Chapter 131

Might of a Dragon (I)

Cain roared, as did the King Albadesh, the two ascending even further up, beyond the scope of others to follow. Cain’s group remained aground, their gazes fixated on the world beyond -- even though they couldn’t see what was happening beyond the thundering, ashen-gray clouds, their fingers still curled up into fists as a form of cheering and praying for his success.

As soon as Cain ascended, his sight was marred by several new notifications that he quickly read through before focusing back on the King.

//You have temporarily absorbed the Might of a Dragon!

Your Main Stats have been tripled!

All Magic damage you receive will be weakened by 65%!

You gain temporary access to two new skills: Dragon's Breath(???) and Dragon's Roar (???). Each Skill, due to your level, will immediately consume ALL of your Mana and 60% of your total Vitality (if there is not enough Vitality, there is a chance of death)

All your Blessings still apply -- but the duration is now at 15 minutes!

Once 15 minutes have passed, you will lose the Blessings as well as the Might of a Dragon and entered a weakened state for a period of 3 months, with all of your stats reduced by 50%.

...

Quest ‘Servant of the Council’ has been updated to ‘Stopping the Damned’

Update: You have cleverly seen through King Albadesh’s ploy and thwarted his plans to use the Phantom Dragon as a sacrifice to his Overlords. That is not the end, however; you must now defeat the King and once and for all purge the world of his evil!

Requirements: Blessed by the Dragon

Rewards: ‘Slayer of the Kings’ (Legendary) Title, a Classless Skill of your choosing, +5 Levels, +20% to maximum Mana, +100% to Mana Regeneration, +10% to Vitality, ‘Halo of Divinity(SS+)’

Good luck!!//

Cain quickly dismissed the notification screens and took a deep breath, noting the rage inside the King’s now-reddened eyes. He immediately used an active portion of the ‘Orb of Deception’, conjuring up a mist made of three elements, Wind, Nature, and Aether that hid him from the King. The mist spread out for four hundred feet, completely encapsulating him as he also activated his cloak’s special ability, increasing his speed by 80% for 5 seconds.

Not wanting to hold anything back, and determined to end the battle as quickly as physically possible, he also immediately entered ‘Cosmic State’ by activating Avatar, Mana Burning, and Singularity Skills at the same time. To his surprise, due to the ‘Might of the Dragon’ that Larua gave him, the duration of the state was increased to 4 minutes.

He emerged from the mist a god, phantom wings at his back spreading out two hundred feet each, bloating out the sky. He instantly charged three hexa-attuned skills, barely touching his Mana pool, summoning a thundering bolt the size of a skyscraper that burned out through the sky, a massive starfield that encircled the two and began drawing them toward the center, and a roaring apparition of starlight-fused flames in the shape of an armored paragon that immediately charged forward with a roar, its massive hammer the size of a small mountain aflight toward the King.

The King roared in retaliation, his bones creaking as his skin began to bleed a sea of blood that immediately coalesced into a massive, skeletal hand above him that swatted the bolt of lightning away and grasped the hammer, temporarily stopping him. The King, then, flashed in the midst of blood and appeared next to Cain, the former's trident already en route toward Cain's ribs; the latter Blinked back and roared his palms together, ushering into the existence a hepta-attuned Skill -- a tiny, electrifying sphere appeared in front of Cain, sucking Mana around it like a vacuum, bloating up for a moment before it exploded into red-dyed fireworks.

Each individual one was an elemental hand grasping at the sky and tearing it open, summoning spatial storms and heralding them all toward the King. The latter snorted and spun his trident, stabbing the ‘nothing’ behind him and opening up a massive, vertical gash in the world. A thousand ghosts suddenly breached past, their wails managing to even break past the sounds of the world breaking apart. They raced toward the spatial storms and devoured them before exploding themselves into ghastly mists that surged around the King and empowered him further as he charged his trident for once second before heaving his arm back and tossing the weapon with all his might.

Cain barely managed to Blink in time -- or so he thought. The trident actually managed to clip his shoulder in the midst of his Skill, tearing a massive hole there. However, thanks to the infused ‘Might of the Dragon’, Cain quickly healed and charged another hepta-attuned Skill as he summoned the Orb of Deception from his person and had it float around him like a guardian.

Tiny sparks of raw energy bounced around him for a moment before coalescing into a phantom-like Crown of milky-white smoke atop his head, shrouding his entire body inside a thin sheen of white. He roared once again, summoning forty Amnesty Shields around him in the span of five seconds while also casting ‘Falling Fire’ twenty times over, in addition to two ‘Starbursts’.

The entire world wept and wailed under the barrage of elemental storms, yet the King stood tall; he heaved his trident above his head and spun it before stabbing it into the ‘ground’. Blood surged from his feet and shaped into a cloak that wrapped around him, soaking most of Cain’s Skills and dissipating them right after.

The King emerged from within the cloak with a roar, his entire figure blurred in red as he immediately reached Cain, managing to stab him directly into the spleen with the trident, blood spraying out as the weapon soaked it. Cain grunted and Blinked back, sacrificing several Amnesty Shields to prevent the King from following. This wound required some extra time to heal which was why Cain maintained his distance, repeatedly charging hexa and hepta-attuned Skills to keep the King at bay, summoning a storm of ice that belted and bolted from the above and infernal pillars that swallowed from below. Ever so often, he’d augment into existence several ethereal arms around him and use them to toss burning boulders at the King the size of a small hill.

The latter, however, dodged or deflected most expertly, still somehow managing to close the distance between the two; when the King's Vitality dipped to 85%, he paused suddenly and reached for a skull-themed armlet, infusing some of his blood into it. A wail that snuffed out all other sounds erupted as the world around the two collapsed further, dimensions breaking down. In one of the corners, Cain saw Larua and him talking, in another, he saw Emma fighting with the fake King, in yet another he even saw his battle with the skeleton from the First Floor.

Ignoring the distractions, he took a deep breath as he watched a massive rift open up above the King, slimy-green in the hue, spinning and spinning. A hand the size of a tower reached out from within and touched the top of the King’s head, coating him in a thick sheen of green and infusing the trident with a reddened hue.

“THE SERVANT THANKS YOU!!” the King roared as he blasted forward and as the arm vanished alongside the rift.

Cain bulked together five Amnesty Shields in a row and barely managed to dampen the King’s momentum, dodging through Blink to the side and immediately conjuring up a hepta-attuned chain, tossing it forward and wrapping it around the King’s leg, yanking it back and causing the latter to stumble. As he was falling, Cain then conjured up a spatial tunnel between him and the King, slamming his foot through; it exited on the other end, coated in hepta-attunement of the Elements, as Cain slammed it directly into the King’s jaw, breaking it in the process and tossing the man backward like a kite.

The King roared in agony for a moment as he stumbled and landed awkwardly on his feet; Cain was a step quicker, having created another spatial tunnel and jammed a hepta-attuned fist straight through it; the other side led straight to the King’s left cheek and the fist landed squarely, a roar of a Dragon bellowing out alongside the infernal flames that chained into explosions that sent the King flying once again, his armor tattered, his Vitality dropping below 60%.

This time, however, he was ready, and Cain’s fist missed; the trident fell and cut it clean through the wrist, blood spraying out like mad as Cain felt pain akin to those in the horror stories assail him, quickly withdrawing his hand, staring at the maddened and crazed King that was a good mile away from him. He knew, however, that such distance was practically nothing for the Awakened melee fighters. I need to speed up, he concluded, taking several deep breaths in an attempt to ignore the pain while his arm slowly regrew. I already wasted nearly two minutes of the Cosmic State... though I won't enter a weakened period afterward, my damage will dip heavily and a possible 5-minute battle might turn into a grueling, day-long nightmare--wait, no, I’ve got 15 minutes... dammit...

Cain was no stranger to the day-long battles, but it was too early; even with the Dragon's empowerment, his Stamina was miles below the King's. If it turned into a battle of attrition, Cain had no chance of winning -- of that he was certain. Even with his infinitely larger Mana pool that cracked almost 400,000, he was still consuming Mana at a high pace, having already dipped to 70% reserves. All things considered, it was fairly insane -- and definitely not how fights like this would actually play out in the open.

Not only was reaching 400,000 Mana so far off into the future he never even thought about it, but even if he had it, he’d likely be burning far, far more quickly through it simply because of one reason -- he’d be using his Created Spells far more. Now, however, he only had three -- and, really, only one of them was even remotely usable, Starburst. Though Amnesty Shield could be used here and there, he had to conjure up several to battle a single attack of the King, which was far from Mana efficient.

The reason his Mana pool remained so high was that he was just conjuring raw elements together -- but it also meant that his damage was much lower than it would have been if he had created more Skills. Well, no point in crying a river over it now, he mused and took a deep breath, noting that the King was charging another attack. Let's first win this bitch and then worry about that...