City of Sin

Book 8, 36

Cleaning Up(2)

When Richard walked out of the other end of the passage, he immediately heard a thunderous roar. Shield in hand, Tannan was fighting five dragons in the sky. He was definitely at a disadvantage, but the legendary shield managed to deflect the claw swipes and breath attacks handily; it would take a long time for him to start getting hurt.

There had been a total of seven dragons guarding the passage, but now only had to deal with two. He flashed onto the back of one that was heading for the legendary warrior, cutting into its wings easily. The wound from the Judge dried up rapidly as the blade absorbed the essence of the blood and flesh, causing the creature to howl in pain as it fell from the skies.

It was at this point that Nasia walked out the portal and reinforced him with King of War. The skies within a kilometre shuddered as energy surged forth into a spiral with him at the centre, distracting even Tannan and the other dragons for a moment. Even the powerful legendary warrior was filled with fear as Richard’s aura pulsed crazily, his body a bottomless black hole that devoured the energy from its surroundings. The very space nearby started to shudder, and as he felt a faint sense of suppression Tannan realised that the mage had reached level 23 at minimum.

Once in the legendary realm, every level was difficult to cross. Nasia’s spell had almost seemed like a light show, but it had given Richard a full two levels! Even as a temporary boost, this was an amazing ability that Tannan had never heard of before.

Richard himself was shocked by the energy surging through him, but his attention was quickly pulled to the direct boost to everything. His legendary ability, strength, speed, toughness, mana... everything had been buffed far beyond just going up two levels. He almost forgot about the other dragon next to him, but fortunately the creature was just as shocked and forgotten to attack. By the time it managed to react, he had collected himself and the face that was a combination of devil and angel appeared in front of him, “Heavy.”

The dragon suddenly felt like it had grown ten times heavier, wings no longer able to sustain its flight. It yelped and plunged into the ground, forming a huge crater that sprayed rocks and dirt everywhere. Its body was extremely tough, but after spending enormous effort to get up and move, all it heard was an excited roar. An enormous figure rushed out of the portal, the earth shaking as it rushed towards the fallen lizard.

The huge dragon that was thirty metres from head to tail was pushed over, the being that had just rammed into it taking a few shaky steps backwards. Still dizzy, it vaguely saw the silhouette of a two-headed ogre and almost screamed in fear.

Dragons normally didn’t fear ogre warlords, even considering them good prey, but that was with the condition that they could fly. On the ground, the strength of an ogre lord was a huge threat.

The dragon saw the ogre rushing it once more, but this time its attention was drawn more to the dazzling green armour than the huge warhammer. Unable to dodge, it clumsily lifted a paw to try and block the attack, but the hammer cracked the claws apart like they were glass. The whole impact crushed the entire paw in.

Deafening howls of pain rang throughout the battlefield, the dragon glaring at Tiramisu and screaming in surprise, “You have the blood of a valley lord!”

Ogres were rumoured to have descended from valley giants, an extremely powerful race of beings most of whom were taller than twenty metres. Valley giants could throw multiple tonnes of stone kilometres into the sky, making them a perennial nemesis of dragons, but once they evolved they stood a chance to become even more powerful. A valley lord was a terrifying being that stood almost a hundred metres tall, one punch capable of annihilating legendary dragons.

Tiramisu was still within bounds for an ogre, but his strength was unbelievable. A single hit from him could cave a metallic dragons paw in; even ten normal ogre lords couldn’t accomplish that. The ogre himself was confused by the frightened statement, not knowing whether it was true. He found himself sleeping and eating more and more recently, but that was normal for any ogre. As for his strength, he was originally quite strong and Medium Rare’s power now resided in him as well. On top of that, he reinforced himself with Mana Armament, his legendary armour, and War Fanatic. It would be strange if he couldn’t smash a mere dragon’s paw in.

The ogre wasn’t about to waste time talking. Swinging his hammer hard, he repeatedly smashed the dragon until it couldn’t get up anymore. Afterwards, he didn’t even bother to check if it was alive as he ran towards another dragon with an injured wing. He knew that time was of the essence; once those vicious fellows came, he wouldn’t have a chance to battle anymore.

The portal suddenly flashed and two silhouettes shot out from within, overtaking Tiramisu instantly and pouncing on the injured dragon. Medium Rare immediately cursed at the two before looking at the sky, “Boss, send a few more down here! These guys are being shameless”

Size and weight gave the ogre unparalleled strength and defence, but they also came with their own cons. Until he became a legend, flying would only be a dream. His best attempt at flight spells could only suspend him in the sky or let him jump really high; they wouldn’t work for battle.

Up in the sky, Richard flew towards Tannan’s battle and showcased the devilish face once more, “Heavy.”

“Heavy.”

“Heavy.”

Three dragons howled and fell down, suffering even worse injuries than the first one. One wind dragon couldn’t even get up, while the others barely managed to crawl.

“Divine tongue!” Tannan yelped, pulling Richard’s surprised attention. The warrior who looked to be all brawn and no brain clearly knew quite a bit.

Divine tongue was an ancient, mysterious, and powerful language that could replace spell incantations. Humans couldn’t actually understand it, but they could understand its meaning naturally. Spells casted in this language were simple yet powerful, as though being controlled by the gods themselves. That was the origin of the name.

While divine tongue was powerful, unlike regular magic it was driven purely by the power of laws. Only legendary mages with a significant amount of talent could have control of it, and with his level boost Richard had just qualified. He had also become able to summon only one of the three faces of the Apocalyptic Triad at level 23, allowing him much better upkeep against weaker opponents. The three faces also had separate arsenals of divine spells.

After dropping three dragons to the ground, the elegant face disappeared and was replaced by the demon, eyes burning like lava as it stared at one of the dragons still up above and bellowing, “Burn!”

Translucent flames quickly covered the creature’s body from out of nowhere, and no matter how hard it tried they could not be extinguished. The metallic dragon’s scales stiffened before twisting and finally melting, the dragon itself writhing in pain and even trying to use its own breath attack to extinguish the disaster that had befallen it. However, the demon added more flames wherever it looked, eventually dropping it to the ground.

Tannan only realised once the face disappeared that he was drenched in sweat. Seeing Richard’s gaze move towards the last dragon, he shouted in a hurry, “That’s mine!”

Richard smiled, leaving the warrior to it as he flew towards the portal.