“Roar!”
The roar was deafening.
Serafina set Nephalian down, raising her blade to resist the oncoming wave of heat.
“What is this?!”
“Dragon flame is erupting from the gaps between its scales, and its mana has tripled!”
Eomer shouted in disbelief as he sensed the change in the Sub-dragon Wyvern’s power.
He had never heard of such a thing—a sudden, threefold surge in mana with dragon flame igniting across the entire body.
For both monsters and humans, the total mana capacity was a fixed limit established through daily cultivation.
It shouldn't be possible for the limit to explode upward like this all at once.
As Brock stared at the Sub-dragon Wyvern entering its second phase, he felt a strange, inexplicable riot in his own mana.
‘What is this feeling?’
The battle gave Brock no time for deep thought.
Even if he had the chance, he likely wouldn't have guessed that the Sub-dragon Wyvern had been infused with the blood of the purple dragon Krimnir, which had been extracted from his own flesh.
The Sub-dragon Wyvern flapped its wings and swung its head, sweeping a scorching breath across the entire platform.
“Second-rank magic, Wind Pressure, triple cast!”
Whump! Whump! Whump!
The three mages quickly raised their staves as green magic circles unfolded in the air.
The air seemed to collapse invisibly three times, pressing down on the Sub-dragon Wyvern’s body over and over.
“Roar!”
The Sub-dragon Wyvern strained against the weight, letting out a piercing roar as it forced its head upward.
A blast of dragon flame shot toward the sky!
The green Wind Pressure magic circles were shattered one after another by the flame. The mages maintaining them were forced back, stumbling.
Freed from the pressure, the Sub-dragon Wyvern whipped its tail. Its massive body, which occupied nearly the entire platform, followed the motion, and dragon flame instantly swept across the stone pillar.
The two heavy warriors quickly raised their shields to meet the oncoming tail.
Boom!
The dragon flame exploded against the shields. The heavy warriors braced themselves with everything they had, their feet digging into the rock until it began to crack.
“Heavy warrior skill, Reprisal!”
A powerful force rebounded from the two shields, sending the flame-wreathed tail flying back into the air!
The Sub-dragon Wyvern’s pupils contracted. It spread its wings to stabilize itself.
Then, it leaped upward, attempting to take to the skies again.
Eomer, the third-rank priest, was not about to let the wyvern regain the aerial advantage.
Having already raised his oak staff, he took a deep breath and aimed at the wyvern just as it was about to take off.
“Third-rank holy art, Emerald Vines!”
Most plant-based holy arts were countered by fire.
The exceptions were modified plant life with fire resistance and the Emerald-series holy arts!
A brilliant, emerald-green magic circle unfolded at the tip of Eomer’s staff.
Complex runes flowed rapidly across the circle.
Countless emerald-green vines, shimmering like gemstones, grew rapidly toward the Sub-dragon Wyvern. In the blink of an eye, they coiled around its limbs, snaked through its scales, and bound its wings.
“Damned elf!”
The Sub-dragon Wyvern let out an angry roar, twisting its head to face Eomer.
A scorching dragon flame breath erupted, and the emerald vines across its body began to melt under the extreme heat.
“Immovable Fortress!”
The elven heavy warrior lunged in front of Eomer. The moment his shield slammed down, the barrier of Immovable Fortress expanded!
The scorching dragon flame was deflected by the barrier, flowing over the shield and the translucent wall like molten lava.
Taking advantage of the wyvern’s focus on the breath attack, sharp and chaotic Sword Qi slashed toward it from two directions simultaneously.
The Sub-dragon Wyvern clawed at the air and shifted its body, melting the emerald vines on its skin as it charged toward Serafina.
However, the emerald vines were like tenacious parasites; as quickly as they were melted, they grew back, keeping the wyvern’s wings bound.
Watching the Sub-dragon Wyvern rush toward her, Serafina took a deep breath and gripped her sword’s hilt with both armored hands.
Frost began to condense rapidly on the blade.
The wyvern’s eyes locked onto Serafina. Its head swung, and its breath formed a straight pillar of fire that swept across the platform toward her.
“Greater magic grade magic item, Mist Forest Box, special effect three: Thin Mist!”
“Greater magic grade magic item, Air Iron Tail, special effect one: Spatial Stagnation!”
Eomer and Nephalian activated their magic items simultaneously.
A thin mist that blocked perception surged from the Mist Forest Box, instantly enveloping Serafina as she gathered her strength.
The Spatial Stagnation from the Air Iron Tail expanded, catching both the Sub-dragon Wyvern and Serafina within its field.
Meanwhile, the three mages moved to the far edge of the platform, outside the range of the temporal slowing, and raised their staves.
Inside the range of Spatial Stagnation, everything—friend or foe—was slowed down.
However, those outside the field could launch long-range attacks at the slowed enemies within.
The Sub-dragon Wyvern’s eyes flickered rapidly.
It was an intelligent creature.
It smelled a trap.
It halted its charge, and as expected, three familiar green wind magic circles unfolded above its head at high speed.
‘Their casting speed has increased!’
The Sub-dragon Wyvern processed the situation instantly as three sonic booms of air and a crushing weight slammed into its body.
At the same time, its eyes caught the three mages casting in the distance. It realized their movements were unnaturally fast and deduced the presence of a spatial slowing effect.
‘It’s not them being faster; I’ve been slowed. A spatial magic item!’
The Sub-dragon Wyvern immediately abandoned Serafina, who was still hidden in the mist, and swung its scorching breath toward the three mages.
“Immovable Fortress!”
Isolde, the heavy warrior from the Red Rose team, raised his shield and braced his legs against the ground, standing firm in front of the mages.
But the Sub-dragon Wyvern suddenly jerked its head. The scorching breath swept in a circle, pivoting back toward the mist covering Serafina!
At the same time, it resumed its charge, swinging its claws to disperse the fog.
As the mist scattered under the dragon's claw, a figure lunged out from the side.
“Sword technique, Ice Rose!”
The Sword Qi bore down on the wyvern, blooming into a massive, radiant blue rose that threatened to swallow the dragon's head!
‘This is it!’
Serafina gripped her hilt, watching as the giant Ice Rose began to close its petals around the Sub-dragon Wyvern’s head.
Frost spread rapidly across the dragon's snout.
There was no panic in the wyvern’s eyes. It slammed a claw into the ground, and an ancient runic magic circle unfolded beneath it.
It was using magic!
“Magic?!”
The sudden development caught everyone off guard.
In an instant, a red magic circle opened beneath Serafina, and countless wyvernlings made of lava erupted from it.
Serafina leaped back to dodge, firing sharp Sword Qi from her blade to freeze the lava wyvernlings into solid stone.
However, she could no longer maintain the Ice Rose technique.
The Sub-dragon Wyvern smashed through the Ice Rose, ignoring the shards that sliced into its scales, and raised its claw.
It struck.
Serafina hurriedly raised her sword to block.
Clang!
The wyvern’s strike shattered her blade, sending shards of steel flying to embed themselves in Serafina’s flesh.
The force of the blow slammed her to the ground, blood spilling from her nose and mouth.
The Sub-dragon Wyvern gave her no chance to recover. It opened its maw, aiming directly at the fallen Serafina.
Dragon flame breath!
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