Chapter 1707: Lindwurm Slaying - Nepherage

[Lava Lance!]

After declaring the name of the aether art, I concentrated Terraqi and Ignarii aether into my palm before shaping the energies into the shape of a spear and solidifying it into molten lava.

With a roar, I threw the lance as hard as I could at the Citrine-Horn Lindwurm, nailing it’s side as it had its attention focused on Slug-at-Arms and Terra.

A roar of pain rumbled out of its mouth at the sudden attack, while the aforementioned duo of warriors turned towards me with surprised expressions.

Their surprise turned to smiles of relief once they realized who it was that saved their hides.

[Lady Nepherage! It’s good to see you!]

[Likewise, Terra!]

[See, little lady? I told you that my letter would arrive in the nick of time,] Slug-at-Arms bragged with a small hint of pride.

Unfortunately, this proved to be Slug-at-Arms’ downfall.

Whilst acting smug about his idea, the Citrine-Horn Lindwurm recovered just enough to concentrate dragon force into its claws and kick up a boulder of dirt directly at Slug-at-Arms.

"Look out!"

However, before the boulder of dirt could get a chance to smash into Slug-at-Arms and deal some serious damage due to the dragon force laced inside it, Terra managed to react in time and pull Slug-at-Arms out of the way as she descended to the ground.

This, however, meant that the boulder of dirt was now heading straight towards me.

[Shit!]

Before the boulder could have a chance in walloping me, I channeled aether and [Chaos] into my palm in order to catch the boulder and prevent it from possibly exploding.

The dragon force inside of it caused my hands to feel like they were cracking for a moment before I had a chance to fully push back with my innate fire attributes.

[Fucking hate dragon force.] I muttered under my breath as the pain of my own hand cracking began to subside through my efforts.

Once the pain had fully disappeared, and I could sense that the dragon force in the boulder had also gone the way of the dodo, I refilled the boulder with my own [Chaos] and aether before throwing it right back at the Citrine-Horn Lindwurm.

As the boulder sailed through the air, my influence began to take effect.

The dirt began to turn red and warm before fully transforming into molten lava covered in obsidian spikes.

The lindwurm looked surprised at my reversal of its attack, but only for a brief moment.

The beast snarled and snorted before swinging its lower half like a whip and smashing the molten lava boulder into a mess...or so it thought.

I had purposely made the boulder softer than it appeared, making it so that when the scaly fucker swung around its tail, it would actually get stuck.

By the time it realized what had happened, the lindwurm had already completed the arc and slammed its tail into the ground along with the boulder of molten rock.

It was now, for all intents and purposes, stuck in place by a giant glob of rapidly cooling lava rocks and pierced by a thousand obsidian spikes.

Needless to say, the giant bastard lizard didn’t appreciate being pinned down in such a manner.

[That’s not going to hold him down for long,] I informed Slug-at-Arms and Terra through our mental link. [Is there anything weird about this dragon I should know about? I’ve been getting a weird feeling this whole time.]

The aforementioned warriors from the Abyssal Lands had recovered from the dodge at this point and were gearing up for another round against the Citrine-Horn Lindwurm.

...Conversation time...

[Remember when I wrote that some crazy bitch had been subjugating the tribes in the Echoing Valley? That lindwurm is one of the reasons why,] Slug-at-Arms explained. [That crazy bitch got all sorts of aether treasures and tamed aether beasts that put our liege’s clan to shame.]

[Incorrect assessment,] Terra corrected. [Her method of controlling her beasts is crude and cruel at best. At least the Zhen Clan treats their beasts with dignity.]

[Does that mean I shouldn’t put this dragon down?]

[No,] Terra answered, surprising me. [She has blatant favoritism, and this lindwurm is one of her favorite pets. Hence the collar.]

[Maximum effort, got it...anything else?]

[It has a really strong hide, so we think the only way to deal actual damage is to attack its internals,] Slug-at-Arms answered. [We haven’t asked the curators yet because of fear of interference.]

[Meh, we’ll find out the old-fashioned way.]

...Conversation over...

[Want me to take the opening shot?] I asked.

[Let me!]

Before either I or Slug-at-Arms could protest for the right to attack first, Terra charged in ahead of us.

She was fully decked out in her [Regalia] and had her [Astra] at the ready, so I wasn’t too concerned about her getting injured. Especially since she was the only one among who was a Strangeblood.

[Maelstrom Rush!]

Terra wrapped herself in the whips and wires that was her [Astra], mimicking the shape of a giant eel before charging towards the Citrine-Horn Lindwurm in a cloak of lighting, wind, and torrential rain.

The lindwurm let out an angry roar, one that made it clear it didn’t appreciate that its prey weren’t dying like they were supposed to, and swung one of its massive claws in an attempt to knock Terra out of the air.

I could tell from its movements that it wanted to use its tail again but stopped once it remembered that it was pinned to the ground.

The claw missed as Terra swam like an eel through the air and slammed right into the lindwurm’s torso, staggering it in the process.

Unfortunately, due to the laws of dragon force, the attack didn’t do any fatal damage.

Shortly after the staggering action, though, Slug-at-Arms followed suit with a plunging attack from above.

[Chaos Art Mimic: Smashing Shell!]

Slug-at-Arm’s body became enveloped in the shadowy auras of a giant turtle kaijin and a crab kaijin at the same time as he dove down while swinging his weapon like it was a hammer.

The shadowy warriors slammed into the lindwurm’s back and caused the beast to involuntarily buck and screech.

And this was the moment where I could finally get involved.

Leaping into the air, I began to concentrate enough fire aether and [Chaos] in my fist to cause my entire arm to glow with light and heat.

It seemed weird to slay a dragon with fire of all elements, but this Lindwurm was technically an Earth-aligned aether beast and could technically match or overpower my own Terraqi aether. As such, using just pure firepower was the natural choice.

Besides, I didn’t want to cause too much damage to the lindwurm’s body if I could help it.

I still needed to present a trophy to milord later.

The Citrine-Horn Lindwurm couldn’t react or bite down fast enough to prevent me from jamming my burning fist down its throat, and I could tell from the rumbling of the muscle in the mouth that my fire fist must’ve stung like a bitch. On the downside, it’s dragon force-infused saliva stung like acid against my skin.

Thankfully, I was made of stern stuff, and I wasn’t going to be keeping my fist down its throat for long.

[Inferno Wave!]

This aether art was usually used to create a blast of flame in wave-like formation, meant to scorch multiple opponents at once or confound singular enemies during a duel.

Concentrated down a giant dragon’s throat, though?

This was kind of the equivalent of forcing a firecracker down a guy’s throat and lighting the fuse...after enhancing the payload with a lot of napalm.

In other words, this hulking behemoth was about to resemble a roasted newt more than a noble dragon!

Searing hot flames shot out of my closed fist, and I could feel the cooking and carbonizing of the flesh of the lindwurm from the inside out.

As the fires burned, I could feel the life of the lindwurm burn away as well.

The beast thrashed and flailed with so much force and fury that I had to cling on for quite some time while Terra and Slug-at-Arms were sent flying off in opposite directions.

[Just die already!] I cursed at the dragon beast as it kept flailing while my flames kept scorching its insides.

Eventually, though, the lindwurm finally did die.

A weak roar escaped its lips, or perhaps it was the sound of carbonized organs scrapped against each other as the Citrine-Horn Lindwurm flopped to the ground.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I extracted my fist from the lindwurm’s mouth.

[Oh...shit.]

My arm looked partially melted from my rather violent action; thankfully, it wasn’t permanent... I think.

[I really hope milord isn’t in the middle of anything that requires his right arm not feeling like it got melted by acid...]I muttered to myself, a habit I picked up from my aforementioned lord. [I guess ther reward was worth it, though...]

I really hope Milord finds this corpse as satisfactory compensation for possibly melting his arm...