Chapter 46: Escalation!

The dragon stood high on top of a peak, his gaze looking downward. A Group of heavy quipped men in rune-covered armour marched through the narrow mountain passage. Snow-covered peaks stood on both sides of the path, wind loudly howling through it. The steps of their armoured boots kept clinging as they hit rocks. Between them were fur-covered four-legged animals with long horns on their head dragging giant ballistae behind them. They marched without talking and steadily. Behind them, an even bigger group of people in miscellaneous equipment followed. They were loudly speaking between themself. They had glowing nametags above their heads, marking them as players.

The dragon on top of the peak frowned, 'What is this shit? It looks like they refused to retreat and decided to avenge their fallen. On top of that, lots of local players joined them.'

His frown, however, soon turned into a grin, 'Sadly for them, they are now in terrain advantageous to me. I can harass them and use mountains as a cover.'

At first, Vesuvius wanted to laugh at the human irrationality of wanting to risk their lives just to avenge their comrades; however, he bit into his tongue, 'I can't laugh at them; dragons are doing even more stupid stuff when influenced by their emotions.'

The dragon opened his mouth, and the sphere of fire began to condense, quickly growing in diameter. The dragon careful aimed his head at the heavily armoured group under him and launched the ball of magma out, letting it fly towards the advancing hunters and players.

"Shit, we are under attack! Disperse!" One of the hunters, vigilantly looking around through the surroundings, pointed at the incoming ball of magma. Hunters with tower shields quickly walked towards the incoming fireball and braced for impact. A layer of magical energy quickly spread and covered their shields. In the meantime, other hunters ran for their ballistae or grabbed massive crossbows fastened on their backs.

The fireball reached their formation, erupting upon contact with the shields, splashing hot magma everywhere. A wave of heat spread around, the hunter's armour turning red from the heat. Then the runes on the armour glowed, reducing their injuries.

[+160XP]

[+150XP]

"It is that murderous wyrm!" one of the players pointed at the column of smoke rising from one of the hills to their side.

Hunters and players immediately unleashed a swarm of bolts, spells and arrows. All of them flew straight towards the dragon. However, the dragon suddenly landed, hiding behind the massive rock. All of the projectiles hit it, unleashing a small swarm of multicoloured explosions.

'I have probably one more shot before they prepare their ballistae.'

A new magma sphere started growing in the dragon's mouth, and then a square-shaped magical diagram formed inside his mouth in front of the growing sphere. That was one of the improvements Vesuvius learned during his practice of combo magic.

'I don't need to cast the second spell right from the beginning. I can cast it when the first phase is close to being finished.'

The dragon flapped his wings rising above the rocks once again. Then he opened his mouth, and a spike of super dense magma flew out, heading towards one of the ballistae. It flew even faster than a bolt fired from ballistae, reaching it so fast that the hunters and the players only managed to catch a glimpse of it.

One of the ballistae exploded in flames as the magma drilled through it and continued deep into the ground under it.

"What the hell was that?" both players and the hunters looked in confusion at the burning remains of the ballista.

"I never saw drake perform this kind of attack... I guess it is not elder wyrm just for nothing."

The other two ballistae already aimed at the dragon, and two glowing bolts fired towards him, whistling as they flew through the air.

The dragon tilted his wings, letting the bolts pass by him. However, experienced hunters fired the third bolt with a delay just a moment later towards his new position. It flew fast and hit the dragon straight into his armoured chest. The amulet on the dragon's neck glowed, and a barrier that kept moving like flames appeared right in front of the bolt just as it was to touch the volcanic armour. The bolt hit it, melting into a lump of molten metal that slid off the surface of the barrier, harmlessly falling towards the ground.

The dragon flapped his wings and flew around the peak, using it as a cover to fly towards his original destination. Leaving the oblivious hunters to their own devices.

He reached the mountains and forest borders using air currents to soar through the air. There were three players sitting on top of a rock.

When they spotted the incoming dragon, they hurriedly jumped from the rock and straightened as if meeting their boss.

All three of them immediately started to shout at the same time. Still, with the dragon's amazing hearing, he could easily distinguish what all three of them were saying.

"Your draconic highness, something happened!"

"Ohh, something happened in the towns!"

"Your draconic highness, the trouble is coming!"

Vesuvius wanted to shout back, but he remembered to speak more quietly to prevent someone unintended from hearing him, so he spoke more quietly, "Quiet down, minions! Speak one at a time and be calm!"

The three players immediately started to bicker, poking each other and unleashing a storm of obscene words, until Lili walked forwards and spoke, "You, draconic highness. After you attacked the hunter's camp, some of the players wanted to slay you as a murderer! However, the second group of players stood against them, saying that you were just defending yourself. In the end, they started a brawl in the middle of the square. Plenty of civilians died and caused big material damage. Then the baron who already hated you arrested all of the players that stood for you and threw them into a jail!"

The dragon opened his mouth in a grin, orange light visible through the smoke startling the three players, 'This is a great opportunity. If I free them, their opinion of me will rise. On top of that, I already have terrible relations with that baron, so I will not lose anything, as long as I will keep collateral damage to a minimum to not cause public ire towards me.'

"In that case, I great Vesuvius will save them! Everyone who fights for me deserves good treatment!"

All three players immediately became excited. The one called BoobaFet swinging his spear as if already stabbing enemies.