The dragon howled, swinging its massive, bone tail to retaliate, but Karl stood firm, using his warhammer to intercept the blow. “Not today!” he growled, muscles straining as he deflected the powerful strike, sparks flying from the impact.
“Derek, go for its core!” Chase instructed, pointing as the dragon core, hoovering in his ribcage. “Now’s your chance!”
With a grunt, Derek charged in, channeling the earth’s power through his gauntlets. He slammed his fists into the ground, causing stone spikes to shoot up, targeting the core trough exposed gaps between the dragon’s ribs. The dragon staggered, a deep, hollow roar echoing in the air as it stumbled back from the attack that caused a crack.
“Good job, Derek!” Chase cheered, his heart racing. “Now, everyone! We hit it together on the count of three!”
“Wait! Look!” Mia shouted, pointing at the bone dragon. As it roared, the ground trembled violently, the dragon’s mana summoning skeleton and zombie minions from the earth- undead creatures with bones ablaze in the same blue flames, rising to help it in battle.
“Damn it! We’ve got more to deal with!” Derek cursed.
“Chase!” Karl called, eyes darting around. “We need to take care of those minions before they overwhelm us!”
“Everyone! Split up!” Chase ordered. “Focus on the bone dragon, but stay alert for the undead! Mia, Derek, let’s go!”
As they engaged the bone dragon, the battle was thrown into chaos. Chase led the charge, coordinating strikes and dodges as the undead swarmed around them.
Each attack had to be carefully coordinated else the dragon could either crush, or burn them to death, the air was filled with roars, battle cries, and the clash of steel against bone.
“Stay together!” Chase yelled, cutting down a skeleton minion with a burst of ice magic, freezing it mid-charge. “We can do this!”
“Enough with the pep talk Chase, it’s not helping!” Derek yelled.
Lisa carved through the undead with her flaming sword, Mia spun like a whirlwind, using wind manipulation to push back enemies while keeping her focus on the bone dragon. Karl smashed through any skeleton minions that got too close, wielding his warhammer with more force with each swing, while Ethan darted between the shadows, striking from unexpected angles.
But the bone dragon was alone with all the undead was getting too much for them. It spewed blue flames and summoned more undead with each roar, growing more furious with every attack.
The battlefield was littered with bones and debris, the cries of the wounded echoing as the guild members struggled to hold their ground against the endless tide of undead.
“Chase, we can’t hold them back much longer!” Mia gasped, her mana nearly exhausted as she pushed back a group of skeleton minions.
“Just a little longer!” Chase urged. “We’ve got to take it down before-”
“Graaaaaa.”
Suddenly, the bone dragon unleashed anotyer massive roar that shook the ground, sending a shockwave of dark energy outward. The force knocked most of the guild members off their feet, sending them tumbling.
“Everyone, pull back!” Chase yelled, struggling to stand. “We can’t let this thing break us!” But as the dust began to settle, a new wave of undead dragon kin were rising from the ground, bodies glowing with blue flames, their hollow eyes locked on the team members.
Derek grunted, blocking an incoming skeleton minion with his gauntlets before slamming it into the ground.
Shattered bones scattered across the battlefield, still glowing faintly with blue fire. “Chase!” Derek yelled.
“Can’t you just freeze all these bastards? You’ve got an S-ranked talent, goddammit!”
Chase ducked as another undead dragonkin swiped at him, its claws barely missing his face. The blue fire in its eyes intensified as it screeched, charging forward again.
Chase spun an ice spear, slicing through its ribcage with a burst of ice magic, freezing the creature solid.
“I could freeze them,” he yelled back, “but it would drain me completely. If I go unconscious in here, it’s the same as asking to get killed!”
Another undead dragon kin charged through, its flaming jaws snapping at Mia’s arm. She cried out, narrowly dodging the attack as its jagged bones raked across her side, tearing through her armor and drawing blood as she stumbled back, gritting her teeth.
“We need a plan!” Mia shouted, breathless, as she fended off another strike from the skeleton monster.
Derek, still fighting his way through a horde of skeleton warriors, let out a frustrated growl. “What about you, Chase?” he asked, smashing a bone soldier’s skull into fragments. “How confident are you that you can end the bone dragon?”
Chase’s attention snapped back to Derek, confused. “What?” he said, freezing one of the minions mid-charged, its blue flames dieing out in its sockets as it shattered against the
ground.
“Answer the damn question!” Derek shouted, shoving back another undead as it tried to tear into his side. His gauntlets flared with mana, sending a shockwave through the bones, disintegrating it.
“We don’t have time for this! The bone dragon’s core is already damaged-all we need is for someone to deal the last hit!”
“Just like the way you end these minions by freezing them completely… can’t you just freeze it’s core?”
Chase’s heart pounded in his chest, and his eyes darted toward the bone dragon. He took a moment to think it trough, it didn’t seem possible any ice attacks weren’t getting past the blue flames that were around it.
Besides that it could end him in an instant. That was what what happening to the others who were at the front.
It swung its skeleton claws in wide arcs, knocking several guild members aside, their bodies crashing into the earth, some smashing across structurs like ragdolls. Cries of pain rang out as the undead closed in, their bone limbs slashing through flesh, their claws leaving deep gouges in their victims.
Guild members were falling-some were on their knees, blood soaking the ground beneath them as the undead army surrounded them.
One man screamed as a skeleton dragon kin tore into his leg, blue fire burning up his body as the creature bit down harder, severing muscle and bone with a loud crunch.
“Chase, if we don’t end it now,” Mia gasped, swinging her blade to decapitate an approaching minion, “we’re all dead.”
Chase snapped, “You are both putting pressure on me, is there a way to end it that I don’t
know of?”
“Can’t you guys see we are literally surrounded?”
“Wait a minute!” Mia called out, ducking a strike from a skeleton minion, her sword flashing
as she severed its spine. “What if you threw an ice spear at the dragon’s core instead of getting
in close?”
Chase sidestepped another attack, glancing at Mia with a raised brow. “An ice spear? And
what, pray tell, would make you think that would be enough to pierce through that thing’s core? It would just melt in all the flames.” He parried a swipe from a skeletal dragon kin, its flaming bones hissing as his ice-coated blade struck its core.
Derek, gritting his teeth as he shattered the ribcage of another undead, grunted in frustration. “Then why don’t you throw an Ice lance?” Chase shot back, his voice filled with sarcasm. “Wouldn’t an earth lance do better?”
“The time it would take me to conjure something that powerful is too damn long!”
Derek yelled, blocking an incoming blow with his gauntlets before delivering a punishing counter, sending bones flying in all directions. “I’d already be surrounded and torn to pieces before I could even finish conjuring it.”
Chase grunted, slashing through yet another wave of skeleton minions. The battlefield was quickly becoming a nightmare, with bones and blue flames littering the ground, and the remaining guild members barely holding their ground.
More of the undead dragon kin continued to rise.
“Then what the hell do you expect me to do?!” Chase snapped in frustration.
His ice talent condensed another blade and he swung it ending another undead, but the
creatures kept coming.
“If I get too close, it’ll take me out in one hit! I can’t just march up there and-”
Karl, who had been holding the line, deflecting blows with his warhammer, suddenly spoke
up. “What if we throw you there?”
For a moment, the battlefield seemed to pause. Chase turned, his face etched with confusion.
“What? Throw me?”