Still the same old saying: a Necromancer without undead to protect them is nothing but a sitting duck.
“You actually dare steal my things! Give them back to me!”
Interrupted mid-spell, the Lich, furious, tried to rush forward to snatch it back, but was startled into stopping by Gernasa’s dragon-like, intimidating glare.
Knowing full well that, in his current state, he was absolutely no match for them, the Lich turned to flee at once.
“Damn it, this red dragon is strange—I need to regroup, then go all out and kill them!”
But by the time he realized this, it was already too late.
“Trying to run? Do you really think you can get away? Get back here!”
With a sudden leap, Gernasa lunged right in front of him and landed another solid slap across his face.
He sent the Lich flying back to the ground, slamming him hard into the earth, pinning his body firmly beneath a dragon claw, making escape impossible.
“Talk! Will you talk or not! Huh?! Are you gonna say it or not, you bastard?!”
Slap after slap landed on the Lich’s face, leaving him completely dumbfounded.
“What do you want me to say?! At least ask a question!”
“Don’t tell me you can’t figure it out yourself, and need me to ask? Not gonna talk, huh? Ah da!”
Next to them, Ash looked on helplessly and poked Gernasa.
“What are you trying to make him say? The way out?”
“Yeah, but I’ll beat him up first. Let him think twice about scaring us.”
After replying to Ash, he turned right back and continued the beating—clearly, it was on purpose.
Realizing what Gernasa wanted to know, the Lich immediately shouted,
“If you want to get out, I can lead you! Just stop hitting me!”
Damn red dragon! You’d better not stop the attack, or if I get a chance to catch my breath, we’ll see who survives!
However, Gernasa really did give in.
“Who told you to answer before I even asked? You’re begging for a beating! Taste my fire-powered slap, level eighteen!”
Weren’t you the one telling me to take the hint?
Gernasa opened his mouth and spat a bit of dragon breath onto his paw; fire fused into the slap, disinfecting as he hit.
At last, the Lich, unable to take any more, could only beg for mercy:
“Stop! Stop! If you keep going, I’ll die!”
“Nonsense, why else would I be beating you if not to kill you? Ash, little sis, you two smack him a few times too, vent your anger. Once you’re done, send him on his way. If we kill him, we can find the array’s core ourselves. If we let him lead, who knows if he’ll lead us to our deaths.”
Hearing Gernasa’s intent to kill him, the Lich was finally enraged.
“You’re despicable! You forced me to this!”
With a roar, his hand gripped the ground tightly.
Suddenly, the surrounding fog thickened so much you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face, and the Lich beneath their feet vanished into the mist.
His arrogant voice echoed from all directions:
“Tremble in fear! Quake in terror! This is a forbidden technique I didn’t want to use! But you forced my hand!”
Clearly, this was a powerful spell that came at a heavy cost—he’d been truly pushed to the edge.
Haunting shrieks rose from the fog, and countless figures appeared in the mist.
The Necromancer had hidden himself in the darkness and successfully summoned a horde of undead. Now the situation had changed.
At that moment, Gernasa breathed out a gout of dragonfire, clearing an open area around them and using the burning flames to get a better look at their surroundings.
A dense mass of zombies and skeletons stood all around, their eyes shining with eerie red and green lights.
Wraiths floated through the air—though all low-level undead, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.
“Ash, you and little sis hold them off with me. Use that clever head of yours to think of a solution.”
Red and gold dragonfire continuously spewed from Gernasa and Karu’s mouths, holding back the undead army for the time being.
But the effect was minimal—their power as dragon whelps was too limited for large-scale magic. The undead kept slowly pressing in.
“Hahaha! This is the price for insulting me! If you beg now and willingly become my slaves, I might graciously leave you your minds. But the last one to beg, I’ll peel the flesh from their bones alive to feed my undead!”
The Lich’s arrogant voice echoed all around, but now was no time to bother with him.
Just as the undead were about to overwhelm them, Ash seemed to have an idea and shouted to Gernasa:
“Give me that guy’s staff!”
“Catch!”
The withered wooden staff landed beside Ash. She picked it up in her dragon claw and slammed it onto the ground.
A faint circle of purple light spread out from the staff.
“All right, it’s handled.”
Ash’s tone was visibly relieved—and sure enough,
All the undead suddenly lost their targets, standing dazed and motionless.
“Nice work, Ash! But how does it work?”
“This staff is his usual weapon and carries the same aura as these undead. I used it to cast a simple barrier spell, so now the undead can only sense similar auras inside the barrier and have lost their targets.”
“You can do that?”
Not only Gernasa, but even the Lich hiding in the shadows was stunned. His staff, just stolen from him, had so neatly turned his undead horde into nothing more than decorations.
“How can a white dragon be so clever? Is that even right?”
With a sigh of relief, Karu’s anger flared first. She pointed skyward and ranted,
“You rotten thing, just wait! When I get back, I’ll bring dragons to deal with you, you son of a bitch!”
Gernasa was shocked: “Uh? Little sis, where’d you learn that?”
Ash silently shot Gernasa a sidelong glance, saying nothing: →_→
The Lich froze, too—in truth, he was terrified.
He knew just how protective gold dragons were of their own, otherwise he wouldn’t have confronted them directly. If they were all chromatic dragons, he would’ve long since summoned his undead army and attacked from the shadows, not waited until now.
But thinking it over, it was already a do-or-die situation. Might as well go all out!
“You really think any of this matters now? You want out? I’ll kill all of you first and vent my rage!”
As soon as he finished, his muttered incantations resumed, and violent surges of energy showed he was summoning even more powerful undead.
The fog grew denser still, and it became impossible to see anything at all.
“Ah! You’re terrible!”
Fright turned to anger—Karu, nearly crazed, began spewing dragon breath everywhere.
Though her golden orbs of light could briefly disperse some of the fog, it always closed in again quickly—completely ineffective.
“This is the price you all deserve! Especially you, red dragon—kneel and kowtow now, and I’ll grant you a swift death. Otherwise, experience the taste of your flesh slowly gnawed away by death itself!”
Gernasa showed no reaction, eyes locked on the surroundings.
He squinted, trying to spot the enemy’s true body.
Karu’s golden dragon breath momentarily tore through the mist, its glow illuminating their foe.
Sure enough—found him!
A concentrated beam of flame shot from Gernasa’s mouth through a small magic circle, striking its target.
But the sound was off—it was like hitting a wall; the enemy had put up a shield.
Undying fire clung to the barrier, burning with a vivid glow in the fog.
Then came a cold snort from the enemy:
“Heh, you actually found me? Interesting. But do you really think your attacks can hurt me now? I admit, you’re strong—if you were that gold dragon, I might be afraid. But too bad, you’re not.”
Hearing this, Gernasa looked surprised.
Oh, so if I’d used gold dragon breath just now, I could have hurt him? Looks like I can’t keep holding back.
Quietly, Gernasa switched his breath weapon—this was his Hero ability, the golden dragon breath skill he’d just acquired.
Just then, the Lich’s voice rang out again:
“My grand magic is nearly complete. Damned red dragon, any last words?”
Before he finished, a massive golden orb of light silently formed in the mist and shot toward the glowing spot in the sky.
Boom——
After the violent explosion, through the clearing made by the blast, something could be seen falling from the air.
Then, from the mist, Gernasa’s voice came:
“Hit him! Nice one, little sis!”
Karu: “Huh?”