New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1031: Meeting The Dragon

Hearing him say that instilled confidence in Jin-Sil, and she puffed her chest out.

"I won't betray that trust," she declared.

"I'm sure you won't. But we still need to think of how the others can help. I don't doubt you can take the dragon down, but I want to leave nothing to chance. Do any of you need time to prepare a spell or attack that you consider your strongest?" he asked, scanning them again.

The group stayed mum, leading him to believe they either didn't need time or didn't think they had something that was enough to deal with the dragon.

"In that case, you have thirty seconds to prepare yourselves mentally. That is the time I need to set some protection in place for when we open that door. Beyond that point, it'll be your strength against the dragon's."

Everyone picked up the things they had hastily dropped when the fight began against the dragonkin and amassed around Alex.

Kary leaned into Alex's ear, whispering, "How long can you shield us from the dragon's aura?"

Alex took a second to think about it, pushing his senses past the door again.

"With how strong he is right now, maybe a minute. But I doubt he is projecting his entire aura. The safe answer would be about thirty seconds. Maybe even less. So be ready to take him down as fast as you can," he said, his face showing worry.

Kary put her hand on his shoulder, kissing him on the cheek.

"I believe in your strength. That dragon won't know what hit him."

The corner of Alex's lip rose faintly for a moment before he focused on the task.

He needed to pump out enough mana to match or overpower the dragon's aura if he wanted to shield his allies from it. The safer bet would be to match it, as overpowering it meant he could hold that consumption for much less time.

'If you had access to all our power simultaneously, this would be child's play,' Shegror commented in his head.

'Yeah, well, I don't. Even getting one of you out, or melded with me, means that my mana reserves dip. If I thought that was a good idea, I would do it instead of wrestling dominion over a dragon's humongous mana reserves,' he replied, chuckling mentally.

Shegror remained quiet, his assessment of the situation accurate. She was still disappointed that she couldn't bring her arrogance to bear on this hatchling, but she wouldn't force her attitude through solid reasoning.

"I'm ready," Alexander declared, his focus now razor-sharp.

David nodded, looking at Winston on the opposite door.

"Push!" he shouted, leaning into the door with all his might.

Winston copied him, screaming with might as his little arms suddenly bulged with muscles previously unseen.

He used mana to boost his physique, if only temporarily, as the door was quite big, and its stone material was assuredly too heavy for an ordinary person to push.

The doors budged slowly before grinding their way inward.

The first thing to hit the party was a massive heat wave, as the interior of this antechamber was super-heated beyond what they expected.

The egg lay in the center of a massive pool of bubbling magma, and everyone finally lay their eyes on its cracked surface.

The next thing that came was the wave of mana, condensed way past what they were expecting. Killian, Liu Yan, and Aapo felt their bodies become heavy, but it was fleeting.

The next second, another wash washed through them, coming from behind them, and they felt invigorated once more.

Alex could tell this was only latent mana, and by its amount, he could hold a while. But he knew this was far from what the dragon could unleash if it hatched.

And hatch it would, that much was sure to him.

From this distance, he could see the swirl of mana around the cracked egg and knew it was a matter of seconds before the dragon hatchling burst through the shell.

"Get ready!" he shouted, the mana starting to whistle around them as the swirl became visible to the naked eye.

The last crack appeared on the volcanic rock-looking shell, and a piece suddenly fell. Behind that fallen piece, a single eye became visible as it blinked to focus.

And with that blink, a second wave of mana crashed into everyone.

Alex instantly boosted his mana output to cancel out the mana shock, but he couldn't stop the pressure entirely.

Killian Aapo and Liu Yan wavered as Killian bit his tongue to push the pain through the dizziness.

The shock passed, and the remainder of the shell exploded outward, the dragon's wing extending to its side.

It opened its mouth to roar, but instead of being heard in the room, it blasted directly into their minds, the deafening sound making their ears bleed a little.

But Everyone was mentally ready for this, as they gritted their teeth through the pain and kept their gazes on the tiny monster that had just seen the light in their world.

Jin-Sil closed her eyes, forcing her mind to shut out all the noise as she drew her bowstring back.

'This is your chance to prove you are the only weapon I'll ever need,' she thought, hoping the Queen's Lament would answer her call.

A swirl of mana formed around the tip of her arrow, sucking in all the air around as a vortex visibly formed around it.

'I would never lie to you, mistress,' the voice promised.

Jin-Sil opened her eyes again, as they mirrored a calm that shouldn't be possible in a situation

like this.

Her eyes shone in a green glow as the wind fluttered her clothes.

"Queen's Lament: Wail Of Death."

The wind around her arrowhead picked up with more strength, the whistle turning to a strident wail, as if a creature was drawing its dying breath, and she released the arrow.

As it flew forward with a speed much slower than usual, but containing power beyond her means, Jin-Sil felt her knees wobble.

Kary watched her start to buckle as Rì-Chū jumped to catch her, and she shouted, "Attack it

now!"

A gunshot blasted, followed by a crack of lightning, a torrent of flames, blades of concentrated wind, icicles by the dozen, a spear of pure shadow, and a hail of stone.

As the attacks exploded together, hitting their mark, everyone's ears started ringing, some

having pierced eardrums from the shock wave.

And the room went deathly silent.

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