33 Chapter 33
The horde of undead formed a circle around the tower. Their eyes flared up even brighter as the undead started to groan or rattle with their bones. The undead slowly turned their burning eyes sockets towards the dragon standing under the tower.
Suddenly, a wave of purple energy pulsed from the tower, passing through the surroundings and rising clouds of grey dust. A portion of the purple energy remained, lingering around the undead's teeth and hands, increasing their attack potency multiple times.
'Shit!' the dragon already knew how terrible were effects of the purple energy on living. He slowly backed away, retreating closer to the tower, making sure that his back faced the cold stone of the tower.
'Luckily, most of them should be only capable of close combat, so in air, I should be untouchable. Sadly my maneuvering range is highly limited by the mage on the tower roof. So I can't use charges and retreats to slowly cull down the undead. I will have to burn them down, wasting lots of mana. But if my plan works, I will not need as much mana to defeat the boss. So it is better than risking any more dead energy flowing into my body.' Vesuvius quickly analysed the situation he was in.
Exposure to the death element was considered extremely dangerous for any living being. It directly causes cells in a body to die and decreases a life span of an affected. Luckily for Vesuvius, dragons were like an infinity fountain of life energy, giving them infinity lifespan and unlimited growth potential. This life energy in dragons was also very effective in countering death energy, making dragons one of the few beings that could survive death energy's effects without any permanent damage.
The dragon opened his mouth filled with sharp teeth and released a stream of brightly glowing magma. The stream passed through the ranks of the undead, burning their bodies into ash. Vesuvius kept rotating his neck, spitting a continuous stream of magma.
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The magma also created a line of magma separating a portion of the undead from him.
Like if it was a signal, all of the undead stopped growling and rushed toward the dragon-like tsunami of rotten bodies. They were crawling over other undead, pushing themself without any care for their injuries.
The dragon flapped his wings, rising a few meters into the air, causing dark smoke around him to swirl while ensuring he was still in the death angle out of the mage's reach.
He opened his mouth again, releasing another stream of magma toward the incoming undead burning more of them, their weak and already rotten bodies turning into ash.
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Undead kept pushing forwards like an unstoppable wave, using bodies of their own as stepping stones to cross over the swatches of lava that littered the grey soil.
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Thick streams of magma kept flying through the battlefield, burning undead in batches. However, they kept fearlessly pushing forwards until they reached a location under the dragon and started pilling over themself, forming a pyramid out of their own bodies. Their arms covered in death energy were flapping through the air, trying to reach the dragon.
The dragon opened up his mouth again. However, this time a massive wave of black super hot smoke erupted. Sending the undead in pyramid toppling down while burning and crushing their bodies.
[+20XP] f𝐫𝑒𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧૦𝘃𝗲l.c𝚘𝘮
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The powerful shockwave caused the undead to temporally stop in their steps before they started to push again with renewed ferocity.
Vesuvius swapped his long tail, sending a few undead under him flying while he gasped for air to unleash another breath attack.
The undead pyramid kept rising, almost reaching the smoke-covered dragon above them. The dragon flapped his wings, his body feeling a little tired from the death energy in him. He circled around the tower while a magical circle flared up in his mouth, and a sphere combining fire and magma started to grow inside.
Finally, he released the spell, and an enormous sphere of fire and magma flew towards the pyramid of undead, exploding right between them. Flames and magma spread through the pyramid, burning undead in great numbers.. A following shockwave sent burning remains of undead flying through the air.
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The undead horde quickly shifted, running like insane towards the new dragon's location, crushing their injured compatriots under their legs.
Vesuvius took a brief glance towards the top of the tower, 'Why isn't he attacking? He could lean over the edge and fire some projectiles at me... It would be a lot weaker without the tower's support, but... Ahh, when I think about it now, it would be pretty risky for the boss to just lean over the edge, not knowing what could be waiting for him.'
The ravenous horde of undead kept flowing towards the dragon. He opened his mouth and released another breath of magma, spreading a fiery inferno through the battlefield, burning more of the undead.
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Vesuvius looked at the slowly dwindling but still large amount of the undead. 'This will take a while... Now I am definitely glad that I eliminated most of them before finding the last crystal; otherwise, it would be much more problematic... I hate undead. They are so annoying to fight.'
The most annoying thing about undead was their morale. They kept always fighting until a last man standing.
Undead already reached under the dragon and started to form another pyramid of bodies, howling and flailing with their purple-glowing arms while clattering with their rotten purple-glowing teeth. They were tirelessly pushing towards their goal.
Another massive cloud of black smoke hit the undead pyramid, shockwave and heat causing it to collapse.
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Undead ignored their burned comrades and resumed their attack, forming another mass of bodies without any break.
Vesuvius sighed as he looked at his decreasing supply of mana, 'This will take a while.'