Several dragons all rushed towards Arthur, unleashing several attacks.
As Arthur was the Traitor, it was an instinct to go after him. Several dozens upon dozens of swords, wielding various natures and types, were sent at him. Arthur flew to the right and then to the left, evading most of the swords, with the exception of a few.
Followed by those swords piercing him, beams of light shot through Arthur. As they were the speed of light, they could not be dodged.
Then, he was followed up by being grabbed by a dragon's claws, and thrown down to the abyss. Arthur crashed into it, being consumed by darkness for a brief time.
…
Worthless. It's all worthless, it's all worthless, pointless, cursed, wretched, screwed up, ruined, all of it, every last bit, all of it, everything.
…
Reaching out from the darkness, the already fractured mind of Arthur Graves had grown even worse.
"Ahh, AAAAAANHHHHH!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
He leapt out from the darkness, latching onto a building and gripping the bricks tightly, his fingers dug in so that he was able to remain.
'It's all worthless, it's all worthless, it's all worthless…'
Arthur leapt from the building, bursting towards a dragon at incredible speed. Naturally, being in the air, and having a large body, it was hard to maneuver itself.
Arthur stabbed it with the cutlass, draining its blood.
…
Seeing that Arthur continued to remain standing, the allied forces of the Mind and Soul dragons, decided to set in another destructive factor.
Around the city, a barrier began to form. It was a large, several mile long barrier, which encapsulated all of the dragons. To which—
"KKKGREAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
More screaming. And it was not just Arthur that was afflicted, but every dragon but the ones who were the Mind dragons and Soul dragons.
Within this barrier, the main damage being dealt was not physical. Rather, it was a direct assault on the mind and soul of those afflicted, as expected.
For the mind, it began to break apart. However, as a result of a self imposed condition, the effects were harder to deal with, the weaker the mind was.
As an example, Damien, a fairly strong-willed boy, was deterred and uneasy due to the mind attacks. However, that was all.
For Arthur, it led to even further rotting of his already fragile mind.
His own mind was beginning to rot inside of his skull. The effects seen now were the start, as the more time spent inside of the barrier, the worse the effects would become.
And when it came down to the Soul attacks, it began to tear apart the soul as well. Literal soul damage was being dealt, resulting in an additional ruining of Arthur's mental state, as his body, which housed his soul, began to change.
As the body contained the soul, if it was ignored and the soul itself was damaged, then the body would begin to "deflate" in response to the damaged soul being chipped away.
Everyone on the battlefield, with the exception of a few, were being damaged. They all rushed Arthur down, being led to intense bloodlust, which Arthur met with his sword.
For even Arthur himself, it was hard to keep up. Constantly shifting his body to evade punches narrowly, flapping his wings hard to fling back or to the side to evade the punches which wouldn't be dodged with just his typical body movements, trying to counter attacks, being countered, attacking, trying to keep track of his opponents.
Yet, even with all that struggle, it could not be said that he was losing.
Even with all their strength, the fact of the matter was that Arthur remained one of the more dominant existences on the battlefield.
His armor was powerful, and with each hit, he only got stronger, absorbing the blood of some of the strongest dragons in the world. The armor could take the blows, and even though they might attack in unison, their abilities were limited within the sky.
The force of attacks, not magical ones, is generally reliant on the amount of force one can generate. Punching properly requires one to use their legs, hips, and core to generate most of the force.
Due to all of the dragons being in the air, they could not use their legs to generate power, since they couldn't step on air. The best they had was momentum from flying at him, or using their wings to try and add momentum, but it was a shell of what it would be on the ground.
Sure, they were huge dragons, and powerful too, but the scary part about Arthur was that each attack he landed which shed blood, he could absorb and use to strengthen his armor, making it even harder to damage him.
Dragons could try to slash him, but slashing wasn't all that effective against armor. And when it came to piercings, like with their teeth and claws, that might work. However, using their teeth was risky, as Arthur's cutlass would be able to cut off their jaws easily, leading to wasted stamina trying to heal.
And for their claws, claws were still biological in nature; it was susceptible to breaking against Arthur's armor.
All of that, in addition to Arthur being able to slice them apart rather easily with the cutlass, meant that he was, by all means, winning.
…
Viewing the scene from afar, was Damien, looking towards the scene with a trembling heart.
'Shit, shit, shit…! Jack, what happened to you!?'
He was consumed by the witch.
'And Arthur…'
The scene before him was a giant cloud of dragons, all rushing down to face one "man."
Next to Damien, was Todd, a War Dragon. When Damien looked at his face, he saw a look of concern draped over the cheerful man.
"He's not doing too bad for himself, is he?" Todd asked, not meaning for it to be answered. "Is he? I mean, just look at what's happening, there's so many…"
Todd turned towards him, raising an eyebrow before smirking and shaking his head.
"I mean, his guts aren't flying everywhere, so he is doing pretty alright."
"Ah, I mean… no, that's not important."
Todd narrowed his eyes, a bit more intrigued. Hiein rushed over to Damien, making sure he was safe, before looking away and leering over the ledge they were on, seeing the darkness rising.
"Hiein," Damien said. "What can we do to save Jack? That woman is back, but she isn't attacking anyone. She's already hovering right above the darkness, should we push her back down in?"
Hiein nodded his head.
"It might be the best course of action. With that said," Hiein muttered, before continuing. "If we cannot save Jack, then we shall leave."
This took both Todd and Damien by a hint of surprise. "What? Why, why do you have to run?" Todd asked.
"Our main mission was to get rid of Arthur. Or, at least that was my main mission. I can't imagine Damien's was any different."
"So, you believe that all of those dragons will kill him eventually?" Todd asked.
"It's only natural," said Hiein. "After all, stamina is not infinite. He'll run out eventually, and they'll maul him like animals."
"But is that really what's going to happen? After all, he's got several dragons on his side. He might still be up against many, but when you have someone who's armed in a world of unarmed people, it's a lot closer."'
"It matters not. Damien, we're going to knock the witch back into the darkness. If that does not save Jack, then we're leaving. This world is allied against the Graves family; no Graves family member will be here upon Arthur's death, with the exception of the woman, whom I shall leave to you."
Todd sighed with a smile, shrugging his shoulders.
"If that's your wish, then that's fine with me. However, I would like it to be noted that I too will be aiding him. And once he's gotten the job done, I'll be the one to do him in."
Damien's eyes widened for but a moment, before going back to normal. He held his hand over his heart, feeling pain.
'Arthur will be killed by him…? Once he's done everything, he's just going to be killed, just like that…'
"I won't stand for that!" Such is something that perhaps a former Damien would have cried out.
However, he'd changed a fair bit. Or rather, his perception of Arthur had. He'd recognized the fact that Arthur, objectively speaking, would be considered "evil."
And if evil couldn't be changed to good, then it was for the best that it was destroyed.
'That's why… isn't Todd the bad guy, now? I don't know much, but the way he's gotten everyone rallied up against each other, and he's going to be having so many people killed, it's…'
'Despicable.'
Damien glanced over at Todd, hesitant on the course of action to take.
'I know that I'm not the strongest. I may be gifted, but I'm not trained enough. So I know I can't beat him in a fight, especially since he's got many guns. That's why, I think, the best course of action is…'
To deny Todd's plans.
Thinking of things, the ideal scenario for Todd would be to have all the enemies wiped out, which will build likeability from the American dragons. Then, Arthur, the main "villain" of the world, will be killed, with Todd being the one to deal the fatal blow.
Upon that being done, not only has he become essentially "the hero" of the dragons, as the one to kill the Traitor, he also became the one who led them all to conquer stronger dragons.
Assuming completion, he's become one of the most powerful dragons in the world, and he'd have practically no one who could threaten him.
So, to erase that future, Damien sprung into action.
"Hiein, knock that woman into the darkness and rescue Jack! And as for you, Todd… you better help everyone yourself!" Yelled Damien, flying towards the main battlefield.
The main crux of such a future would be Arthur. If Arthur couldn't kill most of the dragons, then Todd wouldn't be able to fully defeat everyone.
They had Spatial Dragons on their side. At worst, Todd would turn tail and run. If Arthur was removed, the forces on their side would begin to lose. However, Damien could trust that Todd knew that, and would employ whatever decision he believed to be the best one.
So, Damien reached the battlefield, where Arthur was being attacked, before being knocked away by a tail swipe and sent to the roof of a building.
Damien reached him, to which Arthur stood up, panting heavily from healing, though not too gravely weakened.
Seeing a humanoid dragon storm the battlefield was a shock to those dragons. However, they did not do anything currently, due to the reinforcements from their allies, seeing Damien rush over towards Arthur, with the expectation of him helping Arthur somehow.
"Arthur…!" Damien yelled, to which Arthur looked at him, pained. Arthur stood up slowly, before Damien ran over, grabbing the helmet.
"Arthur, are you alright? If you're injured—"
Damien took off the helmet, before continuing. "Then let me help you."
"No, you can't," Arthur said, fairly calmly, all things considered. His voice was still shaky, due to the literal damage to his mind, and his body was growing weaker. His soul was being chipped, leading to his body developing grotesque mutations, even more so than usual.
"I can," Damien said softly, looking Arthur in his eyes.
Despite this, Damien refused to warn Arthur.
"Arthur," Damien hinted.
"What?" Arthur responded.
Damien's eyes wandered, looking at a dragon suddenly changing form, into that of a humanoid.
It was a Sword Dragon, one who summoned a rapier in his hands.
"I'm sorry. But it has to happen. It's bound to happen eventually, and I want to save as many people as I can. This—"
The dragon burst down, aiming that rapier right at Arthur's head.
"—isn't meaningless."
Those were the last words Arthur heard. The rapier impaled the back of his skull, destroying his brain and sticking out through his right eye.