Mimic Awakening

Chapter 20: Mimic Vs Humans (2)

Ker-chk! Shatter! Cling!

"What?!"

Purin is in disbelief that his most powerful attack failed. Not only him, but the others are audibly shocked as well. After all, that last attack was probably the most powerful offense they could pull off in terms of individual execution.

Even with a night vision, Purin can see that his attack was stopped by some kind of invisible barriers around the dragon. The sword wave definitely shatters the first two barriers, but it fails to break through the third layer.

Since no damage is dealt, Purin receives no lifesteal, and his body begins to shake from the drawback of the execution of his special move.

As he is processing what he has witnessed, Misha quickly voices her deductions to the party.

"Magic! The dragon simultaneously casts two defensive magic spells which are Fortress, the first two layers, and Breachless Bastion! I don’t know how a monster can use a magic spell other than wild magic!"

Her words echo through the dark hallway, fully reaching her companions’ ears, which shakes their core of understanding how dangerous this dragon can be.

(((High-tier and supreme-tier magic?!)))

Fortress and Breachless Bastion are defense magic spells of high-tier and supreme-tier, respectively. Fortress is a powerful spell that creates a translucent half dome barrier around the caster, blocking magic spells up to high-tier as well as massive physical objects.

On the other hand, Breachless Bastion is a much more powerful version of the former. It creates a full dome or even spherical almost transparent barrier around the caster that can withstand even supreme-tier magic and most forms of attacks. That is the wall that Purin’s attack failed to overcome.

What fears the party the most is that those high level spells are cast by a dragon, a monster that is supposed to only do wild magic.

Wild magic is a type of magic that only monsters can do as it does not require chanting or magic circles to cast. Each race of monster has their own wild magic since they have the specific parts or organs needed to cast like the infamous breath attack of the dragons.

This greater dragon they are currently facing is on the other level. Being able to do magic spells intelligent races can do, the party fears that this dragon might gain some intelligence.

A monster escaping the dungeon is unlikely as their mind has set that their ecosystem is in the dungeon. But with this particular greater dragon, there is a high chance that it may desire to wreck havoc on the surface.

With its massive mana, more than what the Great Sorceress possesses, its destruction on the surface world would be unimaginable. Although the dungeon is situated in the Roheazul Kingdom, the dragon’s chaos would likely spread to the empire.

(This monster is too dangerous to let out to the surface.) Enves loudly thinks to himself. (The empire needs to know its existence.) fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Zap!

A terrifying sound snaps Enves back to reality, who is stunned and out of touch for seconds. The sound is actually timed with a brief bright flash before him, which overexposes his night vision and temporarily blinds him.

Thud.

He hears that sound a second later. When he looks at the direction of that sound, he finds Purin’s body laying facedown on the floor. Smoke then comes out of his body. A lightning bolt has hit him and stops his heart from beating.

"Purin!" Ingrid yells before she shoots her arrow at the dragon, which immediately breaks after making contact with the dragon’s red scales.

Boom.

Enves then glances at Misha, who just unleashes one of her most powerful attacks, Dark Gale, a supreme-tier sinister magic spell. From a three-meter-wide magic circle, a vortex cannon of dark energy flies fast to the dragon. Casting that spell creates a powerful recoil and an explosive sound.

The Dark Gale reaches the dragon in no time. However, instead of getting shredded, the dragon’s Breachless Bastion intecepts her magic.

"What the hell is this dragon?!" Misha shouts her frustration before turning her head to Enves. "What are you doing?! Follow the plan and do something?!"

Enves hears her words, but he does not listen. He takes quick glances between Ingrid and Purin. Seeing how awful their current situation is, Enves ultimately makes his decision.

(There’s no hope here. Someone has to report this to the empire... and that person is me!)

Enves has decided to escape the dungeon alone.

"Keep it distracted." He commands.

"Tsk." Misha clicks her tongue, but still proceeds casting spells at the dragon.

As Ingrid and Misha are attacking the dragon, Enves readies his daggers before running at sonic speed around it, finding any opportunity he can find. But no matter how much he tries, how fast he can attack from its blind spots, the dragon is surprisingly fast enough to react to his advances and intercepts his moves by blocking him with its dragonic parts or throwing wild magic and spells at him.

Strangely enough, the dragon is primarily in defense the whole time. It is just letting them throw their attacks on it. The dragon’s only notable attack was a lightning magic spell to Purin, whose awakened ability has been revealed.

Enves begins to think that the dragon is intentionally letting them waste their attacks on it for the purpose of observation. To further prove his point, he gives an order to Ingrid.

"Ingrid! Can you seal its magic?!"

"Wait! I’ll try!"

Ingrid stares intently at the dragon to cast her ability upon it more effectively. She has many options to choose what to disable from the dragon. Considering that the dragon always intercepts their attacks, Ingrid immediately locks its defensive magic.

"Does it work?"

"I’m not sure. But I tried sealing its defensive magic."

Right after casting her ability, the dragon suddenly turns its head in their direction. The casting of Ingrid’s awakened ability does not manifest any signs every time it casts. The dragon paying attention to them indicates that it knows who causes the unusualness in its body. In this case, its inability to cast defensive magic.

"It looks like it worked."

Enves notes before he throws his blade at the dragon as fast as he can to see whether the dragon can cast defensive magic or not. The dragon is not bothered by it at first but then it immediately realizes something is wrong before it quickly raises its front limb to physically deflect the dagger, which is laced with Enves’s ability.

"Tsk! It manages to deflect it barehandedly!" Enves clicks his tongue. "At least we now know that it can’t use its defensive magic. For now—!"

As Enves is giving instructions to his colleagues, the dragon suddenly points one of its right fingers at him and a streak of lightning is fired from it. Enves reacts to it immediately and manages to lead from his spot to barely avoid getting hit by it.

Crash!

The lightning bolt then explodes upon making contact with the floor and spreads weaker lightning streaks around. At the same time, two more quick bright lights briefly lighten up the dark hallway.

Zap. Zap.

Unlike him who avoids both the initial strike and the following effects, Ingrid and Misha are nothing but sitting ducks in front of the lightning bolts and both of them drop to the floor, paralyzed.

Thud.

(Misha...! Ingrid...!)

In just a moment, three of Enves’s companions have been taken down by the greater dragon. He is now facing such a monster among monsters all alone. His mind is full of unease, thinking what else he can do. He cannot fathom how a monster like that can exist.

(Shit! I should have used them to bait the dragon away from the entry for me to escape!)

It is too late before he can think of that. Something in his mind is telling him that they can escape this place together, but fate does not seem to favor them. With no options left, he racks his brain thinking how he can escape this hell.

(This dragon is impossibly too fast and reflexive for its size.) Enves thinks as he stares at the greater dragon amidst the absolute darkness. (Outrunning it would not be likely, but it’s better than doing nothing.)

Tightly gripping his daggers, Enves endows his awakened ability to their blades to its maximum output, leaking off ominous aura from them. At that level, it could potentially and permanently damage even a greater dragon, but not for this one.

After that, Enves enchants stacks of buffs in his body and mind. Currently, he has become the strongest version of himself. This is probably the only moment he can reach this form ever. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Without further ado, he lunges at the dragon at full speed, reaching the velocity of subsonic speed. The blades of his daggers are aiming at one of the dragon’s front limbs.

On the surface, the dragon is still and does not seem to react to his speed. But in reality, its eyes are actually following his trajectory, seeing him pass before its massive head.

From the looks of it, it is clear to him that his blades can reach their target. Enves’s eyes are locked to the dragon’s nail, specifically the cuticle where he plans on landing his attack. As he is running beneath the dragon’s neck, he suddenly feels a quick activation of a spell.

Before he can think of ignoring it, his vision has blurred out in an instant. Immediately after, he cannot feel his whole body anymore, nor he can move a muscle. Chills then run all over his body. It is not some fear or something, but literal coldness.

That is the last thing Enves remembered before his lost his consciousness.