Badge in Azure

Chapter 1416: Result of Clashing Head-on (Part 1)

“They’re here…” That was the only thing the skeletal dragon said when it looked at the sky.

It seemed as if it had anticipated one such day. Humans and magic beasts were being snatched up from nearby within its bone lair and used as construction materials. The lower half of the skeletal dragon already had scales and claws. The bones were no longer seen on the outside, a result of absorbing energy from living beings in an attempt to recover their bodies when they were alive.

Though a powerful spirit, the skeletal dragon still had considerable weaknesses compared to living dragons. If it had been able to regain its flesh and blood, returning to life effectively, its combat capacity would have eclipsed that of normal dragons.

This hadn’t happened in hundreds of millions of years, though, simply because it wasn’t permissible in the dragon plane.

The skeletal dragon was currently a being of the highest power on Myers Mainland. Without any restraints to keep its behavior in check, this spirit had become rather bold with its actions, posing challenges and opportunities to both the skeletal dragon and Myers Mainland. With such a powerful body and soul, it would have triggered an early advancement for Myers Mainland as a whole once it broke through its limits.

Were that to happen, it would become the most commanding presence on the entire Myers Mainland. It would no longer have to seal itself inside Alchemy City, and it would have been able to roam the lands freely. If the opportunity presented itself, it was thinking about establishing a kingdom of spirits there.

Doing so, however, would have drawn the ire of the native powerful beings. But then again, the skeletal dragon feared nothing: It would have even offended the gods if that meant being able to advance to higher levels.

No living beings would have wanted to live a mundane existence for the rest of their lives.

Saleen brought Rafel and released the weapon spirit of the magic amplifier in secret as they gradually landed.

All magic cannons on the Floating City were aimed at Saleen’s surroundings. They would have fired as soon as the skeletal dragon attacked Saleen, thereby creating openings for him.

Saleen dropped to a height of about 200 meters before stopping. That was the limit of the skeletal dragon’s physical attack range. It could launch attacks at about 200 meters, a result acquired from Saleen’s own calculations. Nothing could be done about that. Even true mages would have only been able to attack targets slightly more than 100 meters away. Beyond that, they would have to resort to sword-aura attacks, since closing in on their targets right away would have been nearly impossible.

The physical attack range of the skeletal dragon had exceeded that of level-12 true mages.

Saleen noticed the flesh and blood that had grown in the lower half of the dragon’s body. There were still half-dead humans in the lair. They were outraged at the dragon for having their flesh and blood and souls sucked away. But then again, since humans had a habit of tearing magic beasts apart, Saleen wouldn’t have lost his cool because of that alone. There was nothing to be had between the two of them. He had originally intended to subjugate the skeletal dragon but from the look of things, it had developed a will of its own; having to submit to humans would have been nearly impossible.

Free will was borne out of the power of the soul. If that happened before the power of the soul was manifested, it would have meant that the souls of those living beings were incredibly powerful.

Saleen gave up in a heartbeat and no longer bothered with words. He fired a lightning icicle right at the skeletal dragon’s eye socket. There was no way he could have gotten a lock-on at the dragon but since the dragon’s head was so huge, to begin with, Saleen would have never missed it even if hadn’t been an archer.

Hundreds of wisps of viridian phosphorous fire shot from the dragon’s eyes, blocking the lightning icicle’s attack trajectory. It was a snap judgment of the skeletal dragon, a testament to its ability to stay alive, in a sense, for as long as it did. No doubt its combat experience was thousands of times richer than Saleen’s.

It was worth noting that the skeletal dragon had been very weak when it was born and was in constant pain. The pride of the dragons gradually wore down. A yearning for the future and a reluctance to let go of the past were such that the skeletal dragon’s soul fire was in a constant torturous state.

Any skeletal dragon able to stay intact in the midst of all that pain must have had strong willpower and power of the soul, possibly even stronger than dragons. Skeletal dragons, however, were weaker since they lacked flesh and blood, making casting dragon-tongue magic difficult. Worse still, they had lost the ability to use the dragon’s breath, which robbed them of a common and frequently used skill.

When Saleen launched a forceful attack out of the blue, the skeletal dragon could only spit out the equipment it had been crafted to resist, because of having an incomplete body. Unlike common mages who lacked knowledge of uncommon magic, it fired dragon-scale fire it had gathered right away after seeing the eerie lightning magic patterns on Saleen’s icicle.

Dragon scales were not the hardest thing in the world, but they were capable of burning. The amount of energy packed inside was frightening. The lightning icicle shot downwards and tore through over 100 wisps of fires, giving the dragon a colossal headache.

The dragon scales were mostly gathered from when it was still alive, with a handful gathered from the dragons hunting it down. The skeletal dragon dared not return to the dragon plane, hence the number of scales it was able to gather was small.

Seeing how the use dragon-scale fires came with a hefty cost, the skeletal dragon spit out a longsword from its mouth. It was a dragon fang sword, not something crafted out of its own fang; it was fashioned from a fang from one of the dragons hunting it.

Saleen’s second lightning icicle rammed onto the sword, which had a tiny crack formed with a clink, which in turn was quickly repaired. The lightning icicle that was repelled spun around and still headed for the skeletal dragon.

It was petrified. Anything capable of damaging dragon fangs was made of the hardest material in the world. The level of the icicle the mage fired was absurd. If it were to simply remain on the defensive, it would have probably lost the fight.

Without hesitation, the skeletal dragon unleashed its territory right away.

World of Spirits!

Saleen released his lightning territory and contracted it, sending it inside the World of Spirits.

The skeletal dragon’s World of Spirits was not a huge one, because it had been used to amplify its power. The area within a four-kilometer radius was shrouded in its territory. A moon, which appeared in the sky all of a sudden, resembled the eerie moon in the spirit plane. It looked like a perfect circle yet it lacked a living, fiery presence.

Half the power of the moon came from the sun. The fires of the sun were easiest to absorb by elemental mages, even in the middle of the night. That was not how things were in the spirit plane. The power of the sun was extremely weak, and the moon had more power of rules instead, which made it all the more suitable for use of powers of the spirits.

With the moon’s emergence, Saleen felt as if his territory had been weakened. Despite having contracted it to a 100-meter radius, his territory was hardly of any use.

The damned skeletal dragon had sealed its own power beyond level-13 and still packs this much punch with its territory?!

That was pure, overwhelming power. While the moon’s power of rules paled in comparison to that of lightning, the problem was that the skeletal dragon itself had far higher power than Saleen.

This is going to take forever!

Saleen unleashed Fluorescence, which exploded in the air. The pumped-up warriors and mages charged outside the Baldur’s Gate and headed straight for the other corners of Alchemy City.

There were still untold numbers of half-dead beings lurking about in Alchemy City; all of them were the skeletal dragon’s lackeys. What Saleen was doing there effectively was clipping the skeletal dragon’s wings.

It refocused all its attention on Saleen. There was no need for it to be concerned with rescuing its lackeys. Only those capable of staying alive would have what it takes to serve it. It was a testament to the World of Spirit’s brutality.

“You have a lot of help, mage. But you are weak,” the skeletal dragon looked at the sky and said.

Rafel appeared at Saleen’s side, holding a green spear in her hand. The divine power of the Inferno Spear was inadequate for taking on beings of levels like the skeletal dragon.

Sika wanted to attack but was forbidden by Saleen. Her metal totem pole was definitely capable of hurting the skeletal dragon, but Sika would have put herself at risk doing so. Saleen was done putting Sika in any danger due solely to wanting to secure victories.

The weapon spirit of the magic amplifier hid behind Saleen and dared not attack on its own. It was unsure if the skeletal dragon was even aware of its existence. As far as guts were concerned, they paled in comparison to its master.

Saleen grinned slyly. The dragon spoke to him—an act saying that the skeletal dragon was unsure of itself. He did not bother replying, opening the eyes of the Figure of Fate instead.

The power of the Signet of Silence was brought to the fore. The skeletal dragon felt as if everything had grinded to a halt, just like during its death…

The glory when it was still alive!

The skeletal dragon let out a terrifying roar and spit another piece of equipment from its mouth: a huge ax and a weapon of some unknown god, emanating might that would have made opponents shiver.

The skeletal dragon died fighting the gods. It had absorbed some of the gods’ power at the time of its death so that it could be converted to a spirit.

It still possessed the memories from when it was alive, which stayed intact even after its conversion to its current form was completed. It served as both its source of power and its source of pain.

That ax was something left behind by a god it killed, which was also the most powerful equipment in the skeletal dragon’s possession. Saleen possessed special weapons that put the skeletal dragon on guard.

Using the Signet of Silence, he could pinpoint the skeletal dragon’s weakness in a second.

The skeletal dragon’s weakness did not lie within the soul fire in its eyes. Saleen was startled to discover yet another soul inside the skeletal dragon’s body. That was something the skeletal dragon had conjured on its own. Ah, it wanted to resurrect itself!

Rafel came before Saleen and thrust her spear. Hundreds of intense sonic booms were heard. That ax was knocked off by Rafel’s spear and returned to the dragon’s mouth.

Rafel’s face turned pale, and she almost lost feeling in one of her arms.

Saleen took the chance and fired the five remaining lightning icicles into the skeletal dragon’s eye sockets in one go. While it was not a location that would have proven lethal, he had no intention of exposing the fact that he knew of the dragon’s weakness.

The skeletal dragon was simply too powerful. His Signet of Silence was unable to even slow the dragon down for more than six frames.

The 200-meter distance was closed in at the greatest speed Saleen was able to muster. Still, it could not get within the required range of four frames. With the additional two frames required to cast magic, it made slaying the skeletal dragon difficult even with the Crystal Finger.

It was only then that Saleen realized that equipment was not all that reliable when facing off against super-powerful beings.

His Signet of Silence was practically “against the rules” for being able to stop time and locate enemy weaknesses in an instant. That, coupled with his forceful methods of assault, would have enabled him to do almost anything. However, the dragon’s ring of defense was right outside the range of his attacks.

If he were to not use the Crystal Finger, the skeletal dragon would have had numerous ways of evading Saleen’s attack from a distance. That soul within its body was not something Saleen could have targeted at a given moment.

Many of Saleen’s attacks would have hurt the skeletal dragon. But if he were to kill it outright, it would have been able to overwhelm and crush Saleen nonetheless even when beaten half to death.

Not only did that huge ax fend off Rafel’s attacks, it also blocked the remaining five lightning icicles. Saleen came to realize that the only things he had to kill the skeletal dragon with were ball lightning and his family badge.

He never expected that, despite having avoided using that piece of equipment. In the end, he had to use it.