Chương 203: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 203 - Captive — Steel and Blood

The warrior player's death wasn't wasted. His sacrifice bought the organization something. More warrior players poured out of the passage behind him. The Elemental Shields on their bodies absorbed the worst of the damage, and the physical shields in their hands bought them a few extra seconds, enough to stay alive, enough to keep the pressure on. They came fearless, wave after wave, a relentless flood. And for a moment — just a moment, the battle found its balance.

Warriors and monsters trading blows, neither side pulling ahead. That was exactly what Medraco had been waiting for.

"Frost Shock — release, now!"

"Warriors, keep pushing! Give the mages room to cast!" Precision casting was impossible in the narrow corridor. So the mage players stepped out, standing in the gap that the warriors had carved open with blood and bodies, and they let loose. Whoosh whoosh whoosh. Dozens of Frost Shocks screamed out in a single wave. The temperature of the entire hall dropped sharply. The frost didn't discriminate.

It hit warrior and monster alike, but the priests had already scrubbed the debuffs off the warriors before anyone could blink. The Cockatrices and Gnolls in the front ranks weren't so lucky. Frost Shock was a semi-control spell with a stacking mechanic. Ten stacks triggered Frozen. The mages had the numbers to stack it fast, and within seconds several of the foremost Cockatrices and Gnolls were locked solid, turned into breathing ice sculptures in the middle of the hall. Medraco stepped out of the passage.

He raised his hunting rifle and put the crosshairs on a Cockatrice that had stopped moving entirely.

"Can you be harder than a dragon?" He pulled the trigger. BANG! A spray of blood erupted from the Cockatrice's forehead. In his vision, its health bar flatlined instantly. One shot, one kill.

"Guys!" He turned and bellowed at the players behind him.

"It's time to hit back!" The hall erupted. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG BANG BANG. Gunfire rolled through the chamber in a continuous roar. Frozen Gnolls crumpled. Frozen Cockatrices shattered. The warrior players at the front lines howled with pure excitement.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"Let these bastards taste some bullets!"

"Hey — what does it take to join your firearms squad? Those things are gorgeous~" The monsters blocking their path were never a large group. After that first volley, the pressure dropped off a cliff. Warriors and mages both found room to breathe. The only real threats left were Brother Chicken and the elite Gnolls. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. These monsters weren't dragons. They didn't have that kind of magic resistance.

They could only grit through the Frozen status on raw muscle and willpower, and even then, their speed was gutted.

"Come on, big guy!"

"What happened to all that attitude?" One warrior player stood in front of a sluggish elite Gnoll, swaggering in its face. The Gnoll was already torn up badly. The worst wound was on its chest, a bullet lodged there, stopped just short of full penetration by the dense muscle wall. But the kinetic impact had carried straight through to its heart, and every movement sent fresh waves of pain through its body. The Gnoll looked at the dancing human with cold contempt and swept a massive claw at him.

The player sidestepped without even trying. The Gnoll was just too slow. On the other side of the hall, Brother Chicken was still moving fine. The bullets kept hitting and kept getting squeezed back out by its muscle density, they simply couldn't do meaningful damage. What did annoy it was that the humans with their strange weapons kept retreating into the passage whenever it advanced. Brother Chicken was too large now. It couldn't fit through the corridor entrance.

All it could do was intercept the mages and warriors still fighting in the open, craning its long neck and forcing itself toward the opening with snarling, frustrated roars. Medraco watched it with a hard look. Bullets couldn't touch it. And the thing was fast enough to dodge any shot aimed at its head, it had already proven that several times over. He set his rifle down.

"You're pretty good at dodging, huh?" He reached into his pack and pulled out the simplified RPG. Warhead loaded in seconds. He didn't bother aiming, just pointed it roughly at the Cockatrice leader and pulled the trigger. BOOM! The rocket detonated directly against Brother Chicken's body. The shockwave hit like a giant swinging fist, launched it off its feet, and drove it into the obsidian wall at the far end of the hall. It collapsed in a heap, unconscious. Its chest was a ruin of scorched flesh and blood.

The once-magnificent feathers were blackened to cinders. But it wasn't dead. In Medraco's vision, even as it lay motionless, the health bar it had lost, more than half, was already climbing back. Visibly. Steadily. At a rate that made his stomach drop. His expression darkened. He burst out of the passage at a sprint, intending to close the distance and finish the job before it recovered. A massive wolf claw clamped around his RPG barrel. Medraco's eyes were already bloodshot. He didn't look.

He didn't care what was blocking him, anything in his way was going to die. He pulled the trigger. The rocket exploded point-blank against the wolf claw. Shrapnel and fire tore into him from every angle. The blast wave picked him up and threw him backward, hard. He hit the ground spitting blood, health bar nearly empty. Then he looked up and saw what had stopped him. An absurdly large, absurdly muscular Gnoll.

And above its head, the most ridiculous name tag he had ever read: [strong, Dragonified, Muscle Enhanced, Mutant, Brutal Gnoll Leader] Medraco stared. The name alone spelled out just how far outside normal parameters this thing was. The explosion had taken less than ten percent of its health. And in the two seconds he'd spent processing that fact, it had already recovered most of it. What in the hell are these dungeon monsters? He'd thought the creatures in the dragon's lair were rough. They weren't.

They were tutorial-level small fry compared to this. Every monster in this dungeon was more broken than the last, not difficult, not hard, hellish. Purgatory-tier and climbing. And this was just the maze guard. If something this terrifying is just guarding the corridors, what the hell is the dungeon master? One thing Medraco was certain of: it wasn't that black dragon. The black dragon's monsters were strange, weird and unpredictable, but they were nowhere close to the creature standing over him right now.

Grey Wolf didn't know what the human was thinking. It hadn't come here just to save Brother Chicken. Su Nian's orders were specific: capture this one alive. Otherwise, with Grey Wolf's strength, it could have shredded this frail little human the moment it arrived. Lucky him. Grey Wolf shook its scorched, stinging claw. Then it walked up to Medraco, still lying there in stunned silence, reached down, grabbed him, and tossed him. Medraco went into the burlap sack slung over its back like a kidnapped child.

Anna modern girl arc incoming~ Begging for power o(╥﹏╥)o ➤ Next: Kayal's Revenge