Dragon Gods Reign

[Beast continent]

Seeing that she managed to react in time, Darganth suppressed the desire to attack the lead aura user for his sneak attack and didn't intrude on her fight. Instead, he continued with his original plan and charged at the aura users around Leor.

Still shaken from the sight of Inrad clashing against another dragon that stood on equal ground with him, they didn't quite react in time as Darganth hurled his spear into their formation.

Only the timely intervention of Leor prevented casualties. Opening as small of a gap in his shield as necessary to prevent it from weakening his spell, he raised his arm and pushed against the spear with telekinetic force. Stopping it in an instant, he reached out with his other hand and tried to break it apart with a second telekinesis spell.

Not interested in testing the hastily engraved enchantments against Leor's magical prowess, Darganth recalled his weapon before the latter had the chance to follow through with his plan.

Struggling for a bit before breaking free of the telekinetic hold, the spear returned to Darganth's hands.

Jumping the moment he caught the spear, Darganth channeled mana into one of its enchantments, causing flames to flare to life across the blade of the weapon. Pointing it at the group when his trajectory started to arc downward, he pulled it back in a throwing motion and took aim.

Descending nearly straight down into his opponent's formation, Darganth drove his spear into the ground as he landed amidst them with a crash. Drying out the soil the moment it came into contact with the ground, the spear sank in all the way to the base of its blade before erupting into an earth-shattering explosion.

Blasting apart the now brittle ground, the wave of fire that spread into all directions washes over Darganth harmlessly. The aura users meanwhile weren't so lucky despite being further from the epicenter, lacking the protection of a strong heat resistance spell, unlike Darganth.

Compensating, at least partially, for this by shifting their aura to the fire element, they barely managed to shield their heads with their arms when the flames reached them. Devouring them mercilessly, the inferno starts vaporizing skin and flesh as it rushes through them.

Raging on at full strength for a few seconds, the storm of flames slowly subsided over another couple of seconds once Darganth pulled his spear out of the ground. Spinning it around to shake off the partially glassy crust that the melting dirt had formed over the flaming blade, he planted its blunt end onto the ground next to him.

The first among the aura users to react to the fading flames was a man wielding twin daggers. Swiping his arms through the air, his movement together with a bit of mana from him caused two gusts of wind to sweep over the last embers, sniffing them out in an instant.

A moment later the others also started reacting, slowly lowering their arms and doing their best to put on a strong front by readying their weapons.

Snorting derisively at their attempt as he easily noticed the pained expressions they failed to hide while their burned forearms were also on full display. While the rest of their body had been at least somewhat protected by at least one layer of clothing, the region's warm climate meant that the clothes of none besides the dagger wielder extended beyond their elbows.

Of course, this didn't mean that they were unharmed apart from their arms. Instead, the flames had burned quite a few holes into both the simple cloth they wore and nonetheless damaged the skin below. But when compared to the state of their arms it was preferable by far as even a single layer of clothing stopped the flames for long enough that they didn't manage to evaporate the skin and eat into the flesh below.

“Are you going to attack now or not?” Darganth asked after a couple of seconds, breaking the tense silence that had developed.

“Why, don't dare to do it yourself?” One of the beastmen retorted.

Chuckling carefree, Darganth wasn't in a hurry to answer to this provocation. Instead taking a moment to look at Serania, he smiled at what he saw.

Still engaging Jaron in a magic duel, she used the vibration branch of air magic to shatter his ice constructs the moment they appeared. The ensuing shards of ice would regularly force him back, slowly moving their fight closer to Darganth's position.

Nodding with a smile at her success, he turned his attention to what was happening behind his back. On the way there, his gaze momentarily paused on the fight between Inrad and Tahas, with him watching the bloody brawl between the two for a couple of seconds before turning further and looking toward Allaire.

Standing atop the wall with her form no longer hidden by illusions, she was slowly losing ground to Leor. Each arrow she shot only dealt minimal damage to his shield which promptly regenerated, while she was forced to constantly be on the move by multiple thorn-covered vines that lashed out at her.

But despite this, she was still far from being exhausted, something that couldn't be said about Leor. The need to constantly supply a static shield and the conjured vines with mana was starting to take their toll on his reserves.

Despite this, Darganth didn't need a single moment to decide to intervene. Not only was Allaire's situation slightly worse than Jennia's, but she also wouldn't mind her fight being cut short.

With his decision made, Darganth channeled his aura through his body and dashed. Passing through the gap between two of the surrounding beastmen, a hue of red energy streams formed around his body as he quickly closed in on Leor.

Taken by surprise by his approach, the mage's reaction was slightly delayed. Using this time to rapidly close the distance, Darganth appeared near Leor in a flash of silvery energy before the latter could finish casting a spell.

Swinging his spear and cutting through the leaves that formed Leor's shield, he left a scorching slash across the shield. Striking out with his free hand before the first swing even ended, Darganth's fist tore through the weakened part of the shield and struck Leor.

Recoiling, Leor tried to back off but was stopped when Darganth held his shield in place by grabbing the edge of the hole he had created. Coming to an abrupt stop as the invisible force tethering him to his shield transferred Darganth's tug onto his body, the beastman was held in palace despite his efforts to struggle free.

Realizing the futility of his attempts, Leor soon made a risky decision. Dispelling his shield, he jumped back immediately while conjuring a net of thorn-covered vines that emerged from the ground and formed a thick wall between them.

When Darganth didn't break through it even after multiple seconds had passed, Leor was just about to be relieved when Allaire managed to slip away from the attacks pressuring her to aim an arrow.

Having largely forgotten about her in his panic, Leor only had a rise in her mana presence as a forewarning before she shot an arrow at his unprotected back.

Streaking through the air, the glowing projectile only barely missed its mark as Leor tried to dodge. Going cleanly through his right chest and missing his heart by only millimeters, it caused him to freeze up and clutch his chest in pain.

Sinking to his knees as he coughed up blood, he completely abandoned all of his active spells to focus solely on protecting himself. Conjuring trees to sprout from the ground around him, it didn't take a whole second before he was encased in a robust dome of wood and leaves.

Firing two more shots at the structure to test its strength, Allaire's arrows lost most mana in them the moment they came into contact with the leaves. By the time they struck the wooden shell below, the aura enhancing them had completely vanished, leaving the now regular arrows no chance to pierce even the bark.

“At least he won't trouble us any longer.” Allaire murmured as she jumped down from the battlement.

Walking toward the thorn wall separating her from Darganth, she reached it within seconds as her still active aura enhancement made even a, from her perspective, casual walk faster than what would be humanly possible without mana.

Drawing the sword she carried with her with the intent to cut open a hole in the structure, Allaire was just about to swing it when the wall started shaking slightly. Furrowing her brows, it took he until she heard the sound of screams closing in on her to realize what was happening.

Dashing to the side before the thorns gave in, she watched from there as the thin plants forming the structure tore apart one by one. And as more and more of its components tore under the stress, the wall shook with increasing intensity until it finally fell a few seconds later.

Bursting apart in a shower of small pieces of wood intermixed with loose thorns, the central part of the wall vanished and revealed Serania standing on the other side.

After a moment the bits of flesh and blood that were left of her opponent splattered to the ground a couple of meters away, landing together with the pieces of the wall even as she already turned around to face the three remaining aura users together with Darganth.

Giving similarly little thought to him or her, Allaire stepped into the opening that Serania had created and surveyed the battlefield.

There, Darganth was currently fighting and winning against the three aura users.

Blocking yet another strike from one of the two sword wielding beastwoman, he diverted it past him and toward the approaching beastman. Having to cross his daggers to catch his ally's swing, he could only sink back into the shadows when Darganth thrust his spear toward him.

Using the moment before he could pull back, the woman whose attack he had diverted used the pommel of her sword to strike Darganth in the face.

Recoiling from the impact, Darganth quickly caught himself and stabbed behind him with the back end of his spear. Striking the other beastwoaman that had tried to close in on him in the abdomen, he spun his spear around and was just about to strike again when the dagger wielder's shadowy form appeared near him.

Deciding to focus on the annoyance that he presented first, Darganth let go of his spear and met his approach. Grabbing out with his claw, he caught the man by his face and slammed him onto the ground with enough strength that he sunk into it.

Jumping back as the man stabbed his dagger toward his neck, Darganth held out his hand and called back his spear. Preparing to end the downed opponent, he made no attempt to defend against the approaching beastwoman.

But before she could come close enough to stop him, she was blinded by an explosion of light before being thrown back by a bolt of lightning that struck her in the chest.

Landing near the heavily wounded and barely breathing archer, she could only watch as Darganth stepped forward to strike her ally. And with the third remaining aura user still meters away, she already grimaced in despair.

But right as Darganth was about to plunge his spear into his opponent's chest, a choir of four similar roars echoed out from nearby, immediately followed by the presence of the third order aura master disappearing.

Noticing that all three of his opponents were frozen in shock as they stared at its source behind him, Darganth also paused and looked behind himself.

There, Jennia stood amidst a completely destroyed section of the camp with a smile, a flaming inferno raging on the ground before her. Meanwhile, there was no trace of her opponent beyond the numerous indents his aura avatar had left in the ground and on the wall as she had thrown him around, though the dense mana coming from inside the flames made his fate quite obvious.