163 Chapter 160 A Lesser Dragon (1/2)
(JOSEPH, I DETECT A RATHER LARGE DIVINE INTERVENTION IN THIS REALM.)
'Can you give me any more information?'
(NO, I REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE GIVEN YOU THAT.)
'Fair enough.'
”Stella?” Joseph turned to her, where she was standing by a window.
”I know, Joseph,” she said looking off in the direction of the neighboring mountains.
He stepped outside of the small building where they had been discussing the movement of supplies with the previous king, Ormir, to get a better look. There was a gale of wyverns heading their way.
”Ever have wyverns attack?” Joseph asked Ormir.
”No, they generally stay too far north to bother us. I suppose they might attack the humans that go into their mountains, but none of my, er… our people are that stupid.”
”Think you can handle things, while I deal with this?” asked Joseph, as Stella stepped up next to him.
”You've moved most of the people from the smaller towns that would never have made it in time. There's only a couple more hours of moving supplies onto the mountain, and we should be ready for this move,” said the dragon-kin, glancing down at the scrawled list in his hands.
HAWK FLIGHT.
Joseph rose into the air, to gasps and cries from the crowd of people who were there helping, and Stella jumped up into the air behind him. When he gave her the tattoo that allowed flight, he had used PERFECT ILLUSION to make it seem as if blood red angel wings grew out of her back whenever she activated the tattoo. She could suppress the illusion at will, but he had figured that if she was ever fighting something in the air, they would attack her wings first and give her an opportunity to counter-attack. Joseph couldn't wait to see if it would actually work.
”Joseph, why would 30 wyverns ever form up at once? If that big dragon was hunting them, they should scatter, not keep flying together,” said Stella as a larger creature appeared from behind the group of wyverns.
a.n.a.lYZE CREATURE. KEEN VISION. HAWK VISION. a.n.a.lYZE CREATURE.
”The wyverns are dominated. The big one doesn't appear to be.”
”What's wrong?” asked Stella as he paused in thought.
”I have a bad feeling about the big guy,” he said, resuming their flight towards them. ”Stella, can you take the wyverns?”
”Of course. What kind of question is that?”
”No, I mean cleanly. I want the hide and the meat when this is over.”
”Oh. Yeah, let me get out the gang.” She reached into her purse, her hand disappearing for a moment, then threw the small figurines away from her. They fell only a short distance before the golems had grown to full size and flew towards them without any wings.
”I'll take the big one,” said Joseph.
”Why should I let you? It's my job to protect you,” pointed out Stella.
”It has the same mana territory as I do. Your magic tattoos will be stopped when you get near it, and I'm not sure about the enchanted items, including your weapons, and the gang will be suppressed. I think I can overwhelm it with my own territory, but only once they overlap.”
”Be careful,” she finally said, after a momentary hesitation.
Joseph could see her trying to figure out if she could fight the thing without her magic, and figured she probably could, but he wasn't going to risk it. Those wyverns looked nasty, and he didn't want them to reach his new people.
He teleported past the wyverns in order to face the dragon. He barely noticed as Stella and her gang started darting among the wyverns. They could kill them quickly, but not if they were trying to keep the corpses in good shape.
As the dragon roared, he turned his focus solely on it.
MAGMA MISSILE.
Joseph had to dodge as the dragon used REVERSE MISSILE, and reflected it back at him.
The dragon opened its mouth and a yellow glow grew quickly, then blasted at him. Joseph ignored the LIGHTNING BOLT as it was absorbed by one of his tattoos.
SKYFALL.