Chapter 481 Interrupting the Duel
Karronteel, despite his enthusiasm, was unable to win so easily against his opponent. The six level difference didn't help.
The two dragons exchanged breath attacks constantly as they were at a draw each time. Speed was Karronteel's greatest advantage, letting him land a few attacks with his sharp claws. But he had also felt the force of one of the Flood Dragon's steam explosions to even the score. Both of them were panting and waiting to see what came next in their fight.
While that was taking place, Karronteel couldn't help but notice the other battle ending and Hadurt taking on four more opponents at once. Also, he spotted the rest of the party staying the army before they were about to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of incoming soldiers, as the Reinolt army was still moments away as well.
Everything was playing out as if Karronteel was needed for more than just to fight the dragon in front of him. He, along with the rest of the party, understood that their hope of victory was through quality of combatants and not quantity. That meant that the longer Karronteel took to face the Flood Dragon, the more likely they were to lose.
Keeping that in mind, Karronteel continued to assault the slower dragon. But he decided to try fighting smarter and not harder, unlike most dragons.
As Karronteel charged the Flood Dragon it prepared another steam explosion. The attacks were about to collide when a spatial rift opened up between them. It consumed the steam explosion entirely, leaving Karronteel untouched while the Flood Dragon cried in pain. The other end of the spatial rift opened beneath the Flood Dragon's belly, unleashing it's own attack on the beast's underside.
With the Flood Dragon getting blown into the air briefly, Karronteel wasted no time and struck while he could. His claws tore in the Flood Dragon's throat, pooling blood on the ground below.
In rage, the Flood Dragon spewed its regular breath attack, something that would do little to no damage against itself without the forceful explosion.
Karronteel opened a rift again, but the other end was nowhere to be found in the battle. Instead of retargeting the Flood Dragon, the vaproized breath attack was redirected into the Zuran army to ease the burden on Maynard and Trax for another moment.
While the Flood Dragon was bleeding out, Karronteel then used his own breath attack to counter but it was also consumed by yet another rift. The other end opened over head of the Flood Dragon to target the weakened neck.
More and more blood cascaded from the Flood Dragon's neck. There was no stopping the red fluid and no way to shake off the injury.
The Flood Dragon attempted to flee but it was impossible to escape a Spectral Dragon. They were once the apex predators for a reason. No matter where their prey attempted to escape or hide, the Spectral Dragon could find them and be there in a flash of purple light. This was also true for fleeing enemies.
By the time the Flood Dragon had flown away, Karronteel was prepared to end it. And with the Flood Dragon's focus on fleeing and defending, Karronteel found it much easier to go for a critical strike.
Karronteel opened one last rift, one just large enough for his claws. He slashed into it and gripped what was on the other side.
Stopping midair, the Flood Dragon cried in agony as sharp claws tore its throat apart. Blood spilled into the beast's lungs while it plummeted back to the earth below. It gasped for breath and tried to cling to its life, but in vain. The great dragon drowned in its own blood and suffocated after losing the ability to breath through it's mangled and shredded neck.
Though Karroneel had used a lot of mana, he had plenty leftover to fight lower-leveled soldiers.
The magnificent Spectral Dragon roared and dove into the incoming forces to keep the others from getting overrun.
Maynard and Trax focused on quick and clean killing blows, along with Raiton. That was their only hope against the massive army. They were forced to treat each fight as an individual battle and end each foe as quickly as possible. But Karronteel's arrival lightened that load quite a lot as the strongest Zuran soldiers were forced to target the dragon.
Now, with Karronteel joining the fray and with the Reinolt army having finally met the Zuran forces, the battle was nearly at a draw. They had to wait for a tipping point. The battle could go either way with the next big move.
Still overhead, Tyres and Jin were facing off with Kylon and Eedaj spectating.
Tyres was feeling the pressure as his incredible speeds were getting matched by Jin's abundance of limbs. The samurai was perfectly blocking and countering the overwhelmingly fast attacks. At the same time, Tyres would occasionally be pushed back.
One of Jin's new techniques was a combination of two strikes in one. Two of his ethereal limbs would overlap to the point where the arms were aligned while only the extra hand and sword would emerge parallel to the other. It created a heavy blow that would often force Tyres to back off momentarily and allow Jin a few more swings at the Sword God.
Soon, Tyres found himself getting forced downward. Both swordsman then decided on a change of scenery as Tyres dove toward an unoccupied field with Jin close behind.
"What happened to your technique? Have you learned anything new?" spat Jin, unsatisfied with the current pace of the fight.
"Then come and try my new attack. I'll counter your joint strikes," Tyres proudly stated, taking a defensive stance.
A bit happier, Jin readied himself and prepared six joint attacks with the combination of his twelve arms. The God of Discipline charged ahead unafraid and undeterred. He was determined to make Tyres eat his own words.
As Jin closed the gap, Tyres gathered a ridiculous amount of lightning and wind energy around him but left nothing on his swords. It was strange. Such a stance was against Jin's expectations as he suspected that something strange was about to take place.
Jin's sword attacks arched toward Tyres one-by-one yet the Sword God did nothing to defend them. Instead, Tyres retreated a few meters.
The earth below Jin's feet rumbled suddenly. Out of no where, Jin felt the ground collapse under his footing. At the same time, Jin saw long teeth burst from the ground in an attempt to catch the God of Discipline in a single bite.
That giant mandible managed to clamp down on Jin. However, Jin phased through the rugged maw that tried to swallow him whole.
"Grixor… Why are you interrupting us?!" Jin shouted, annoyed.