Chapter 749: Real Challenge - 2

Chapter 749: A Real Challenge - 2

Aside from the 3 strongest whom Leo chose to fight himself, 5 more dragons in the Mid 4-star to High 4-star range couldn’t be allowed to engage the other students.

And for that—

VRRRROOOOOOOMMMM!!!

Vorthuun released another massive torrent of flames directly at those dragons.

This forced 3 of them to take a detour and engage with the spirit beast. As for the other two—

RAAAAAARRRRRRHHHHH!

Pryde.

He was also a Peak 4-star spirit, and that too, a draconic being like them.

Pryde released a dense breath of [Netherblight Poison] toward the flying dragons, successfully drawing their attention as they flew toward him.

Things seemed rather balanced if not for the dragons’ absurd trait boosts. This made even Low 4-star dragons fight at the level of Mid 4-star or even High 4-star.

Thankfully, Leo’s beasts and companions like Sylrael and Thalvyr were present.

And—

HMMMmmmmmmmmm~

Suddenly, as if the environment’s mood had dampened, the noises quieted down, the bright skylight dimmed, and visibility was reduced.

But only for the dragons, because Fruder had just deployed the [Voidshade Veil].

—

[Voidshade Veil] - Single Use Artefact

Range: 5 km diameter

Duration: 10 minutes

Covers the entire region in a veil of Void Energy that disrupts enemy senses.

Blindness: Randomly causes brief periods of blindness in enemies.

Sensory Distortion: Randomly distorts enemy hearing, spatial awareness, and sense of direction.

Void Echo: Sudden sounds and movements may appear to originate from false locations.

Allies remain completely unaffected.

—

Azrakar immediately realised the effect was some kind of artefact.

"Is it the Voidshade?" he muttered. Since even he could see all the artefacts in the shop menu, he knew its basic functions.

He immediately touched his head to contact someone.

"Dravak, deploy the [Ironroot Cataclysm] at our location!"

Leo’s eyes narrowed when he heard that. It was a flag artefact the dragons must have obtained after capturing a location.

[Ironroot Cataclysm]

Range: 5 km diameter

Duration: 30 minutes

Causes enormous metallic roots to spread beneath the battlefield, constantly disturbing the terrain.

Random Intervals: Giant iron roots erupt beneath random enemies, attempting to bind and launch them into the air.

Every 5 Minutes: Hundreds of metallic spikes burst from the ground across the region, attacking nearby enemies.

Allies remain completely unaffected.

’Sylrael! Keep an eye on the ground, and whenever you feel a root attack about to erupt, alert the others!’ Leo contacted Sylrael through the mind link.

’Okay!’ she responded. Having wood affinity, she could sense if the wood energy was gathering somewhere right before the root shot up to bind or attack someone.

He even informed Fruder to deploy the [Heaven’s Wrath] after 5 minutes to catch them off guard while their senses were restricted.

Leo looked down just in time to see Aaron jump to the side when a root suddenly erupted beneath him in an attempt to bind him. Thankfully, he dodged on Sylrael’s instructions.

"Vorthak! Vulcarion! Get on the ground! This guy seems to have some weird flight ability."

Both dragons immediately followed, but Vorthak suddenly felt a presence beside him that prompted him to fly in another direction.

"No one?" Vorthak looked around and saw that no one was present. He realised that it was the effect of the artefact, but—

"Lamb coming to his own slaughter?"

A chilling voice shook him to the spine, and he turned just in time to see Leo’s sword coming for his neck.

He tried blocking it by bringing his arm up and reinforcing his skin with tough scales, but the sword simply cut halfway through his arm—stopping only when his dense bones acted as an extremely durable block. But even the bones were sliced more than halfway through.

But of course, Leo wasn’t going to leave it there. He sharply twisted his waist, changed his flight angle, and kicked the blade from the other side.

The sword completely sliced through the arm and partly dug into his neck. The arm flipped uselessly in the air and started falling to the ground.

"AARRRGGGHH!!!" Vorthak groaned loudly and punched at Leo with his other arm, but Leo had already created distance.

"FOOL! COME DOWN!" Azrakar shouted once again, bringing Vorthak back to his senses as he flew down with an arm missing.

"Arghh..." He groaned and tried to compress the bleeding arm down to his elbow to stop the blood flow.

Leo appeared in front of him again, and his eyes contracted.

But Azrakar came to his rescue with a claw aimed at Leo’s face.

Leo stopped his momentum and ducked, only to see Vulcarion coming from behind with his own flame-covered claws.

"DIE, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!" Vulcarion shouted, but what welcomed him was the pointed edge of the sword in his path.

He couldn’t slow down as the outstretched claw struck the tip of the sword and it bored through his arm all the way up to his shoulder.

"WHA—!"

He was baffled. Leo’s speed had been simply inhumane, and now a sword was stuck up his arm like a bone with no joints, preventing him from bending it.

Unfortunately, Leo couldn’t retrieve the sword because Azrakar had already unleashed his next move, forcing him to dodge in a different direction.

"What happened to your beast forms? Won’t you be taking that?" Leo said with a curve to his lips, trying to provoke them while bringing out his second sword.

"Hmph! It’s inconvenient to fight puny beings like you in my valiant form," Azrakar spat while opening his mouth to launch a breath attack.

It was true; having a humanoid form allowed them to be more precise and manoeuvrable than in their bigger dragon forms. The only side effect was that their defence was slightly lower due to the absence of their major scales.

Leo simply constructed the multilayered [Mountain Dome Aura], as dodging wasn’t an option when Vorthak was ready to ambush him from the other side.

Click! Crip! Click!

"Oops," Leo said as the barriers didn’t even last a second before breaking and striking Leo’s extended arm.

The concentrated flames surprisingly struck Leo’s hand and parted, passing around him harmlessly. But Azrakar pressed on, thinking Leo’s hand was burning away and that Leo would be next.

Seeing the opportunity, Vorthak also released his breath attack, and even Vulcarion joined in—he still hadn’t pulled the sword out of his arm.

WWWRRRROOOOSSSSSHHHH!!

Being bombarded with superheated flames from all angles, it seemed like Leo would be burned to ash or even transported away, but things were completely opposite.

He simply walked out of it.