The smoke stung her lungs as she breathed, and all around her the fire roared. The Cottage she had spent 10 years living in was crumbling under the flames before her very eyes. And through the roar of the fire, she could hear laughter. Not, however, from a human. The voice was thick and low, bestial in its characteristics, and through the smoke, Lyra was certain she saw a figure, a shadow moving in the smoke. It was big, and even though she could not make out a shape through the smoke she already had a pretty good idea of what it could be. A dragon. Then, she heard its voice, as it called out through the fire and the flames, guttural and low, in a language she did not understand by thankfully the Area Translate spell was still active.
"Come out, come out, little elfling! Come out and play..."
Just like back in Ytrand, following her mind-control episode, Lyra felt that familiar rush of anger rise from her very core. This beast had invaded her home, set the fields aflame, and even burnt down her cottage! And this was all just some twisted game? It thought this was funny? Anger and fury flashed before her eyes, but unlike before, when she had allowed herself to be consumed by the rage, this time she held back, and maintained control. No matter what, it was a dragon. It was not an opponent she could underestimate.
She used the search spell, to detect exactly where the enemy was, and to make sure there was only one. 80 meters ahead, one hostile. Next was the inspection spell, to get a grip of its stats and abilities.
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Name: Razargan
HP: 12100/12100 MP: 9430/9430
Level: 81
Race: Adolescent Red Dragon
Age: 231
Stamina: 1210
Strength: 1143
Agility: 854
Spirit: 534
Intellect: 943
Description:An Adolescent Red Dragon is an almost fully matured dragon. The Red Dragons breathe fire that can melt even metal, and are often the most aggressive of all dragon-kin. They are extremely territorial, and the Adolescent Dragons like to go out to claim a territory of their own where they can then make their own lairs.
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On the surface, its stats were somewhat similar to her own, except that she had a lot more mana than it did. They were about equal in level, and she could not see any strange skills or anything of the likes, so she ended up feeling rather confident. Still, she applied "Mage Armor[1]" and "Mana Barrier[2]" to herself just in case, as well was "Protected Mind[3]". Then, she cast "Absorption Aura[4]" on herself to top things off. The Dragon had a lot of stats, not something she wanted to go to waste.
All in all, it took only a few seconds, but the Dragon must have sensed her magic somehow, as there was suddenly a massive gust of wind which temporarily blew away the smoke. Lyra realized, it was just the Dragon flapping its large wings which made this effect. Now she saw it clearly, and it saw her. To say it was gigantic would be rather apt, and even then it was still not fully matured! It was easily the size of a two-story building, perhaps 15 meters long from head to tail, and its head was probably some 8 meters from the ground. Hard, shimmering red scales covered its every surface, with the scales turning more beige towards its underside, and deepening in color until they were a crimson red atop its back. Along the back, hard spines seemed to jut out from its body, traveling all the way down to its tail. It had four legs which it would use for walking, as well as its wings which were now currently unfurled following its flap. Lyra could see light through the wing membrane, and all in all the creature was quite beautiful, if not for its massive danger.
Its claws were large, like her forearms, and it had fangs like kitchen knives. Its serpentine eyes seemed to blaze red, with thin elongated slits as pupils, staring directly at her. She heard a rumble emit from its body, as its mouth seemed to curl up into what was probably a smirk. Then, it lumbered forward in her direction, wings furling along its back once more, as it spoke:
"There you are... little elf. With your death, this sanctuary will have a new ruler... and I will be all the more powerful!"
Lyra glared defiantly at the approaching dragon. She did not want to converse with this brute who had brought fire and destruction to her Spirit Sanctuary! Nor did she want to give away that she could understand him. With the wave of her hand, she unleashed ten "Earthern Spike[5]" his way, as the earth rumbled and large, sharp spikes suddenly burst from the ground, seeking to impale the dragon!
The Dragon reacted quicker than she had been expecting, sweeping its large claw, shattering many of the incoming spikes in one fell swoop. But not all. One struck its hind leg, another its foot, even going so far as to manage to go past the scales, drawing blood. In a fury, the dragon roared, and suddenly burst forward with surprising speed, covering the distance between them in a matter of seconds, his claw extended for her as he screamed:
"YOU DARE DRAW MY BLOOD, YOU INSIGNIFICANT CRETIN!"
But Lyra was not done. Just before his claws snapped around her, she used the spell "Blink[6]" to reposition herself, now behind the Dragon. She used another "Earthern Spike" spell, times 10, this time from behind, as more spikes burst forth, their sharp ends striking the dragon and burying deep into its body. In a flurry, it swept its large tail in a wide sweep, catching Lyra off-guard, as the tail struck her body, sending her flying and later tumbling and rolling through the burning meadow. She wheezed as she came to, thankfully the "Mana Barrier" and "Mage Armor" had absorbed all the damage.
But before she had even gotten to her feet, a massive torrent of fire came blasting towards her, forcing her to use "Blink" again, just in time, to avoid the Dragon's breath. However, the moment she appeared elsewhere, the Dragon's claw came out of nowhere and struck her body, which once more sent her flying, this time crashing through the burning wall of her now ruined cottage.
"HAH! You're definitely stronger than any elf I've met before, but in the end... you still pose no real threat towards a dragon like me!" the dragon roared as it lumbered towards the cottage, flames licking its maw.
Lyra was now properly pissed. It not only was destroying her sanctuary, now it was also talking smack!? Enough was enough...
With a mighty telekinetic blast, the blew away the entire burning cottage as she levitated up to her feet, eyes blazing wildly with magic, her light-blue hair floating in the currents of her magic as if underwater. The Dragon blinked surprised. He had landed two good hits, and the elf still seemed perfectly healthy, which should not be possible. Even more so, she had used over 20 advanced earth-magic spells, so she shouldn't have that much mana left, even if she was a max-level Terramancer.
Then, Lyra lashed her hand out, unleashing a totally new, custom-made spell, called "Crushing Force[7]". Taking inspiration from everyone's most favorite Dark Lord, Lyra too found this Dragon's lack of faith disturbing. She was done holding back, and the amount of magic she unleashed into the spell kicked up a wind around her, blowing the ash and dust away as the Dragon was stopped in its track as an impossible force bore down on all sides around its neck.
It could not move, as the force held it in place, squeezing, harder and harder, as the scales around its neck began to crack and shatter, as it was slowly lifted up into the air. Helplessly it struggled, limbs kicking, wings flapping, but to no avail. And now with control over its head, it could not chant or breathe fire, though it certainly tried. For the first time in his life, Razargan felt fear. His pupils dilated as he looked down at the elf, feeling his throat constrict further and further every passing second, the pain unbearable as his hind legs now left the ground.
All the while, Lyra kept raising her hand, her fingers moving closer and closer together, as if she was physically squeezing the Dragon's neck with her own bare hands. She saw it, the fear in its eyes, the terror of death, but she did not plan to be merciful, not today. This monster had invaded and torched her home, and tried to kill her. She squeezed harder, and now she could hear the cracks as well, as the bones along the creatures neck also began to crack under the pressure. The Dragon, in a final attempt, just barely managed to wheeze out:
"Wait... spare... me... or... my family... will never..."
But Lyra did not care. Her hand, shaking, closed into a fist, and there was a loud snapping sound heard as the throat of the dragon was crushed completely, blood splattering everywhere over the ground as the eyes of the dragon popped from the pressure like balloons. She released the spell, and the massive body of the dragon came crashing down on the ground before her, limp, and dead.
She breathed, loudly, having exerted herself quite a bit. But there was no time to waste, everything was still on fire! Using the last bits of her mana, she made one final spell. "Summon, Torrential Downpour![8]" and threw her hands up towards the sky. Immediately the sky darkened as large black clouds rolled in. Then the rain began, as if the heavenly dam had opened up and released all its waters, it truly began to pour down. The flames started to fizzle out and die as the entire meadow soon became drenched, and within a minute, there wasn't even any smoke rising from anywhere as the soil was so drenched even fires smoldering beneath the ground died out.
The corpse of the Red Dragon fizzled with heat as the raindrops pelted its large form, but soon enough cooled down too. Lyra ended the spell after only a minute, as the meadow had became a mud-field. Tired, she walked over and sat down in the mud, leaning against the corpse of the Red Dragon. Panting, she opened her status window to see how many stats she had absorbed from this monster.
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Name: Lyra Lunarsong
HP: 14860 MP: 2300/24220
Level: 83 (4,150,000 / 12,875,000)
Race: High Elf
Age: 26
Stamina: 1486 + (121)
Strength: 1328 + (114)
Agility: 1251 + (85)
Spirit: 1164 + (53)
Intellect: 2053 + (94)
Job: Sage (All spells costs 50% less mana to cast. All spells deals 20% extra dmg. May communicate and form contracts with Spirits to use their powers as your own.)
Skill: Magic Creation (SSS) (The User may create spells with their own unique effects, the manacost is proportionate to the effect of the spell)
Available attribute points to spend: 80
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Not bad, she thought to herself, as the sun once more broke through the clouds as they parted following the intense 1-minute downpour. But she had spent 90% of her mana just to take out one adolescent dragon, and only gotten some 400k experience points. Still, the absorption was nice, all things considered. She could probably have conserved more mana, by not using the "Mana-Barrier" spell. But she was scared of taking damage. She knew she had a lot of HP and could likely endure quite a few hits, while the "Mana-barrier" just essentially doubled the damage she took, but protected her HP, so it was really inefficient.
At the same time, if her HP hit 0, that was it. She was done for. Every time the dragon had struck her, she had lost about 1000 mana. So that's 500 points of damage blocked. And she had 2000 armor thanks to the "Mage-Armor" spell, which meant the Dragon was actually doing 2500 damage with a single strike, if armor worked the way she believed it to work, by absorbing damage up to its armor cap that is. Meaning, most humans would not survive even a single strike from a dragon. Even a max-level summoned hero in good armor and equipment would likely only manage to survive 2-3 direct hits.
Though none of that really surprised her, after all Dragon-subjugations usually had full raid teams, from what she had understood. And even then, a raid where no one died was unheard of. She sighed, closing her eyes as she rested her head against the side of the dead dragon. For now, she'd just rest a bit. Then... she'd have to go an assess the damages. But, that would have to wait just a bit...
[1] Mage Armor: Costs 300 mana to cast. The user coats themselves in magic armor, increasing their armor value by an amount equal to their Intelligence stat for 1 hour.
[2] Mana-Barrier: A barrier of mana that will protect the caster using their own mana as a shield. Each point of dmg blocked will drain 2 points of mana. 200 dmg blocked will drain 400 mana.
[3] Protected Mind: Costs 1000 mana. The Caster protects their mind for 24 hours, ensuring they will not fall prey to any mental magics so long as their mana allows. If the enemy caster possesses more mana than the caster of this spell, they may overpower even this spell.
[4] Absorption Aura: cost 5000 mana to cast, and for 10 minutes the caster will absorb 10% of the stats from any creature killed while under this effect.
[5] Earthern Spike: Costs 400 mana. The caster summons a sharp spike from the nearby earth to strike their enemies. Deals 200 dmg + Spellpower.
[6] Blink: Costs 100 mana. Teleports the caster to another location within 20 yards in the blink of an eye.
[7] Crushing Force: Costs 800 mana. The caster uses telekinesis to crush their opponent, causing 500 Pure Magic-Dmg + spellpower. Duration of the spell can be extended, and additional dmg can be added, by spending more mana.
[8] Summon, Torrential Downpour: Costs 3000 mana. The caster summons a rainstorm of epic proportions! Will drain 200 mana per minute after its initial cast to sustain the spell.