Chương 467: (460) 6.74. Pulling Out All the Stops

The dragon roared again and a wave of pressure washed outward, pressing down grass and causing many of the people atop the wall to stumble backward slightly, despite the fact that it was still so far away. Vin's heart sank as he took in the colossal beast, wondering just what they'd done to deserve such horrific luck. The dragon was easily six or seven stories tall, and roughly twice that in length, not including the tail.

Its classic scales had been replaced by rust-colored fur, and its tail ended in a large, bony protrusion that looked like it could do some serious damage. Its claws and teeth were almost as large as an entire person, and Vin gulped as the dragon turned and narrowed its eyes at him. Specifically, at him. Before he or anyone else could do anything, the dragon opened its mouth and blasted forth a geyser of flame that rocketed toward his position far quicker than his own spells were capable of traveling.

Vin barely even had time to widen his eyes, which meant casting a spell or attempting to dodge was right out. By reflex more than anything, he tightened his grip on his staff, pressing it harder against the wall beneath his feet and making his will known to the artifact as the fire washed over him. The battlefield and surrounding world vanished instantly, replaced with nothing more than fire and heat.

Vin stared in awe at the raging inferno surrounding him, noting how he didn't feel more than a slight uptick in temperature. It was like he'd stepped in front of a weak heater that was on its last legs. He could vaguely make out people screaming and shouting his name somewhere in the distance, but the crackling and roaring of the flames made it hard to tell who or where it was coming from. The dragon's fire lasted a full five or six seconds, but eventually, the flames vanished just as quickly as they'd appeared.

Vin blinked at the sudden drop in light, glancing down at what remained of the wall around him. A small circle around his feet and where he'd planted his staff was entirely untouched, but the rest of the surrounding wall that had been reinforced with Witherson's abilities and the infernals' magic had been turned to complete and utter slag.

As the slag dripped and fell to the ground on either side of the wall, Vin looked up, meeting the gaze of pretty much every single person who wasn't currently fighting for their lives down on the ground.

"What?" he asked, his glowing staff pulsing in his hand as he frowned and pointed at the distant dragon.

"Don't just stand there! Attack that thing!" Barking out a laugh that sounded half mad, Spur grinned and lowered his sword, pointing it at the distant dragon as well. For its part, even the dragon looked utterly bewildered at the fact that Vin didn't have so much as a light sunburn from its devastating attack, which was rather comical to see on the face of an epic monster. Before it could decide what to do, Spur shouted, his voice ringing out across the battlefield.

"Ritual corps! Launch spells one through four!" Having been waiting for this the entire battle, a small handful of infernals working in duos followed Spur's directions, taking careful aim at the distant dragon and triggering their already prepared rituals. They couldn't do anything nearly as impressive or as delicate as what Madam Trebella had been capable of, but they really didn't have to.

Instead, four giant, crackling pillars of lightning erupted from atop Terra's wall, flashing across the battlefield before smashing into the chest and side of the dragon one after another. It was Vin's turn to be surprised as cheering rang out from atop the wall. A few people even congratulated the infernals on their aim as the dragon was knocked back and began to fall.

But before anyone could grow too excited, it caught itself at the last second, letting out an angry, soul-shaking roar into the sky as steam escaped its mouth. It had four black, horribly charred spots on its body where its fur and flesh had been burnt away, but the lightning hadn't dealt it nearly as powerful a blow as Vin had hoped. Still, Spur didn't seem overly concerned, as he kept his sword level with the epic monster, shouting again.

"Poison corps, draw its fire!"

"Terrible choice of words, you bastard!" Vin heard Scule scream from all the way across the battlefield. The petian's answering cry was followed by a sudden barrage of a few hundred arrows as hidden archers popped up over the newer, distant wall, revealing that they'd been lying in wait this entire time. Due to the larger mass of people and the distracting mana trees, just as they'd hoped, all of the monsters had gone straight for the heart of Terra rather than turn around and sense the people lying in wait.

Vin hadn't been all too comfortable with the thought of so many people separating themselves from the safety and security of the city's main defenses, but it had been Scule himself who came up with this plan. It was a risk in more ways than one, but so long as the epic monster ended up being something made of flesh and blood that was susceptible to poison… The payout would be worth it.

Vin watched the hundred arrows arced through the air before peppering the dragon, landing all over its massive frame as the snipers continued firing as fast as they could physically pull their bows back. If they'd been firing regular arrows, the dragon probably wouldn't have even noticed that they were there. However, Terra had a twice-prestiged Rogue of Poisons on its side, and Scule had had plenty of time to help prepare for the upcoming wave while Vin was working on magic.

While Vin created two new spells, Scule had worked with Herbalists and Gatherers to collect the needed reagents to produce entire barrels of incredibly deadly poison. When Vin had asked him just how hazardous the poison was, Scule had merely scoffed and told him a petian-sized dagger coated in the stuff would be enough to kill a man who had neglected to put points in vigor. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Which naturally begged the question.

What would a few barrels' worth of it do to an epic monster? At first, it almost looked like the answer was nothing. Righting itself from the unexpected lightning, the dragon began stomping forward toward Terra, each step sending a rumble through the ground that could be felt for miles around. But as the seconds passed and Scule and the snipers continued firing, the dragon slowed to a stop, its large eyelids blinking heavily as it turned to glance back at the rear wall.

Vin's heart sank as he realized what it was going to do right before it did it, and he shouted.

"Get out of there!" His warning came too late, however, as the dragon launched itself into action with an unexpected burst of speed. Leaping the distance between itself and the rear wall, the dragon smashed its claws into the mass of archers, eliciting screams as it literally tore through them in a single swipe. As its tail swung up and prepared to crash along the top of the wall, which would undoubtedly kill anyone who was still standing, Vin acted as quickly as he could." Redirect Gravity!"

he shouted, straining with everything he had to cast the spell at such a distance. Somehow, he could tell in his very soul that his spell shouldn't have been able to reach all the way from Terra's main wall to the secondary one. Yet a familiar, tingling whisper in his ear of power and curiosity informed him that the mana was listening, and his runic formation flared to life within his core.

As the dragon's tail crashed through the top of the wall, dozens of Terrans rocketed up over it, vanishing into the sky rather than be reduced to paste. Clutching his staff to keep himself from falling to his knees, Vin gasped as he forced one more spell to manifest at such a range. A cloud large enough to catch each and every one of the falling people spun into existence barely a hundred feet above the dragon's head.

Unfortunately, it seemed the monster wasn't about to let them get away that easily, and it began to open its mouth as it stared up at the nearby cloud.

"Spur, distract it!" Vin shouted, his head spinning as he tried to think. Those two spells cast at such an unnatural range had drained through nearly his entire mana pool. He'd already been borrowing mana from his surroundings since the start of the battle in order to fuel his Meteors, but he tried pulling even harder now, doing his best to ignore the fear and pain coming from thousands of Terrans as he drew on everything around him.

"Central cannon, fire!" Spur said hurriedly, no longer looking nearly as confident as he had a minute ago. Just as the dragon went to lunge, there was an explosion from somewhere behind Vin, followed by something crashing into the side of the dragon with enough force to actually knock it off its feet. As the dragon smashed into the already ruined portion of the distant wall, Vin turned to stare in awe at Myers' and Alice's latest pet project.

He'd gotten peeks at sketches and designs here and there, but finally seeing it in action was something else. A massive, adjustable cannon larger than a truck sat atop the bell tower in the center of town, its barrel still smoking and now slightly warped from the sheer quantity of explosive powder that had been consumed to fire its payload.

Knowing that the cannon was firing balls of metal that were roughly the length of his arm, Vin could only stare in shock at the team that immediately burst into action, going over the red-hot barrel as they worked to repair it as fast as possible. When he'd asked why they didn't open with the central cannon, the answer had been simple.

It took some time to crank the thing into the correct position, and every shot required both a dedicated team of crafters to repair the barrel, supporters to ensure the quantities of explosives were correct, and some of James' supply guys to load the next projectile. All in all, that meant even working at max speed, they couldn't expect the thing to fire more than once every few minutes.

Which was a very noticeable amount of time when the monster that had just taken a cannonball the size of a small child to the side was in the middle of pushing itself back up. The dragon's right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle and part of its chest looked somewhat caved in, but the monster was far from defeated. As it struggled to right itself with its mangled arm, its tail smashing into the ground in rage all the while, Vin looked over and shouted at Spur, not bothering with Whispering Wind this time.

"What other kinds of heavy ordnance do we have?!"

"That was the heaviest of it!" Spur shouted back, his face pale as he watched the dragon get back up. Even so, Spur had been the Commander of Terra for far too long to simply throw in the towel, and he quickly steeled his resolve, turning to look at the dozens of ballistae that had been raining fire down on the elite monsters still fighting the mass of warriors down below.

"Heavy archers, concentrate fire on the dragon, load up every alchemical bolt you have!"

"No!" Mai shouted, her voice booming as she cut him off. All this time, she'd been staring at the dragon, carefully analyzing it in a way that made Vin think the Strategist had some sort of passive to help spot an enemy's weak point.

"Don't bother with the explosive bolts! Even with the lack of scales, it's resistant to fire! Load up and launch the acid bolts, do your best to target the limbs, starting with the remaining arm. Even if we can't kill it, it can't walk about on all fours if both of its arms are destroyed!" The heavy archers hurried to follow orders, loading up large bolts with hollow tips filled with acid. One after another they fired, the first few shots going wide or falling short before they managed to adjust for the distance.

To Vin's utter astonishment, it was at this point that he realized there were regular-sized arrows raining down upon the dragon once again, and he let out a surprise laugh at the realization that Scule must have been directing his snipers to start loading up the monster with poison once more.

Despite the petian's horrible fear of heights and knowing that the dragon would incinerate them in an instant if it decided to attack again, he was putting everything he had on the line to try and slow it down from atop the cloud Vin had placed them. It seemed to be working, too, as the dragon stumbled forward, struggling to take a step without putting weight on its mangled arm.

"Look at that, it can't even walk!" Spur shouted, some color returning to his face as he laughed and grinned at the weakened monster.

"Heavy archers, keep firing! We're taking this thing down, right now!" Yet before any of the heavy archers could land a lucky shot on the dragon's remaining arm, the monster reminded them of one other small fact about its unique biology. It might have needed its arms to run. But it definitely didn't need them to fly.