White Drake (2)

A wound this deep is beyond saving, even with a Bleed Resistance skill.

The Blood-Sucking Sword, gorged on dragon blood and freshly leveled, erupted in an aura red as spilled blood.

"Graaaaaah!"

Down one claw, the White Drake burst into an enraged roar as a crimson heat haze bloomed across its entire body.

Berserk already? It was furious.

The White Drake whipped its massive tail around, and Jin-soo hurled himself aside to dodge. The frost that had been pouring out cold air froze solid in an instant, ice clamping around his body and dragging at his movement. Just as the tail, wreathed in that crimson haze, was about to slam into him, the Shadow Knight threw itself into the blow's path. A tremendous boom rang out, and the knight's body was driven skidding backward.

In the same breath the Shadow Mage's attack magic came screaming in at the White Drake—and that was only the start. The Shadow Archer loosed a volley to pin the drake down while the Shadow Warrior brought a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠greatsword crashing into its hind leg. The Shadow Assassin drove a dagger toward a vital point, and the Shadow Healer cast Curse, Weaken, and Decay in rapid succession. From the rear, Shin Sua added her own support, layering recovery, protection, and purification over the fight.

"Guuuaaagh!"

While the White Drake thrashed under the barrage, Jin-soo launched himself in again and brought the dragon-blooded sword and the gleaming longsword down together. Thick scales sheared away, and raw red flesh showed through.

A shame.

Whether because of Bleed Resistance or not, almost no blood ran. Even the spray from the severed claw had, at some point, stopped completely.

Its level is higher than I thought.

The Blood-Sucking Sword power-leveling off a mere taste of dragon blood was proof enough. What stung was that even after that explosive growth, neither the heightened cutting power nor the bleed effect was landing as it should. The Shadow Healer's Curse, Weaken, and Decay were barely taking hold either, and the Weaken stored in the Ring of Weaken was shrugged off as if it were nothing. Worse, the wounds Jin-soo and his summons had carved open together were already knitting shut at a frightening pace, flesh bubbling as it closed.

Self-Recovery is at a nasty level.

He had put the White Drake somewhere between level 200 and 300. A hard fight, yes, but one he had expected to clear well enough. Meeting it head-on made the estimate look badly short.

Four hundred at the minimum. It might even have cleared five hundred. This thing isn't going to lie down and die.

He had allowed for some margin of error. A monster that was supposed to be impossible to hunt was never going to be easy. Even so, this is excessive.

Dragon-type monsters carried overwhelmingly higher stats per level than players or any other race. A level 300 dragon could reign on the Tower's fiftieth floor not as a king, but as an emperor. Past five hundred, it was no different from a godlike transcendent descending on the floor. Well. Drop something like that, and the reward ought to be that much fatter.

Jin-soo clenched his teeth and hauled his mana up. Most of his skills sat at a mere level 2, but with the base stats his blessings had swollen, his amplified attributes, and the Shadow Summons at his side, he trusted that a skill level of 2 was a gap he could more than cover.

He and the shadow summons tangled together and pressed the White Drake in a grinding melee. Shin Sua gave everything she had from the rear. The moment a protection skill shattered, she laid a fresh one over them; the instant Jin-soo took a hit, recovery followed. She timed her purification to shake the cold's numbness out of their bodies and set them moving cleanly again.

She's helping more than I expected.

Her overall stats were low and her skill levels lower still, so the support amounted to little more than an ant's tears. In a clash this fierce, though, even support that thin paid its way.

A thunderous impact caved the shield of the Shadow Knight, who had been taking the White Drake's attacks ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head-on, and smashed its armor apart. Recovery and the mana stored in its core could knit the damage back together quickly enough, but the breaking was outrunning the repair. Even so, the knight's Taunt had the drake's aggro locked by force, which left Jin-soo and the other summons comparatively free to strike.

So it's a question of who collapses first.

The White Drake's mana and stamina could not last forever. Empty its mana, and Freeze, Berserk, Self-Recovery, and the rest would all go dark. Empty its stamina, and its movements would turn sluggish.

"Grrrrrnnn..."

The low growl broke, and the White Drake tore free of Taunt's compulsion to vomit a pure-white breath straight at the Shadow Mage and the Shadow Healer. Freeze ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had their feet pinned. They were in immediate danger.

"Purify! Purify! Purify!"

Shin Sua cast purification in a desperate string, but the level gap kept the skill from taking properly. In that span the Ice Breath closed to within a hair of the mage and the healer. A heartbeat before it struck them full on, the Shadow Knight threw itself in front of them. Breath and shield met head-on, and the knight stopped the Ice Breath cold.

And then it was simply gone.

Damn it.

Jin-soo ground his teeth. A shadow summon, once called, persisted until it was dismissed or destroyed. Dismiss it or lose it, though, and a full day of cooldown had to pass before it could be summoned again. That fatal drawback was why he had kept his holy status window sealed all this time and held the dark one open without a break.

"Graaaaaah!"

With the Shadow Knight gone, the White Drake began to rampage even more savagely.

I should have cut its throat while it was breathing. Thick scales, towering durability, a Guardian skill, Self-Recovery—the interference had made him miss. Still, I landed a real critical. The wound was deep enough that bone showed between torn muscle. Self-Recovery kept triggering without pause, but Jin-soo and the summons hammered the injury in a relentless assault and refused to let it close.

The problem was mana.

Mine is running out, and so is theirs. The Shadow Mage, which had been pouring out heavy attack magic, and the Shadow Healer, chaining Curse, Weaken, and recovery one after another, were the worst of it. Shin Sua looks spent too.

She had not cast Sanctuary yet. Once her mana was truly gone, though, there would be nothing left to do but cast it and hole up inside.

It would be nice if you could attack out of a safe zone.

Unfortunately, a safe zone that stopped incoming attacks also stopped anything fired from within. A safe zone raised by Sanctuary was even less forgiving than a city's: you could not come and go freely. All that mattered was whether you had been inside the area when the skill was cast. Until Sanctuary released, you could neither enter nor leave.

That doesn't mean Sanctuary is useless in a fight.

Jin-soo looked at Shin Sua—protection and recovery already spent, collapsed in a heap on the ground—and raised his voice.

"Shin Sua! You're out of mana!"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Cast Sanctuary. Right now!"

At his word she ducked her head, thoroughly cowed, and cast it.

There.

A smile touched Jin-soo's mouth. He had been fighting while keeping his distance from Shin Sua in the rear; now he narrowed that gap by degrees and carried the fight in closer.

"Guuuaaaaaagh!"

Mid-clash, the White Drake roared in fury and unleashed its second breath. Jin-soo and the shadow summons slipped behind the Sanctuary Shin Sua had raised. The zone took the blow like a shield and turned the Ice Breath aside with ease. The moment the breath cut off, he and the summons launched themselves out and struck.

This is how you use Sanctuary.

A Sanctuary the system recognized as a safe zone demanded an absurdly powerful attack to pierce—and not a single blast, but a sustained one. For Jin-soo and the summons, it amounted to a temporary fixed shield. Not something we can lean on forever, though. If the White Drake had been a dull-witted monster, he could have kept exploiting it. A dragon's mind fell short of a human's, but it was still on the level of a dolphin or an elephant.

"Grrrrrr..."

The White Drake stopped using its ranged skills. Crimson haze and pure-white haze wound together around its body, and then it came at Jin-soo and the summons at a tremendous speed, the ground shuddering under every stride.

It dumped every bit of mana it was spending on ranged attacks into reinforcing its body. Used like that, the safe zone Sanctuary had raised was nothing more than indestructible terrain. And not even absolutely indestructible. However mighty Sanctuary might be, a continuous beating from an Out-of-Spec Monster like the White Drake could still break it. Using it sparingly, as he was doing now, was the best play. Even so, this is more than enough.

Sanctuary had let them swat aside a single mana-devouring Ice Breath with ease—an enormous result that Shin Sua's level and stats should never have been able to produce. And that thing is getting desperate.

Until now the White Drake had been dumping mana and spraying skills without restraint, treating Jin-soo and the summons as ants whose bites would sting a little and nothing more. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠When would an arrogant dragon ever fight in earnest against a handful of ants it could crush whenever it pleased? Consumed by rage, it had almost certainly meant only to kill them quickly, even if that meant wasting mana. But Jin-soo and the Shadow Summons were not ants that merely stung. They were butchers and hunters who had come to kill the White Drake.

Jin-soo's sword severed the tendon in its foreleg. The Shadow Warrior's greatsword drove deep into an open wound. The Shadow Assassin's poisoned dagger sank into the comparatively soft flesh of its underbelly, while the Shadow Archer concentrated fire on the weaker points—eyes, nose, mouth. The Shadow Mage's destructive attack magic burned through scale and muscle, and the Shadow Healer's curse dulled its movements and slowed the knitting of its wounds.

A White Drake that had finally felt its life threatened and committed to the fight, however, was no easy enemy.

"Guuuaaaagh!"

It unleashed Fear, a skill that locked the body rigid. In the brief hesitation that followed, its fangs chewed the Shadow Mage down whole.

A forepaw came down and crushed the Shadow Healer flat.

The tail whipped around with terrible force and blew the Shadow Archer's body to pieces.

All that remained were Jin-soo, the Shadow Warrior, and the Shadow Assassin. The situation was anything but forgiving. The White Drake burned what mana and stamina it had left in a savage assault, while Jin-soo was running on empty in both. The summons were no better off. They needed no rest, no sleep, and no food, but once the mana in their cores ran dry they were nothing but empty shells that could not move.

So this is the end.

Jin-soo gave his orders to the Shadow Warrior and the Shadow Assassin.

"Grrrrrnnn!"

The White Drake lunged with its fangs, and neither summon dodged. Their bodies went into its mouth and were torn apart on the teeth—but right up to the moment they vanished, they drove the greatsword and the poisoned dagger into the roof of its mouth and its tongue.

"Krrrrr..."

With every shadow summon destroyed, the White Drake—its own body in ruins—turned a sneer on Jin-soo. It had already taken the measure of him: stamina gone, mana gone. Gathering what power remained, it hurled a final Ice Breath of pure cold at the last enemy left standing.

Jin-soo watched the breath roaring toward him, let a thin sneer cross his face, and switched.