Chapter 32: The Bitter Day of Brandon Maure (1/2)
Like he did back in that flying elf farm, Brandon Maure showed Vainqueur his cursed red wing, while his flying troops swarmed the dragon. “[Faena Muleta].”
Intelligence Check successful!
See? He was smart!
The demon king, while surprised by the failure of his previous tactic, successfully flew out of the way. His slower lackeys, the dragon incinerated. Their ashes fell in a gray rain.
The Iron Eagle approached while Vainqueur pursued the moth in the skies, the musket-like weapons on its back, firing harpoons at him. The dragon dodged them artfully, only for Brandon Maure to intercept him with his sword in the middle of his manoeuver, grazing his scales with the tip of his blade.
[Dragonslayer] effect bypassed your defense!
Charisma check successful! Your exorcism weakened Brandon Maure!
“My charm is greater than yours, grasshopper!” Vainqueur boasted.
“But Maure remembers how you denied him the joy of single combat last time!” Maure snarled, his movements more sluggish and less confident than before. “MINION! Come defend your king! [Summon Torero Fiend]!”
A powerful devil nearly as big as Vainqueur himself, with simmering, burning ash for skin, popped up next to the demon king. The spicy monster’s dragonlike wings extended, and it flew at the dragon with its sharp claws extended. He shot a shadowy ball of energy at Vainqueur while moving to engage him in close combat.
“[Spell Purge!]” As Vainqueur activated his perk, the spell vanished upon reaching his marvelous scales. The monstrous devil reached him a second afterward, Vainqueur catching his fists with his hands.
While the creature was strong, the dragon was better and pushed him back, still holding the demon’s hands captive. He attempted to bite the tasty fiend’s face off, but it lowered its head before Vainqueur’s jaws could close in on him.
The moth, ever the cowardly elf, retreated. He landed on the Eagle’s back and activated a Perk of his own, pointing his blade at Vainqueur. “[Picador]!”
Skill check failed! Evasion drastically decreased!
Focusing on the moth’s minion first, Vainqueur breathed holy flames right in the face of the giant devil; the fiend let out a snarl of rage as he proved as weak to dragonfire as anything else. Vainqueur rotated on himself, throwing the demon towards the clouds below before chasing after the Iron Eagle.
“Harpoons!” Maure ordered to a fiend operating one of the bird’s muskets; the weapon instantly fired pointed, chained spears at the dragon. While he couldn’t evade the harpoon in time due to that cursed [Picador] Perk, Vainqueur did something better.
He caught the harpoon with both hands.
Then he pulled it towards him, tearing the musket off the Eagle’s back and its fiendish operator with it.
Empowered by the knowledge granted by the Class System, Vainqueur swung the chain like a flail and threw it at the flying fortress. The musket’s wreckage impacted on the metal bird, but Brandon Maure managed to dodge the attack.
“Coward!” Vainqueur accused the moth, targeting the eagle’s back with fireballs. His flames blasted off metal plates and destroyed the demon-operated muskets, but failed to hit his true target, who raced towards the front part of the metal bird. “Stop running and fight!”
“Maure no longer plays!” the demon king replied, before barking orders to the metal bird. “Launch the Wind Spear! Blow him off!”
The iron bird launched three projectiles at Vainqueur, the explosive needles making circles in the skies as magical circles appeared on the dragon’s scales.
Unable to dodge, Vainqueur destroyed one with his fiery breath, then a second; the explosions made the Iron Eagle flinch, and spread the smoke in all directions.
Before he could destroy the third one though, Maure’s summoned devil rose back from above the clouds, then rammed Vainqueur from behind, grabbing his throat with his strong arms. “Get off me, you cattl—”
“[Mando Bull]!” Brandon Maure said, pointing his blade at Vainqueur from a safe distance.
Skill check failed! Strength and Agility reduced by one stage each!
The massive explosion that resulted killed the fiend and made Vainqueur’s entire body itch, one wing in even worse shape than the other. The sheer power of the detonation sent the dragon falling straight through the clouds, struggling to fly.
You have fallen below twenty percent HP! Critical Health!
[Bravo Bull] activated! You regained your lost strength!
The dragon considered his options. Brute strength hadn’t worked, but the dragon was more than fire breath and physical force.
He was smart.
Vainqueur deactivated Spell Purge, then used his blinkblink ring to become invisible while the cloud still shrouded him. Struggling against the itching and the pain, Vainqueur managed to catch up to the Iron Eagle, flying discreetly above its back. The moth glanced overboard, looking for Vainqueur’s corpse.
“Is he dead?” Maure rejoiced, as he began to bark more orders. “Carpet the ground to be sure, and that ugly village with it!”
“SURPRISE ATTACK!” Vainqueur shouted as he blasted the moth with a fireball. The explosion destroyed a large part of the flying fortress’ back and sent the Demon King to crash on the left wing of the bird. Half his body had been burnt to a crisp.
Your sneak attack was super effective!
“I am smart enough not to give you a chance to run around this time!” Vainqueur said, slightly insecure about his intelligence score and eager to showcase it. The tactic had worked on Furibon, and it proved its effectiveness again. “Not so strong when you cannot hide behind your minions, are you, moth?”
Cornered and unable to fly away with a burned wing, Brandon Maure swung his sword and prepared to stand his ground. ”[Airblad-]”
But the dragon was faster, and didn’t give his foe any respite.
”[Lesser Demonbane]!” Vainqueur cast his spell, the exorcism weakening the fiend before it could finish enhancing himself.
The dragon then breathed his mighty dragonfire at Maure, and weakened by the previous attack, the moth couldn’t dodge. Vainqueur’s flames melted his flesh and the metal underneath both, causing an explosion below the wing.
The demon king stood out of the flames as an emaciated, burnt husk. “If it is any consolation,” Vainqueur taunted the furious elf. “You never stood a chance against me, grass-eater. You were doomed the moment you threatened my minions.”
A voice came out of the Iron Eagle, enhanced by a spell. “Your Highness, the dragon damaged the engine! We have to make an emergency landing!”
“Crash the Iron Eagle in the volcano’s crater!” Maure ordered, forced to use his sword to stand. “Destroy the dragon’s castle and his hoard with it!”
The voice coming from the iron bird sounded as horrified as Vainqueur himself. “My liege, with all the wind spears onboard, Mount Murmurin will erupt! The entire region will be wiped out!”
“Yes!” Brandon Maure replied. “Rochefronde, Vainqueur, Murmurin, annihilate them all!”
“But our troops—”
“I DON’T CARE!” the demon king snarled, dropping speaking in the third person for the first time. “I WANT ALL OF THEM DEAD!”
Warning! [Berserk] status applied.
Furious, and now faster than ever, Vainqueur poked the moth mid-rant, squashing him like the bug he was.
His mighty hand made the metal bird shake as it hit.
When he raised his finger again, he could only see a bloody smear on the metal.
Congratulations! You regained your [Emperor] title with style! Your Perks have been restored!
Or he would have, had the Iron Eagle not been diving straight toward his volcano.
“My hoard!” Fear for the survival of his coins stripped him of his anger, his mind now fully focused on saving his gold.
Vainqueur flew under the Iron Eagle’s wing and pushed with both hands against its underside. Grabbing the flying fortress by its underside, the dragon used all his strength to push it up and redirect the bird away from his volcano. He struggled against his wounds from the Wind Spear, against the pain in his wing, against the heaviness of the metal bird.