Before I can make another move, Manius throws out a few spherical objects at me, using my Wind Wall I intend to deflect them, but they explode upon contact with my magic, sending small metal in all directions. With my large body size, I end up getting hit by most of them but unfortunately for Manius and his goons, I actually heal from every shard that hit me as they are absorbed into my body.
"Elemental Spirit Dragon... truly a troublesome opponent. Test out the other Elements and find which ones are usable. According to my Investigate, she should have some weakness so find it. Fire, Metal, Air, Ice can probably be discounted, so try the others."
Under Manius's orders, his lackeys begin trying all sorts of elemental attacks. Crossbow bolts infused with the Earth Element comes from one direction, while a bolt infused with water comes from the opposite side. At the same time, Manius throws out another one of those bombs, but this one feels a little different.
I ignore the Water infused bolt and put up a Wind Wall to deflect the Earth infused Bolt and an Ice Wall to block the bomb. The bolts weren't too much of a problem but the explosion caused by the bomb blew away the Ice Wall sending a powerful blast of Arcane energy at me. To my surprise, the blast was strong enough to lift me from the ground and flying straight into the rock walls around the cave entrance. Lifting myself up, I take a quick look at my remaining health and found that the bomb also did 1,500 damage.
"Add don't use Water again. Earth seems like it would work since an effort was made to stop it, but try out Light and Dark," Manius says as the duo have several spears of Light and Dark form above them.
With how fast their casting speed it, I hardly get a chance to make any aggressive move myself before the spears come flying at me. But I ignore both attacks coming from my sides and focus all my defensive abilities on Manius's attack as a Lightning Spear comes straight at me.
Between the many spears that hit my sides, I took around 1,000 HP, but with their low MND this is fine considering how many of them I took. But this matter is hardly my concern as the Lightning Spear continues to pierce through each wall I put up. As one wall falls, I quickly put up another but the Lightning Spear eventually breaks through all the defensive lines and makes contact with me, dealing another 1,200 damage even after the walls took most of the damage. Normally, the amount of damage I should take from magic should be far lower when considering Manius's MND is lower than mine, but my massive weakness to Lightning changes everything.
"I see, switch to using the Lightning Element. I've found the weakness I was looking for."
Change of plans, I need to get the hell out of here now!
I call out to Lia with the Soul Connection, saying, {I'm retreating sooner than expected, it's getting dangerous.}
{That's fine, we should be out of the forest in a couple of minutes anyway. We'll meet up at the Laevinus residence. Stay safe.}
I begin eating out the nearby plants and rocks to up my healing with my Wood and Earth absorption in addition to my Air absorption. At the same time, I'm trying to climb up to the top of the cave and onto the plateau. Of course, while all this is going on, various Lightning based attacks are raining down from above. Surprisingly, I manage to dodge a couple of shots and intercept some more using layered walls of all sorts to block most of the damage. I want to try and see if I can block the bolts of lightning with my Freezing Flame Breath, but I can't afford to stop eating up everything around me since the extra healing is the only thing keeping me alive right now.
Arriving at the highest point in the area, I only have 2,420 HP as I use all my strength to jump and spread my wings, making Lofinium my destination. But even now, although I can't hear them anymore, they are still trying to shoot me down. Previously when I was on the ground, it was difficult to move and dodge with my large body and the relatively close range between me and them. But now with the massive distance between us now, I can easily dodge most of their attacks despite my large body.
Soon enough, I'm far enough from Manius and his goons that their attacks fizzle out with them no longer even bothering to shoot anymore. With another minute passing, I arrive in the skies above Lofinium and return to my humanoid form, beginning my descent to into the city. Using my wings to direct my descent, I land in front of the Laevinus residence to wait for Lia to arrive. At several points over the next thirty minutes, I get notifications that I've killed some people and realise that the six poachers I had frozen earlier have finally died before Lia and Felis eventually arrive for us to finish the quest.
Seeing us walk the path up to the doorway, Tiberius comes running out the door and upon seeing him, Felis begins running up as well. While the child is embracing Felis, the old Dux walks out the door to thank us and ask about the situation.
"A poacher named Manius. I've heard his name before, but I don't know too much about him, only that he has been so troublesome to deal with that a bounty of 800 Gold coins was issued. Give him 200 more and he's worth a platinum coin. I'll make sure to have people be on the lookout for him and his associates."
After a little bit of small talk, Lia brings up the factories that we found to be suspicious. "Before we leave, I want to ask you about a couple of the factories that are outside the city. Despite having a quest with your signature, they wouldn't let us in to ask for information that may have proven useful in searching for Felis, not that it matters too much now since we have already finished the matter."
"Oh, those. The ones in charge of those are people I've had a bit of conflict with. I honestly didn't want them around to begin with, but orders came down from the central government that they had to be constructed. I didn't want them within the city since there are enough factories as is, and plenty of citizens have been displaced and we don't need any more."
"I see, thank you for appeasing my curiosity, Sir."
Bidding our farewell to the Dux and his family, token in hand, we return to the Guild with the setting sun behind us. But as we push open the doors to the Guild, I momentarily freeze as I see one of the most annoying people I've ever met.
~~~~~Manius Flaccus~~~~~
~One hour ago~
"Should we chase after the Dragon, Boss?"
"Don't bother, we wouldn't be able to catch up. What a waste, not only did we lose out on a potentially massive catch, but we also lost all the other monsters we caught."
"Should we break out the others from the ice?"
"Go ahead and try," I say tossing an inconsequential trap out onto the ice and watch it instantly freeze over, "if you think you won't freeze up like them that is."
Salvaging whatever we can, the boys and I make our way out of the forest.
"We heading back to the Underground?"
"Yeah, we need some fresh blood and the Underground is the best place for recruitment. But make sure to spread the word and make sure to get the feathered Dragonoid on the hit list. I never let my prey off easily.