Chapter 256 - Knowledge (1/2)

Li thought about this for a second. If the strange hybrid of dragon and oculon that they had just fought was easily nearing level seventy, then it stood to reason that the master of it was even stronger. Though perhaps that was not true as well, considering that the undead haze had so strongly empowered the former drake.

In any case, from what he had seen in this world, Li knew there were precious few entities beyond level fifty, let alone beyond seventy. In all likelihood, this dragon master was going to be the primal spirit that presumably resided within the Triforge mountain.

An entity single-handedly responsible for bringing an entire race of dwarves to ruin, killing so many that even now, undead haze oozed from the mountain, fueled eternally by the agonized souls of a whole people.

But Li did not worry. For at the end of the day, he was absolutely confident that no threat was beyond his means.

”Even if this mystery fellow in the mountain wants to fight,” said Li. ”You, my dragon, are not going to. Rest is just as important as fighting, and you've fought hard today. Harder than I would have ever expected.”

”No fair. Boring!” said black-scaled Tia as she frowned, but green-scaled Tia gave her a withering leer before smiling at Li. ”Okay, papa, I rest for today. Tired anyway.”

Black-scaled Tia did not object, lowering her head, and Li knelt down to pat both heads. ”Thank you for being understanding.”

At that moment, Li heard the rapid fire walk of the Vukanovi, its leg-roots pattering atop the cratered ground in frenetic pace. He looked back to see the Vukanovi no worse for wear with the rest of the party atop it.

There was the advance party with Old Thane, Vilga, and Sheela, and they nursed a fair amount of wounds. The old man, in particular, had various lacerations and puncture wounds littering his body, and even now, he sat cross-legged atop the pumpkin creature, using his hand to pull out a shaky arrow. His wounds quickly began healing, no doubt his Berserker subclass's regenerative abilities coming into function.

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Vilga sat next to Old Thane and Zagan's sleeping form and meditated, using her monk subclass to heal her wounds by flowing mana to them.

Sheela, however, was not so lucky for her subclasses did not give her strong access to healing, only pain tolerance. She instead used her long, rough tongue to l.a.p up wounds for Feli saliva had a minor effect of halting bleeding.

The rear group was mostly unharmed. Asala sat atop her coils, rapidly writing atop a tablet. She had no wounds about her, which made sense due to her high level and the fact that as a mage, she likely had a mana barrier to aid her. Mason and Mercer lay unconscious but breathing and bearing only minor wounds behind her.

Li picked Tia up and jumped, soaring several dozen meters in the air before he gracefully landed on the Vukanovi's head.

Immediately, he snapped his fingers, and everyone's wounds healed, little streams of green energy flowing from his hand to mend every hurt and harm.

”Old man, what happened?” said Li. ”The wounds you had were pretty bad. Not the kind you'd get from the weaker undead you were facing before.”

Old Thane slammed his c.h.e.s.t with his fist and smiled broadly. ”You should have been there, lad! The moment ye breached that whirlwind of death, knights of the great twilight rose up against us. How many was it again, lass?”

The old man slapped Vilga's broad back excitedly, and she opened one eye in minor irritation at having her meditation interrupted.

”Twelve,” said Vilga. ”Thirteen, counting big one.”

”Aye, the big one. A mighty powerful one, he was,” said Old Thane. He clenched his scar painted fists with a sigh. ”And another to fall below my blows in glorious single combat.”

Li knew that undead knights were generally powerful monsters, but from what he heard, he could not place what type of the many undead knights they had fought. Regardless, it was evident they had been through quite the struggle.

”You took a lot of hits, old man,” said Li. ”One of them looked like a sword went right through your gut. I know being a Berserker means you don't drop dead from vital hits like that, but you should watch yourself more.”

”Hoh, I am more humble than you think, lad,” said Old Thane. ”That knight was a fierce one. No doubt in his past life, he must have been the vanguard of an entire kingdom. A warrior of superb merit such as Leonid Drozdov. Or perhaps Ironheart Alain of Montagne. Or Gale the Immovable were he still young and spry.

Alas, the duel was beyond mine own advanced years. Thus, I drew from another.”

Old Thane tilted his head towards Zagan, and the demon twitched an ear in recognition, but nothing more than that. So Zagan had given Old Thane some help at the end. A comforting thought as in Li's absence, the old man would always be protected as he doubted there was much that could overpower Zagan.

”Strange familiar,” said Sheela as she c.o.c.ked her head at Zagan, her nose twitching as she tried to ascertain the demon's scent. ”But very strong.”