"Everyone, follow my lead!!"
Such words were something unusual coming from an acolyte such as Emery.
He had no distinguished family name like the Harlight nor a prominent faction like the Nephilim behind him. He was merely a rank 8 acolyte hailing from a humble lower realm. However, when he shouted those words, everyone quickly followed along.
Gerri, who moved the fastest among the group, didn't need a reason to follow his friend. The Titan's Bloodline holder Sigurd and Orion joined because they were still grateful to the fact Emery had saved them before.
However, the same couldn't be exactly said to the other two people. Yunxiao did acknowledge the prowess and capability Emery had shown, but he couldn't make the decision as it lay under Annara's hands. After all, she was the leader of the team he was in.
The girl, however, unexpectedly smiled. To be precise, an amused expression could be seen on her face.
Glancing at Yunxiao's direction, she nodded and said, "Let's follow the savage acolyte!"
Recalling and filtering all the important details he gained from their previous attempt, Emery knew the one who could dealt the most damage was Sigurd, who shaved 25 points off the dragon's health within that limited timeframe of 60 seconds.
This lead was followed by Annara and Yunxiao, who each dealt 15 points of damage. Adding Garri's firepower of 10 points, that is a total damage of 65 points.
Previously, Emery himself managed to deal the same damage as the two privileged acolytes – 15 points. On the other hand, the combined effort from Roran and Chumo contributed the remaining, which led to their earlier situation of lacking just a few points.
This time, with Roran and Chumo eliminated from the picture, the group or rather Emery was left to take care of the remaining 35 points. He wasn't sure if he could do it, but he had to be able to do it in order to beat this level.
Orion, who already stood next to him, opened his mouth. "Should I cast my divine spell on Sigurd?"
This suggestion was certainly the best option for their current situation. However, after deep contemplation, Emery shook his head and told Orion to cast it on him instead.
Even though he was puzzled by this, Orion still did as he was asked.
[Divine Art – Blessing and Cursed]
[Increasing the degree of spirit force and battle power significantly, at cost of one's health]
This was the spell that made Orycon so strong before and made the dying Chumo become the epitome of shadow at his last moment. Even so, this spell was also a literal double-edged sword.
The only reason Orion dared to wantonly cast this spell was because they were in a virtual arena, where every injury they received didn't have any adverse effect on their real body. If that wasn't the case, the former would certainly not even mention this spell, only using it in life-threatening moments.
Heaving a deep breath, Emery opened his eyes and a glint of determination could be seen on them. "Alright, let's do this."
Immediately after, Emery's body was enveloped by a glimmering veil of light, before a rapid deluge of energy arose within his body and flowed throughout, akin to an unstoppable flood.
He could even feel a sensation of pain as the seemingly rampaging spirit energy coursed through his body. Fortunately, the intensity it was going was still bearable to him.
The moment Orion started channeling the spell in him, Emery also instantly cast everything that could increase his prowess on himself. [Immortal Gate – stage 5], [Battle Roar], [Fey Transformation]; they were all activated as stacks of dazzling lights appeared and shrouded his body in their brilliance.
Emery could feel his body changing rapidly with power, that he himself needed to muster all the willpower he had to manage to barely contain it.
After going through five levels of Magus Game in a row and over an hour of intense battling the mythical dragon, even though the group had taken every possible window they could to recover, all these acolytes had evidently long since reached their breaking point and were only able to make one more attempt: the final attack with the aim of defeating this monster.
However, it was different for Emery, since he commanded a very proficient use of [Nature Grasp], his [Nature Blessing]'s effect had reached another level that allowed him to maintain the state of spirit energy in his spirit cores.
Hence, right now, while the other person's spirit core seemed to be dwindling or even on the verge of being depleted, Emery's two cores were filled with abundant spirit energy waiting to be unleashed.
In addition to the divine art Orion had cast upon him and understanding that this would be the final act, Emery swifty mobilized every bit of focus he had and proceeded to create the strongest and most durable [Shadow Root] spell he had ever created toward the dragon.
Multiple dark-colored shadow roots as wide as trees quickly emerged from the ground underneath the Undead Dragon. It didn't take long for them to start encroaching upon the latter's body.
One, two, no, three dozens of them swirled around the Undead Dragon's four limbs and neck, effectively locking it in place like an exquisite statue.
"You still keeping such power!" Annara exclaimed in surprise as Emery's shadow root was much stronger than teh fire whip she has been using before.
This would provide the group massive leeway to everyone, as they now just had to focus their attention to deal as much damage as they possibly could. This was also the signal that Emery meant, and fortunately, all of them immediately went into action.
"NOW! Let's go!!"
Everyone put their trust in Emery's plan as they immediately unleashed what left of their spirit energy without hesitation. They understood this was the last chance they got to defeat the dragon.
Just like their previous attempt, everyone was giving their all and putting extra effort to deal even one more point of damage. They tried to contribute as much as they could, but eventually, all was left on the hands of one guy.
As Annara once again cast her [Hellflame] spell, she didn't forget to carefully observe what Emery was doing as she was truly curious about what he was planning to do.
As soon as the group started their attack, Emery just stood there with his eyes closed as if everything had nothing to do with him. In reality, his thoughts literally went into overdrive. Not only did he have to maintain his control over his [Shadow Root] spell, part of his attention was also busy channeling his power into his sword.
'Wait… a sword?' Annara thought as she looked over at where Emery was again.
Hasn't his sword been destroyed? Did he have another one?
As soon as her eyes landed on the item in his hand, Annara suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha! I see now! How interesting."
Everyone was busy blasting all of their strongest attacks at the dragon, when they suddenly heard a huge laugh. Glancing with their heads, they saw Emery with a big smile on his face, he was happy as he finally succeeded with what he was trying to do.
Without further ado, he directed the overflowing power within his body into the object that he had picked up right after Chumo was eliminated and turned into specks of light.
It was long and sharp, with a resemblance to the armor-like bones the Undead Dragon had shed. That's right, it was the same dragon's bone shard that had sent Chumo out of the game.
The white-colored sharp item was a tier 5 equivalent material, something no acolyte could bring to the game.
With it, Emery planned to unleash his most powerful [Shadow Edge] ever. Thanks to the fact that it was a tier 5 item, he didn't have to worry that it wouldn't be able to withstand the seemingly endless stream of power he was injecting into it.
The same darkish glow appeared around the bone shard and disappeared as quickly, when Emery swung it downwards, discharging an unstoppable streak of sword energy.
Swish!
BOOM!
The crescent-shaped dark-colored slash rapidly flew in the air and struck the Undead Dragon on its chest, instantly taking 8 points of the dragon's health.
Some of the [Shadow Root] that was holding back the dragon were even cut off by the attack, but luckily Emery expected such a thing to happen, as he quickly brought more of them to bind it once again.
However, Emery was not done yet. He quickly cast [Shadow Edge] once more, taking advantage of the powerful state he was in right now. It didn't take long for another dark-colored slash to fly swiftly through the air and land on the Undead Dragon.
[20 seconds – 79/100]
[30 seconds – 53/100]
After 30 seconds had passed, all eyes were now basically fixated on Emery's figure. Only now did they realize how strong Emery's [Shadow Edge] was. Nevertheless, this level of power still seemed to be insufficient for the latter.
"No! Not enough! Have to be even stronger!" exclaimed Emery, while gritting his teeth.
The reason he said those words was because he knew he still couldn't bring out the full potential of the skill due to his unfamiliarity with the object he was using as an intermediary for his skill: the bone shard. This naturally made his two cores unable to truly exhibit their full potential.
[Shadow Edge]
BOOM! This time, 10 points of health were taken from the dragon with just one attack.
But unexpectedly, the bone shard in Emery's hand shattered into pieces and turned to dust after this one attack. Apparently, even a tier 5 item couldn't handle the domineering power that his [Shadow Edge] possessed.
[40 seconds – 35/100]
Not giving up, Emery's eyes quickly wandered around in search of a dragon bone shard of the same size. The moment he spotted what he wanted, the [Blink] spell that he had been preparing immediately activated, sending his figure to where it was.
Knowing there was no more time to channel and unleash his skill from distance, with such limitation, Emery decided to take the bone shard with him, as he cast [Blink] and reappeared close to the dragon.
[50 seconds – 20/100]
By this point, however, most of Emery's [Shadow Root] was already broken by the Undead Dragon's struggle. Hence, he continued to cast [Blink] as he dodged the retaliation the dragon did, while also channeling his spirit energy to the bone shard he just picked up.
Ten seconds remaining and Emery had finished putting all his remaining power he could muster to this last [Shadow Edge]. His figure disappeared just as the dragon's claw swept by and reappeared right next to its head.
BOOOOMMM!!! The Undead Dragon's head was sent blasting to the back by the [Shadow Edge] slamming directly on its temple. The bone shard in Emery's hand was completely destroyed upon unleashing such a devastating attack, but it was already done enough as the dragon had lost a whopping 12 points from that.
[55 seconds – 6/100]
"Argggghhh!! No! Not yet!!"
Everyone was unable to accept such a result, nor did Emery: they all immediately acted as if they were possessed, attacking the Undead Dragon despite their battered and exhausted state.
Without a weapon in hand, Emery could only do his next best thing. He shouted with the top of his lungs as he stirred the last remaining bits of spirit energy within his two cores and cast his strongest spell.
Wisps of energy materialized on his two hands, each forming a ball of energy. One was pitch-black, while the other was verdant-green. It was something he never knew he could do, until this point at least.
Immediately after, Emery cast [Blink] and appeared right at the dragon's head, before pushing the two spheres into its head. Upon contact, both spheres could be seen contracting for a moment before completely expanding and creating a massive explosion.
BOOOOOMMMMM!
Emery's body was blown back by the explosion, falling heavily to the ground. After that last attack, he felt his body lose all its strength. As if that wasn't enough, Orion's divine art that was cast at him also ended and gave Emery a wave of excruciating pain.
In the midst of his agony, Emery almost passed the notification that appeared in his mind.
[Congratulation – Undead Dragon has been successfully defeated]
[First game has concluded]
[Congratulation – Emery Ambrose, you have received the highest contribution points]