As Sigurd is busy dealing with my subordinates, I use Enhance Body and Fire Enchant before jumping into the battle myself. With a single sweep of his sword, Sigurd breaks the formation creating an opening that I use to join the battle. My gauntlets clad in flame, I bring a quick right punch into Sigurd's abdomen and follow it up with my heavy left. But other than the initial shock from my sudden appearance in his field of view, the damage is pretty negligible dealing no more than a few hundred, but I manage to get a burn effect going for another few hundred damage before it wears off. Unfortunately, neither the daze effect from Swift Right Fist or the internal injury from Heavy Left Fist go off, but considering the stat difference, this is still fine, I'm not hitting minimum numbers after all.
In retaliation, Sigurd brings down his sword on me as I use Earth Wall and Earth Enchant to block the blow, but his high strength obliterates the earth wall that separates us. But as soon as the wall is broken Sigurds calm expression shifts as he figures out what I'm doing and quickly halts his strike and shifts his stance to a defensive one. My body glows with a dark brown aura surrounding me and quickly explodes, sending a massive wave of earth elemental energy out towards Sigurd.
My strongest single attack, Elemental Burst, at the expenditure of whatever elemental enchantment I have, I can deal elemental damage that ignores all defensive stats. But this doesn't mean it can't be blocked as Sigurd used his sword to take a portion of the hit. But I still did three-thousand damage at once. Unfortunately, I can't use my Earth Enchant magic again for the next few hours now.
"So you're a battlemage, huh? That's a pretty rare class you've got there. Good thing I've seen one before though or I might have taken the full damage from that Elemental Burst. Your craftiness exceeds that of your father and your reflexes are better than your mother's, a real shame that someone with talent like yours isn't a human. But even so, I admit that your talented, but do you really think you can take me on?"
"Of course not, I'm not a fool. However, I'm not alone. Fire!"
I quickly jump and put some distance between us, as the artillery cannons from the mountain begin to rain down on the battlefield. Not only do we have the numbers advantage, but this is our base. Perhaps if it really came down to it, if this was elsewhere he might be able to take us all down if he fought to the death. But here, we've got the home-field advantage. I've heard people call him a muscle-brained idiot, and as it turns out, the tales were true. Only an idiot would pick a fight like this. But why does something with such large bulking muscles have to be so god damn nimble! Despite his large frame, he is avoiding almost all of the cannon fire.
"Will someone just hit him already! Archers don't just stand there and watch, you guys need to shoot too!"
At my provocation, all of the archers and crossbowmen who had just been watching Sigurd dance around the cannon fire, begin to shoot as well. Not willing to stay idle, I use Imbue of the Arcane in preparation for an Arcane Burst. And this time, having been preoccupied with that massive amounts of projectiles being thrown his way, Sigurd doesn't get the chance to block or dodge my strike this time, as I shave off a whole 7,000 from his HP.
With all the stray cannon fire and arrows that did manage to hit, together with my two bursts, Sigurd has dropped down to nearly half health, only having a little more than 11,000 HP left... but that's still just barely below my total HP. But still, he may have a Legendary class and a superb weapon on top of that, he is but a lone man against an army. Given the chance, he can still decimate us, but I won't give him that chance.
"Keep shooting at from afar and maintain distance! Don't get close to him unless you have a death wish; if the friendly fire doesn't get you then his blade certainly will!"
While many of my melee forces are getting a little restless as they can no longer approach Sigurd without being hit in the back from our cannons our arrows, I make sure no one gets any stupid ideas.
"Damn, I think I get why no one wanted to follow me here now. I could take out most of this rabble with a single swing with my sword, but I'm not even getting a chance to draw in close. Do I really have to retreat... bloody hell! I'll be back! Mark my words!"
Running back in the direction he came everyone begins to cheer and not wasting a second before they start bragging about how they force the Legendary Sigurd to retreat. Even with all the cheering, one of the lieutenants excitedly comes up to me, likely drunk off the victory.
"Should we give chase? I don't think we should give him the chance to leave like this."
"No, don't bother. We don't have the ability to fight him outside of the base right now."
It really is a shame that we couldn't kill him here... a real damn shame. But with the few dozen I brought back with me and with only a few hundred people left to hold down the fort, the most we could really do is keep Sigurd at bay for a while. Good thing he's a moron and didn't think about how much ammunition we had to keep up with the rate of fire.
But as much as I really do want to chase him down and avenge my parents, it just isn't possible right now. The main force of the Dragon Bandits are still en route to our base and mobilising the Dragonoid Horde will take too long. And then there is still that large energy source I sense at the top of the mountain. While I'm not completely certain as I have yet to see what's up there, I think I can confidently say it's the Dragon that snatched the Elemental Root.
Heading up the mountain towards the artillery I find the Blue Dragonoid, Captain Lia, who I had left in charge of the base's defence while the rest of us were at the lake. After a quick chat, my suspicions are confirmed as she mentioned that a large monster that she identified as a Sea Dragon did make its way up the mountain. Taking her with me, we proceed up to the summit to check the situation.
"Are you sure about this, Khatun? If a fight breaks out with the Dragon, I won't be able to do much. You know I'm not good when it comes to close combat."
"Don't be such a worrywart. Besides your magic ability is second only to Legendary mages, so don't be so down on yourself. Also, we aren't in public, no need to address me as Khatun."
A mischievous smile makes its way on to Lia's face as she says, "as you wish then, Boss Lady."
"Oh, you think you're real funny don't ya."
"haha, anyways, Milla, what's with that Dragon? Sea Dragons are a type of Spirit Dragon right? I thought those had gone extinct a long time ago."
"To be honest, I don't really know myself. The spirit Dragons are supposed to be one of our the common ancestors of our species, but unlike the other ancestors, the Celestial Dragons, they all suddenly disappeared at around the same time. Well, that's what I heard from my mother anyways, I don't know much more about them other than that. As for this particular Dragon, it suddenly appeared at Lake Giras and ate the Elemental Root right in front of everyone. Probably the reason why Sigurd showed his face here. But as for why it came here, I have no idea, probably just a coincidence."
After a little more small talk, we eventually make it up to the summit. Before our eyes is a large cacoon, so large that it takes up the entire clearing on the summit and stretches above the clouds. Using Analysis I find out that its an Evolution Cacoon and shortly after I hear the System voice in my head.
"System Quest has been triggered, 'Return of the Spirit Dragons'. The Spirit Dragons are one of the ancestors of all the Dragonoids. Aid your racial ancestor in gaining worldwide recognition. This quest is only available to the first group of Spirit Dragon descendants to come across the Evolution Cacoon of what will be a High-Tier Spirit Dragon. Quest Reward: Legendary class advancement."
This is it! I've heard that I need to complete a System Quest to advance towards a Legendary class, so it's true after all. Although, it seems like it's kinda troublesome to accomplish, then again, if it were so easy then there would probably be a lot more Legendary Masters running around.
"Hey Lia, I just got a System Quest. how about you?"
"Yep, I also got one. Probably the same as yours, Return of the Spirit Dragons, right? Doesn't the objective seem kinda hard to do though?"
"So you think it's difficult as well, huh. But regardless of difficulty, we should do it, it isn't easy to get a System Quest after all. Once this cacoon opens, we should try and suck up to the Dragon so it acknowledges us... wait when is this thing gonna open?"
"Just use Analysis again and it will tell you, just don't be surprised when you see it."
At Lia's suggestion, I use Analysis and find a new section has been added to the description. It's a countdown towards the completion of its evolution. Five years... FIVE YEARS! Damn you! Don't get me all excited for nothing!
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So I never really got the chance to show you guys what Milla's stats actually are so I'm just going to add them here.
Name: Milla August
Race: Red Dragonoid
Titles: Bandit Leader, Infamous Sky Terror, Charismatic Leader, Benevolent Ally & Ruthless Foe, Matriarch of the Red Dragonoids, Khatun of the Dragonoids
Class: Dracul Battlemage (Tier 5)
Level: 55
EXP: 5,324/105,875
HP: 13,360 MP: 16,700 SP: 16,700
STR: 9,352 (+700)
VIT: 7,348 (+1000)
DEX: 9,018
INT: 8,016
WIS: 8,350
MND: 9,352 (+700)
CHA: 80
LUCK: 60
Skills: Analysis (10), Arcane Burst, Elemental Burst
Passive Skills: Draconic Blood (Can pacify Young Drakes. Grants passive skills: Dragonic Body, Low Altitude Flight, High-Speed Flight), Draconic Body (+300 STR +700 VIT), Heavy Left Fist (Slow attack and has a small chance to cause internal damage and deals 50% more damage, double to 100% when internal injury hits), Swift Right Fist (Fast attack and has a small chance to daze and deals 20% less damage), Battle Instinct, High Damage Reduction (reduce all damage taken by 50%), Low Altitude Flight, High-Speed Flight
Magic: Imbue of the Arcane, Fire Enchant, Earth Enchant, Enhance Body, Fire Ball, Stone Pillar, Flare Missile, Earth Wall
Weapons: Dragon Bone Gauntlets (+400 STR, +400 MND)
Armour: Leather Armour of the Tri-horned Cow (+300 VIT, +300 MND)