NOVEL NEXT 21 - The Final Dragon Challenge
Chapter 21: The Final Dragon Challenge
Well I better check out the situation. As I enter the last door, immediately my ears are blasted with the roaring of dragons. I am quite familiar with the sound by now. I quickly hide as best I can to figure out just what is going on. First thing I notice is that there is not just 1 dragon in this challenge. Flying what looks to be well thought out an intelligent patrol routes are 4 dragons. 1 water dragon, 1 fire dragon, 1 air dragon, and a green dragon that I can only assume is the earth dragon.
Think Mark think. What to do? First I need to hide myself better then come up with a plan. I quickly scramble under a nearby tree and use earth magic to make a burrow among its roots that I can hide in. Now that my immediate safety is assured I need to analyze the situation. Why are there so many dragons? Wait there were only single dragons on all the other tests. So maybe these are their mates? That seems like a reasonable assumption, but that would mean there is still another earth dragon. Probably guarding the nest. So 5 dragons total.
The message at the beginning said I only needed to defeat a dragon of each element, so I shouldn’t need to kill every dragon to pass. However, if I can eliminate every dragon than I should get a ton more experience and possibly more titles for clearing everything. So is there a way to get all the dragons and the experience while minimizing the threat of death to me? I would need to set a trap that could take care of 5 dragons and somehow kill them relatively quickly. It has to be a trap because there is no way I even think about taking one let alone five dragons head on. Hmm, this may take a while, luckily there is no time limit.
After discarding several ideas I realize that my trap is going to have to incorporate damage from all four elements in order to prey upon each different dragon weakness. How can I combine everything? Water against fire and vice versa, an air against earth. Oh I know I can set up a timer or delay on my spells and shells so they all go off at once. However, I will need to lure all 5 dragons into a single area. Oh that should work, let’s get started.
I use my earth magic to start my plan. I tunnel around creating a maze until I find the two important things necessary for my plan. First I locate the earth dragon den and confirm that yes there are 5 total dragons and they seem to be guarding the last egg and nest. Second I tunnel around until I find a large underground water source. Mission accomplished, now onto phase two.
The second step in my plan is to hollow out a giant sinkhole in front of the earth dragon’s lair, but I have to leave enough stone and other bits that it does not collapse yet. Basically I am creating the world’s largest pit fall trap. It needs to hold the weight of the dragons combined until I want it to collapse so I reverse my wall building spell and modify it. Now when the spell is triggered it will take the stone from the roof of the trap and use it to grow spikes along the bottom and sides of the pit.
When the spikes start to grow that will trigger the pit to fill with water from the underground water source I have rerouted to the area. When the water hits a certain depth it will trigger a series of modified fire and lightning shelf I have prepared and stuck to the sides of the pit like claymore mines. This should use all 4 elements in one trap. Earth spikes, lightning for air, fire, and boiling water to drown and help conduct the lighting. This will be on top of the falling, spike, and shockwave damage.
While I may have no time limit to complete the test, by my calculations I have only 10 or 11 days left until the summer solstice and the “Great Game” changeover. I really need to be back at the Appalachia kingdom by then to protect and calm down the family friends and employees. Sooner started, sooner done.
Three days later I have finally finished setting up the trap. Most of the time was making sure none of the changes underground alerted the dragon above ground. There is no such thing as overkill in this situation. It is me against 5 soon to be very pissed off dragons. I have pumped each magic artillery shell with 2000 points of mana. 10 shells each of Ice, Lava, Earth spikes, and Lightning for a grand total of 80,000 points of magical mana damage occurring in a concentrated area. In addition I will be on the perimeter with my largest caliber sniper rifle to take care of any escapees.
Now for the bait, each evening right around dusk the dragons gather together in front of the lair to talk to each other. I don’t actually hear any words, but that is the only thing that makes sense. I am guessing limited telepathy and body language maybe? When they do that I will use a tunnel I made to sneak in and snatch the unguarded egg, run back to the clearing underground and out of sight, and then pop up like a gopher mocking them while holding the egg in my hand. This should infuriate them and cause them to chase and dig to catch me as I duck back down the tunnel. They should refrain from breath weapons to avoid damaging the egg. While they are rushing to where I just was I will be running as fast as my modified body will allow me to another area outside of the pit trap. When I think they have all arrived and started digging I will set the entire trap off. Simple and direct.
Here goes nothing, the dragons land, I rush in and grab the egg, run back outside, pop up yell something stupid while holding up the egg, look surprised to be surrounded by dragons, drop back into hole, run for my freaking life, set off the traps as I run by, clear the blast area, put new dragon egg in inventory for safety, and set up to take care of any problems with the sniper rifle.
The last thing I remember is thinking wow that is a big explosion. I wake up upside down against a tree an indeterminate amount of time later. I am still a firm believer in there is no such thing as overkill, but I have got to do some more research on explosions, how big a blast radius is and such. This hurting myself thing is getting old. I down a health pill and head back to the pit/crater. It seems that I accidently created a massive steam explosion, kind of like a mini Krakatoa. I must of vaporized the dragons or blown the bodies further than I am willing to look for them. I did find part of one earth dragon corpse in what used to be the lair opening mostly crushed. I place it in my inventory along with the others. Game wisdom says that dragon parts are great crafting material.
I reach the door back to the waiting room and enter back into the bland featureless room. I expect to see a notice but nothing happens. Oh wait I still have not hatched the last egg. When I finish hatching and naming the newest young lady of the family, Esmerelda, my long anticipated pop up screen appears. Let’s see what I have earned this time.
“For completing the entire bloodline test you have been granted the following bloodline, titles and awards. Elemental Dragon King Bloodline +10, Dragon Slayer +3, Evolver +2, Dragon Master +4, Monster Slayer +1 (kill something 25 levels higher than yourself), Titan Slayer +3 (kill something 50 levels higher than yourself), Destroyer +5 (Kill something 100 levels higher than yourself), Level Maniac +2 (earn 25 levels or more in a single dungeon). The number of attribute points will now be doubled each level due to the unique bloodline you now possess including the levels from this dungeon. You will also be able to select 1 unique skill or item from the “Great Game” store. Your bloodline body modification will now commence.”
Body modification, wait the last time that happened it knocked me out with the pain of the Aaargh, make it stop! I wake up sometime later with my new babies licking my face. Aww, were you concerned about daddy? Man I hate body modification. Time to check the changes, I need to know what happened to my body this time. As I explore myself I note a few key things. First I notice that I am now muscular. Not just fit, but actually ripped. This is great, I haven’t looked this good since, well never.