The large dragon hovered above the battlefield with a large circle of unmoving smoking mechs spread around him. Their eyes were dim, with their normally brightly glowing blue wings being dark without any sign of light.
Dozens of mechs all over the battlefield filled with trashed bodies of their kin were all looking at the dragon, their blue eyes glowing. Their staffs with glowing crystals on their tips were raised upwards and aimed at Vesuvius from each direction, loudly humming as their glow kept brightening while throwing dozens of blue sparks around them.
Using his last remaining time the dragon grabbed a small pouch from the crevice of his armour close to his heart and closed his heavily armoured black fist, clenching it as if his life depended on it.
The whole body of the dragon radiated a wave of magic, something changing about him. A strong stream of concentrated mana poured through his veins, entering his scales. A grey stone started to grow out of his body, quickly forming a second layer of armour around his black volcanic one.
‘When I think about it, this is the first time I used the spell to cover myself with elements using the earth element.’
Finally, all of the blue crystals pulsed in one bright flash of blue light as dozens of spheres of plasma and bright rays erupted, all heading towards the dragon. Their glow illuminated the dragon as if dozens of reflectors were pointed at him.
Everything was drowned in bright blue light as the projectiles and rays blazed through the battlefield, loud shrieking noise spreading everywhere as they pierced through the air. Vesuvius stopped flapping his wings and dived straight towards the ground to get out firing angle of at least a portion of the mechs.
The dozens of glowing orbs of plasma blasted towards him, leaving blue trails of sparks behind them. They reached him in an instant and dozens of blue-blazing hot spheres of plasma exploded all over the grey stone-covered body. A thin bubble of magma quickly formed around it before instantly disappearing under the onslaught of plasma projectiles.
Blue plasma exploded around the dragon melting and tearing through the grey rock and the volcanic armour under it in blinding blue flashes. Large chunks of stone and glowing orange droplets of lava flew in all directions.
Multiple bright and thick blue rays crossed the battlefield, creating blue lines as they hit the dragon. They blasted against the stone armour that dispersed before them, turning into dust as if it had never existed. The blue rays kept pulsing and humming in a monotone tone as they cut through the volcanic armour, erasing it from existence as an eraser.
A layer of beautiful black scales with golden traces was revealed, glittering in reflected blue light. Their shiny, smooth surface was pulsing and glowing with a faint light that was moving as if it was a surface of the water. Dozens of white, blue and orange glowing letters littered their surface, flashing in sync.
Vesuvius poured mana through his veins, feeding it into his scales, their faint glow increasing, making them look almost ethereal. A comfortable, warm feeling covered his body like a hot bath.
The blue rays drilled towards the scales, impacting directly against them, the blue energy bouncing off them and throwing blue sparks that passed through the volcanic armour around them, disintegrating it. The runes were flickering, their colourful glow mixing with the blue glow of beams and plasma, turning into a blinding light show of multiple colours akin to an aurora borealis.
More blue spheres of plasma blasted through the air, exploding all over his scales, blue clouds of plasma harmlessly flickering around the dragon’s scales.
Vesuvius didn’t even dare to open his mouth to counterattack or to open his eyes to check what was going on as his mana rapidly decreased. The pain of heavy hits akin to a battering ram hitting him came from all sides as he desperately clenched his fist holding the pouch, not opening it even as the blue ray hit his arm, bending and charing the black scales gilded with gold.
Finally, the pounding against the dragon’s scales stopped, and the dragon opened his eyes. A thick grey smoke covered the whole battlefield with red and blue lights flashing around it. Dozens of metallic parts lay all over the battlefield, together with piles of metallic bodies torn into pieces.
The red glowing metallic slugs impacted all over the battlefield, exploding with clouds of dust being thrown into the air as they drilled into the ground, piercing through the metallic bodies along the way.
The dragon stood in a puddle of orange glowing molten stone, feeling exhausted. His initially smooth and shiny scales were bent all over his body and their surface turned rough as if someone threw acid on them. The runes covering his body were weakly flickering, with some of them not glowing at all. Only a few pieces of black stone hung from him, with most of it being gone, his muscle under the scales feeling sore.
His large wings were full of holes, the dragon’s body hurting as if he had been beaten by thousand of hammers.
He wanted to shout from the regret and pain, but he didn’t, preserving his draconic dignity, ‘This was the last time I was this careless… this is no longer just a game I can’t risk so much for one title in the future.’
The dragon opened his large hand, covered in bent and charred scales, revealing a small, unassuming pouch in it. Seeing it, Vesuvius nodded with visible joy.
Blue lights flickering through the smoke kept dimming out, vanishing one by one as the red flashes kept flying through the smoke.
‘At least there is plenty of loot lying over here.’ The dragon’s greed in him immediately suppressed the pain as he spotted dozens of blue generator cores still dimly flickering in the unmoving metallic bodies lying all over the ground.
Limping, he walked towards the nearest body and stabbed his long claw covered in glowing runes into it, easily piercing through the metal. Then he flicked his finger, and the blue core popped out before vanishing into his pouch.
Soon the sound of dozens of metallic legs stomping on the ground echoed as dozens of red lights glowing in the smoke started moving forward.