The large dark boulder rumbled and shook as a large thing moved behind them. A bear, a size of a car, stood on its hind legs, its whole body covered in volcanic armour, magma flowing down its body.
Its reptilian eyes were burning in flames, its long curled claws glowing in heat, looking like searing hor iron knives.
“Grah!” the bear turned towards the players, its colossal body dwarfing them all.
“What is this thing? I never heard of a monster like this?” Brown pointed his giant crossbow at the bear-like monster, its string glowing in silvery light.
//
Analyze result:
Species: Giant Mountain Bear (Draconified)
Level: 30
Danger level: weak
//
“It’s just a mob!” a tall player with eagle wings on his back, looking like a mountain of muscles, rushed forward, the ground under him cracking and a powerful shockwave sweeping across the surroundings.
He swung his massive two-sided battleaxe covered in glowing runes, an apparition of lightning growing around the axe creating a silhouette of it made of lightning, making it even larger.
The axe descended at the bear so fast that it couldn’t even react. The axe cut straight against the bear’s stone chest, and an explosion of lightning and the pure physical force sent shockwaves through the land, the armour covering the bear shattering, the axe splitting it in half.
“Haha, that was easy, boys.”
Everyone immediately rose up their weapons above their heads, warcries echoing through the burned forest.
However, Brown felt gloomy, having a bad premonition, ‘Mountain bears are usually around level ten, but this one was level thirty; if draconification can make regular animals so much stronger, what it can do with already powerful monsters.’
Before Brown could decide what had just transpired, the group had already started to split into their respective parties.
“Let’s split up. If the mobs are only this strong, then there is no need to remain in the group!”
“Yeah, let’s meet up in the tower!”
Brown felt like panicking, knowing that he was alone and wanted to just join the large group, but now that they decided to split into their respective parties, his plan started to fall apart.
In a panic, Brown stood on the spot, watching as all of the players around him ran in small groups heading in different directions, leaving him alone without any party to join.
A voice female voice came from behind him, “I see that you also have your doubts about this whole draconification.”
His cheeks immediately flushed after spotting a tall beauty with teal-coloured hair, deep blue eyes and a long fluffy white fur cloak waving behind her.
“Y-yes, it feels somehow wrong.” not wanting to admit that he just was too socially inept at finding a party to join, he lied, his palms sweating in nervosity.
“I see that you have no party. Maybe we can join our hands and form one.”
“Yes!!!”
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon lay on top of his tower, his eyes looking into the distance, observing multiple large groups of players heading towards his tower.
‘Time for a small teaser-like cutscene.’ after a long time, Vesuvius finally felt relaxed, knowing that he could blast away the players coming to attack him without any problem.
The dragon jumped from the tower, widely spreading his wings, diving straight towards the burned forest with winds loudly howling around him as he accelerated. His eyes set upon a group consisting of more than twenty players.
‘I need to show them my strength to convince them of the huge reward they would gain after killing me and also to keep the morale of my minions. At the same time, I need to preserve their hope that I can be defeated. How to do that…’
Suddenly a disgusting smell entered the dragon’s nostrils, making him want a vomit, disgust awakening from the deepest part of his heart and soul.
‘Dragon slaying weapons, exactly what I need. I can tear them apart if I let them believe that one good hit from a dragon-slaying weapon could kill me, making them keep trying, again and again, every one of them hoping to be that lucky individual to land that hit. And with my smoke, I can hide from them that they are not even hurting me, giving them all the hope they need!’
POV A Random Group With A Bad Luck:
A group of twenty people consisting of four full parties stood in the middle of the black-burned wasteland forming a large circle. A dense crowd of mutated animals and monsters kept pouncing against them, bashing against a wall of shields, their glowing reptilian eyes flickering. Waves of flames were continuously crashing against the shields like waves during a tide against a cliff.
“Open up now!” a player with a long cape and long green hair stood in the centre of the formation, observing the whole battle.
The players holding shields moved in sync, forming a path through the shield wall, with shields on every side, creating a corridor with the only way leading straight forwards.
The monsters immediately rushed forwards like a wave, the magma flowing down their stone-like bodies. They were chaotic, with no uniformity within their ranks. There were deers, boars and even goblins aggressively pushing forwards.
A player in armoured robes covered in silvery stars, wrapped in mystical symbols, raised his staff, aiming it into the corridor, blue light flashing out of the crystal on its tip.
Large blue circles ignited around the staff, quickly growing in size, with two more layers of rings circling the first circle. The blue light radiating out of it intensifying.
p “Explosive mana wave!” his voice boomed across the battlefield.
The player banged his staff against the ground. A large blue wave of energy erupted out, the air around it vibrating as the tide of pure magical energy moved forwards, throwing millions of tiny blue sparks.
The wave passed through the ranks of monsters rushing through the hole in the shield wall, their bodies vanishing in the blue light, turning into dust.
“Close the path, now!”
The players with shields quickly rushed forwards, blocking the hole in the shield wall with their massive shields.
The mage sat on his ass, panting heavily while gulping down a blue liquid.
“Shit, there are so many of them. They are weak when alone, but in these numbers, they will slowly devour us.”
In an instant, everything became quiet, the monster’s eyes flickering as they turned on their heel, quickly retreating, leaving only clouds of ash covering the ground.
“Huh, why are they retreating?”
“Of course, they would be running after witnessing my glorious magic.”
Suddenly large shadow spread over them, the strong wind rising and a loud sound of flapping coming from the sky above them. Everyone immediately turned up, the mage rising back on his legs, pointing his staff up in a panic.
A monstrous wyrm that was so huge that it dwarfed their whole circular formation descended from the sky, the invisible magical energy filling the air around them, making their bodies feel heavy. Their vast and deep glowing eyes were looking straight at their formation.
The black clouds spread all over the sky above them, bringing darkness upon them, with only the wyrm shining brightly as if they had replaced the sun itself.
“What is the boss doing here?”
A cold voice boomed out, pushing against their bodies, “Mortals, what were you thinking that I would just let you enter my territory bringing that disgusting and hated stench that you reek of?”
“Ehm, I showered yesterday… so…”
“Shut up, mortal. I have had enough of you and your dirty feet trampling over my land!”
The monstrous wyrm suddenly landed, the ground shaking with their legs sinking deep into the burned soil. A massive, heavily armoured hand overshadowed them all, the smoke hiding everything except for the gigantic glowing crystalline claws covered in runes, each bigger than themselves. The heat radiating out of them was distorting the air.
“Die, mortals!”
The massive claws moved down, descending towards the players at an incredible speed, the large mass quickly moving towards them, no one sure if they would be burned, crashed or cut first.
The claws swept through the players, cutting, burning and crushing everything that came into contact with them, turning players into minced black ash. The mighty wind howled around them, raising ash clouds from the ground and sending the remaining players toppling to the ground.
Half of their group vanished instantly, leaving the remaining half still lying in the ash that used to be their friends, stunned by the sudden deadly attack.
‘Please work!’ the group leader jumped up, his eyes on his long two-handed sword, ‘I paid lots for you!’
The world around him turned into slow motion, his body in heavy armour moving forwards, leaving behind cracks in the ground as he launched. His metallic greaves creaked as he tightly gripped his sword, quickly moving towards the massive hand covered in clouds of black smoke.
He rose up his sword for an overhead strike, its blade radiating out the magical energy of dragon-slaying weapons.
The leader’s body penetrated through the clouds of smoke, his whole body stinging and burning, his muscles spasming as the electricity flowed through him. He ignored the damage and debuffs, releasing his strike.
The sword hit the arm, and a loud bang echoed through the wastelands, the magical energy of the dragon-slaying weapon unleashing on the wyrm.