The blue dragon shrieked in agony as its health dropped down to 2,075 points. That was plenty of damage to dish out in a short amount of time. Its confidence dropped and it began to snap and hiss some more. It was backing up with each step, however. In the most literal sense, the creature was backing itself into a corner. It had crawled back to where the band had been playing and there was nowhere left for it to go.
Van sharply glanced behind him to see that the rest of the Iron Dragons were engaged in a furious battle. Jet, Bidane, and Fredlin were all locked into combat with two of the yellow dragons, and he could see dozens of soldiers hanging from the backs of both enemy dragons, using their hook systems to stay on. The green dragon was on the ground, dead, but there were a great many of Van's teammates who'd also been killed in the effort. Fortunately, Draco hadn't activated the reality zone system yet, so he knew these players would just respawn somewhere else.
"Should we leave it?" Sang asked as the dragon let out another cautionary shriek. "I'm willing to bet it'll be eight times more fierce since we have it cornered."
"If we leave it alive, it'll keep trying to kill us," Van said as he turned to face the monster. "We can't afford losing more people. Those yellow twins are being held back now, and the Emperor is still unreachable without Jet's help. Let's finish it off."
"Now we're talking!" Sahara said as she raised her trident high. "Let's show these lizard bastards that we mean business!"
"Damn straight!" Van said as he grabbed Sahara's trident. "But I’m taking this."
"Awww, why?" Sahara asked as she released it.
"Because my Fierce Rage will let me bypass its damage reduction," Van said as he eyed the clock. The Rage was down to only 8 minutes of runtime now. The moment that rage ended, he would be useless for the rest of this fight unless Bidane could cast her Holy Restoration spell on him.
"Go for it!" Sahara cheered as Van looked at the two and nodded. He locked eyes with the monster and saw that it was prepared to fight to the bitter end.
He narrowed his eyes and whispered, "This one's for Kylian." With that, Van rushed at full speed towards the dragon, activating his Berserk Charge ability. This would double any charge damage and, with the trident's spearing bonus, he would be doing triple damage. He was moving fast, too, but the dragon decided to change its tactics. It began to float in the air, its stubby wings beating rapidly.
Van kept on running, and just waited for the right moment. As the dragon took off to fly away from him, he leapt up with all of his might, allowing the Fierce Rage strength bonus to increase his leaping distance. As he lunged upwards, he extended his spear as far as it was going to go. The trident's prongs crashed into the soft underbelly of the blue dragon. The words Critical Hit! Lethal Blow hovered above Van's head as he heard the creature let out another shriek. This time the shriek was one of pure agony, and they both came crashing to the ground. Van landed with ease, but was unable to roll out of the way as the body of the short, square dragon landed atop him.
"Van!" Sang shouted. "Are you alive?"
Van felt the pressure of the creature on him, but his increased strength made it relatively easy for him to throw the beast off to the side. He stood triumphantly as dragon blood poured down his face like sweat. He placed his fingers on his hands and smeared the blood across his entire face. Then he turned to look at the Emperor, who was watching him with extreme curiosity.
"I'm coming for you next!" Van shouted as he triumphantly held up his trident. "You think I'm scared of you? You think you're going to win this one? Think again!"
"What are you waiting for?" the Emperor bellowed back. Van thought he could hear a quiver in the voice of the beast, but he was unsure. "I’m up here. Come and show me what you're made of."
"Sang, I need to get up there, and quickly!" Van said as he pointed to the Emperor. He was hovering well above 100 feet, making it impossible to reach him without flight.
"We searched hard, but we could only get one Potion of Flight," Sang said. "It was made by a very low-level wizard, though."
"Does that matter?" Van asked as he held out his blood-drenched hand for the potion.
"It lasts 30 seconds," Sang replied as she took out a glowing purple bottle.
"That's enough for me to reach him," Van said. "And that's all I need."
"Well, good luck then," Sang said as she tossed the bottle to Van. He nodded at her and took a deep breath, then uncorked the bottle and swigged the potion.
Flight Enabled said the UI system as it informed him that he had a flight speed rating of 10 and a flight duration of exactly 30 seconds. There was no time for him to shout out any orders; instead, Van flew upwards as fast as he could. Fortunately, the potion's flight speed was high enough for him to be able to reach the draconic Emperor.
"You really think that you can kill me, don't you?" the Emperor boomed as it unleashed another torrent of flames towards Van. Thanks to his flight speed, however, he was able to dodge out of the way. He darted toward the beast's back, his right hand grabbing another hook from his belt.
"I don't think I can kill you," Van said. "I know I can!"
"This is why I like you humans!" the Emperor replied as it slashed its claws at Van, turning to prevent him from reaching its back. "Even in spite of your lack of power, you remain cocky and crazy." The dragon's claws raked hard against Van's flesh.
"Argh!" Van gasped as the words 250 damage hovered above his head. But while that had been a solid hit, Van knew that the Emperor was still holding back. This whole thing was nothing more than a game to him. Perhaps the Emperor was still counting on Van joining him.
Despite the blow, Van managed to throw his hook through one of the small holes in the dragon's wings. These holes were on just about every dragon's wings, and were probably designed to help the wings be more aerodynamic. He had played a dragon hunting campaign back when he'd been Sivlander, though, and knew the ins and outs of killing a dragon. The only problem was that he had never killed a dragon as big and as strong as the Emperor.
Right as the hook snagged the wing, the words Spell Effect: Flight has expired hovered in front of him. He grabbed the rope and swung down as gravity began to work on him again, dragging him down. The speed of the fall gave him enough momentum to swing around the red dragon and land atop its back, though. And with his warhammer at the ready, he gave a tremendous heave and swung it hard against the right wing of the Emperor. Joint Strike 500 damage hovered above the dragon.
"So, you know where to hit a dragon, do you?" the Emperor shouted as he thrashed around. Despite his intimidating size, he couldn't maneuver his arms behind his back on account of the fact that he was a dragon and didn't have such flexibility.
"Well, I've killed plenty of your kind before!" Van shouted back as he wound up his hammer for another swing. The timer on his Fierce Rage was dropping down now, and once it reached zero, Van knew he would be out of the fight for a few minutes. Would he be able to kill the Emperor before that happened?
"Hahaha, do your worst!" the Emperor called out. The dragon next shouted out in an ancient tongue that caused his skin to rapidly turn into stone. Van swung his hammer again, smashing against the stony coating that had wrapped around the wings. Despite being made of skin, the dragon continued to fly.
Critical Damage prevented by spell 100 damage reported the UI. Crap. Even with Van's Fierce Rage, an extra buff spell would prevent him from doing special damage to weak spots.
"Fredlin!" Van shouted at the top of his lungs. "I need a dispel, now!"