svetikya Page 199
Page 199
“No need to guess, you don’t know me.” Shaving snapped his fingers. “But you guessed everything else right.”
“Gods above…” Elliott took a deep breath, “Five legendary spellcasters, some of the most powerful in Faerûn, how could they…”
“It’s a long story,” Elminster said with a wry smile. “To put it simply, we’ve been tricked. There’s been a problem within the Harpists, and we’re now wanted fugitives.”
"That's why you had to hide your identities," Elliott said, suddenly realizing. "The fact that you're all in such a sorry state suggests that the enemy is indeed formidable."
“It’s more than just simple,” Kelburn scoffed. “Their infiltration capabilities are beyond imagination.”
“Zishlindo?” Elliott immediately thought of the name.
“So we need your help,” Leila said earnestly, “not only to stop their plot, but also to save Sosar.”
Elliott was silent for a moment, then gave a tired but determined smile: "How could I refuse such a request from you seniors? To be honest, it is Sosar's good fortune to have your help."
“Don’t say that,” Elminster waved his hand. “We’re in the same boat now. And we fugitives who are hiding should be more ashamed than you who are fighting on the front lines.”
“Everyone has their own difficulties,” Eliot said understandingly. “The important thing is that we now have a common goal.”
He sat down again, his expression turning serious: "Since everyone has been so frank, I won't hide anything either. The situation is worse than you think."
"How so?" Kelburn asked.
“First, there is the decline of the power of nature.” Elliott stretched out his hand, and a green leaf appeared in his palm, but it quickly withered. “Do you see? The pollution two months ago not only depleted our power reserves, but also disrupted Sosar’s natural cycle. Without the support of the power of nature, this land is dying.”
"Is there any way to restore it?" Elasdra asked with concern.
“Theoretically, yes,” Elliott said. “If we can find the source of the pollution and remove it, it will naturally recover slowly. But that takes time, and we simply don’t have that time.”
"And then?" Lyra pressed.
“Secondly, it’s about people’s hearts.” Elliott’s expression grew even heavier. “More and more people are choosing to surrender in despair. Some are being mentally controlled, while others have simply lost hope. The day before yesterday, the chieftain of the Bear Claw tribe opened the city gates and let the dragon lich army into the city. More than two thousand people turned into undead overnight.”
“A psychological offensive,” Elminster analyzed. “Destroying the will to resist is more effective than destroying the body.”
“That’s right.” Elliot nodded. “And they’re clever; they specifically target influential people. Tribal chiefs, elders, famous warriors… once these people fall, the morale of the others collapses.”
“So you’ve been constantly moving,” Kelburn understood, “not giving them a chance to lock you down.”
“This is the only way,” Elliott said with a wry smile. “If even I fall, Sosar will really be finished.”
“No,” Elminster said firmly. “With us here, we won’t let that happen.”
“Thank you,” Elliott said sincerely, then changed the subject, “However, if we are to stop the Dragon Cult, we need more intelligence, preferably to infiltrate their ranks…”
“It’s too dangerous,” Toval interjected, having been listening quietly the whole time. “The Ice Queen’s residence is heavily guarded, and there are even dragons patrolling there.”
“That’s precisely why we need to go and see,” Elliott said. “We need to know their progress in order to formulate a strategy.”
"but……"
Just as Lyra was about to retort, an indescribable pressure suddenly descended from the sky.
This was a fluctuation of power beyond mortal comprehension. The entire cave seemed to tremble, but that was merely an illusion. What caused this illusion was the magical power stirred by the unnatural distortion of the magic network.
“This is…” Elliott’s expression changed drastically, and he stood up abruptly.
Toval collapsed to the ground, his face as pale as paper.
Even the usually composed Kelben showed a shocked expression: "Such intense magical fluctuations..."
The group rushed out of the cave and looked up at the sky.
As if the stairway to heaven had opened, or the gates of hell had been torn open, a twisted web of magic surged forth like collapsing mountains. Hundreds of dragons clashed fiercely in the skies above Sosar, their multicolored breaths weaving a destructive curtain of light, their dazzling yet deadly magic illuminating the night sky as if it were daytime…
71. It's not just the old folks who can't keep up with the times; some dragons are too.
Following Casalos, the dragons leaped down from the clouds, folded their wings, and swooped down into a diving posture. More than a hundred metal dragons transformed into streamlined lines, roaring down toward their target.
The air was torn apart by the edges of the dragon wings, producing an increasingly sharp whistling sound. The turbulence generated by the high-speed descent disturbed the dragon scales and wing membranes, causing each dragon to tense its body, transmitting its rapid breathing and heartbeat through the normally functioning communication crystal's public channel.
The golden body of Tamarand, the leader of the assault group, gleamed in the sunlight and the reflection of the snowfield. Even during its rapid descent, this robust ancient golden dragon maintained its majesty, its head held high and its wings folded perfectly. The three dragonborn paladins on its back gripped the handrails tightly, the buckles connecting their armor and saddles making a slight metallic scraping sound, echoing the brilliance of the other dragon lords and golden dragons behind it.
Following closely behind the Golden Dragon Court, the golden dragons of the Dracol family, an independent clan society, displayed a discipline even more rigorous than those of the Golden Dragon Court. The elders were as steady as mountains, while the younger ones, though slightly nervous, kept their eyes fixed on their predecessors, ensuring they could just glide over the wingtips of those in front to see their horns, thus maintaining formation.
The fire element within the golden dragon's chest began to gather, preparing for the impending attack.
The second wave of bronze dragons was even more solemn.
Although the bronze dragonflight led by Uriel was naturally reserved, it entered a state of frenzy as the war began. Courage and boiling dragon magic made them ignore their social anxiety. Electricity leaped between their scales, piercing the air at the sharp points of the scales and drawing arcs of electricity.
The Inbutu Bronze Dragons, led by Vorasega, were still the most well-trained group. These dragon riders, each carrying only one knight, seemed somewhat out of place compared to the metal dragons, which were each carried by three or more paladins. However, they maintained a more compact formation, and the leaping arcs of electricity even connected them together, making them look like a ball of lightning from a distance.
Hevilan's Claws of Justice no longer scattered. As a supplementary strike force and reserve, they followed behind the first two waves of attacks, skillfully adjusting their dive angles and speeds to ensure they could enter the battlefield at the right moment. Their silver scales reflected a chilling light in the thin air, like a deadly silver meteor.
The altitude is dropping rapidly, nine thousand meters, eight thousand meters, seven thousand meters...
In the valley below, an army of over eighty white dragons and dragon liches was scattered across an open snowfield. These children of frost from the far north had just finished fighting the army of Thorthar and were resting. Some lay on the snow licking their wounds with their long tongues, while others were gnawing on the frozen corpses of Thorthar warriors. Several enormous ancient white dragons occupied the best spots, while the ordinary white dragons around them kept a safe distance to avoid becoming their prey in a fit of rage.
The dragon liches separated from the white dragons and gathered at the other end of the valley. Their bony frames were covered with a thin layer of ice, and eerie blue soul flames burned in their empty eye sockets. These undead dragons were exchanging ideas about their next battle plan in their minds, occasionally emitting mental fluctuations that disturbed the air.
Six thousand meters.
The piercing scream of the dive began to echo through the valley, the sound waves reflecting back and forth between the cliffs and the ice, creating a complex and chaotic echo. The high-pitched, loud sound from the high altitude mixed with the reflected sound from the ground, and the noise, difficult to distinguish, obscured the altitude angle information.
A young, adult white dragon was the first to notice something amiss. It pricked up its massive ears and nervously turned its neck from side to side: "What's that sound?"
The sound was indeed strange. The hearing of white dragons—and most subspecies of true dragons—is not much more sensitive than that of humans. Furthermore, dragons are not owls; their ears grow side-by-side and remain at the same height in a normal posture, inherently lacking the ability to keenly judge the altitude angle of a sound source. More importantly, as predators, their large ear flaps and flexible necks allow them to focus their hearing more on sounds coming directly from their head, as they don't need wide-area warning; this makes it easier to accurately locate prey.
"It's probably just the wind." A robust white dragon casually stretched its neck, but still kept its head down and surveyed the valley. Finding nothing, its attention quickly returned to the food it was munching on.
As the noise grew increasingly chaotic, more white dragons began to feel confused. Their ears twitched back and forth, trying to pinpoint the direction of the sounds, but the complex echoes prevented them from identifying the source. Some white dragons began to stand up, looking around warily.
Not far away, a dragon lich sent out a mental wave in a mocking tone: "A bunch of fools, the wind in the valley is always so noisy."
Compared to white dragons, dragon liches, having lost their physical organs, have even more severely deficient perception relying solely on magic. These creatures are often undetected when adventurers sneak into their lairs, let alone be able to judge and identify sounds they have never heard before in their dragon lives.
Five thousand meters, four thousand meters.
The sound of air being torn apart grew louder and louder, even beginning to drown out the wind in the valley. The sharp whistling of the swooping descent was now clearly audible, and some experienced ancient white dragons began to truly become alert. They slowly stood up, their massive bodies raised high, trying to pinpoint the source of the threat.
However, the physiological structure, primal instincts, and behavioral habits of dragons still dictate that they primarily search in a planar direction; very few dragons would immediately look up at the sky. As the rulers of the sky, they never considered that anything could threaten them from above—the high brow ridges above their eyes form a shading effect, obscuring the upper hemisphere's view, and the downward-sloping eye sockets are a result of evolution towards a lower hemisphere-based hunting perspective. (The remaining text appears to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated gibberish.)
3,500 meters.
An ancient white dragon with rich combat experience finally realized something. It abruptly raised its head, its diamond-like dragon eyes, illuminated by the melting of dragon magic, staring wide-eyed: "Up...up!"
All the white dragons and dragon liches were startled and looked up, only to see the countless metallic scales shimmering in the sunlight.
The ancient white dragon's warning came too late.
The white dragon and the dragon liches had no time to react properly before the first wave of golden dragon breath attacks was unleashed. Dozens of dragon breaths, shaped into spheres and imbued with the Super Breath feat and breath magic, and further enhanced by the paladins' Evil Slash, slammed down into the valley like a rain of judgment from the gods, leaving dazzling trails behind them.
The first fireball was unleashed by Tamarand. This blazing inferno, imbued with the full fury of the ancient golden dragon, was over ten meters in diameter and shone with a golden holy light, just like the dragon that had breathed it. It struck a robust white dragon that was feeding, about seven or eight meters away—at such a distance, the chances of hitting its target were slim. But it didn't matter; why should the breath of an ancient golden dragon need to strike directly?
The golden holy light and flames exploded the moment they touched the ground, forming an expanding ring of fire that first devoured and vaporized the mature white dragon and its prey, then continued to advance, sweeping away the ice and snow and billowing smoke from the ground.
Then, more fireballs imbued with holy light rained down. The first wave of attacks included four Primordial Golden Dragons, with the rest also in their prime, totaling no fewer than ten Ancient and Ancient-age dragons. Their combined dragon breath was nothing short of devastating.
Rings of fire converged and overlapped, creating a radiant glow that engulfed the valley. The intense light then cast a stark contrast of darkness over the surrounding landscape. A massive, cloud-like cloud of heat slowly rose, connecting with the rising dust from the ground, resembling a giant mushroom blooming between heaven and earth.
The intense heat turned the valley into a lava lake, and the sublimated ice and snow caused a series of steam explosions as they expanded. The white dragon, which was within the attack range, melted in the extreme heat before it could even let out a scream, leaving not even its bones behind, but only a pool of still-burning unidentified matter.
The bronze dragon's lightning followed closely behind—although the lightning breath produced a magical effect that resembled lightning, magic has its own unique rules.
One after another, lightning orbs exploded on the ice surface. While lacking the destructive power of the golden dragon's explosions, they unleashed countless thick, radiating arcs of electricity that leaped across the ground, only transforming into actual current upon contact with their targets. The struck white dragon convulsed and collapsed into the lava, its scales charred, and foul-smelling black smoke billowing from its mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, while disgusting urine and intestinal contents sprayed everywhere.
Silver dragons, brass dragons, and copper dragons joined the attack, instantly transforming the valley into a hellish inferno. Flames and lightning intertwined, and explosions echoed everywhere. More and more rocks were melted into magma by the intense heat, and snow was electrolyzed into plasma. The drastic temperature changes caused the mountain walls to crack, and huge boulders and blocks of ice crashed down from the heights.
The ground shook violently, and the entire ice field began to collapse. Cracks hundreds of meters deep tore open in the earth, as if the hand of a giant god was about to rip the land apart completely.
A series of explosions erupted throughout the valley, accompanied by the screams of the white dragon and the curses of the dragon lich. A firestorm swept across the entire battlefield, turning the sky a golden-red hue.
Many more white dragons lost their lives or were incapacitated in the explosion. Some had their wings blown off and were painfully flapping their severed limbs in the snow; many more were struck by collapsing rocks and lost the ability to move.
A young white dragon attempted to escape but ran right into a fireball spewed by an ancient golden dragon from the Dracol family. The dragon's breath, imbued with holy light, blasted it in two. Its upper body struggled in the air, dragged by its wings, while its lower body plummeted to the ground, landing sideways. It continued to kick its legs for a few seconds, still in the motion of a takeoff run, before being burned and rendered inactive, sending up large swaths of lava.
"Scatter! All dragons, scatter immediately!" a dragon lich with quick reflexes screamed, issuing the order. It cast a group protection spell on itself and a few white dragons around it in time, but most of its companions were not so lucky.
The silver dragon's frost breath is unlikely to cause much damage to the white dragon, so a Super Breath feat is wasted converting it to fire, making its direct attack power somewhat insufficient. Instead, it highlights the paladin's Exorcism attribute. The silvery radiance, along with the flames from the exploding fireball, coils around the white dragon's body, continuously igniting its evil nature and scorching its flesh, causing it to writhe in agony into the lava, where it is eventually submerged and dies.
The entire dive attack lasted less than thirty seconds, but the damage it caused was devastating. Nearly twenty white dragons vanished completely, leaving not even ashes. At least twelve more white dragons were rendered completely incapacitated; some of these unfortunate creatures lost six limbs, some had their spines shattered, and some, despite managing to escape the hell of fire, lightning, and lava, were severely burned both internally and externally, writhing in agony in the snow. Without treatment, they likely wouldn't survive much longer.
Fire-attribute dragons are weak to ice, and ice-attribute dragons are naturally weak to fire...
The remaining white dragons that were still able to move were all injured to varying degrees. Only the dragon liches with sufficiently high spellcasting levels were mostly unharmed. This was partly because the metal dragon swarm's initial attack deliberately focused on the white dragons, who were more difficult to deal with in aerial combat, and partly because the dragon liches' high spellcasting ability allowed them to promptly cast high-level protective spells to protect themselves. In addition, the change in their life state made them immune to the paralysis caused by electric shocks, the trembling of the cracked earth, and they were no longer so afraid of fire and lava.
The metal dragons that had completed their dive attack immediately changed their dive state, spreading out in groups of two or three in all directions, showing no intention of charging down to fight the heavily wounded white dragons and dragon liches.
72. Give the dragon lich a little shock from the benevolent dragon.
Utilizing the speed advantage gained from a dive to quickly disengage and avoid engaging in close combat with the dragon lich at low altitudes, thus minimizing the threat of the dragon lich's instant-death spells, is the basic tactical logic Casalos has devised for the dragon pack. Unless one has an instant-cast supermagic feat, the focus required to maintain instant-death spells is not short, and these spells are mostly non-target-locking spells with flat trajectories. Maintaining enough high energy to convert into angular maneuvering can effectively evade them.
Tamarand led the first attack group, completing the strike first and naturally being the first to take off. The golden dragons' enormous size, the largest of all dragons, wasn't a disadvantage in aerial combat. On the contrary, their tails, which made up most of their body length, and a massive sail-like fin extending from their shoulders to their tail tip, provided them with ample lift. Combined with their strongest bodies among all subspecies of dragons, this gave the golden dragons energy replenishment efficiency second only to the silver dragons. As long as they weren't drawn into close-quarters maneuvering and strictly adhered to energy-maneuvering tactics, the golden dragons could maintain their aerial advantage.
The golden dragons, winding like swimming dragons, climbed at a high angle. The dragon riders behind them endured continuous and high G-forces during the intense maneuvers. They could only do their best to tense all their muscles, take a deep breath, and then exhale forcefully. They could only take a quick and brief breath every few seconds. All their strength was focused on resisting G-forces, and they could not make any other movements.
The specially made magical armor was also adjusted to its most taut and tightly bound state to help the dragon knights withstand the load.
Compared to the metal dragons who had only trained for a few days, the paladins of Damara had already ingrained the movements into conditioned reflexes through long-term training. Otherwise, even though they were all of high professional rank and had strong physical abilities, they would have been blinded or even knocked unconscious by these reckless golden dragons.
The dragons of the Claw of Justice were much more elegant. They manipulated the wind to keep up with the golden dragons' ascent smoothly and calmly, while also guiding the chaotic brass and copper dragons. Although the golden dragons caused a great overload on the dragon riders, they still gave their two-legged riders enough "care," adhering to the rules of riding and flying, and not making any fancy moves.
If a copper dragon gets carried away and suddenly performs an ineffective barrel roll or some kind of large spin during a dive-to-climb maneuver, the chances of its rider being intact become slim.
Guided by the silver dragon, the ascending trajectory of the red-bronze dragon group was well controlled. When they reached a similar height, the members of the Claws of Justice quickly split into groups of three and dispersed in different directions.
The bronze dragons fared much better. Their ascent wasn't as swift as the gold dragons', nor as graceful as the silver dragons', but it wasn't inefficient either. Uriel led the native bronze dragonflight to the northeast, while Volasegar's Imptu Bronze Dragon Knights maneuvered southwest, maintaining their high speed after the dive at a lower ascent rate, quickly widening the distance between themselves and the white dragons and dragon liches.
"You idiots, those of you who can still move, get ready to be scared!"
"You reptiles whose brains have been frozen solid by ice, hurry up and follow us to catch those damned metal scales!" The dragon lich's furious roar echoed through the valley.
The surviving white dragons and dragon liches began to take flight. Despite suffering heavy losses in the first wave of attacks, their numbers remained considerable. More importantly, the dragon liches' powerful spellcasting abilities still posed a significant threat.
A ray of frost-covered dragon breath suddenly appeared and struck the most majestic roaring dragon lich.
Then Casalos, clad in high elemental armor, revealed itself. Since the attack began, it had been using invisibility spells to hide among the dragons, waiting for Qislindo to be exposed—clearly, the one who could terrify all the dragon liches and white dragons must be Qislindo.
As the metal dragons ascended and disappeared into the distance, Casalos leisurely flew sideways over Qislindo's head, his single indigo dragon eye looking down with disdain at the demigod lich covered in frost yet unharmed, and uttered a trill that had no meaning.
"Cut~"
The demigod dragon lich could not tolerate the provocation of a mere teenage dragon, so he immediately relinquished his command over the dragon lich and the white dragon pack, and alone spread his wings to chase after Casalos...
Despite losing Qislindor's command, the white dragons and dragon lich horde did not become complacent. An ancient white dragon took to the skies first, its wings whipping up a tremendous icy wind. This experienced old dragon's only thought now was to drag its enemies into aerial combat.
More white dragons followed closely behind. Despite their wounds, their rage made them forget the pain. Their roars shook the valley, sending the remaining snowflakes swirling in the air. "Where's Lin? You're not here. Lin, are you...?"
The people of Faerûn all say that the white dragons are a disgrace to the dragons. But only the white dragons themselves know and are proud of the fact that, in pure aerial combat, they stand at the top of the dragon pyramid—of course, no other sub-dragon species would admit this fact, just as the white dragons would not admit that the silver dragons also dominate aerial combat.
The way the dragon liches ascended was somewhat bizarre. Without needing a running start, they simply followed their pre-transformation habit, extending their bone wings that couldn't hold any air, and their entire hollowed-out skeletal bodies floated directly up, silently rising into the sky like ghosts, then accelerating straight up.
Casalos led the Qislindors northward, the scattered metal dragons ascending to cloud level before circling and filling the sky above Sosar, waiting for the white dragons and dragon lich horde to catch up. A dragon aerial battle, perhaps unprecedented in the history of Faerûn, had officially begun.
Hevilan initiated the engagement, leading her three-dragon team which circled above the white dragon horde. They were quickly surrounded by four white dragons. "Moonwing to the left, Silver Claw, stay close."
An arrogant ancient white dragon slashed from the lower right, attacking the flank of Hevilan, who was coiling to the left, and unleashed a breath of icy coldness in an attempt to freeze her wings. But... Hevilan, enduring the dragon's breath, tumbled to the left and flew downhill, then turned right and circled at high speed, entering the white dragon's 6 o'clock position, which had lost much of its speed during its ascent. She flew close to its lower abdomen, while the three dragonborn paladins on her back simultaneously pulled the triggers of the ballistae resting on the ancient silver dragon's back and injected the Demon-Slaying Slash into the thick arrows on their wrists. Three golden beams shot straight out, tearing the white dragon's abdomen and chest apart.
The left-turning Moonwing collided head-on with a robust white dragon. After crossing paths, it pulled high before swooping down, offering the slow-moving white dragon, which was trying to summon wind to accelerate itself again, a radiant dragon breath transformed into fire.
Silver Claw, following closely behind Haivilan, used the corpse of the ancient white dragon that Haivilan had shot down to perform a sudden stop in mid-air, turned around and bit the neck of the old white dragon that was chasing it, and together with the three dragon knights on its back, killed it.
Three of the four dragons that fought the white dragon died on the spot. The remaining one, already in poor condition, hurriedly rolled to the right to escape, but was struck down by a dragon breath that Haivilan had been preparing for and which had been transformed into lightning.
But not every encounter goes so smoothly.
The young brass dragon Salomes found himself in danger during a battle with a dragon lich. Due to a misjudgment of the dragon lich's speed, Salomes failed to lure the dragon lich into a single loop. Not only did he fail to bite the dragon lich's back, but the dragon lich also unexpectedly managed to escape by entering a loop in the opposite direction and bit his tail.
The dragon lich, not wanting to miss this rare opportunity to attack, held onto the brass dragon for a few seconds, successfully unleashing the Death Finger.
The black and red magical ray shot straight at the brass dragon. Salomes desperately twisted his body in an attempt to dodge, but ultimately could not escape the spell.
Just as the instant-death spell was about to hit, a dragonborn paladin on Salomes's back unhesitatingly unlocked the safety buckle and leaped up, using his own body to block the irresistible magic for him.
"No! Brandon!" Salomes screamed in agony as the paladin's body fell stiffly from the sky.
"You bastard!" Salomes nearly succumbed to dragon rage, but the other two paladins calmed its fury with holy light. This usually garrulous brass dragon finally remembered how to fight, recalling the diagrams and instructions in the manuals. It shut its incessant chatter. It took a low-angle dive, accelerating with the dragon lich in its wake, then suddenly spread its wings to decelerate sharply, channeling its fiery energy, combined with the paladins' exorcising power, through the dragon lich's defenses, which lacked any aerodynamic mobility, and into the skeletal frame.
The holy light burning on the dragon's breath was as dazzling as the sun, utterly crippling the dragon lich who was casting the spell. Countless cracks appeared on the dragon lich's bony body, and its soul fire began to flicker erratically.
Training time was limited, and the Metal Dragon didn't have much trust in Casalos.
Not all metallic dragons have the ability to dance freely in the air like silver dragons and terrestrial dragons, nor do all dragons advance to the level of terrestrial dragons and lepidopter dragons like terrestrial dragons and claws of justice, gaining the ability to instantly counter instant-death spells.