pertwk Page 200
Page 200
Metal dragons inevitably make mistakes, and magic and dragon breath do indeed inflict timely and effective damage on dragon liches, but instant-death spells are truly fatal upon contact, and similar scenarios are not uncommon. Dragonborn paladins use divine magic and even their own flesh and blood to shield their mounts from deadly spells, while metal dragons retaliate fiercely with magic and dragon breath.
Tamarand once again displayed a unique style. This ancient golden dragon maintained its majesty throughout, displaying a regal demeanor even amidst its fierce maneuvers.
An ancient white dragon, oblivious to its own mortality, challenged it, intending to kill the crown prince of the Golden Dragon Court under its wings and thus gain fame by controlling the wind and climate.
"Golden Dragon, we fear you on the ground, but in the air..." The Primordial White Dragon sneered, stirring up turbulent winds that tossed Tamarand about, then unleashed a blizzard from behind, "What else do you have besides your beautiful sightseeing!"
Tamarand flew forward without making a sound. Just as the white dragon was about to attack as it accelerated into the sky, Tamarand did a barrel roll in the opposite direction, then swooped down at a low angle, before suddenly accelerating and cutting into the white dragon's belly.
A bright yellow light suddenly flashed at the tip of the ancient golden dragon's wing. The magic network within a range of thousands of meters twisted and turned under its influence, and the omnipresent magic rapidly condensed in the air, forming a complex and stable dynamic structure.
"What—" Just as the Ancient White Dragon was about to speak, a beam of yellow light shot out from the wingtip of Tamarand.
Judging from the tremors of the magic network, this was merely an eighth-ring polymorph spell, but the vast and surging dragon magic of Tamarand already demonstrated the spell's power.
The beam of light instantly traversed the barriers of space, pierced through the white dragon's magical defenses, and struck its chest. The transformative magical power instantly permeated the white dragon's body, beginning to reconstruct its physical structure.
A horrifying scene then unfolded. Every bone of the Primordial White Dragon began to forcibly separate from its flesh. Whether it was ribs, spine, or limb bones, they were all completely extracted from its body by magical power and scattered everywhere like discarded garbage.
The white dragon let out a distorted scream, which quickly turned into a muffled wail, and then into a gurgling, chaotic breathing sound. Its massive body, now without skeletal support, began to curl uncontrollably, its muscles spasming, its internal organs being kneaded and writhing haphazardly, until the whole thing became a mass of flesh and blood still convulsing violently.
Without a skeleton, the white dragon cannot maintain flight, cannot maintain focus on magic, and cannot even use movements to cast spell-like abilities. It can only fall from the sky in a parabola due to inertia.
It struggled, twisted, and convulsed helplessly, but had completely lost the ability to save itself.
boom!
The ancient white dragon crashed heavily onto the icy plain, sending up huge snowflakes. Its body, now without skeletal support, lost the strength to withstand the fall and exploded under the sudden surge of internal pressure, spreading into a puddle of flesh mixed with dragon scales, hide, blood, and internal organs.
The dragon bones, scattered everywhere, fell to the ground, creating craters of varying sizes. The white dragon showed no signs of life.
The entire battlefield fell silent for a moment. Both the metal dragon and the white dragon were slightly shocked by this terrifying scene.
"What the hell..." a dragon lich muttered to itself as it cast a spell, "What kind of damn magic is this? Who's the lich here, you or me?"
73. What happens if we lose our maneuver advantage?
The aftershocks of Tamarand's spell still reverberated in the air, and the ripped flesh of the ancient white dragon had frozen into a bizarre red ice sculpture on the icy plain. But this horrific scene had a very limited impact on the overall battlefield—pulled into a 500-kilometer-wide combat airspace by the scattered metal dragon horde, most of the dragons were completely unaware of what was happening here.
Salomes, who was locked in combat with an ancient white dragon, even had the mind to complain: "Why can all those ancient dragons unleash their ultimate attacks, while I'm stuck spewing fireballs? This isn't fair!"
"Shut up!"
"Focus on the battle!"
The two remaining paladins on its back spoke in unison.
The strength of the metal dragon horde is clearly hierarchical. Hevilan and Tamarand are the two visible cores, but the four dragon lords of the Golden Dragon Royal Court—"Dawnlight" Thrancia Tirana, "Eternal Night Light" Bryant Scavesar, "Radiant Sun" Aurelian Salamander, and "Golden Flame" Karsas Tulando—any one of them could make the entire region tremble.
Although the old lady Dracol is independent of the royal court, her strength is no less than formidable. The mountain crown atop Vera Marandes' head, combined with the ancient silver dragon, is practically a game-changer. And then there's Vorasega, the ancient bronze dragon guided by Agatha to become a Holy Watcher; its destructive power against evil creatures is even greater than that of the ancient gold dragons. Each time its translucent form, flowing like bronze mercury, sweeps by, the soulfire of a dragon lich is instantly extinguished.
"Damn it, what the hell is this?!" A dragon lich screamed, attempting to use negative energy magic, but the ray was inexplicably annihilated. Vorasega's response was simple: he opened his mouth and unleashed a pure aetheric breath, instantly purifying the dragon lich into a pile of glowing ashes.
This thing doesn't require any tactics or flying skills, so Casalos never let this ancient bronze dragon participate in aerial combat training...
Casalos didn't care either, while Klaus, who was just there to watch the show, wasn't idle either. Although it kept pretending to be "just here to watch the show" as it flew high in the sky, some white dragons who had transformed into dragon liches and lost their minds tried to provoke it, only to be easily scattered by its casual attacks—this clone was currently much stronger than Casalos's original body in every aspect.
"Fool." The ancient red dragon flicked its frozen tail dismissively. "Can't even launch a sneak attack. What a waste of your lich form."
The "Pure White Dragon," like a moving iceberg, silently floated on Klaus's flank, its occasional glances at the battlefield filled with absolute indifference. On the other side, "Desert Doom" presented a completely different picture—this ancient blue dragon, whose body had been fully constructed thanks to Klaus's technical support in Casaloz, shimmered with an inexplicable luster, electricity coursing through its mechanical shell. It simply observed the battlefield quietly, unless a foolish enemy dared to provoke it.
Although the scene was chaotic, the metal dragon horde's organizational advantage was fully demonstrated. They maintained their advantage by following energy maneuvering, and the tactic of two or three dragon squads proved to be extremely effective. They covered each other and took turns attacking, making the white dragons, who were used to fighting alone, suffer greatly.
The bronze dragon horde adopted the most conservative yet safest tactic—maintaining the speed gained from their initial high-altitude dive, circling in waves before unleashing ranged concentrated fire with lightning breath and ballistae, never giving the dragon lich a chance to engage in close-quarters combat and spellcasting.
As for the elite Atheros who were fortunate enough not to be confined to Waterdeep by Casalos, although their numbers were small, their long-term training and skilled aerial combat allowed them to easily outmaneuver the white dragons, who were stronger than them on average.
The number of white dragons and dragon liches is rapidly decreasing across the entire battlefield.
They were at a disadvantage in every aspect, including numbers, individual strength, tactical coordination, and logistical support; defeat was only a matter of time.
But none of this was Casalos's concern at the moment. Through the temporary psychic network constructed via the communication crystals, it could monitor the entire battlefield in real time. Once it confirmed that the tide of battle had completely turned in its favor, it severed most connections, retaining only the most basic communication functions.
"The rest is up to you."
It said something on the public channel, then focused on facing Qislindo, who was chasing after it.
The two dragons had flown a hundred kilometers away from the main battlefield, entering the skies above a desolate icy plain. Here, there were no mountains to shield them, no friendly support, only howling winds and endless white expanse—the metal dragons would not participate in this battle. This was not only a promise Casalos himself had made when conscripting them, but also a test tacitly accepted by the Golden Dragon Court, the Claws of Justice, and the Bronze Dragonflight as the leader of this war.
Only by defeating Qislindo alone can the metal dragons truly acknowledge its temporary leadership. If it loses, then there's nothing more to say... The war has begun, and the metal dragon horde and the Dragon Cult remain locked in a life-or-death struggle, but Casaloz will no longer be the dominant force.
"You little brat," the demigod lich's voice echoed directly in Casalos's mind, chillingly cold, "you think you can take me down with those fools?"
Casalos did not respond, but slowly spread its wings and began to circle with the help of a rising warm current, calmly locking onto the flight path of Qislindo.
Seeing this, Qislindo let out a cold laugh: "What? Speechless with fright? Of course, faced with an eternal being, mortals are always..."
Its words came to an abrupt halt as Casalos summoned the remaining higher elementals and simultaneously entered the form of a chaotic elemental dragon. The four enormous elemental creatures instantly merged into its body, and the silvery-white metallic scales began to twist and change, as if the entire dragon body was being reorganized under the impact of elemental energy.
Qislindor's soulfire flickered, and it immediately ceased its pursuit. The dragon bones that made up its body shot forward like shotgun pellets due to inertia—this creature had no physical form; the pile of dragon bones was merely a means to conceal itself among the dragon lich horde. Casaloz's entry into the chaotic elemental form alerted it; thousands of years of combat experience told it that silence towards the Wings was more dangerous than any provocation.
Without the burden of a physical skeleton, the deathly aura of the dragon lich, like a ghost, spread out completely. Its flight posture became extremely bizarre, completely ignoring the principles of aerodynamics, sometimes flying backwards, sometimes moving sideways, sometimes ascending and descending vertically, with neither gravity nor air able to restrain it—just like Volasega.
Compared to the chief chanter of the Dragon Cult, the ancient black dragon lich "Destruction Crawler" Dorgothos, the ancient blue dragon lich "Supreme Bone Dragon" Alasklebanbastos, and the less well-known chief whisperer, the ancient shadow dragon lich "Hissing Shadow" Ogrorossa, the ancient white dragon lich Qislindo seems to have little presence, but this does not mean that it is less powerful.
On the contrary, this was a terrifying being no less formidable than the other three. Throughout the entire Cult of Dragons, only Qislindo successfully broke free from the shackles of the Life Box and transformed into a demigod lich. Although the "demigod" in demigod lich doesn't describe divine power, and the title is merely a special prefix that cannot be detached from the lich's status, the difference between a demigod and an ordinary lich lies only in their state: the essence of an ordinary lich resides within the Life Box, while the essence of a demigod lich has transferred to the outer realm, no longer bound by the Life Box. This change in state is enough to indirectly confirm Qislindo's arcane power.
Moreover, its actual combat record is far more impressive than those three. The reason it has a weak presence is simply because it was killed off too early in the plot, and it didn't manage to cause any uproar among the people of Faerûn after Samaster's death.
On the main battlefield a hundred kilometers away, Tamaland, who had taken over command, suddenly felt a pang of fear. He turned to look at the two abnormal dragons, his pupils contracting sharply: "What kind of power is that?"
Serancia glided to its side, her dragon eyes, molten into a pool of gold, gleaming: "A demigod lich without a physical form... That young iron dragon's fighting form truly surpasses our understanding of arcane and elemental magic. Is this a gift from the Dragon God of Destiny? Or a reward from the Goddess of Magic, or perhaps both?"
Hevilan also sensed the terrifying aura of death and elemental fluctuations. She turned and accelerated towards Casalos and the dragon lich, warning them via telepathy: "All dragons, stay away from the southeast. The battle there is not for you to participate in."
Casalos's body became translucent, as if it were made of flowing elemental slurry, sometimes solidifying and sometimes ethereal. However, it did not undergo a "leapfrog" movement like Qislindo or Volasega, but maintained a stable hovering motion, leaving strange elemental ripples in the air every time it flew a certain distance.
The first round of confrontation began without warning. Qislindo launched the first attack, its body suddenly halting, its illusory dragon wings tracing complex movement trajectories. Several dark blue magic circles unfurled from its wingtips, spewing forth streams of purple light. However, these seemingly offensive beams of light suddenly split midway, transforming into a dense barrage of magical missiles that hurtled towards Casalos from all directions, each following a graceful curve.
At the same time, Qislindo's true attack, hidden beneath its tail, silently gathered dark energy at the tips of its hind claws. Without any warning of casting a spell, without any fluctuation in the magic network—the Death Finger had already been silently unleashed.
The instant the ray formed, Casalos was still being struck by the magic missile, but abruptly turned his head and opened his mouth. "Where's Lin? I'm busy. Lin, are you here...?"
No matter how secretive Qislindo's spellcasting was, its chaotic elemental state allowed it to bypass the magic network and directly connect with the magic that existed in all things, which was enough to capture the underlying fluctuations of the spell's formation. Furthermore, through its arcane knowledge far exceeding the level of spellcasting and the pseudo-Laplace's demon calculations, it was possible to reverse-engineer Qislindo's true intentions.
A gray light shrouded in fate spewed from its mouth—a Disintegration Technique disguised as the power of the Dragon God of Fate!
The two spells converged in mid-air, with the Disintegration spell shattering the magical foundation of Death Finger, causing both spells to be completely annihilated.
The form of the Qislindo twisted eerily once more, this time appearing simultaneously in five different locations, each performing a different spellcasting action, yet all emanating identical magical fluctuations from the magic network. The five Qislindo launched their attacks simultaneously. The first unleashed an ice storm, a deluge of ice blades raining down; the second summoned a pulse of negative energy, attempting to weaken Casalos's life force; the third prepared yet another instant-death spell; the fourth was weaving some kind of curse; and the fifth was quietly preparing a disintegration spell.
Casalos swept over the five figures, the flames completely obscured in the daytime sky above the ice plains, yet enough for it to pinpoint the true form of the dragon lich—all five were illusions, the real Qislindor hidden beneath it, maintaining a flight trajectory perfectly synchronized with it, silently weaving the syllables of death!
Without any warning, Casalos's figure blurred and then briefly disappeared.
The power of the law swept across the area with the sudden appearance of the dragon's roar, but only struck the ripples left by the elements.
Vorasega sensed the fluctuations in "time," the resonance of the Aether Sea making it tremble: "An instant-cast time spell? Is it an Iron Dragon or some unknown subspecies of arcane dragon?"
Hevilan explained, "That little guy is using chaos to fight against death itself."
The reappearing Casalos maintained its regular circling pattern—unlike most creatures that grow stronger with age, dragons' basic attributes improve across the board with age. Casalos, being too young, was at a disadvantage compared to these older beings in terms of stamina and magic. It needed to carefully manage every ounce of its stamina and magic, using updrafts to maintain its circling position—this was the most energy-efficient way to fly.
Despite evading the laws, Casalos still faced a fivefold magical attack—the illusions weren't mere illusions; each possessed considerable real spellcasting ability. Casalos's chaotic body began to tremble violently, the balance maintained by the elements was broken, and it fell out of its chaotic elemental form, but a miniature elemental turbulence nova exploded in its wake.
Centered on the revealed iron dragon, chaotic elemental shockwaves radiated outwards, tearing apart the ice storm, neutralizing negative energy pulses, counteracting the focus of instant-death magic, destroying curses before they could take shape, and disintegrating spells vanishing into the chaotic energy. More importantly, the five Qislin phantoms were annihilated by the impact—regardless of their spellcasting abilities, they were ultimately just phantoms, unable to withstand such a violent energy surge.
The invisible Qislindo was also forced to reveal itself. Its formless body trembled slightly in the elemental turbulence, but quickly stabilized.
"Interesting." Cislindo's tone was no longer flippant. "It seems I truly underestimated you."
The third round of pure spell-based combat was even more ferocious.
74. What are you waiting for?
The illusionary interference proved ineffective, and Qislindo switched to a new tactic, directly showcasing its top-tier arcane power, unmatched even by the Dragon Lich of the Dragon Cult.
A terrifying instant-death spell that sent chills down Casalos's spine appeared out of nowhere, as if it had been suddenly plucked from the magic web. Without lengthy concentration or complex movements, the power derived from the concept of death pierced through Casalos's body and condensed into a sword on his dragon soul.
Knowledge from the Nesser Scrolls revealed to Casalos the name of a spell that had never appeared in Faerûn before: Annihilation, a seventh-circle, ranged, no-projectile, instant-kill spell with a casting level of 25 and instant cast.
If it were any other dragon, even Tamarand or Hevilan, they would be completely finished off if Qislindo hit them like that.
Casalos was ultimately well-prepared.
Compared to the killing arrows fired by El's fallen seraphim like Gatling guns, Qislindo's instant-death spells are nothing more than fireflies!
The anti-death barrier, a spell-like ability gained from advanced skin carving, is generated before the blade of death takes shape. Unlike the rules in board games that simplify calculations and gameplay, the anti-death barrier's effectiveness against instant-death spells is conditional, namely, the fundamental nature of magic resistance itself, namely, whether magical power can form a counterforce.
Casalos's own arcane casting level is limited by its age and is not high, but the multiple advancements bring it a high spellcasting level bonus. When using spellcasting abilities, Casalos's casting level reaches more than 30, which is more than enough to suppress Qislindo's instant seventh-level spells!
Holy Light formed a spherical rune shield around its dragon soul. The sword, condensed from the power of death, struck it, slowly dissolving and pushing inward, but ultimately failing to pierce the runes' barrier against the dragon soul. This seemingly lengthy process actually occurred in an instant, silently and breathtakingly.
"Very good, very good!" After several failed attempts to defeat a teenage dragon that was merely a target in mid-air, Qislindo's voice grew increasingly louder: "It's a pity you have no future..."
As the dragon lich roared, the once clear sky was gradually covered by thick, dark clouds. A fierce wind began to howl, sweeping up the snow from the ground and causing the already frigid temperature to plummet. A blizzard that enveloped the entire battlefield airspace formed almost instantly, reducing visibility to less than ten meters.
Even Casalos, which maintained a stable hovering state in its elemental form, was finding it increasingly difficult to fly, yet it could only grit its teeth and continue. Facing the incorporeal dragon lich, Casalos had no advantage in maneuverability whatsoever; it could only wait for the inevitable opportunity to arise—the behavior patterns of the Qislindor had been completely solidified over thousands of years of lifespan and the transformation process of the dragon lich, and all its actions were under Casalos's control.
Under the cover of the blizzard, Qislindor summoned wave after wave of wind and ice elemental creatures to harass Casaloz. These elemental creatures appeared and disappeared in the blizzard, constantly launching attacks on the iron dragon. Relying on its thick hides and tough skin, Casaloz remained unmoved.
But this was just the beginning. Qislindo once again unleashed Multiple Mirror Image, creating dozens of his own phantoms that darted through the snowstorm. Some of these phantoms gathered the surging magic and ice from the unnatural blizzard, condensing into stable combat constructs with real magic and physical bodies. Under the cover of elemental creatures, they charged and entangled with Casalos, making Casalos increasingly shaky.
The storm churned up ice and snow, and phantoms accompanied the elements, like a giant millstone, suppressing the sky of Sosar and grinding everything to dust.
Casalos's perception could not penetrate the layers of fog and interference, but the inevitable laws of unnatural storms, the subtle changes in the warp and weft of the magic network, and the inherent magic of all things always exposed the true actions of the Qislindo to the deductions of the pseudo-Laplace's demon—prediction is an indispensable part of situational awareness.
Through these scattered pieces of information, Casalos clearly observed the terrifying magic that was gathering. It would form a legendary spell that could tear apart an entire mountain range with an ice explosion, and its effective kill radius against the ancient golden dragon exceeded five kilometers. As for the core... the name "legendary spell" was enough to explain everything.
Casalos did not try to interrupt Qislindo's spellcasting. Instead, it entangled itself with the seemingly endless ice constructs and elemental creatures, warming its body with exploding flames, dragon breath sparks, and disintegration spells, silently waiting—it was going to withstand this legendary spell!
It boasts damage reduction, magic resistance, and defense surpassing even the Ancient Dragon, along with ice immunity granted by the advanced Carved Skin Dragon, naturally giving it the confidence to withstand legendary cold spells. Of course, the magic-countering effect of Disintegrate spell, along with the Magic Dragon Armor, which has been largely ignored but has actually reached its sixth generation, is also one of its strengths.
Even though legendary spells have crossed the boundaries of Faerûn's magical energy system, exhibiting characteristics of mixed damage and even true damage, completely exceeding the scope of energy immunity, Casalos remains fearless.
The fighting on the main battlefield had subsided. The metal dragons, having suffered relatively few casualties, had annihilated the last dragon lich and gathered at the edge of the storm, quietly awaiting the outcome of the final battle of this campaign.
Qislindo's long preparations were finally complete. As the final casting motion was finished, the entire airspace seemed to freeze.
Then, something exploded!
As the blizzard dissipated, the elemental creatures, phantoms, and constructs all crumbled, reverting to their most primal magical power. This power converged within the illusory body of Qislin, then compressed into a pure white point of light. With a flick of its tongue, it traversed hundreds of meters in a matter of breaths, touching the slowly and steadily flying Casalos.
In an instant, darkness fell, and a blinding white light flashed and disappeared. Lin, did you even think about it? Lin, are you even here...?
Then, centered on the spot where the bright light disappeared, thunder surged and a fierce wind arose.
Like mountains falling from the sky to the earth, they stir up thousands of meters of ice and snow dust that spread in a ring. Then, needle-like white "beams" penetrate the dust, and wherever they pass, the air is instantly frozen into tiny ice crystals, which are then engulfed by the storm dust wall that follows.
The ice layer on the ground, frozen for hundreds of millions of years, cracked radially, and was then lifted up by an invisible force, forming ice spikes hundreds of meters high that pierced the sky at an angle, with thousands of tons of rocks and ice fragments flying like bullets.
At the core of the Ice Blast, Casalos endured the most terrifying power of the spell's peak.
Even with its powerful defense, its body still cracked under the force from the inside out. Large chunks of silvery-white scales were torn off, and the armor formed by the four elements was crushed. The direct defensive level of the Chaos Elemental Form was not very good. A moment before the Qislindo magic took effect, it withdrew from the Chaos Elemental Form and instead used its boiling magic power for defense.
It held on, miraculously surviving the city-destroying magic.
At that very moment, Qislindo was inevitably frozen in mid-air. A massive amount of its dragon magic was drained by the legendary spell, causing its illusory form, entirely dependent on magic for sustenance, to momentarily solidify in mid-air. This was perhaps the slight flaw of this kind of nasty, incorporeal existence.
It's now!
Casalos' long-awaited opportunity has finally arrived.
Despite the excruciating pain from its torn body, it opened its mouth, and an unprecedented burst of dragon breath erupted forth.
The form of this dragon's breath was something even the most ancient golden dragons had never seen before. Its main body was a slender, beige-colored chaotic jet of light, as thin as a human finger, wrapped in a dense, intermittently appearing silver star matter, like fragments of a mirror.
The flames, disintegration spells, and dragon breath sparks that had accumulated around Casalos during the previous battle, the four high elementals crushed by the spells of Qislingdor, the dragon scales that had been torn off their skin, and the dragon blood that had seeped from their wounds all disintegrated into beige light particles and converged into the jet that spewed from the dragon's mouth.
The jet hit Qislindo, who was still in a stunned state, without any mishap.
Even more bizarre things followed. The ethereal white dragon phantom that had been hit by the beige jet formed a multifaceted crystal with a mirror-like surface. Then, as the jet continued to focus, it began to frantically erode the illusory body of the demigod lich.
In the second, Qislindo finally recovered from its paralysis, only to find in horror that one-fifth of its body had transformed into a cluster of crystals roughly resembling a white dragon's skeleton. The crystallization stripped it of its illusory maneuverability, which defied the laws of physics. It could only attempt to evade using ordinary flight methods, but limited by the aerodynamic shape of its rotten skeleton and by the basic geometric laws of angular and linear velocity, it was utterly unable to escape Casalos's persistent focus.
"What disgusting thing is this, worthy of being seen by the Dragon Queen?!" Qislindo roared furiously, his voice broken and furious, as he flew madly. "Impossible! I am an eternal being! I will never be destroyed!"
It attempted to defend against or counter the dragon's breath with various spells, but neither barriers nor disintegration spells had any effect on the thin, almost negligible ray. The crystallization process continued; the crystal clusters reflecting the sky and ground from different angles grew larger, while the illusory dragon shadow became smaller. At the same time, the crystals in the areas continuously focused by the jet began to undergo a next-generation change. As if compressing millions of years of weathering into milliseconds, the crystal clusters scattered into sand and drifted in the wind, then continued to disintegrate into pure elements, disappearing into the air and outlining the distorted flight path of the demigod lich.
"Damn Iron Dragon!" Qislindo screamed and cursed, "You think you can kill me like this? I'll be back! I'll definitely come back for revenge!"
As a demigod lich who had even lost his phylactery, Qislindo was indeed not truly dead—having learned from Cyrek's example, Casalos wasn't entirely confident in the Blazing Flame—but at this moment, Qislindo was experiencing pain he had never felt since transforming into a dragon lich. The feeling of his very essence being torn apart, reassembled, and annihilated was an unbearable torment, even for an undead who had lost his senses.