Watching its carefully cultivated cannon fodder get stolen away by a feathered serpent right in front of its eyes, the black dragon flew into a rage.
A torrent of blazing dragonfire erupted from its jaws, sweeping across more than twenty meters.
The feathered serpent merely tilted its wings and glided through the air, effortlessly slipping outside the range of the breath attack.
Lewis dodged.
The black dragon pursued.
It chased relentlessly, but Lewis's agility completely outclassed it, preventing the dragon from landing a single hit.
Meanwhile, through Lewis's psionic link, the other three had already received their instructions.
Tonks remained behind to keep an eye on Capac.
Jaina and Ciri used the opportunity Lewis created to prepare their own anti-dragon measures.
Jaina struck first.
Raising her staff, she gathered a vast amount of water-elemental energy.
A gigantic Water Elemental nearly two stories tall materialized before her.
Moments later, two slightly smaller Water Elementals appeared beside it.
The instant they emerged, the elementals launched their attack.
Spears of ice condensed and shot toward the black dragon.
Combined with Jaina's own Frostbolts, the battlefield suddenly became a storm of icy firepower.
Ciri wasn't idle either.
Though she had stopped casually traversing worlds after arriving in the Harry Potter universe, her innate space-time talent remained.
After learning Phantom Step from Lewis, she had practiced the spell more than almost any other.
If she possessed a game interface, she would undoubtedly have earned the achievement:
Spell Mastery: Phantom Step
Now, with Lewis's psionic three-dimensional battlefield awareness feeding directly into her mind, she had pushed the spell to its absolute limits.
Instant casting.
Perfect precision.
No line of sight required.
No recovery time.
Silver light flashed around her body.
In the next instant, she appeared directly above the black dragon.
Her Arcane Sword, enchanted with Frostbolt, came crashing downward.
Combined with gravity and the sword's razor-sharp edge, the strike buried itself deep into the dragon's back.
The beast howled in pain.
Then, empowered by Spider Climb, the female witcher stood firmly on the dragon's back as though rooted there.
She ripped the sword free and immediately unleashed a flurry of strikes.
Bloody wounds opened across the dragon's scales.
Finally unable to endure the harassment, the black dragon beat its wings and executed a violent aerial roll, attempting to throw off the unauthorized passenger.
Unfortunately for it, before the maneuver was even halfway complete, silver light flashed again.
Ciri vanished and reappeared safely on the ground.
The dragon's impressive acrobatic maneuver accomplished absolutely nothing.
Other than ruining its own momentum and making itself dizzy.
The black dragon was stunned.
A moment ago, it had been dominating the battlefield.
Now it felt like a giant punching bag.
The damage wasn't truly serious.
For a creature as enormous as a dragon, these wounds were little more than scratches.
But enough scratches still hurt.
And before it could respond, movement erupted within the jungle.
Three tall, unnaturally slender female figures rushed into the battlefield.
The wild vampires.
Chafrina, whom Lewis had met before.
Along with her sisters, Kapari and Sena.
The three vampires entered the battlefield and immediately looked around in confusion, seemingly searching for someone.
Then Lewis's voice echoed directly into their minds.
"Stop looking."
"See the feathered serpent in the sky?"
"The one who summoned you was me."
"Lord Lewis…"
Chafrina's mental voice carried newfound respect.
"So your true form… is a feathered serpent?"
Lewis almost laughed.
"No. This isn't my true form."
"It's a transformation. A wizard's Animagus."
"You've heard of those, haven't you?"
"Animagus…"
"Heard…"
"Modern wizards… amazing."
Wonderful.
Now she'd apparently concluded that modern wizards could all turn into divine beasts.
Lewis chose not to correct the misunderstanding.
Instead, he moved on.
"According to our agreement, you're helping us fight."
"We'll need everyone's effort if we're going to drive off this dragon."
"Of course."
"We don't break promises."
"We'll do our best."
The three vampire sisters immediately agreed.
"In that case…"
"Ciri, give them the daggers."
"Understood."
After returning from the dragon's back, Ciri didn't immediately rejoin the battle.
Instead, she approached the vampires and handed each of them a dagger.
The weapons were entirely white.
Their fifteen-centimeter blades featured tiny backward-facing serrations.
They weren't metal.
They were bone.
Specifically, Basilisk fangs crafted by Lewis himself.
"These are only on loan."
"They're the only weapons here capable of seriously injuring that dragon."
"But be careful."
"They're venomous."
"Don't cut yourselves."
After distributing the daggers, Ciri vanished back into combat.
"What a terrifying hunter…"
Kapari, the eldest sister, stared after her.
Then she turned toward her younger siblings.
"We're going too."
"Let's not lose to her."
She kicked off the ground.
Her body became a blur.
The other two followed immediately.
Unlike many fantasy vampires, the vampires of this world possessed no blood magic.
No dark spells.
No ability to transform into bats.
No turning into mist.
No commanding swarms of rats or nocturnal creatures.
Their gifts manifested primarily as overwhelming strength, speed, and endurance.
Sunlight didn't kill them either.
It merely made them uncomfortable.
Combined with their immense lifespans, they were practically perfect superhumans.
Aside from their unfortunate blood-drinking compulsion.
Unfortunately, wizards generally regarded vampires as inferior beings.
Because they couldn't use magic.
Even wizard vampires suffered severe magical degradation.
In that regard, they were actually weaker than many of their fantasy counterparts.
Ironically, they were even less versatile than werewolves.
At least wizard werewolves existed.
That said, some vampires occasionally awakened strange supernatural abilities.
Telepathy.
Mental intrusion.
Protective barriers.
Psychic torment.
Simple psionic talents.
Some scholars even theorized that such vampires would have been fully qualified wizards had vampirism not suppressed their magical potential.
Among the three sisters, Chafrina possessed one such gift.
The power to create illusions.
Against ordinary humans, it was devastating.
Against wizards, far less effective.
Against a dragon?
It could only make the creature hesitate briefly.
But in battle, a moment's hesitation was enough.
Three shadows flashed past.
Three shallow cuts appeared on one of the dragon's hind legs.
Normally, such wounds would have been insignificant.
Instead, the black dragon screamed in agony.
Basilisk venom flooded into its bloodstream.
Spreading rapidly through the limb.
The dragon could already feel its leg going numb.
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