Several breaths quickly passed without any sign of the Magma Wyrm resurfacing. However, the group did not let down their guard.
Vaan stomped the ground, and the tremors spread across the ground like a sonar scan before he located the wyrm’s position.
Bam!
He stomped the ground again and continued to do so periodically to watch the wyrm’s movement in the earth.
It appeared to have shaken off the effect of Astoria’s concussive blow before he made its way back toward the surface.
The way it was able to travel through the earth made it not much different from an earthworm. If anything, it was more like an earthworm that obtained the bloodline of a fire dragon than a real Magma Wyrm.
That said, there wasn’t much difference between the two; they were basically the same.
“It’s coming again,” Vaan alerted before adding, “It’s on you, Headmaster Astoria.”
A few moments later, Astoria felt the ground beneath her feet rumble with growing tremors before she quickly jumped into the air.
Boom!
Not long after, the ground exploded with flying soil and debris as the wyrm shot out of the ground—only to be slammed down by Astoria’s downward slash.
However, it wasn’t just a normal downward slash, but one empowered with her light-attribute refined mana.
Grand Sword Wave!
Puchi!
The wyrm was blasted with sharp sword light before the surface of its scales cracked and split apart, allowing Astoria’s greatsword to press into its flesh.
Roar!
The Magma Wyrm roared with pain before retaliating, going against Astoria’s greatsword with a flick of its head and brushing her off.
But before she was flung away, her greatsword dug deeper into its flesh. Alas, it was only a little deeper.
‘Too shallow!’ Astoria’s eyes glinted with seriousness.
She had underestimated the Magma Wyrm’s strength and defense; it was infinitely close to Mid-level Rank 4.
Nevertheless, while Astoria was still airborne, the wyrm locked onto her figure with a vengeful gaze.
Swish! Swish!
The wyrm quickly prepared to lunge at Astoria and gobble her whole when two bullets fired by Vaan suddenly pierced its left eye.
Roar—!
The wyrm roared with even greater fury and pain.
It was just two small bullets, but it was more than enough to blind its big left eye partially.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t true blindness. The wyrm’s left vision was only partially blocked by the two bullets, which had melted after penetrating a layer of its eye.
At the same time, Aeliana didn’t remain idle.
She entered her Dryad form and summoned large, overgrowing roots from the earth to wrap around the wyrm’s humongous serpentine body and bind it in place.
Tens, hundreds, thousands of roots quickly intertwined and wrapped around the wyrm until even its serpentine body couldn’t be seen.
The wyrm had interrupted her lovely time with her Lord. It had to pay for its irredeemable action!
Aeliana gave the wyrm a death sentence.
‘Die!’
Under her control of the wood element, thorns sprouted from the vine-like roots and stabbed into various parts of the wyrm’s body.
Roar!
The wyrm roared furiously.
However, it was temporarily helpless against Aeliana’s thorny roots, which had high elastic strength and binding power when used in large numbers.
The wyrm was successfully trapped in place.
Nevertheless, it only lasted a short period before smoke started to rise from the thorny roots wrapped around its body.
The thorny roots were burned by the wyrm’s lava, causing them to become brittle.
After a strong shake, the countless thorny roots were snapped off the wyrm’s body.
Hester fired her black iron spikes to pin it back into the ground, but she lacked the power. As a result, most of her black iron spikes failed to penetrate the wyrm’s hard scales and bounced off.
She narrowed her eyes in that instant.
Shortly after, she quickly targeted the gaps in between the dragon scales instead. But even then, her spikes were melted rapidly under the wyrm’s body’s molten-hot temperature.
“As expected of a sub-species of dragons, its defense is ridiculously high,” Hester commented with a solemn look.
Nevertheless, as everyone contributed to taking down the Magma Wyrm, the Volcan Wolf also joined the fray.
It jumped straight into the wyrm’s rear to bite its tail end.
“Wolfie, get back!” Hester immediately shouted.
However, it was too late.
The Magma Wyrm was, after all, a dragon; it had its own pride. It felt insulted and looked down upon, seeing how even a Rank 3 Volcan Wolf had the audacity to attack it.
Roar!
After the wyrm broke free from the roots, it immediately swung its tail end at the Volcan Wolf and slapped it away.
The Volcan Wolf was struck by a tremendous force that shattered all the bones in its body. Like a broken kite with its string cut, it flew off lifelessly into the distance and disappeared into the thick fog.
“No!” Hester cried.
“Aeliana, go and heal it,” Vaan quickly instructed with calmness, but his eyes became more serious. “Headmaster Astoria and I can handle it from it.”
“Yes, Lord Vahn!” Aeliana obeyed without hesitation.
Shortly after she left, Vaan switched out his gunblades for the Rank 4 Black Sword and took on the wyrm together with Astoria.
At the same time, Hester provided support in the rear.
“Stay back, Teacher Raphna!” Astoria warned.
“The Magma Wyrm has proven to be more powerful than we could have imagined. It’s truly deserved to be called a dragon! You’re not strong enough to take on its attack!”
“I have the highest defense out of everyone here,” Vaan claimed.
However, Astoria didn’t believe it.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Teacher Raphna. Now’s not the time to be…” Astoria suddenly stopped speaking, and her eyes widened at Vaan’s change. “Teacher Raphna, you…”
Ba-dump!
“From here on out, keep everything you see to yourself,” Vaan stated after entering Lycan Transformation. “We must end things swiftly before we attract any more attention.”
…
«Lycan Transformation»
[Total Defense: 556 → 709 (↑153) (Low-level Rank 4)]
[Total Strength: 467 → 575 (↑108) (High-level Rank 3 → Low-level Rank 4)]
[Total Speed: 465 → 572 (↑107) (High-level Rank 3 → Low-level Rank 4)]
Ding!
<You are blessed by the earth>
<Your defense has been raised by 26% of your base defense [306])>
<Total Defense: 709 → 788 (↑79) (Low-level Rank 4 → Mid-level Rank 4)>