‘If only I were bigger, I could stop everything by myself.’ He thought. ‘With the exception of Spirit and anti-Guardian spells, of course.’ Mage Slayers couldn’t feed on darkness element and all spells that carried them.
Hexa-elemental Spirit and Silverwing’s spells were beyond Mage Slayers and would inflict on them more damage than the nourishment they brought. Still, Lormont could neutralize everything else, even arrays, and turn their power against their original caster.
The Firstborn Draugr opened a crater upon impact with the ground, draining the life out of it as its size grew to over ten meters (33′) tall, quickly followed by the Firstborn Grendel.
The two undead were resistant to all kinds of damage and drew the arrows of the elves along with their blood, buying the other Firstborns the time to converge on them.
“Keep attacking! Don’t give them time to recover!” Vladion stood in front of the Grendel as he assumed human form to cast the anti-Guardian spell.
Full-red blood cores were more powerful than bright violet cores so their spell was large and lasted enough to engulf a Wood Golem without leaving anything for it to regenerate from.
What was left of the Annihilation blew a second Golem into smithereens but it instantly started to reform.
“Good job.” The Red Mother nodded. “Keep it up like that.”
Killing the backup Golem meant that their unit couldn’t switch anymore. It was enough to wound one of them to keep the rest from casting anti-Guardian spells and neutralize the only threat they posed to a mage tower.
Alas, relieving the pressure on the decoy team didn’t help Lith or Valtak one bit.
Now that the Chroniclers had turned into Wooden Puppets and were no longer hindered by pain or wounds, they managed to push Zoreth back as well. Each Golem was taller, heavier, and stronger than her.
Her only remaining advantage was her twin cores, which didn’t help much in a brawl, especially since her priority was protecting the Father of Fire. Chroniclers had bright violet cores and with the aid of a Wood Golem, each one of them was stronger than a Divine Beast.
The Puppets attacked Xenagrosh from every side, uncaring of her Chaos Spells and Sky Piercer. Howling Void opened wide holes while the Dragon’s claw cut deep, but even if they found the Puppet hidden inside the construct, they couldn’t deal a fatal wound.
The Golems focused on the attack, generating extra sets of limbs that turned into axes, spears, and shields. They had no qualms about killing the Shadow Dragon. Xenagrosh was an Eldritch and her death would anger solely the Organization that the Yggdrasill already considered a mortal enemy.
The other hybrids were too busy holding the line on their side of the battlefield to help Zoreth. Gentor hated leaving Valtak’s side, but he knew that if the Shadow Dragon fell, they would be forced to retreat to the safe area and the Tree would have more Golems to send after Lith.
When the next volley of Tower Tier spell rained from the sky, Gentor and the Golden Dragons he had left Blinked in front of Xenagrosh and took the brunt of the attack. They were sent flying, but they were still alive and their wounds could be healed, if only they had the time to draw one breath of Invigoration.
If only.
The Wyrms coughed mouthfuls of blood, their broken ribs had pierced their lungs and sealed their breathing technique. Valtak healed them while also activating his bloodline ability, Primal Spark.
The former allowed the Golden Dragons to breathe while the latter transformed the tier four spells of his Fire Dragons into raging Primordial Flames that pushed the Golems back and broke their formation.
It also cost the Father of Fire another spark of his life force, making him dizzy and blurring his vision.
‘Just a bit closer.’ Lith’s group was almost within Valtak’s spells range, only a few hundred meters separated the strike unit from the improvised reinforcements. ‘I need to hold out just a bit longer.’
The Elder Wyrm felt his chest heavy, every breath harder to draw than the previous. He had plenty of mana left but couldn’t focus enough to weave magical runes. Invigoration couldn’t help his life force recover, only rest could.
‘I have no time for that. There is almost no time left.’ Valtak had no idea what was about to happen but the sense of urgency he had experienced since receiving the news of Solus’ kidnapping was getting worse by the second.
Another volley of Tower Tier spells reached Xenagrosh’s position but this time there were no Golden Dragons to shield her and the Fire Dragons were too worried for their Elder to care for her.
The first wave of spells cracked Zoreth’s Bookwyrm armor. The second shattered it and ravaged her flesh. The third wave made short work of her Primordial Flames and blew her up like a gory firework.
If not for her Chaos bdoy’s resistance to all elements and her troll’s side recovery abilities she would have died. Still, her body needed a few seconds to reform itself, seconds she didn’t have.
One Golem kept hacking at her remains while the rest broke through and attacked the now-defenceless Wyrms. The colossal axes of the constructs severed arms, legs, and wings, working their way toward the Dragons’ hearts.
“No!” Gentor threw himself in front of his children and emptied his lungs in a desperate attempt to defend them with his Origin Flames.
The Golems ignored the attack and cut Gentor’s stomach open like a fish before kicking him through a Warp Steps leading in front of the safe area. Even if he were to recover, the Patriarch of the Golden Dragons would never make it that far again and his honor guard would already be dead.
“No.” Valtak saw his children fall trying to protect him.
He saw the Golden Dragons get cut into pieces like meat on a butcher’s slab. He saw their life forces dwindling and did the only thing he could, praying it wasn’t too late.
He Blinked everyone but himself to safety by exploiting the Warp Steps opened by the Golems to banish Gentor. Blink had a short range, but once two points in space were connected by a Warp, anyone could cross over.
The maimed Dragons were bleeding out from their amputated limbs, Valtak could only hope that Abthot could save them with her powers.
“Grandfather, no!” Zoreth had barely the time to regenerate her mouth when the Warp Gate closed.
‘I’ve failed.’ Valtak cursed his old body, coughing out a mouthful of blood from the exertion of using so much mana at once. ‘Everything I’ve done, all the pain I’ve endured so far was for nothing.’
The Puppets stared at the Elder Wyrm with Soul Vision and verified there was no trap or hidden array. The Father of Fire was on the verge of death. The cough shaking him was so violent he couldn’t use his breathing technique, let alone Origin Flames.
Even if they ignored Valtak and left him there, it was only a matter of minutes before he died.
‘I can’t risk a Patriarch being caught in the crossfire.’ The World Tree ordered. ‘Secure the area and kick him out of here alive.’
