Adventures of the last Wild Dragon

Chapter 315: A Warm Welcome

6 powerful presences had locked onto both Violet and Luna almost the instant that they walked into the forest. Yet these presences were not working together, if anything they were battling for the right to try and pressure our two companions.

Not that they would be successful in that endeavour given that the two companions had already melded their presences into a single whole.

That had fundamentally changed the potency of their presences and made it so that no single regular Lord would ever be able to overwhelm them spiritually.

It was also for a more practical reason. They simply wanted to ensure that they would be able to protect their charges from any adverse effects thanks to hostile presences. As such they had extended their own to encompass all that traveled with them.

After a moment thought the two companions looked towards a certain location where already they could hear the sound of heavy impacts getting closer.

With the scale of the giant redwoods all around them it was possible to see quite far in all directions, which was why they were soon able to see exactly what it was that was approaching them.

From behind one of the trees in the distance a massive form emerged. It looked like a mix between a rhino and a bull, it was hard to tell its actual size when compared to the giant trees besides it but it ran on 4 think grey skinned legs.

Its body was a mass of bulging muscles atop which bone white spikes emerged along the beasts spine, its head was angular and wide. Two horns emerged from above the beasts beady eyes whilst a third protruded from the front of its face just above its mouth.

The beast was not alone either.

Behind it ran a veritable stamped of similar beasts, yet they better resembled children running after a parent with how small they were besides the great beast leading them.

Then off at a different side more noise came and Violet glanced in that direction and bore witness to a second entire army charging towards them. Only this one did not run along on the ground but swung through the lower branches as they closed in.

These beasts too were being led by a Lord, they resembled giant monkeys more than anything. They had rocky skin covered in corse fur, three individual tails acted as indipendant limbs that aided them in their arboreal movement.

"Hu looks like the welcoming party has come to greet us." Muttered Luna with some amusement clear in her voice.

Violet chuffed at that. "Which do you want?" She asked instead, her eyes narrowing on the monkeys with some clear displeasure, clearly she still held a strong dislike against monkeys after she had been hit with flying poop quite some time ago.

"I’ll take on the monkeys, looks like your size will be needed against those rhino things, my speed will be better suited against the monkeys." Replied Luna calmly.

Violet wanted to disagree, she really didn’t like monkeys after all. Yet she quickly glanced between the two approaching forces and let out a resigned sigh and nodded her large head in agreement.

Then she turned around to face the dragons and refugees behind them. She instantly noted the abject fear plastered on some of their faces. An understandable reaction to seeing two Beast army’s charging towards them, yet unfitting of dragons to fear such beasts.

She spoke up in all of their minds. "Ready yourselves. Me and Luna shall take out their two leaders, you all only need defend yourselves from the rabble. Do not fear them!"

It was short but sweet, and infused with a touch of her draconic aura which straightened their spines and reinforced their wills.

With a nod of her head Violet turned back to face the oncoming army’s.

She turned once more to glance at Luna then spoke to her through their private bond. "First to beat theirs gets a massage from the looser!"

Luna laughed at that as she glanced back at Violet with a smirk. "Don’t go regretting your words when I win!"

Then she turned back to face the approaching monies still swinging through the trees. She then took a step and disappeared from her spot.

Violet cursed internally before she began dashing forwards with a blink of her own. She let out a roar of challenge that was shortly matched with a bleating cry from the rhino beast in return.

Then the battle begun.

A barrage of void bolts and spears near instantly formed and fired towards the beast lord. In return and much to Violets surprise the beast seemed to flicker out of existence for a moment, only to reappear exactly where it had stood several seconds ago as Violet’s opening salvo flew by harmlessly.

Violet blinked at that yet did not allow her confusion to stop her from her continual attacks.

More bolts flew, more spears shot forth, narrow concentrated beams of nothingness swiped through reality as Violet unleashed her entire opening salvo on the oddly elusive beast.

Yet once more the beast reacted with its strange magic’s. Those bolts and spears that were about to impact it seemed to suddenly slow, they still moved yet at a snails pace that the beast was easily able to avoid. Saddly for the Lord however, Violet had aimed her attacks properly this time.

When the Lord avoided the attacks they continued onwards, soon regaining their momentum once past the leader. From their they proceeded to collide with the front line of the rhino stampede.

Cries of pain and death rang out as half a dozen beasts perished from that initial assault. The beast noticed that and its eyes gleamed with hatred as it glanced back at Violet before it charged forwards once again.

This time Violet relied on her runic magic.

Runes etched themselves into reality all between Violet and he prey. They formed in trees, in the ground and even in the very air itself.

Soon Violet was done with her first layer of runes, they activated all at once and a bubble of nothingness seemed to blink into reality all around them.

This was a new configuration that Violet had come up with, the idea behind it was simple yet powerful. It effectively isolated the area inside of the bubble from outside, yet that was only one aspect, the main perk of this bubble was that space was changed within.

After all this runic magic interwove the void with the very world. It only really had a single purpose, that of preventing teleportation of any kind. Well any kind except for those that utilised the void.

Yet when Violet thought that she was about to land a spear straight into the beasts eye its form suddenly flickered and reappeared where it had been but a second before.

Violet narrowed her eyes in confusion, quickly checking her runes for any flaws yet finding none. Still she did not let that distract her from the fight, continuing to barrage the great beast as it closed in.

Now that it was closer she truly understood how massive this beast was, it made her look quite small besides it. The rhino stood almost 15 meters tall and 30 long, it was a true behemoth of pure muscle and thick leathery hide topped with a vicious looking set of horns.

Finally the best closed in, its speed suddenly increased tremendously and Violet moved to dodge out of the way, yet she suddenly felt a strange force try to take ahold of her movements, as if trying to slow her down or halt her from being able to move.

She flaired her draconic aura and presences and felt that strange force over her snap like a string being cut and she was suddenly back to normal and moving out of the beasts charge.

Violet frowned in thought as she tried to understand the rhinos abilities to seemingly no avail.

She continually unleashes a ceaseless barrage of magical attacks at the beast, her bolts doing little more than cause minor wounds on the rhinos thick hide, the spears however were able to pierce somewhat through the rhinos defenses and embed themselves some distance into the beast. Then they exploded and a decent chunk of flesh was removed.

Still with the shear size of the beast it would be a slow process to whittle it down with just her bolts and spears alone. So she overcharges her void beam, intending to slowly cut a hole right through the beast.

The beam at first does very little damage, yet as she works hard to keep it hitting the same spot on the beast as it turns and charges right back at her the damage slowly builds up.

Then she gets lucky as one of her spears managed to pierce straight into the beasts eye with a sickening squelch and pop as it exploded.

Yet the rhino then flickered.

The beast reappeared where it had stood several seconds ago, its eye was no longer a ruined crater and the beam was no longer digging into its side. In fact it seemed like ever single point of damage dealt to the beast over the last few seconds had been entirely erased.

That was when Violet’s eyes opened wide in sudden realisation. This beast was not teleporting when it flickered, no, it was rewinding time on itself!

It was able to entirely mitigate any damage dealt to it by rewinding time and reappearing back before it was ever harmed.

Yet understanding that Violet only smiled. Fighting against a foe that controlled time itself! Now that would be a true challenge!