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"Move aside!" Drake raored, quickly hitting the floor as several barriers made of frost and stone emerged one after another!
TRUM! TRUM! TRUM! TRUM!
The barriers were quickly erected, and the villagers were barely saved from the attacks. However, the monster's rampage easily shattered these barriers after just a couple of seconds.
The villagers weren't fast enough to run away from the rampaging attacks in time, and Drake was already busy dealing with several dozen blows and protecting the wounded Emerald and Amehia.
However, he wasn't alone either.
Several new figures arrived in the scene, swinging their weapons, and clashing against the rampaging spear-tipped tentacles.
"So we're fighting a huge salad right now?"
Benladann appeared, flying with her chaos dragon wings, and clashing against two of the beast's tentacles with her giant axe, her strongest blow was barely able to scratch the reinforced appendages of the monster, but it was good enough to force it to pull back its limbs.
CLAAASH! CLAAASH!
"Careful!"
Miranda flew into the scene right after, expanding her Domain of Mold around as she generated tentacles of her own, coiling many of the monster's appendages and stopping its frantic movements.
"I've never seen a monster like this before!"
"Me neither… But it looks familiar? Somehow…"
Benladra and Kate ran into the scene, the two little dragon girls used their newly acquired, fantastic weapons wonderfully!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Benladra's celestial spear pierced through the monster's body several times, pushing it back, while Kate's huge sword sliced through its weaker vines and metallic wires!
"GRYYEEEHHHH!!!"
The monster frantically materialized hundreds of magic circles surrounding its body, while slowly beginning to move away, Drake quickly noticed it was trying to escape back to the Ancient Ruins where it most likely came from!
However, before he could stop the monster, the magic circles fired several green and golden beams of concentrated divine power, countless of explosions covering his body and everyone else!
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
"Dammit! Come back here you bastard!" Drake was about to stop it as he evaded and tanked the beams, but quickly noticed the whole village was on flames, the beams destroying several houses. "Shit…!"
He had to prioritize the people's lives before killing the monster, even if it was kidnaping a few of them, he quickly turned back and ran to set off the flames. He quickly tried to create some slimes, five of them leaping out of his body and chasing down the beast as it escaped into the Ancient Ruin's depths.
Hoping for the slimes to stop it or at least buy some time, Drake and his party quickly started to turn off the flames and rescue the people that were crushed on the rubble. Many were near-death, and if he hadn't decided to save them, they would had surely died.
"Cough… Ugh…"
Emerald wasn't any better, even with Amehia's healing. His body was bleeding all over the place, and the curse on his wings also worsened his regeneration all across his body to an extent.
"Hang in there, brat!"
Drake quickly took out several Elixirs from his Inventory, pouring them over Emerald's body, all while Benladra conjured her healing magic too.
FLAAASH!
"Hahh… My wounds…" Emerald sighed, feeling slightly relieved.
"Are you okay, Uncle Emerald?" Asked Benladra.
"Uncle? I'm younger than your dad…" Sighed Emerald.
"That doesn't matter anymore, rest for a bit for now." Drake sighed, crossing his arms.
After helping the villagers, healing them, and even reconstructing their houses while at it, the morning sun came from the horizon, illuminating the jungles.
There was an atmosphere of tension and silence around the village, a catastrophe had just happened, and it might have just happened because the people ignorantly decided to blame the Sacred Beast for everything.
"The Ancient Ruins… that monster came from there…"
"The Ancient Ruins that create the barrier that protect us… there was a monster there this whole time?"
"There are still about ten people missing, it took them away!"
"What can we do… that thing was like a divine beast, even the Sacred Beast was severely wounded fighting it…"
"But those outsiders also helped us… Who are they?"
Some of the villagers gathered outside of their houses, they felt grateful, but at the same time wary. Drake couldn't blame them; they had gone through a lot already.
While Emerald was resting inside of the chief's house with Amehia's company, the chief was having a talk with Drake as the villagers speculated.
"I see…" Tyrannus sighed, his face showing great grief, his wife was one of the few people that beast managed to take away. "So you're dragons… well, not everyone, but a group of friends, led by one. And the King, no less…"
"Although I might look like a lizardman and ice giant hybrid, I can turn into my real form easily, but... it is way too big, so it would intimidate everyone, and it is not really cute like Emerald either." Drake said.
"I can understand that. Don't worry." Tyrannus said. "Your strength… you've proven yourselves to be worthy of our respect too. And Emerald too… I believe all our village owes him an apology; the young dragon was right this whole time…"
"I told you that he wasn't lying!" Amehia said angrily. "Yet you choose to not believe on him! You choose to believe in the lies of the people, born from their fears! Nobody wanted to accept the dangers of the Ancient Ruins… The Divine Barrier is too good of a gift, the spirits always knew that there would be a price to pay for it."
"Sacrificing people from all things was not what we expected." Tyrannus sighed. "And my wife, no less… I don't know what to do, honestly. Pathetic, isn't it? For a chief to be like this… What would you do on my situation, great dragon king?"
"If I were you, I would first calm down my people, they're nervous to the point they might begin rioting at any point now." Drake explained "They need answers."
"But after that…" Tyrannus muttered.
"Of course, we'll help you. Perhaps I wouldn't had cared before, but there's a friend that would keep fighting to the death to save you, and also, I don't want to disappoint my daughters, making them think their father's a coward." Drake laughed.
"I guess in that we do understand one another, being a father is sure hard." Tyrannus nodded.
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