Chapter 170

170 Useless resistance

Unlike the fight against Treevor, Simogo was intact and could fight in the air and use all of his paws as weapons instead of just relying on his front paw and fangs to attack.

After feeling that he had damaged the barrier enough to be able to get through, Simogo started pushing his body through the hole.

“Fuck!” Malti cursed furiously, seeing the shadow dragon repelling all attacks without a care. Even the stones weren’t doing any damage, just making the shadow dragon angry. “Are the wizards ready yet??”

“They’re almost ready, general. Give them a few more seconds and they’ll be ready.” The nearest soldier reported.

Malti nodded and turned his attention to Simogo, who had forced half of his body into the barrier. “Heavy units, buy time for archers and catapults to retreat. Light units take this and deliver the catapults.”

With a wave of his hand, purple lights appeared around him before disappearing, dropping several sealed leather bags onto the floor. Malti was carrying her storage ring and several stored alchemical items.

The soldiers rushed to carry out his orders, but the dragon stopped everyone from moving.

Simogo roared with all his might and killed every soldier in range. The roar influx seeped into the soldiers’ bodies, spreading the dragon’s corrupted mana and sapping all its strength.

Those unable to use mana withered as their life drained from their bodies and those able to use mana managed to survive, but not for long. Their bodies were withering away at a slower rate, but they were still agonizing in pain from the corruption consuming their bodies.

.....

“Wow. That was more effective than expected.” Athos commented with admiration when he saw almost 3000 soldiers lying on the ground. It seemed that the roar’s influx had additional effects on the living, as the dragon was undead.

“Ignore the fallen and let’s keep moving forward. We can go back and collect the corpses later.” He spoke and SImogo quickly flew towards the inner wall.

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

The heavy infantry that had come out to try to intercept the dragon just stared blankly at the dragon passing over their heads, unable to reach it with just their weapons.

Simogo still fired a breath of darkness as he passed, killing nearly a hundred at once.

“General Malti, we are ready!” One of the mages behind the walls spoke and Malti gave the go-ahead for them to shoot.

A sphere of mana formed above the walls, before shooting a 3-meter-thick beam of pure mana at blinding speed at Simogo.

“Get down!” Athos quickly shouted, but it was a second too late. He was already expecting such an attack, but not this fast.

The mages had focused on increasing the spell’s speed rather than its destructive power. They knew how good a dragon’s reflexes could be, and all the destructive power in the world was useless if they didn’t get it right.

Simogo tried to dodge at the last minute, but the beam still hit him in the side and made his body bend at <, before knocking him to the ground. The soldiers shouted in victory after taking down the dragon, at least until it fell under the heavy infantry and crushed them under its weight.

The beam continued to push Simogo back, but the latter steadied himself and conjured a sphere of darkness around him, reducing the beam's damage. In the end, the fog on his left side disappeared and several of his ribs were broken.

Athos was forced to jump to avoid being crushed, making the soldiers notice his presence for the first time. 'Shit. Simogo, start healing quickly. There are only a few organs protecting your heart and they are fragile.'

Too bad SImogo didn't know how to heal himself, causing Athos to curse internally. 'Just cover the wound with the wing for now. I will heal you quickly.'

"He's the leader, don't let the skeleton get close to the dragon again!" General Malti shouted and aimed his bow at Athos.

His enchanted bow was capable of forming magic arrows using his mana, or arrows of lightning, the element Malti had an affinity for.

She fired several arrows of lightning in quick succession thanks to her multi-shot ability, preventing Athos from regrouping with Simogo. The arrows weren't particularly powerful, but they were fast and exploded on impact.

Athos conjured a shield of corrupted mana and blocked the arrows, realizing that the soldiers were starting to surround him.

'That bastard... Simogo, join me, let's go on foot.' Athos called telepathically and Simogo approached, protecting him with his remaining wing.

"Tch! Throw the alchemical items at those bastards when they get close!" Malti screamed furiously, her arrows unable to penetrate the dragon's wings, despite that being the weakest part of a dragon.

The soldiers around him nodded and started grabbing the alchemical items. As the catapults were unable to retreat, the soldiers kept the alchemical items on the walls.

"Let's go for a walk while I heal you, Simogo. Athos spoke, thwarting the soldiers' plans. He climbed onto the dragon's back and began to heal him.

Athos wasn't crazy enough to order the dragon to fight with its heart exposed so he ordered Simogo to circle the fortress while he healed it.

Simogo ran quickly while Athos regenerated his ribs, his dragon core constantly pumping out corrupted mana and recovering lost mist.

He smashed any building or soldier that got in his way, while conjuring a sphere of darkness and holding it above him, protecting himself from enemy arrows. Its bones didn't suffer a scratch from ordinary arrows, but the archers inside the inner wall were mana users and were imbuing all arrows with weapon break.

The sphere of darkness rotted the wood of the arrows and slowed their momentum, causing the metal tips to fall harmlessly to the ground.

"You fucking cowards! You have a fucked dragon, why don't you face us head on??" Malti started screaming as she ran on top of the wall, firing arrows of lightning without stopping. Soldiers carrying alchemical items and archers also followed her, but none were able to keep up with her speed.

'As if I would risk losing a dragon, idiot.' Athos thought as he continued the healing. He regenerated one rib at a time, draining strength from unused bones like the tail so as not to compromise the rest.

They circled the fortress when Athos finished healing him and Simogo stopped stalling. It spread its wings now that it no longer needed to worry about defense and in a few seconds it was already under the fortress.

Simogo didn't use any strategy, he just charged the fortress with all his might. His body smashed into the fortress walls before Simogo began slamming into everything in sight, his blows sending debris raining everywhere.

He even randomly cast darkness breaths, killing anyone who got close.

There were many merchants and their servants inside the fortress, as they were civilians and could not fight. Simogo didn't care about them, crushing them all with his blows or through the debris, while devouring some to make up for the mass lost from healing.

He didn't understand that healing weakened the body, but he began to feel hungry after being healed, something he hadn't felt since becoming an undead so he fed almost instinctively.

Athos didn't mind the loss of potential skeletons, as these ordinary humans wouldn't be much use once transformed. They would at most become workers or infantry, the only loss would be the life force he would receive, but there were many others to make up for it.

"Shit, you fucked skeletons! Fight me, not them!" Malti screamed as he aimed his arrows at Athos, but he only dismantled his skeleton and hid among the dragon's bones, letting the arrows hit the misty scales.

The fog that surrounded his bones offered no resistance to Athos, as Simogo did not recognize him as an enemy.

The other archers and soldiers carrying alchemical items finally caught up with Malti and started shooting arrows at the dragon, but a 15-meter-long spear of black fire suddenly appeared on the dragon's back, before flying towards him.

Athos was not bothered by the enemy arrows, but he felt threatened when he saw those sealed leather bags. As an alchemist, Athos only needed one look to recognize explosive alchemical items sealed.

They had a high destructive power, but they were volatile and a scratch would be enough to make them explode. A destructive spell like the meteor spear was more than enough.

The meteor spear exploded against the top of the wall, hurling all the charred soldiers into the air and tearing the leather bags, scattering the alchemical powder and causing dozens of subsequent explosions.

Explosions of fire and lightning, as well as localized tremors, toppled the wall and created a fire that prevented the soldiers from approaching. They would be forced to turn around or take their chances against Simogo ravaging the fortress if they wanted to get through, not that any of them had the will to fight anymore.

The soldiers who had been in the outer area for a long time lost their will to fight. The only thing capable of hurting the dragon was the large-scale spell, but everyone knew that it would be impossible to cast them in quick succession.

Even with the use of potions, it would still take time for the mages to recover enough mana to cast another spell and the dragon wouldn't give them that time. One by one, the soldiers began to flee, though they doubted their ability to escape a dragon's rage.