The dragon ran through the forest in the direction of the ballista shot. His massive armoured body slaloming between trees, avoiding them with cat-like nimbleness.
He had the blessing protecting him from dragon slaying effects of the bolts; however, he still wanted to avoid getting hit to not expose the blessing. There was also a matter of the bolts being enchanted and launched from massive ballistae that were also likely enchanted, giving them an incredible punch.
A massive bolt pierced through the tops of trees and landed a few meters behind the dragon, its impact creating a small crater and sending the dirt flying all around him.
'They probably fired blindly at the smoke trail coming from me or followed movements of the trees.'
The dragon covered in smoke kept running through the forest. His nimble body twisted around trees and broke apart those that he couldn't avoid. Occasional bolts fell around him, breaking trees and making craters.
Soon stone cliff appeared in front of him, 'Their ballista must be on higher places, so I am probably on the right path.'
He spread his wings and launched himself, landing on top of the cliff. Immediately massive bolt was launched, flying straight towards him at an incredible speed. At such a small distance, it reached the dragon in almost an instant. He couldn't react in time and dodge it.
A bright orange barrier that looked like made out of flames formed in front of the dragon. The bolt hit the barrier, its metallic body bending and disintegrating into particles.
The dragon's long neck turned in the direction from where the bolt came, his eyes glowing in anger. There was a massive wooden ballista with metallic plates reinforcing its wooden base structure, covered in leaves that were fastened to its surface to camouflage it.
"Use formation two!"
At least a dozen men, wearing heavy metallic armours covered in glowing runes, stood around it. Each of them wore a complete set of chainmail. Sun was reflecting from shiny plate protectors on their chests and plates covering their shoulders and all of their joints. Long metallic chains were wrapped around their shoulders, creating a tingling sound as they walked. On their head were heavy-looking metal helmets with full face masks covering their whole head. There weren't even holes for eyes, only two glowing runes in their place, giving them a scary look. They moved in coordination, slowly spreading and moving towards the dragon, each holding a heavy weapon like axes or mace that were designated to crush the bodies of their foes.
As someone who spent an incredible amount of time in the world of Lorenia, he quickly recognized them. They were trained mercenaries specializing in hunting draconic species. However, the world dragon hunter wouldn't be appropriate as most of them never even saw an actual dragon.
'There is only one person in surroundings that could afford to hire so well equipped mercenaries, and that is the noble ruling this area. I should have predicted that he would get alarmed by the elder wyrm and the drake living on his land. Still, even if he hired them right on the day that I appeared in front of players, how could they get here just in a few days? Were they nearby, or was he aware of my existence even before I appeared to players?'
Two hunters grabbed another massive bolt from a pile on the ground next to the ballista and placed it into a ballista. Then each of them approached a wheel on each side of the ballista and started to quickly rotate them, massive arms of ballistae slowly mowing. Meanwhile, two others holding massive tower shields took a defensive stance in front of them.
The rest of them prepared their weapons and rushed towards the dragon, shouting to distract the dragon from the ballista.
"Look here, you big lizard!"
Vesuvius couldn't help but laugh inwardly at their poor attempt.
'Do they think that I am an idiot? They probably hunted stupid drakes and wyverns until now.'
He opened his mouth, and a square consisting of glowing magical symbols flared up inside. Then a thin ray of concentrated magma shot out, heading directly at the ballista.
With an incredible reflex, the two hunters with shields protecting the ballista jumped forward and placed their massive shields covered in glowing runes into the path of the magma ray. There was no hesitation in their actions.
A layer of blue energy with a surface looking like a water surface spread over their shields. The ray of magma hit one of the shields. Its surface started to violently vibrate and the runes on it glowed even brighter. However, the magma ray wasn't just a short pulse. A thin ray of manga kept pouring out of the dragon's mouth, bashing against the enchanted tower shield.
Suddenly the energy enveloping the shield flickered and vanished, and the beam directly hit the shield, which immediately turned red from the heat. The hunter holding the shield screamed and dropped it; the beam continued forwards, passing through their defence line and hitting the ballista. Cutting it in half like a laser cutter.
"Fuck! That beast broke our ballista!" One of the hunters reloading it shouted. All the hunters closing on the dragon immediately stopped, unsure how to proceed without the support of heavy weaponry.
A screeching sound came from behind the dragon; he quickly ducked down, falling on his stomach and curling up his long neck towards the ground. Another long bolt flew by closely above the dragon and continued forwards where it hit a tree, splitting it in half. The magical energy surged through that tree, and it exploded, sending wooden shrapnel in all directions.
All hunters around the dragon cheered up and resumed their slow, methodical advance towards the dragon, marching with large space between to avoid getting wiped out by dragon breath in one go.
One of them finally got close enough, and Vesuvius immediately used analysis on him.
Ding!
//
Analyze result:
Name: Tom Smith
Species: Human
Occupation: NPC/Mercenary/Dragon Hunter
Level: 23
Danger level: dangerous
//
'Fuck, their level is high, and there are too many of them. I could still probably deal with them as they are just humans, but they have more heavy weapons spread through the forest.'