The Crimson Dragon Chapter 36

Chapter 36

  Indeed, Achilles was in deep trouble right now. As a mature adult dragon, losing to a juvenile Crimson Dragon in battle was rather disgraceful. However, that did not mean Achilles was weak; it was just that his compatibility against Claudius in battle was horrendous. Claudius was physically stronger than others of his age, and he had the cheat of having high magic resistance, negating most of the Bronze Dragon's magic attacks. Magic Missile was a weak magic in the first place, and Achilles could not cast Ray of Frost and Wall of Ice in time. They were now engaged in close quarter combat, giving Claudius the clear advantage due to his ma.s.sive size and high Dexterity. Without using breath attacks, he was pushing Achilles back with only his claws and jaws.

  The Lammasu rushed towards Claudius; it had to help Achilles with tanking the incoming damage as its healing magic could no longer catch up with the damage the Bronze Dragon was taking. With a bit of acceleration, the winged lion lunged at Claudius, forcing the Crimson Dragon to step back. Achilles took the opportunity to retreat from the fight and began healing himself. He also thought of ways of countering the Crimson Dragon, such as using ice magic.

  But time was running out — the Lammasu was getting its a.s.s whipped. Achilles did not have time to chant and cast the spells he had in mind as the winged lion was getting trampled. Although it looked powerful and almighty in its enchanted golden armour, the armour was rendered pretty much useless when facing Claudius.

  Claudius not only had the advantage in terms of body size, his claws and teeth were also much sharper than the Lammasu. He even had the leisure to think of something r.e.t.a.r.ded like 'Is that a Sphinx?', which of course was a wrong guess. Though the Lammasu used Smite Evil on Claudius, it only managed to sc.r.a.pe off pieces of scales from his shoulders and inflict a small wound. Claudius retaliated by slapping the Lammasu's head in with a back-claw, almost squishing the head of the mighty lion. The Lammasu's face slanted comically to one side and most of its teeth fell from their sockets. While Claudius had weird body proportions due to his habit to walk with hind legs, his claws were still as powerful as Crimson Dragons of his age. Storing power in his muscular hind legs, Claudius transferred the energy to his wings a performed a follow up wing attack. He twisted his body and struck the tattered Lammasu from the bottom, sending it up into the air before slamming it back down to the ground with his other wing. The Lammasu's feathery wings were then bitten by Claudius, and crunching sounds which were somewhat similar to cracking branches could be heard.

  This was the scene Achilles saw after resting for merely 10 seconds. It looked as if the Crimson Dragon was about to rip off his ally's wings before killing it; Achilles could not afford to stand back at this point. Achilles widened his jaws, sending a thick thunder viper crackling through the air, accurately striking the wound on Claudius' shoulder briefly afterwards. A large chunk of scales were once again torn off Claudius' shoulder, and blood was flooding out of the wound.

  Claudius released the Lammasu from his jaws as his consciousness went hazy for a split second. The winged lion which barely managed to maintain its consciousness instantly dropped to the ground — at least it was supposed to. Achilles decisively wrapped his tail around his ally and pulled it out of range of Claudius' attacks.

  "Sleipnir!"

  Responding to Achilles' call, the Bronze Dragon swiftly appeared and dragged the Lammasu away from the battlefield while applying healing magic on the gravely injured lion. Thanks to Achilles' intervention, the Lammasu managed to retain its wings despite them almost being reduced to lumps of flesh. Claudius' teeth had punctured the muscles, tendons and bones like an ice pick puncturing ice, crushing the components of the wings. The wings would have been amputated if this were to happen on Earth, where magic was non-existent.

  The Udaeus and Derhii got themselves Fire Resistance from who knows where, but that did not matter anyways. They daringly rushed and attacked Claudius, placing their very lives on the line. Claudius' ma.s.sive body was a double-edged sword — it gave him the advantage when fighting against Achilles and the Lammasu, but it also meant that it was impossible to evade or block every attack from the Udaeus and Derhii.

  With short spears in their right hand and Roman scutum-styled shields in their left hand, the Udaeus surrounded Claudius like hunters closing in on their prey. They attacked and retreated in an orderly manner, avoiding Claudius' attacks while inflicting damage on his ma.s.sive body from all directions. The flying apes also cooperated with the Udaeus, diving towards Claudius while swinging machetes with their strong arms. Under the effect of momentum and blessed weaponry, deep cuts appeared all over his wings and back.

  These wounds were unable to force Claudius into retreating due to his high Const.i.tution. The combined forces would have to attack Claudius for over half a day just to immobilize him if they could not further increase their firepower. Although the weapons were blessed and could cut dragon scales with ease, a portion of the damage was still being negated by Claudius' inborn damage reduction. The tough muscle layer underneath his scales also served as a secondary shield.

  Achilles was once again being suppressed by Claudius, but the same could be said for Claudius as well. He had to focus on the Bronze Dragon, yet he lacked the power to finish it off. The Copper Dragon on the sidelines was also fighting the battle in its own way — it was mocking the Crimson Dragon, demoralizing the enemy while raising their own morale. As Claudius' appearance was quite different from typical Crimson Dragons, there were plenty of things to mock about; the Copper Dragon could probably write a few joke books and publish them at this rate.

  The righteous forces knew Claudius' alias — 'The Crimson Disaster', but they did not know his actual name. They had tried to pry his information with various spells, but they all failed splendidly. It was not a surprise though; most, if not all, True Dragons had high resistance towards divination spells that attempted to obtain their information, especially their name. Trying to find out the name of a dragon without using Legendary-Cla.s.s spells was simply unrealistic.

  Claudius felt irritated as the Copper Dragon continued to mock him with songs. He could now understand the feeling of the Monkey King when together with Xuanzang; it was like being surrounded by thousands of buzzing flies, yet they could not be killed or driven away. Even with the help of Sleipnir, Achilles was still being overpowered by Claudius. The Bronze Dragon tried to temporarily retreat a few times, but all his attempts failed as his path was being blocked by his enemy. Escaping was his last resort as it also meant that he was betraying his allies in a sense, leaving them to meet their own demise while saving his own a.s.s. Achilles had no plans of escaping right now, but he would not be given the chance to do so anyways — the moment he showed his back to Claudius would also be the moment of his death.

  One of the adventurers, who seemed to be useless at first, suddenly casted a spell at the dragons engaged in battle. The tall and slim warrior who looked like a half-elf released a barrage of icicles — the target of this attack was Claudius, who had just managed to land a bite on Achilles' wings&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;