NOVEL NEXT Chapter 73: Into The Fortress
Ten feet above the contaminated purple swamp water, Lucan stretched out his hand and was able to grab Silent's arm. He leveled off while she stepped back up onto the broom.
Once on the broom and without waiting, Silent leapt up and wrapped her legs around Lucan's waist, hooking her feet together behind his back. She leaned out as he used an arm to brace her back and ease the strain. She was leaning parallel to the ground.
Lucan rotated the broom so he was leaning back at a 45-degree angle, that way Silent could sit on his hips and make it easier for her to hold steady while she fired her bow.
Her legs held him like a vice grip, assuring Lucan enough so that he could use his free hand to pull out a wand.
The druid had changed forms to break the ice and resummoned her wings as all four flew back up to meet the drake again.
Silent was able to fire off arrows even faster now. Lucan started to conjure illusionary copies of everyone involved with the fight, making it that much harder for the drake to deal damage with is attacks.
Most of his mental mana was tied up in telekinetic cling and he need to save plenty to control the broom. After summoning the three illusionary figures he controlled them and only threw out the occasional shadow bolt when he was able to.
The mage hadn't released any spells for a few minutes as he was in a long continuous chant. When he finally cast again the drake almost came to a halt in midair. He had cast a slow spell on it. It didn't fall but only moved at a quarter of its regular speed.
The druid took the chance to land on its back and started to claw at its leather wings, opening up holes in them. It wanted to reach back and bite at her but Silent kept unloading arrows towards its face. It had to constantly use its breath attack to destroy the arrows before they connected.
Still under the effects of the slow spell, the drake began to crash towards the ground in slow motion as the druid took to the skies again.
*Splash*
The drake fell into the swamp and started to slowly trash around and try to move towards the bank.
Lucan, Silent and the mage began to pelt the hopeless beast. The druid's wings disappeared while the lower half of her body transformed into a long snake tail as the rest of her was also covered in scales. She quickly constricted around the drake and held it in the swamp while the others claimed its life. A few minutes later the drake died and transformed into light as the loot was automatically put into their inventory.
They checked raid chat to find the other two drakes had already been dealt with. The others in the flying team were already on their way to the fortresses flight tower.
Silent stored her bow and Lucan grabbed two handfuls of her behind so she could unhook her legs from his waist. She stepped down onto the broom and hugged him tightly as they flew towards the fortress.
"You can let go." She whispered.
"Are you sure? I don't want you to fall." He said with a smirk
"You can let go for now." She said before biting his shoulder until his hands slid up from her bottom to her waist.
Lucan's group was the last to land at the flight tower. The flight tower was the tallest point of the fortress and the widest tower compared to the others. It was almost five times as wide as the astronomy tower. There was some sort of magical effect that let him and the mage take their brooms higher into the air and land at the top of the tower. Inside the top level wer several stables for flying beasts.
Silent stepped off the broom, not daring to look at Lucan who stored his broom and joined the others.
A group of five kobolds burst out the door to the top level and were decimated before given the chance to react.
The group of 12 players started to descend the tower, clearing out any pockets of kobolds they encountered along the way. After 20 minutes they reached the bottom level to find 20 kobolds and a wingless drake.
The level 130 knight ran forward to grab the attention of the wingless drake while the others tried to deal with the kobolds as quickly as possible.
Each swipe and bite from the wingless drake took a fifth of the knight's health away. The priest kept him alive and three minutes later the other were able to join in against the scaled menace.
Besieged from all sides the drake was unable to do substantial damage. The druid, paladin and the knight shared the bulk of the blows it delivered while arrows and spells pounded into the beast.
5 minutes later it succumbed to its injuries and passed away.
Mob tactics were a sure-fire way to deal with the creature.
[Congratulations! You have reached level 95.]
[You have learned Nimble Fingers]
[When interacting with a single-handed item or pickpocketing your dexterity is doubled.]
Since Lucan wasn't a pure agility, and sub-stat dexterity class, he usually refrained from using his throwing weapons since his aim and damage was garbage. 'This should hopefully make up for it.' He was excited to give it a test.
He didn't have to wait long. While everyone was recovering after the fight another 5 kobolds entered the room. Lucan reached to his belt and flung out five throwing knives at once. They fanned out in the air and each kobold received a blade to the chest before the others turned their attention to the new intruders.
A few moments later Lucan was happily collecting his knives from their corpses. Once they were back in his possession the bodies of the kobolds transformed into light and disappeared.
The rest of the Willow troops had already infiltrated the fortress and were roaming around in groups of five. Lucan's group split into two groups of six.
The paladin, mage, hunter and druid joined Silent and Lucan as they began to clear the area room by room.
After 2 hours of fighting kobolds the group chanced upon another wingless drake. The fight wasn't nearly as easy as the first one, but with the paladin and druid they were able to trudge through it and defeat the beast after 15 minutes.
They continued to fight all day long, taking short breaks to recover when needed. Silent's first aid profession allowed them to heal up outside fights and let the paladin save his limited amount of healing.
As night was close to descending upon the shadow realm there wasn't a call for retreat. Instead Shifty called for everyone to convene in the command room at the center of the fortress.
[Shifty: We have the draconian down to a third of his health left, but a young dragon got involved in the fight. This is probably the final boss, everyone join up so we can wipe them out. Meet up at 34XXXX. 64XXXX. 134XXXX.]
All the Willow troops, with Lucan and Silent included, immediately started to head towards the coordinates given by Shifty.
Lucan entered through a grand hallway that was lined with 50-foot-tall statues on either side. He could hear fighting up ahead. The group of six picked up there pace and sprinted forward.
Over 60 Willow troops were already here and fighting against the draconian man while Sturdy with the help of 2 priests was single handedly holding back a young dragon. The dragon was 30 feet long and covered in majestic silver scales. The scales themselves had a blueish tint to them.
*ROOAAARRRR*
The dragon unleashed a mighty roar before opening its mouth. The expected ice didn't come from the dragons' mouth. Metal shards shot out in a straight line impaling the ground and blasting through Sturdies shield.
It wasn't a silver dragon but a mithril dragon.
"Deal with the draconian then focus on the dragon, I will keep it busy!" Sturdy shouted to the newcomers while pulling a javelin from his back and throwing it at the dragon.
A booming howl could be heard as the javelin broke through the sound barrier before puncturing into the dragon. Unfortunately, it did less than 1% damage to the creature.
Although Sturdy was a powerhouse at level 170, he was going up against a level 135 Named Elite Rare Boss. It was a being that had millions of heath points.
"How dare you harm Lord Keldoor!" The scale covered man yelled while stomping on the ground. Everyone within 10 feet of him was sent flying backwards as he took in a breath of air before unleashing green flames in an arc around him, killing two Willow troops before they even hit the ground.
Lucan stood at the back and emptied out almost all his shadow and mental mana to conjure his phantom champion. He then opened his connection to Raze to make a purchase. Draining all his banked experience he spent 750,000 points on a magical shortsword from the magic blade assassin companion class.
[Blade of Corruption has been purchased.]
Lucan pulled out one of the rods he had gotten from the necromancer and transformed it into a pitch-black shortsword. It could ignore a difference of up to 25 levels and with each successfully attack it would cause 1 point of corruption that would deal damage over time for 30 seconds. The effect could stack up to 20 times and each successfully attack would reset the countdown timer. When corruption had stacked 20 times, he could trigger it to unleash all the damage over time in a single moment.