Chapter 9: Melee
Looking at the Legendary lords who went away, Finagle and the black-robed warlock shared a look filled with intent.
Finagle raised his head and howled and a pack of jackals drove the noisy Kobolds and Goblins to rush out from the dense forest beside the road and into the barbarians who had prepared a simple defensive measure with horse-drawn carriages.
The black-robed warlock chanted a spell and his hand began shining with magic; a sign of a grand spell.
One of the commanding barbarians on the roof shouted, "Hurry up! Stop him!"
An elite barbarian who had survived threw a spear at the black-robed warlock. The spear whistled through the air, but when it was a metre away from the warlock, the body of the spear became distorted by an invincible force field and was nailed to the side of a tree, instead.
Deflection field!
Seeing that a long-range weapon was ineffective against the warlock, the barbarian elite split the Kobolds in half with an axe, and charged like a manic bull, razing everything in his path and making a beeline towards the warlock.
Noticing this, Fingale joined ranks in the interception, and by the time he joined them the warlock had completed his spell-chanting.
Fist-sized balls of fire appeared in the air and rained on the barbarian defence lines. After a round of powerful firestorm, only a pile of charred monsters and barbarians and a burning carriage was left; the barbarian line of defence was breached.
Then a group of what seemed like a pack of elite wolves burst out of the woods. More and more monsters joined the battlefield. Amos even saw a dozen or so blue ogres carrying clubs.
The battle was running out of cannon fodders. Finally, it was Salilina's turn to fight---after all, she was a dragon lord.
As the main fight began, Amos led the three young dragons to join the fray.
The four young dragons first gathered all their magic and then flew into the sky to attack the commanders and archers on the carriage with clear intentions, the central point was given concentration, creating pressure on the enemies on the front lines, effectively paralyzing the enemies chain of command.
The four young dragons flew in the sky spewing out Dragon's Breath, swerving their heads, effectively increasing their range of attack, leaving behind a path of white frost and trail of ice sculptures.
Flying around, they also became targets for barbarian fire attacks. An arrow shot and hit a young dragon's scales and scratched its rock-like skin; however, ordinary couldn't penetrate and break its defence and to their advantage, the barbarians lacked wizards. As such, they only needed to guard against high-ranking Professionals among the barbarians.
However, most of the high-ranking Professionals were all nearly wiped out by the first wave of surprise attacks. While the rest were struggling to defend themselves from the Winter Wolves and the Byrons and no one was free to spare themselves to deal with the four young dragons.
As the saying went, "If you keep walking by the river you'll eventually have your shoes wet."
Amos's heart lurched and a sense of deadly crisis rose within him and before he could think, he dodged on instinct: A two-meter-long Ice-gun flew past his neck.
Amos flapped his wings and flew into the air at great speeds until he was out of range before he searched for the enemy.
Soon Amos found his target: a witch in a white robe who was staring at him from a distance.
Amos saw the snowflake badge on the witch's chest.
The Northland Witch!
Damn it! Weren't these feminist lunatics always at odds with the barbarians!?
How did a Northland Witch find herself in the ranks of barbarians?
The Northland Witch Council was an extraordinary organization that only accepted female spellcasters in the Kingdom of Elans, a neighbouring kingdom to Sandonaar.
These women were careful and held grudges, but the most important thing about them was their strength. It was said that the organization was among the handful of entities that Salilina, the dragon lord, was reluctant to provoke.
Despite all the uncertainty and fear, Amos was not a dragon who would take a beating lying down; he would fight back.
"Turn on the Battle Assist Mode."
The mode expended all his energy; it was a new function from the system.
When the Battle Assist Mode was activated the system would scan the vicinity, analyze and then calculate the condition and give optimal feedback, transmitting the recommended suggestions to the host's spirit directly, Instantly driving Amos's combat awareness to the level of an expert.
Whether it was a magical or physical attack, as long as it came within 20 metres of Amos's spiritual power, it would be discovered by the system and immediately assist him, ensuring maximum protection and defensive measures.
This was Amos's most powerful state, but running the full operation was mentally exhausting, and could last only for five minutes.
Time is limited!
Let's get this over with quickly!
Amos uttered a spell and plunged towards the witch.
Frozen Arrow! Super Magic Skills---Double Cast!
Two transparent arrows made of ice flew quickly one after the other and lashed at the witch making a whistling sound.
The witch's silver cane made a graceful arc in the air.
Frozen shields!
A shield of ice protected the witch and the arrows scattered into a mass of magical energy. Following behind the first one, the second one pierced the same spot, penetrating the shield and continued with the attack.
The witch's face blanched, interrupting her spellcasting. A magic ring in her hand flickered and a rugby sized magical shield blocked the icy arrow.
Meanwhile, Amos came close to the witch, and his dragon tail smashed into the witch by force with the massive momentum from his descent from the sky. The witch quickly dove to the side, his tail smashed on the magic shield. When it was almost about to smash one of her shoulders, it was deflected by an invisible force and was made to slide sideways, smashing the ground.
Amos aimed his claws towards the witch's slender waist and before it could reach her a ring on her other hand lit up.
Suddenly, a message rang in Amos's mind, "The magical signature from the Ring of Resistance is detected and the probability of damage from the dragon claw attack is predicted to be 0. It is recommended that the host grab the target's waistband pouch."
Following his instincts, he followed the system's notice and grabbed the little bag hanging from the witch's belt and at the same time pushed it away with an invisible force.
Amos did not dare to fight for a long duration, so he quickly adjusted his balance and soared towards the sky.
He soon discovered the magical energy aimed at his back from the system's prompt and quickly dodged to the left.
A ball of magical energy missed him by a hair's breadth and continued to pierce and fly towards the sky.
"Damn it! Does the dragon have eyes on its back?" the witch jumped and cursed in anger as she watched the bandit grab her waistband pouch and fly out of her magical range.
Amos hovered high in the sky, looking at the furious witch on the ground, he dropped the pouch in his hand.
That was a good one!
The system's prompt promptly came to his mind, "Sneak attack failed. Re-attack has a success rate of 15%, 90% chance of injury, 40% chance of fatality. It is recommended that the host retreat."
Amos shuddered when he took a glimpse of the maddening scene. The witch was hiding her hand in the long sleeves of her robe. She was hiding eight magical rings of different colours.
She's a Master!!!
I can't afford to fight with her!
He sprayed a cold breath and froze the pouch and swallowed it whole.
I'm leaving!
At the same time, he became determined to become a top rank Master himself.
Next, Amos stopped going deep into the enemy territory and led the young dragons to the edge of the battlefield, occasionally spewing out dragon breaths downwards to the battlefield.
Most people thought of Dragon's Breath as a simple magical power or a physiological action, but in actuality, it was a combination of magic and physiological power. Every dragon had a special gland in its throat. This gland would secrete high-energy viscous fluid and store it in a cyst.
When the dragon breathed, the muscles around the cyst would contract, compressing the liquid, mixing the energy exhaled by the lungs, and producing the dragon's most powerful natural ability: Dragon's Breath.
Because of the different energy properties of liquids, Dragon's Breath varied from dragon to dragon, and the storage capacity of the liquid would also be limited depending on the dragon. Making the attack finite in number.
Before long, all four dragons chose to be dumb and they all flew down on the ground to fight.