At this time, the adventurers' army had suffered over a hundred casualties, with dozens more scattered and fleeing, leaving only about one hundred and fifty core members. Protected by the Flame Barrier, they finally completed the final adjustments to their formation.
When the black dragon once again dove down, the opposing force successfully launched an effective counterattack.
Gravity spell!
Aging spell!
Ray of enervation!
Disintegrate spell!
Several curse magic spells hit the black dragon in succession; most were directly negated by his powerful lifeforce, but a gravity spell slowed down his movement for a moment.
And that brief halt was enough to have fatal consequences. The disintegrate spell weakened his scales, and a dense rain of arrows riddled his body, displaying a flurry of two-digit damage numbers, -17, -33, -25...
Two volleys of arrows only took away three thousand of his Health Points,
Is that all?—He was about to climb higher when a flash of cold light swept by, and before Morphis could react, he felt a surge of intense pain in his left chest, -572!
A bright red number stood out among a bunch of two-digit damages.
Ouch, that hurts! Morphis twirled and ascended, biting the arrow shaft with his teeth and painfully pulled it out. With one glance, he knew why this thing caused such high damage—it was a Mithril arrowhead enchanted with a high-level armor-piercing spell. Damn rich people.
If it had hit a vital spot, it might have been a complete upset. With such high damage, could it be a hero player?
He looked down at the crowd and suddenly saw an elf ranger in a hooded cloak, slowly drawing the bow and nocking another arrow.
Not a hero, just an adventurer!? He was somewhat surprised. It was unexpected for an adventurer to inflict such high damage; if the power were a bit more, it might even lead to a 'fatal strike.'
In the World of Sky, monsters have health bars, a concession to gameplay. But for the sake of realism, there's also a 'fatal strike' mechanic: once a fatal strike occurs, the health bar is just for show; no matter how many Health Points you have, it's an instant kill.
However, achieving a 'fatal strike' isn't easy. For humanoid creatures, decapitating the head or piercing the heart will do, but it's not so simple for a gigantic creature like a black dragon.
With Morphis's current size, beheading would require a ten-meter-long greatsword to be possible, and as for his Dragon Heart, it is hidden beneath his thick scales and contrary to what most people imagine at the chest, the Dragon Heart is actually located under the neck, where the Dragon Scales are hardest. Moreover, the Dragon Heart doesn't grow in proportion with the dragon's size; even though Morphis's wingspan is over a hundred meters, the Dragon Heart is not much different in size from a normal human's.
Landing a hit there would be extremely difficult.
Nevertheless, he still refused to take the risk.
Morphis (Black Dragon Lord): "Foolish mortals, do you think you can stand against the great Black Dragon Lord Morphis by hiding behind magic and arming yourselves with sharp blades? Witness the power of the Black Dragon Legion! Arise, my minions, use your claws and blades to shred my enemies!"
The next second, the ground around them collapsed, revealing a dozen dark tunnels from which hordes of goblins, kobolds, jackalweres, and even a few three-meter-tall ogres, driven on by several dragonborn vanguards, launched a frenzied ambush on the adventurers.
This completely caught the players off guard; their formation was prepared for aerial defense, with the outermost ranks composed of expert archers, hunters, and other ranged classes, now directly exposed to the swarming monsters.
Qingfeng Lanhuai: "Damn it, melee group push forward, time to grind those minions!"
A few figures of rogue assassins emerged around them.
The stifled dwarf mom exclaimed, "What's the point of charging in, all the melee have just been wiped out."
Zhu Youlei said, "It's just a few of us left."
Qingfeng Lanhuai then realized, too busy defending against aerial threats, that the melee classes had been selectively ignored, especially the warriors who suffered heavy casualties, barely leaving a few. There were a few rogues, assassins, and shadow dancers who could stealth and had barely managed to survive by hiding in the shadows, but these classes didn't have great defensive capabilities. To expect them to hold the line was wishful thinking.
There were also a few paladins who, thanks to their Divine Shield Technique, managed to survive up to now, but they were too few to make a difference.
In the blink of an eye, monsters charged into the adventurers' formation, starting a frenzied slaughter. A few mages on the periphery were killed on the spot.
The rogue assassins were instantly overwhelmed, Qingfeng Lanhuai stowed his longbow, drew two curved knives, and with a swift flurry, cut down several goblins, "Damn it! All summoners, get your creatures out! Mages, clear the smaller monsters first."
While saying this, he whistled and summoned his wolf.
It had to be acknowledged that the players of World of Sky were quite skilled, responding very quickly. A few elementalists summoned several rock golems, forming a loose line of defense, while the hunters and rangers called forth their beast pets, necromancers their skeletal guards, warlocks their hellhounds, and arcanists their phantom hounds...
A few druids joined forces to summon a gigantic vine monster, with its numerous tendrils binding a large pack of jackalweres, immobilizing them and significantly slowing the advance of the monster hordes.
Once the formation stabilized, the powerful damage capacity of the mage classes was fully unleashed. Flamestorm Spells and lightning chains swept through goblin ranks, decimating them, while alchemical bombs caused heavy casualties among kobolds, causing them to scatter and flee.
A few ogres managed to cause some effective damage, knocking down some unfortunate souls on the periphery, creating a couple of gaps in the crowd, but they were quickly focused down by the hunters' and rangers' crossbows. The bows might not have been much against dragons, but they were ridiculously effective against these large, unarmored brutes.
Observing the burgeoning massacre of monsters below, Morphis shook his head.
What a waste. These system-donated monster minions are just so unreliable, unable to bring down the opposition that lacks any sort of formation.
It was a pity that there were too few dragonkin at his command. With a hundred Dragonkin Vanguard, fifty Dragonkin Wizards, and a few Dragonkin Military Governors to cast their auras and lead the troops, breaking through the adversaries' lines would have been a breeze.
However, building a Dragonkin Hatchery would cost no less than half a million RMB, and he who was accustomed to hard times was reluctant to spend so extravagantly. Now, on the battlefield, he could only make do with these scrappy monsters.
At least he didn't have to spend money on them, so their death wasn't a loss. After all, as long as his notoriety was high enough, he could always muster a large group of them. And to be fair, these creatures did serve their purpose in disrupting the enemy's formation.
Due to the monster army's sudden assault, the adventurers' formation had long since collapsed, with several Flame Barriers having dissipated as well.
The black dragon found an appropriate angle and dived once again.
Inhaling deeply—building up power, then more power, a triple power build-up—Dragonfire scorched the earth!
This blast of Dragon Breath was exhilarating for Mo Fei, stretching from one end of the battlefield to the other. Wherever the flames passed, both adventures and monsters alike were reduced to ashes—this game had no concept of friendly fire immunity.
This single breath of Dragonfire took out at least fifty to sixty adventurers, and along the way annihilated a hundred or so goblins, jackalweres, and ogres.
The air above the battlefield was saturated with the acrid stench of burning flesh.