, missing his neck just barely and impacting against his helmet. Despite this, he had a crazed smile on his lips and without missing a moment he lifted his free left hand towards her.

“Got you.”

With those words, he send out the spell whose forming he had delayed until now. As soon as he let go of the hold he had on the time spell that achieved this, a handful of metal spikes formed before his hands before flying out at high speeds. And while the short range meant that spell only profited from the second order master magician ability for a moment, it was enough to deal significant damage.

Giving his spells the ability to strengthen themselves with the help of the natural mana, gaining a large initial boost compared to normal spells during casting and a permanent, slow increase during its travel. And while the strength of the effect depended nearly wholly on the density of the surrounding mana and only marginally on the mage's control power, it was still a great leap in power that allowed him to barely fight against Allaire's magic skills.

Now watching these empowered projectiles impact on Allaire's abdomen, his grin was just about to widen even further when he saw Jennia's head approaching from the side. Not able to react, he could only watch in agony as his mind processed what was happening faster than his body could react. After what was not even a fraction of a second but felt longer, Jennia easily tore into his left arm and bit it off.

Recoiling while clutching his completely open left side, he barely managed to cover the wound with the help of water magic to prevent himself from losing too much blood. Noticing that her attack even damaged his lounges, his mood sank drastically.

“We need to hurry, but now it's four against one.” He said to his fellows with a grim tone.

“Fuck, that bad?” One of the first orders answered to this, expressing how they all felt.

“At least you got one of them, that makes it easy-” The second first order started but was interrupted by an arrow piercing his neck.

Too shocked by this development to instantly process it, the rest of the group quickly gathered into a circle around Ramir, the mage, while clutching their weapons nervously.

“Who said it's against one.” Allaire's voice resounded from a seemingly empty spot.

In the same instance her body, or what they assumed to be her body, slowly faded into nothingness. Realizing that they had been fooled by an illusion, the group nervously looked around in an attempt to find her.

After initially having no success with this, Ramir quickly cast spell after spell, each one designed to reveal illusions. First, he tried to interfere with light based one by attempting to overload the process of bending light to make the target invisible.

When this didn't reveal Allaire, he tried to purge all foreign influences on the group's mind before casting spells to give each one of them heat vision. When even the last attempt didn't allow them to locate her he started to panic.

“How is that possible, she is just an aura user.” He cried out.

While this was happening Jennia was simply watching with an amused grin on her lips. She had clearly seen Allaire cast an invisibility spell, one of the more powerful variations that even hid sound, smell, heat, and nearly every other alternative method of detection. Of course, it used up quite a bit more mana and was thus easier to detect with via mana sensing.

But the group before them seemed to be oblivious to this or at least not considering it. Just as she thought this the mage acted and, as if he had heard her thoughts, he used a passive scan to find high mana concentrations.

“Watch out she is likely also a mage.” He warned his colleagues before shouting soon after, “There she is.”

With his words tried to break apart the ground beneath Allarie's feet in an attempt to disrupt her footing. But as he had miscalculated the strength of her control shield, his spell only caused a ring to form outside of its range, giving her ample of time to get out of the spell's range before it fully took effect.

While this was happening Jennia decided to finish the fight and as none of the dwarfs kept an eye on her her reentry completely took them by surprise. Getting close enough to swing her claw at the mage, he was thrown to the side like a ragdoll despite managing to conjure a barrier around himself.

Just as the realization that they had forgotten an enemy sat in among the rest, Jennia sped up the wind in the area. A moment later the area was covered in a hurricane with her at its center, dragging the dwarfs as well as derbies from the camp's remains into its effect. Only Jennia herself remained unaffected while Allaire expertly navigated the winds with the help of platforms of solid light that she conjured.

A moment later she also arrived in the eyes of the storm, gently landing on Jennia's back. As soon as she did so the latter slammed one of her front legs into the ground in support of a spell, causing a wave of small stone projectiles to pepper the forward 270° around her.

Faced with this unexpected addition to their problems the remaining dwarfs tried and failed to mount a defense. Instead, it was pure luck how serious they were wounded, with even the lightest one being the loss of at least one limb.

Soon after the storm again died down, roughly depositing them in a circle around Jennia and Allaire. And while most of them groaned in pain, the woman that had previously tried to prevent Tyren from surrendering started to laugh uncontrollably.

“Sadly the traitor will get away.” She suddenly

said, causing all gazes to snap toward her.

Completely ignoring this and her missing right arm, she grabbed into one of the pouches on her back while mana streamed down her arm and into her hand. Seeing this Jennia was already preparing a teleport for herself and Allaire in case of an emergency.

Soon they saw what she had taken out of what was most definably a pocket enchanted with space magic. Clutching her left hand around it, she held up the orb of around the size of her palm. Flooding her mana into it, she grinned maniacally while having a look in her eyes as if she had already won.

Just as Jennia was about to activate her teleport and her former comrades were already coming to terms with their end, something happened.

“Urgh.” Accompanied by this sound from the woman's lips they all saw the glow on the orb dim.

Only a moment later they noticed Darganth standing behind her, having taken the orb while his arm was partially transformed and held her heart before her chest.

“How?” She asked, looking down at the arm that pierced her armor twice as well as ripped out her heart.

“Be happy that this things danger gave you this mercy. Otherwise, your death would have been far more painful.” Darganth said, his eyes causing a shudder to run down the spine of the other dwarfs.

With those words he crushed the orb he was holding in his left hand while simultaneously shaking the woman's body from his arm. After a moment of thought he also pressed down on the heart he was holding in his hand, though instead of bursting it seemed to shrink until he had a small, mostly transparent, ball of pure mana in his hand which he quickly used to boost his own mana pool.

Only then did he turn his attention towards the other third ranks, eying them with a challenging look that dared them to continue resisting. The second order one and the other woman of the group folded at this, both dropping their weapons and emptying their mana pool into the atmosphere.

The mage meanwhile still remained defiant, attempting to take him by surprise with a blast of pure mana. But instead of it doing any damage to him, Darganth just used his control over pure mana to disperse the attack during its travel.

With a swift throwing motion as a follow-up, he conjured and threw a replica of the spear he normally uses at the mage. Thanks to the force behind this throw the weapon pierced the man's chest before he could react, killing him instantly.

With another motion of his hands, he bound the remaining two dwarfs in place with earth constructs before making his way to Jennia and Allaire.

“You two did well.” He said with a warm smile on his lips.

“Thanks. Though I am curious what that orb was.” Allaire replied.

“A bomb that completely devours the user to create as big of a blast as possible. And when I say completely, I mean mana, body, and even soul. Anything below the mythical rank would die when using it, though it nearly always has to be willing as forcing a soul to fuel it requires a vast power difference, even compared to normal soul interferences.”

“Oh. Then we should probably warn the dwarfs about this.” Allaire said.

“Definitely, but I doubt they have many. Few spells that interfere with souls can be used effectively below the mythical rank.”

Somewhat relieved at this, Allaire and Jennia did one last sweep of the area to make sure that they wouldn't miss anything before clearing up their traces. While it wouldn't be possible to hide what happened, they could hide much of their respective capabilities and even Jennia's identity as a dragon-hydra.

While doing so they also brought the three prisoners they now had to one place, placing handcuffs on the last two. Gathering the three into a circle back to back, they placed little attention on them while finishing their work.

“We had the choice.” The woman said depressed, looking down at her missing left arm as well as nearly completely crushed legs.

While her colleague only nodded heavily in agreement, Tyren who had reawoken by now tried to see the positive.

“Still better than dead.”

“True. But apart from you we are just run of the mill third ranks, I doubt we will see the outside of a cell within the next few years.”

“I'll try my best.” He replied.

While she didn't answer to this, a hopeful smile bloomed on the woman's face.

A while after this conversation happened, Allaire and Jennia finished with the cleanup and joined Darganth near the center of the former camp. After a short conversation that the three couldn't overhear they made their way toward them.

“Time to return.” Darganth said, motionless casting a spell that lifted the earth below them into the air.

Directly after his form shifted back to that of a dragon tens of meters long. While Jennia and Allaire both jumped onto his back, he carefully grabbed the hovering patch of earth with one of his arms. This of course terrified the three despite them already having seen his true form when an illusionary form of it appeared behind him while he first intervened.

This led to an extremely stressful flight back for them, constantly looking at the palm with fearful eyes, knowing that Darganth could crush them even just by making a slight mistake.

Thus when they landed before one of the many entrances to the underground capital the group couldn't help but find relief in it despite marking the last time they would see the sun for a while. When the group of guards neared and Darganth finished his explanation the three gladly cooperated and followed them to the prison without complaints.