39 Dragon's Fury
The dragon flew up and disappeared into the sky.
Hope was growling while looking at the part where the blue dragon disappeared from.
"Calm down, boy," Lance said. "Was that the dragon that hurt you?"
Hope nodded and looked up again. He growled once more.
"What should we do, Lance?" Elliot asked.
Lance brandished his swords, "Stay here. All of you."
"I'll go too," Elliot said.
"No. That dragon is a Cannibal, Elliot," Lance muttered. "It will be merciless."
"We're a party," Connor said. "We can't let one of our members to go on alone. Besides, the XP for that must be massive."
"Now I see your true intentions," Lance deadpanned but had no other choice but to nod. "Okay. It will come back down soon. I can feel it. When it does…"
They planned their strategy. Although Lance could defeat the dragon by himself, the XP from it would be a waste. This dragon would at least bring 150,000XP.
And since he cannot level up more, it would only go down the drain if he soloes it.
As expected, the dragon came. Its enormous head peeked from the clouds, glaring at Hope's figure from above. It growled and roared, shaking the ground from beneath.
The dragon shot itself from the skies, retreating its wings to its body to speed up.
"It's more vicious than I thought," Lance said. "Everyone, formation!"
"Yes!" Elliot and Connor chimed.
The dragon landed on the mountains, its wings were causing the trees to shake, and some were uprooted.
In its breast was a familiar symbol. But this time it wasn't green like the others, it was yellow.
A new feature.
A smirk found its way into Elliot's lips once more. Hope was a pet of Lance so he couldn't hurt him, but this dragon was their quest in the first place. Killing it would benefit them and him, hitting two birds with one stone.
Lance shot himself towards the beast first, making sure to take its attention. If he let anyone else attack before him, the dragon would react and annihilate that person instantly.
"Luminous Dexterity!" Connor casted on Elliot.
'Strength +30% for 30 seconds.'
"Hasty Aspire!"
'Attack & Speed +150% for 10 seconds'
With Elliot following after him Lance, the latter hacked his swords towards the dragon's side.
Their plan was for Lance to keep the dragon's attention while Elliot and Connor slowly drain its HP.
Lance's initial attack took a quarter of the dragon's HP. If Elliot and Connor would attack the dragon below that, the beast's attention wouldn't be stolen.
Elliot had started his surge of attacks. Slashing, cutting, and taking as much HP as he could. Even if Lance was indeed strong, his stamina wasn't unlimited. If they don't hurry, he could still get tired.
Their plan was for Lance to take as little HP as possible so the two would get as much XP. Elliot was also holding back a bit considering he might get too much XP from Connor.
"Ghostly Flame! Ghoul's Ring of Fire!"
"Wish I could multicast," Elliot intentionally sighed, waiting for the system to register what he wanted.
He waited for a couple of seconds but there wasn't any notification.
"You're unfair," Elliot sighed and continued.
The dragon's HP was almost at the Rage Mode.
The Rage Mode is the critical line for high-level beasts. When the beast's HP would cross below 25%, its stats would skyrocket, increasing by 75% and its hunger and thirst for blood would increase tenfold.
"It's almost at Rage!" Lance informed.
The Burning Lion boss couldn't go into Rage Mode since Lance burned it into nothingness. The power Lance showed still impresses everyone at the Conquest. An Adventurer capable of annihilating a beast that had gone through Carnal Breakthrough.
"Supreme Malevolence!" Elliot casted, turning his body to continuously attack the dragon.
'Supreme Malevolence 2'
'Supreme Malevolence 3'
'Supreme Malevolence 4'
…
"3, 2…" Lance counted. "1! Rage Mode! Everyone, together!"
"Luminous Dexterity!" Connor casted on himself. "Ghostly Flame! Ghoul's Ring of Fire!"
'Supreme Malevolence Maximum'
Elliot leaped and hacked one of the dragon's wings off. The beast screamed in pain and turned to Elliot. Its HP was only at 18%.
"Two Cannibals in a week," Lance sighed, hovering over the beast and pointing his swords at it. "Must be my luck. Black and White Annihilation!"
The dragon didn't have time to react. Its body was already being swallowed by the powerful attack. It could only scream in pain as its body was being charred to death.
'Quest [ Water Dragon's Rampage ] Completed.'
'Creator Reward: Pendant of the Crimson King'
'Super Royal Water Dragon killed. +90,000 XP.'
"Yes!" Elliot cheered.
'Level Up'
'Level Up'
'First Dragon Killed. +250,000XP'
Elliot jumped in excitement. "Yes, thank you!"
'Level Up'
'Level Up'
'Level Up'
'Level Up'
'Level Up'
'You have reached Level 50'
'Handicap Feature stops here'
"What?" Elliot knit his brow in confusion. "What Handicap?"
Lance breathed in through his gritted teeth and scratched his nape. "You're Level 50 now, right?"
Elliot nodded. "Yes, why?"
'XP needed to Level Up: 100,000'
"What?!" Elliot yelled. "This can't be true. I thought the double XP thing ended on Level 7?"
"Yeah," Lance nodded his head. "Then the Handicap Levels start from there."
"Handicap Levels?" the younger boys asked in unison.
Lance nodded once again, "Yes. Handicap Levels are levels for Adventurers to level up easier. When the system was only starting, the Adventurers couldn't bear to gain double the XP of their previous level. Imagine, you're still at Level 20 and you would need tens of millions of XP. So, the creators modified the systems and created the Handicap, but unlike ours, all levels after Level 6 were handicapped."
"Adventurers could easily level up. Just gain the XP on the nearest 5 of your level times 1,000. But it went wrong."
"What happened?" Elliot asked, rubbing Hope's head who was purring.
"Catastrophe happened," Lance sighed. "In a year, almost all pioneering Adventures were already at Level 90. Handicap was basically free real estate. And by the way, the Breakthrough came before the Handicap. Soon after, most pioneering Adventures were at Level 100. In the second generation, the Handicap stopped at Level 50. Hence, where we are now."
"You seem to know a lot," Connor commented.
Lance shook his head, "I was raised in a castle with a gold spoon in my mouth growing up. Any information I needed was available."
"Ah, to be a prince," Elliot teased.
Lance scoffed, "Are you going to keep the carcass?"
Elliot nodded. "Of course, I will."
He was about to use The Creator's Sloth when he saw that he missed a notification.
'Super Royal Water Dragon killed. +29,800XP'
His jaw hung open after he read the other.
'Skill [ Dragon's Fury ] gained.'
[ Dragon's Fury
Cost: 3,000MP
Condition: HP must be fewer than 25%
// All stats raised by 75%, Rate +1 ]
Elliot couldn't help but laugh. This was a very important skill. It even was the first one with the Condition.
"Are you okay?" Connor asked.
Elliot nodded while he was storing the dragon's carcass on his Inventory. "I am very okay!"
Connor narrowed his eyes but shook the thoughts away.
They went to the nearby town to collect the reward. They even hid Hope in the woods so the people wouldn't panic and attack him. After all, he wasn't the dragon that terrorized them.
"Did you wait long, Hope?" Lance asked and rubbed the underside of the dragon's mouth. "I'm sorry we couldn't bring you. The people might get scared and chase you away."
This made Hope sniff his nose.
Elliot cooed, "Don't worry, Hope. We won't leave you for long again. Although I wish you would get smaller or something."
"Same," Lance added.
Connor followed, "Same."
It was night when they decided to camp and rest. They would still look forward to one more day of walking to reach Alorde.
When they got to sleep, Hope crawled to Lance and placed his head beside Lance. He let out a breath and was about to sleep when he looked at the moon.
The moon was white and beautiful. Hope sobbed when a voice rang in his ear.
'Do you want to become human?'
He raised his head to look for the voice. As a dragon, he was able to sense anyone or anything that was lurking in the dark.
There was no one.
'I will not ask again.' The voice spoke. 'Do you want to become human?'
Hope nodded his head vigorously.
'Are you sure? There is no turning back.'
Once again, Hope nodded.
'Okay.'
Hope waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. He sighed in disappointment and returned his head down, slowly falling asleep.
In the middle of the night, his scales glowed.
Everyone was already sleeping, and the glowing of Hope's scales didn't cause any other reaction. No spike in his aura, no sound, he just lightly glowed.
His body was covered entirely by the light before it faded.
In the morning, Lance was about to hug his large dragon pet when he was greeted by a light snore. He opened his eyes, rubbing it after what he saw.
The entire forest was filled with an echoing scream afterward.
